The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile): Ia Drang to Khe Sanh
by Al Berke

The Relief of Khe Sanh (continued)

The raid began on 1 April with the 3rd Brigade's three battalions of the 7th Cavalry simultaneously conducting air assaults into LZ's within five miles of Khe Sanh. The preparatory bombardments had been superbly conducted with anti-aircraft fire being completely suppressed. Over the next week, the division's other two brigades as well as an ARVN multi-battalion task force were also airlifted into action. The division's scouts, gunships and aerial artillery roamed the battlefield, coordinating artillery strikes and raining down fire on an enemy becoming more and more disorganized. Steadily moving closer to Khe Sanh, the cavalry battalions continued to take advantage of airmobility. The final defensive position before Khe Sanh was taken in a classic attack. Bombardment by artillery and aerial rockets was followed up by an air assault by three companies of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, while a fourth company landed in the rear of the position. The NVA were defeated and the road to Khe Sanh was opened after only a week of fighting (Stanton, 141).

Huey Cobra Firing in Support of a Combat Assault (Tolson, 145)

Conclusion

As we leave the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in April 1968, it still had many more campaigns to fight before the 3rd Brigade's final departure in 1972, to include the A Shau Valley, screening operations around Saigon and the invasion of Cambodia in 1970. Operation PEGASUS probably represents the purest and most successful utilization of the Division in the 'cavalry' mode, calling to mind Sheridan's massive cavalry raids during the American Civil War. It is also a good place to show the maturation of the doctrine of airmobility on the battlefield as compared to the battles in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. The lessons were learned and applied with superb results. Though today the 1st Cavalry Division is an armored unit, the airmobile division still lives on in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The Huey's and Cobra's have been replaced with Black Hawks and Apache's, but the cavalry spirit drives on.

Works Cited

Kelley, Michael P. Where We Were in Vietnam. Central Point, OR: Hellgate Press, 2002.

Moore, Harold G. Lt. Gen. (ret.) and Galloway, Joseph L. We Were Soldiers Once…And Young. New York: Harper Torch, 1992.

Stanton, Shelby L. Anatomy of a Division: 1st Cav in Vietnam. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987.

---, Vietnam Order of Battle. Washington, D.C.: U.S. News Books, 1981.

Summers, Harry G., Jr. Vietnam War Almanac. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985.

Tolson, John J. Lt. Gen. Vietnam Studies Airmobility 1961-1971. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1973.

U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum. 01 Nov 2002. U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. 03 Nov 2002

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