A Troop, 3/17th Air Cavalry Silver Spur Blog

A very important part of our Spur history, our ventures into Cambodia in 1970 & 1971 – Bear:

It is important to understand that when the Spurs were supporting the ARVN thrust deep into Cambodia in 1971, a similar operation was happening in Laos, Lam Son 719.

In both cases the NVA allowed ARVN to deeply penetrate both countries and then set devastating ambushes trapping ARVN forces deep behind enemy lines. In truth despite reports in the U.S., both military operations – a test of ARVN vs the NVA – were devastating. In fact much of the cream of ARVN was eliminated which undoubtedly hurt the defense of South Vietnam during the NVA offensive that captured the south and ended the war in 1975.

Both these operations were part of Nixon’s Vietnamization program, but without U.S. ground troops and USAF cover, the NVA prevailed.

During our involvement with the 1970 Cambodian Incursions, we had plenty of U.S. ground and air assets which our ’71 Spurs did not have as the U.S. was cutting back drastically on in-country forces.

I encourage all to read the comments on this post, Dan Sutherland provides some valuable insight regarding the ’71 mission! – Bear

The important back story on the Spur Scout Observer, Sgt. Phil Taylor, who provided the video portion of our production above:

http://northwestvets.com/spurs/honor2.htm

April 30, 1970: