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Laos: A Personal View

Eugene Rossel

Project 404 Aug 1969-Sept 1970

 

 

When I was in Grad school at the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1969. I had a choice of either going to the Pentagon and working for a future general or go to this strange place called Laos, which was referred to as the CIA Secret Operating Base. When I was in high school in 1955 I read in the daily paper about this little country and the war that was going on in a small landlocked nation called Laos. All I could think was were was this place and I will never see it in my lifetime. I was interested in the country due to the war, the Communist taking over the North, the story about Dr Dolley and his efforts to treat the North Vietnamese fleeing to the South mostly of which were Vietnamese Catholics. Since I had been in the USAF Air Commandos/Special Operations since 1961 and had been to Vietnam in 1962 and many of our people had been to Laos during this period and so we did get an inkling of something exciting going on over in this small country. Since the USAF Personnel Center was calling me to volunteer for Laos since I was the only one in the AF at the time who was jump qualified in my particularly specialty they wanted me. They promised me if I volunteered that I would get my choice of assignment when I left. With all this in mind I decided that Laos was my choice and did get my choice of reassignment –Spain 1n Septembere1970.

 

The assignment to Laos came under a program called Project 404 and the orders read Dep Chief JUSMAAG and not Laos with civilian clothes authorized. This was a result of the Geneva Accord on Laos. We were to report in with our orders, in civilian clothes and no military uniform. They advised us when we got to Vientiane we would be issued embassy Ids and our military Ids would be locked up in a safe. Furthermore we would be assigned to the USAF Air Attaché Office called AIRA located in a compound in the middle of Vientiane (capital of Laos). I was to find out there was no jump slot in the program. I arrived in country from Don Muang airport in Thailand in an air conditioned C-47 operated by Air America. This is the first and only air conditioned C-47 that I had ever ridden in and I had the opportunity to ride in quite a few different C-47.

 

The country was divided up in 5 military regions, the CIA was running the show, Air America and Continental Airlines would be our air carriers most of the time with the AIRA C-47 and Raven O-1s occasionally available for a lift. The Military Regions were as follows:

 

Military Region I: Luang Phrabang (Royal Capital)

LS 54 Luang Phrabang

 

Military Region II: Long Chien(Plaine de Jars)

LS 04 Sam Nuea (Communist Capital)

LS 85 Phou Pha Thi

LS 22 Xieng Khoung

LS 20 Sam Thong

LS 20A Long Chien

 

Military Region III: Savanakhet

LS 39 Savanakhet

LS 38 Tchepone

 

Military Region IV: Pakse (Bolovens Plateau)

LS 11 Pakse

LS 44 Saravane

 

Military Region V: Vientiane

LS 08 Vientiane

 

LS 07 Khong Island

 

Laos surrounded and bordered with the following countries:

Vietnam

Cambodia

Thailand

Burma

China

 

Some of the people assigned or who worked with us, or places we visited while I was there are listed below:

Art Cal Calloway

Acey

Ambassador Godley

Ben VanWagner-OPS Off AIRA

Bill Yenke

Bill Gill--US AID

Bill Keeler 

Bill Blitchely

Bill Highsmith--Asst OPps Off AIRA

Bob Mortenson

Capt Herman Adams

Charley Loucke--Asst AIRA

Col Hayden Curry--AIRA after Tyrell

CWO2 K.S. Moir--Paymaster from ARMA

Dick Price--CAS

Don Tweddle

Ed Archer--US AID

Eric Lindeman--Asst Ops AIRA

Father Mat Menger OMI-Ran orphanage in Vientiane

Father Brouchard OMI--Fr Luke worked with Hmongs

Fred Seibren

Gil Nieto

Gus Boesse (AA comm)

Jack Strobel

Jack Wallace

Joe Bruno

John Meadows-CAS

John Grovich

LTC Vogel

LTC Ray Lowry Asst AIRA

Monty-Purple Porpoise

Ouan Rathikoun-RLA

Oudone Sananikone 

Paul East-US AID

Purple Porpoise

Robert Tyrell-AIRA

Robert B. Midgett

Ross Mcdowell

Sam Thong

Settha Palace

Skyline

Ted Schwam (TSGT)

Tim Alman--Newspaperman

Tom Cline-CAS 20A

Tom Shera--Asst Ops Off 

TSgt Lane

TSgt Garcia

Weird Harol

Geo Stansell

 

I visited all the Air Operations Centers (AOCs--locations where there were USAF personnel and the Ravens operated from) and they were located at:

Vientiane

Luang Prabang

Pakse

Savanakheet

Long Thieng-20 Alternate

 

Long Tieng turned out was the one that required most of my time so I got to become familiar with it. It wasn’t an easy place to get into since the Controlled American Source (CAS)-a cover name for the CIA-made it difficult to go there. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to go there and I was there probably two times a week. CAS controlled who went there except for the news reporters who did various things to sneak into 20A. Our people working on the flight line in civilian clothes had to hide when newspaper reporters came around.

 

Gen Vang Pao (VP) was the military Region commander but the real guy in charge who had the money controlled Long Tieng and the power of a general was a young CAS agent by the name of Tom Cline. Our people at the AOC took orders from both men and also occasionally from the AIRA who tried to get some input. The AIRA had the power to assign and withdraw personnel from the AOCs, which made him a player in the fiefdom. There was also a USAID unit called Requirements Operations (RO) who did not have a great deal of power but had the bucks for ordnance and other little goodies. They could say no to some things but if someone got a little carried away with his power the chief could resolve it and also reassign or get rid of the few that occasionally created problems due to their assumed power.

 

 

Air America used to fly in USAF technicians from Udorn, Thailand each day to maintain the aircraft on a daily basis on some of the AOCs or when the area was in danger of attack. The technicians would be given different names for the aircraft-boarding list each day because of the Geneva Accord. The technicians at 20A lived on site and every 30 days we would rotate them back to Vientiane because Vang Pao had a rule that if you touched one of his girls you had a wife. Everyone believed it. Not that some of the Hmong hill girls weren’t good looking; there were other things that did not appeal to the GIs. When they arrived in Vientiane most of them headed for Lulus (a specialty house) or the White Rose where the madams would take care of their needs. 

 

Intrigue in the capital and in the field did not just include the Pathet Lao. In Vientiane our residence were guarded around the clock by Lao guards who were contracted but appeared to work for CAS. They kept notes on our every move-when we came and who we came with. The Attaché’s communication center went through the embassy communication center, which was maintained by CAS. It became apparent that they were reading our messages in case we were politically incorrect and their ideas conflicted with what we thought was the truth. The AIRA had to bring in a special intelligence unit to code our messages and send them to Udorn, Thailand to prevent them from reading our operational traffic. Otherwise CAS, outside of listening in our telephone conservations, wasn’t bad to work with. It became apparent to me one night while I was meeting with one inebriated CAS man, who was a good friend of mine and was visiting me, that they had been bugging our phones. He was a CAS communication technician and he let it slip that he could only know if he had been listening to our telephone calls. I said you SOBs have been bugging our phones at which point he realized that he compromised himself and he immediately sobered up somewhat and departed our house with an excuse he had to go home. 

 

The AIRA had 95% of the mission in Laos and was run by a full colonel. The Army Attaché (ARMA) was a Lt Col with only about 5% of the operational mission but he controlled the money, the communication center and had us by the balls in many ways. The AIRA complained that the Army was getting USAF operational traffic, keeping it and then briefed it at the Ambassador’s morning joint meeting. He caught the AIRA in a number of embarrassing situations since he didn’t have the messages or the answers to the Ambassadors questions. He complained to me so I sent out a message back to Hawaii complaining that the ARMA communication center was not supporting AIRA and loaded it with a few choice incidents. Since I was a Capt I knew I had to be gone for a couple of days to withstand the storm which would erupt with the ARMA as well as give the AIRA the freedom of saying that he knew nothing about it. I gave the message to a USAF communication specialist in the center that evening when everyone else had left with orders to send it out that night and to do it without the knowledge of any of the Army troops. The AF technicians agreed to keep it quiet and not to discuss it with the Army troops. In the meantime I had a 0700 takeoff the next day for a three-day visit down country where it was going to be difficult to locate me. Sure enough it hit headquarters and they were all over the ARMA, who then rained on the Army Communication officer and then went looking for me to have my ass. Three days later when I returned the AIRA called me in with a broad grin, saying nothing about the message, but thanked me for the job I done. The ARMA no longer kept AIRA’s messages and the problem was resolved. The ARMA keep his distance from me but the Army Communication’s officer, who was a Capt, was visibly excited about the trashing he took on this, and got very belligerent with me over it although we had been good buddies to this point. Since I just got promoted to Major and this green beanie was pretty tough I had to pull rank on him to quiet him down. We were buddies later but he held a grudge over it.

 

We were supposed to paint all military vehicles white we brought in country and used in Vientiane. The Army communication officer had stolen a USAF communication jeep, which supposedly was lost in combat action, and therefore no one owned it. We were driving in Vientiane when a Russian embassy car passed us-we assumed they were KGB-and they all took almost a 180-degree look to see the vehicle and us. They almost hit a telephone pole but we decided maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to be seen in this vehicle downtown. Anything we brought over from Thailand was in most cases signed for and at the same time a combat loss statement was signed before we moved it to Laos. Anything sent to Laos was in most cases considered a combat loss. This always made me nervous but that is how the game was played.

 

The Chief of the Royal Lao Military wanted to attend the AIRA morning briefing because we always had the better information. This was done but the briefings were sanitized before they were given to the Lao Military Chief.

 

The Chinese had a tendency to try and get your picture whenever you attended one of the merchant’s parties such as the gold merchants had for us. I had one that followed me around as I tried to get between people so that he couldn’t photograph me. I know he wasn’t trying to get my picture for a local magazine. This didn’t happen often but it did happen. The Russian attaché had parties where AIRA was invited and sometimes those of us in the black (military with embassy ID cards) would also get invited. He served some pretty good vodka and had these beady eyes behind some funny glasses that he looked at you as if he was measuring you for a coffin. He was supposed to be a Colonel in the Russian military but I sure as hell wouldn’t want to meet him in some dark alley. When the Chinese were building a road inside Laos, connecting China to Northern Laos the Russian Attaché asked AIRA for pictures of the road. This started some high-level secure telephone calls from AIRA to the White House on what to do. The French, Communist countries and other friendly countries had a presence in Laos who were probably spying on everyone they could. Madam Lulu and the madam at the White Rose certainly had informants since they were dallying with all sides. There was an Army Capt, which was dating the Madam of the White Rose who the CAS people were interested in finding out what they were doing. They said they couldn’t bug their rendezvous place because it was against the law to spy on Americans but that was to throw us off the trail for what they were really doing. One AOC commander was dating Madam Lulus and what a pair they made when he came to town. Both Madams changed partners whenever their lovers rotated and they probably were working for both sides. The Madam of the White Rose sponsored our bowling team when Laos got their first bowling alley in late 69 or early 70. She actually bought shirts and shoes for the team with a big white rose on the back of the bowling shirt. Her girls came and cheered the team on. Only the Army Cap partaked of her favors. Neither madam came to the US after the fall of Laos.

 

Long Tieng was located in a bowl between some high hills. The runway was about 4600 ft long and paved. You had to fly the contours of the hills and then had to drop down in order to catch the beginning of the runway. It ran uphill and at the end of the runway there was a large 200 ft high karsts, which would ruin your whole day if you didn’t stop in time and didn’t have enough speed to fly over it. It was a nasty looking thing and there were a number of old airframes, which found the karsts unforgiving. There were some T-28 and C-123 parts still left lying in front of the karsts to remind the aircrew that it still stood as king. There was a rather large apron on the right of the runway and in front of the karsts where Air America had a small restaurant and some rooms. The apron was used as a logistic base for helicopters carrying ordnance to the troops in contact or to keep them resupplied. It was also used for the unmarked C-130, which would land, and immediately as it made its turn on the apron the rear door of the aircraft would open, rollers would be extended and supplies, equipment etc started to be pushed out. By the time the C-130 made its turn, its load was on the apron, its rollers pulled in, the doors would be closing and the aircraft was aligned on the runway for a rapid departure. It was something like out of a movie. On other days they would have large numbers of Huey helicopters lined up for their turn to have their lift hook connect to a payload of ammo, ordnance, food etc and soon as they lifted off another helicopter came in to hook-up its load. It was another thing just out of the movies. Of course after they delivered their load some of VP’s troops on the hills etc tried to hitch a ride out of danger and this could be very tricky for the Air America Huey pilots to get them off their helicopter. It was said that more than one helicopter pilot who had to leave the troops to defend the hills etc were later found to have been shot near the site. I was told that the helicopter pilots made good money for this reason.

 

The Raven FACs operated out of 20A flying O-1s and T-28s. They would control air strikes for General VP’s troops in the field bringing in the F-4s, A-1s etc in attacking the Pathet Lao (Lao Communist) and the North Vietnamese (NVA) particularly in the Plaines of Jars. VP had about 50,000 people living in Long Tieng. VP had his headquarters here and his reported 6 wives. He was both an excellent leader who would give speedy justice on the spot and there is more than one story about how it was done. The Hmong loved him and he had successfully fought for them more than 30 years.

 

 

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