 At a staging area in the central highlands near Pleiku, a ground control officer coordinates the loading of UH-1D helicopters as units of the 1st Cavalry Division prepare to jump off on a search and destroy mission against the Vietcong. The assault choppers lift the air cavalrymen to landing zones Kim and Amy from 70 kilometers northwest to Pleiku and about 100 meters from the Cambodian border. It is 11 April and the first phase of Operation Mosby is beginning. At landing zone Kim, the immediate mission of the first wave of troops is to secure the area for subsequent sorties. While a perimeter defense is being set up, mortar crews lay their weapons. A smoke grenade is used to signal the second wave of cavalrymen that landing zone Kim has been secured and that it is safe to land. The units have drawn no enemy fire and as the troops hit the ground they move rapidly to the perimeter of the LZ, leaving the center free for helicopter traffic. These troops will hold the LZ for the next few days so that other units probing the jungles around it will have a secure base upon which to rely for quick support. The overall mission of this battalion-sized operation is to set up ambushes near the Cambodian border and to disrupt the suspected BC buildup of men and materiel in the area. The patrols, however, were routine. Other than the difficult terrain, one of the greatest challenges was to locate an adequate supply of usable water. There was no contact with the enemy by the elements filmed and after three days of fruitless probes, the units gave up the search and pulled back to the Dark Holdry River, where they began clearing a sandbar for a three-ship landing zone. As the Hueys touched down, the cavalrymen rushed aboard and will soon be making their second assault landing within four days. From this pick-up point in Khantum province, the units are evacuated to Landing Zone Joan, which they will secure to support battalion-forward operations in the new area. As the first phase of Operation Mosby nears its end, there has been little contact with the enemy, but a considerable amount of DC equipment and ammunition was captured. After the new LZ is secure, the units are resupplied before continuing their patrol. Several days later, on 21 April, other units of the 1st Cavalry Division move out of their base camp at Ankay to begin the second phase of Operation Mosby. This part of the campaign is directed against an area in Plaku province, some 25 kilometers northeast of the town of Plaku, in a region where U.S. forces have never before operated. After landing zones are secured, Chinook helicopters begin shuttling in rations, ammunition, and other equipment to keep the using units resupplied. At one of the forward LZs, artillery crews quickly lay their lightweight M102 howitzers and begin firing a mission in support of an infantry unit that is pushing 2,000 meters to the north. Meanwhile, the commander of the brigade-sized force discusses the situation with subordinate commanders and his S2. On the following day, 22 April, a captured DC suspect is brought to a forward CP. The prisoner is fed and then turned over to a Vietnamese intelligence officer for interrogation. After detailed questioning, the captain points out, on a map, an area where Viet Cong might be holed up. The suspect is bound and plans are made for an attack against the suspected DC stronghold. With the bound prisoner in tow, a company moves out to investigate the information. Early in the March, a grass hut containing about 1,000 pounds of rice is located, but there is no sign of the Viet Cong. The hut is burned to the ground and the company continues its search of the area. Soon after, the company comes upon a village that appears to be abandoned. The unit holds up at the edge of the jungle while the CEO deploys his platoons around the cluster of that hut. Houses are far from deserted and all the villagers are soon assembled for questioning. Although the inhabitants deny any involvement with the VC, there is disconcerting evidence to the contrary. A clump of bamboo spikes is found, such as those used by the VC for punjai space. Also, there is a suspicious number of able-bodied adult males present. After much questioning through an interpreter with negative results, the suspected guerrillas are culled out and then marched away. They will be airlifted to a battalion CP for interrogation by a Vietnamese intelligence officer. Then the company leaves the village to continue its search of the area. At a battalion CP the following day, 24 April, the commander of the unit participating in phase two of Operation Moseby arrives for a report on latest developments. This extensive four-day search of an area 20 by 30 kilometers square has produced no significant contact with the enemy. During the second week of April, an 01 flies over Song Bay in Quac Long Province, dropping surrender leaflets. Here, 120 kilometers northeast of Saigon, Operation Denver is being launched by the 173rd Airborne Brigade. On the ground, troops sweep through a rubber plantation on the outskirts of Song Bay. Snipers fire at the airborne troopers and the firefight begins. Then as suddenly as it began, the enemy's firing ceases and the Viet Cong break off. The men of the 173rd continue moving up while medics treat some of the light casualties sustained during the brief contact. As the Americans come up on the village, there is no sign of life. The Viet Cong have withdrawn and for now the fighting is over. At Brigade forward, General Harold K. Johnson visits with Brigadier General Paul K. Smith, commanding general of the 173rd and each members of General Smith's staff. During his visit, the Army Chief of Staff attends an operational briefing. Afterwards, as he always does, General Johnson talks with the troops, offering praise and encouragement. Then, he thanks the commanders and continues his tour of Vietnam. This boat is a part of a 12 man river patrol being conducted on 23 April by an American advisor and a regional force unit stationed at Quang Yuan. Some 20 kilometers southeast of Saigon. The destination of the patrol is a new outpost some five kilometers down the Toc An Jiao River at its juncture with the Long Ta River. Defensive positions are checked and ways of improving them are discussed by the American advisor and his Vietnamese counterpart at the outpost. Then the patrol begins its return to Quang Yuan the same afternoon. The outpost provides security for the main shipping channel on the Long Ta, which emerges near the mouth of the Saigon River. At Ben Hoa on 11 April, helicopters of an aviation battalion are being prepared for the day's mission. The machine gun ammo track is checked out and the belt threaded for action. The battalion is supporting Vietnamese special forces in a move to set up a permanent civilian irregular defense group camp near Song Bay. This operation marks the first use in Vietnam of the XM-31 experimental armament system with two mounted 20 millimeter cannons. The copters take off on operation Exodus. Their mission is to prepare a landing zone in the area of Song Bay for an assault. The aerial 20 millimeter cannon fire bursts of high explosive incendiary ammunition. As the time for landing the men approaches, rocket equipped helicopters open fire. Together with the first battle appearance of the 20 millimeter cannon, they subject the enemy to a blanket of fire. On 16 April, the USNS General John Pope dropped anchor off the harbor of Quang Yuan with more than 3,500 combat ready Korean troops on board. The landing craft are soon filled with assigned boat teams and the LCU's head for shore. The rock troops which arrived after a six day trip from Busan are part of the 26 regimental combat team. They will be attached to the Rock Tiger Division which has been serving in Vietnam since October 1965. On hand to greet the troops are Major General Stanley R. Larson, Commander of Field Force Vietnam 1 and Major General Shae Myung Shin, Commander of the Rock Tiger Division. The arrival of the 26 brings to approximately 25,000 the number of Koreans assigned to South Vietnam. In addition to the Tiger Division, this includes some 2,500 rock engineers and the Korean Marine Blue Dragon. While the troops were still debarking, Admiral USG Sharp, Commander in Chief Pacific and General William C. Westmoreland, Commander of US Forces Vietnam, arrived to welcome them. Also present to greet the 26, commanded by Colonel Won Seek Park, is the Korean Ambassador to South Vietnam, Mr. Shin San Cho. The rock units will undergo five weeks of training nearby and will then move to their area of responsibility, Van Can Valley, some 20 kilometers northwest of Kinyong. On 21 April in Washington DC, the White House Rose Garden is the setting for a posthumous presentation of the nation's highest award for heroism, the Medal of Honor to PFC Milton E. Olive III. Relatives and family friends attend. The President states that PFC Olive had made the hardest decision any man can make, to put others first than himself last. Six months ago, the 19-year-old soldier from Chicago was with his platoon on a jungle trail near Phu Quang, Vietnam, when a Viet Cong grenade landed in their midst. PFC Olive threw himself over the live grenade and saved the lives of his fellow servicemen. His father receives the medal and citation from President Johnson. Near Placou in April, a master control station is being built for the DECA navigational system. DECA is a highly stable all-weather radio position fixing service, which provides aircraft position information from a set of widely spaced radio transmitting stations. When the subsidiary slave stations are constructed, this system will cover the central part of Vietnam from the 17th parallel down to Dau Lat. Technical personnel are helping to install the new system. The first DECA system became operational in the southern part of Vietnam in January 1963, with stations located at Tancenut, Bung Tau, and three smaller towns. It has assisted greatly in combat assault missions, resupply of units, aircraft recovery, medevac, and other missions. Here, two of the technicians prepare a rough draft of a flight map at Tancenut Air Base. After studying the rough map, they plot topography detail on the original flight map, which later will be made into printing place. A technician reproduces copies of the flight log chart, which will be inserted into a display mechanism mounted on the console of the aircraft. Information is furnished to the aircraft up to a distance of several hundred kilometers. This information is either used to position a map or is shown directly on a chart in pictorial form, with navigational accuracy of approximately five hundred meters. It can help a pilot to find a specific location in unidentifiable terrain. Here, the technical maintenance crews install the DECA system into two UH-1B helicopters on the flight line. Into the console, the technician installs the three phase reading meters, which provide the basic information to the operator. Tech reps work on the installation of the receiver antenna under the helicopter. The flight chart keys, which program the computer chart scale, go into the console. The display holds twenty feet of chart and provides the pictorial presentation to give the operator a constant track of his route. Then, the display with its map is mounted in the cockpit. The newly installed equipment is explained to the crew chief. He has shown the computer in its storage compartment and the console with a chart display and keys. The Huey now makes a test flight. The moving flight log chart with its needle marks the helicopter's course. This system will help future operations by providing accurate airlift and fire delivery from gunship. This radio relay installation, situated at Bung Tau overlooking the mouth of the Saigon River, is part of a steadily expanding network of radio stations being constructed in South Vietnam. The chain of stations, called the Integrated Wideband Communication System, is operated by the United States Army Strategic Communications Command and now covers most of Southeast Asia. Construction of new terminals, such as this Bung Tau project, is going forward at a rapid pace to provide improved service for constantly increasing transmission requirements. Farther north along the coasts of South Vietnam at Ngoc Trong, another tropospheric scatter site is undergoing development. Like most, it is operated from a van. A new warehouse will provide storage for the many items required to service this terminal. As part of the Southeast Asia network, these Vietnam installations will handle voice, data, and message transmission. Inland at Play Khu, 385 kilometers north of Saigon, the new IWCS radio terminal is installing large fuel storage tanks. The tanks will provide efficient fuel service for the station's power generators. Still, another troposcatter site is located at Danang, 160 kilometers southeast of the border between North and South Vietnam. Here, antenna foundations and generator sheds are being built. Van controls are in. The terminal at Phu Lam, another site on the central coastal plain, has been in operation for some time. The base is well advanced, and MPs stand guard at the entrance screening all vehicles. To make sure no bombs or infiltrators are hidden beneath entering vehicles, they are checked with this mirror device. Here at Phu Lam, construction of new facilities continues, though still under construction, these IWCS stations are already part of the Worldwide StratCom Network. At Panmunjom Korea on 23 April, Major General Joseph O. Butcher, U.S. Marine Corps, arrives at the Military Armistice Commission meeting for his first session as Senior Representative of the United Nations Command. Major General Park Chung-Cook of North Korea makes the statement discrediting all previous U.N. members and asking for General Butcher's cooperation. Then U.N. members listen to accusations of armistice violations. General Butcher and other U.N. representatives listen to the familiar charges. When it is his turn to address the meeting, General Butcher replies by showing a North Korean propaganda film that depicts the introduction of modern Russian equipment to North Korea. People outside the building crowd the windows in an attempt to see. At the conclusion of the film, North Korea moves to adjourn. General Butcher, after listening, calls for integrity in the commission, then accepts adjournment, and the members of the commission depart. They will now continue with research and evaluation of information in preparation for the next meeting. This is Camp Randall near Santo Domingo, based for units of the 82nd Airborne Division, which is part of the ready force of the IAPS. Units of the military police are inspected and receive their patrol orders before they move out on their daily mission. In April, 14 patrols range daily throughout the city, including the area now known as the rebel sector. The Inter-American Police Force is composed of 8,000 troops from six countries, including 1,000 soldiers and Marines from Brazil, and men from Nicaragua, Paraguay, Honduras, Costa Rica, and the United States. The patrols are accompanied by Dominican National Police, MP vehicles guide convoys for 16 hours daily along the MSR, the main supply route, which crosses the center of Santo Domingo. The military police were brought in to help the civilian population. This sergeant tells about his present duty. I find the big difference in pulling duty here rather than any place else is that more than law enforcement, we have a large security problem and mission. Probably the biggest job of the military police in the Dominican Republic requires the most thought, planning, and people is the security of the U.S. forces here, U.S. forces installations, and VIP security. Confusing political slogans for the June 1st election seemed to be on every wall. Bolliger is the conservative candidate. The liberal's nomination is former President Bosch. One voter writes, go home, Yankee, and take me with you. U.S. Army engineers and a pipeline unit are making rapid progress on the POL tank farm under construction near Satahit, Thailand. Three of the five storage tanks planned for the farm had been completed and much related work accomplished when these scenes were filmed on 25 April. After the grading and leveling operations are finished, the entire area will be black top. Here, a weld is being made on a pipe that will be used later in a feeder line. Meanwhile, other engineers and a Thai laborer install a T-joint in the pipeline to the first completed storage tank. Elsewhere, personnel are joining pipes from the storage tanks to the filter separators. All underground pipes connecting the storage tanks have been laid previously and the filter separators installed. Each of the bolted steel storage tanks will hold 10,000 barrels of aircraft fuel. The fourth tank has been started and the base constructed for the fifth. Completion is scheduled for 25 June, some four months after work began. In Prabhupada, Thailand, 144 kilometers north of Bangkok, the provincial hospital is cooperating with the CETO General Medical Research Lab of Bangkok in the study of the various forms of malaria. In a hospital, a cage of mosquitoes is fed the blood of a malaria patient for the transfer of the disease to gibbons. Malaria studies comprise a large percentage of CETO's medical research. Long-term investigations are made primarily by the hospital staff. Most malaria research involves the use of non-human hosts. Human malaria has been successfully transmitted to gibbons by injections and by mosquitoes. At the CETO laboratory in Bangkok, specimens are received for evaluation from all parts of Thailand. These specimens are primarily body fluid, such as blood, urine, and spinal fluid. The technician here injects fluid into test vials as the entomology lab conducts a precipitant test of mosquito blood meals. A great deal of field work is required to collect specimens and samples of diseases and virus throughout Thailand. Medical teams are constantly at work in the field, forwarding specimens to the research lab in Bangkok for evaluation and cataloging. The United States has been working with Thailand in medical research for over five years. The US component of the lab is a special activity of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, US Army Medical Research and Development Command. Research collaboration is also performed with the Thai Ministry of Public Health, the School of Tropical Medicine, and the Ministries of Agriculture and Interior. In the automatic blood analyzer, specimens are drawn through the tube system and the results scribed on the recording unit. An American technician takes the recorded data of the test and by means of an overlay chart reads the results. Malaria affects more people in Thailand than any other disease. In the cooperative research project, the problem of disease resistance to drugs is being investigated. Seven of nine scientific departments here are involved in the study of malaria. The results of this research are of great importance in both peace and war. In the mountains near La Paz, Bolivia, the National Department of Criminal Investigation operates the Valley of Hope. It is literally that for some 40 Bolivian boys who were picked up by the police for minor offenses, such as stealing food. Bolivian detectives founded the home rather than see these boys of eight to 18 cents to jail. Begun some five months ago, this project immediately drew the interest of the US Army mission as a worthwhile off-duty project. US military personnel have also established a voluntary aid fund in addition to personal participation. They supply some needed materials, in this case cement. An early US gift was unbleached muslin. The boys soon converted this to straw and weed-filled mattresses. A number of skills are learned here. Carpentry and stone carving are two ways of directing energy into constructive channels. There are garden plots where the boys on their own raise a variety of basic vegetables. The boys provide whatever they can with their own effort. As their water supply is open to contamination, an officer of the US Army engineers gives professional advice for self-help improvement. An underground water pipe with cemented joints is the result. The Bolivian boys' town is housed in an old hacienda which the boys are restoring. The home operates on $100 a month made up of monthly donations by Bolivian detectives plus off-duty help from the US mission. The boys sleep in an abandoned railway station. School is not neglected. Classes are held at the hacienda. Representatives of other schools are invited to visit and study the project in the hope that this will encourage donations of much-needed books and supplies. Some of the cement supplied by USARMIS donations is used to improve the swimming pool. Some will be used to repair the small chapel housing the statue of the patron saint of wayward children. Members of the US mission have the satisfaction of time well spent in helping the Bolivian police give these young people a better start in life. High atop Mount Guglielmo in northern Italy, a badly deteriorated refuge is being rebuilt through the combined efforts of US Army personnel and the local populace. For many years, the residents of nearby the Gardoni Valtronpia, a village nestled in the foothills of the Alps, have wanted to rebuild the monument to the Redeemer but faced the almost impossible task of hauling the materials on their backs up to the 6,000-foot pinnacle. The Southern European Task Force responded to a request for assistance by furnishing two CH-34 helicopters for an airlift of construction materials from the pickup point to the mountain top. The airlift began on 21 April and was scheduled to continue for about two weeks. An estimated 440 flights will be needed to transport the 400 tons of materials. As the Choctaws reach the summit, youngsters of the village delight in the strange, noisy aircraft while their fathers retrieve and store the sand, gravel, and lumber. Meanwhile, back in the valley, a new cross for the monument is ready for sling lift to the summit. Senator Ludovico Montini, brother of Pope Paul, and the commander of CTAS, Major General George W. Power, discussed the project. The villagers under the leadership of Pope Paul's father built the monument in 1902. CTAS's assistance in this project was hailed by local publications as an example of its, by now, well-known, usual and generous spirit of cooperation.