 Okay, move out. This guy is over Vietnam. Come the straining eagle. The heroic paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division, their favorite exploits during World War II, can never be forgotten. In December 1944, outnumbered and surrounded by the Germans at Bastogne, the men of the 101st courageously fought on. When the Germans ordered them to surrender or be annihilated, their acting commander Brigadier General Anthony McCulloch gave the historic reply, and they stood until the Germans were defeated. It is in this same tradition that the men of the screaming eagle's first brigade today serve on the jungle battlefront of Vietnam. On Spring Day in 1965, several Army aviation companies arrive in Vietnam, aboard the carrier USS Iwo Jima. It is the beginning of the Army's air mobility buildup. The first of the assault helicopters, which soon will fill the air over this embattled land. Even as the pilots of the 101st aviation battalion whirl away toward the field at Vong Tau. All of South Vietnam is infested with Vietnam. From the north they stream down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and like a disease spread throughout the Southern Republic. Into the setting come the first of the screaming eagle's, the aviation crews of Company A, forerunners in the massive American military buildup to stop the Communist enemy. For the Republic, this is a time of desperation. At Vong Tau airfield, 40 miles southeast of Saigon, the job begins for these airmen. Along with helicopter crews from other aviation companies, the men of the 101st are to be processed for movement to their new homes in the forward areas of Vietnam. Their mission now is to create the helicopter bases from which U.S. Army forces can be flown into combat against the Viet Nam. Quickly now, they make ready. In the next 90 days, before the airborne infantry arrives, these men will do a man-sized job. On the 29th of July 1965, the first brigade of the 101st Airborne Division arrives at Cameron Bay. The brigade, with its supporting element, is commanded by Colonel James Timothy, who is welcomed to Vietnam by Ambassador Maxwell Taylor and by General William Westmoreland. In the ceremonies which follow, Colonel Timothy gets his first look at the strife toward shores of Vietnam. And for the first time, the brigade unfurls the proud emblem of freedom over the land it is here to protect. To Ambassador Taylor, the occasion holds a special meaning, as the one-time commander of the 101st talks to his son, Captain Thomas Taylor, now a member of the Streaming Eagles. Concluding today's events, some of the airborne infantrymen stage a parachute jump for Ambassador Taylor and General Westmoreland. It is to be one of the few jumps these paratroopers will make in Vietnam. The Streaming Eagles descend toward the earth and the unknown hardships of jungle warfare they will face in the months ahead. Within two weeks after their arrival at Cameron Bay, the Streaming Eagles are sent northward on their first combat operation. As they sail for Kien Giang, 130 miles up the coast, it is mid-August, and the brigade hasn't yet had time to establish its permanent home base in Vietnam. While the Vietnamese are celebrating the Lantern Festival, the men of the 327th and 500th Seconds are moving inland from Kien Giang to An Kei in the Central Highlands. Their mission is to clear and secure the An Kei area as a base camp for the U.S. First Cavalry Division Air Mobile, which will be arriving from the United States in a matter of days. At their long pass, overlooking An Kei, the landings begin. After months of special training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, this is it. The moment every man knew would come. A Viet Cong main force battalion has been reported in the area, and the airborne infantrymen expect instant contact. It doesn't come. The Viet Cong are evasive, fighting their time. It is an anti-climax for the men. This is their first lesson in Vietnam. No big battles when expected. Instead, a nagging war of attrition with primitive booby traps and snipers, small unit actions and ambushes in the jungle. Only when he thinks the situation is favorable will the enemy show himself in force. So the long, hard task of ferreting out the Communist enemy begins. And the screaming eagles are good at their job. By the end of September, they will kill 600 Viet Cong. It will be a difficult thing. And some of these airborne fighting men will die. But the job for this time will be done. As the advance elements of the 1st Cavalry Division begin arriving at An Kei, they commence taking over the area secured by the screaming eagles. Finally, the men of the 101st Airborne are free to head south and establish their own home base in Vietnam. From An Kei and the Central Highlands, the brigade moves 170 miles to the coastal town of Phan Rang. This is to be their permanent camp as soon as they're coming down. The will from their campaign in the Hill Country, they work throughout October until the base at Phan Rang has been set up. General Westmoreland visits the screaming eagles on Thanksgiving Day 1965 and inspects the camp at Phan Rang. He is pleased with their performance at An Kei and congratulates them on a job well done. Even as he returns to Saigon, the brigade is conducting local search and clear operations. As the new year begins, the entire brigade is deployed to Thuy Hoa, 100 miles to the north in Phuy Nha province. Known as the rice bowl, this is the richest rice growing region in Central Vietnam. From this fertile area come crops to feed all the people of Central Vietnam. But the Viet Cong have been seizing the harvest and collecting unbearable taxes from the frightened farmers. Now come the screaming eagles to protect the rice harvest and stop the Viet Cong. Codename Operation Van Buren. The orders read, search out the enemy in the Thuy Hoa sector and destroy him. This assignment will be tedious. The VCC desert their dwellings to avoid confrontation with the Americans. Yet the district is infested with an enemy who makes night raids and continues to molest the farmers. The search goes on. Brigadier General Willard Pearson takes over command of the screaming eagles on the 29th of January 1966. He steps up the pressure on the Viet Cong. Across the broad reaches of Thuy Nha province, the Viet Cong are pursued. For the most part, they evade capture and withdraw to disappear in hidden underground sanctuaries. In the wake of U.S. military operations, the enemy rice rage diminished. But the VCC themselves mingle with the local people and often are bypassed, attacking our units from the rear at night. The deputy commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Lieutenant General John Hanke comes to Thuy Hoa to personally evaluate the situation. What he sees convinces him that the enemy is well entrenched in the district, that it will require repeated efforts by the 101st to dislodge these communist criminals. Operation Van Buren becomes Operation Harrison. February becomes March. And daily the screaming eagles patrol the jungles and foothills, surrounding the rice fields of Thuy Hoa. Any lane force headquarters are located and hit by the U.S. Air Force with B-52 bombing raids. The men of the brigade go in to check the results and prepare field reports for Air Force intelligence. Daily they go out and daily they return. In 90 days, the men of the brigade gain control of the Thuy Hoa region. Now operating in small units, they kill 516 hardcore vietcong troops between February and April. The rice trucks are saved. Once early in March, the men of the brigade receive a surprise visit from one of Hollywood's movie heroes, Robert Mitchell. During this enjoyable interlude, we'll talk about the glamorous girls of the film world. Mitchell is given the opportunity to fire some of the weapons of the real life heroes in Vietnam. Well, 1966. The second battalion of the 327th is left to guard the rice harvest at Thuy Hoa. And the rest of the brigade moves out on Operation Austin. Two weeks in the area around Pham Thiet, then onward to Nang Co. near the Cambodian border. Here, where the Ho Chi Minh trail enters South Vietnam, the screaming eagles meet the 144th regiment of the North Vietnamese Army. For a while, the fighting is intense. For 500 seconds, the airborne infantry takes a number of casualties. It takes six days, from the 14th to the 20th of May, for the U.S. paratroopers to drive the North Vietnamese aggressors out of their positions in the foothills of Nang Co. The Communist Regulars are well-disciplined, well-equipped and tenacious. In spite of heavy ground fire, the radiators get in with their dust-off helicopters and the wounded are whisked away for safety. This is the enemy. When he was captured, he was carrying a machine gun made in Czechoslovakia. He won't be using it again. As for his comrades, they have been put to risk. And in their hasty flight, they have dropped their arms. Over 100 of the North Vietnamese lie dead in the mountains. Victory at Nang Co. His hours. After the screening eagles, the greatest testing is still to come. Far to the North in Can Thun Province, the brigade launches Operation Hawthorne in the area around Dach Thun. Can Thun is the forbidding wilderness lying in the foothills of the mountain country which marks the border of Cambodia. It is the first week of June, and the air is heavy. Until now, the enemy has held sway here, 30 miles north of the little town of Dach Thun. The airborne engineers erect a crude bridge a few miles beyond lies an American Special Forces camp. It has been under siege by the Viet Cong for nearly a week. Supplies and ammunition are badly needed, and relief troops must get through. The first of the trucks begins crossing. Near the bridge, the men of the Bannery 320th artillery prepare for another firing mission. Hello, good morning. They have rained harlots of shells upon the enemy forces attacking the camp. Now, with fresh supplies of ammunition, they're ready to begin again. Each time the shelling starts, the enemy withdraws his attacking forces to escape the punishing fires. When it is lifted, he regroups and again tries to take the camp. Despite reclawing airstrikes by US Air Force jets, the Viet Cong has shown no signs of withdrawing. But the artillery fire, directed by those defending the outpost, is having a telling effect. Aiming eagles are under fire. The enemy has come to silence the guns. Communist fire comes from everywhere. The enemy is creeping in. He will try to overrun the American positions. The wavy only makes his move. In the forefront, General Pearson, the boss here in hell. From Bastogne to Vietnam, the tradition remains unbroken. Magnificent. The screaming eagle. The battle wanes. A small part of Operation Hawthorne is over. Some of the men of the 101st were quite no more. But for this day, the Bastions of Freedom know they came from the north of bold Italian. Their weapons, not ours, have been silenced. Throughout the oppressive days and nights of June 1966, Operation Hawthorne continued. In the violent conflict which rages in Campeune Province, the screaming eagles repeatedly beat back prize troop units of the North Vietnamese Army. In 16 straight days of combat, the brigade envelops the 24th North Vietnamese Army Regiment and more than 500 of the communist aggressors are killed. It is the largest single battle of the war for the men of the 101st. The Asian nation is made more bearable as each man is enriched in spirit and strengthened in his resolve. At last, the fighting is done. Eagles and the battles of Operation Hawthorne. In recognition of their outstanding victory in Campeune Province, the Premier of South Vietnam, Nguyen Cao Kee, comes to the little town of Duc Toe. Premier Kee and the Deputy Premier express the gratitude of their nation in a way that fighting men can understand. These are some of the weapons taken from the enemy, the Premier is told. In the hands of the communists, the arms of China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia and even a variety of United States, French and British weapons, which had fallen into those same enemy hands. Living evidence of the North Vietnamese regular army. Six of the 22 taken alive by the screaming eagle. Premier Kee confronts the aggressors. You are lucky the Americans have taken you, smiley. In the interest of July, following surveillance operations along the Laotian and Cambodian borders, the brigade returns to Toei Hoa. A new operation labeled John Paul Jones gets underway. Its purpose is to open and secure a 16-mile stretch of National Highway 1 between Toei Hoa and Vung Roe Bay on the coast. The accomplishment of this mission will speed up logistic support of the Toei Hoa area It begins with elements of the 502nd infantry landing at the cliff-guarded Vung Roe Bay. Where without encountering resistance they begin moving inland to link up with the oncoming units of the 327. The inland forces push forward securing the highway and sweeping the adjoining countryside. Supported by helicopter gunships self-proofs clean out the operational zone within six weeks. By early September 1966 they have secured Vung Roe Bay and Highway 1 North to Toei Hoa. Sweeping through the mountains the brigade captures 40 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong and kills 209 others. While operation John Paul Jones is still in progress, the engineers begin construction work on the connecting highway between Vung Roe Bay and Highway 1. The Eagles have done their job well and a new sequence is formed. In the weeks which follow the brigade protects the rice farmers as they harvest some 17,000 metric tons of the precious grain. Once again the Toei Hoa sector becomes a battlefield and the Viet Cong suffer heavy losses with 239 killed and 42 captured. The Viet Cong have had enough. They are nowhere to be found. 11 Vietnamese are found however in a Viet Cong prison camp. They have apparently received no medical attention while in the hands of the commune. Held by the Viet Cong for several months. Their ailments range from open sores and skin infections to malnutrition. Those deformities caused by unset broken bones. This man, a former Viet Cong who defected to the republic and was later captured by the VC cannot tell his unspeakable nightmare On the 9th of December the odyssey of the brigade continues from Toei Hoa back up north to Khantum province. The Viet Cong have been cleared from Huyen province by this time and the screaming eagles are moved to the north in a record 48 hours by the US Air Force. The deployment of the brigade by means of parachute marks the first jump in more than a year for many of the men but they are in superb physical condition and the jump goes well. In 1966 draws to a close the brigade descends upon Khantum province to take part in Operation Picket fighting side by side with Vietnamese army forces and militia. The men of the 101st once again will scour the countryside finding and finishing the enemy. The operations in Khantum province continue until the 21st of January 1967. Then after more than a year's absence from their home base at Van Rang the brigade is ordered back to protest. It seems a long time since the LSTs first moved the brigade up to Kinyong as they headed for their first combat around Ankhien. Now the LSTs are taking over. On the 26th the last convoy rolls into camp at Van Rang. Brigadier General Willard Pearson welcomes the men home. The last official acts as brigade commander. Two days later General Pearson transfers command of the first brigade 101st Airborne Division to the new brigade commander Brigadier General SH Matheson The battle-hardened troops watch with solemn pride as Lieutenant General Engler pins the Legion of Merit on the uniform of their departing commander. So the screening eagles bid farewell to the commander who led them in 14 combat operations from one end of Vietnam to the other. For the screening eagles as for the rest of the United States military forces in Vietnam the valiant effort to keep that young nation free continues. However far removed from our shores the conflict between those who cherish human dignity and those who would snuff it up affects us all. In this belief the gallant men of the United States Army stand steadfast not only in Southeast Asia but wherever they may be asked to serve in freedom's car.