Wednesday, May 3, 1972
Laotian Forces Recapture Skyline Ridge
VIENTIANE, Laos, (AP) --Laotian troops regained complete control Saturday of vital Skyline Ridge, overlooking the former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency base of Long Cheng, 80 miles northeast of Vientiane, informed sources said Monday.Laotian forces charged onto Charlie Whisky and Charlie Alpha pads on Skyline Ridge just after midnight Saturday, the sources said.Government 105mm and 155mm howitzers softened the way for the Laotian advance against the two helicopter landing pads. Laotian Air Force C47 Spookie gunships knocked out North Vietnamese mortars firing onto the pads. The North Vietnamese offered no ground resistance, the sources noted.Three government troops were killed and 10 wounded.Government troops abandoned both pads March 14 under a heavy North Vietnamese artillery barrage. The pads are part of an eight-mile-long defense line on Skyline Ridge just north of Long Cheng village.American sources expressed "cautious optimism" that Long Cheng will now hold until monsoon rains begin in June, when the North Vietnamese traditionally withdraw to North Vietnam to reorganize.In the same military region, North Vietnamese gunners shelled Phou Cum Meo refugee village, 138 miles northeast of Vientiane, Friday, killing three civilians and wounding nine, sources said."Laotian Forces Recapture Skyline Ridge", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Wednesday, May 3, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.