“If you’re in Vietnam, you’re a military combatant under the Geneva Convention. But in Laos, we were flying basically as soldiers of fortune, I guess, for lack of a better term, so we didn’t fall under the Geneva Convention, and they could do basically anything they wanted to. I don’t know anybody that ever went down that got out unless Air America or the Air Force rescued them almost right away.”
At its peak of operations, Long Chieng had a population of more than 40,000, and its airfield conducted about 400 flights a day, making it one of the busiest in the world.
While the Ravens participated because they were volunteers, their Hmong counterparts fought because it was their country. Raven Maj. Mike Cavanaugh said, “In close, they were damned accurate. They liked to get down there and mix it up with the bad guys.” The best pilot among the Hmong, and his admirers argued the best combat pilot in Laos regardless of nationality, was Ly Leu (also spelled Lee Lue). A schoolteacher and son-in-law to the charismatic Hmong leader Gen. Vang Pao, Capt. Ly Leu was the first Hmong to volunteer for Project Water Pump. After completing T-28 training and earning his wings at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, he returned to Laos to wage war against the communists. His motto was “Fly ’til you die”
The Ravens who worked and fought with him loved him. One Raven who observed Ly Leu in action recalled that in strafing runs, it was not unusual for him to fly 20 feet above the ground and that his idea of strafing “was to stick a .50-caliber gun in the enemy’s ear and pull the trigger.”
A Ravens T-28 flies over the mountainous terrain of Laos, loaded with underwing rocket pods.
From dawn to dusk, Ly Leu flew non-stop, as many as 10 missions a day. After returning from a mission, to reduce downtime he’d assist in loading ordnance for the next mission before flying off again. When he landed at dusk, he was so tired he had to be lifted out of the cockpit. Ly Leu averaged 120 missions a month and racked up more than 5,000 sorties during his career. On July 12, 1969, the newly promoted Maj. Ly Leu flew his final mission. Attacking Pathet Lao forces in Moung Soui, northwest of the Plaines des Jarres, he was shot down and killed by enemy anti-aircraft fire. Posthumously promoted by Vang Pao to lieutenant colonel, in gratitude the Americans posthumously awarded Ly Leu the Silver Star.
The commitment in Laos was the largest CIA operation up to that time, but because there were never enough indigenous pilots, airstrikes by American aircraft continued to increase and the greatest need was for FACs constantly over the battlefield.
“We worked under the ambassador [Godley] all the time,” said Poe. “The ambassador controlled what was going on. We’d go up there and have a briefing every day or two, and he’d tell us where we could go and what we could do, and he basically ran the whole show as far as targeting was concerned.
“What actually happened was, at 20 Alternate, we’d attend an evening briefing, which was joint between Vang Pao and the local CIA guy – they called him CAS [Controlled American Source] up there – and then they would actually modify whatever Godley said to fit the circumstances. We did pretty much, I think, stick to the guidelines of where the ambassador said we couldn’t go … but the CIA and the Hmong, and the local guys up there, they knew pretty well what they wanted to get done.