Contributed by Barry D. Echols (Pilot 68-69)

To the west of the Chu Lai base were mountains. We shared the base with the US Air Force. For months we had been plagued by rocket attacks launched from these mountains. The rockets were hidden or buried. At night, a two man team of launchers could sneak into the area, retrieve a rocket, and build a simple launch platform from tree branches. They would wait until the morning to launch, hoping to hit one of the Air Force Jets while personnel were moving about for maximum effect.

On the first morning after my arrival at the Americal Replacement Center we climbed the sand dunes behind our temporary quarters to see the flames of an F-4 Phantom that had fallen victim to a rocket attack. Several months later, after I had been assigned to the Boxcars we flew this mission to attempt to deny access to "rocket ridge."

Sweeps of rocket ridge could not find all the hidden rockets. A plan was hatched for massive drops of a very persistent type of tear gas that would last for weeks. If we could not find all the rockets, we could at least try to make the area inacessible to the launch teams.