Operation Tiger Hound
| Operation Tiger Hound | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Second Indochina War | |||||
 Barrell Roll/Steel Tiger/Tiger Hound areas of operations | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 United States  Republic of Vietnam |
.svg){kind=small} Democratic Republic of Vietnam | ||||
Operation Tiger Hound was a covert U.S. 2nd Air Division, later Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial interdiction campaign conducted in southeastern Laos from 5 December 1965 till 11 November 1968, concurrent with the Vietnam War. The purpose of the operation was to interdict the flow of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Strategic Road to the North Vietnamese) from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam), through southeastern Laos, and into the northern provinces of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN or South Vietnam). The missions were originally controlled by the 2d Air Division until that headquarters was superceeded by the Seventh Air Force on 1 April 1966.
The geographic boundry of the operation was carved from the area of Laos already under bombardment under Operation Steel Tiger. This was done at the behest of the American commander in South Vietnam, General William C. Westmoreland, who saw that area of Laos that bordered the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam as merely an extension of his area of operations. The Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed. Unlike Operation Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger, however, the bombing in the new area would be conducted by aircraft of the South Vietnamese Air Force and by U.S. Air Force units based in South Vietnam (aircraft participating in Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger were generally based in Thailand).
By the end of 1968 and the absorption of Tiger Hound operations by Operation Commando Hunt, 103,148 tactical air sorties had been flown over Laos. These missions were supplemented by 1,718 B-52 Stratofortress Arc Light strikes. During the same time period, 132 U.S. aircraft or helicopters were shot down over Laos.[1]
Notes
- ^ Jacob Van Staaveren, Interdiction in Southern Laos, 1961-1968. Washington DC: Center of Air Force History, 1993, p. 287.
References
- Littauer, Raphael and Norman Uphoff, eds, The Air War in Indochina. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972.
- Schlight, John, A War Too Long. Washington DC: Center of Air Force History, 1993.
- Van Staaveren, Jacob, Interdiction in Southern Laos: 1961-1968. Washington DC: Center of Air Force History, 1993.