Qualla: Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord

Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970, Public domain. The PAVN 324B Division had learned from Hamburger Hill. In the fourteen months since that bloody engagement on a neighboring ridgeline, North Vietnamese commanders had studied how American forces fought -- their reliance on helicopters, their layered firepower, their habit of building remote hilltop firebases connected to the outside world by a single thread of rotor blades. At Fire Support Base Ripcord in the summer of 1970, they planned to cut that thread. What followed was a 23-day siege that became the last major ground battle of the Vietnam War for American forces.

Image: Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970 | Public domain

Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: A Hilltop in the A Shau

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970, Public domain. By early 1970, President Nixon's troop withdrawals had left the 101st Airborne Division as the only full-strength American division remaining in Vietnam. The division was ordered to conduct Operation Texas Star near the A Shau Valley, the same corridor of jungle mountains where H...

Image: Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970 | Public domain

Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: Studying the Achilles Heel

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970, Public domain. The 324B Division's commander, Chu Phuong Doi, personally led his 1st Regiment on reconnaissance missions around the firebase. His scouts observed the altitude and direction of helicopters entering and exiting Ripcord, mapped the high points where Americans landed troops, and pla...

Image: Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970 | Public domain

Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: Twenty-Three Days Under Fire

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970, Public domain. The siege tightened methodically. On July 10, B Company took a barrage of 38 mixed mortar rounds, killing two soldiers. The attacks escalated through the following week. On July 18, PAVN small arms fire brought down a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the 159th Assault Helicopter Bat...

Image: Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970 | Public domain

Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: The Last Major Battle

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970, Public domain. Over 23 days, 75 American soldiers died at Ripcord. Among them was First Lieutenant Bob Kalsu, the only active professional athlete killed during the Vietnam War -- he had been an offensive guard for the Buffalo Bills. Lieutenant Colonel Andre Lucas, who commanded the defense, wa...

Image: Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970 | Public domain

Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: Lessons Written in the Mountains

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970, Public domain. Ripcord was a battle that encapsulated the final phase of American involvement in Vietnam. The 101st Airborne -- the Screaming Eagles -- fought with the same tenacity they had shown at Hamburger Hill, Dak To, and a dozen other engagements in these mountains. But the strategic con...

Image: Photographer Sp5 James Saller, 221st Signal Company, July 14, 1970 | Public domain