Battle of Lima Site 85

Part of the Vietnam War
and the Laotian Civil War

The U.S. facility atop of Phou Pha Thi, known as Lima Site 85, was the site of a major battle on 10 March 1968.

Date	10–11 March 1968
Location	Phou Pha Thi, Houaphanh Province, Laos
Result	North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao victory

Belligerents

United States

Kingdom of Laos

Thai Border Patrol Police "volunteers"

North Vietnam

Pathet Lao

Commanders and leaders

Clarence F. Blanton †

Richard Secord

Vang Pao

Truong Muc

Strength

United States: 19
Kingdom of Laos: 1,000
Thailand: 300

3,000

Casualties and losses

Total casualties:
13 U.S. killed
42 Thai and Hmong killed

Total casualties: Unknown (1 killed and 2 wounded on Lima Site 85)

The Battle of Lima Site 85, also called Battle of Phou Pha Thi, was fought as part of a military campaign waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) (then known as NVA) and the Pathet Lao, against airmen of the United States Air Force 1st Combat Evaluation Group, elements of the Royal Laos Army, Royal Thai Border Patrol Police, and the Central Intelligence Agency-led Hmong Clandestine Army. The battle was fought on Phou Pha Thi mountain in Houaphanh Province, Laos, on 10 March 1968, and derives its name from the mountaintop where it was fought or from the designation of a 700 feet (210 m) landing strip in the valley below, and was the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members during the Vietnam War.

During the Vietnam War and the Laotian Civil War, Phou Pha Thi mountain was an important strategic outpost which had served both sides at various stages of the conflict. In 1966, the United States Ambassador to Laos approved a plan by the United States Air Force (USAF) to construct a TACAN site on top of Phou Pha Thi, as at the time they lacked a navigation site with sufficient range to guide U.S. bombers towards their targets in North Vietnam. In 1967 the site was upgraded with the air-transportable all-weather AN/TSQ-81 radar bombing control system. This enabled American aircraft to bomb North Vietnam and Laos at night and in all types of weather, an operation code-named Commando Club. Despite U.S. efforts to maintain the secrecy of the installation, which included the "sheep-dipping" of the airmen involved, U.S. operations at the facility did not escape the attention of the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces.

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