1971 Attack on Pochentong

First, near the civilian airport, an Army transport center and an ammunition warehouse were attacked. It was a diversion. Right after the first explosions, the Vietcong cut the barbed wires and penetrated into the military airport zone on three points; This was found out later. At the very moment, nobody knew where the Vietcong came from, which would be their targets nor if this would be the prelude of a general attack.

Due to the lack of experiences, it was a total surprise. Only some guardrooms were equipped with telephones. It was outdated cable crank telephone sets. In the whole Air Base, there were less than a hundred rifles. Apart from a few French MAT-49 submachine guns, the rest was the action-bolt World War II French MAS-36 rifles. When the Vietcong appeared on the tarmac, the mechanics and the guards were mainly equipped with sticks. With their AK47s, the Vietcong easily cut them down.

In offices, the ‘day officer’ Cne Youk Sam Ann was one of rare to have a rifle at hand. He killed a Vietcong who venture into to offices and wounded another one who ran away. In fact, this commando group targeted exclusively at planes and at the tarmac area. The accommodation area for the servicemen and the families were fortunately not touched. However, the guards of that sector held their positions and as a precaution, pilots were evacuated to shelters.

Only four Vietcong were killed but many wounded left numerous tracks of blood when they escaped. At dawn, some untouched observation planes localized some of them. They withdrew in the direction of Amleang. That morning, American planes and helicopters (Cobra) were there too and shoot them in a rice field. Several others were caught up by Khmers Krom of the 'Mike Force'. The fifteen bodies were recovered and found wearing belts for explosives. The clothes of many of them smelt extremely bad. Others groups were caught the following days but part of the commando was able to make off. To come, they managed to cross the Army security lines of Phnom Penh (RMS, Région Militaire Spéciale) undetected. They had the experience of audacious attacks of South Vietnamese, US and French airbases.

Fortunately, pilots were not among the victims. They were so scarce at the beginning of the war and it would take such a time to train and to have experienced pilots, the Vietcong could have immobilized the AVNK not for one or two weeks, but from six months to one year, the time needed for the new Classes to finished their trainings.

Very quickly, the Americans replaced the lost aircraft and re-equipped the AVNK. Afterwards, when the Military Aviation had become independent from the Army, the Air Infantry will be strengthened by several regiments. With the US equipments and arms, it could now cover a wider perimeter of the airbases. Several units were also sent for training in the USAF bases in South Vietnam.