Flashing Saber

Infantry, gunships, and scout choppers of the Ninth Cavalry Squadron struck deep within remote enemy base areas and liberated zones. An elite assault trooper tells the harrowing story of 450 combat helicopter landings with the unit."The Division's Expendables" is how one cavalry division commander described the squadron's small aero-rifle, infantry platoons (called "Blues"). In hopeless situations, only they would be lost - but their amazingly successful record proved otherwise.Included is an eyewitness account of a raid on a razorback ridge overlooking both the An Hoa Basin and the Que Son Valley. Seventeen North Vietnamese casualties included a full colonel, four majors, and four senior captains: a division commissar, a regimental commander, and most of a division's and a regiment's staff officers.