The scream of the Eagle was heard from Bien Hoa to Song Be, from Cu Chi to Phan Thiet, from Hue to the A Shau Valley, and throughout the I Corps tactical zone.

On 12 Dec 67, the first C-141 Starlifter carrying 10,356 paratroopers of the 2nd Brigade involved in operation EAGLE THRUST, screeched to a halt on the runway of the Bien Hoa Airbase. The operation made military history as the largest and longest airlift directly into a combat zone. The Screaming Eagles were ready for action. Within a matter of days, 2nd Brigade units were forming for in-country training at their Cu Chi base camp southwest of Saigon. Next they moved to Phuoc Vinh to prepare a base camp for the 3rd Brigade. Until late Jan the 2nd Brigade paratroopers spent long hours under the hot tropical sun. Using the 25th Infantry’s tunnel, mine and booby trap course in Cu Chi, the 2nd Brigade paratroopers polished their skill in Vietnam-style combat and acclimatized themselves to the rigors of their new environment.

Small unit leaders who lacked combat experience accompanied elements of the 25th Infantry Div on search and destroy missions. On 12 Dec 67, a 4.2 projectile slide down a mortar tube and blasted over the Cu Chi perimeter to become the Brigade’s first official round fired at the enemy. In Jan, combat missions began. The local VC began to feel the sting of the Brigade’s presence as the paratroopers became more sure of their ground. 216 insurgents fell under airborne guns during the 1st month of combat. By mid Jan word came that the 165th NVA Reg was operating around the village of Chon Thanh near the Cambodian border. The NVA were terrorizing the surrounding area and quickly bringing it under their sway. 2nd Brigade paratroopers were to link up with 11th Armored Cav elements and sweep through the area. Operation CASEY was underway.

Late in Jan, just prior to the TET Offensive, camouflaged C-130 transport planes carried the 2nd Brigade 500 miles north to Hue/Phu Bai in I Corps where they joined the 1st Air Cav Div in launching Operation JEB STUART I. Initially landing and setting up at the Phu Bai airfield, the 2nd Brigade troopers started search operations immediately and soon moved north to LZ Sally.

The NVA Tet attack on the provincial capital of Quang Tri began on the night of 30 Jan 68 when the 812th Reg, 324th NVA Div launched a two-pronged attack, mortaring the cavalry and ARVN firebases and occupying the city. The following day on 31 Jan 1968, the enemy launched the largest single attack of the war, the Tet offensive. 2nd Brigade paratroopers under the operational control of the 1st Cav in the battle of Quang Tri and Hue, blocked the approaches to the city and 2nd Brigade troopers killed 94 enemy trying to slip through the ring. During the following weeks, the score of enemy killed and captured mounted as 2nd Brigade paratroopers cleaned out resistance in numerous villages between Hue and Quang Tri.

In Saigon, one platoon from the 2nd Brigade was making a roof-top assault, storming the American Embassy, which was then under attack by VC commandoes. A firebase, Birmingham, was established 16 km from the NVA stronghold, to support the driving paratroopers, who continued to push westward through the mountains. Enemy supply routes were cut, troop movements were interrupted, and arms caches were uncovered by the onrushing troopers.

Continuing the fight for the area around Hue, the 2nd Brigade rejoined the division after participating in Operation JEB STUART I near Quang Tri City, to join the 82nd, 17th Cav and 58th Inf (LRRP) in Operation CARENTAN I. The campaign was directed against insurgents in Thua Thien province, north of Camp Eagle, the new forward base camp. It succeeded through a series of cordons and night ambushes. Late in the evening of March 21, members of the 2nd Bn., 501st Abn. Inf. repulsed an attack on their night defensive position, sometimes resorting to direct artillery fire to kill 22 enemy.

CARENTAN I terminated on 31 Mar 68, with the launching of Operation CARENTAN II. The new operation was conducted in the same area, northwest from the coastal plains; south from Hue; due west to the A Shau Valley. Operation CARENTAN II proved to be a testing point for the Screaming Eagles. During this operation, the 2d Brigade, 101st ABN Div soldiers heroically attacked and destroyed enemy rear bases and forward headquarters, thus preventing the enemy from attacking the city of Hue. North Vietnamese regulars challenged paratrooper forces almost daily. The normal tactic of hit and run was absent from the enemy’s fighting strategy. The Screaming Eagles earned a reputation among the enemy units. Those who wore the Eagle patch on their shoulder were to be avoided. The mission of CARENTAN II was to continue driving hostile forces from the area around Hue, and to begin clearing operations toward the A Shau Valley for a possible future raid into that area. The first major battle occurred on the famous “Street without Joy” on 11 Apr 68. Assisting the 17th Airborne Cav in the “Street” sweep were 2nd Brigade troopers from the 2nd Bn., 501st Abn. Inf. – A, B & D Companies. A sweep of the Phong Dien village after a night cordon and artillery bombardment resulted in 66 enemy dead and 26 weapons captured.

Operation CARENTAN II terminated on 17 May 68. “Relieve the pressure from the area around Hue,” was their standing order and the Airborne infantrymen did just that as their highly mobile fighting units continually maintained pressure on the enemy and discouraged any future attack of the Imperial City. As a prelude to Phuoc Yen, the classic cordon operation of the Vietnam war, paratroopers from the 2nd Bn., 501st Abn. Inf. followed two Viet Cong into the village of Thon Kim Doi. An NVA company was waiting for the onrushing Screaming Eagles. The paratroopers were joined by the batteries of the 21st Artillery , helicopter gunships and Air Force fighter-bombers and by the morning of the fifth day, became the largest NVA force to surrender en masse to an American unit in the history of the war.

Operation NEVADA EAGLE was the largest single campaign ever fought by the 101st Airborne Division. During this operation the 2d Brigade, 101st ABN Div soldiers not only protected the local inhabitants’ crops but also inflicted heavy losses upon the Viet Cong units and entirely destroyed the 803d Regiment/324th-B Div of the NVA. This operation, designed to secure the coastal lowlands (Thua Thien Province) in I Corps from the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, began on 17 May 1968 and lasted 288 days until 28 Feb 1969. Thua Thien Province was captured and enough rice was removed to feed ten enemy battalions for the next year. Through these splendid achievements, the soldiers of the 2d Brigade, 101st ABN Div contributed significantly to the fight against Communism to preserve freedom in Vietnam and, at the same time, displayed the indomitable will and the heroic tradition of the US Armed Forces. For its actions, the 101st received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm.

One of the most important Viet Cong and North Vietnamese supply and staging areas was the A Shau Valley, which ran along the western edge of the Thua Thien Province. Upon the completion of NEVADA EAGLE, the 101st again attacked the A Shau Valley. In a series of operations known individually as MASSACHUSETTS STRIKER, APACHE SNOW, and MONTGOMERY RENDEZVOUS, the Screaming Eagles cut North Vietnamese supply lines, destroyed base camps, and seized tons of supplies. The Division cleared the way for the first friendly armored vehicles to enter the valley and reopened temporary airstrips abandoned years earlier.

On 20 Jun 68, in Hue, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu presented the 2nd Brigade Commander and his paratroopers with the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry w/palm, for their combat record since deploying to I Corps in early Feb 68. At the time of the award, the paratroopers had killed 2,382 enemy, captured 257 prisoners and 724 enemy weapons.

While NEVADA EAGLE was going on, the 101st Airborne Division changed its name to the 101st Air Cavalry Division on 1 Jul 1968. A year later, on 29 Aug 1969, the Screaming Eagles became the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), becoming the Army’s second airmobile division, in recognition of the transition from parachutes to helicopters. OPERATION SOMERSET PLAIN was a 17-day raid into the valley designed to cut off enemy supply routes from the west. The Screaming Eagles defeated the enemy where they found him, but there was still that foreboding aura hanging over the valley–of darkness, of evil lurking. Now the valley was becoming a dangerous place for the enemy also. The men with the eagle on their shoulders had destroyed base camps, discovered caches of weapons, ammunition and supplies. They would return, Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais, then Division commander, promised.