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Communist Forces Destroy Lima Site 85

March 11, 1968

This photograph was taken by USAF Lieutenant Colonel Jeannie Schiff in 1994, as part of the Lima Sit
This photograph was taken by USAF Lieutenant Colonel Jeannie Schiff in 1994, as part of the Lima Sit
This photograph was taken by USAF Lieutenant Colonel Jeannie Schiff in 1994, as part of the Lima Site 85 Recovery Effort. This photograph shows an aerial of Phou Pha Thi

Throughout the Tet Offensive, Lima Site 85 in Laos continues to provide Combat Skyspot bombing guidance over North Vietnam. The site on Phou Pha Thi Mountain, which is surrounded by North Vietnamese troops, is defended by a garrison of Hmong and CIA-Air Force personnel. After a Communist artillery barrage on March 10, a group of North Vietnamese special forces troops scales the mountain under cover of night and attacks the site’s technicians. Some defenders are rescued by helicopters, which conduct multiple evacuations while under fire. Lima Site 85 is lost. A total of 11 Americans are killed in the attack.1

1James C. Linder, “The War in Laos: The Fall of Lima Site 85,” 84–88, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol38no5/pdf/v38i5a09p.pdf (accessed 4/10/14); Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 658.