What is the true story behind the movie Operation Dumbo Drop?

Answer 1

Actually, that is not the true story. It all revolves around a planned attack by an NVA battalion of a special forces "A" team camp adjacent to a Montagnard village. The enemy had on alternate evenings fired 122 mm rockets into the village on alternate evenings as dusk when it was too late to call for air strikes in support. One evening a Bird Dog pilot waited in the distance for word of the rocket attack. It happened and the Bird Dog took out the NVA team firing the rockets as well as additional rockets prepared to be fired. When the smoke settled, the only Survivor was a female elephant used to carry the rockets and launchers, with a baby, tied some distance away. The Bird Dog reported to the SF camp and higher headquarters the damage assessment and was ordered to destroy the elephant(s) upon which the pilot stated "I'm here to 'do' people, not animals. I refuse to kill this elephant." Fast forward to the end, the female elephant had been stolen from this village a year earlier and the villagers were thrilled to get her back, especially with the baby. In an award ceremony the village chief presented the baby elephant to the Bird Dog pilot after giving him credit for saving the day. The pilot graciously accepted it, then presented it back to the village chief, asking him and the villagers to remember it as a gift from an American who honored them. This is a summary of what took place but I know it to be the TRUE story. I was that Bird Dog pilot.

Answer 2

The true story deals with a request made of Special Forces by Saigon USAID personnel to move four elephants by helicopter from Ban Me Thuot to a sawmill in Tra Bong and to Kham Duc to assist a group of Montagnards who had cut the lumber down in areas that were too rough and hilly for machinery to haul it out. The mission was indeed accomplished. Disney made a children's movie out of it called Operation Dumbo Drop.