Were the US Marines in Laos?

Answer 1

Aviation elements were certainly involved In Lam Son 719. So were B-52s and every piece of Artillery that could "Reach Out And Touch Someone". The powers that be were trying to prove to the World that the South Vietnamese were quite capable of taking care of their own defense in 1971. The US Army lost 215 men killed, 1,149 wounded, 38 Missing in Action and 108 helicopters in the operation.

Other Operations certainly had Marines on or very neat the Laotian border during the Vietnamese War. Entry was strictly forbidden by ground troops, but the strong possibility that more than one or two major multi company Patrols in Forcemay have gotten slightly lost for a day or two and wandered aimlessly through forbidden territory. After all, GPS was not a tool of the trade during that War.

Two 155mm Towed Howitzers called Tango Battery were joined by members of Lima Battery 4th Battalion, 11th Marines (L-4-11) in an operation that lasted from January 1969 until March 1969 in Northern Laos. They were on a mountaintop with a company of Infantry lower down the slope for security. Not sure who the Grunts were but it might have been M-3-3. The mountains were so high and so far north that there was frost on the breath in the mornings. I have heard the name Task Force Lima Yankee applied to this oepration. It was done during the time of Operation Taylor Common and run out of An Hoa but was no wheres near the rest of the 5th Marine Operation Taylor Common. I believe the area was as far north as Hanoi and about ten miles west of the border between North Viet Nam & Laos.