Between the Mekong River and the Bomb Line, front lines existed between the Royal Laotians and the Pathet Lao. Geographic areas called Cricket West and the Cricket West Fringe extended toward Thakhek to allow air operations against the Pathet Lao. Special rules governed these areas. No jet aircraft were authorized to strike in the Cricket West Fringe. All strikes were FAC controlled by FACs of the 23rd TASS trained to operate in Cricket West/Fringe and accompanied by a Laotian officer in one aircraft and a Thai (for interpreting) in the back seat of the other O-1. Major front lines were where Route 12 passed through a deep east-west canyon in the Cricket West Fringe. Also, in that lower corner (just above the WE2 on the map) of the Cricket West Fringe, the Royal Laotians had positions on the west side of a river. The Pathet Lao were along the east side of the river and in caves in the karst in the northern part of the Cricket West Fringe.
On New Year's Day, the Nail mission over Cricket West received a disturbing call from the Laotian ground teams. The Royal Laotians reported 4,000 North Vietnamese troops in an area only 50 miles east of NKP. This was an unprecedented level of enemy forces that far west of the Trail.
The
FAC knew several of NKP's A-1s were scheduled for interdiction strikes later in
the morning, so he requested that the Skyraiders to be rearmed with
antipersonnel ordnance and diverted from the Trail.
A few minutes later, the ABCCC controller told the FAC to stand by for a
call from the TFA Director of Operations. In
a classic example of the way that the “word” gets garbled as it passes from
person to person in time of war, the call was to verify that the FAC indeed had
4,000 North Vietnamese troops in sight marching on the Laotian border town of