The
Karst
From Crickets on a Steel Tiger:
Most
of Laos is extremely rugged with some mountains rising to more than 9,000
feet. The smoothest terrain is
the lowlands near Vientiane and in the western half of the panhandle along the
Mekong River, which separates Laos from Thailand. Elevations in the plains of the Mekong basin are typically
from 300 to 650 feet above sea level, but outcroppings of karst rise abruptly
in many areas of the basin.
The
karst formations [known simply as “karst” to most of the fliers] are the
most impressive and distinctive features of the Laotian landscape.
These majestic cliffs of limestone rise abruptly for several hundred
feet, either as individual outcroppings or part of a ridgeline of karst.
They occur in the mountains and the plains. Many are covered with dense
jungle.
Karst
influenced how both sides fought the war.
Centuries
of wind and water had eroded the softer portions, leaving the karst
honeycombed with countless caves. These
caves provided shelter and concealment for the North Vietnamese infiltrators
as they built a network of intermediate stops and storage areas along the Ho
Chi Minh Trail. Though the
presence of karst favored the North Vietnamese, these rugged outcroppings also
presented a major tactical challenge. Roads
and trails had to go around the karst. In
some areas, extensive karst severely limited the choices of the road builders
and prevented concealment of the roads. Roads
forced between karst and rivers were particularly vulnerable to air attack.
The
fliers also found the karst to be a mixed blessing. The karst helped FACs locate the roads but made it difficult
to find and destroy supplies concealed during the day in thousands of caves
throughout the Steel Tiger. In
addition, the cliffs that restricted the movement of enemy trucks and troops
also limited the movements of fliers who parachuted into the jungles of
central Laos. In some areas near
the Trail, the karst was so extensive that it was virtually impossible for a
downed flier to walk out to safety. The
karst was also a continuing threat to the night fliers who challenged the
Steel Tiger at low level. The
unlighted, vertical peaks could mean instantaneous death to aviators who were
lost, careless, or unwary.
*
* * * * * * * *
This
picture (from the collection of Colonel Craig Elliot) gives a little idea of
what karst was like. The white puff near the left probably is from a white
phosphorous marking rocket. This
karst in indicative of some of the karst mountains just east of Thakhek, Laos,
just across the river from Nakhon Phanom.
(Some of the pictures in the Thailand 2000 album show what that karst
looked from the Thai side of the Mekong River.)
I
wish I had good pictures of the many square miles of karst on the east side of
Mu Gia Pass and just north of Harley’s Valley and the Ban Laboy Ford near
the border of North Vietnam. Much
of that Karst wasn’t covered by jungle.
I used to say that if you bailed out over either of those areas, if you
survived the landing, you were going to still be there when the Jolly Greens
arrived. There was no way the
North Vietnamese were going to get to you.
Having
grown up on the plains of Kansas, I can tell from this picture, as in the
quote by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: We’re
not in Kansas any more. To try to
give you a feel for the karst I saw in those areas along the border between
Laos and North Vietnam, this picture looks more like Kansas (if you don’t
count the jungle) than those other sections of karst.
