The Battle of Lima Site 85 was a Vietnam War attack by forces of the Vietnam People's Army on a clandestine United States base in the neutral Kingdom of Laos with airstrip, command post, helicopter landing zone, TACAN, and Commando Club radar. The attack included two artillery barrages, an infantry assault toward the sloped portion of Phou Pha Thi, and a raid on the mountaintop TACAN/radar area by commandos who scaled the mountain's cliff.
Despite supporting airstrikes by the Seventh Air Force, the outnumbered Hmong "Secret Army" and Thai defenses were overwhelmed by the attack, the entire site was captured, and most of the US personnel were killed - including SMSgt Richard Etchberger who was awarded the Medal of Honor. The battle resulted in the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members during the Vietnam War.
Read more about Battle Of Lima Site 85: Background, Battle, Aftermath
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