1963 :

The first Royal Laos Air Force (RLAF) Pilots to attend USAF Pilot training to fly T-28s graduated in June 1963 (Class 63-D) and returned to Laos shortly thereafter.
The RLAF received their first T-28 Fighter / Bomber aircraft in August 1963.
NOTE : ABOVE 1963 DATA SOURCE ; Albert D. Shinkle, L/Colonel, USAF (ret.)



NOTE : T-28's were previously used as single engine propeller Navy combat Trainer aircraft but their slow speed, munitions capacity and delivery effectiveness made them excellent choices for the jungle wars of Southeast Asia (and elsewhere).

1964 :

The Communists had gained control of almost 50% of the land area of Laos.


JULY 1964 : OPERATION TRIANGLE : USAF-RLAF-RTAF-FAR-Thai Artillery-Lao Neutralists conducted Operation Triangle with the intent of relieving Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese pressure on Lao Neutralist forces located in the Muong Soui area at the western end of the Plaines Des Jarres. Three friendly columns of troops, with USAF Air Commando Forward Air Guides, advanced on Muong Suoi. One column advanced from Luang Prabang, another from Vientiane and a third from Muong Suoi on where three highways met. The operation was a success. The air power used were the RLAF and the RTAF mercenary T-28 pilots.

14 OCTOBER 1964 : FIRST EVER BOMBING OF HO CHI MINH TRAIL : The Royal Laos Air Force initiated its first bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, occuring near Mu Gia Pass and with the express encouragement of the US Air Attache/Laos, the US Embassy/Vientiane and the highest levels of the USAF and the US Government.
Laos Air Force Commander Gen. Thao Ma was a paratrooper before becoming a pilot. He made a combat jump into the Mu Gia Pass area just as the previous armistice took effect. He was within about 100 meters from the top of the pass and the North Vietnamese enemy positions when ordered to stop. In short, he knew the target area pretty well.

NOTE : ABOVE JULY 1964 & 14 OCTOBER 1964 DATA SOURCE ; Albert D. Shinkle, L/Colonel, USAF (ret.)

1965 :

FEBRUARY 1965 : COUP : Due to concerns that the Laos government was leaning dangerously too far towards Communism, it was the Commander of the Royal Lao Army -(General Phoumi Nosavan)- and Head of the Lao National Police -(General Siho)- who directed a Coup in February 1965, focused in the Capital city of Vientiane, and directed against the Laos Government -(then headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma)-.
The Coup failed, so General Phoumi Nosavan and General Siho fled to Thailand to secure safe political asylum for themselves and their respective families.
New elections were held in July 1965. Souvanna Phouma was returned to head the Laos Government, that then consisting of newly sanctioned introductions of Communist members to form a coalition government.


MARCH 1965 : BATTLE OF DONG HENE : The Reserve Officers Training School, Dong Hene, came under attack by at least two battalions of enemy infantry. B/Gen Thao Mao had intelligence information that the attack was coming and told the school officials to hold out and the RLAF would be there at first light. The enemy attacked as expected, the school officials held out, the RLAF was there at first light and the fight continued for three days. Lt. Prayoon Khamvongsa broke the back of the attack on the second day when he observed enemy troops running into a large clump of reeds. He put a 250-lb anti-frag bomb on the target. The next day I personally counted sixty-two enemy bodies killed by air (KBA) in those reeds. I counted a total of one-hundred eighty-two enemy KBA on the battlefield. In the RLAF Lt. Prayoon Khamvongsa was given credit for causing the enemy to break off the attack. (L/Colonel, A. Shinkle [then Captain])

NOVEMBER 1965 : ATTACK ON THAKHEK WAS BROKEN : RLAF T-28 pilot Lt. Touane broke a two-battalion infantry attack on Thakhek, Laos. He put a 250-pound anti-personnel bomb on a large clump of bamboo under which he detected enemy troops. The next day I counted forty-two enemy KBA in that area. The NVA (no Pather Laos troops present) had set up two 82mm recoilless rifles with which to shell Thakhek that night. Lt. Touane's bomb killed most of the battalion's staff members. The enemy suvivors fled a short distance and took shelter in a karst cave. It took two weeks for them to starve themselves out. Lt. Touane saved the small provincial capital of Thakhek from destruction with that one bomb. We talked with the NVA headquarters in Vinh, North Vietnam the next day via one of the attacker's radios which had not been destroyed.(L/Colonel A. Shinkle [then Captain]).

NOTE : ABOVE MARCH & NOVEMBER 1965 DATA SOURCE ; Albert D. Shinkle, L/Colonel, USAF (ret.)

1966 :

U.S. economic support had boosted the Lao economy like at no other time in previous history, but due to the dire threats of armed communist conflicts worldwide that threatened American and allied locations there was concern that Laos was ripe and falling like another Communist domino, so American economic support for the new government was delayed (withdrawn).


MARCH 1966 : BATTLE OF ATTOPEU : More than two enemy infantry battalions attacked the southern provincial capital of Attopeu. The RLAF responded and with the help of USAF, USN and USMC aircraft stopped the attack and forced the enemy from the battlefield. This battle saw the first use of USAF AC-47s from Nakhon Pranom air base, Thailand, against targets in Laos. Two USAF Forward Air Controllers/Intelligence officers flew FAC missions at Attopeu twenty-four hours a day for the entire month of March and for a few days in Apr 1965. One USAF intelligence officer collected information during this period that led to the discovery of the Sihanouk Trail, an adjunct to the southern part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. (L/Colonel A. Shinkle [then Captain]).

EARLY SUMMER 1966 : Lt. Khamvongsa and a wingman were flying an armed reconnaissance mission along Route 9 and encountered a new and previously unknown flak trap. The wingman was shot down over the trap and Lt. Khamvongsa's T-28 was almost shot to pieces. By his skillful airmanship he got T-28 #622 back to Savannakhet and landed it. I met him and suggested to him that Buddha was indeed watching out for him that day. He had been repeatedly hit by 12.8 and 14.5 caliber machine gun rounds; as I recall #622 had been hit twenty-two times. T-28 #622 was ready for the scrap heap -- but those intrepid RLAF mechanics repaired it in a few months.
NOTE : ABOVE MARCH & EARLY SUMMER 1966 DATA SOURCE ; Albert D. Shinkle, L/Colonel, USAF (ret.)



SEPTEMBER 1966 the Laos government, -(led by Souvanna Phouma)- was bankrupt.
The National Assembly had demonstrated its economic failure and was dissolved.
New national elections were scheduled for early 1967, but this posed a perceived renewed threat by some, who feared such would usher in an even worse threat of Communist domination of the Lao government and result in Laos falling to the Communists.
Brigadier General Thao Ma -(Commander for the Royal Laos Air Force)-, was a paratrooper before he was a pilot. He was a hard-liner --staunch Communist hater-- who had no room for Communists or corruption in his future vision of a safe Laos. So a move was made by those opposed to his way of thinking, to seek his resignation as Commander of the Royal Lao Air Force, that he had built into its present level of strength unmatched previously, and who had served the RLAF as Commander since 1959.
So Brigadier General Thao Ma and his most trusted Staff of Pilots were prepaired to take extreme bold measures to protect Laos independence from any further concessions to the Pathet Lao or their foreign supportive Communist governments.


Then on the 15th day of October 1966 a very desperate Brig. Gen. Thao Ma rebelled, after hearing of a high level secret meeting adjacent to the Bomb Storage Area near the capital city of Vientiane, Laos. The meeting reportedly included high level officials from powerful Communist nations bringing cash filled attach� cases prepared to pay for a secret deal with an extremely high level Lao Government control person.
That extremely high level Lao Government control person was also reportedly viewed by Brig. Gen. Thao Ma as the primary behind-the-scenes manipulator who was responsible for too many wrongs imposed upon Laos.
Urgently Brigadier General Thao Ma assembled an air detachment of thirteen T-28 aircraft from his base at Savannakhet and immediately was in the air, in route to bomb the secret meeting place adjacent to the Vientiane Bomb Dump.
In the meantime, it was apparent that our people in Vientiane were in danger, especially those working at and near the Bomb Storage area, that was to be bombed. So urgent phone calls were made to warn our people to safeguard themselves.
Reaching Vientiane, their primary target was the secret meeting place,...... but a telephone 'warning' (attributed to an American Official) sent those in attendance fleeing for their very lives moments prior to the T-28's arriving with their bombs and rockets diving close over the heads of our people while assaulting the meeting position just a short distance away.


NOTE : Our people described, just prior to the bombing raid, observing the various expensive vehicles with several nationality identifications slowly pass nearby their position, headed for an old mansion meeting place, ... then suddenly later seen returning at break-neck speeds fleeing the area like scared rabbits just prior to the actual air attack.
The outcome of the attack, as described to me, could have erased the all-powerful insider Lao government Mole, plug-in person, who was alleged secretly building a huge personal fortune from supporting a much greater role for the Communist Chinese, Soviet and North Vietnamese controls of Laos, and getting very wealthy with 'personal enterprises' extending into Europe.
Had the attack been successful, Brigadier General Thao Ma could have forever been remembered as a national hero,...... Although there was concerns that any deaths to any government official(s), from communist nations attending the same meeting, could have escalated the war in Laos and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, presenting far greater adverse problems for Laos, Southeast Asia, America and allied interests, that would need to be further addressed, ... while also possibly setting the stage for a rapidly opening threshold leading into World War Three.




Following the daring bombing raids, Brig. Gen. Thao Ma used his remaining fuel and flew with his flight group to Udorn Royal Thai Air Base in Thailand where their T-28's landed at 'Waterpump', where I was assigned to work out-of in 1966-67.
There, at Udorn RTAFB, having recieved word of the bombing, they anxiously awaited for word about the effectiveness of the bombing raids,...... but the news confirmed that the air attack failed to 'eliminate' the intended person(s), reportedly, because of a mysterious phone call warning them to flee the 'target' scene before the RLAF bomb group arrived.
So the urgent bombing mission led by Brig. Gen. Thao Ma resulted in NOT being seen as any salvation of Laos at all, ... the air assult did NOT result in Brig. Gen. Thao Ma forever remembered as an even greater National Hero of Laos, ... but rather seen merely as an ineffective coup attempt that failed.
As a result, Brig. Gen. Thao Ma had no option but to fly his trusted bomb group out of Laos, to stay in exile in Thailand.

Soon after those early days of exile in Thailand there were rumors of propeller driven 'ghost planes', who had no national identity, that were reportedly bombing Communist insurgent targets in Cambodia, in the southern Panhandle of Laos, along southern Lao Ho Chi Minh Trail infiltration routes leading into Vietnam and Cambodia, and even border crossing flights into Vietnam.
Faint whispers were also heard about low flying 'ghost planes' flying low across the mountains from the direction of Vietnam, landing to be refuled at small dirst landing strips where fuel had to be pumped from steel drums, and then entering Mainland China bombing military supplies traveling towards North Vietnam.
Even hints of more 'border stories' must wait word of eventual declassifications when political correctness is not as important as history.

To those who knew Brig. Gen. Thao Ma, he will always be remembered in the highest ranks of the Lao Patriot,.... who to his dying breath sought to save his Lao people and provide the soul of Laos a path to more freedom to protect its national spirit and resist final surrender to the global clone of Communism.


Soon after Thao Ma exiled himself to Thailand, another Lao Patriot and staunch anti-Communist left Laos. It was none other than the bold courageous Commander of the Neutralist forces, General Kong Le, (Cong Lee) who resigned in protest against the integration of his troops into the Rightist Royal Lao Army. So he then left his homeland of Laos to settle in a self-imposed exile in France.

NOTE : Kong Le too had also revolted previously against the Royal Lao government. It was in August of 1960, when Kong Le led a ground and paratroop coup assult on the Capital city of Vientiane, Laos where he demanded that the country return to a policy of genuine neutrality, that all foreign military bases be abolished, that Laos accept aid from all countries without strings attached, and that corruption within the Laos government be eliminated.