LZ Sally

LZ SALLY

Richard Quinn in front of 2/501st sign on LZ Sally - Vietnam 1968

Photo of Chapel, believed to have been at LZ Sally

Chinook picking up a load. LZ Sally South Vietnam
Photos provided by Dennis Griffin

Chaplain - Captain William W. Erbach

Check out the YouTube video of LZ Sally **here**.
Notes from 1LT (Neal) Schwartz - “B” Btry 1st Battalion 83rd Artillery - Oct 68 – Aug 69: Pic1: These are the materials we scrounged to start building. Pic2: Still a little sparse but getting along building it up Pic3: The start on LZ some called it FSB Sally on one corner occupied by “B” Btry 1/83rd Arty. My SSgt and my driver were expert builders. This was an outdoor movie theater with seating made out of helicopter blades. I have no idea where the blades came from. Pic4: This was our first fire mission like the first day we got there.

The following pics of LZ Sally were provided by David Bolin.... he gave me permission to post them.

Not sure where I got these pics???

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The Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord was a 23-day battle between the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and the North Vietnamese Army from July 1, 1970 until July 23, 1970 - 75 Americans were killed. 3 American Soldiers are Missing in Action. There were approx 25,000 NVA Soldiers in the area of the A-Shau Valley.

2nd Battalion, 501 st infantry was one of many units involved during Ripcord.

Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ripcordassociation/

Ripcord Association web site: www.ripcordassociation.com

YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUlAp6phXGs

The following photos were supplied by Anthony Critchlow.

Brian Eveleth (3rd Plt Co A 2/501st) wrote the following about Ripcord:

I am not sure if you have visited the “Ripcord Association “ website so I thought I would attach one of their recent newsletters for you to peruse. There are a few Co A 2/501st guys that are members and the website www.ripcordassociation.com includes their names. It may be appropriate to have this information available on the Alpha Avengers website. They also list KIA’s by date as well as by unit…Co A 2/501st had one of the highest KIA/WIA totals within the division during that time.

Since there was a “news blackout mandated by the military’ I am not sure how many A 2/501st guys realize that our area of operations and missions (Re-Up hill, FSB Granite, Ripcord AO in July) that took place from March 70 until July 70 were in direct response to the NVA’s attempts to overrun Ripcord. Two great books on the subject (Keith Nolan’s & Gen. Ben Harrison, Ret) both mention the 2/501st. During that time the 2/501st was the ready reaction battalion and whenever a 101st unit was in trouble, we were sent in to help out.

I also see that they have a reunion in Myrtle Beach in October of next year and since we seem to have quite a few guys on the east coast perhaps we could encourage our members to attend.

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