Operation Tiger Hound

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Operation Tiger Hound

Barrell Roll/Steel Tiger/Tiger Hound Areas of Operations

Date	5 December 1965-11 November 1968
Location	Southeastern Laos
Result

Combatants

United States
Republic of Vietnam

Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Operation Tiger Hound was a covert US Air Force interdiction campaign conducted in Laos from 5 December 1965 till 11 November 1968, during the Vietnam Conflict. The purpose of the operation was to interdict the flow of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Strategic Supply Route to the North Vietnamese) from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, through southeastern Laos, and into the northern provinces of South Vietnam. The missions were originally controlled by the 2d Air Division until that headquarters was superceeded by the Seventh Air Force on 1 April 1966.

The geographic boundry of the operation was carved from the area of Laos already under bombardment under Operation Steel Tiger. This was done at the behest of the American commander in South Vietnam, General William C. Westmoreland, who saw that area of Laos that bordered the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam as merely an extension of his area of operations. The Joint Chiefs agreed. Unlike Operation Barrell Roll and Steel Tiger, however, the bombing in the new area would be conducted by aircraft of the South Vietnamese Air Force and by US Air Force units based in South Vietnam (aircraft participating in Barrell Roll and Steel Tiger were generally based in Thailand).

By the end of 1967 and the absorption of Tiger Hound operations by Operation Commando Hunt, 103,148 tactical air sorties had been flown over Laos. These missions were supplemented by 1,718 B-52 Arc Light strikes. During the same time period, 132 US aircraft or helicopters were shot down over Laos.^[1]