Pacific Stars and Stripes information
for NVA helicopters

For date 680620


Quang Tri Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, DMZ
Description: 20Jun68-Sightings Reported, 'NVA Copters' Report Probed SAIGON (S&S) -The U.S. Mission said Tuesday an intensive investigation is being made of unconfirmed reports that Communist helicopters were sighted Sunday at and below the Demilitarized Zone. A spokesman also hinted that Red choppers may have been responsible for the sinking of a Navy Swift boat early Sunday morning in the Gulf of Tonkin. Early reports said the fire was believed to be from an enemy shore battery along the DMZ. "We have not received reports that the boat may have been sunk by an unidentified aircraft," said the spokesman. He said the new information was provided by the boat's two survivors, one of which was the commanding officer. The spokesman confirmed that reports of the sightings had been made by military sources in the I Corps area but said the U.S. Mission would take no official stand until the investigation was completed. He said a statement might be issued Wednesday. (UPI correspondent Perry Young reported from Gio Linh, near the DMZ, that American Marines south of the zone have sighted the Communist copters on three successive nights and saw several of them downed by U.S. planes. (The Leathernecks at Gio Linh confirmed reports of military sources who told UPI that the Communist copters were being used in South Vietnam for the first time in the war, seven of them downed by American planes.) The Vietnamese press reported Wednesday morning that 14 Red copters were shot down Sunday in or near the DMZ. The unconfirmed report said the copters were believed to be Soviet-built ML4 Hounds being used to take ammunition to batteries in the DMZ. The U.S. Mission said the North Vietnamese are known to have two types of Soviet-built copters. One is the Hound, a transport craft with a maximum range of 708 statute miles and a speed of 132 m.p.h. The other is the ML6 Hook, a heavy transport with a range of 800 miles and a speed of 204 m.p.h.

The source for this information was 6806PSS.AVN supplied by Les Hines 3/97


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Date posted on this site: 05/13/2023