Thursday, March 27, 1975. NVA at Chơn Thành Camp reinforced, Construction of Alaska Pipeline commences.

Construction began on the Alaska Pipeline.

TAPS Throwback, March 27, 1975: First pipe installed at Tonsina River

I remember this well from grade school. The nation was going to build the pipeline and drill our way out of the Oil Crisis of the 70s.  It was a monumental accomplishment, and it changed Alaska forever.

Map showing location of the camp.  This map depicts attacks in the 1972 Easter Offensive.

The NVA 273d Regiment was sent to reinforce the 9th Division for its ongoing assault on Chơn Thành Camp.  Further attacks on that day, however, failed.

Stacy Ferguson, "Fergie", was born.

Linda Ronstadt appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone and was interviewed in the magazine.

Related threads:

Before the Oil. And after it? The economies of Wyoming and Alaska.

Last edition: 

Wednesday, March 26, 1975. A new king.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1975 at the movies, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Campaign 275, Colorado, Colorado (Boulder), Diplomacy, homosexuality, Marriage, Monarchy, North Vietnamese Army, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam War

Friday, September 15, 1972. Watergate Indictments.

A Federal grand jury indicted the Watergate burglars, E. Howad Hunt, and G. Gordon Liddy.  Richard Nixon met with White House staff attorney John Dean on covering up hte White House role in the Watergate story.  At the meeting, Nixon Chief of Staff H. R. Halderman and Dean also discussed plans to get revenge on Nixon's enemies.

John Dean.

The ARVN regained Quảng Trị after a three-month effort.

The province had been taken in the 1972 Easter Offensive, and in fact it had been the first major North Vietnamese victory in that effort.  The ARVN offensive retook most of the province, but not all of it. The northernmost part of the area would remain in NVA hands until the end of the war.

The province has a large Catholic population and remains an area with several sites important to Vietnamese Catholicism.  During the Communist occupation, a large percentage of the residents of the province became refugess.

Friday., May 12, 1972. Dallas Cowboys Play Flag Football At Braniff Airline's "Battle Of The Bands"

Life magazine came out with its cover emblazoned with "Vietnam Retreat", which featured an ARVN soldier carrying a badly wounded comrade. The story had to deal with ARVN setbacks fighting the 1972 NVA Easter Offensive, which had commenced in March. This had caused the US to ramp up air efforts in a campaign known as Operation Linebacker.  The ARVN would ultimately prevail, with the NVA taking large casualties, leading to the illusion in some quarters that the ARVN was capable of fighting without heavy US support.

I would have enjoyed knowing it was Friday and that I had the next two days off from grade school.  As it was May, and we were fishing by this point, we probably would have had fried trout for dinner.