There’s always that one recruit that stands out in a crowd.
These Marines from A Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division are patrolling an area around the air strip at Khe Sanh in October 1966. They are “accompanied” by elephants belonging to local Montagnard tribesmen. The animals were considered a valuable asset and both sides used them for transporting supplies and clearing areas to construct bases and staging areas.
U.S. Special Forces once transported two elephants, Bonnie and Clyde, to a Montagnard village in the Central Highlands to pull logs to a sawmill the Montagnard had built. The elephants were tranquilized, placed on pallets and airlifted to the village by helicopter. The incident was the inspiration for the 1995 movie “Operation Dumbo Drop.”
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