Hi Charlie, having just moved, it took me some time to find your book among my many boxes. When I located it yesterday, I found an article inside that I had copied some time ago about the Battle of Phouc Yen; the battle you mentioned in the quote I used from your book in the "Deathtrap Village" section on vietnamstolenvalor.com.  The author, Charles "Country" Cole, was with A/2/501, which was attached to the 1/501 during the battle, and he specifically mentions the activities of A/1/501. You might be interested in seeing it, as we all tend to get tunnel vision when being shot at; it's interesting to learn what others saw and what they think happened.

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I remember that battle well because I had stopped flying gunships and was assigned to the division staff, where I served as the aviation officer on the night shift in the Division Tactical Operations Center (TOC). I was responsible for organizing division-managed helicopter flights for the next day and arranging nighttime emergency flights, like gunships, flare dropping slicks, and some emergency resupplies, but not medevacs. I would receive requests from the division's units for helicopter support the next day, then receive reports from the aviation units on the number of available aircraft (flyable). Based on the division's warfighting priorities, which I was aware of after attending the Division Commanders' nightly briefings, I would prepare the program for aircraft support the next day, obtain approval from the G-3 TOC representative, and then send assignments for the aviation units for their operations the following day. The G-3 representative in the TOC would advise the supported units on what they would be receiving. However, during the Battle of Phouc Yen, I worked directly with M/Gen. Barsanti, organizing the next day's aircraft assignments. That was one of the few times we had to push the aviation units to provide more aircraft than those listed on their availability reports; the others all involved flights into the A Shau Valley.

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M/Gen Barsanti wrote something about the Battle of Phouc Yen. If you’re interested in seeing it, let me know, and I will try to locate it. For all I know, you may have put Vietnam so far behind you that you are no longer interested in such details. Regards, Jerry