Operation Junction City Jr.

Operation Junction City Jr.
Part of Laotian Civil War; Vietnam War
Date 28 July – 17 October 1969 Location Muong Phine; the Route 9/23 junction; Tchepone Result No lasting change in territory. Royalist incursion starves PAVN division into retreat
Belligerents
Kingdom of Laos	North Vietnam
Units involved
Red Battalion Green Battalion White Battalion Batallon Commando 203 Yellow Battalion Blue Battalion 20th Special Operations Squadron Air America Royal Lao Air Force U.S. Air Force Raven Forward Air Controllers Nail Forward Air Controllers	Six battalions with antiaircraft guns Backed by Group 559
Strength
Battalion-size	Battalion-size Backed by ~50,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Est. 500 KIA

Operation Junction City Jr. was a major Laotian offensive of the Vietnam War; initially aimed at temporary disruption of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, it was extended into an attempt to isolate the major North Vietnamese communist transshipment point at Tchepone from the units it was supposed to supply.

After an initial blooding from 23 to 27 March 1969 during Operation Duck, three Royal Lao Army irregular battalions trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were launched on Operation Junction City Jr. On 28 July 1969, a Royalist force occupied the airfield at Vang Tai, to begin the offensive. Moving out in August under tactical air cover directed by Raven FACs and Nail FACs, elements of the Royalist force captured the Route 9/23 road junction near Pathet Lao-held Moung Phine on 4 September. After capturing Moung Phine, the Royalists extended the campaign in an attempt to neutralize Tchepone during September, foreshadowing the future Operation Lam Son 719. By 17 October 1969, Operation Junction City Jr. had been pushed back to its point of departure; however, it had destroyed supplies sufficient to have kept a communist division in the field.