mobility offered by Air America's helicopters, the guerrillas fanned out from Nakhang, even to the Vietnamese border, retaking old Lima Sites. Meanwhile, the PAVN had withdrawn into North Vietnam for refitting. Vang Pao seeded road watch teams near the Vietnamese border to track their movements, and three Thai forward air guides to call in air strikes upon any Communists spotted. Third battle of Nakhang In December 1966, PAVN troops in Xam Neua accumulated into a force capable of attacking Nakhang, Lima Site 85, or Lima Site 52. When they chose to assault Nakhang, they changed from their usual night attack tactics. Choosing to infiltrate by night and attack at dawn, 600 to 800 PAVN troops nearly succeeded in a surprise raid on 6 January 1967. However, a brush with a Royalist outpost at 0600 hours brought on the battle. With an overcast of 500 meters or lower, and mountain peaks poking into the clouds as a flight hazard, it appeared that Vang Pao's Auto Defense Choc (ADC) guerrillas would have to fight without air support. Communist troops closed within 100 meters of the Royalists; they broke into the Royalists' final defense line on the north perimeter at 0630 hours. One American Central Intelligence Agency adviser was killed; the other found himself trapped in the headquarters radio shack with only a shotgun and a radio for defense. He called for air support at 0650 hours. Disregarding the weather, two tactical air flights were diverted to support Nakhang. The F-105 Thunderchiefs arrived at 0730 hours and circled above the overcast until Venom Lead, Lieutenant Colonel Eugene O. Conley, spiraled down through a small break in the clouds some distance from Lima Site 36. Dodging the mountains, Conley found himself buzzing Nakhang under a 200 meter ceiling. Unable to deliver ordnance at that low an altitude, he bluffed the Communists with low level passes until Dragonfly flight of A-1 Skyraiders of the 602nd Air Commando Squadron arrived at 0745 hours. The Air Commandos had been diverted from bombing a bridge on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Dragonfly Lead, Major Robert E. Turner, spiraled down through the overcast and recovered at 1,700 meters, amongst peaks taller than that. Having been told by the trapped adviser that he could strike anything outside the headquarters compound or its ridgeline, Turner began a series of time-consuming firing passes at the Communists. Unlike the F-105, the Skyraider was