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Sorry to bust yer bubble, but Pony Express was simply the nickname of the USAF 20th Heicopter Squadron, based at NKP, Thailand. It was one of several helo units that were utilized in the clandestine war in southeastern Laos, usually to transport
SOG recon team members in their forays on the
Ho Chi Minh Trail. It also was utilized by
Operation Igloo White for sensor drops, and by the CIA to transport Laotian tribal mercenaries in the covert war in that nation. There was no Operation Pony Express, and the 20th (later 20th SOS) never flew in Cambodia (that would be the Green Hornets of the USAF 21st Helo Squadron, once again to support the SOG recon effort).
RM Gillespie04:53, 10 July 2007 (UTC)reply
No bubble to bust there RM, just a thank you for noticing my mistake. I must have been several drinks over the editing limit :). While you're around I'd like to say I really enjoy the work you've done on the Civil war, Menu and Campaign articles - they read very well indeed. Cheers,
Paxse15:21, 10 July 2007 (UTC)reply
Man, that editing limit is a hard wall to hit ain't it? You should see some of the stuff I have rolled out after several collisions with it. Peace brother!
RM Gillespie14:51, 11 July 2007 (UTC)reply
wow, what a bunch of misinfirmation. Take it from someone that was actually there. You would do good to read the history of the Pony Express and the Green Hornets on the USAF Helicopter Pilot Assn website. www.usafhpa.org
The 20th Helicopter Squadron was formed at Eglin AFB and 14 CH-3C helicopters were deployed to South VietNam in Nov 1965. They were split into 3 flights at differnent locations. In —Preceding
unsigned comment added by
66.62.195.80 (
talk)
17:53, 14 July 2009 (UTC)reply
Article naming and images
We have a problem with this article - the name is simply incorrect. A search for "Operation Pony Express" in google shows various uses of the term
[1],
[2],
[3],
[4] including several interesting and notable operations except for this one. However, given Wikipedia's popularity, this article is now the top ranked search term. This sort of misinformation is what makes anti-wikipedia headlines. In fact, even the article lead refers to "Pony Express" without the operation. The sources in the article also don't mention "Operation" at any point. There is also a potential copyright issue. Most of the images in this article have been taken from
http://www.airwarvietnam.com/20sospe.htm (a private website) to be used in the article. However, the licensing placed on the images here in wikipedia says: "This image is a work of a U.S. Air Force Airman or employee, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain."
I think the article needs to be renamed, possibly to
Pony Express (USAF) and the copyright status of the images needs to be clarified quickly - these images are currently being mirrored all over the web - when the original owner see them, the Foundation will get the angry letter - not us.
Paxse17:49, 11 July 2007 (UTC)reply