It was an independent strategic interdiction campaign designed to disrupt the flow of Soviet supplies, as the North Vietnamese had few resources of their own at the time. Thus, although painted as an alliance between South Vietnam and America in the press, it was by and large an independent effort. "Operation Freedom Train began in April 1972 in response to the North Vietnamese Army's massive Easter Offensive invasion. Freedom Train consisted of U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine strikes against North Vietnamese targets. The operation was renamed Linebacker I in May 1972." (Phan, 2002) Again, in all of these missions, the United States armed forces dominated, the only variation being that the air force took temporary prominence over the usually dominant land conflict.

Command & Control of Air Assets

Cargo skips like Sky hawks manned with machine guns, cargo ships, and lightly armed planes designed to mark targets were all...
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