[4] The 20th Helicopter Squadron was formed at Eglin AFB, Florida in November 1965 under the command of Lt. Col Lawrence Cummings.

The Squadron was split into three flights; one stayed at Tan Son Nhut under the command of Major Richard Burdett.

One of the missions was to support the Forward Air Controller units at the Kham Duc and Khe Sahn Green Beret bases, which involved carrying 500 gallon fuel cells and Conex boxes of supplies on the cargo sling.

The flight performed many general support missions such as retrieving downed Marine H-34 and Huey helicopters from remote sites, slinging fully equipped radio jeeps to hilltop reconnaissance sites; and ferrying wounded soldiers to the hospital at Da Nang or to the Hospital Ship USS Repose which was stationed off the coast of Da Nang.

One of the Pony pilots was awarded the Silver Star when he was diverted on the way back from Dong Ha to evacuate wounded soldiers from the A Shau Valley which was under attack by heavy mortar and machine gun fire.

In late spring of 1966, the flights at Cam Ranh Bay and Da Nang were reassigned to Udorn RTAFB in Thailand under headquarters 14th Command Support Group, Nha Trang, South Vietnam.

[5]On 21 September 1965 the JCS authorized MACV-SOG to begin cross-border operations within Laos in areas contiguous to the South Vietnam's western border.

[3] Most of these SOG recon teams were made up of personnel indigenous to the population, reducing American combat casualties.

They flew their unarmed helicopters from Thailand to various friendly airstrips in Laos where they could refuel and await to launch their missions.

They would fly indigenous troops into unprepared sites in Laos and North Vietnam to gather intelligence on troop/truck movements, etc.

Previous to the flight an airborne "recon" of the site would be made, often using CAS Beech Baron or Air America Pilatus Porter aircraft.

One would be the "high bird" and would orbit at a discreet distance to distract the enemy and to act as a rescue aircraft if needed.

If any enemy ground fire was encountered on the "infil" approach, the mission would be aborted and the troops not put at undue risk.

In the early days at Udorn, the Ponies were sometimes accompanied by World War II twin engine B-26 Invader aircraft callsign "Nimrod".

The helicopters would deliver personnel and needed supplies, such as power generators and diesel fuel, to the remotely located sites.

In the spring of 1968, some pilots and CH3s of the 20th HES were transferred to Nakhon Phanom RTAFB (NKP) to form the 21st Helicopter Squadron.

The Pony Express continued to fly many missions in support of DOSA (Director of Operations for Special Activities) through 1968 and into 1969.

The Pony Express would remain at Udorn as a Forward Operating Location (FOL) with basically the same people, aircraft and mission.