Burr Smith and One Raven-Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, 1971

submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson

---

---

All hell broke loose in the early hours of February 14th. Later known as the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,” we LS 20A residents defended the American compound with hand-held weapons against the final onslaught of a North Vietnamese infantry regiment. Dutch took a piece of lead in his leg. Burr sheltered General Vang Pao and his immediate family. CIA personnel, Ravens, enlisted air commandos, and the few Hmong who remained behind spent a wild night fighting for survival, while the continuously exploding ammunition dump turned the little valley of Long Tieng into a 4th of July extravaganza. The enemy rained mortars, rockets and gunfire down upon our heads.
The inglorious conclusion came near dawn when we took a short round from Killer Flight, a couple of F-4 fighter aircraft from Korat Royal Thai Air Base. Under our control, the flight leader skillfully dropped 500 pound bombs only three-hundred yards from our location, but the number two F-4 became disoriented in the bad weather and chaos of the moment. He released cluster bomblets all over the Long Tieng valley—directly on our position.
The Raven detachment survived, but only because we found shelter in a bunker constructed just hours before by Raven Charlie Russell and a few of our wise enlisted folks.
This kind of event draws people together for life. Dutch, Burr and I became close friends.