A bridge can replace missing teeth by joining two healthy adjacent teeth together with a false tooth. This type of procedure is less invasive than other dental restorations. Before starting, the dentist will numb the mouth to avoid pain.
Every war has its defining bridge, and Vietnam’s Dragon’s Jaw (Ham Rong) was no exception. Over-engineered when built prior to the war, it carried huge quantities of supplies and reinforcements from Hanoi to the Viet Cong fighting in South Vietnam and was a critical target for US air power. Despite a wide variety of aircraft and munitions, however, the Americans could not bring down the span. The Vietnamese defended it with tactical air defense systems that proved very difficult for US pilots to penetrate.
In 1972, a year after Johnson’s bombing halt, the US Navy and Air Force resumed Operation Linebacker against North Vietnam. They had new weapons, including the advanced Paveway laser and TV guided bombs, but they were no match for the well-defended Dragon’s Jaw.
Finally, in October of that year, four Vought A-7s from the carrier America flew into bad-guy country at sixteen to twenty thousand feet and dropped a combination of Paveway and standard general-purpose LGBs. The attack blew up part of the bridge, but the remainder was still in service after seven years of bloody strikes and eight hundred and seventy sorties. Drawing on after-action reports, official records and the accounts of surviving pilots as well as untapped Vietnamese sources, this is the story of the American struggle against the immovable bridge and of the heroic efforts to destroy it.
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