Military Region 5 Commandos

In 1969 some 300 selected Laotian personnel from the Royal Lao Army (RLA) were sent to Thailand to attend advanced Airborne and Ranger courses manned by instructors from the Royal Thai Army Special Forces (RTSF) at their Special Warfare Centre and Recondo School co-located at Fort Narai in Lopburi Province.[1] Upon returning to Laos after completing their training, they went to provide the core of a new Para-Commando battalion which was assigned to Military Region 5, hence became known as "Military Region 5 Commandos".

By January 1970, MR 5 Cdos strength peaked at 340 officers and enlisted men, all airborne-qualified volunteers, organized into a battalion comprising one headquarters (HQ), three company HQ sections, and three Commando companies.[2] The unit was based in Ban Y Lai, north of Vientiane, Laos capital city.[3]

The MR 5 Cdos were initially employed primarily on counter-insurgency sweeps targeting Pathet Lao guerrilla units around Vientiane, though in later years they were deployed in other military regions to demonstrate symbolic support from the Royal Lao Government. During September 1971 one company participated in Operation Golden Mountain, the successful capture of Phou Khout Mountain, overlooking Muang Soui in Military Region 2 (Long Tieng),[4] and in 1972 two companies were sent to Military Region 4 (Pakse) to assist RLA units in the recapture of Khong Sedone. As late as May 1975, after the collapse of the FAR, a single remaining company from the MR 5 Cdos was fighting Pathet Lao forces north of the Laotian capital city.[5]

• Air America (airline)
• Commando Raider Teams
• Directorate of National Coordination
• Laotian Civil War
• Lao People's Armed Forces
• Pathet Lao
• Royal Lao Armed Forces
• Royal Lao Army Airborne
• Special Guerrilla Units (SGU)
• SPECOM
• Vietnam War
• Weapons of the Laotian Civil War

• Kenneth Conboy and Simon McCouaig, South-East Asian Special Forces, Elite series 33, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1991. ISBN 1-85532-106-8
• Kenneth Conboy with James Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos, Boulder CO: Paladin Press, 1995. ISBN 978-1581605358, 1581605358