Operation Popeye (Project Controlled Weather Popeye / Motorpool / Intermediary-Compatriot) was a military cloud-seeding operation carried out by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War in 1967–1972. In 1967, the flying branch launched Operation Commando Lava, which saw aircraft drop a Dow Chemical-brand mix of nitrilotriacetic acid and sodium triphosphate onto the dirt trails of Vietnam… In 1967, the flying branch launched Operation Commando Lava, which saw aircraft drop a Dow Chemical-brand mix of nitrilotriacetic acid and sodium triphosphate onto the dirt trails of Vietnam… Subject: Operation Commando Lava.

In addition to Project Popeye, the Air Force initiated Operation Commando Lava in 1967—another colorfully-titled effort to create artificially muddy conditions along the trail. During Udorn meeting last Saturday, 2 I had my staff give Generals Westmoreland and Momyer a briefing on operation Commando Lava, which we have been conducting in Laos. The objective of the campaign was to prevent the transit of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) personnel and supplies on the logistical corridor known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese) that ran from the southwestern Democratic Republic of Viet… The operation began on 15 November 1968 and ended on 29 March 1972. This operation is an experiment in soil destabilization, for the purpose of producing impassable mud on enemy lines of communication. Operation Popeye Project Popeye. Weather modification was a technology once embraced by the US military as a tool to help both wartime and peacetime missions. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial interdiction campaign that took place during the Vietnam War. In addition to Project Popeye, the Air Force initiated Operation Commando Lava in 1967—another colorfully-titled effort to create artificially muddy conditions along the trail.

Operation Commando Hunt was a covert U.S. Operation Popeye was a secret Vietnam War-era effort to conduct covert cloud seeding over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, extend the monsoon season, and give the United States an advantage in the war.

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