Chapter 2

On My Own

The right seat rides seemed to go on and on. It was very frustrating to be a passenger. Some guys would give me some stick time, and others would barely acknowledge my presence. Now that I was checked out in the left seat, I knew that the ante was raised. I was ready.

I had flown 14 combat missions and had amassed just under 43 hours of flying time in the Skyraider since my first combat sortie on 30 Oct 71. Including my training time at Hurlburt, I had just under 109 hours in the Spad and 458 total military flight hours at this time.

[Hobo 21] First combat ride alone [in an E] on the wing of [Capt] Roger Youngblood...PD near Paksong [in southern Laos, Steel Tiger] TIC toward sunset...Good action, got an attaboy [from the FAC], but no BDA, RNO due to darkness...Not real sure where the target was...night RTB.

The southern part of Laos was a frequent target area for us in the A-1. The area was dominated by the Bolovens Plateau, a large grassy plain surrounded by dense jungle on all sides. The Bolovens Plateau was had sparse trees and was 20 nm at its widest and 13 nm from north to south. Paksong was a small village near the western edge of the plateau. The terrain elevations on the plateau were approximately 4,500 feet as compared to about 1,500 feet off the plateau.

Now that the checkout was over, I was on my own in an E model on the wing of one of the "young lions" in the squadron, Roger "Hotblood" Youngblood. Roger was a devil may care type of guy who had a reputation of getting the job done. I felt like I was in good hands for my first solo combat ride.

The mission was a hot one and I remember feeling I was in a little over my head. My comment regarding target location was due to the fact that the target area was in the trees off the edge of the plateau to the west of Paksong. After we rejoined off target for our battle damage check, we settled in for our nearly one hour flight home.

[Hobo 41] Sky Crane escort with L/C Barbena and what a surprise! Chased him over the sky and the radios! No strike...RTB to Ubon for fuel and then a night RTB to NKP. Saw BV at the O'Club at Ubon.

My second solo combat sortie was an interesting mission to say the least. The Sky Crane escort mission was one with which the squadron was regularly tasked (see Chapter 1, 1 Nov). The Sky Crane normally flew from Ubon to Pleiku. We rendezvoused just east of Ubon and stayed with him until he was past Attopeu. (My thanks to Chuck Galbach for the CH-64 Skycrane photo.)

As one of the newest squadron wingmen, I was assigned the task of flying on the wing of the squadron commander, LtCol Bill Barbena. He had a habit of using one radio at a time and turning the others down so low that he could not hear them. It was frustrating trying to monitor all radios and try to keep track of him in the orbit pattern.

There was no chance for an air strike after this escort mission due to the length of the escort and since we were short on fuel, we dropped into Ubon for gas before heading back to NKP. We went over to the Ubon Officers club for an evening meal and I bumped into LtCol BV Johnson, my F-100 IP from Luke AFB, Arizona. He was a very experienced F-100 pilot and apparently had left Luke for an F-4 checkout shortly after I left Luke for A-1 training. It was good to see him again.

The night flight home was just a navigation flight mostly over Thailand. It was good to be back at NKP after a long day.

[Hobo 41 with Capt George "Throck" Throckmorton] A real MedEvac on the PDJ beneath about a 3,000 foot [broken to] overcast deck...down low at high power burned up lots of gas so was lower [on gas] than lead...saw mirror flashes during MedEvac...Strike on top of hill and could feel M-82 blast.

This was a mission to support the resupply and evacuation of wounded from a fighting position on the southwest corner of the PDJ. We rendezvoused with the choppers over LS 20A and they proceeded out to the northeast to the PDJ. The weather was nearly down on the ridge lines so we had to pick our way between the cloud bases and the rocks and keep the choppers in sight. And as a wingman, I had to watch my flight lead and cover his six for ground fire.

The choppers made several shuttles from the hard site to LS 20A, Long Tien, the "secret" headquarters for Lao General Vang Pao and his loyalist troops. This was also where the Ravens flew from when the enemy situation allowed.

The Ravens were mostly US pilots who stayed on following their regular FAC tours to fly for Air America in support of the war in this part of the theater. There was, of course, CIA involvement, but that is another story. The Raven website may provide some answers.

Following the completion of our escort duties, we struck at one of the enemy positions from which the friendly forces had been receiving incoming mortar and artillery fire. The position was on the top of a small hill on the southwest perimeter of the PDJ. Since the low cloud cover precluded our normal 30 degree dive bomb attack, we had to use a more shallow dive angle [about 20 degrees] to keep from going in the clouds. The bomb dropping accuracy tended to be reduced from a 20 degree dive angle, so there was a tendency to lower the release altitude to get the bombs on target.

I distinctly remember going over this with Throck before the strike. He warned of the tendency to press the target. There was no doubt whether the bombs were arming and functioning properly. I could feel the concussion of the bomb blast shock wave on each pull off. This was somewhat disconcerting, and we certainly checked each other closely after we left the target area.

The battle-damage check procedure called for the wingman to join to close formation once outside the immediate target area. First the wingman would visually check the leader's aircraft for obvious holes or fluids streaming from his aircraft. The wingman would first check the side he rejoined on, then cross under to check the other side. During the cross under, he would also check the bottom of the lead's aircraft. After the flight lead's aircraft was thoroughly checked, he would pass the lead of the formation temporarily to the wingman, and the leader would check the wing man's aircraft for damage.

Since it was impossible to see some types of ordnance on the wing of your own plane, the battle-damage check also included a report on whether any ordnance remained. In this instance, the Mk-82, 500 lb. bombs could be seen on the left stations of your own aircraft, but not those on the right wing, since the pilot had to look "cross-cockpit" when flying the E or G model, and this area was not visible.

Parts of this mission stand out clearly in my mind, perhaps because I saw a mirror flash from the ground during the MedEvac escort prior to the strike. This seemed odd to me and I reported it to Throck. I believe the FAC on scene checked into it, but as far as I recall, nothing came of it, at least we did nothing about it. I often wonder who that was on the ground. Was it a "friendly" in desperate need of assistance? Or perhaps the enemy trying to lure us closer? We never knew, but to this day, I think of it.

[Hobo 45 with LtCol "Rumbles" Ruhman in my right seat on the wing of Capt John "Grump" Lackey with Capt Roger Youngblood in his right seat] Rumbles in my right seat chasing Lackey and Youngblood around the Barrel Roll...no Christmas strike.

All available seats were filled for this Christmas mission to the Barrel Roll. I have no recollection of this mission except that it was the first sortie I flew after my theater check out with a passenger in the right seat. Rumbles Ruhman was a T-28 pilot out of Udorn who was over on a visit. I guess if you couldn't go home for Christmas, you went to NKP!

[Hobo 47 on the wing of Capt Larry Highfill] MedEvac to LS 15 with Larry Highfill.

A MedEvac mission to the Barrel Roll in the vicinity of Lima Site 15. No recollection of this mission including the airstrike.

[Hobo 45 on the wing of Major Don "Major, Major" Milner with John Lackey in his right seat] Roger Youngblood in my right seat... #2 on a MedEvac mission east of the Bolovens Plateau...Saw that Major, Major was going at it wrong...Struck a deserted hard site at old Paksong...Milner had nice bombs.

This mission went down to Steel Tiger and the Bolovens Plateau. It was a two ship of Es with all four seats filled. I was flying a "Fat Face" with no flight controls in the right seat. Roger was a brave man.

The mission included the escort of friendly choppers that were shuttling troops from Point A to Point B near Paksong on the Bolovens Plateau. Our strike was not in direct support of the inserted troops, but rather a strike against abandoned supplies at a nearby hard site that was in danger of falling into enemy hands.

My caustic comments regarding the running of the mission were no doubt the result of a difference of opinion on how to go about the escort phase of the mission. We had to be in position to assist the choppers at a moments notice if they should come under enemy fire. For that portion of the mission, they "owned" us and could direct our fire power against any force that might be directed against them.

[Hobo 21 on the wing of Lt Lloyd "Baby San" Welken] Strike north of Paksong near Bolovens with Lloyd Welken.

This mission went to the same general area as the day before, to the Paksong area on the Bolovens Plateau. I have no recollection of the mission details. The right seats were empty on both aircraft for this mission.

I flew this non-combat mission "around the flagpole" at NKP. I have this listed as an H check in my log book. Used the callsign of Carboy 39. So finally, I get in the H which will give me much more flexibility on the flying schedule.

The next steps on the ladder were the flight lead check out and the Sandy wingman checkout. These were run concurrently as there was no set order for upgrade.

[Hobo 21 on the wing of Captain Mike Faas] Phu Dung strike 040/20/82 (west of Paksong)...I saw muzzle flashes near my pipper on one M-47 pass...5 KBA...Mike Faas.

Once again it is back to Steel Tiger and onto the Bolovens Plateau. The friendly forces there were under constant pressure and we were trying to stem the tide.

This was a mission that once again involved helicopter escort. The relatively short mission length indicates we did not escort long, if at all. This was a late afternoon mission which enabled me to see muzzle flashes from ground fire. I probably wouldn't have seen it had it not been exactly where I was aiming for my ordnance drop.

The BDA of 5 KBA sounds like a "token" BDA given by the FAC to thank us for helping him out. I doubt that it involved an actual body count by friendlies on the ground.

Mike Faas was on his second tour in the A-1 and was one of the most respected guys in the squadron. He liked to have his fun while not flying, but in the air he was all business. He was one whom I looked up to as how I wanted to comport my self. Mike had been shot down and rescued during his first tour.

[Hobo 23 on the wing of Lt Cliff Groves] Phu Dung...strike north of Attopeu...helicopter exfil 270/40/94...Leroy Groves.

The action in Steel Tiger continued. My last four combat sorties (in a span of nine days) were all in support of friendly forces trying to stave off the communist push on the strategic Bolovens Plateau.

Attopeu had a history of communist activity as it was a staging area for communist forces coming off the Ho Chi Minh trail. Situated just off the southeast corner of the plateau, it was an area that was in continuous communist control during the 71-72 timeframe.

The target area was listed as a radial and DME off TACAN channel 94. This TACAN station was probably located near the DakTo / Ben Het area, although I can find no reference that confirms this. More than likely, these "coordinates" were passed by the FAC as part of the BDA which went unrecorded in my journal.

[Hobo 41 on the wing of Capt Ron Smith] Doz at LS 98 then to Skyline Ridge...Wx marginal...Low passes over Skyline Ridge...Ron Smith

After several missions in a row to Steel tiger, the action for me shifted to the Barrel Roll. This was one of my longest missions to date. The helicopter escort portion of the mission must have consumed a fair amount of time.

Skyline Ridge was a sharp nw-se ridge line overlooking the airfield at Long Tieng. This was essentially the last line of defense for the headquarters of the friendly forces in the area. I remember at times making passes at targets on the ridge when the bases of the clouds were nearly on the ridge tops. This forces the maneuvering between passes to be below the target elevation! It was extremely difficult to keep the airspeed up to acceptable limits at times like this. But when the ground FAC tells you he is in contact with the enemy, we did what we had to do. Desperate times called for desperate measures...so we improvised.

Based on the serial number designation of A-1E 132-643, I see that this was one of the oldest Skyraiders in our squadron having been ordered by the US Navy from the Douglas factory in 1951, and delivered in 1953. This aircraft was to become my assigned aircraft at NKP (1st Lieutenants didn't get H or J models) and I named her "Minnesota Fats" since I was from Minnesota and she was a "fat face." Ernie Aguilar portrayed her in his water color that appears on my Table of Contents page.

[Hobo 43] Heavy Hook deployment flight to Ubon with Major, Major [Major Don Milner]...no strike

[Hobo 43 on wing of Milner] Tac [Prairie Fire] Emergency north of Attopeu...CH-53 escort... strike...RNO.

Back down to Steel Tiger again to first sit alert at Ubon, then launch in support of the Knives. The 21st SOS operated CH-53 helicopters in support of MACSOG operations along the Ho Chi Minh trail, and used the callsign, Knife.

This mission mandated that we maximize our on-station time in support of the Knives. Due to the sensitivity of these missions, we were briefed on only the minimum information necessary to perform the mission. The magic words for missions like this were "Prairie Fire Emergency" shortened to PFE. Assets that were not available prior to the declaration of a PFE, became suddenly available.

The strike at the end of this mission was without results reported by the FAC, however I am certain the ordnance we dropped was welcomed by those on the ground we supported.

[Hobo 41 on wing of L/C Barbena] Unbelievable mission with L/C Barbena...We had about a dozen choppers to escort from LS 16 to just southwest of LS 20 alternate (LS 98). Even though unopposed, Barbena made repeated low altitude passes while I was holding high... He eventually ran so low on gas that he had to RTB [well before I reached bingo]...He just left, and I thought he had complete radio failure... Eventually determined [through hand signals] that he could receive but not transmit... Almost brought him to Udorn, but ended up going back to NKP...Unbelievable!

This is a mission that I remember well. I was once more "in the barrel" in more ways than one. Flying with the squadron commander was never a good time for me, and maybe this is why!

We rendezvoused with the gaggle of helicopters and stayed with them for their shuttle back and forth to LS 16 just off the northwest edge of the PDJ. Even though we did not get to strike, there was enough going on that it wasn't a big deal at the time.

As was normal, for a mission of this kind, the wingman normally stayed high while the leader mad a few "trolling" passes, trying to get the enemy to reveal their position by firing on the low flying A-1. Typically, a few passes in a given area were considered by most flight leads as sufficient.

LtCol Barbena on this mission was not content to make just a few passes. He was continually making dry passes as if he were delivering ordnance. Eventually, he rolled out from one of his passes and just kept heading south on a heading for home. Needless to say, I was not only surprised, but caught completely out of position for mutual support and it took about 10 miles to join up since he was flying a straight path, with no chance for me to close using cutoff. I got no reply from my repeated radio calls to him.

Since I had not heard word one from him, I assumed he was in trouble and perhaps had an emergency. As I pulled up on his wing, after what seemed like an eternity, I began to look for hand signals, but he was not aware that I had joined on him. Since there is really no hand signal to ask, "do you have radio failure," I tried my best to improvise. I kept trying to raise him on the radio, and at least saw that his aircraft appeared to be without damage.

I started to coordinate with Brigham (the GCI controllers out of Udorn) for recovery to Udorn, since I still had no idea whether he had more than just radio problems. We were flying on a heading that was direct to Udorn, so I assumed that was what the leader's intention was.

I tried all three radios we routinely used for two-way communication, and eventually I saw him bend over as if he were reaching for his intercom panel where the radio volume controls were. Then, as if there were nothing at all going wrong, he calmly asked if I had a problem!

He never admitted it in so many words, but he undoubtedly had all the radios turned down so low that he never heard any of my radio calls. In addition, he had remained on the frequency we used to escort the helos, so the only radio that he had turned up was on a different frequency than mine.

We recovered back at NKP, and as usual, in the A-1 you have plenty of time with your thoughts while cruising along at 180 kts ground speed. I feared the worst, and assumed that I would catch all kinds of hell for the mission. The opposite was actually true. He simply debriefed the mission and seemed unaware that he had caused any confusion.

Oh well, another 4.5 hours off the tour. Maybe tomorrow would be better.

[Carboy 23] Parts delivery to DaNang... My first trip to the "garden spot of the orient"...Went in 215 with Lance Smith in the right seat... Nervous going across the trail... Took some pictures.

[Carboy 23] RTB to NKP with Lance driving... Did some "river recce" on the way home.

This was a break from the rigors of combat flying and was considered "combat support". Lance Smith was one of my two class mates in A-1 checkout training at Hurlburt and this was our first opportunity to fly together in the same plane. A-1E 135-215 was a "dash 5" and as such had no flight controls in the right seat. Lance rode shotgun on the way over and I was in the right seat on the way home.

"River recce" referred to the practice of flying low level along the Mekong River. The Mekong forms the border between Laos and Thailand.

[Carboy 16] Flew a fully loaded A-1J to Ubon... Did my first river recce... Can't remember how I got back to NKP.

My first flight in a loaded single seater. The mission was simply one to replace one of the Sandy alert birds at Ubon. It was great to finally get in the sports car.

[Hobo 41] HH deployment to Ubon with [Capt John] Lackey.

[Hobo 41 on the wing of "Grump" Lackey] No scramble, but what a strike on the way home [to NKP.]...A Raven FAC called us and said he had spotted some trucks north of Saravane, but that he wouldn't be able to stay and show us...He marked as we were [still] 10 klicks away, and we took over (Raven RTB'd]...John found no fewer than 6-8 trucks...No ground fire... Just as we started to attack, several flights of fighters that the Raven had ordered started to show up... The first to work was Busybee, a flight of Navy A-7s off the carrier... They must have been "Es" as they put their ordnance right where Lackey wanted it and they got three trucks burning... When the trucks started to burn, the ammo they were carrying started to explode, sending tracers every which way... Two flights of Gunfighters [F-4 Phantoms from the 366th TFW out of DaNang] also showed up and one of them got two more trucks with a bad CBU run... We finally got to work and got another one although I had a hard time seeing them before they were hit... SH [Sierra Hotel].

On the 21st of January, I paired up with John Lackey on a Heavy Hook mission that called for us to deploy down to Ubon. Ubon RTAFB was 130 nautical miles to the south southeast of NKP, so it allowed a faster reaction than would have been possible from NKP.

The first sortie was simply a deployment sortie to Ubon. At Ubon, we met with the Knife CH-53 crews to get the mission details. On this day we were not needed for the HH mission.

Toward the end of the day, we were released from the HH tasking and set out to find a target. As soon as we were handed off to the Raven FAC (flying a T-28), we knew we had a hot one.

The Raven said he had spotted several trucks north of Saravane (Southern Laos Map), but would not be able to stay to direct the strike. He had already cleared the target through his higher headquarters, so we were cleared to hit it since there were no friendlies in the vicinity.

The FAC smoked the target as approached the area, and we passed him as he returned to his base at PakSe. The smoke was still visible as we arrived at the target area and after John found the trucks, we set up our switched in anticipation of our strike.

Just as we were to begin, Busybee, a flight of Navy A-7Es, checked in on freq and said they were 10 minutes out looking for Raven. John accepted the task and proceeded to direct their strike while. John and I stayed to the west side of the target while the Busybees stayed to the east. In a short time, there were three trucks burning and all hell broke loose. The exploding ammo on the trucks was flying everywhere. This was definitely one of those times when the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" applied.

I remember to this day being impressed at how accurately the A-7s dropped their ordnance. I later had a chance to find out for myself how this was done, as I flew the A-7D (with the same computed weapons delivery system) after my A-1 tour, but that's a different story.

Next to check in were two flights of Gunfighters out of DaNang. There was a marked difference in the accuracy between the Gunfighters and the Busybees, as would be expected, but the results were also good.

John had smoked one of the trucks that was not burning and one of the Gunfighters dropped what was probably 500 meters too far south. The resulting secondary was just as spectacular as the earlier explosions. There was obviously another truck, or perhaps an ammo cache to the south that was exactly where the errant Gunfighter's bombs hit. Better lucky than good, any day.

Finally it was our turn after all the fast movers had departed the area. John and I worked the area completely and came up with another truck destroyed. I was disappointed that I was not able to see the trucks as John obviously did.

All in all, a great mission. Actually, I called it a SH mission which translates to sierra hotel, which translates to shit hot.