scoutsout80
08-07-2009, 10:44 AM
Great Story
For most servicemen who served in Vietnam , the Freedom Bird was that
civil airliner which took them back to the land of the big PX at the end of
their tour. My favorite was a bit different sort of Freedom Bird.
In mid-1967, as a junior Air Force Captain, I was detailed to 7th HQ in Saigon as an Air Technical Intelligence Liaison Officer. My job was to provide the air war the best technical intelligence support, in whatever area or discipline needed. Also I was to collect technical intelligence, as came ionto my hands.
This was a tall order for a young Captain. And this assignment provided much excitement, including Tet. At that time, Operation Rolling Thunder [bombing military targets in
North Viet-nam] was underway. The weather in NVN was often lousy, making it
difficult to find and accurately strike assigned targets. So an effective
radar control system was set up. Part of the radar system was just inside the Lao's border, on the flat top of a remote, sheer-sided karst mountain. The site could be reached by
helicopter, or a tortuous trail winding up its near-vertical walls. For that reason, the site was thought to be quite easily defended.
The top of the mountain, was a relatively flat thirty acres supporting a tiny Hmong village, a small garrison of Thai and Meo mercenary guards, a helicopter pad and CIA's Air America Ops shack, plus the strategic radar site. The site was manned by 'sheep-dipped' USAF enlisted men wearing civies.
Both the US and NVN paid lip service to the fiction that Laos was neutral and foreign military were not actually stationed there. In reality, we had a couple of hundred people operating several radar sites in Laos. And of course, the NVN had thousands of their troops on the Ho Chi Minh trail, close-by.
This particular site was called Lima [Laos] Site 85. But the fighter-bomber crews called it Channel 97 [the radar frequency] while other aircrews called it North Station, [the furthest north radar facility]. Any point further North, was bad guy land.
Channel 97 was an old SAC bomb scoring radar unit. Within 100 miles, it could pin-point an aircraft to within a several meters of their fix. The strike force would fly out from the Site 85 a given distance/radial, and the radar operators would tell the strike leader when to release his bombs. It was surprisingly accurate. And it allowed the strikes to be run at night and in poor weather. Its capability was badly hurting the North Vietnamese war
effort. So they decided to take out Lima Site 85 from the air.
Believe it or not, the NVNAF chose old Russian biplanes as its 'air strike bombers!' They were 1930's designed Antonov AN-2 general purpose 'workhorse' biplanes with a single 1,000 hp radial engine and could carry a one ton payload. For their purposes, the AN-2 was not a bad choice. Although, its biggest disadvantage was, like most biplanes . . planes. It was slow.
The Russians had used the AN-2 for a multitude of missions, such as medevac, parachute training, crop dusting, and so on. In fact, if you measure success of an aircraft design by the number produced and its years of production, the AN-2 was one of the most successful aircraft designs in aviation history.
The NVNAF fitted out these AN-2 'attack bombers' with a twelve shot 57 mm folding fin aerial rocket pod, under each lower wing. And (20) twenty 250 mm mortar rounds set with aerial bomb fuses ready to drop into tubes mounted vertically the floor of the cargo bay. These were about to be dropped,simple bomb-bay doors were opened. After opening them, the pilot could salvo his bomb load over an enemy target. It was a pretty good munitions load to take out a 'soft' and undefended a radar site. Their attack mission was well-planned and equipped. And the bombing should have been successful.
But Murphy's Law 'clicked in' to prevail against the Communists' plans. A three AN-2 biplane strike force was mounted. Two attack aircraft and one AN-2 biplane standing off as their command and radio relay. Although the enemy knew the radar site was on the top of the mountain, it was well-camouflaged. Also, the enemy did not realize it had 'anti-aircraft
artillery and it also had available ' air to air interceptor ' forces. Neither, were we aware of it.
The AN-2 biplane strike force rolled in on their target area, but mistook the poorly camouflaged Air America Ops shack for the radar site. They proceeded to ventilate it.
The ' anti-aircraft artillery ' force turned out to be - one man. A Thai mercenary about five feet tall - and all balls - who heard the commotion, then ran out to stand directly in bombing run of the an attacking AN-2's as it sprayed its rockets and dropped its bombs. He emptied his 27-round AK-47 clip into the dive bombing bi-plane . . causing it to fatally crash.
The second attack biplane ' chickened out ' and turned towards home. The unplanned ' air defense interceptor ' force turned out to be an unarmed Air America Huey on the helicopter pad. Its pilot and aircraft mechanic were drinking Cokes in the Ops shack, when holes began appearing in the ceiling. They immediately ran out to their passenger-carrying utility
Huey helicopter.
As they leaped into it, they almost couldn't believe seeing two old biplanes, now fleeing north. But the Huey's pilot, no slouch in the balls department either, soon realized that his jet-rotored Huey was . . faster than the two biplanes! So he did the only thing any aggressive combat pilot would do . .
A-T-T-A-C-K !
A few miles across the North Vietnam border, the Huey overtook the trailing AN-2 and its gutsy pilot used the helicopter's downwash to stall out the AN-2's biplane's upper wing.
As the AN-2 began sinking like a stone, and its pilot pulled its yoke Back to further reduced the biplane's forward speed. Meanwhile, the Huey's gutsy mechanic, not to be outdone in the macho contest, carefully crawled out on the Huey's landing skid.
One-handed, the helicopter mechanic emptied his AK-47 into the biplane's cockpit, killing or wounding the pilot and copilot. The AN-2 quickly fell into a spiral then crashed into a karst mountainside.
It should come as no surprise that the Air America pilot and flight
mechanic found themselves in a heap of trouble with the State Department.
In spite of the striped-pants cookie-pushers' discomfort at [horrors!] an inter-national incident with the Communists . . these guys were heroes to almost every body. And they accomplished a couple of firsts:
(1) The first and only combat shoot down of a biplane by a helicopter,
and
(2) The first known CIA air-to-air victory.
Lawrence E. Pense
Colonel, USAF (Ret.)
For most servicemen who served in Vietnam , the Freedom Bird was that
civil airliner which took them back to the land of the big PX at the end of
their tour. My favorite was a bit different sort of Freedom Bird.
In mid-1967, as a junior Air Force Captain, I was detailed to 7th HQ in Saigon as an Air Technical Intelligence Liaison Officer. My job was to provide the air war the best technical intelligence support, in whatever area or discipline needed. Also I was to collect technical intelligence, as came ionto my hands.
This was a tall order for a young Captain. And this assignment provided much excitement, including Tet. At that time, Operation Rolling Thunder [bombing military targets in
North Viet-nam] was underway. The weather in NVN was often lousy, making it
difficult to find and accurately strike assigned targets. So an effective
radar control system was set up. Part of the radar system was just inside the Lao's border, on the flat top of a remote, sheer-sided karst mountain. The site could be reached by
helicopter, or a tortuous trail winding up its near-vertical walls. For that reason, the site was thought to be quite easily defended.
The top of the mountain, was a relatively flat thirty acres supporting a tiny Hmong village, a small garrison of Thai and Meo mercenary guards, a helicopter pad and CIA's Air America Ops shack, plus the strategic radar site. The site was manned by 'sheep-dipped' USAF enlisted men wearing civies.
Both the US and NVN paid lip service to the fiction that Laos was neutral and foreign military were not actually stationed there. In reality, we had a couple of hundred people operating several radar sites in Laos. And of course, the NVN had thousands of their troops on the Ho Chi Minh trail, close-by.
This particular site was called Lima [Laos] Site 85. But the fighter-bomber crews called it Channel 97 [the radar frequency] while other aircrews called it North Station, [the furthest north radar facility]. Any point further North, was bad guy land.
Channel 97 was an old SAC bomb scoring radar unit. Within 100 miles, it could pin-point an aircraft to within a several meters of their fix. The strike force would fly out from the Site 85 a given distance/radial, and the radar operators would tell the strike leader when to release his bombs. It was surprisingly accurate. And it allowed the strikes to be run at night and in poor weather. Its capability was badly hurting the North Vietnamese war
effort. So they decided to take out Lima Site 85 from the air.
Believe it or not, the NVNAF chose old Russian biplanes as its 'air strike bombers!' They were 1930's designed Antonov AN-2 general purpose 'workhorse' biplanes with a single 1,000 hp radial engine and could carry a one ton payload. For their purposes, the AN-2 was not a bad choice. Although, its biggest disadvantage was, like most biplanes . . planes. It was slow.
The Russians had used the AN-2 for a multitude of missions, such as medevac, parachute training, crop dusting, and so on. In fact, if you measure success of an aircraft design by the number produced and its years of production, the AN-2 was one of the most successful aircraft designs in aviation history.
The NVNAF fitted out these AN-2 'attack bombers' with a twelve shot 57 mm folding fin aerial rocket pod, under each lower wing. And (20) twenty 250 mm mortar rounds set with aerial bomb fuses ready to drop into tubes mounted vertically the floor of the cargo bay. These were about to be dropped,simple bomb-bay doors were opened. After opening them, the pilot could salvo his bomb load over an enemy target. It was a pretty good munitions load to take out a 'soft' and undefended a radar site. Their attack mission was well-planned and equipped. And the bombing should have been successful.
But Murphy's Law 'clicked in' to prevail against the Communists' plans. A three AN-2 biplane strike force was mounted. Two attack aircraft and one AN-2 biplane standing off as their command and radio relay. Although the enemy knew the radar site was on the top of the mountain, it was well-camouflaged. Also, the enemy did not realize it had 'anti-aircraft
artillery and it also had available ' air to air interceptor ' forces. Neither, were we aware of it.
The AN-2 biplane strike force rolled in on their target area, but mistook the poorly camouflaged Air America Ops shack for the radar site. They proceeded to ventilate it.
The ' anti-aircraft artillery ' force turned out to be - one man. A Thai mercenary about five feet tall - and all balls - who heard the commotion, then ran out to stand directly in bombing run of the an attacking AN-2's as it sprayed its rockets and dropped its bombs. He emptied his 27-round AK-47 clip into the dive bombing bi-plane . . causing it to fatally crash.
The second attack biplane ' chickened out ' and turned towards home. The unplanned ' air defense interceptor ' force turned out to be an unarmed Air America Huey on the helicopter pad. Its pilot and aircraft mechanic were drinking Cokes in the Ops shack, when holes began appearing in the ceiling. They immediately ran out to their passenger-carrying utility
Huey helicopter.
As they leaped into it, they almost couldn't believe seeing two old biplanes, now fleeing north. But the Huey's pilot, no slouch in the balls department either, soon realized that his jet-rotored Huey was . . faster than the two biplanes! So he did the only thing any aggressive combat pilot would do . .
A-T-T-A-C-K !
A few miles across the North Vietnam border, the Huey overtook the trailing AN-2 and its gutsy pilot used the helicopter's downwash to stall out the AN-2's biplane's upper wing.
As the AN-2 began sinking like a stone, and its pilot pulled its yoke Back to further reduced the biplane's forward speed. Meanwhile, the Huey's gutsy mechanic, not to be outdone in the macho contest, carefully crawled out on the Huey's landing skid.
One-handed, the helicopter mechanic emptied his AK-47 into the biplane's cockpit, killing or wounding the pilot and copilot. The AN-2 quickly fell into a spiral then crashed into a karst mountainside.
It should come as no surprise that the Air America pilot and flight
mechanic found themselves in a heap of trouble with the State Department.
In spite of the striped-pants cookie-pushers' discomfort at [horrors!] an inter-national incident with the Communists . . these guys were heroes to almost every body. And they accomplished a couple of firsts:
(1) The first and only combat shoot down of a biplane by a helicopter,
and
(2) The first known CIA air-to-air victory.
Lawrence E. Pense
Colonel, USAF (Ret.)