Dan Heller 
Hello All,
I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Norm Smith when I began volunteering at Lyon Air Museum. He was the first biography I wrote for the museum, and the most memorable:
Dozens of pictures graced the wall of the den, which was bathed in bright afternoon sunshine. They were pictures of aircraft—airplanes and helicopters, pistons and turbines, military and civilian. Some of the pictures showed the wear of time, while others looked as if they had been snapped that very day.
“Those are some of the aircraft I have flown over the years” he explained, motioning for me to sit down. Across the room, on a wall unto itself, hung a large picture of a United States Marine Corps F-4 Phantom fighter of squadron VFMA-531. As he would explain later, “I lobbied to fly the F-4. It was the biggest and the best.”
Retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Norm Smith had a long and distinguished career as a Marine Corps aviator. As we spoke about the years he spent in the service of our nation, it was evident that his greatest pride was piloting the famous F-4 Phantom fighter. “I was in college during the Korean conflict” Norm explained. “After two years of college, the draft board was breathing down my neck. So I decided I would try for Navy flight school. They accepted me as a NAVCAD (Naval Cadet) and I arrived in Pensacola to begin flight training in 1954.”
A few weeks after arriving at flight school, the NAVCADs were given a chance to express an interest in a Marine Corps commission as opposed to a Navy commission. However, being accepted as a Marine Corps officer was no forgone conclusion. “We had to appear in front of and be interviewed by a Marine Corps board” recalls Norm. “It had nothing to do with our grades or performance in flight school; instead it was to determine if we had the right attitude to be a Marine Corps officer.”
Graduating from flight school in 1955, Norm states that at time the Marine Corps had a shortage of helicopter pilots. “I wanted to fly jets; that is why I went to flight school. However, the Marine Corps had set up an advanced helicopter training program to help alleviate the shortage of helicopter pilots. Taking this route I could get my commission and wings about six months sooner. That was attractive to me. The Marine Corps also made a guarantee that whoever took the helicopter route would be transitioned into jets in the future.” For the next four and a half years, Norm piloted helicopters for the Marine Corps as part of an HMR (H-Helicopter M-Marine R-Transport) squadron, serving in Hawaii and California. “There was really no such thing as a combat helicopter back then. They were used almost exclusively for troop transport and observation. There was no offensive capability.
After four and a half years in the Marine Corps, Norm left the service in 1958 for civilian life. Ultimately, the temptation of flying jets proved to be a strong motivator. “After three years as a civilian, I decided I really did want to fly jets.” In 1961, Norm re-entered the Marine Corps. However, he had to wait just a little longer to fulfill his dream. He would have to first serve a tour in Vietnam as part of a VMO (V-Aviation M–Marines O–Observation) squadron, but flying light observation aircraft and helicopters, not jets. “In the VMO squadron we had HOK Huskie helicopters as well as L-19/0E-1 observation aircraft. My first tour in Vietnam was spent flying L-19/OE-1 aircraft, directing air strikes by Air Force A-26 attack aircraft, naval gunfire and ground artillery.”
Though the Vietnam War was beginning to intensify, in 1963 it was still a regional conflict where the US military role was largely advisory. “At that time we called it a gentlemen’s war. We worked five days a week and then on the weekends we would rent bikes and ride around Da Nang. However, we were back at the base before the sun went down. At night, it became a VC (Viet Cong) town” Norm recalls with a chuckle. At the end of his first tour in Vietnam, Norm was ordered to jet transition training. He went back to Pensacola, then to Meridian, Mississippi and finally Kingsville, Texas. “I had to repeat the basic flight training I had already been through in 1954. However this time I was a Captain and wore my gold wings. That made it a little easier on me.
During jet training Norm flew the T-2, F9, F8-T and F-11. “The F-11 is probably the most fun airplane I have ever flown” Norm says, pointing out the aircraft’s picture hanging on the wall directly over my head. “The F-11 was one of the first aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in straight-and-level flight. The F-11 was also used for a couple of years by the Blue Angels. However, the aircraft never saw combat, as it was only in service a short time.
Finishing jet combat air training in 1965, Norm was assigned to MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Cherry Point, where he began lobbying to fly the F-4B Phantom II. It was also around this time that the conflict in Vietnam started rapidly escalating and growing beyond the advisory role. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution had been passed by Congress on 10 August 1964 (repealed under President Nixon in 1971). In essence, the Resolution gave President Lyndon Johnson authority to wage virtually unlimited conventional war in much of South East Asia without consent or a Declaration of War by congress. “I knew that no matter what aircraft I piloted, as a Marine Corps aviator I would most likely end up in combat. The F-4 was the biggest and the best at the time. By the time I arrived at Cherry Point, the Phantom had already been flying in Vietnam for a few years. It had proven itself. I also knew my chances in Vietnam were much better in an F-4 than in a helicopter. ”
Norm got what he wanted. However, after qualifying in the F-4, he did not deploy immediately to Vietnam. He stayed in Cherry Point as the Operations Officer of the squadron, training new pilots to fly the Phantom. They trained in ground and air attacks in the test ranges around the central North Carolina coast. Surprisingly, range time was limited to about forty minutes per exercise. Norm also shared that pilots who qualified in the F-4 were often sent to Vietnam with as little as 50 hours in the jet, plus the time they had accumulated in prior flight training, which was usually around 200 hours. Norm recalls “it was not my choice to send out pilots that were qualified to fly the airplane but had so few hours; that is what the command mandated. They needed the pilots.” In 1967, Norm was given orders to Vietnam for combat operations, arriving in Chu Lai in October, joining Marine Fighter/Attack Squadron 542 (VMFA- 542). He was to arrive in a much different situation than what he had seen four years earlier. The Marines were now neck-deep in the conflict, having endured several major operations throughout the year, including the fabled Battle of Hill 881.
“The airfield at Chu Lai was built with some unique characteristics,” Norm explained. “It was a SATS (Short Airfield for Tactical Support). It had a catapult and arresting wires just like a carrier. They had to build it that way because the runway was so short. By the time I arrived they had lengthened the runway, so there was no need for a catapult anymore. They did keep the arresting wires, because they helped keep aircraft with a tailhook under control when landing in heavy rains.”
“We knew our primary mission was going to be CAS (Close Air Support). We had Napalm and Mk.82 (500 lb.) general purpose bombs. We also had gun pods as well as five-inch rockets—two pods of four under each wing. We would generally get briefed pre-flight by intelligence on specific targets. They would tell us what to expect as far as enemy movement and capabilities, as well as where the friendly forces were going to be.”
“Many times we would take off for a specific mission, only to be called away to another area. We would orbit, waiting for the FAC (Forward Air Controller) embedded with the Marine forces to point us to a target. They would call and ask us what weapons we were carrying, and then they would say we need your Mk.82 bombs here, or Napalms over there. We also had the FSCC (Fire Support Coordination Center) guys. They were behind radar screens on the ground, and they would give us direction and intelligence as well. Sometimes an L-19 or O-2 would have marked the target with smoke.”
“Every 4 months one of our four F-4 squadrons would rotate out of Vietnam to Iwakuni, Japan and another squadron would replace it. 33 days after I joined VMFA-542 we rotated to Iwakuni. Well, in late January of 1968 the USS Pueblo was captured by North Korean forces. VMFA-542 was in Japan and was the ready squadron for any action that would have been taken against North Korea over the incident. Though we did not deploy, as maintenance officer of the squadron at the time, I went to my CO and pointed out that we needed much better training, maintenance and supplies if we were expected to support a mission like taking back the Pueblo. It went up the chain of command and soon after, the pipeline opened up and we received everything we asked for. Right after that we went to Cubi Point (Philippines) and participated in a large exercise, and everything went great.”
In May 1968 Norm and his squadron returned to Vietnam, this time to Da Nang Air Base. “It was much more intense after we returned, even though it had only been a few months. The Tet Offensive had occurred, and the VC was now a much more aggressive and stronger ground force. In our areas they had some French-made 75mm cannons, AAA stuff, but we never saw them being used. Maybe they didn’t have the ammunition. They did have plenty of small arms, handheld stuff, and they managed to bring down a few airplanes with them. Some of them were from my squadron. The big stuff was in North Vietnam, above the DMZ. There they had MIGs, SAMs and heavy AAA.”
Much of the flying Norm did in Vietnam was right off the deck, flying as low as 300-400 feet to make his attack runs. “I would be looking at the friendly forces right in the eye as I made my run. On the way out, I could see the enemy shooting at me. I didn’t have to worry about them hitting me, because they were aiming right at me. I was at 450 knots and they didn’t lead me. I guess nobody ever took them duck hunting! But the rule was, don’t make a second run because they won’t make the same mistake twice.”
Norm also shared that the notorious South East Asia weather often complicated matters. “There were times we would depart for our target, but could not find it due to low cloud cover. The FACC would ask us to orbit for a few minutes, and usually the cloud cover would clear long enough for us to find our target and drop our ordinance. We also flew TPQ (T–Transportable P–Radar Q–Special Purpose) missions. Those missions were flown mostly at night. We would fly on radar vectors into North Vietnam, at about 35,000 feet. The radar operator on the ground could see us on his scope, so when we were in the right place he would tell us to drop our bombs. On those missions we would fly through some of the nastiest weather, including torrential rain and thunderstorms.“
The end of Norm’s second tour in Vietnam ended in a twist of irony. “My wife had developed some health problems back in the states, so I requested emergency leave to come home and be with her. My request for emergency leave was denied. The personnel officer of the wing said I did not provide enough documentation to support my request, and asked me to get more information from my wife’s physician. So, about ten days later I get the information from the physician and take it to the same personnel officer. He approved my request.“
“What I did not realize at the time, and I am not sure if the personnel officer knew it, is that had he granted my leave request the first time, the entire nine-month tour of duty I had just served would not have been counted as a full 13-month tour. When he granted my request the second time, I had just passed the date which would allow my combat tour to count as a full 13-month tour. I did not need to come back.”
Norm spent the next three years in a variety of assignments, and once again found himself training new pilots to fly the F-4. He also went back to college to finish his degree at California State University Fullerton. After attending Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia he was ordered back to South East Asia for another 13-month tour in 1972. “When I went back in 1972, the Marines were no longer in Vietnam. We were stationed in Nam Phong, Thailand (known as the “Rose Garden”) flying missions over Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. However, things were winding down at that time and my job was to help close things up and move everything back to Iwakuni in Japan. Marine involvement in the Vietnam conflict had come to an end.”
In retrospect, Norm describes his time in Vietnam as being remarkably peaceful and calm. “When flying combat, the duties and responsibilities become routine, just like in any other job. I carried out my missions. I taught people how to fly and drop weapons. I never got hit, never had to eject, and never crashed an airplane. I was lucky.” In the years after Vietnam and prior to his retirement, Norm helped modernize the F-4 Phantom to be more credible in a post-Vietnam role. “The F-4B had vacuum tube avionics—radios, radar, everything. Those were sent back to the factory and turned into F-4N models with modern, solid-state avionics which worked much better. We developed new strategies and tactics to take advantage of the equipment and weapons upgrades. I was assigned to MAG-11 (Marine Air Group), and at that time we were considered the premier fighter group in the Marine Corps. In fact, we got invited to Red Flag (Advanced Aerial Combat Training) in 1975, the first year it was held. Our F-4 fighters went up against the Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle. If we took away the BVR (Beyond Visual Range) capabilities of the Eagle, we beat them every time. In fact, after the exercises, several Air Force officers surreptitiously approached us and asked if we could teach their F-4 pilots to fly the plane as well as we did!”
One of the most exciting things Norm ever did in a Phantom did not take place on a battlefield, but rather at an air show at New River, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. “I was at Cherry Point which is about 50 miles from Camp Lejeune, and I only had about 20 hours in the Phantom at that time. My command asked me to ferry an F-4 down to an air show. Well, the runway at New River was only about 4,500 feet—not very long. Some of the other pilots at Cherry Point with more time in the Phantom cautioned me about the short runway down there. I took an F-4 with only enough fuel to get to New River and back, and no weapons. The F-4 has a rudder shaker to indicate an impending stall, just like commercial aircraft have a stick (yoke) shaker. The entire time I was on approach the rudder shaker was going. I touched down at New River, popped the chute and stopped with about 1,000 of runway to spare. In fact, I popped the chute before my gear had even hit the ground. What was even more exciting was the trip back to Cherry Point. The aircraft weight was very low, due to the fact that there was not much fuel and no weapons. The airplane had so much power; it was like flying a rocket! At maximum gross weight the Phantom can go to zero to 40,000 feet in two minutes. Just imagine what it did with almost no weight on it.”
Lieutenant Colonel Norm Smith retired from the United States Marine Corps in 1977. Unlike many other military aviators, he did not give up flying after he left the service. He continued to fly, owning several different aircraft over the years. To date, he has logged over 6,000 hours of total flight time. Despite the concerns at home over the escalating American involvement in Vietnam, Norm says he and most of his fellow Marine aviators were convinced their mission was a noble one. “We were there to help the Vietnamese fight the Communists. That was our mission.”
Lieutenant Colonel Norman A. Smith USMC (ret.) passed away on 30 May 2014.
Copyright 2023 Dan Heller
