Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… A CASE FOR FACs — BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE…by Steve Dascal…but first…
Good Morning: Day THIRTY-THREE of a look back at Operation Rolling Thunder…Fifty Years Ago…
2 APRIL 1966 (NYT)… ON THE HOMEFRONT…. Saturday in NYC…Cloudy and breezy… Page 1 lead story: “U.S. Defers Trips by Congressmen to South Vietnam”… due to increasing concern for expansion of political agitation centered in Hue and spreading… Peter Grone reporting from the Soviet muster of Communists in Moscow: “Cuba in Moscow Urges Bloc Help Hanoi Fight Bombing by U.S…”A Cuban proposal for the formation of a tactical military force in North Vietnam mainly to destroy United States aircraft was discussed today in Moscow newspapers accounts of 23rd Congress of the Soviet Communist Party.” Page 2…”Draft Protester Gets 5-Year Term”…the jury deliberated for 11 minutes before finding David Mitchell, a clerk in a Greenwich Village book store, guilty…Mitchell’s protest charged that “the United States was committing war crimes…” 5-years??? …Page 3 provided a few more details on the Saigon billet bombing that killed 3 U.S. junior officers and 3 SVN cops…raid was perpetrated by an 18-man Vietcong commando unit… Page 5: The H-bomb stuck in the mud off Palomares, Spain, was re-found and recovery operations were continuing…Page 8 under the headline “U.S. is Reassuring the West on Vietnam”… “The United States has been giving an uneasy Europe an earnest but basically optimistic account of its progress in Vietnam.” The assessment was more confident about the military aspects than the political ones… Page 12 carried a lengthy story about the Union Pacific Firemen strike that put more then 100,000 out of work, including 60,000 auto workers due to lack of rail transport of new cars to markets. Eight American railroads effected by the strikes and several docks shut down due to the strike. Other news: Bob Hope was visiting the White House; Celtics beat Cincinnati Royals, 112-103 to reach the Eastern NBA finals: and Doug Sanders and Tom Weiskopf were tied at Greensboro. On the OpEd page: “The Rostow Appointment”… “With McGeorge Bundy’s one time deputy director assigned to take over many of Mr. Bundy’s former functions there is an assurance of both professional competence and continuity in one of Washington’s most critical posts.” The editorial noted that Rostow had been an architect of President Kennedy’s foreign policy and has argued as vehemently for disarmament as he has for bombing North Vietnam…. Financial: Dow surged 6.52 to 931.29…
2 APRIL 1966…ROLLING THUNDER… An RF-101D from the 45 TRS based at Ton Son Nhut, piloted by CAPTAIN DANIEL JAMES DOUGHTY was downed by ground fire while on a photo recon mission about 50 miles south of Vinh. CAPT DOUGHTY ejected and was captured and interned as a POW. It was his 169th combat mission. He returned to the U.S. on 12 February 1973. The only other downed aircraft was an Air Force A-1H Skyraider piloted by MAJOR WILLIAM L. RICHARDSON while providing strafing support for ground forces southwest of Saigon. MAJOR RICHARDSON was Killed in Action…
RIPPLE SALVO… THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE…FACS… During the Monsoon that clobbered North Vietnam, the Rolling Thunder alternative targets were in Laos — Steel Tiger — and in the DMZ or just to the south. The ops were usually handoffs to a FAC who was in contact with the enemy in one form or another. He was the “targeteer” who found the enemy, fixed his position, fought him with tactical air, followed him, and finished with more tactical air. That’s a whale of a lot of time to hang around a bunch of armed bad guys who know who their real enemy is– the FAC. To the enemy, they know “its him or us. Get that guy off our backs”… Bravest of the Brave? The “Dustoff” guys were in the same class… and the “Jolly Green” guys … man, there were a lot of real brave guys over there… tough choice for me….but tonight I am thinking FAC… I am proud to pass the following input from a reader who responded to an earlier RTR (March 4) that saluted the FAC who was awarded a Silver Star.
Steve Daskal writes and presents a case for FACs….:
“I recall working as a threat analyst supporting OSD/DOT&E in the 1980s on a contract with some VN-era veterans, mostly Army and Navy, mostly aviators. They loved telling war stories, and like a trained de-briefer, I happily sucked details out of them. Two had been commissioned JO aviators in cavalry units, flying various makes of Hueys and early Cobras. Both had retired as majors. Both had survived being shot down SEVERAL times (3 for one, 4 for the other). The Bell birds were susceptible & vulnerable enough, even to small arms fire to get shot down a lot, but rugged enough to allow their crews to often survive that sort of abuse. I marveled at their guts — to call those things flying tin cans was to underrate the strength & durability of tin cans.
“On the fixed wing air side, when I was an AD in the 78-80 time frame with the 355TFW/TW (A-7D, then A-10A), I supported the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, which was a tenant on the base. They flew o-2s (Cessna 210 “push-me-pull-yous” in military paint schemes and the back seat replaced by radios, extra fuel, etc.). These were a bit faster and accelerated/climbed a lot better than the o-1 Bird Dog, had a bit more survivability because they sometimes could stay in flight even after losing an engine, and were more solidly built. Some of the pilots had also been FACs in Indochina earlier in their careers. Even more than the helo drivers (who had a degree of “safety in numbers,” some sort of armed escort, and sometimes artillery preparation of a battlefield/LZ, and flew low and slow enough to crash-land via autorotation), the FAC pilots were “alone (largely), unarmed and unafraid” (as we used to say about RF-101 and RF-4 tac recce pilots), but spent HOURS in the meat grinder vice minutes. Speed is life for fighter/attack pilots; speed didn’t exist for o-1 drivers (which were slightly faster than an empty Huey “slick”). The Army’s OV-1 Mohawk ground support tac recce turboprops were somewhat quicker and more survivable, but didn’t have the endurance or agility for FAC work, and had nasty flying characteristics according to folks I knew who flew them.
“The best FAC or ground support tac recce aircraft by far was the Rockwell (now Boeing) OV-10 Bronco. I’m a big fan of the Bronco — twin turboprop, twin tail, big thick STOL wing (able to fly off/on old style LHAs), bug-eyed cockpit with excellent visibility in all directions except straight back, built-in quartet of 7.62 MGs for a degree of self-protection, able to carry a pilot and an optional observer plus a lot of gear/sensors or even two personnel in the rear cargo area, and good endurance.
“In ANY of these planes, especially the O-1, being a FAC was THE hardest and most dangerous flying mission in ‘Nam. Imagine SIMULTANEOUSLY finding and keeping an eye on enemy and friendly forces trying to hide from each other, avoiding the ground (while usually flying below 1,000 ft AGL), avoiding enemy fire, avoiding fast movers trying to make gun/bomb runs on the same targets you’re trying to keep an eye on, and using at least two and as many as four radios near-simultaneously trying to keep in touch with ground guys on UHF, fighter attack guys on VHF (w/Navy and AF using different, incompatible systems), possibly trying to communicate with RVNAF or RVNA, and possibly coordination with ground artillery units. This made flying a Hun or a Thud seem like a piece of cake by comparison (and they were comparatively hard to see out of and hard to fly at low level relative to modern fighters, much less A-10s).”
Case Closed?….. Thanks, Steve, for contributing a strong stroke for all the “NAILS” (and their FAC brethren) who found and put me and a thousand other fighter/attack pukes on targets hiding under three canopies of trees…
Lest we forget…. Bear
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