2020 Fall Friends Journal Sampler

The Son Tay Raid

Son Tay Wild Weasel

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Women in the Air Force at Dover AFB

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NMUSAF

The magazine of the Air Force Museum Foundation

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afmuseum.com

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Fall 2020, Vol. 43 No. 4

mike’s musings

THE FABRIC OF OUR LIVES

BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR

Dr. Pamela A. Drew

I have long held that we are a complicated weave of experiences and personal connections, all coming together to form the fabric that is our life. I say complicated because often, there is no rhyme or reason to these connections…and yet somehow they all play a role in shaping who we are or will become.

In early September, I lost three of these connections. The first, Fred, had served his country with honor and distinction in WWII as an Army intelligence officer, and later as a foreign policy advisor to our nation’s leaders. The second, Conrad, was a USAAF WWII B-17 veteran I met through a young man named Jack who, wanting to help the Museum and Foundation keep Conrad’s story alive, had sent the Foundation a card containing a donation to honor his friend. The last was Barry, a Museum volunteer who had served his country in the U.S. Air Force, and was a tremendous supporter of the Museum and the Foundation.

Each had a profound impact on my life; providing unsolicited insight, wisdom, and perspective which I have been able to positively use on my personal journey.

Thanks to your support, our Museum provides a unique opportunity to wander the Museum Galleries viewing exhibits chronicling the history of the men and women who have made the U.S. Air Force what it is today. I am grateful for their service and the influence they had (and continue to have) on the lives of so many. I am also profoundly grateful for the effect the actions of ordinary people like Fred, Conrad, and Barry, have on the lives of individuals around them, threading the looms of those that will follow… in ways they never could imagine.

Godspeed,

Mike Imhoff Air Force Museum Foundation Chief Executive Officer

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VICE CHAIR

Lt Gen C.D. Moore II, USAF (Ret) SECRETARY

CMSAF Gerald R. Murray, USAF (Ret) TREASURER

Brig Gen Paul R. Cooper, USAF (Ret) Col James F. Blackman, USAF (Ret) Mr. John G. Brauneis Mr. Roger D. Duke Ms. Anita Emoff Col Frederick D. Gregory Sr., USAF (Ret) Mr. Benjamin T. Guthrie Mr. James L. Jennings Mr. Scott L. Jones Mr. Ki Ho Kang Dr. Thomas J. Lasley II Mr. Scott E. Lundy Gen Lester L. Lyles, USAF (Ret) Maj Gen Edward (Ted) P. Maxwell, USAF (Ret) Maj Gen Brian C. Newby, USAF (Ret) Gen Gary L. North, USAF (Ret) Mr. Edgar M. Purvis Jr. Maj Gen Frederick F. Roggero, USAF (Ret) Mr. Philip L. Soucy CMSgt Darla J. Torres, USAF (Ret) Dr. Andrea Townsend Mr. Randy Tymofichuk

EMERITUS BOARD MEMBERS

Col Mark N. Brown, USAF (Ret) Mr. James F. Dicke II Ms. Frances A. Duntz Mr. Charles J. Faruki Maj Gen E. Ann Harrell, USAF (Ret) Col William S. Harrell, USAF (Ret) Mr. Jon G. Hazelton Mr. Charles F. Kettering III Mr. Patrick L. McGohan Lt Gen Richard V. Reynolds, USAF (Ret) Col Susan E. Richardson, USAF (Ret) Gen Charles T. (Tony) Robertson, USAF (Ret) Mr. R. Daniel Sadlier Col James B. Schepley, USAF (Ret) Mr. Scott J. Seymour Mr. Harry W. (Wes) Stowers Jr. Mr. Robert J. Suttman II, CFA

what’s inside USAF

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IN EVERY ISSUE

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EDITOR’S NOTES

No One Gets Left Behind

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FRIENDS FEEDBACK

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ABOVE & BEYOND Medal of Honor recipient: Maj George E. “Bud” Day

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CLASSIC AIRCRAFT AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE USAF™

Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low IV

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RESTORATION REPORT

Gallery Updates

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UPCOMING EVENTS AND EXHIBITS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE USAF Global Positioning, Defense Support Program, Plane Talks, and more

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REUNION ROUNDUP

Reunions Around the Country

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SIT REP

Thank You for Doing Your Part

On the Cover: Illustration of MC-130E, an HH-3, and HH-53s in formation, as they flew during the Son Tay raid.

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8 FEATURES

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THE SON TAY RAID

“Banana, the HH-3 carrying the fourteen-man Blueboy group, crash-landed successfully inside the courtyard.”

12 | SON TAY RAIDER “The HH-53 appeared to be inside the wing of a C-130 and close enough that I could almost touch it.”

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APPLE 3

“Then, a large yellow light came on in front of me… It was labeled Main Gear Transmission.”

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WAF AT DOVER AFB

“We’ve never had a woman up here and don’t want you here.”

APPLE 4 AT SON TAY

“I saw Son Tay prison was almost directly under our helicopter.”

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SON TAY WILD WEASEL

“The airplane is still flyable, and we have people down there. We need to stay.”

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PHOTO INTERPRETATION FOR THE SON TAY RAID “I pushed my chair back, stood up, and said ‘I think it is unoccupied.’”

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DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in the Friends Journal articles and Feedback letters are solely those of the authors in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of the Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., the United States Air Force or any other entity or agency of the U.S. Government.

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editor’s notes

AIR FORCE MUSEUM FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP TEAM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Michael Imhoff

CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Christopher Adkins-Lamb

NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND

DIRECTOR, FOOD SERVICE AND FACILITIES

Gary Beisner

DIRECTOR, EVENTS

Mary Bruggeman

“I am an American Airman.” These are the first words of the Airman’s Creed.

Introduced in 2007 by then Air Force Chief of Staff Gen T. Michael Moseley, the creed sets a framework of values that airmen should live and work by.

One of those is “I will never leave an Airman behind.” This belief is shared by all the services.

On November 21, 1970, almost a year before General Moseley was commissioned as an Air Force second lieutenant and 37 years before he introduced the creed, a special group of American servicemen acted on that as-yet-unwritten belief. While the Navy staged the largest night carrier operation of the war in Southeast Asia as a diversion, these airmen and soldiers snuck into North Vietnam from the west in an effort to rescue American prisoners of war believed to be held in a prison at Son Tay. Months of meticulous planning, rigorous training, and deliberate preparation for contingenies, went into this operation.

In this issue you will read accounts from five men involved in planning and executing this raid — one who worked intelligence about Son Tay prison, and four who flew into North Vietnam to rescue prisoners there. I am grateful to these men for sharing their stories and for their part in perpetuating the tradition that no one gets left behind.

DIRECTOR, MARKETING

Chuck Edmonson

DIRECTOR, ATTRACTIONS

William Horner

DIRECTOR, RETAIL

Melinda Lawrence

DIRECTOR, HR AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

Sarah Shatzkin

DIRECTOR, FINANCE

Crystal Van Hoose

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE™ DIRECTOR

David Tillotson III DEPUTY DIRECTOR/ SENIOR CURATOR

Krista Strider

FRIENDS JOURNAL EDITOR

Alan Armitage CREATIVE MANAGER

Cheryl Prichard

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

John King, Art Powell, Robert Pinizzotto

Alan Armitage aarmitage@afmuseum.com

P.S. I have been working from home since late March when the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force closed as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. I was finally able to remotely access my voice mail in September and found it was full and had stopped taking new messages in early July.

I apologize to those of you I missed, or who have called and found my voice mail full. I do not have a work phone at home and therefore cannot return calls to those of you who left messages. If you did leave a message, please contact me via email at aarmitage@afmuseum.com.

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If your Friends Journal is damaged during delivery, you have a question about delivery, or you have a change of address or other information, please contact the FRIENDS OFFICE:

937.656.9607 friends@afmuseum.com The Friends Journal is published quarterly by the Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., a Section 501(c)(3) private, non-profit organization dedicated to the expansion and improvement of the National Museum of the U.S. Air ForceTM and to the preservation of the history of the United States Air Force. The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. is not part of the Department of Defense or any of its components and it has no government status. Printed in the USA. USPS Standard A rate postage paid at Dayton, OH. Subscription to the Friends Journal is included in the annual membership of the Friends of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

friends feedback

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Praise for the Summer issue…

THIS ISSUE’S STAMP

We received many letters and emails about the stories in the Summer issue of the Friends Journal. Below is a sampling.

The stamp in this issue is a 32 cent stamp showing a set of dog tags in the foreground with the American flag behind.

The dog tags bear the impression POW & MIA NEVER FORGOTTEN. The stamp was issued in 1995 to remember “those that have not returned, and to thank those who endured captivity and came back as heroes ... neither they, nor their deeds must ever be forgotten,” according to the U.S. Postal Service. POW stands for “prisoner of war,” and MIA stands for “missing in action” — those reported missing after combat whose condition and whereabouts is unknown.

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DR (LT COL) BUD BAKER (USAF, RET), PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY WROTE: “Just a few congratulatory words on the continued excellence of the Friends Journal, particularly in the Summer 2020 issue.

“In addition to the gripping story of Hammer 51, two less dramatic articles stood out for me. John King’s story about his time as an exchange officer in Canada was a nice change of pace from the more typical combat piece: I valued John’s editorial advice back when I wrote a couple stories for him years ago, and I very much enjoyed his easygoing writing style in the Canadian article.

“The other unusual piece was Model(ing) Behavior, by Robert Johnson. I did not see the customary separate author’s bio about Mr. Johnson — maybe I just missed it — but the whole article was terrific — well written, carefully researched, and really well illustrated. His insider’s perspective on the model industry, along with the connections he made between youthful model building and subsequent Air Force careers, gave the article a unique niche, and one which deserves to be recognized….

The quarterly arrival of the Friends Journal continues to be a much-appreciated event for me.”

RETIRED CMSGT OF THE AIR FORCE GERALD R. MURRAY WROTE: “I received my Summer 2020 Friends Journal yesterday and just finished reading cover to cover this morning ... impressive to say the least. Robert Johnson’s article on Model(ing) Behavior brought back many fond memories of my own aircraft and car modeling as a youngster. The story of the Gill family Legacy of Service was inspiring, and, as always, I enjoyed learning more of our history in the two articles on the heavy bombers which completed 25 combat missions: Firsts and One of the First.”

TALK TO US Send your comments to P.O. Box 1903, WPAFB, OH 45433 or email aarmitage@afmuseum.com.

For comments or questions directed at the Foundation that don’t pertain to the magazine, please visit the ‘Contact Us’ page at afmuseum.com. facebook.com/ Air.Force.Museum.Foundation @AFMFoundation #airforcemuseumfoundation @airforcemuseumfoundation #airforcemuseumfoundation

Editor’s note: If you are interested in scale modeling, the Museum Store has over 100 kits for you to choose from. They range from simple snap kits for beginners or younger modelers, to large-scale, high-level kits for the experienced builder. And you’re supporting the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at the same time, so it’s a win-win! Visit store.airforcemuseum.com to find the kit that’s right for you.

Jean Aker/The Box Art Den

The Son Tay Raid

BY COL JOHN GARGUS, USAF (RET)

The 1970 attempt to rescue American prisoners of war (POWs) from Son Tay in North Vietnam will be remembered as the most daring joint service operation of the Vietnam War.

Son Tay assault formation in daylight. An MC-130 Combat Talon leads two HH-53s off its right wing with an H-3 off the left wing.

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It was conceived by a small group of special operations planners in the Pentagon under unprecedented secrecy. Their proposed plan was called Operation Polar Circle. It called for a search and rescue type mission with a small number of U.S. Army Green Beret special forces troops fl own in by Sikorsky HH-3 Jolly Green Giant and HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant helicopters with supporting Douglas A-1E Skyraider fighter aircraft, and a very large and varied interservice air support team to help the primary mission aircraft navigate, refuel, and remain safe from air and ground threats, in addition to distracting the enemy with diversions. The high level of

secrecy demanded that preparation for this operation should be conducted in the United States instead of the Southeast Asia war zone where it would risk discovery by the enemy’s spy network. Also, because there was no existing joint ser vice organization, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) decided to conduct this rescue under their own authority. They authorized the formation of the Joint Contingency Task Group (JCTG) to execute it.

Detailed operational planning and training for the raid, now called Operation Ivory Coast, took place at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB), Florida. Air Force Brig Gen Leroy

USAF photo

J. Manor and Army Col Arthur D. “Bull” Simons were picked as the commander and deputy of the JCTG. Army Brig Gen Donald D. Blackburn, Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities, who headed Operation Polar Circle, retained his liaison role between the JCTG and the JCS in the Pentagon.

The first step of the JCTG leaders was to recruit the best available veterans to staff the raiding force.

Colonel Simons recruited volunteers for a hazardous mission from among the Special Forces at Ft. Bragg, Nor th Carolina. His legendar y notoriety produced almost 500 volunteers from which he chose 104. General Manor had a more challenging world-wide recruiting task. He obtained air crew members from units in Vietnam, Thailand, Germany, and the United States.

All air crewmembers had to have prior experience in the Vietnam War. In addition, helicopters and fi ghters had to have one of their two pilots current in Southeast Asia combat operations. Utmost secrec y prevailed within the JCTG. Only a small number of crewmembers from each aircraft type were selected for operational mission planning and were briefed on the North Vietnam POW rescue aspect of their task. Likewise, only the top Army planners and trainers were exposed to the goal of the operation. I was included on the JCTG air operations planning staff because I had prior experience as a navigator and mission planner in a secret squadron that conducted clandestine operations over North Vietnam.

The biggest challenge for the planners and trainers was how to bring the raiders to the POW camp, 23 miles west of Hanoi, North Vietnam, without detection by the enemy. Navigational aids of that day were very limited and the operation had to be precisely FRIENDS JOURNAL ❙

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timed for all par ticipants. Two Lockheed MC-130 Combat Talons (call signs Cherry 1 and Cherry 2) were selected to lead formations of helicopters and fighters into the target area. They had proven their capability to penetrate North Vietnam’s air space by terrainfollowing at low altitudes at night without being detected by enemy radars. The problem was that a terrain following “V” formation flight was not possible at the low air speeds of helicopters and fighters.

There were two MC-130s to lead these formations. Combat Talon (Cherry 1) was flown by a crew from Ramstein Air Base (AB) in Germany with six trailing helicopters manned by mixed crews from Eglin, and Southeast Asia bases at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB), Thailand and Da Nang AB, South Vietnam. Cherry 2 was flown by a crew from Pope AFB with five attack aircraft manned by pilots from Hurlburt Field, Florida, and Nakhon Phanom RTAFB in Thailand.

They had to fly at near C-130 stalling speeds and at much higher fi xed level altitudes. Also, such aircraft

had never flown in formation before, let alone at night and in complete r a dio s ile nce. Never t hele s s, experimental daytime fl ying with radio communications proved that such formation flights were feasible. Diligent nighttime training flights ensued and the aircrews mastered the new techniques. To enhance precision navigation of the two Combat Talons, the only two existing prototype forward looking infrared instruments were installed on both aircraft. This gave the Talon navigators a daytime-like TV presentation of terrain ahead of the aircraft. Flying over the jungle covered terrain the infrared imagery revealed rivers that were obscured by vegetation to radar returns as well as to the naked eye. It would help them to positively identify the Son Tay prison on their approach to the target area.

The special forces troops trained intensely on an isolated Eglin range where a replica of the Son Tay camp grounds had been constructed out of two-by-fours and target cloth. There they conducted ☛

USAF photo

This scale model of the Son Tay prison camp, named Barbara, was used by the raiders to familiarize themselves with the layout of the facility. It was named after a USAF secretary who provided support to the planning group. This model is on display in the Southeast Asia War Gallery of the Museum.

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some 170 exercises using specially adapted weapons. To augment this camp site, they used a precisely constructed tabletop replica of the camp called Barbara. It came with a special viewing device which allowed the viewer to be placed at any selected ground location inside the camp. In this manner, each soldier learned what he would see once on the ground and could even count the number of steps he would need from one tree or building to another.

There would be three assault groups named Blueboy, Redwine and Greenleaf. The 14-man Blueboy group would land in a Sikorsky HH-3 Jolly Green Giant helicopter (call sign Banana) inside the prison yard, eliminate the guards and free the POWs. The 20-man Redwine group, which included the command element with the ground force commander Lt Col Elliott “Bud” Sydnor, would land in an HH-53 (call sign Apple 2) in a rice paddy just south of the guard house, eliminate the enemy and secure the south side of the camp from where the POWs would be exfiltrated. The third, 22-man Greenleaf group (aboard Apple 1) would land next to the Redwine helicopter and its men would clear

the entire area east of the camp and blow up the access bridge across the river from the town of Son Tay. There were alternate plans which could be implemented if one of the assaulting groups failed to reach the objective area. These alternate plans were also exercised ver y meticulously. Consequently, each man knew what his task would be under any one of the alternate plans.

Target date for the raid was the night of November 21-22. On November 6, Blackburn, Manor and Simons flew to Saigon, South Vietnam, to brief Gen Creighton Abrams and his staff on the raid. They requested the use of helicopters (call sign Apple 1 through 5) and A-1 aircraft (call sign Peach 1 through 5) without crews, and some combat ready McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Republic F-105 Thunderchiefs with appropriate tankers to support the operation. Their bold plan for the POW rescue stunned the warconducting staf f, but received enthusiastic support. Then Manor and Simons flew to Yankee Station [deployed location of the Seventh Fleet’s Attack Carrier Striking Force, Task Force 77] in the Gulf of Tonkin to ask VADM Frederick A. Bardshar for naval support. This support

was to be limited to launching a sufficient number of aircraft in the vicinity of Haiphong, North Vietnam [North Vietnam’s major port on the northeast coast] to cause the enemy to focus his defenses to the east of Hanoi, North Vietnam, while the raiding force came through the western mountains into the Red River valley. Once again, they received enthusiastic support.

Just before the JCTG deployed to its staging base at Takhli RTAFB, the Pentagon members of the staff visited other bases in Thailand to obtain support from their various USAF wing commanders. Armed with a very persuasive letter of introduction from the Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen John D. Ryan, they made requests for helicopters and fighter aircraft to be flown by Florida trained crews and for F-4 and F-105 jets with appropriate refueling tanker support for a TOP SECRET JCS mission whose purpose they did not need to question. This letter stated ver y emphatically that if they had any problems with what was being requested, they should call him directly. All wing commanders complied obediently.

Then they were told to designate two mission planners who would be picked up by a C-130 shuttle

Son Tay raiders practice assaulting the prison using a layout of 2x4s and cloth to depict the buildings in the compound.

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This reconnaissance photo shows the direction of approach used by the assault group and shows the nearby compound which Apple 1, carrying the Greenleaf team, mistook for the prison and landed at before recovering the team and relocating to their proper location.

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for their mission briefing at Takhli.

Again, these mission planners would not be able to share the purpose of the operation with their respective wing commanders and the selected flight crews.

All Florida-based JCTG members and two Combat Talons arrived at Takhli on November 17 for final mission preparations that included mission planners for the F-4s from Udorn, the F-105s from Korat RTAFB, their suppor ting Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers from U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfi eld and helicopter refueling HC-130P tankers on TDY [temporary duty] to Udorn from Cam Rahn Bay AB, South Vietnam. The F-4s and F-105s were needed to fly orbits over the Red River basin, providing high altitude targets for enemy radars that guide antiaircraf t ar tiller y (AAA) and surface to air missiles (SAMs), and to divert attention from the low flying formations escorted by the Combat Talons.

The F-4s would also be there to protect the slow aircraft against any MiGs launched against them, while the F-105 “Wild Weasels” would provide SAM suppression.

Also present were planners for Lockheed EC-121 “College Eye” Constellations which were TDY to FRIENDS JOURNAL ❙

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Korat from McClellan AFB, near Sacramento, California. The two EC-121 radar plat forms would provide radar coverage from the Gulf of Tonkin for air operations west of Hanoi. They would issue MiG alerts and provide vectoring for orbiting MiG-killing F-4s. With visible air activity over Haiphong, the raid plan hoped to have the enemy keep their alert MiGs on the ground and opt for air defense with AAA and SAMs. General Manor had to advance the date of the raid by 24 hours because typhoon Patsy was moving westwards from the Philippines toward North Vietnam. This did not present any problems for the Florida trained participants. We were eager and ready to go. Southeast Asia suppor ting participants had no problems either. Consequently, the execution phase of the Son Tay raid, now called Operation Kingpin, was ready.

Colonel Simons finally briefed his assembled Army troops about the location of the target just two hours before they departed for the raid while General Manor and his staff were already en route to the Monkey Mountain Tactical Air Control Center — North Sector to monitor the operation. [This

facility, on a mountain east of Da Nang, controlled all air operations over Nor th Vietnam.] The F-4s and F-105s with their tankers were also ready for their scheduled and now moved up departures.

As mandated, only their mission planners knew the reason for their unexpected nighttime incursion into the vicinity of Hanoi. The two EC-121 College Eye crews received their briefing on the mission shortly after takeoff from Korat for the Gulf of Tonkin. To perform their part of the mission, their various technicians had to know what would be happening at Son Tay and what kind of aircraft they would be assisting. Meanwhile, aircraft carriers at the Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin were also ready to launch a diversionary mock attack in the vicinity of Haiphong. Their air crews did not receive a briefing on the POW rescue. Their mission was to create confusion for the enemy air defenses by dispensing fl ares and staying out of harm’s way.

All raiding and supporting aircraft followed their assigned, carefully orchestrated depar ture times.

Cherry 2, escorting the five-plane A-1E for mation from Nakhon Phanom, joined up with them over the Mekong River. Cherry 1 escorted Banana and the fi ve ☛ 9

Apple helicopters with 56 Special Forces raiders. They established their “V” formations over Laos after the helicopters topped off their fuel tanks from two HC-130Ps. Once in formation, the two Combat Talons led their formations through the mountains to the Red River valley basin and then on to Son Tay. All went as planned. Both formations avoided detection by enemy early warning radars. And by the time they entered the target area, the enemy defenses were already preoccupied by the mock-attack, flare-dispensing show by the U.S. Navy east of Hanoi.

The assault on the POW camp began at 2:18 a.m. when Cherry 1 dropped four fl ares to illuminate the camp area. Apple 3, the follow-on HH-53 gunship, used its four-thousand-rounds-per-minute miniguns to destroy the two guard towers at corners of the courtyard and strafe the guard quar ters building. Then Banana, the HH-3 carrying the fourteen-man Blueboy group, crash-landed successfully inside the courtyard. Its demolition man blew an exit hole in the western wall of the compound while the rest began searching for prisoners to free from their cells. They ignored the absence of armed guards and could not believe the empty cells they encountered in each building.

Then Apple 2, the HH-53 helicopter carr ying the 20 -man Redwine group, arrived outside the POW compound. Its gunner strafed the same barracks building with his minigun during landing. This helicopter was supposed to be the second one on the ground following Apple 1, the HH-53 with the Greenleaf group. However, Lt Col John V. Allison, the pilot of Apple 2, saw Apple 1 land at a similar facility four hundred meters short of the POW camp.

He quickly switched to Apple 1’s landing spot and notified Colonel Sydnor, who initiated an alternate 10

plan that called for Redwine to take over the missing Greenleaf team’s role to secure the area east of the POW camp. They received minimal resistance from the surprised North Vietnamese defenders. Designated members began moving nor th, clearing the area east of the camp that had been the task of Greenleaf.

Camp defenders were disorganized and some ran out of their buildings without arms. The only injury was one Redwine member who received a flesh wound in his thigh.

Apple 1, carr ying the 22-man Greenleaf group, had landed at the misidentifi ed compound with its minigun strafi ng the identical guard quarters building, dropped off Greenleaf, and departed for its designated holding area. The Greenleaf commander and his element assaulted the building and cleared it as planned. They did not realize that they were in the wrong location until they entered the courtyard. Meanwhile, the rest

This map shows the areas of responsibility for each element of the assault force.

Gargus

of the Greenleaf elements realized the mistake and hunkered down in place. Bull Simons, who was on the Greenleaf team, maintained radio contact with General Manor at Monkey Mountain and called for the return of Apple 1 for immediate relocation. One Greenleaf element was shooting it out with the surprised enemy in the compound.

Their resis t ance was quickly subdued by the element’s gunners, who kept the enemy inside the twostory building in the courtyard by spraying the doors and windows with hundreds of machine gun bursts and 26 grenade-launcher projectiles. After quickly reboarding Apple 1, the Greenleaf group was landed in its proper place at Son Tay eight minutes late.

Greenleaf’s return called for the never-rehearsed return from the alternate plan to the original assault plan. It created a possible friendly fire problem because some men of Redwine had already

reached positions assigned to Greenleaf members and were now in Greenleaf’s rehearsed kill zone. However, good past combat experience and professionalism prevailed, and friendly fire mistakes were avoided. Redwine men held their places and allowed Greenleaf to proceed to clear their assigned bar r ack s building and move northward to their other assigned targets.

At about the time Greenleaf members began assuming their roles under the original assault plan, Blueboy’s commander, Capt Dick Meadows, radioed that there were no POWs in the camp. At first no one believed it and General Manor asked for confi rmation, which he quickly received - the Son Tay POW camp did not contain any American prisoners. Colonel Sydnor ordered the retreat to the marshalling area and called in Apples 1 and 2 for extraction. The other two HH53s, Apples 4 and 5, had been designated to evacuate the POWs. They rested on an island in a nearby lake with their rotor blades idling.

They were no longer needed for the anticipated evacuation of the POWs, but, as you will learn, their night was not over. Even though everyone was puzzled and disappointed over the absence of the POWs, the exfiltration was orderly in spite of the thundering noise from the nearby SAM launches. The time between the Blueboy landing inside of the camp and the departure of the second helicopter with the remaining raiders was 25 minutes.

As the planners anticipated, it took 20 minutes for the SAM air defenses at Son Tay to respond to the highaltitude intrusions of our F-4s and F-105s. The Greenleaf group was ready to board Apple 1 when the enemy launched its first of 16 SAMs against the orbiting aircraft.

They took appropriate evasive and defensive actions. F-105s engaged the SAM sites with Shrike missiles.

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Two exploding SAMs damaged two F-105s. One was able to return to Udorn and the other began leaking fuel causing it to flame out before reaching an available tanker over Laos. Both crew members bailed out successfully and one each was picked up by Apple 4 and Apple 5.

The A-1E Skyraiders, whose task was to provide overhead protection for the ground forces by interdicting any enemy moving in to assist the defenders of Son Tay, maintained contact with assigned Redwine and Greenleaf forward air guards. The original plan had called for a bridge to be blown up by the Greenleaf demolition element, because just behind it was an 800-man installation from which the enemy could launch a counterattack. When that couldn’t be accomplished because Greenleaf landed at the misidentified compound, the A-1s responded by attacking the river bridge with Rockeye bombs and strafing it repeatedly with 20 mm gun passes. [The Rockeye is a cluster bomb unit containing bomblets that detonate on impact.] During withdrawal the Skyraiders followed the departing helicopters at low altitude to the western mountains.

Cherry 2, which had escorted A-1Es to Son Tay, had remained and orbited just west of the Red River and within line of sight of Son Tay to record radio transmissions on six radio frequencies used by the raiders. It was the last aircraft to leave the Red River basin. Good moonlight illumination helped all the low-flying aircraft to exit through the valleys into the safety of Laos.

The safe return of the raiders to Udorn was a sad event. What had just occurred was for most of us the most disappointing event of our lives. Remorseful sadness prevailed.

Some cried. Some were angry. We feared that the raid would result in reprisals against all the American POWs. No one wanted to talk.

We preferred to suffer silently in our private thoughts sitting on the street curbs outside of the designated debriefing building. We ignored puzzled airmen who were passing by on their normal daily morning chores.

Finally, General Manor and Colonel Simons called us in and spoke to us in a crowded hallway. They thanked us for excellent execution of the raid and consoled us that we had only two injuries: one thigh wound to a Redwine member and a crushed ankle of the flight engineer of Banana, the HH-3 that landed inside the camp’s yard. The only good news was that the stateside based raiders would be back home with their families for Thanksgiving.

Disappointment and uncertainty followed us all the way home.

We did not know what kind of reception we would receive. We retur ned k nowing that many details of our raid were classified and were prepared to deny that we ever attempted it. But the news preceded us and we were welcomed as heroes despite the failure of our attempt to bring some POWs with us. We could not tell our curious friends about the new and secret tactics we employed in the raid.

And our fears about the worsened fate of the POWs continued as we eventually dispersed to follow-on assignments. In the absence of any positive intelligence reports on the results of our rescue attempt we continued fearing for the conditions of the men we had hoped to save.

That feeling of guilt persisted until they came home more than two years later and let us know how their captors eased up on their harsh treatment and consolidated them in Hoa Lo prison, the “Hanoi Hilton,” where they succeeded in organizing themselves into what we now know as the 4th Allied POW Wing.

We were all spread throughout the western world when the first of ☛ 11

the 591 POWs departed from Hanoi on February 12, 1973. We were overjoyed and anxious to hear their stories which seemed to be coming too slowly. We also hoped to meet some of them. Thanks to Mr. Ross Perot that moment arrived for some of us who were able to accept his all-expenses-paid invitation to the POW welcome home celebration in San Francisco on April 27. For those of us that were able to come to this face-to-face meeting with the returned-with-honor prisoners of war, the Son Tay raid finally came to a joyful end.

Colonel John Gargus served 27 years in the USAF, mostly as a navigator in Military Airlift Service and then as a navigator in Combat Talons.That resulted in him being included in the air operations planning staff and in flying as the lead navigator for the Strike Formation in the Son Tay raid. He also served as deputy base commander at two Air Force bases, Assistant Commandant at the Defense Language Institute and finally as the Chief of USAF’s Mission to Colombia.

He has authored books and magazine articles on the role of Combat Talons in Air Force special operations. He was inducted into the Air Commando Hall of Fame in 2003.

Son Tay Raider

BY LTC JIM MCCLAM, USA (RET) Jim McClam, one of the special forces troops who were transported to Son Tay, shared some memories of the training and the raid.

During training I remember waking late at night on one of the training sessions while we were flying around Alabama simulating the trip from Thailand into North Vietnam. I looked out the window of the HH-53 beside the right front mini gun and could not believe my eyes. The HH-53 appeared to be inside the wing of a C-130 and close enough that I could almost touch it. I later learned the air crews were practicing flight formations to reduce the radar signature.

During the mission and shortly after we landed, I realized I was hearing a lot more firing around the compound than during our rehearsals. I then heard Dick Meadows announce over the command frequency, “there are zero items” meaning no POWs. My pucker factor immediately jumped as my first thought was, It’s a trap!

Gargus

John Gargus, as a major, sitting at the navigator’s position on an MC-130.

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During the mission as MACO ( Mar s halli ng A r ea C o nt r o l Officer) I was responsible for ensuring no one was left on the ground before the last HH-53 departed. Colonel Syndor (the

ground forces commander) and I were at the tailgate of the last HH-53 and the count of raiders was off. I let Colonel Syndor know we were short at least 2, if not 3, of the raiders. Colonel Syndor had both HH-53s recount those aboard while he and I surveyed the pickup zone. Using my telescope night vision device, I spotted two or three guys on our right flank but could not determine if they were our guys or bad guys. Colonel Syndor had me cover him while he checked out the guys. Thank God they were our missing team members and we all got out safely.

After the raid, during the time we were writing the after-action repor t at Eglin, I listened to the tape one of the HH-53 pilots made of their command f requenc y communic ations.

When I heard one of the pilots hollering “SAM, SAM, dive right” over the air the old pucker factor really jumped as I realized what the “flaming telephone pole” (nickname for SAMs, because that’s what they looked like) I had observed was.