A great story from the Viet Nam War

[MacStork]

I came across this story about an NVN AN2 and a CIA radar site ....it is quite a story!

LIMA Site 85 RECENTLY DECLASSIFIED ' AIR AMERICA '. . CIA UNAPPROVED LAOS Air Combat . . Sortie

GOOD STORY!!!


For most servicemen who served in Vietnam, the Freedom Bird was a . . civilian airliner which took them back to the land of the big PX at the end of their combat 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 relevant technical intelligence, as came ionto my hands.

This was a tall order for a young USAF Captain. And this assignment provided much excitement.
Including the Tet offensive.

At that time, Operation Rolling Thunder [bombing military targets in North Vietnam was underway. The weather in NVN was often lousy, making it difficult to accurately find and 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, closeby.

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.

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 the aviation's 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 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' undefended radar site.

Their attack mission was well-planned and equipped. And the bombing should have been successful.

But Murphy's Law prevailed against the Communists' airborne battle 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 force.'

Neither were we.

The AN-2 biplane strike force rolled in on their target area. However, they mistook Air America's poorly-camouflaged Ops shack for the radar site.
And proceeded to ventilate the shack.

The anti-aircraft artillery ' force ' turned out to be . . one individual. A Thai mercenary about five feet tall - and all balls - who understood what was happening instantly responded to the attack. The little guy ran out and stood directly in the center of an attacking AN-2's gunnery run . . as it sprayed its rockets and dropped its bombs.
He emptied his 27-round AK-47 clip into the dive bombing bi-plane . . causing its pilot to fatally crash.

The second attack biplane pilot then ' chickened out. ' Turned toward home.

The unplanned 'air defense interceptor ' aircraft force turned out to be an unarmed Air America Huey sitting on the helicopter pad as its pilot and helicopter mechanic were both relaxing and drinking Cokes in the Ops shack, when holes began appearing in their ceiling.
They immediately ran full speed to their idling passenger-carrying utility helicopter.



As they leaped into it, they couldn't believe they were watching two ancient biplanes fleeing North.

The Huey's pilot, no slouch in the testicles department either, realized that his turbine-powered helicopter was . . faster than
those biplanes !

So . .
the CIA jock did what any aggressive combat pilot might do . .
A-T-T-A-C-K !

A few miles across the North Vietnam border, the Huey overtook the trailing AN-2 bi-plane its gutsy pilot flew directly above
the bi-plane then used the Huey's rotor downwash to [ 1 ] blow away its wing lift, in combo with [ 2 ] creating a down draft on the AN-2's upper wing's top surface.

As the AN-2 began sinking like a stone, its pilot pulled back its elevator yoke . . which only further reduced the biplane's forward speed. Meanwhile, the Huey pilot's gutsy mechanic wasn't to be outdone. He reached out and grabbed the landing skid . . hauling
himself partially into the fierce wind blast.
One-handed, the helicopter mechanic emptied his AK-47 down 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 that helicopter mechanic found themselves in a heap of trouble with the U.S. State Department.

In spite of the striped-pants cookie-pushers' discomfort at [ horrors ! ] an international incident with the Communists . . these guys were heroes to almost everybody.
And they accomplished a couple of firsts :

(1) the first and only combat shoot down of a biplane by a helicopter and
(2) first known CIA air-to-air victory.
;
Lawrence E. Pense
Colonel, USAF (Ret.)
[abridged]

[Lost Lake]

Great post!!

[Colonel Sanders]

All throughout history, there have been people
that do things, and people that push paper that
hate people who do things.

It should come as no surprise that the Air America pilot and that helicopter mechanic found themselves in a heap of trouble with the U.S. State Department.

In spite of the striped-pants cookie-pushers' discomfort at [ horrors ! ] an international incident with the Communists . . these guys were heroes to almost everybody.

I can see how an international incident during the
Vietnam war could be a real problem

[Meatservo]

All throughout history, there have been people
that do things, and people that push paper that
hate people who do things.

I do believe this is true. It's how the Roman Empire fell, and explains a lot of society's ills today.

I enjoyed that story.

[iflyforpie]

Actually, I am not surprised that they used biplanes.

I don't believe that North Viet Nam had many helicopters or all-weather strike aircraft. The diminutive and slow PO-2 biplane was a staple for night and all weather raids on the Eastern Front and the Korean War. The only loss of an F-94 Starfire in Korea was as a result of it colliding with the PO-2 it was intercepting--the Hughes collision course interception radar grimly living up to its name.

North Viet Nam was fighting in the past, just like the Americans (containment, open warfare, strategic bombing).

In the end, Rolling Thunder was a dismal failure. North Viet Nam had its POL reserves spread over three countries in 50 gallon drums--no number of B-52s could have ever destroyed it all.

[Moose47]

"The only loss of an F-94 Starfire in Korea was as a result of it colliding with the PO-2 it was intercepting"

It was a U.S.A.F. Lockheed F-94B Starfire s/n 51-5476 from the 68th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. 6160th Air Base Wing (Itazuke air Base, Japan). The Starfire collided with a North Korean Air Force Polikarpov Po-2 'Mule'.

The wreckage of the Starfire was sighted 2.25 miles southwest of Yongmae, North Korea.

AO-2089202 1Lt Richard Dean Cunningham was killed. His body was eventually recovered.

AO-878465 1Lt Jack Elton Brindley of Buffalo, New York is still declared missing in action.

Cheers...Chris

[Moose47]

"In the end, Rolling Thunder was a dismal failure"

Not sure if I would go that far but I will say that it was like trying to fight with one hand tied behind your back. It was a micro-managed campaign by bean-counters in Washington. Even the President got in on it deciding which targets to hit. You could not bomb a North Vietnamese shithouse without Washington's approval. They were so far removed from what was actually going and squandered so many opportunities to hit the enemy soundly while they dicked around.

Cheers...Chris

[Moose47]

Disregard

[Moose47]

Deleted due to double posting

[iflyforpie]

They were so far removed from what was actually going and squandered so many opportunities to hit the enemy soundly while they dicked around.

Cheers...Chris

You could say that started in the Korean War (with MacArthur's quote 'there is no substitute for victory') and has perpetuated to this day including Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not a big supporter of war for questionable reasons like Vietnam (it was proven that there was never a second attack on the US Navy), but if war is necessary it must be done quickly and with the gloves off in order to save lives with a shorter conflict... as brutal and unpopular as it may be. The French civilian casualty lists in Operation Overlord should be required reading for those who think war can be fought effectively and cleanly at the same time.

[YQLRookie]

Great story, reminds me of the exploits of 5 O'Clock Charlie from M*A*S*H!

[Shiny Side Up]

All throughout history, there have been people
that do things, and people that push paper that
hate people who do things.

Since the day the first bureaucrat put reed stylus to clay tablet and thought "dammit, we need some sort of government to keep those guys from making me do more of these!" and shortly after thought "hmm, it would be easier though, to push more if they were somehow thinner and lighter...."

[MUSICMAAN]

I've seen the painting, and always wondered if there was a story that went along with it.... Thank you for posting the story!!

[Panama Jack]

Interesting story.

As far as my favorite Vietnam War story goes, it has to be a book "from the other side" by Vietnamese author Bao Ninh, former NVA soldier and author of The Sorrow of War.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sorrow-War-No ... 1573225436

After having read a bunch of material and seen movies that portray the US side of the conflict, this book is a haunting page-turner to balance out one's understanding of what people went through.