| 3 |
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All 18 or so, of these Vietnamese kids came running to see the
"aeroplane" when it landed at Quang Tri North, about ten miles south of the DMZ border
with N.Vietnam. I stayed with the Volpar and gave every one of them a "cockpit check out"! Children seem to love aeroplanes and these kids were
no different. My USAID passenger took the picture upon returning from his
visit with a nearby Village Chief. They will never forget it and neither will
I. |
| 4 |
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AA's night drop bird, 598, aka
The Blue Goose or the Blivit. Parked on the Ramp at Udorn in June
of 1967. It had an F111 a Terrain Following Radar (TFR) in the nose.
This feature allowed us to make low level, jungle top resupply drops at
night along the Ho Chi Minh trail between the Mu Gia Pass to Tchepone.
598 had a drop ramp in the aft section and two supply pallets could be
carried/dropped. It had a crew of four. Two pilots, a navigator,
and a kicker or Air Freight Specialist as they were officially
titled. |
| 5 |
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AA Pilot and photo bird, 42 Zulu
after a recce mission at Udorn. |
| 6 |
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Udorn Photo Recce pilots, from
about 1971. The picture left to right is Gene Thomasson, Berl King,
Denny Thomas, Pat Thorsen and Frank Bonansinga. Seated is Bob
Main. This picture was taken at my (FCB's) the Charoen Hotel in
downtown Udon Thani (Udorn) Thailand. We had a small type get
together. |
| 7 |
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Side view of B26 in flight over
Laos. |
| 8 |
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Our photo bird, 42 Zulu, while we
were on a photo recce mission over Laos. An Air Force photo recce jet
got us on his camera. |
| 9 |
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Rice Drop by an AA C46 over Laos. |
| 10 |
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Special Projects VTB 71 Charlie
that was used as a back up for 42 Zulu and also used on other Special
Project missions. |
| 11 |
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Volpar Turboprop Beech 18 on Air
America's ramp at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. The buildings in the
background are maintenance hangars where all the chopper and fixed wing aircraft were repaired and inspected at Air America's
excellent maintenance facility. |
| 12 |
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THE ALTERNATE
This is a picture of the CIA base off the
PDJ (Plaine de Jars) in central Laos. It was referred to as "The
Alternate" or 20A. Here is a short story about it.
You always landed to the west, (toward the top
of the picture) and took off to the east, toward the bottom of the
picture. It was surrounded by mountains referred to as "SkyLine
Ridge." So it was like landing in a bowl with one way in and
out. You made your approach and landed the first time. A "go
around" or "wave off," as it is called in carrier
landings, was not a wise option.
General Vang Pao and his soldiers lived and
were based there. We re-supplied the Hmong Mountain people with rice and hard rice (ammo) by air drop using Choppers and
STOL (short take off & landing) aircraft to include Porters and
Helio Couriers. (See the C46 air drop picture above).
Air America's Big Bird, a bailed grey unmarked
AF C-130 Hercules made many trips in and out of 20A, never shutting down while
unloading it's supplies. And Lao T-28 fighter bombers flew out of there
as did the fine USAF FACs (Forward Air Controllers).
Pictured left is Air America Volpar 42 Zulu and
a CAS Porter being refueled at 20A. Also located here is the
barracks where Air America personnel remained over night (RON).
This included Stan Wilson and his maintenance crews as well as pilots
and air crews.
So you can see why this busy base on the
western edge of the PDJ in the area of Laos code named "Barrel
Roll" was kept "quiet" for such a very long time. Long
Chieng, 20A, was not shown on any charts. |
| 13 |
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Up Country in Laos. A Porter and
an AA Chopper loading up at Sam Song Hong LS 201. |
| 14 |
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Various ID cards during
"tour" in SEA. |
| 15 |
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Viking Decal that was designed by
Berl King, Jim Rhyne's number two man, in the Special Projects office at
Udorn. Our Air America photo/recce bird, the Volpar VTB's coded
call sign, when we required high cap or jet cover, was
"VIKING". Thus the Viking on the patch. We never wore it, just
had it. |
| 16 |
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This is probably the last picture
of N46598, our night drop B26 just before it departed Udorn. The picture
was taken over the Mekong River, 13 April 1968. Jim Rhyne was flying 598
and Steve Stevens and I were flying 42Z.
Zipper is the photo designation of N 9542Z, the
customer photo interpreters used/printed on all the shots we took. |
| 17 |
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This was at the AF side of Udorn and the PI's are on the
wing briefing the pilot before a mission. They are using the photos we
took in 42Z. I can't say who the first PI is but it could be the boss of
the PI's and the second guy behind him is Jim Eppard also a PI. Believe
Don Moun who was on "loan" from the AF doing our everyday camera work took
the picture. Talk about two very dedicated AF photo guys. The first one
was Ken Hover then Don replaced him. They worked everyday of the year and
downloaded the cameras. All five of them sometimes and reloaded them and
took the film to the photo lab and also kept those ancient WWII Fairchilds
working. He and they certainly did a wonderful job and we received many
"well-dones", getting the pictures in 42Z compared to the AF, F101 then F4
photo birds, the Navy photo F8U, the U2 and even the Blackbird.
The customer said we got the best and were the most productive source
of all their pictures, PERIOD. And they and we knew why.
We didn't rotate so knew the area as well or better than their new
positioning equipment did. Pictures don't lie! You got it or you didn't.
Repetition produces pretty pictures or they look for somebody else, I
was once told. So we kept on clicking.
I wonder how many millions of feet of film we took? And we almost never
missed a flight. I can't recall one, can you? Except when we took 42Z to
Tainan before we got 71C as a back up.
I flew 569 missions. Berl had to have flown the most and Jim a bunch
too. 42Z and 71C were just the best and most dependable birds around.
Except for Pat's tragic SA fire over the PDJ we were not hurt doing PI
work for a little over six years. Jim in the 71C's 100MM hit was not on a
PI mission but dropping leaflets over the road, as you recall.
And it is most unusual as we flew photo runs at 135 kts IAS at 7,500
AGL and that is low and slow by any comparison. And in a straight line!
They sure had their chances with us and often, too, we got shot at but
everyone did. We just lucked out.
Good luck is a blessing and we were blessed.
Just checked and the AD ramp shot is dated 28 Feb 1968 and we know it
was at Udorn RTAFB. It is also marked, "Unclosed" and gives the AF photo
det and squadron if needs be. |
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