Postscript
submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson
I recall one other mission where I had Doug Swanson, our local CAS guy, in the back seat of the T-28. Doug was a bear of a man, a former Special Forces Sergeant Major, and his size made it difficult for him to fit into one of our parachutes and then squeeze into the rear cockpit. On this day, we had spent a couple of hours up the river looking for Barges and had not seen any. We were on our way back to LP and looking for a target to expend our ordnance. For some unknown reason, I looked back behind us and saw nine or ten long boats going from the east shore to the west shore of the river. Interesting that this was in the area where the Nam Bac River flows into the Nam Ou. You might recall from some of my previous stories, that this is the area where we had always found bad guys in 66-67.
Anyway we had caught these boats right in the middle of the river and I rolled in with the 50s a blazing and chopped the boats up real good. My wingman and I set up a figure eight daisy chain and made multiple passes firing at the troops in the water and then we dropped our bombs in the areas adjacent to the river.
Doug was yelling over the intercom “Get them – Get them, don’t let them get away.” We went back to the 50 cals and strafed the shoreline and, after I went Winchester on the guns, I signaled for a rejoin and we turned for home. We had empty and sinking boats floating aimlessly down the river. There were many, many bad guys in the water, and we really worked them over. There must have been a hundred or more troops in those boats. Great mission.
Doug said he wanted to do that again.
I often wondered if these troops could have been the NVA Commandos that raided LP in 1967 and 1968. It would have been ironic that the very T-28s that they tried to eliminate did them in.
Shortly after our flight over the Chinese Road in the Guppy, Vientiane called saying that they had the film back from Udorn and that we really needed to see it. They described it as spectacular – just what the Embassy wanted. I needed a rest so I grabbed Ed and we took the U-17 down to Vientiane for a little R and R.
We checked into the Intel shop to view the pictures. Following the road on the film was easy. Trucks rolled all along the route we flew. The vertical camera had recorded numerous active triple-A and Automatic Weapons sites that we flew over, but the shot of all shots was after we rolled in to take the pictures of the bridge under construction. It plainly showed the bridge under construction, and then suddenly the white streaks appeared on the film. There was no doubt that it was the triple-A rounds flying past the aircraft. But, also impressive were several frames from the vertical camera that was still running when I rolled the aircraft over and headed for the deck.
The vertical camera was pointing at the sky and the pictures showed crisscrossing white streaks over the entire frame. Heavy triple-A – I think so. If what we saw on the film is what we thought it was, then we had flown through a very heavy crossfire concentration of anti-aircraft fire directed at the Guppy, and we didn’t get a scratch.
Unknown to me, John Garrity had been taking shots through the canopy with the Pentax. He also got some great shots of hilltop strong points with gun pits that we had flown over. We could easily see the guns in the pits and the troops looking up.
A lot of truth rests in the old saying, “Ignorance is bliss.” Sometimes I think that we were too crazy to be scared, but I know there were many times that I had the adrenaline rush and the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I also think that I was more afraid of what contemporaries would say if I didn’t go on the tough missions. I take my hat off to Jim Walls (I know he is up there watching) and Ed Gunter. I am also proud of the two little guys who came along and gave a good accounting of themselves. Without these guys, this mission would never have happened. Jim Walls and Ed Gunter received the DFC. Silver Stars would have been more appropriate.
In the stories that I have just related, I only cover the time period that I was at LP in 1969 and 70. I could have included many more equally as exciting and important stories. Maybe my next set of short stories will include some of these. I am just sorry that it has taken so long to finally write these vignettes. I apologize for leaving anyone out, but there are too many people that were responsible for the success of these operations to include them all.