A BUFF Tale

submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson




Having been a Rustic in the 1970-1971 time frame, I have enjoyed the FACNET for some time, but I’ve been afraid of mixing what I think was true after all these years of war story telling with the facts, and so I have stayed quiet. But, since I was also a BUFF (B-52) driver for a while, perhaps I can fill in some of the gaps in the Arclight story without getting things too mixed up. I spent some 2,000 hours in B-52s, but I do not claim to be an expert on Arclight missions. Those who have a better memory than mine can fill in what I miss or at least correct my time-faded memory. In any case, here goes.
Arclight missions were flown from Anderson AFB, on Guam, Kadena AB, on Okinawa, and U Tapao AB, in Thailand. If you were lucky, you got to rotate from one base to another from time to time. I spent most of my time flying out of Guam in D-models. Arclight missions were normally flown in two cells of three aircraft. Call signs out of Guam were Black/Brown, Green/White, and I think Red/Blue, but I’m not positive.
At first, the BUFFs flew in trail. Over North Vietnam, lead was up at about 45,000 feet, two was at 45,500, and three flew at 46,000. In Cambodia and SVN we were usually lower. As time went on, BDA showed that by spreading two and three out on either side of lead’s track we got better coverage of the target box. Before that, we just dug deeper trenches where lead’s bombs had hit. I don’t remember the distance between aircraft, but it was 15 seconds on the clock.
On a “Skyspot” or “Miscue” (MSQ Radar) run, ground radar would track and direct lead and tell him when to drop. Two would drop 15 seconds later and three 30 seconds later. As I recall, it took about ten or 15 seconds to unload our bombs. Accounting for an actual time of fall for the MK-82 bomb from 45,000 feet, our bombs would hit about 40 or 50 seconds later. With 15 seconds between aircraft that would mean about 45 solid seconds of MK-82 “rain” from one cell of three BUFFs.
The second cell was a few minutes behind the first and, if directed to the same target box, about the time you got your breath back on the ground, the second show started. Not much fun I would imagine. We also bombed with our own radar. Lead would do the run and two and three would bomb on his time-hack plus 15 seconds. Two and three would use their radar to be precisely 15 seconds in trail. This got interesting when SAMs were on the way up.
The EWO in the BUFF was the butt of many a joke back in the states. Over North Vietnam he outranked the pilot. When he said, “Quiet” we were all quiet. When he said “TTR” (Target Tracking Radar) we were attentive and nervous as well as busy with the bomb run. When he said “BGO6” or “Guidance Uplink” we (me anyway) were scared shitless. If he did his job, and my EWO, Bob Pecala, always did, the SAM missed. When they fired in “barrage” you just did your job and wished you were somewhere else.
Later, as a Rustic FAC, I had the chance to clear a target box or two. I had the B-52 cell frequencies memorized from my earlier days as a BUFF driver, and I would call them up and talk before and after a strike went in. It was hard to be interested in what you were doing when you couldn’t ever get any feedback. When I could, I would give them BDA, and they always appreciated the information.
FYI, the B-52D carried 12 MK-82s under each wing and 96 in the bomb bay. Some RN or Navigator out there will have to correct me if I’m wrong. The B-52G has a smaller bomb bay because it was designed around newer and smaller nukes, and could not carry as much.
After take off from Guam we would climb to about 25,000 feet. We would stay “low” for about two hours until we took on 100,000 pounds of fuel from our tankers. Then we would “step climb” up to our bombing altitude. Crossing over the Philippines we would get out of our seats one at a time and struggle into our survival gear. We wore “chaps” (like G-suits but with lots of pockets) with our jungle survival gear in them during our time over Vietnam and got out of them once we were “feet wet” (back over the ocean) again. Depending on the target, the trip was anywhere from 12 to 14 hours long flying out of Guam. You frequently met yourself coming and going at briefings and debriefings, especially on the Black/Brown mission which took off just after dark.
After BUFFs I went to A-37s at Bien Hoa. When they closed the 8th Attack Squadron, I was fortunate enough to move to the Rustics with an in-country check out in the OV-10. I am a French speaker, and as others have indicated, Rustic FACs flew over Cambodia and had to either speak French or carry a French-speaking interpreter. After my Rustic tour I was an Instructor Pilot in T-38s at Laredo until the war bug bit me again. I ended up in the Embassy in Phnom Penh as an assistant air attaché until we executed Eagle Pull. I was checked out in the C-47 and the U-10, and got time in the AT-28s and AU-24 Stallions the KAF flew. But that tour is a whole other story.

Editor’s Note: Although not directly related to the FAC busi- ness, most of us had something to do with Arclight at one point or another in our tours, and I thought this article would be enlightening. Another amusing story comes to mind. Very early in my tour while I was still at Duc Hoa, I got fragged to do BDA on an Arclight up near Tay Ninh. I had no idea what it was, but I was too smart to ask. In any case, I dutifully flew to the appointed coordinates at the appointed time. Fortunately, that day I was following the 1,500 foot rule, because at the appointed time and place, and all at once, the whole damned jungle blew up under me. My BDA was pretty basic. All bombs on target, intense smoke and dust, and what looked like a million trees knocked down.