Battle of Quang Ngai

submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson

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In May-Jun 1965 a group of us FAC’d the battle of Quang Ngai. All four I Corps Air Force O- 1s were committed. Captain Bill Douglass was deployed with an O-1 from DaNang to the Quang Ngai area during the latter half of May. Bill took a round in the ankle and attempted to fly back to DaNang, but couldn’t make it. The back seat VNAF observer did not know how to fly, so when Bill landed at Tam Ky with a shattered ankle, he ground looped and Class 26’d (destroyed) the aircraft. A C-130 landed, picked up he and his VNAF observer, and took them to DaNang.
Lieutenant Colonel Bruch was next with 12 holes in the left wing flap from shrapnel of some sort. The aircraft was still considered flyable.
On May 31, the remaining two USAF I Corps O-1s were committed to that area. Lieutenant Lew Turner’s O-1 took a round which wounded the visiting USAF captain passenger in the back seat and knocked out part of the communications panel.
Working the same target under a 400 foot ceiling, I took an AK-47 round in the #1 cylinder rocker box. I landed at Quang Ngai, low on fuel, with only one quart of oil left in the engine.
In summary, the battle cost the Bird Dog Air Force two pilots wounded, one destroyed aircraft, two aircraft out of commission for parts (intercom panel and #1 cylinder replacement), leaving only “The Whistler” (so-called until the flap could be replaced) as the sole in commission USAF FAC aircraft in I Corps.