May 11, 1972 Over An Loc

submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson

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On May 11, 1972, I was the high FAC on station in the middle of An Loc and watched the A-37 take 23 mm and go inverted and hit the ground. We were working three FACs, one on either side of the highway and a high FAC, as on-scene commander, to parcel out the air to who ever was ready. There was also a Cobra downed in about the same place. A few minutes later, a Sundog FAC was shot down and there was a pause in the airstrikes, but no more than 20 minutes. I was there and I don’t remember any one attacking tanks at that time.
The pause in airstrikes caused no more disruption than Army Gen Hollinsworth flying his helicopter through the middle of the strikes going
in.
The A-37 was being worked by Barry Allmond when shot down. Barry had less than 10 minutes left on station when it happened. I sent him RTB for a variety of reasons and unknown to me, Gen Hollinsworth ordered him back into An Loc. I had dropped down and was working his strikes, so Barry returned and was holding on the periphery of An Loc. I received a call from the ground commander about an O-2 going in. At that moment, there was no one missing so we stopped the strikes long enough to check out where every one was.
From my experience, there is a lot of misinformation about An Loc from people who weren’t there. I flew about 160-200 hours over An Loc.
May 11, 1972, there were nine airplanes shot down over An Loc.