“Jack the FAC” Story
submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson
In late summer 1966, my tour as an airlift pilot concluded. My turn had come to go to S.E.A. Looking at the list of available aircraft, the choice was clear. I didn’t think that an O-1 or an HH-3 was what I wanted to fly. If I had to go to Vietnam, then I was going to be a fighter pilot and fly the venerable F-100. Not only that, I could go to Luke AFB in Phoenix, Arizona for my training. What a deal! I was going to fly a fast moving aircraft that could fight back. I found myself at Luke AFB in December 1966 in the 4514th Combat Crew Training Squadron, TAC, to transition into the F-100D.
There were a lot of other Lieutenants and new Captains, like myself, that I had known from my MAC days. There was only one exception, and that was Major Abraham K. Tanaka who had flown the F-84. The rest of us came from MAC. After six flights in the F-100F, most of us got to fly the single-seated F-100D, and those that didn’t were reassigned elsewhere. Our training in the “Hun” proceeded normally until the day that we all (except Abe Tanaka) got an assignment to the 504 Tactical Control Group at Bien Hoa with a TDY en route to some place called Holley Field to check out in the Cessna O-1! The Air Force couldn’t do that to us; we were becoming fighter pilots. Oh, not to fear. The Air Force needed fighter-qualified pilots to serve with the Army units. You know the deal, the Army wanted FACs that knew how munitions were delivered and their combat effectiveness. We were also told that we would still fly the F-100 for six months and then spend only six months as a FAC. So there the old story happened, most of us would never fly the F-100 again. We thought what a pity it was for us. However, I was to find out later that the F-100 training was very valuable for me and the troops that we saved on the ground. On a lighter note, I did get to see and talk with then Major Bud Day at the Luke AFB O’ Club one Friday at Happy Hour. That was just before he went over to the Fast FAC Squadron in F-100Fs. One must read Bud’s book entitled “Return with Honor.”
Oh well, onward to Florida, but hey we were young Air Force pilots, and we all got into this adventure at Holley Field in no time at all. We came to respect the Bird Dog and what we were able to do with it. One of my notable flights came when the winds were just strong enough parallel to the beach that I could “hover” over one spot on the beach and watch a school of manta rays. This O-1 had some real possibilities, and the Special Ops training at Hurlburt was also to be of great value later. However, flying the Bird Dog and not being fired upon is one thing, but our next flight in the O-1 would be in hostile country in S.E.A. We certainly didn’t know what Tactical Air Support Squadron (TASS) we would be assigned to or quite know what to expect overall.
On June 27, 1967, I flew out of Seattle-Tacoma airport for my port call of Travis AFB. I started a journal that day that I was to make notes in everyday until my return to the states. Early the next morning (my journal showed 365 days left in the tour), we flew on a chartered Continental Airlines flight via the standard route (Wake Island for refueling and on to Clark AB). The trip from Wake Island to Clark AB was rough because of typhoon Anita (my eldest daughter’s name). It was still raining when we arrived at the Philippines, and a planeload of new troops always made settling in quarters a major task. We had spent 16 hours in that jetliner and wanted just to sleep for a while. We stayed at the Skyline Aerotel, and I roomed with Jim Gault who had been in the 20th Squadron with me as well as most of the Air Force training that I had had to that date. It was now Thursday night and we did not start Jungle Survival School until Monday morning on July 1st. So we had some time to relax by the Clark O’ Club pool and drink gin and tonic. We had to intake that quinine to prevent malaria. The fun in the sun days went by all too fast for us.
The flight to Saigon was not until July 9th at 0350 hours. This put us into Tan Son Nhut at 0540. It was still dark, but quite hot. Then there was the long line to change our “greenbacks” into military purchase certificates (MPC) – that was a pain! There was a large group of FAC replacements on the flight from Clark, but we were in for another long wait to get to Bien Hoa and the 504th TASG for our FAC assignment. As we were milling about the flight line, five of us, who had been MAC pilots, spotted a C-133A and crew from Dover AFB. We knew the crew, so we decided to find out what had been happening at Dover. Come to find out that the C-133A was about to take off for Bien Hoa. Oh by the way, did we want to catch a hop there? Well, the five Captains, Leroy E. Bergeman; William H. Hill, Jr.; Dain F. Sutton; Ralph M. Utterback, Jr.; and myself (Jack A. Labo) arrived in Bien Hoa at 1130. We made a quick trip to the 504th TASG, and they were surprised to see us there so early. However, there was a 1300 flight in a C-47 for Binh Thuy and Theater Indoctrination School. So we rushed through the paperwork and were given a 15-minute brief in which we were told that the 23d TASS in Nakhon Phanom (NKP) Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) needed five new FACs. Oh, we would really like it there; best FAC quarters available. They didn’t tell us about the big antiaircraft guns. Of course, we asked about our F-100 assignments. “What F-100 assignments?” They had too many F-100 pilots right now, and the Army did not need us either. So, we found ourselves arriving at 1405 in Binh Thuy one day earlier than the rest of the new FACs.
The FAC in country training started on July 10th with a whole day of classes and briefings. We were finally getting the current word on the situation in Vietnam. My first in country FAC flight was on July 11th in O-1G, 51-12881. We shot 16 landings at Binh Thuy and a field northwest along the river called Qui Xnoen (or something like that). The classes continued that afternoon and the following day with a second flight in O- 1E, 56-2516, on July 13th. On July 14th, Bastille Day, I flew my final indoctrination flight in O-1G 51-12001. I made landings at Long Xuyen, Chi Lang, Rach Gia, and finally back at Binh Thuy. This 2.3-hour flight covered most of the Vietnam Delta. That was the flattest land that I was to see for quite a while. I was now ready to move on to NKP.
The five of us were all finished by the 15th, but we had to wait for transportation back to Bien Hoa and on to NKP. Ralph Utterback was our music man; he was always ready with a song and his guitar. We had one of our many song fests that evening before a terrific thunderstorm hit Binh Thuy around 2030. We found out the Jamesways (our hooches) leaked like a sieve when it rained that hard. In fact, the rain continued until we caught the C-47 back to Bien Hoa. It was another fast trip at Bien Hoa. We picked up our orders to Nakhon Phanom and flew out on a C-130E to Don Muang Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. What’s more, we were not scheduled to fly to NKP until July 19th. Our temporary quarters were at the Chao Phraya hotel; this was the cleanest, driest place we had seen since leaving the states, and it was only a $1.50 per night. One could also eat cheaply there also. Now this was my first time in Thailand, and I will never forget my first impressions:
“My impression of Bangkok varies greatly. I was at first excited (my first time in Thailand); secondly, I was depressed for all the shabbiness that I found; and thirdly, I was impressed by the variety that many a great city can provide to the viewer.” Indeed, Bangkok was a city of great variety, culture, and history. Whenever I had a chance to visit there, I toured as much of the city and surrounding area as I could.
On July 19th, we were able to catch the C-130A “cattle car” from Bangkok with stops at Takhli and Udorn before arriving at NKP at 1520. We were pleased to meet Capt Horning who showed us around and got us squared away in air-conditioned hooches. We thought this was great after the Jamesways in Binh Thuy. My initial roommate was Capt. William C. “Bill” Beverung, Jr. Another “F-100” type who was about half way through his tour. I met several other Captains in the 23d TASS that I had known before: Don Brown, Lee Hoffer, Jack Morrow, Hatfield Bruebeck, and others that I can’t remember their names now. However, there are many names or faces that are still in the old gray matter. But that evening was the first of many at the O’ Club or the Nail-Hole (all 23d TASS FACs had a Nail callsign) where the drinks ran long into the night, songs were sung, and many stories were told about flights over the Ho Chi Trail (the trail) and other places.
My first flight (22 July 67) out of NKP was a local area checkout with Capt Sale, a seasoned FAC who was close to rotating back to the States. The regular missions at that time were two-ship formations with a low lead aircraft and a higher cover aircraft. My first mission over the trail was in the backseat of the lead bird dog O-1F 57-2799 (all of our bird dogs at NKP were F models). I liked the F Model because it had very stable stall characteristics; this proved handy to more than one of the Nail FACs. Anyway, the first mission was just a visual reconnaissance (VR), but we did find evidence of activity to repair bomb damage to the trail. Of course, the trail would be bombed, and it would be manually repaired by teams of “volunteers”. There were several “Choke Points” in our primary area of the trail (Steel Tiger), which generally ran from the Mu Gia Pass in Laos to Khe Sanh in South Vietnam. There were other areas in North Vietnam and Laos that were covered on a less frequent basis. We were to later expand our area of responsibility (AOR) during my tour.
Editor Note – some photos not included because they are too small for clear reproduction – view FAC History CD.
Since Nakhon Phanom was less than 10 miles from the Thailand border and the Mekong River, the river quickly came into view after takeoff. However, neither the Mekong nor the village of Nakhon Phanom were visible on the days when the monsoon rains socked us in. The next scene in crossing the Mekong was of a Buddhist temple in Laos. This temple did provide an excellent landmark for finding one’s way back to NKP after a mission. I can remember flying several weather reconnaissance sorties to see if we could work our AOR or not. We were generally too low during the weather flights to pick up the NKP TACAN, but it was an easy task to fly along the river and find the temple. One would then fly west to NKP – talk about special VFR conditions!
The FACs that flew that Operation Cricket mission carried Laotian Observers and had to have some knowledge of the French language. The 23d TASS Squadron Commander, Lt Col, then Colonel just before he left, David S. Pallister was one of those FACs. He is shown here with three of our Laotian Observers whose names I do not remember. I took many more pictures over the trail in color and in black and white. The latter format provided me a quicker view of what occurred during my tour because one of the Nail FACs, Captain Jim Pawson, had an enlarger in his hooch. I spent a lot of time with him learning how to develop film and print pictures. This was something that I always wanted to try. I later moved in with him when his roommate went back to the states. The setup was simple and easy to use day or night since all the rooms had covered windows. We needed to be able to sleep during the day when we were on the night rotation. We usually flew nights for an extended period so we could get used to the different rhythm of days and nights. I might add that during my tour less than ten navigators were ever in the squadron at any one time. This meant that the O-2A night missions very often used two pilots. One flying and the other using a starlight scope (generation I then the smaller II).
Now would be a good time to discuss our special TDYs and other missions. The Nails were flying both day and night missions in the O-1Fs when I arrived at NKP. We had gray birds for day missions and black birds for the night operations. Yes a cricket was stenciled on both color aircraft: black on the day birds and red on the night birds. We flew both preplanned and necessity missions in North Vietnam; only the preplanned were logged as counters. I think that I wound up with 47 counters but had well over 60 actual missions in the north. Since the NAILS had a lot of night experience, most of us got to spend some time with our black birds at Khe Sanh with the Covey FACs from the 20th TASS. My turn came on August 21, 1967. Our quarters at Khe Sanh were very basic. We had about six feet of earth over the timbers, and we slept with our weapons. Khe Sanh itself did not look much better from the air, but there were a lot of very brave marines stationed there.
We flew cover for them most evenings when they were out on patrol. Although my time was short at Khe Sanh, it remains very vivid in my memory. I first flew a daytime mission with Covey FAC Jim Gault who had been stationed with me at Dover AFB. The eastern part of the Khe Sanh PSP runway ended just before a quiet appearing valley.
Close to this green peaceful location (but not after TET) was the village of Khe Sanh. Jim had a mission to put in a flight of F-4Cs, and I had my trusty camera along on the flight. This allowed me to capture a strike mission in action while not having to fly the aircraft too.
After the mission, it was time to land back at Khe Sanh and prepare for what lay ahead. However, my notes indicate that there was some confusion about our exact status at Khe Sanh. I did note though that two weeks after my return to NKP, our TDY program to Khe Sanh ended.