SOG and FACs

submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson


Bob Green, a 19th TASS the crew chief, related how you would come back from missions, with bullet and shrapnel holes in your aircraft. I saw some of those aircraft too, and I have been in the back seat of an OV-10 with the Nails, and the right seat of the O-2 with the Coveys. I watched you go about your job seeming to keep cool, calm and collected, probably to keep me from stitching too many buttonholes in the seat of my drawers. You are a special breed of pilots, knowing full well that most of you were other than FACs, before and after.
In my several Army assignments in SEA I was assigned to the USSF SOG from 68-70, and had many different assignments from (Hue) Phu Bai to Saigon, to NKP. My most memorable ones were the ones where I worked with you.
Yes, indeed the FACs were very important to us in the SOG mission. That is why we hold them in such high esteem. Not once did I EVER hear a FAC hesitate to go fly for our guys. A very special friendship developed between the FACs and the recon team members. It was a constant effort to make sure they didn’t get so close in friendship with the team members that they would take unnecessary risks, which could endanger their lives and the mission. As young as many of them were, they developed maturity well beyond their years.
The FAC Association is a super idea. It brings ALL of us back together to share the good times, and remember those who gave it their ALL for us. I am in contact with the three Covey FACs who flew for us at Phu Bai, and slowly but surely, I am getting in touch with my Nails. At the Special Operations Association Reunion in September, several of my “reconners” from Phu Bai shared a table, and a large part of the conversations centered on our FACs. I have to find a way to get the FACs to come to these reunions, and get with the guys who depended on them for their very lives.”
Being a FAC was somewhat like being an Infantryman, e.g. I never heard anyone from either job say they were ashamed of being an Infantryman or of being a FAC.
Thanks for being there when the grunts needed you!