Forward to the Rustic Story
submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson
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Mark was the voice of the American Embassy on Bokkor Control where he was the Final approving authority for Rustic Air Strikes. His voice was recognized by all FACs...and his credibility was without question. His call sign was “Papa Wolf.”
It’s nearly twenty-five years now since I returned from my assignment at the American Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I’m filled with so many memories, some sweet, some bitter, but all of them so intense I can recreate any given moment in my mind.
The most vivid memories spring from the events in the spring and summer of 1973, toward the end of American airpower involvement. During that time, the Rustic Forward Air Controllers (FACs) not only played a major role in the Cambodians’ fight against the communist Khmer Rouge guerilla forces, they became close combat partners and friends with the ground commanders and radio operators to include some illegal visits to Cambodia.
But what the hell...What were they gonna do? Send them to Vietnam?
In that year we had the Vietnam War in miniature going on in Cambodia. It was the same old formula: American government promises, fighting escalates, American government pulls out. Initially the American commitment was quite marginal in a country delighted to have us help in their fight against the communist aggressor. Their attitude of gratitude welcomed us as if we were the cavalry riding to the rescue in a scene from an old John Wayne movie. That attitude, of the fighting Khmers—the ones truly dedicated to protecting their country, not the ones who had trafficked with the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese Army and the Hanoi regime—made us feel we maybe, just maybe, could, unlike South Vietnam, accomplish something positive. This was in late 1971 and early 1972. We Americans in the embassy, some of us anyhow, felt excited in that we could apply the bitter lessons learned in South Vietnam to the current situation. We honestly felt we could make a difference. Almost all of us had at least one combat tour in Vietnam and were careful to remember how it was.
Then, in January of 1973, American fighting and active combat in Vietnam came to a halt. However, the Nixon/Kissinger leadership duo allowed full American air support to continue in Cambodia until 15 August 1973. This meant that B-52 and FB-111 bombers were available around the clock, AC-130 Spectre gunships along with Vietnamese gunships were available during the night, and over 200 strike flights were on tap during the day.
Of course, no strikes in support of the Cambodian ground troops could be put in without a FAC, the valiant Forward Air Controllers who flew their planes low and slow over enemy positions talking to the radio operators of the ground commanders on their FM (Fox Mike) radio. French-speaking Air Force NCOs often flew in the backseat to avoid language problems with the French-speaking Khmers.
Once the targets were confirmed, the FAC would call in a flight of USAF fighters to hammer the communists with a lethal variety of ordnance.
The Rustics were the FACs who logged the most missions and flew the most hours in support of the Cambodian fighting men during those last few months of our war in Southeast Asia.
Hourly, beleaguered radio operators would come up on a Fox Mike radio frequency beseeching air support from the Rustics against the Khmer Rouge. We in the embassy could do nothing...nothing legal, that is. Under the Cooper- Church Amendment we had many restrictions. The primary one was that no American combat troops were allowed on the ground in Cambodia. In fact, the total American presence was limited to a mere 200 people. And that went from the Ambassador right down to a clerk typist in the Military Equipment Delivery Team, Cambodia (MEDTC).
MEDTC was there because MAAG (Military Assistance and Advisory Group) had become as politically an incorrect word and concept as napalm. A MAAG group was set up in various countries to aid that country’s military to become an effective fighting force. Not so in Cambodia. “Advising” was verboten. Therefore, our MEDTC members (Army, Navy and Air Force), could only assess what the Cambodian fighting forces needed, could only order the equipment and arrange transportation into Cambodia. They could not legally show them how to put a cartridge into a rifle much less advise them which way to point the gun. Further, the dollar amount of aid to Cambodia was miniscule compared to Vietnam. The Cambodian troops soldiered on. Most of them, anyhow.
Due to the usual American government ineptitude, trying to get someone else to do something without controlling the infrastructure even when paying the bills, there was much corruption and ineptitude among many of the Cambodian political and military leaders. But the field troops, the ones out on the front line, were doing their job and the Rustics knew this and appreciated their devotion and courage. The Rustics gave the Cambodians just as much courage and skill in return as they had given the American ground troops in Vietnam.
Then, one day, 15 August 1973, a sultry Wednesday, it was all over. One FAC in an OV-10 trailing smoke did a loop over Phnom Penh.
A final salute to a valiant nation.
No more American warplanes roared through Cambodian skies. All the flight lines in Thailand were silent. Radio calls from besieged ground troops went unanswered.
It was over.
Today, if an unknowing individual were to quiz, in the wrong manner, those Americans who flew combat in Cambodia, they would soon see a black frost in the flyer’s eyes. If the questioner were smart, he would press no further. He may just be on the receiving end of a barrage of anger over the waste caused by cowardly American politicians. Politicians who boldly entered our troops into a war then hamstrung them so much they could not possibly win and hence were forced to abandon allies and friends made in the crucible of war.
Nonetheless, in the Cambodian war the finest of American fighting airmen surfaced and fought the enemy to a standstill.
Today, the American people have finally separated the war from the warrior and have come to understand the war was lost here in the United States, not on the combat fields of Southeast Asia...as Ho Chi Minh said it would be.
Mark Berent