Lunch Box
submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson
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My Rustic career actually started when I was stationed in Brussels, Belgium in 1970. I had just finished a four-year tour with the American embassy in Brussels and was waiting for my assignment to come in for my return to the States. My assignment came in about four weeks before my DEROS. It came in on a TWX (teletype message) and said to report directly to Bien Hoa AB, RVN. I left my wife in France with her family and took a short delay in route in Florida to see my family.
When I reported into personnel at Bien Hoa they seemed a little surprised to see me. They said that they did not have a job for me because they did not know that I was coming. They assigned me to the 19th TASS orderly room to work for the First Sergeant. The “shirt” put me at a small desk in the back of the orderly room and said I could help him catch up on his backlog of paperwork. After about three weeks had passed, two enlisted men in flying suits came into the orderly room and said that they wanted the First Sergeant to sign a three-day pass for them to go to Saigon. The “shirt” was not in so they decided to wait. They started speaking French to each other so I chimed right in on the conversation. A short time later the “shirt” came in and signed their passes.
They stopped by my desk on the way out of the orderly room and asked if I would be interested in a flying job. My quick response was, I sure would. They said that they would get back with me in a few days. About four days later they came back and had a Cambodian officer with them. They all talked to me in French for a short time and said that they would like for me to report the next day to their office. I told them I would be glad to, but that they should talk to the “first shirt” first as I worked for him. They spoke for a couple of minutes to the “shirt” and left. At the end of the day the “shirt” told me to report to their office at 0800 the next day.
The next morning I was welcomed into the office of MSgt.Ron Dandeneau (Rustic Foxtrot). He gave me a long briefing on what the outfit was generally doing. I filled out some papers and away we went to the Rustic operations building. We walked into the building and went into the first room on the right. As I crossed the threshold of the door I saw that the entire wall area was one big map and stamped on top and bottom of the maps was a security classification that I did not have. I froze in my tracks and said to Sgt. Dandeneau that I couldn’t go in because I wasn’t cleared that high. His response was, “You are now.”
We sat down at one of the long tables and Sgt. Dandeneau picked up where he left off, briefing me on the entire operation. He explained that French interpreters were needed in the back seat of the OV-10 because most of the pilots did not speak French and that on a lot of missions the ground commanders spoke only Cambodian and French. We were about half way through the briefing when a pilot came in and sat down to get his briefing for his mission. A colonel in the back of the room asked him where his backseater was. The pilot answered that his backseater was DNIF (Duty Not Involving Flying) with a bad cold. The colonel asked Sgt. Dandeneau if I was available. Sgt. Dandeneau said, “Yes” and off we went to PE (Personal Equipment) where I was fitted out with all my flying gear.
We then rushed back to Operations. The pilot was waiting for us at the door, so we walked out to the aircraft. The pilot made his preflight and we both climbed into the airplane. The Crew Chief strapped me into my seat and told me where to plug in my helmet to the radio. The pilot gave me my necessary briefing about the ejection seat D-ring, toggle switch for the radio, and how to properly close and lock the canopy.
The engines started and away I went on my first mission. I found out later that my pilot was considered the hot rod of the outfit. Believe me he proved it to me on this flight. He flew inverted over a convoy and told me to count the vehicles. I couldn’t even see the vehicles never mind counting them through the canopy.
This perturbed the pilot and he used language that would turn a sailor’s face red. Well, I made it through the flight. I guess I passed the test because I kept my job. Each flight after that I learned a little more until after about a month I was considered an old hand. For the next year I flew with what I consider the best pilots that the Air Force ever produced. They not only met all expectations, but surpassed those expectations by a wide margin. I have never respected a group of men more in my life than I do those Rustic pilots. It was a pleasure serving with them.
Vanishing Island
Lt. Jim Seibold (Rustic 13) and I arrived in the Kompong Thom area and checked in with the ground commander (Hotel 302). He had a river convoy waiting at his position to go west on the Stung Sen River over to the Tonle Sap. He needed a VR of the riverbanks out to the Tonle Sap to be sure that there were no VC waiting to ambush the convoy. I thought to myself, another babysitting mission.
We started from Hotel 302’s position and checked both sides of the river for likely ambush points. A short distance out of 302’s position we passed a large lake on our right. For some unknown reason, I made a quick visual of the lake and saw a small wooded island in the middle of the lake. It looked unusual to me so I pointed it out to Jim. He said that we would check it out on the way back from the Tonle Sap. We finished the VR of the river and headed back. When we passed the lake on our way back, I noticed right away that the island was missing.
Hotel 302 said that the convoy would not move until we had cleared the area. After about five minutes of VRing we found a fully camouflaged 50 foot sampan hidden under a bunch of trees. As we flew over the sampan we saw people jumping off of the vessel into the water. After two rocket passes the closest rockets were about 30 meters away. I jokingly asked to make the next pass and was very surprised when Jim turned the plane over to me.
My first pass was right on and as soon as he pickled off my two rockets, he pickled off two of his own. All four rockets hit their marks. The explosion was so large that we flew through the cloud it made in front of us. I never realized that a pilot could dance while strapped in his seat, but he did.
A few minutes later the convoy started down the river. It was another small Rustic victory.
The Stupid Four
The day started out as a usual day of checking in with the local Ground Commanders. It was cloudy and a little windy on the ground. Major Don Brooks (Rustic 02) and I had received and checked out several target areas that the ground commanders had given us. A few were good enough to look at again later and were so noted. We were VRing southeast of Kompong Thom and flying over a large field of waist-high grass. All around the field were wooded areas. I spotted four individuals dressed in black with rifles resting on their shoulders walking through the middle of the field. I told Don what I saw and as I turned back to look at them they had their weapons up and were firing at us. In that same instant I heard our guns charge and the engines revved up as we gained a little more altitude.
We banked and made our strafe run. The individuals lay on the ground close together instead of spreading out. Our first strafe pass did them in. I learned that day that it’s one thing to kill people you don’t see and totally different to kill people you do see.
Mission of the Year
I had a pet area that I worked on that was located SW of Kompong Cham. The area was a small river that paralleled the Mekong River a little to the south. Whenever I had an opportunity I would ask the pilot to go by that area for some VRing. Captain Arnie Sims, my pilot, had just performed one of his favorite VRs, which consisted of flying about three feet over the Mekong and checking over the top of the riverbank to find Charlie under the trees. As luck would have it, we found nothing. Arnie asked if I had any particular area to which I would like to go. I told him about my area and off we went.
Upon arriving in the area, I found what looked like a trans-shipment point for supplies. After a few minutes of VRing, I caught site of two individuals running between two wooded areas and they were both carrying weapons. We both decided that it was a good area for an air strike. Arnie ordered up two sets of air. We put in the first set of air but our fuel was too low to stay on station, so Arnie called in another Rustic to put in the other set. About three days later, Kompong Cham passed on our KBA for the two sets of air. The ground commander said that his agent had stopped counting at 800. We had caught Charlie in the area being resupplied. A few hours either way and Charlie would have been dispersed into the outlying area. Lucky day for us.
My mission of the year. Man and a Bicycle
This was one of those missions that started out to be a regular “go-out-and-look” type day. We had just come into the area of operations and the pilot decided to check out a Category A road northeast of Kompong Cham. The road ran south from the Mekong River for a few clicks and went through a rubber plantation. Being a Category A road meant that anything on that road could be shot at. I won’t say what our altitude was for obvious reasons, but we weren’t very high. We needed the element of surprise. Coming around a bend in the road, we found a fully loaded bicycle (about 300 pounds) sitting on its kickstand and standing beside the bike was an individual in black clothing. The bike probably had a flat tire. I heard the nose gunner say, “Aha,” as we pulled up for some needed altitude and he charged the guns.
We made a quick bank and rolled in on the target. I looked ahead and saw the individual still standing beside his bike; he had pulled out a white handkerchief and was waving it back and forth over his head. I started laughing and the pilot did too at about the same time. The pilot didn’t fire the guns, much to my approval and surprise.
We made another pass and flew over the individual who was still waving his white flag. As we flew away the pilot wagged our wings and said to me,
“How can you shoot someone who has given up.”To me that is what the Rustic pilots were all about. You don’t have to win to feel good.
Christmas Tree Mountain
I had finally arrived at my champagne flight (my last flight before going home) and thought, “All I have to do is make it through one more and I’m home free.”
I don’t remember much about the first part of the flight except that I was pretty busy saying goodbye to all my friends on the ground. About halfway through the mission, we received a call to go to “Pich Nil Pass” in southwestern Cambodia to clear out Charlie who was on the mountain and was holding up all movement through the pass. On our approach Lt. “Jess” Jessup (Rustic 13) and I found that the Khmers were on one side of the pass and the bad guys were on the other side of the pass. Jess made a pass around the mountain to get an idea of what we were working with. The whole side of the mountain lit up like a sparkling Christmas tree.
Much to my dismay, it was ground fire!
We checked in with the ground commanders and they told us that there was a small cement building on top of the mountain. They said that it was a communications bunker and that they needed it destroyed. They said that if we could destroy the bunker that they would have a good chance of taking back the mountain. We ordered up two or three sets of air. We put in the first set through more ground fire than I had seen for the past year. Another Rustic came on station and took over the rest of the air strikes and we returned to base.
On the way into the debriefing room, the pilot said he was sorry my last flight turned out to be so hairy, but that he was thankful to have an experienced backseater with him on this mission.
He didn’t realize how thankful I was to be walking into that debriefing room.