p1

USAF Southeast Asia Monograph Series

Volume V Monograph* '

AIRPOWE

AND THE EVOn 

AIRLIFT EVACUATION

OF KHAM DUC

DTI'C

( )MAR 2 01IR81

Alel

/ ION

f ' ' Approved for public release;

Distribution Unlimited __ .

81 1 14 O1'tV
USAF Southeast Asia Mr/onograph Series,

,dVolume V ' /Nonograp

AIRPOWER

AND THE

4IRLIFT IVACUATION,

OF KHAM DUC'

by /C

Lieutenant Colonel Alan L. man

44-

Published under the auspices of the Airpower Research Institute,

Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, 1979
$:J~~ ~%

A iiA

"...TO ALL WHO SERVED"

f

- i -
Foreword

THIS slender volume has value for both the general reader and the

aviation specialist. For the latter there are lessons regarding command and

control and combined-unit operations that need to be learned to achieve

battlefield success. For the former there is a straightforward narrative about

American aviators of all four services struggling in the most difficult of

conditions to try to rescue more than 1,500 American and Vietnamese

military and civilians. Not all the Americans moving through the events

recounted in this monograph acted heroically, but most did, and it was their

heroism that gave the evacuation the success it had.

Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Ducis fully documented so

that readers wishing to look deeper into this incident may do so. Those who

study the battle will see that it was something of a microcosm of the entire

Vietnam War in the relationship of airpower to tactical ground efforts.

Kham Duc sat at the bottom of a small green mountain bowl, and during

most of 12 May 1968 the sky was full of helicopters, forward air controller

aircraft, transports, and fighters, all striving to succeed and to avoid running

into each other in what were most trying circumstances. In the end they

carried the day, though by the narrowest of margins and with heavy losses.

Accession For

RAYM D B. FURLONG NTIS GRA&I

Lieutenant General, USAF DTIC TAB

Commander, Air University Unannounced

By,

Distribution/ -.-

Availability Codes

Avail and/or

Dist Special

iii
Acknowledgments

I was especially blessed on this project with thorcughly warm interest

from numerous people. All historians depend utterly on archivists, and those

from the Alfred F. Simpson Historical Research Center were especially

c')operative. Three of the many stand out-Judy Endicott, Wayne

Robinson, and Kathy Nichols were as eager to tell of the evacuation from

Kham Due as I was. The narrative before the reader would have been

incomiplete without help from numerous officers and enlisted men who gave

their time for interviews or writing letters. Their names can be found in the

bibliography. Likewise, the monograph would have been empty without the

fine photographs supplied by the Air Force Audiovisual Service, and the

many others supplied by participants in the evacuation. I was also helped by

several skillful and interested editors who sanded the rough spots off the

manuscript. Robert Bogard, John Schiight, and Glenn Morton spent many

hours making intelligible syntax of my drafts. I am especially grateful for the

encouragement I received from Donaldson Frizzell, who helped me conceive

of this school project as a publishable monograph. I was also greatly aided

by my wife, Jackie, who supported me throughout by reading and criticizing

preliminary drafts, and by my daughter, Beth, who did likewise. They took a

special interest in Kham Due because they knew some of the principals and,

with my elder son, Mike, waited for me in 1968 and 1969 while I flew in

Vietnam.

ALAN L. GROPMAN

Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

1
Biographical Sketch

Lieutenant Colonel Alan L. Gropman (PhD, Tufts University) has been a

long-time student of military history. H is interest in the evacuation of Kham

Duc was born of his many years as a C-130 navigator, the loss of several

friends during the evacuation, and his long friendship with one of the last

men rescued. He is a graduate of Squadron Officer School, Air Command

and Staff College (nonresident seminar), the Industrial College of the Armed

Forces (correspondence), and the Air War College, class of 1978. He has

served as a branch chief in the Directorate of Operations, Headquarters

United States Air Forces in Europe, and a Section Chief in the Directorate of

Plans at Headquarters Air Force.

I:

VL
Abstract

TITLE: Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc

.,AUTHOR: Alan L. Gropman, Lt Colonel, USAF

This narrative describes the evacuation of more than 1,400 American

soldiers, Marines, and airmen, and Vietnamese men, women, and children

from the Kham Duc Special Forces camp in southern I Corps on 12 May

1968. It treats the gee-graphical and topographical setting, the threat to the

camp posed by two regiments of the North Vietnamese Army, and the

danger to the camp and its inhabitants from the communist seizure of all the

high ground around the camp. The monograph devotes individual chapters

to the US Army and Marine helicopter rescue efforts, tactical air support,

and tactical airlift. The final chapter deals with the attempts to rescue the last

three men at Kham Duc. American aircraft losses were severe during the

evacuation, and the successful outcome of the mass rescue depended upon

the skill and courage of American aircrews. Had command and control been

better, losses probably would have been less severe.

vi

b , 4
Table of Contents

Chapter Page

Foreword........................................1iii

Acknowledgments ................................. iv

Biographical Sketch................................ v

Abstract ......................................... vi

I THE SETTING ................................. I

Introduction .................................... I

Geography and Topography........................ I

Reinforcement of Khamn Duc....................... 3

The Fall of Ngoc Tavak .......................... 4

The Decision to Evacuate Khamn Duc ................. 9

The Capture of the Operating Posts .................. 10

Early Daylight Attacks ........................... 1I1

Disaster at the Airstrip ........................... 12

I1 MARINE AND ARMY HELICOPTER SUPPORT ....... 17

Introduction ....................... 17

Early Army Helicopter Missions.................... 18

Helicopter Coordination Emerges Over

Kham Duc................................... 19

III TACTICAL AIR SUPPORT ........................ 25

Introduction.................................... 25

ABCCC Coordination ............................ 25

The Tactical Situation............................ 26

The FAC Mission ................. 31

FAC Smotherman's Ordeal ........................ 35

The Fighter Mission ............................. 36

IV TACTICAL AIRLIFT AT KHAM DUC ............... 45

Introduction.................................... 45

The Decision to Evacuate with C-I 30s ................ 45

The First C-130 into Khamn Duc on 12 May ........... 47.

The Second C-130 into Khamn Duc ................... 50

"For God's Sake Stay Out of Kham Due.

It Belongs to Charlie". ......................... 5
The Fourth C-130 into Kham Duc .................... 52

The End of the Airlift Evacuation ..................... 53

The CCT Reinserted ................................ 54

V THE LAST THREE MEN AT KHAM DUC ............ 57

Introduction ........................................ 57

The Return to Kham Duc ............................ 58

The CCT on the Ground Alone ....................... 59

The Last C-123 Mission into Kham Duc ............... 60

APPENDIX A: Glossary of Terms and

Abbreviations ......................... 69

APPENDIX B: Map of South Vietnam ................. 72

APPENDIX C: Map of the Kham Duc Area ............ 73

N OTES .............................................. 75

BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................... 85

v

viii
CHAPTER I

The Setting

INTRODUCTION

The US Army Special Forces camp at Kham Duc was attacked by the

army of North Vietnam and evacuated by combined American arms in the

spring of 1968. That year is now seen as a climacteric in the Vietnam war.

Near the end of January 1968, during the Tet holiday truce, the Viet Cong

and North Vietnamese army, in violation of that truce, attacked Saigon and

all 34 provincial capitals, as well as numerous cities, towns, villages, and

military installations throughout South Vietnam. Because they struck while

most of the South Vietnamese military were on leave, the communists

achieved initial sdrprise and temporary, major gains. The offensive, which

began in late January, was sustained for several weeks in most of the country

and for several months in those parts of South Vietnam nearest enemy

sanctuaries in Laos and Cambodia. During this period, the Marine base at

Khe Sanh, in northern I Corps (the most northern military district in South

Vietnam), came under heavy attack and was besieged from late January until

the first week in April. Even after the siege was broken on 6 April, Khe Sanh

suffered daily artillery attacks from the communists in the hills around it.

The siege, which was part of the most powerfully coordinated enemy

offensive of the war until that date and for six years to come, was broken by a

nearly unprecedented display of airpower. US Air Force, Navy, and Marine

fighters dropped 40,000 tons of bombs on communist positions, while

USAF B-52s bombed enemy concentrations with 60,000 tons o, ordnance.

The USAF para-dropped 12,000 tons of supplies into Khe Sanh to sustain it

during the siege while the camp was under constant enemy shelling and

probing attacks. Defenders on the ground fired 200,000 artillery and mortar

rounds at their attackers to keep them at bay. Most of these shells had been

air dropped to them.' Similarly, airpower permitted the successful

evacuation of Kham Duc when it was surrounded and assaulted barely a

month after the siege of Khe Sanh was lifted.

GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY

The camp at Kham Duc was named for a small village 800 meters from its

defense compound. It was situated south of Khe Sanh but also in I Corps, in
the northern section of Quang Tin province, about 75 miles west of Tam Ky

and the coast and only 10 miles from Laos (see Appendix B). The camp was

located about mid-way along a 6,000-foot asphalt runway, both of which

were dominated by steeply rising terrain in all directions. Making an

approach into the airstrip resembled flying into a green bowl with the field at

the bottom. The hills were densely forested with double and triple jungle

canopy. It was obvious to those on the ground at Kham Duc and to the

aircrews who flew into the airfield that the strip and camp were vulnerable to

an enemy in the surrounding high ground. 2 (see Appendix C)

Kham Duc sat beside national highway 14, which paralleled the Laotian

border and had served as an avenue for insurgents to move from Laos north

and east to the coastal plain around Da Nang. The camp contained a

strike force which had several missions: interdiction of enemy lines of

communication in the region, of which the main one was highway 14; control

of population and resources in that part of I Corps; reconnaissance of enemy

move- -nts; combat operations; and training of Civilian Irregular Defense

Group (CIDG) personnel. There were few civilians in the immediate area

because the only village was Kham Duc, and 85 percent of its 272 inhabitants

were civilian dependents of the camp's Vietnamese strike force. Since April

1968, US Army engineer units had been working at the camp to build a hard

surface base for a radio navigation facility, make runway repairs, and

construct general camp improvements. After the fall of Lang Vei (between

Kham Duc and Khe Sanh) in February during the height of the Tet

offensive, Kham Duc had been the only border surveillance camp remaining

in I Corps. 3 Perhaps because of its excellent location to monitor and

-AA

Kham Duc Airfield. This photograph was taken'from the southeast of the runway

looking north. The field sat at the bottom of a green bowl with steeply rising

terrain in all directions.

2
Kham Due Special Forces Camp. The photograph was taken looking west from a

point slightly outside the camp perimeter. Note the parking and offloading ramp

in the center of the photograph.

interdict enemy operations and the signs that the Americans were upgrading

the base, Kham Duc was singled out for a major attack. Its vulnerability to

fire from the surrounding hills was probably another factor.

REINFORCEMENT OF KHAM DUC

In early April 1968, intelligence analysts began to observe signs that Kham

Duc was threatened. On the 5th and 12th of that month the camp was

identified as being under a significant threat, and on the 19th and 26th large

enemy concentrations were reported in the region. The Viet Cong and North

Vietnamese were known to be building roads in the area, one of which

connected their road system in Laos with highway 14 south of Kham Duc.

On 3 May, large enemy forces were again reported in the camp's area, and

shortly thereafter a captured insurgent revealed that his unit was scheduled

to attack Kham Duc.4

Because of the threat to this uniquely situated camp, Military Assistance

Command, Vietnam (MACV), directed Kham Duc's reinforcement and

ordered a battalion task force of troops from the Americal Division into the

camp. On 10 May, more than 600 troops and some supporting artillery and

ammunition were brought into Kham Duc, and an additional 32 troops and

more supplies were flown in on 11 May. The men, equipment and

ammunition were carried in on C-130s flying under a tactical emergency

3
- I

Reinforcement of Kham Duc. C-130 mission to Kham Duc in April 1968 during

the period when Army engineers were building and repairing the camp and

facilities. Note ridge to the immediate north of the runway: enemy gunners

occupied it during 12 May. Also note Army engineering equipment on west side of

runway.

priority, the highest airlift category in Vietnam, and all had been diverted

from other missions, actions underscoring the awareness that Kham Duc

was under imminent threat. The Americal battalion about doubled the

fighting force at Kham Duc. Late in the day on 10 May there were reported

to be 1,760 people at Kham Duc; 272 of these were Vietnamese dependents,

and the remainder were American Army, Marine, and Air Force soldiers,

engineers, and advisors and Vietnamese CIDG troops. 5

The emergency seemed to be highlighted by the mortar fire which

bracketed the C-130 that brought into Kham Duc Lt Col Robert B. Nelson,

commander of the Second Battalion, 1st Infantry, 196th Infantry Brigade.

He set to work immediately with his men preparing a defense perimeter and

tying it into the defenses already built by the Special Forces, their indigenous

allies, and the Army engineers. 6 Colonel Nelson must have known that he

was in for a fight to preserve Kham Duc's excellent tactical location, because

when he departed Hue Phu Bai in northern I Corps for the camp to the

south, he refused to take with him on the mission any men with less than 60

days remaining on their tour in Vietnam. 7

THE FALL OF NGOC TAVAK

As Colonel Nelson and his men were arriving at Kham Due with

reinforcements, the camp's main forward operating base, Ngoc Tavak, was

4
Americal Division artillery fires into the hills surrounding Kham Duc. Photo

taken in 1970 after Kham Duc was reoccupied.

105 mm howitzer peinted at the hills surrounding Kham Duc. Photo taken in 1970

after Kham Duc was reoccupied.
being overrun by two North Vietnamese regiments. This post was three miles

southwest of Kham Duc and was located at the site of an old French fort. It

also had an airstrip, although much shorter than Kham Duc's, and the camp

and strip were also dominated by the high terrain around them. Ngoc Tavak

had been under mounting artillery pressure and ground probes since 6 May

and was running low on ammunition. The base's function was to expand the

border surveillance and patrolling efforts from the main camp at Kham Duc,

especially along highway 14 (which was in view of Ngoc Tavak). The base

had been established because patrols from Kham Duc had most frequently

sighted enemy troops in this area. 8

At Ngoc Tavak there were 33 US Marines, 8 US Army Special Forces

troops, 3 Australian advisors, and 173 CIDG soldiers. On 9 May, after

four days of constant artillery bombardment and fighting off enemy troops

on the defensive wire of the camp's compound, the CIDG forces elected,

against the advice of the Americans, to try to move back to Kham Duc along

highway 14. They were ambushed by a dug-in enemy between Ngoc Tavak

and Kham Duc, and those who survived the attack returned to Ngoc Tavak.

Early on the morning of 10 May, the communists attacked with a heavy

mortar and artillery barrage, following up with a heavy ground attack.

During the ground battle some unidentified Vietnamese troops approached

the Marine section of the compound shouting: "Don't shoot, don't shoot,

friendly, friendly," but as they got within close range, these men unleashed a

grenade, satchel charge, and small arms attack on the Marines, inflicting

heavy casualties. The defenders noted that some of the incoming small arms

fire was from carbines-which was the type of weapon used by their CIDG

forces. Since all of the dead North Vietnamese army troops were carrying

new AK-47 rifles, the Americans made the presumption that some of the

camp's indigenous defenders had turned on them. 9 True or not, since more

than 80 percent of the base's fighting force was irregular Vietnamese, this

presumption upset the Americans.

Another cause for concern among the Americans was their small amount

of artillery and inadequate stock of ammunition. The base had only two 105

mm howitzers and four mortars of assorted sizes for artillery. On 10 May the

American contingent fired the last 100 rounds of artillery in their defense and

then disabled their weapons. Their survival during the last two days at the

camp depended upon their rifles and the air support they received from an

AC-47 gunship and tactical fighter sorties controlled by a forward air

controller (FAC). AC-47 (Spooky) gunships had been overhead Ngoc

Tavak for several days, and the aircrews had used their machine guns to

break up attacks and enemy concentrations. On 10 May, they killed

numerous enemy soldiers who had captured sections of the base. Sometimes

the gunships were directed to fire on parts of the base that had been overrun,

even when the defenders believed that friendly wounded were still in that

part of the compound.10 The situation had become that desperate.

6
USAF AC-47, "Spooky," gunship similar to those that supported Ngoc Tavak in

its final four days.

Tw

AC-47 gunships, three 7.62 min miniguns. These guns fired at the rate ofl 100 rounds 

per second. 7 4
Late in the day a small contingent of reinforcements arrived in four

Marine CH-46 helicopters, but the last two aircraft received ground fire, and

both were lost on the landing strip at Ngoc Tavak. Not only did this

demonstrate the Communist domination of the strip, the downed aircraft

almost completely blocked it for further use. Soon after, all but out of

ammunition, and with two helicopters on fire on the landing strip, the men

were ordered to destroy the rest of their equipment and withdraw to Kham

Duc. A small medical evacuation helicopter was sent in from Kham Duc to

remove the seriously wounded, but indigenous forces rushed onto it,

preventing the removal of those who most needed it. As the overloaded

helicopter took off, several CIDG troops held onto the skids, only to fall off

or be shot off high over the jungle. II

After destroying the rest of their equipment with a claymore mine, the

men, assisted by fighter strikes, left the camp for Kham Duc. Because of the

ambush of the CIDO forces the previous day, the American and Vietnamese

troops left the base in a southeasterly direction, crossed the Dak So River,

avoided all open areas, climbed a hill a mile from their abandoned fort, and

hacked out of the jungle a landing zone for helicopters. They were picked up

by four CH-46 helicopters that made several shuttles each, and all the

survivors were back at the main camp by 1900 on 10 May.'2 Losses had been

heavy: 15 Americans killed (one US Army and 14 Marines); 52 defenders

wounded (two Army, 21 Marines, 29 CIDG); and 64 troops missing in action

Marine CH-46 helicopter similar to those used to rescue the forces at NgocTavak.

Two CH-46s were lost on 10 May.

8
Army UH-I helicopter similar to the one sent to rescue the wounded at Ngoc

Tavak on 10 May.

(of which two were US Army and the remainder CIDG). Those who were

seriously wounded were flown out of Kham Due on 11 May by USAF C-7A

aircraft.' 3 Those not fortunate enough to be evacuated on 11 May faced a

very heavy attack at Kham Due on 12 May and experienced their second

evacuation in two days, as the communist force that had attacked them

moved the three miles north from Ngoc Tavak to the main camp at Kham

Due, forcing its abandonment.' 4

THE DECISION TO EVACUATE KHAM DUC

The main camp had been subject to intensifying artillery, mortar and

recoilless rifle attacks throughout 10 and 11 May, but because there had been

no extensive ground probes on those days, the defenders had an opportunity

to tighten their defense perimeter. Despite Kham Due's reinforcement, the

defenses of the camp were thin, and the enemy had already secured positions

in the high ground from which to pound the camp accurately. On 11 May, 30

B-52s dropped several hundred tons of bombs on suspected enemy positions

between Ngoc Tavak and Kham Due, but apparently this attack brought

little relief.' 5 Also on 11 May, Lt Gen Robert E. Cushman, Jr., Commander

of the III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF), recommended to Gen William

Westmoreland, Commander US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam

(COMUSMACV), that Kham Due be evacuated. Westmoreland ordered

the camp's evacuation because it did not have the "defensive potential of Khe

9
4.X4

, - . ;% ,p ---; --

USAF C-7A transport aircraft similar to those used to evacuate the wounded from

Khamn Duc on I I May.

Sanh.. "He left the actual timing of the withdrawal to Maj Gen Samuel

Koster, Commander of the Americal Division.16 Before 0100 on the next i

day-12 May-the leaders of the Army Special Forces A Team received a

message from higher headquarters that the camp would be evacuated later

that day. 17 For some unknown reason Some units in the camp, Americans as

well as Vietnamese, were left uninformed of that decision until many hours

later. As will be shown below, many Air Force personnel on the ground and

overhead Kham Duc did not know of the decision made on I I May to give

up the camp until many hours after the decision had been made.

THE CAPTURE OF THE OPERATING POSTS

During the remaining hours of darkness, the pressure on the camp steadily

rose. The US Army had placed machine guns in the mountains surrounding

the camp to serve as advanced defensive positions. The communists

prepared for their final assault on Kham Due by attacking and capturing :

these outposts one at a time. Several fell before first light, and all had fallen

soon after daybreak. There were seven such outposts surrounding the .

airstrip and camp. Outpost number 7 fell at 0423, and this was reported to I

Corps Direct Air Support Center (I DASC), which scrambled fighters to the

beleaguered camp.

Thirty minutes after the capture of outpost 7, outpost number I radioed

the main camp that it was surrounded. Its defenders elected to burrow deeply

into their bunker and called for the AC-47 Spooky gunship to fire directly

10
into their outpost to break up the attack. This was done, and the communist

attack was temporarily stopped. Soon thereafter, however, this post was also

overrun, and its defenders escaped back to Kham Due. Similarly, a half hour

after Spooky fired directly into outpost 1, the defenders of outpost number 3

called on the Americal Division battalion artillery to zero in on their outpost

and blast away their attackers.' 8 Soon all seven outposts were in enemy

hands. Observing the fall of each of these in succession deepened the sense of

foreboding of Kham Dues contingent because they could see on their charts,

as they crossed off each outpost, the increasing enemy domination of the

terrain around them. Not only could the communists, well covered byjungle

canopy, fire down into the camp from advantageous positions, they could

also fire down at support aircraft attempting to resupply the camp or to

extract people from it.

EARLY DAYLIGHT ATTACKS

As the sun came up, ground fog formed, obscuring the movements of the

communists in the high ground around the camp. The fog, which lasted

several hours, also slowed down the ground probes slightly. An hour before

the fog lifted, 24 additional B-52s dropped several hundred more tons of

bombs on suspected enemy concentrations to the south of Kham Due, but

none of these bombs fell within three kilometers of the camp.' 9 Given the

unabated ferocity of the ground attack after the fog dissipated, this bombing

raid seems to have had little positive effect. For at 0935, with the fog lifted,

2i

USAF B-52, similar to those that bombed suspected enemy positions on 12 May.

11I
the North Vietnamese regiments made a massive ground assault against the

southeastern side of the compound, having used fog and terrain to mask

their movement. A combination of artillery fired point blank at the enemy,

tactical-fighter airstrikes, and small-arms fire broke up the attack, but before

it ended, another attack had begun at the opposite end of the compound,

further demonstrating that the enemy had surrounded the camp. 20 Later in

the morning, the enemy could again be seen at the defensive wire which

circled the camp, and it became increasingly tricky to kill the enemy with air

attacks because of the proximity of the communists to friendly troops. 2

'

As the pressure on the camp built, the resolve of the indigenous forces

appeared to weaken, a fact which added to the apprehensions of the

Americans. The rumor that some of the CIDG forces at Ngoc Tavak had

apparently fired on and killed several Marines spread through the main

camp on 10 and 11 May. On the 12th, elements of the CIDG force at Kham

Duc refused to make a combat sweep of the rear of the camp when ordered to

do so, and the local Vietnamese commander refused to leave his bunker to

encourage his men. One Army Special Forces soldier reported that the

"control of the CIDG was sorry as hell," 22 and Special Forces A Team

commander, Capt Robert Henderson, noted that one company of CIDG

was never subjected to ground attack in their part of the compound and

received only one or two mortar shells during the constant barrage. 23

Henderson obviously doubted their loyalty. One Army lieutenant recorded

that the morale and discipline of the Vietnamese were poor and that some of

the local forces left their assigned defensive positions without permission. To

stop the indigenous forces from abandoning key posts and falling back on

the runway, leaving the perimeter undefended, this lieutenant had to

threaten to s'noot anyone leaving his position.24 Small wonder, then, that

when Col. Claude H. Turner, the senior controller of the airborne Battlefield

Command and Control Center (ABCCC), talked to Lieutenant Colonel

Nelson, the battalion commander, Turner detected anxiety and

"emotionalism" in Nelson's voice as he called for more assistance. 25

DISASTER AT THE AIRSTRIP

On the airfield things seemed to be going from bad to worse. Around 0730

the first helicopter, an Army CH-47, arrived to evacuate people, but as it

landed it took multiple hits, burst into flames and exploded, blocking the

runway. The Army engineers sent a bulldozer to push the burning hulk off

the runway, but the enemy disabled the bulldozer and killed the driver as he

reached the burning helicopter, adding to the obstacles preventing fixed

wing aircraft from using the strip. Nearly simultaneously, an Air Force A- 1 E

fighter plane was shot down outside the camp perimeter. 26

It took more than an hour to clear the runway, and soon after it was

cleared, a C-130, heavy with supplies, landed. Just before touchdown,

ground fire punctured one of its main landing gear tires and the main wing

fuel tanks. When the crew opened the ramp to discharge cargo, the plane was

12
USAF B-52s, similar to those employed at Kham Duc on 12 May, bombing

suspected enemy positions in South Viet Nam.

Army CH-47 helicopter (hovering), similar to the one lost early in the morning of

12 May at Kham Due.

13
rushed by Vietnamese women, children, and some CIDG troops, who ran

without any order or discipline into the partly emptied cargo compartment.

Some of the women and children were elbowed out of the way and trampled

by CIDG troops anxious to escape Kham Duc. The Vietnamese on the

airplane packed themselves against the remaining cargo and could not be

moved off the floor and out of the airplane so that the loadmaster could

empty it. The aircraft commander decided to try to evacuate the Vietnamese

from Kham Due but because the C-130 had a flat tire, and was heavy with

cargo and the additional load of passengers, he was unable to accelerate to

takeoff speed on a partly blocked runway pockmarked and littered with

debris. After the pilot turned around and taxied off the runway, the

passengers became suddenly movable as they realized that a parked C-130

was an inviting target for communist gunners in the hills.27

The evacuation had an inauspicious beginning: the enemy crippled the

first two aircraft to land, shot down a fighter, and demonstrated their

complete domination of the field. In some cases the enemy was using 50-

caliber machine guns that the defenders of the outposts had abandoned in

their haste to return to Kham Due. 28 The news of the aircraft losses soon

reached MACV, and the headquarters advised the troops in the camp that

there would be no more C-130 missions to Kham Duc because of the danger

caused by the intense ground fire. 29 Once that fact became general

knowledge, no one in the camp doubted that their survival depended upon

tactical air support.

The successful, sustained defense of the camp for the next several hours,

until fixed-wing evacuation could begin, was brought about by the repeated

attacks from the air, most of which were supplied by the USAF. The

!1

USAF C-130, similar to the one damaged at Kham Due early on 12 May.

14
USAF A-IE piston driven fighter airplane, similar to the aircraft shot down at

Kham Duc early in the morning of 12 May.

successful extraction of the vast majority of the camp defenders and

Vietnamese dependents was a costly venture. Seven US aircraft were lost in

about nine hours over Kham Duc: one CH-47, one A-IE, one USMC CH46, one Army 0 H-i C, one USAF 0-2; and two C- 130s. The Marines also lost

two CH-46s at Ngoc Tavak on 10 May.

On 12 May, in addition to the AC-47 gunship sorties and B-52 strikes,

there was a C-130 airdrop of ammunition and more than 120 USAF and 16

Marine fighter sorties, as well as many Army helicopter gunship sorties. 30

But for all of the air support, the margin of victory was narrow-in that the

people were extracted just before the camp fell-and the losses were stiff. In

addition to the seven airplanes, all heavy equipment was abandoned,

including all engineering equipment and the 105 mm howitzers, which were

destroyed in the final minutes. There were 25 Americans killed, 96 wounded,

and 64 missing, and the Vietnamese took several hundred casualties. 31 Of the

1,760 at Kham Duc on 10 May, about 1,500 were returned to safety; the bulk

of the missing were 183 civilian Vietnamese, 32 most of whom were killed in a

C-130 shot down in the late afternoon (see Chapter IV). Before the

evacuation was completed at 1645, all people on the ground were airlifted

out. Without the courage of the aircrews the losses would have been much

higher, and possibly no one would have survived the onslaught at Kham Duc

on 12 May 1968.

15
CHAPTER II

Marine and Army Helicopter Support

INTRODUCTION

As in the case of Khe Sanh, by no means was all of the air support supplied

by the Air Force. Although it is impossible to know the precise number of

Marine and Army helicopter sorties at Kham Duc on 12 May, there were at

least 41 Army CH-47 sorties and probably 30 Marine CH-46 sorties to

evacuate the military and Vietnamese dependents. The Marine and Army

helicopters, in fact, evacuated slightly more than half of the people on 12

May. There were, furthermore, at least 12 Army UH-1 sorties used for

evacuation and rescue, and six Army helicopter gunships on station at

various times during the day to suppress ground fire and to provide defensive

fire support as needed for rescue missions and for other purposes. Unlike the

jet fighters, which carried bombs and cannon, these helicopters carried

heavy-caliber machine guns, had excellent loiter capabilities, and could

concentrate on a hostile target for a much greater length of time than could

the high-speed fighters. They were also much more vulnerable to ground

fire.) As the ground fire intensified during the afternoon and there were

fewer and fewer defenders on the ground to put up a fight in their own behalf,

the number of helicopters diminished, and in the last minutes USAF tactical

fighters helped the AF airlifters finish the evacuation. 2

Because the Kham Duc force was unprepared for an emergency

evacuation, and because there was no experience integrating the numbers

and types of aircraft in such a small target area in such concentration, many

of the procedures established during the day were improvised by the aircrews

and aircrew leaders. Aircrew briefings were sketchy and incomplete in this

ad hoc evacuation, and frequently crews arriving on the scene found that the

briefings had not depicted the situation accurately or had left them with an

incomplete knowledge of their mission.3 Given, however, the speed with

which the situation deteriorated and the distance of the various headquarters

from the action (never less than 100 and some as much as 300 miles from

Kham Due), the weakness of the briefings should be weighed in the balance

with the overwhelming amount of airpower brought to bear on the problem.

17

PRECW.G PAGE BL"-NoT FIlMED

) __
The lack of coordination and inadequate command and control were caused

mainly by the "fog of war."

EARLY ARMY HELICOPTER MISSIONS

In any case, however well or poorly briefed, the pilot of the first CH-47

flying into Kham Duc was shot down, and his helicopter ended up blocking

the runway. The stricken aircraft had been a part of a two-ship mission sent

from Chu Lai Air Base (AB), home of the Americal Division. The crew of the

second ship, observing the destruction of the first, broke off the approach to

the field, orbited while trying to comprehend the situation; and left after 20

minutes to fly to a nearby helicopter landing zone (LZ) named LZ Ross.

Here the crew awaited further instructions. About two hours later, at 1015,

this aircraft, now a part of a four-ship flight, returned to the Kham Duc area.

On this, his second sortie into the area, the pilot, now number four in the

flight, was forced to break off his landing approach because of the intensity

of the ground fire. After returning to LZ Ross for fuel, the aircrew tried again

about two hours later. While enroute to the camp, the pilot was able to

contact other aircrews returning from Kham Duc and became familiar with

the best approaches into the camp and the location of the troops and

dependents to be extracted. On this, the third attempt, with the weather

deteriorating, the crew succeeded in landing and evacuated a helicopter-load

of surrounded Americans and South Vietnamese. 4

While this CH-47 was in orbit on the first approach into Kham Duc in the

early morning, Army helicopter gunships were in the air providing support

for the lightly armed UH-1, CH-47, and CH-46 evacuation helicopters. One

of the gunship pilots who saw the first CH-47 try to land was quoted later as

saying that the ground firejust "ate him up." As indicated in Chapter I, while

the first CH-47 was being destroyed, an Air Force A- I E piston-driven fighter

plane that had been dropping napalm and cluster bomb units (CBUs) on the

ridge line above the camp was shot down. The pilot of the fighter plane was

rescued by an Army pilot in a lightly armed UH-1 helicopter, while a pair of

Army helicopter gunships provided fire support. The two gunships, already

struck several times by ground fire, went into an orbit around the fighter

pilot-who had bailed out and was receiving a great deal of enemy fire as lie

hung helplessly in his parachute-while a lightly armed UH-1 "Slick"

helicopter pilot prepared to land and pick him up. The fire was so intense, in

fact, that the gunship pilots were surprised that the paraciuting pilot

survived the attack. The gunship pilots were told to stay on station by the

"Slick" pilot: "I'll go down and get him, I'll go down and get him; you follow

me." The gunship pilots effectively suppressed the communist ground fire

during the descent of the fighter pilot and the landing of their colleague in his

helicopter. One gunship pilot estimated that there were two companies of

North Vietnamese in the area of the downed A- I E pilot, and he reported that

they were "just like ants down there, they'd stand behind trees and shoot at

you, you just couldn't begin to kill them all." Immediately after the fighter

pilot landed, the UH-I pilot rushed up to him, cut the parachute shroud lines

18
with his knife, dragged the fighter pilot over to his helicopter, threw him

bodily into his craft, and took off to safety. On the way out of the Kham Due

area, the two gunships provided escort for the "Slick" and its human cargo.

The gunship pilot likened the Kham Due area to a World Var 11 movie, with

"burning airplanes all over hell." He and his comrades stayed on station for

45 minutes and took many hits. When they retired to the rear for refueling,

they were refused permission to return to Kham Due because of the battle

damage to their helicopters and the growing intensity of the ground fire. 5

Army UH-I helicopters, similar to those used to rescue small loads of people at

Kham Due on 12 May and to the "Slick" piloted by Mr. Fitzsimmons who rescued

the downed A-IE pilot.

Through their efforts they saved one A-IE pilot and provided the margin

of safety for one of their own colleagues. Shortly thereafter one of the UH-I

helicopters was shot down, but the pilot, unlike that of the A-1E, was ablt to

crash land (through auto-rotating) inside the camp perimeter'and near the

runway. His aircraft landed on its side and on fire, and, while he was trying to

cut off the switches, he was literally pulled out the front window and pushed

into a bunker by people on the ground. Minutes later mortar fire struck the

helicopter. 6

HELICOPTER COORDINATION EMERGES OVER KHAM LDUC

Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, other helicopter crews

evacuated people, while tactical fighter pilots bombed the enemy on the

flight corridors into Kham Due used by the Army and Marine helicopters. 7

Even at that, many helicopters were struck by ground fire. Beyond the

19
Army U H- I armed helicopter similar to those employed at Kham Due on 12 May.

~ae

Close-up of the UH-l machine guns.

20
!T

Army CH-47 helicopters similar to those employed at Kham Duc on 12 May.

21
Marine CH-46 helicopter, similar to those employed at Kham Duc on 12 May.

dangers of ground fire were dangerous airspace coordination problems.

Since the operation had not been preplanned, there was no overall helicopter

control to offer guidance and to direct the operation. An Air Force ABCCC

had been on station since about 0900, but it was busy directing fighter strikes

and tanker operations. The ABCCC, furthermore, had no experience with

helicopters, and did not have the right radios for contacting most of them.

Radio frequency coordination had long been a problem in combined

operations in Vietnam, because not all the aircraft had all the radios used by

all other aircraft. 8

To remedy the helicopter control problem, one of the UH-1 pilots

appointed himself director of helicopter operations at Kham Duc. The call

sign of his aircraft was Arab 03, and when he departed the area for fuel,

another helicopter pilot, in a CH-47 with the call sign Boxcar 23, took over.

These two aircraft alternated directing operations until the last helicopter

left in the afternoon. Arab 03 and Boxcar 23 told helicopter pilots which

path to take into the camp, which tactics to use to minimize danger, how to

obtain fighter support, and where to go to pick up evacuees. Boxcar 23 and

Arab 03 were also similarly able to assist some of the Air Force transports.

The tactic they most recommended was a high-speed dive into the camp,

approaching from across the hills on the northwest side of Kham Duc and

landing to the southeast. 9

For all of the efforts of Arab 03 and Boxcar 23, however, there was still

much confusion in the helicopter mission, because not all the aircraft

entering the area had been briefed on the services offered by these two Army

pilots. One Marine helicopter pilot complained that there was "no real

coordination agency" at Kham Duc. When he arrived he thought he was on

his own, and he was not able to contact anyone in the air, including the

ABCCC, because his radios did not match those in the C-130 ABCCC over

Kham Duc. He found the operation a"hit or miss situation of landing on the

field and hoping these people were at the right location."' 0 Other Marine

22
aircrews, by way of contrast, found Arab 03 and Boxcar 23 to be "natural

born" leaders, who provided "outstanding" services and control."

Although the alternating Army helicopters were able to assist many of the

helicopter crews, they were not able to produce effective coordination

between the high-speed tactical fighters and the helicopters, and neither was

the ABCCC. Many of the helicopter aircrews, who were generous in their

praise of Arab 03 and Boxcar 23, complained of the lack of information on

fighter sweeps and of the general lack of intelligence and direction. One

Marine element leader from Danang, who led four CH-46s into Kham Due

in the afternoon, did not know that he might be rescuing Vietnamese women

and children-likely to be hysterical-and was not fully cognizant of the

extreme danger to both the evacuees and himself until he arrived over the

field, although he had become partly aware of the problem on the way

inbound by talking to departing helicopter crews as they left Kham Due.

When he arrived he could see abundant Army CH-47s, seemingly

everywhere, and many tactical fighters. He and his element orbited for a time

while he tried many different radio frequencies in an attempt to contact

somebody in control, but his efforts were fruitless. He finally raised the A

Team leadership (who were using call sign Brassy Study). They told him that

things were worsening and that he should bring in his element when he

thought he had a good chance of succeeding. The leader took his group into

the camp out of a high spiral and maneuvered to the west side of the runway,

looking for the people Brassy Study said would be there. There were,

however, no people lined up as advised. Instead there was a group of people

some distance off in the middle of the landing strip, and, despite the mortar

shells, the helicopters moved up to the American and Vietnamese soldiers

and civilians and took out several groups. This four-ship element was able to

make several shuttles, each time taking out nine people per aircraft.' 2

The helicopter crews did not let the lack of an advance plan for such an

operation, nor the lack of coordination, nor the risk of colliding with other

helicopters or fast moving fighters, nor the risks of being struck by intense

ground fire get in their way. It was apparent to the aircrews that the people

on the ground were in serious trouble, so they bitched about all of the

confusion and complications but did the job professionally and rescued

more than 700 people.

23
CHAPTER III

Tactical Air Support

INTRODUCTION

The firepower supplied by more than 140 tactical fighter sorties was the

major factor that permitted the Army and Marine helicopters to save as

many people as they did. Fighter support was also the reason the C- 123s and

C- 130s were able to complete the extraction. Within minutes of the call for

help from Kham Duc early in the morning of 12 May, I DASC was

scrambling fighters to help the camp and gathering others for use during the

day. Fighters were supplied by three United States services: the Navy,

Marines, and Air Force; from two allies-the United States and Vietnam;

and also by American forces stationed in Thailand. The Marines offered

about 16 A-4D sorties, the Navy supplied at least two fighter sorties, the

Vietnamese air force contributed at least six F-5 sorties, and the USAF

supplied more than 120 sorties from units in Vietnam and Thailand. Units

from Pleiku AB (A-I Es), Da Nang AB (F-4s), Cam Ranh Bay AB F-4s), Phu

Cat AB (F-100s), and Takhli AB, Thailand (F-105s), helped hold back the

communist attack until the evacuation was complete. There was also KC135 tanker support from Thailand, and RF-101 and RF-4 reconnaissance

sorties were flown over Kham Duc during the day to give the leadership in

Saigon pictorial information to add to their knowledge of the tactical

situation. By the time the fog lifted, around 0900, there were abundant

fighters overhead to support the camp, although those on the ground could

not see all of the aircraft waiting in orbit for their turn to drop ordnance on

the enemy. In fact, there were more fighters in the air over Kham Duc than

could be employed simultaneously or even profitably in the narrow confines

of the Kham Duc bowl.'

ABCCC COORDINATION

The problem was not in gathering the air support, because this was nearly

always forthcoming in Vietnam, but rather in controlling these assets. This

was the responsibility of the ABCC and the FACs. Normally the ABCCC

controlled fighters and bombers outside South Vietnam, but the use of the

25

P=ECIIING PAGZ BLAW-NOT FILMD
ABCCC in South Vietnam was not unprecedented-it had been used at

at Khe Sanh.2 When the C-130 ABCCC was sent to Kham Due on 12 May,

however, it was not scheduled for that mission or that location; in fact it had

been diverted to the Kham Due area in mid-flight. The aircraft, with Col

Claudc Turner as senior controller and Capt Robert Gatewood as duty

controller, had taken off at 0430 on 12 May and was diverted after having

been airborne for two hours.3 The only map of the Kham Due area on board

the aircraft was the C-130 navigator's JN chart, one with a scale of

1:2,000,000, which was unsuitable for close-tolerance fighter operations.

Gatewood, who was more experienced at the mission than Turner (it was the

colonel's first such mission on the ABCCC, having recently arrived in

Vietnam), had to survey the area visually and draw freehand maps of the

bowl and ridge line. While Gatewood was visually surveying the region,

Turner was busy on the radios diverting aircraft from all over southeast Asia

to the pressing needs of Kham Duc. 4

Seventh Air Force, the designated single manager for air in Vietnam,

helped Turner divert missions and formally directed the ABCCC, call sign

Hillsboro. to take over on-scene command and control of the mission at

0900. From that moment on, until after the last people had been lifted off the

littered and pockmarked runway, Hillsboro stayed overhead Kham Duc

directing the fighter mission. Hillsboro controlled the tankers, assigned the

fighters' parking orbits (in which they stayed awaiting their turn to deliver

ordnance), and handed off the fighters to the FACs, who worked them in the

terminal attack phases of their mission. ABCCC C-130s could remain in the

air 16 hours, and Hillsboro almost reached its limit on 12 May. Although the

coordination was incomplete (it had never been practiced and never really

tried before) and Hillsboro had no contact with the Army and Marine

helicopters and little with the Army ground commander, the ABCCC

controllers performed a necessary coordination role and saw to it that the

building plethora of tactical fighters was gainfully used. Had it not been for

Hillsboro, the FACs, working in the tight constraints of the terrain above

Kham Due, would have been overwhelmed. 5

THE TACTICAL SITUATION

While the ABCCC was establishing itself overhead, an Air Liaison Officer

(ALO) from Chu Lai on the ground at Kham Due was reporting into his

personal tape recorder his view of the situation. He recorded the crash of the

CH-47, the loss of the A-I E, and the damaging of the first C-130. The tone of

his voice and his choice of adjectives demonstrate the seriousness of the

situation. They show also that he did not know at 0800 (more than seven

hours after the A Team was informed) that an evacuation had been ordered.

After speaking of the three aircraft disasters, he remarked that "Charlie [the

common nickname for communist forces] is on all sides," and that there had

been no decision made yet whether to hold Kham Duc or get out: "We're in

the midst of trying to decide whether to get out and let them have it or put up

a big fight." All through the day there were indications of a command-andcontrol breakdown. The first CH-47 into Kham Due was an evacuation

26
USAF ABCCC aircraft similar to Hillsboro.

Robert Gatewood, duty controller onboard Hillsboro on 12 May. Gatewood was

an F-lO0 fighter pilot on loan to the ABCCC. He told the author that he was

undecided about accepting a newly offered regular commission in the USAF until

Kham Duc. He said, after observing the activities of the fighter crews, FACs and

airlifters, that he made up his mind to join permanently that brotherhood.

Gatewood has recently been promoted to lieutenant colonel.

27

. . _ . _.. . . 2_
Interior of ABCCC, forward in the C-130.

Interior of AL3CCC, the battle staff, to the rear of the C-130.

28
aircraft, but the first C- 130 was carrying supplies and was, therefore, not sent

into the camp to evacuate it.

The ALO remarked that airstrikes had been going on since 0300 but that

the situation seemed to be worsening: "We've got more TAC air on the way, I

hope to hell it gets here on time." When he came back to his tape recorder

several hours later, he said, "Our position is becoming more untenable

every minute," but by that time che ABCCC had several flights of fighters

stacked up and was feeding the FACs as fast as they could absorb the

fighters. Most of this was, of course, invisible to those on the ground. As the

ALO spoke into his recorder, it picked up the sounds of artillery and mortar

shells impacting and of outgoing rounds of fire as well as the sounds of jet

aircraft and their bombs and cannon as the fighters struck back at the enemy.

These sounds seem to punctuate the remarks of the ALO, and the longer the

tape is played the greater the pressure seems to have been: "We've got

beaucoup VC advancing on this field." Because the communists had used a

tear gas attack on Ngoc Tavak, gas masks were handed out to the ALO and

others on the ground at Kham Duc. The ALO, who could not see the

building air support, recorded that he made an urgent request to I DASC for

more tactical air support and that if this did not arrive soon "it's going to

look pretty grim." He saw the enemy setting up a gun on the hill opposite the

strip, and he knew that if the fighters could not destroy it, the Army and Air

Force could not safely put helicopters or airplanes on the landing strip. Late

in the morning he learned that the field was to be evacuated and that there

were CI 30s programmed to evacuate the people and that everything of value

was to be destroyed. He observed: "We've got a small Khe Sanh going on

here: I hope we finish it before night comes."'6

Some measure of the size of the enemy concentration about Kham Duc

can be gleaned from an on-scene report of B-52s bombing the enemy

position around Kham Duc after the last defenders and their dependents

were airlifted out. On 13 May, 10 B-52 missions were devoted to Kham Duc,

and 60 airplanes dropped 6,000 bombs within 500 yards of the runway.

(There were also more missions on 14 May.) On just one of the missions on

13 May an observer recorded 78 secondary explosions during the strike, and

some of these were ten times the magnitude of the bomb burst, while most of

them were three times the magnitude. In all there were 130 secondary

explosions recorded on 13 May, signifying an extraordinary concentration

of enemy ordnance. 7

Those on the ground, however, did not have to wait for the B-52 evidence

to know that they were surrounded by a huge force, and early on 12 May they

called I DASC for help. I DASC Log, which opened at 0510, indicated that

an AC-47 Spooky gunship had arrived on station earlier to provide fire and

flare support to the camp and that shortly thereafter, still several hours

before sunrise, Helix 02, an Air Force 02 aircraft FAC, worked three sets of

fighters in the area. I DASC kept 7th Air Force Tactical Air Control Center

(TACC) apprised of the situation as the battle progressed. The log remarked

that there "will be 20 C-130s going into there at 0900, so it should be

interesting today." 8 Because there is no hint in the log that the C-130s were

29
for other than emergency resupply, one suspects that at 05 10 1 DASC at Da

Nang was unaware of the decision made well before midnight to evacuate the

camp. This supposition is confirmed by material in the next chapter, which

shows that the initial C-130 missions were not scheduled for evacuation.

By the time the first FAC arrived at 0515, General Momyer had been

directed by MACV to evacuate Kham Duc. 9 At 0820 all units in 7th Air

Force were alerted for a maximum effort at Kham Duc. Ten minutes later

General Momyer initiated a "Grand Slam," code words used generally for

maximum-effort assaults north of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), calling for

an all-forces heavy firepower assault. Use of this term signified the extreme

importance of the missions to Kham Duc. Momyer was notified that there

were 110 fighter sorties available to him from outside Vietnam, and 121

sorties within Vietnam above and beyond the missions already programmed

for that day. If needs became greater, another 85 sorties could be squeezed

from out-of-country resources or diverted from missions of lesser

importance.10

Even before Momyer had called for a Grand Slam, I DASC had been

putting fighter support into Kham Duc. Between 0412 and 0900, when

Hillsboro tool: over, I DASC had ordered 10 Marine A-4D fighter sorties

and 18 Air Force aircraft (eight B-52s and 10 fighters) to Kham Duc. Most of

these fighters were able to make eight ordnance delivery passes per sortie.

L-R: Gen W. C. Westmoreland, Gen J. P. McConnell, H. C. Lodge, Gen W. W.

Momyer. Westmoreland was COMUSMACV, McConnell was Air Force Chiefof

Staff, Lodge was Ambassador to Viet Nam, and Momyer was 7AF Commander

and the single manager for airpower in Viet Nam by the time of the Kham Due evacuation. Photo was taken in February 1967.

30
Also during much of that period an AC-47 was on station providing

suppressing fire with its 7.62 mm machine guns. It fired on the outposts in the

hills, after they had been abandoned, to prevent their use by the

communists, and fired directly into the two ravines which led from a stream

that ran parallel to the runway and cut right up to the camp perimeter. An

estimated three enemy companies were using these ravines, shielded by the

forest, to advance on the camp. By the time the first FAC arrived at 0515, it

was already obvious that more than Spooky's machine guns were needed to

save the people in the camp."I

THE FAC MISSION

The FACs were the airmen responsible for directing the fighter attacks on

targets. The first FAC at Kham Duc on 12 May was Capt Herbert J. Spier,

an Air Force 0-2 pilot working with the Americal Division at Chu Lai AB.

He arrived well before daybreak and more than three hours before the

ABCCC. Spier's first sets of fighters were worked with a C-47 flare ship

providing light for the fighter aircraft crews. This flare ship had replaced the

AC-47 gunship. Spier put in three F-4s on multiple passes on targets before it

became light enough to see them without the aid of flares. But when the sun

came up, so did the morning fog, and nearly the entire area was blanketed by

fog before the fourth set of fighters arrived. Because Spier had managed

(with the help of the flareship) to become familiar with the terrain and the

enemy positions before the sun and fog came up, he was able to direct the

USAF 0-2 aircraft similar to those used by all the FACs who controlled airplanes

over Kham Duc on 12 May.

31
fighters even though most of the ground was obscured. He assigned altitudes

and let the fighters line up on his aircraft, and told the crews when to drop

their ordnance. He was able to put the bombs within six to seven hundred

meters of the camp perimeter this way. The ALO on the ground could not see

the FAC nor the fighters, but he could see and hear the bombs impacting,

and he was able to help Spier move the bombs closer to the camp perimeter

and onto better targets. Spier stayed on station for two and one-half hours

before being relieved and in that time worked 10 fighters. Although he was

replaced after 0730, he came back to Kham Duc in the afternoon and was on

station for the last of the evacuation. 1

2He remarked into a tape recorder that

Kham Duc "was the most hectic situation I have been involved in," and "I

hope I don't have to be involved in a similar situation for the rest of my tour

here." 13

Spier came from Chu Lai AB, and he and most of the FACs there were

familiar with the problem at Kham Duc, because the chief ALO for I Corp,

Lt Col Reese B. Black from Chu Lai, had flown an 0-1 aircraft into the camp

on II May to survey the deteriorating situation. Black arranged for a

ground-based ALO to stay with the Americal Division battalion and Special

Forces A Team to assure the defenders that tactical air would be available.

He was replaced at the camp by Capt Willard C. Johnson, and Black

returned to Chu Lai to brief the pilots. He also spent a good part of 12 May

above Kham Duc as a FAC directing fighters.' 4

Because of Black's knowledge of the situation and Johnson's urgent

requests to I DASC for help, when Spier departed he was replaced by teams

of FACs, sometimes as many as five, to provide direction to the fighters. It

soon became apparent that four or five FACs were too many, and soon after

the fog cleared and Hillsboro began operating, the FACs devised a system by

which only three FACs were simultaneously employed. Two FACs flew at

the same altitude, parallel to one another over opposite sides of the Kham

Duc runway. Each controlled fighters striking targets on his side of the

runway. The third FAC flew below the ABCCC and at an altitude above the

two FACs working opposite sides of the runway. He took aircraft from

Hillsboro and fed them to the FAC that needed the ordnance load being

carried by the fighter or to the FAC with the more urgent need. When the

transports returned to Kham Duc in the late afternoon, the FACs had the

fighters suppress ground fire on the routes used by the aircraft, and

Hillsboro and the FACs tried to sequence the transports and fighters

together so that the fighters could serve as a sort of escort. Sometimes

fighters made their protective passes no more than 100 feet off the C-130

wing tips. The fighters were also directed by the FACs to other areas around

Kham Duc when the targets were more important than the enemy closest to

the field and camp.' 5

Hillsboro, who usually had four aircraft flights stacked and waiting to go

in, also kept track of the ordnance the fighters were carrying and passed this

information to the high-altitude FAC, who then asked the two FACs

working the runway what they needed in the way of ordnance. In other

32
USAF 0-1 aircraft similar to the one used by Reese Black to fly into Kham Due on

II May. The 0-1 was also a FAC aircraft.

Reese Black receiving the Silver Star for his actions at Kham Due. K~en E. L.

Little is presenting the medal.

, ] ...i + - 33
318~

0-2 aircraft similar to the ones flown over Kham Duc on 12 May. The pilot is James

Gibler who was a FAC at Kham Duc.

words, there was such an abundance of fighters by late morning that the

FACs could choose the fighter they wanted, based on whether it carried

napalm, cluster-bomb units, 500- or 750-pound bombs, or high-drag bombs

for low-altitude delivery. Each of these weapons was more suitable for one

type target than for another. The fighters came in with varied ordnance

because of the variety of targets at Kham Duc. So called "soft ordnance" like

CBUs and napalm was very effective against enemy troops in the open but

tended to skip along the top of the jungle canopy or singe it instead of

peretrating to the jungle floor when the enemy had to be attacked there. The

more popular ordnance when the enemy was partly hidden was 500-pound

and especially 750-pound bombs with instantaneous fuses. These gave

better coverage and penetrated the jungle canopy without digging a large

hole upon detonation. When the enemy was sighted in a clearing near the

runway, which was the camp's asphalt lifeline, the FACs could reject

airplanes carrying hard ordnance, and call on an aircraft with CBU or

napalm, which was more effective against troops in the open. The FACs

would either send the fighters they had rejected back into orbit to await a

more propitious moment, up to a waiting KC-135 tanker (on station since

early morning) to take on fuel in order to remain longer in the area and later

rejoin the fighter stack in parking orbit, or even back home, if there was a

surfeit of a particular type of ordnance in the stack and Hillsboro was

saturated.' 6 Tactical airpower proved responsive to the Army's needs at

Kham Duc. Lt Col Richard P. Schuman, the senior ALO for the Americal I

Division, was one of the early FACs on station, and he was able to work

pairs of fighters as quickly as every 45 seconds. After a morning mission

34
which lasted about four hours he returned to Kham Duc and was on scene at

the final stages of the evacuation in the afternoon. 7

FAC SMOTHERMAN'S ORDEAL

Another FAC who worked morning missions was Capt Philip R.

Smotherman, who saw Kham Due from all the vantage points-more, in

fact, than he desired. He was knowledgeable about the emergency because he

had been working the radios in the Americal Division tactical operations

center (TOC) as the offensive against the camp was brewing, and he knew of

the desperation of the defenders. He took off from Chu Lai in mid-morning

and arrived over Kham Duc at approximately 1030, after about a half-hour

flight. Initially he was the high-altitude FAC, and after that role he

controlled aircraft on one side of the runway. He put his first set of fighters

onto a known .50-caliber gun position and silenced the guns with some "very

quick and accurate work" from a pair of F-100s. He then controlled a pair of

Marine A-4Ds with rockets. While directing the fighters his 0-2 was struck

by enemy fire, and his right wing tip was shot off. Smotherman lost control

of the aircraft ailerons, and the elevator soon bound up. He had only rudder

and engines for control. At first he thought he might be forced to bail out or

crash land outside the camp perimeter, but then believed he could land on

the airstrip if his luck held out. After having started for the field and begun

his descent, he was almost run over by a departing C-123. Dodging the C-1 23

almost cost him his chance for crash landing on the airstrip. Smotherman

Philip Smotherman beside his 0-2 aircraft, similar to the one he crash-landed at

Kham Duc on 12 May.

35
made a controlled crash and subsequently was able to move the 0-2 off the

runway so that it would not block further evacuations. He cut off the

switches and jumped out of the airplane, now an enemy artillery target. A

moment later he was picked up by a Special Fo-ces sergeant, who rushed him

into the A Team command bunker as mortars struck around his aircraft.

Smotherman had joined those on the ground shortly after 1110.18

There were no radios in the Special Forces bunker with which

Smotherman could call I DASC to let them know of his situation, so he went

to the tactical air control party (TACP) bunker to radio I DASC. Soon

thereafter, Smotherman was told by I DASC that he had been ordered by

General Momyer to remain on the ground at Kham Due as the ALO,

because at that point he was the only Air Force officer on the scene.

Smotherman spent the next five hours doing what he could to translate the

ground personnel's needs to the ABCCC and the FACs. He stayed in contact

with I DASC at Da Nang (which gave him some information on incoming

transports) and passed information to the outside world concerning the

numbers of people left on the ground for pickup. He also tried to set up the

defenders for evacuation. Smotherman was able to work in several instances

as a ground FAC, directing the fighters on strikes as close as 30 meters from

his bunker. On one such strike, necessary because of the proximity of the

enemy, Smotherman got dust in his hair from the concussion and felt the

heat of the napalm. During the afternoon he was slightly wounded by enemy

mortar fragments, but the wounds did not hinder him. He left Kham Due on

the last passenger-carrying C-130, along with the remainder of the Special

Forces leaders and some CIDG troops.' 9 In the air and on the ground,

Smotherman had performed a very important mission.

When Smotherman was in the air and while he was on the ground, he was

in contact with the Americal Division's TACP. He and the other FAC pilots

passed information about the situation to the TACP at Chu Lai about the

types of loads needed and the status of the defenders and Vietnamese

dependents. At times General Koster's headquarters lost contact with

Colonel Nelson, and for a while Koster was worried that the camp had

actually been overrun. Through Smotherman and the other FACs, however,

Koster learned that the tactical fighters had been holding off the enemy while

the helicopters and Air Force transports were bringing out his people. 20

THE FIGHTER MISSION

For all of Smotherman's work and the coordination and control efforts of

the ABCCC and other FACs, without the fighters all would have been lost.

The fighter aircraft carried heavy loads-up to 5,000 pounds of bombs in the

F-4s-and their 20 mm cannon, rockets, and bombs provided the narrow

margin of whatever victory could be claimed. 2'

One of the first targets for the fighters was the same gully that the AC-47

had cleaned out in the early morning. Here again in the ravines and low

ground to the east and south of the runway the enemy formed successive

attacks which would have brought them to the midpoint of the runway if

they had succeeded. With North Vietnamese troops already on the outer

36
ABC

USAF AC-47 gunships.

37
wire perimeter of the fence the fighters dropped napalm and CBUs on them

to drive them back. Attacks continued in this quarter all day, despite the

terrific losses the communists took from the air strikes.22 As the day went on

the fighter pilots noted that they were bombing closer and closer to the camp

perimeter because the enemy persistently pressed forward. Often the fighter

crews could see the enemy on the fence trying to break into the compound. 23

Other frequently struck targets were the abandoned outposts. Apparently some of the men who had been in these positions on the high

ground around the camp had been unable to destroy their weapons before

abandoning the posts. Some of the North Vietnamese were able to turn the

outposts' .50 caliber machine guns on the camp as well as on the aircraft

defending it and trying to land to evacuate it.24

USAF A-i E fighter aircraft.

38
USAF A-]IE Fighter aircraft.

Marine A-4 Fighter aircraft.

391
II

Vietnamese Air Force F-5 fighter aircraft.

Late in the day the enemy had come so close to the camp's dwindling

defenders that one of the Special Forces officers inside the A Team bunker

was able to mark an enemy position with a smoke grenade. As soon as it was

so highlighted, an A-I E dropped napalm on the enemy concentration, which

was so close that the Army officer was rocked by the concussion and felt the

heat of the napalm.25 Although the FACs avoided using fighters with hard

ordnance within 100 meters of friendly troops, they had no compunction

against using those with napalm in such proximity, because they were

confident of the accuracy of the fighter crews, who had been improving as

the day went on. At times napalm was dropped on the friendly side of the

perimeter fence to drive the enemy off it. Throughout the evacuation the

enemy was never able to penetrate the perimeter. 26

During the attack, the fighters pressed in so close to the friendly troops

that Colonel Nelson had to ask them to back off because of his concern for

his men-none of whom, however, was wounded by friendly ordnance. 27 As

the day wore on, furthermore, strikes had to be put in even more rapidly as

the number of defenders dwindled. At the end of the day, all those who might

have been at the perimeter keeping the enemy at bay were busy making their

way to the runway to be airlifted out. At the end, most of the ordnance was

delivered within 150 to 200 meters of the last defenders and some of it within

25 meters,28 less than the distance from homeplate to first base. After the

evacuation was complete, these same fighters, now without concern for

friendly troops, destroyed the several aircraft that had been disabled and

abandoned at Kahm Due, as well as the Army and Air Force equipment left

behind. 29

40
USAF F-100 fighter aircraft dropping general purpose bomb.

Walter Hersman, an F-100 pilot who supported the evacuation of Kham Due on

12 May. Photo taken on Hersman's next assignment as an 17-104 pilot.

41
Ins

USAF F-4 fighter aircraft.

42
Of all the fighter activities on 12 May, most important were those that

provided assistance to the helicopters and transports evacuating the 1,400

people. In the last hour of the evacuation, seven C-130s and two C-123s

landed at Kham Duc, an impossible feat without the fighters.

USAF F-105 fighter aircraft.

43
CHAPTER IV

Tactical Airlift At Kham Duc

INTRODUCTION

Although the decision to evacuate Kham Duc was made on I I May, and

the Special Forces A Team was so advised just after midnight, the 834th Air

Division, which controlled all Air Force airlift in Vietnam, was not told to

extract people from the camp until about 0800 on 12 May. Two possible

reasons for this delay come to mind: either the Army or Marines, or both,

intended to attempt the extraction of all the people with helicopters while the

camp was under severe pressure, or there was a breakdown in command and

control. At 0820 General Momyer told the 834th to make a maximum effort

to extract the people, and at that moment there must have been some

thought of salvaging the equipment, because the 834th was told that there

were 50 tons of it at Kham Duc. But by 1030 the ground fire had become so

intense that a C-130 made an airdrop of ammunition into the camp because

it was not safe to land and off-load supplies. At about the same time, the 7th

Air Force radioed that it was "completely unfeasible" to carry out any

evacuation by C-130s, reversed its decision of several hours earlier, and

cancelled the C-130 evacuation. The 834th ALCC began to prepare a

massive airdrop of ammunition into Kham Duc. Three hours later, however,

MACV ordered the 834th to resume the extraction, because time was

running out, and there was no other way to bring out the remaining people.'

THE DECISION TO EVACUATE WITH C-130S

The rapidly changing airlift mission caused some confusion among

aircrews and field detachments of the 834th. By early morning the aircrews

and aircraft under the control of the 834th were prepared for an emergency

resupply mission. As the deteriorating position became better known by

daybreak, the airlift control element (ALCE) at Da Nang (a detachment of

the 834th Air Division), lined up several C-123s and C-130s fully loaded with

ammunition and rigged for air drop into the beleagured camp. 2 These

aircraft stayed on alert with their rigged loads throughout the entire day in

case of need.3 At the time of the cancellation of the C-130 missions in the

45

FMCM1NG PAM BLANI NOT FIIZD
- -i

Burl W. McLaughlin, Commander of the 834th Air Division.

morning (approximately 1030) there were three C-130s and one C-123 over

Kham Due in a holding pattern waiting for an opportunity to land.4

When the MACV combat operations center (COC) directed the 834th

ALCC to resume extractions by C-130s and C-123s at 1315,5 the ALCEs

at the various airlift bases (Tan Son Nhut, Cam Ranh Bay, Phan Rang, and

Da Nang) had to reconfigure aircraft. Some airplanes were airborne with

loads of supplies on them, and some were being rigged for airdrop; now

everything had to be derigged and downloaded to prepare the airplanes for

an evacuation. 6 On the morning of 12 May, some aircrews were already

taxiing out with loads for Kham Due when they were told to hold their

positions and await further instructions. Soon the crews were told to shut

down their engines and prepare to rig for airdrop. This was a timeconsuming operation. After loads rigged for paradropping were brought

out to the aircraft and the loadmasters had prepared the C-130s for drops,

the crews were told to empty their airplanes and to fly to Kham Duc to take

out as many soldiers and Vietnamese dependents as they could carry. One

46

, . . .
experienced aircraft commander remarked that the "ship was without a

rudder," and "confusion reigned supreme." 7

Meanwhile at Kham Duc, the Special Forces leaders, who had been

expecting an evacuation since midnight, were arranging an order of

evacuation from the camp. Some confusion arose over the sequence of

departures. The Special Forces were eager to remain at the camp until the

end so that they could maintain discipline with the irregular troops. The A

Team wanted the dependents out first and the irregulars to leave with the

engineers and Americal Division personnel. Apparently they were informed

that General Koster and General Cushman wanted the CIDG and other

indigenous forces to be the last out, and so directed the movement of all

Americans to the airstrip for earliest evacuation. Captain Henderson refused

to follow these orders and tried, as best he could, to impose his order on the

evacuation. He feared that there would have been "total panic" among the

Vietnamese if they realized that they were going to be left for last, and he

doubted that the Vietriamese would see anything other than abandonment in

such a move. Henderson believed that the Special Forces were the only "true

link" between the Americans and the Vietnamese, and he feared a

"catastrophe" if the last people on the ground were to be Vietnamese.8 Given

the poor performance of some of the irregulars at Ngoc Tavak and at Kham

Duc during the ground battle, the Special Forces, by disregarding these

orders from a higher headquarters, probably saved some lives.

THE FIRST C-130 INTO KHAM DUC ON 12 MAY

Symbolic of the panic of the Vietnamese was their rush to board the first

C-130 that got into the camp in the early morning. This airplane had landed

after the CH-47 wreckage had been cleared from the runway, but the C-130

had taken so many hits that it was not able to take off with a load of evacuees

and the cargo they had prevented the loadmaster from offloading. The

airci aft and crew, unaware that they were on an evacuating mission, were on

temporary duty to Cam Ranh Bay from Naha Air Base, Okinawa. They

landed at Kham Duc in a hail of mortar shells, on a runway littered with

spent cartridges and debris, with a flat tire and many holes in the main fuel

tanks in the wing. The next problem the crew had to cope with was the

hysterical hundred or so Vietnamese civilians and irregular troops who

rushed the aircraft from the ditches alongside the runway. The people could

not be budged from the cargo compartment so that the aircraft could be

offloaded. The longer the airplane was on the ground the more it was

exposed to mortar and rocket fire (C-130s always invited artillery attacks).

The aircraft commander, Lt Col Daryl D. Cole, decided to launch with the

Vietnamese onboard even though part of the load was still on the airplane.

With fuel pouring out of the wing tanks and with a flat tire, Cole tried to get

up enough speed to get his C-130 into the air. The blown tire and the load of

civilians and the cargo they had prevented the loadmaster from offloading

were too much for the airplane, however, and Cole aborted the take off,

taxied off the runway, and discharged the passengers. The crew decided to

cut off the blown tire to stop it from flapping and slowing down the C- 130 on

47
USAF C-130 taking off from Kham Duc.

take off roll. While cutting at it with a bayonet, mortars shells impacted all

around them. They succeeded in cutting off the rubber, but could not cut

through the steel beading with the bayonet. They next tried to cut the

beading with a blow torch but without much effect. All the time the mortars

struck nearer, and a 105 mm howitzer no more than 10 yards from their

position received a direct hit. Cole then realized that it would be only a few

minutes before the enemy got the range. He decided to try again to get

enough speed to fly. With three engines running the aircraft taxied onto the

runway; starting the number one engine was delayed because of fear that a

fire would be caused by the fuel pouring out that side of the wing. Taxiing

was proving to be difficult because a disabled 3/4-ton truck partly blocked

the right side of the ramp. The aircraft had to be taxied over cargo and

equipment with care so that none of the propellers struck any objects. The

number I engine was started on the runway, and as Cole aligned the C-130

with the ramp, two mortar shells struck so close to the airplane that two

windows on the right side of the cockpit were shattered by the concussion.

Cole then had to fight the problem of the blown tire and the fuel imbalance

caused by the punctured fuel tanks. The C-130 had lost 4,000 pounds of fuel

from -the right side of the airplane. Cole, perhaps with skills born of

desperation, was able to get the C- 130 airborne and safely back to Cam Ranh

Bay. After landing, the maintenance crew counted more than 85 bullet and

sh','apne) holes in Cole's aircraft. 9

48
On board Cole's airplane were four passengers: the combat control team

(CCT) and the ALO. The commander of the CCT had ordered the two

enlisted men serving at Kham Duc with him to board this airplane. He had

heard that there would be no further C- 130 evacuations, and he believed that

his mission was over. The two enlisted members of the CCT objected because

they thought they would still have a mission even without a resupply or

evacuation. They knew they would be needed to control the airdrops that

would surely follow if the fixed-wing evacuation were terminated. These two

men, Technical Sergeant (TSgt) Morton Freedman and Staff Sergeant

(SSgt) James Lundie, were unable to convince their mission commander,

Maj John Gallagher (who was not a combat controller but, rather, a C-130

pilot), and were forced to board Cole's C-130. Also onboard was the ground

ALO, Capt Willard Johnson.10

Soon after Cole departed with his stricken C-130 and small load, one of

the overhead C-123s, piloted by Maj Ray D. Shelton, landed and took out 65

people: 44 Army engineers and 21 civilian Vietnamese. Shelton reported that

there was intense ground fire from every quadrant, and mortar shells hit all

around him after landing." He was on the ground for no more than three

minutes.' 2 At this time-about 1110-some 145 people had been evacuated

from Kham Duc by helicopter, Cole's C- 130, and Shelton's C- 123. 3 The toll

in aircraft losses and battle damage was already high.

Gen J. D. Ryan, USAF Chief of Staff, presenting Daryl Cole the 1968 McKay

Trophy for the Air Force's "most meritorious flight of the year. 'Cole received the

Silver Star for saving his C-130 at Kham Duc.

49
USAF C-123 transport aircraft similar to Shelton's airplane.

THE SECOND C-130 INTO KHAM DUC

The price got higher in the afternoon. It was three hours between Shelton's

departure and the arrival of the next fixed-wing aircraft, a C- 130 from Tan

Son Nhut AB. C-130s stationed there were in Vietnam on temporary duty

from Mactan AB, in the southern Philippines, or Clark AB, in Luzon. This arplane was piloted by Maj Bernard L. Bucher of Mactan. His airplane was

struck by ground fire many times on its final approach into the airstrip from

the southwest. After taking on a full load (at least 150 and maybe as many as

200 or more Vietnamese women and children), Bucher took off to the

northeast. This turned out to be an unfortunate choice, but was probably

based on the ground fire Bucher had received while landing from the

southwest. Soon after takeoff, Bucher's airplane was riddled by ground fire

and crashed in a huge ball of orange flame less than a mile from the end of the

runway. No one survived the crash.14

The most intense ground fire Bucher's airplane received came from a knoll

to the north of the runway. Captain Spier, the first FAC on duty that

morning and now back on duty again, saw two.50 caliber machine guns rake

Bucher's C-130. Spier called immediately for a fighter strike and within 30

seconds he had a fighter drop CBUs onto the machine gun position,

destroying it. Spier continued to watch the ridge and nest until the end of the

evacuation, but he saw no further muzzle flashes. n 5

50
"FOR GOD'S SAKE STAY OUT OF KHAM DUC.

IT BELONGS TO CHARLIE"

Bucher was shot down around 1530, which meant that there had not been

successful C-130 evacuation mission from Kham Duc. The weather was

beginning to close in as night was approaching, but there were more than 600

people still on the ground. The next C-130 into the camp also was hit many

times, but it fared better. Lt Col William Boyd, Jr., saw Bucher's airplane

crash and explode in a ravine north of the runway. He noted later that he had

never in his career seen so many tracer bullets fired at an object. Boyd had

known before he took off for Kham Due that it was going to be a dangerous

mission. Before being diverted to the camp from an airlift mission into Chu

Lai, he talked to the A-1E pilot who had been shot down and rescued in the

early morning. He was told: "For God's sake stay out of Kham Duc. It

belongs to Charlie." After watching Bucher's crash, Boyd pulled back on his

throttles and began a steep, sideslipping descent into the field. He did this to

minimize the time in descent in order to leave his aircraft exposed for the

least amount of time. Boyd and his crew could actually see the enemy taking

aim and firing their AK-47s at them from the area around the perimeter

fence, and he took numerous hits as he dived for the field. Just before he was

about to touch down, a shell exploded 100 feet in front of his airplane, and

Boyd was forced to push the throttles forward. He pulled up and went

around for a second approach. C-130 crews abhorred having to make

multiple passes or "go arounds" because the big airplane became an obvious

target with a predictable flight path. Boyd and his crew decided to make the

(ft t

V/

The remains of Bucher's C-130.

51
second approach because they could see the people on the ground and knew

how desperate they were. As Boyd landed, people poured out of the ditches

beside the runway and rushed his airplane. Since Bucher had not succeeded

with a northeast takeoff, Boyd decided to depart to the southwest. He turned

his aircraft around and took off, suffering numerous hits on takeoff roll and

during climb out. When he landed at Cam Ranh Bay the ground crew

counted holes in the sides of the fuselage, the left wing, the leading edge of

both wings and generally all over the airplane. One of the men rescued took a

can of spray paint and wrote "Lucky Duc" on the side of Boyd's C-13016.

Boyd's crew rescued more than 100 people, but the next C- 130 crew was not

so fortunate.

THE FOURTH C-130 INTO KHAM DUC

This aircraft was under the command of Lt Col John Delmore, out of Cam

Ranh Bay on temporary duty from Naha AB in Okinawa. Delmore was

about to land when Boyd was taking off, 3o he had to make a go around.

Delmore and his crew had also witnessed Bucher's crash and could not have

relished the second pass. Near the end of his next approach, at about 300 to

400 feet altitude, the airplane began to take hits. The crew likened the sounds

of the rounds hitting the skin of the airplane to that of sledgehammer blows.

While still several hundred yards from touchdown, smoke began to curl up

through the floorboards of the cockpit between the pilot's legs. Seconds later

the sides of the cockpit were opened by bullets that made six inch holes in the

aluminum skin. The engineer, TSgt John McCall, saw bullets come up

Jl

William Boyd presented with the Air Force Cross for his action at Kham De on 12

May. Lt Gen F. C. Gideon is presenting the award.

52
through the floor and tear holes in the roof of the cockpit. The enemy,

obviously aiming for the flight crew, was able to force the airplane over on its

side just before touchdown, but the pilot and copilot fought to right the

airplane; all four engines were shut down because they were now running out

of control. Seconds before impact McCall jettisoned the crew-entrance door

so that the crew could use that exit for escape. When the C-130 struck the

runway, its wheels were down, but the hydraulic system had failed

completely, and there were no brakes and little directional control. Delmore

crashed into the CH-47 that had been destroyed early in the morning and

turned his C- 130 off the runway as not to block it. He ran the airplane into a

dirt mound to stop its progress. With the airplane stopped nearly entirely off

the runway, all five of the crew got out as quickly as they could. Being armed

only with .38 caliber pistols, they thought themselves nearly naked because

of the heavy enemy ground fire. Fortunately they were not on the ground for

more than 20 minutes when a Marine CH-46 took them out of the Kham

Duc cauldron to safety. 7

THE END OF THE AIRLIFT EVACUATION

Lt Col Franklin Montgomery had watched Bucher's airplane go down

and Delmore's C-130 crash and burn on the runway, yet despite these two

disasters, he descended right over the field and landed in a hail of tracer fire.

Montgomery taxied his aircraft quickly by the crashed CH-47 and the

destroyed C-130 and took on a full load of people as fast as they could run

onto the airplane. His crew counted more than 50 mortar shells or rockets

impacting in the area of the C- 130 in the few minutes it was on the ground.

Soon more than 150 Vietnamese civilians, a handful of CIDG forces, and a

few Army troops were onboard. The Vietnamese civilians and some of the

irregulars were so panic stricken and hysterical that they ran underneath the

spinning propellers to board the airplane. The loadmaster, trying to

maintain order, was knocked down and trampled by the Vietnamese and

knocked down another time by the concussion of a nearby mortar shell. By

this time, after 1600, the field was in such straits that no one in the air or on

the ground could tell Montgomery whom he was picking up, where they

were, or what the condition of the runway was. Montgomery's C-130

suffered no hits, remarkable when one considers the battle damage done to

the previous two C-130s.' 8 As Montgomery lifted off, another C-130 landed

and took on 130 people. When this airplane got airborne another landed,

taking off 90. Neither of these took any battle damage.' 9 At the last, things

seemed to improve.

There were now only a few people remaining on the ground at Kham Duc.

Among them were Captain Smotherman and Captain Henderson, some

Special Forces troops, and CIDG officers and men-about one C-130 load.

53
Maj James L. Wallace flew his C-130 into Kham Duc to extract them. As

Wallace prepared to land, General Momyer was directing the ALCC to stop

using C-130s for the evacuation because of the high losses. But before he

could get his orders to the field the last of the defenders and civilians had

been picked up by Wallace and his crew. While they were on the ground, the

camp's ammunition dumps began to explode, and the crew observed

hysteria among the Vietnamese soldiers because they had lost families on

Bucher's C- 130. Although Wallace's airplane was fired upon, it also took no

hits. Captain Smotherman reported that the tension of everybody inside the

plane began to evaporate as it gained altitude, and by the time the airplane

had climbed fully out of the bowl and leveled off on its way to the coast the

reduction of tension was noticeable. Smotherman believed that "nothing

could top this experience," and he hoped that in the rest of his tour nothing

would. He recorded that he had been confident that he would escape from

Kham Duc because "there were so many good guys on our side. '20

Good guys indeed. There had been eight C-130s into Kham Duc to that

point on 12 May. Six of these were able to get some passengers back to

safety, and two were destroyed. Of the six successful C-130s, one was able to

take out only four people, and the remaining five took out more than 600.

Also one C-123 took out 65 people in the late morning. The rest of the people

at Kham Due on 12 May who survived the communist small arms and

artillery fire either were rescued by helicopter or died on Bucher's airplane.

The costs were high: seven aircraft lost, many helicopters damaged, and

three C-130s with major battle damage. 2'

THE CCT REINSERTED

But the day was not over yet. As Wallace was racing down the runway to

take off, another C-130, this one with three passengers on board, was about

to land and reinsert the CCT. They had been ordered back by General

McLaughlin, Commander of the 834th AD, who did so when he discovered,

in the early afternoon, that they had left the job before it was complete. But

when the CCT arrived back at Kham Duc the last passengers they were to

assist were already airborne. This command and control breakdown was

caused by confusion, noise over the radios, excitement, distances between

the ABCCC and other overhead control elements and the ALCC at Saigon,

and late reporting by those on the ground of the actual numbers of people

remaining. The crew that inserted the CCT did not know that General

McLaughlin himself was now overhead to direct the mission, and when they

were in the landing pattern no one they could talk to was aware of the fact

that Major Wallace had just lifted the last of the Kham Due contingent off

the runway. When the three-man CCT left their C-130 there was nc one on

the ground to protect them but themselves. 22

54
Edward Carr, C-130 navigator on the aircraft that reinserted the CCT

Aerial view of Kham Duc runway seconds before the CCT landed on 12 May.

Bright flashes are fires and explosions.

55

1~
Ammunition dump exploding at Kham Duc seconds after the CCT landed.

USAF Combat Controllers and their equipment at Kha;n Due. Photo taken after

Kham Duc was reoccupied by US forces in 1970.

56
CHAPTER V

The Last Three Men at Kham Duc

INTRODUCTION

These three men had seen a great deal of action since they had landed at

Kham Duc on 10 May on what was supposed to be a routine mission to assist

the C-130s in the airlanding of the Americal Division battalion. From the

time they landed until they left in the late morning of 12 May, they helped

expedite 24 aircraft into Kham Duc. With their radios they advised aircrews

of the best approaches into the camp and the safest ways out, and they helped

the crews to offload the C-I 30s rapidly to shorten their ground time because

the airlifters made excellent targets. Two of the men on the team were

parachute-jump, professionally qualified combat controllers: Freedman and

Lundie. The third man, Major Gallagher, was not a combat controller. He

was, however, a qualified C-130 pilot (which, of course, Freedman and

Lundie were not) and could be expected to give advice to aircrews from that

standpoint. Gallagher was the mission commander because it was routine to

place a commissioned officer above enlisted men such as Freedman and

Lundie on missions similar to Kham Duc.'

The CCT had been under fire since it arrived on 10 May, and much of the

equipment they needed to function had been damaged or destroyed in the

three days they were on the ground. No sooner had they landed on 10 May

when a mortar blew up theirjeep trailer, which contained some radios, small

arms and other needed material. Minutes later another round impacted near

them, and the shrapnel wounded a nearby Army sergeant. Freedman pulled

this man into a ditch beside the runway and gave him first aid. Seconds later

another mortar round struck near the team, and the shrapnel from it further

wounded the Army sergeant. Soon there were C-130s stacked up over the

camp and Freedman and Lundie worked in the most difficult of situations to

get them on and off the ground in rapid order with less than the usual array

of combat-control equipment to assist them. Trying between sorties to

rescue materiel from the jeep trailer, Lundie broke his hand. A Special

Forces medic tried to talk him into being evacuated because of the severity of

the break, but Lundie refused because he believed he was too important to

57
the mission. In the afternoon of 10 May, Freedman and Lundie noted a

three-mortar-shell barrage bracket their radio jeep. Freedman ordered it

moved immediately, but before it had rolled more than 10 meters,

another barrage struck the ground on which it had stood, the concussion

knocking down the two sergeants. Eventually mortar shells destroyed their

radio jeep. Each time mortar shells or rockets or other artillery pressed in on

them, the two combat controllers took refuge in the ditch beside the

runway.

2

THE RETURN TO KHAM DUC

Having been reluctant to leave Kham Duc when ordered by their mission

commander, neither Lundie nor Freedman was overly upset when the threeman team was told to return shortly after their arrival at Cam Ranh Bay on

Cole's crippled C-130. The CCT was taken out to another C-130, this one

under the command of Maj Jay Van Cleeff. The aircrew of this airplane had

been diverted from another mission and had arrived at Cam Ranh Bay at

1240. They went immediatley to the ALCE and received an airdrop mission

briefing for Kham Duc. They were told that it was "too dangeorus to land at

Kham Duc," and that after the briefing they were to proceed to Da Nang to

pick up a container delivery system (CDS) load of emergency supplies to be

paradropped into Kham Duc. They called the ALCE after engines start to

tell the control element that they were taxiing to take off for Da Nang. Van

Cleeff and crew were told that they were to await three passengers for Kham

Due. The crew was mystified: they had been told that they were to make a

CDS airdrop into the camp because it was too dangeorus to land, and now

they were being told to airland some people. The CCT was brought out, and

Gallagher tried to explain to Van Cleeff the futility of his mission because

most of the CCT equipment had been destroyed and fixed wing extractions

had been called off-what good would the CCT do there? On the way out to

the runway Gallagher tried to explain this to the ALCE, but to no avail. On

the way to Kham Due he talked to the ALCC at Saigon, call sign Hilda, but

was told to stop cluttering the airways. The crew was airborne at 1500 and

landed at Kahm Due about 1620. While in the landing pattern, they saw

what was to be the last C-130 evacuation airplane take off from Kahm Due,

but they did not know that; in fact no one in the air over Kham Due was to

know that for a few minutes. After disembarking the CCT, Van Cleeff and

crew waited on the ground for five minutes for them to return. There was no

one on the ground to take out, and as they waited mortar shells marched

closer and closer to their aircraft; when the aircrew began to see tracer and

machine gun bullets striking the ground alongside the airplane, they decided

to wait no more. Not knowing that General McLaughlin was overhead, and

not knowing what their precise responsibilities were after the CCT was

reinserted, they decided to save the airplane and took off. They flew away

from Kham Due empty because there was no one left on the ground but the

CCT. After being airborne for a few seconds,the crew heard someone say

over the radios that the camp was fully evacuated and could now be

58
destroyed at will. This call was probably made by the C-130 that had taken

off while Van Cleeff's airplane was on final approach. Van Cleeff hurriedly

called: "Negative, negative," announcing to all that could hear (and

apparently punctuating his remarks with profanity born of need for

emphasis and out of frustration) that he had just inserted a three-man CCT

into Kham Duc. 3

Up to that moment there had been cacophony over the airwaves as

fighters, FACs, ABCCC, and transports tried to work out their tactical

problems. When Van Cleeff spoke his piece, an "unreal" silence came over

the radios. 4 Gatewood, duty controller of the ABCCC, who had believed

seconds earlier that his long mission was over, must have felt sick when he

heard Van Cleeff, and he remembered that a "hush could be felt, literally,

over the radio" as all agencies realized the implications of Van Cleeff's

statement. 5

THE CCT ON THE GROUND ALONE

Of course the CCT did not know how close they came to being killed by

friendly aircraft. When they left the C-130, they ran to the Special Forces

compound to gather people to evacuate, but they found no one alive there

and the compound engulfed in flames. They crossed the runway and ran to

the Americal Division battalion command post and then to the artillery

compound, only to find those empty too. They became confused, then

sickened, realizing that they were on the field alone and that the enemy was

closing in on them. 6

They ran back to the ditch they had spent so much time in earlier in the

day, as well as on 10 and 11 May, and waited for a miracle. Freedman tried to

talk to the aircraft overhead with his emergencyUHF radio, only to find that

it was disabled. Lundie and Freedman nearly gave up hope. They had only a

few hundred rounds of M-16 ammunition with them and their .38 caliber

revolvers. They could see the North Vietnamese setting up machine gun

positions on either side of the runway-one of which was under the wing of

Delmore's crashed C-130. Freedman and Lundie were determined not to

surrender and decided to watch opposite ends of the runway for the enemy

and to make the communists pay for taking them by killing as many of the

enemy as they could. In the emotional heat of their dilemma, Freedman told

Lundie to take his wallet because there was a lot of money in it and he did

not want the North Vietnamese to get it; he told Lundie to make sure his wife

did. To help themselves out, Freedman killed at least one, and probably

both, of the men in the machine gun nest under the wing of Delmore's C-130

and disabled the gun. After a burst of M- 16 fire one of the men keeled over,

and the gun no longer fired at them. The machine gun on the opposite side of

the runway, however, continually fired at them, and, worse, a group of men

was approaching them from the extreme west end of the runway. 7

Freedman and Lundie were convinced that no one in his "right mind"

would land on the Kham Duc runway now with the enemy on it. To make

matters worse, the ammunition dumps were blowing up. Worst of all,

59
because Freedman had been unable to talk to the overhead aircraft by radio,

no one could be sure that the CCT was still alive. Freedman said he "never

felt so lonely in all my life.' ' 8

After sending several FACs to make relatively low passes over the field to

locate the team-unsuccessfully as it turned out-Gatewood called on the

next aircraft in the stack to land on the asphalt strip to see if the men might

come out of hiding with an airplane on the ground-that is, if they were still

alive. Without hesitation Lt Col Alfred J. Jeanotte, Jr., and crew throttled

back, nosed their C-123 over, and dove for the runway. Bookie 750,

Jeanotte's call sign, had been overhead for some time, and the crew knew the

risks involved. But they also knew that there was only one hope of saving the

three men: to land and pick them up. If Jeanotte failed, there were other

aircraft that would try. Next in line was another C-123, and third in line was

General McLaughlin. Gatewood got fighter aircraft to follow Jeanotte down

to help suppress ground fire, and the transport landed on the north end of the

strip and rolled out slowly with all hands looking for the team. Bookie 750

landed in a storm of fire; the crew could see bullets striking the ground by

them as they taxied. Not seeing the men, but seeing the enemy firing at the

airplane, Jeanotte applied full power and took off. As he roiled by the team,

they came out of their ditch calling to and waving at and chasing the now

accelerating C-123. As the airplane moved away from them, the

disheartened team ran back to their ditch on the left side of the runway,

convinced they had not been seen, more pessimistic than ever. As Jeanotte

got airborne, however, he banked his aircraft to the left, and the crew

engineer saw the three men running back to their ditch. Jeanotte called this

out over the radios and told Gatewood that he would go around and try

again. But he then noticed that he did not have enough fuel to make another

assault takeoff.9 He broadcast his fuel problem and started back for Da

Nang. His mission was not wasted by any means, for he had determined that

the CCT was still alive and had fixed their location. He could and did brief

the next crew on the position of the three men. When Jeanotte called out that

he did not have enough fuel for another approach, Hillsboro called on the

crew of the next airplane in the stack to go in and rescue the team. The crew

did not hesitate.

THE LAST C-123 MISSION INTO KHAM DUC

Like all other aircraft at Kham Due that day, this next C- 123 was a flight

diverted from a normal airlift mission. The aircraft commander was Lt Col

Joe M. Jackson, the C-123 detachment commander at Da Nang for the 315

Air Commando Wing, based at Phan Rang. Jackson had earned his pilot's

wings during World War II, was a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War

and a U-2 pilot during the Cold War. He began the day with an unannounced

flight examination. His copilot was Maj Jesse W. Campbell, called Bill, an

instructor pilot and flight examiner with much valuable experience in the C123. He had flown routinely into Khe Sanh during its darkest days. The

check ride was a common measure to keep all aircrews up to professional

60
4-

USAF C-123 similar to those flown by Jeanotte and Jackson on 12 May. Note the

jet engines outboard of the propellers.

standards. The crew was diverted back to Da Nang at about 1400 to be

briefed on their new mission. They were told about Kham Duc and what

their job was: to get overhead the camp and to go in when their turn came to

rescue those on the ground. All four members of the crew drew flak vests,

extra ammunition for their .38 caliber pistols, and one extra M-16 rifle. The

crew topped off their fuel, Campbell told Jackson the check ride was

complete (and that he had passed), and they took off for Kham Duc at 1500.

The crew, which was in C-123 number 543, call sign Bookie 771, arrived

overhead Kham Duc at 1530. They were there an hour awaiting their turn,

and they knew full well what was going on. While they waited, they drifted

over the field at about 9,000 feet altitude to see if they could gain better

insights by being directly overhead. When Jeanotte reported that he did not

have enough fuel for another attempt, Gatewood called Jackson. He

immediately pulled the throttles back to idle and told Campbell to drop the

flaps to full down. Campbell replied over the radio: "Roger, going in." On

the way down Jackson talked to Jeanotte about the location of the CCT.

Jackson intended to taxi right up to them. In the descent he briefed the crew

on their responsibilities on this assault landing and subsequent takeoff. The

engineer, TSgt Edward M. Trejo, was to insure that the aircraft panel stayed

set for an immediate takeoff and that jet engines, which were needed for an

immediate takeoff, were never shut down. After landing he was to help the

loadmaster, SSgt Manson Grubbs, pull the CCT into the airplane. Jackson

made sure that Campbell knew what was expected of him, which was no

61

I -
Alfred J. Jeanottc, Jr.

Jeanotte receiving the Air Force Cross for his actions at Kham Due on 12 May.

62
1 . 4

Jesse W. Campbell, C- 123 Flight Examiner and co-pilot on Jackson's crew for the

last mission, (left) and Manson Grubbs, C-123 loadmaster on Jackson's crew

(right). Campbell later received the Air Force Cross and Grubbs the Silver Star.

Edward Trejo receiving the Silver Star for his part in ihe Kham Due evacuation.

He was the flight engineer on Jackson's crew.

63
problem because Campbell had more flight time in the airplane than

Jackson. The choice the crew made was to sideslip the airplane so that it

would fall as rapidly as possible and present the smallest target to the enemy

for the shortest period of time. To have made a standard descent with a

normal downwind, base, and final approach would have made their coming

known to the enemy and would have markedly reduced their chances.'10

Jackson and Campbell worked together as a crew to accomplish this

maneuver, by which the rugged C-123 can be made to descend at rates well

exceeding 4,500 feet per minute. With full aileron and full opposite rudder

and the throttle advanced on the engine on the top wing to take out any lift

that might be developed over the horizontal stabilizer, Bookie 771 fell out of

the sky. Jackson and Campbell had to worry about exceeding the flap blowback speed, and Jackson told Trejo to be especially mindful of that. If the

flaps came up at all the aircraft might overshoot, a disaster they could not

afford. They planned to round out at 50 feet above the ground, 1/4 mile from

the runway, and that left no margin for error: they wanted one chance and

were employing an unforgiving technique that would permit just that. They

dove for the runway; rounded out barely 50 feet above the ground;

straightened out; landed on the extremely littered, pockmarked runway; and

rolled out. Because of the crashed C- 130 and CH-47 and the location of the

CCT, they landed on the north end of the field and had only 2,200 feet of

runway to stop in. Normally this would not have posed a problem, but

Jackson could not reverse his engines; this action always shut down the two

small jet engines on the C-123's wing-tips, and the crew could not afford to

wait for these engines to come on speed again, because they were critical for

an assault takeoff."

Jackson was surprised that he did not blow a tire after landing because of

the sharp fragments on the runway and the holes in the asphalt surface, some

of which were two feet deep. The crew was also surprised that they made it at

all because they could see bullets striking all around them and could hear the

sound of the enemy guns and mortars above the roar of their four engines.

While the crew was on the ground they could actually see tracer fire pass

beneath the airplane. After roll out the crew saw the CCT come out of a ditch

and run for the airplane, the two enlisted men firing their M- 16s at the enemy

all the way. Jackson was turning the airplane to go out to the north, over the

same end of the runway he had landed on. He could see bullets striking the

runway in front of and behind the men running from the ditch about 100 feet

from the airplane. As Grubbs and Trejo pulled the three men inside the

airplane, Jackson heard Campbell call: "Look out!" Down the runway,

straight at them, came a 122 mm rocket. This weapon, which has a normal

range of six to eight miles, had apparently been fired at them from the ridge

to the immediate north of the runway. It struck short of the C-123, bounced,

spun around several times and skidded to a stop a few feet iii front of the I

nosewheel-and the warhead failed to explode. Jackson used nosewheel

steering to taxi gingerly around the rocket, now bent in a horseshoe shape;

pushed the throttles to the firewall; ran up the jets; and pulled the C-123 off the asphalt runway in about 1, 100 feet. He took his passengers to Da Nang.

64
Joe M. Jackson

In this photo Jackson is wearing the Medal of Honor he was presented for his

heroism at Kham Duc on 12 May. This was Jackson's third war, if one does not

count his U-2 missions during the Cold War. He became an Army Air Forces pilot

during World War 11, flew more than 100 jet fighter missions during the Korean

War and also more than a hundred missions during the Viet Nam War. Jackson

was the only airlift crewmember to win a Medal of Honor during the Viet Nam

War.

Bookie 771 had been on the ground less than a full minute, but it was

probably the longest fraction of a minute in the CCT's and aircrew's lives.

While the rescue proceeded, no one above talked on the radios, and a most

interested audience kept its silence, hoped for the best, and held its breath.

Despite the fact that the enemy had fired at Bookie 771 while it was

descending, while it was on the runway, and also on takeoff, when the crew

got out at Da Nang to count bullet holes, there were none.' 2

To the CCI and aircrew it was a miraculous escape, and like so much that

happened at Kham Duc on 12 May 1968-Mother's Day that year-the final

rescue, like all the others, can be attributed to the skill, tenacity, and courage

of the American aircrew.

65
KHAM DUC AT 1645 ON 12 MAY

US Air Force Photo

Jackson's C-123 The CCT Running Toward

(Jackson's C-123

Remains Of The CH-47 That Was

Shot Down Early On 12 May

Philip Smotherman's 0-2 ( N

Remains Of The UH-1

Helicopter Shot Down

On 12 May

Delmore's C-130

Kham DuG at 1645 on 12 May.

f 66
4

67L
Appendix A

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

A-IE US, single-engine, piston-driven fighter/bomber

A-4D Marine, single-engine, jet attack fighter

AB Air Base

ABCCC Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center

AC-47 USAF, twin-engine, piston-driven light transport

modified to serve as a gunship

AFSHRC Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Center

ALCC Airlift Control Center

Al Alabama

ALCE Airlift Control Element

AFB Air Force Base

AK-47 Soviet-designed, semi-automatic infantry rifle

ALO Air Liaison Officer

A Team US Army Special Forces basic advisory unit

B-52 USAF, eight-engine, jet heavy bomber

BGen Brigadier General

C-7A USAF, twin-engine, piston-driven, lightweight,

small-capacity, short takeoff-and-landing transport

C-47 USAF, twin-engine, piston-driven, light transport

C-123 USAF, four-engine (two piston, two jet) mediumcapacity, short-takeoff-and-landing transport (Not

all C-123s were equipped with the two jet engines, but

those mentioned in this monograph were.) The C- 123

had much more capacity than the C-7A but less than

the C-130.

C-130 USAF, four-engine, turbo-prop medium-capacity

transport.

Capt Captain

CBU Clustered Bomb Units

CCT Combat Control Team

CDS Container Delivery System

CG Commanding General

CH-46 Marine, twin-engine, large-capacity, transport

helicopter

CH-47 Army, twin-engine, large-capacity, transport

helicopter

Charlie Viet Cong

CHECO Contemporary Historical Examination of Current

Operations

69

PRECEDiNG PA(E BL -NOT FILMED

- I r- 7 - ": - . .Z - . .
CIDG Civilian Irregular Defense Group

COC Combat Operations Center

Col Colonel

COMUSMACV Commander, US Military Assistance Command,

Vietnam

F-4 USAF twin-engine, two-place jet fighter/bomber

F-5' ' " Twin-engine light fighter/bomber, built by the US

and flown by the Vietnamese air force

F-100 USAF single-engine, jet attack fighter

F-l105 LSAF single-engine, jet attack fighter

DISUM Daily Intelligence Summary

FAC Forward Air Controller

FM Frequency Modulation

FOB Forward Operating Base

G-3 Army Operations

Gen General

Grand SLAM Nickname for an all-forces heavy firepower assault

6iorth of the demilitarized zone. SLAM stands for

'seek, locate, annihiliate and monitor.

Ha < Hawaii

HAFB Hickam Air Force Base

alm;a! I ,

' Call sign for 834 Air Division ALCC

Hillsboro Call sign for ABCCC overhead Kham Duc on 12 May

1968

HQ Headquarters

I Corps South Vietnam's northernmost military district

I DASC I Corps Direct Air Support Center (An USAF

organization based at Da Nang AB.)

JN Jet Navigation chart

KC 135 USAF four-engine, jet tanker

Lt Col Lieutenant Colonel

Lt Gen Lieutenant General

Ltr Letter

LZ Landing Zone

M- 16 US-manufactured, semi-automatic infantry rifle

MACV Military Assistance Command, Vietnam

MAFB Maxwell Air Force Base

Maj Major

0-1 USAF single-engine, piston-driven light observation

airplane

0-2 USAF two-engine, piston-driven light observation

aircraft (one engine was a pusher and one was a

tractor)

PACAF Pacific Air Forces

SEA Southeast Asia

Slick Nickname for an unarmed (except for light defensive

armament) helicopter

70
Spad Nickname and sometimes call sign for A-I E airplanes

Spooky Nickname and call sign for AC-47 gunship aircraft

SSgt Staff Sergeant

TAW Tactical Airlift Wing

TACC Tactical Air Control Center

TACP Tactical Air Control Party

TOC Tactical Operations Center

TSgt Technical Sergeant

UH-IC Army single-engine armed attack helicopter

UH-1N Army single-engine light helicopter

UHF Ultra High Frequency

US United States

USAF United States Air Force

VHF Very High Frequency

7th Air Force Single manager for airpower in Southeast Asia

(7 AF)

834th Air Division Manager for all airlift in Southeast Asia

(834 AD)

71
Appendix B

Viet.

H, A,

udltaong Tni HAM OUC

CWAI POowq Np

ba Tuyen

0.A1A16oP.u '.ApA4

MOO,~ K I ontu

0~n

K '.ICCS*f9 OO..V72-
Appendix C

______ 

~. 

-,

C-' *,N ''<.~

,~

''-h 1~'~ "

o ( 42Z -

V'ui,~. ~' ~r'~7JK~ -,

~ I~ .- *. 

I~, I

1/ I- '~ ~

-"1~

/ 2~ 2

4 jA' ~J )~ 

' (~ ~ I ',.

-9,

-v ." \ ~ - ~

S

( 

'~Sk ~" -~ 

p

'4

C" '. ~ ) V\~

-~ 

-

~2 7

/24(7 

{4~j ' 

-P 

~., 

d

/ 

r 4 ~\- \'' -~ F -

V

( "' I

N P~I* '2 ~

73

- ~- 

z -
Notes on Chapter I

1. Bernard C. Nalty, Airpower and the Fight for Khe Sanh, Washington,

DC, Office of Air Force History, 1973, pp. 28-31, 103-105.

2. Letter (Ltr), Peter H. Jackson to author, undated [November 1977].

This letter and all others received by the author will be deposited in the

Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Center (AFSHRC) at Maxwell AFB

(MAFB), Alabama (Al). The author of this monograph was a navigator on a

C-130 that landed at Kham Duc in late April 1968 during the rebuilding

phase. The description of the terrain is his, but the vulnerability of the site

was obvious to Jackson (see his letter) and to the author's colleagues who

flew into Kham Duc.

3. Daniel F. Schungel, "After Action Report Battle of Kham Due," 31

May 1968, A FS H RC, MA FB, Al. This document, as with nearly all those in

the monograph, is on microfilm as supporting documents for various

Project CHECO reports (CHECO; CONTEMPORARY HISTORICAL

EXAMINATION OF CURRENT OPERATIONS); see microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

4. Alfred G. Hutchins, "Dissemination of Threat Information on Kham

Duc Special Forces Camp," 13 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. This letter

contains three attachments specifying the threat to Kham Due; see microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

5. Kenneth Sams and A. W. Thompson, "Kham Duc," Hickam AFB

(HAFB), Hawaii (Ha), Headquarters, Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), 8 July

1968, pp. 5, 6. This is a CHECO report and can be found at AFSHRC. See

also Schungel, "After Action Report Battle of Kham Duc."

6. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 5, 6, and the paraphrased

press interview of BGen J. E. Glick et al., undated AFSHRC, MAFB, Al.

On microfilm 02CH /29/2/4 & Sup. See also Cecil Brownlow, "Coordinated

Effort Saves Force," A viation Week & Space Technology, Volume 89,

Number i, September 9, 1968, pp. 92-98.

7. Jackson Letter.

8. Glick, et al. interview; and Schungel, "After Action Report."

9. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 5, 6, and Daniel F. Schungel,

"After Action Report Ngoc Tavak FOB," 16 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB,

Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. This report is a part of the

previously cited "Kham Due After Action Report." See also undated

statement by William F. Hull, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02

CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Hull's statement is support for the two previously cited

after action reports and is appended to them.

75

MECMNG PA~Z BL99l-NOT FIIUD
10. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 5,6, and Daniel F. Schungel,

"After Action Report Ngoc Tavak FOB," 16 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB,

Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. This report is a part of the

previously cited "Kham Duc After Action Report." See also undated

statement by William F. Hull, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02

CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Hull's statement is support for the two previously cited

after action reports and is appended to them.

11. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 5,6, and Daniel F. Schungel,

"After Action Report Ngoc Tavak FOB," 16 May 1968, AFSHRC. MAF, 3,

Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. This report is a part of the

previously cited "Kham Duc After Action Report." See also undated

statement by William F. Hull, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02

CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Hull's statement is support for the two previously cited

after action reports and is appended to them. See also undated statement of

Capt Eugene Edward Makowski, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. See microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Makowski's statement is appended to the two

previously cited after action reports; he was the on-scene commander of the

CIDG forces on 10 May at Ngoc Tavak. See also "TACC Intel JournalOpened 10 May 1968," AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4

& Sup. TACC means Tactical Air Control Center. 0

12. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," and Schungel, "After Action

Report Ngoc Tavak FOB." See also Makowski statement.

13. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," and Schungel, "After Action

Report Ngoc Tavak FOB." See also Makowski statement; Hull statement.

14. Message from Commanding General III MAF to COMUSMACV,

"Action At Kham Duc 12 May 1968," AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. This message is from Lt Gen Robert E. Cushman to

Gen William C. Westmoreland, Commander United States Military

Assistance Command, Vietnam.

15. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 32-33.

16. Ibid., pp. 5, 6. See also History and Museum's Division, The Marines

in Vietnam, 1954-1973, An Anthology and Annotated Bibliography,

Washington, DC, Headquarters US Marine Corps, 1974, p. 107. See

William C. Westmoreland, A Solider Reports, New York, Doubleday and

Co., 1976, p. 360. See also William C. Westmoreland, Report on Operations

in South Vietnam January 1964-June 1968. Section II of Report on the War

in Vietnam (As of 30 June 1968), Washington, DC, 1968, pp. 167, 168.

17. Undated statement by James Duncan and undated statement by

James R. Aydock, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. See microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 &

Sup. See also Schungel, "After Action Report Kham Duc." Both of the

former statements are appended to the latter report.

76
18. Schungel, "After Action Report Kham Duc." See also I DASC

DISUM # 12-68, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 &

Sup. I DASC means I Corps Direct Air Support Center, and DISUM means

daily intelligence summary.

19. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 32, 33.

20. Schungel, "After Action Report Kham Duc." See Sams and

Thompson, "Kham Duc," Document 6. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

Document 6 is a little difficult to find; it is a compilation of messages that

provide a running commentary on the battles at Ngoc Tavak and Kham

Duc. It is without a title but can be found on the microfilm reel marked with

a penciled "6" with a circle around it. Its first entry is "10 May 68, 0608." It

will be listed hereafter as "Document 6."

21. Glick, et al. interview. See also Schungel, "After Action Report Kham

Duc." See undated statement by Robert Henderson, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al.

On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Henderson's statement is appended to

Schungel's after action report.

22. Undated statement by Richard F. Campbell, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al.

On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Campbell's statement is also part of

Schungel's after action report.

23. Henderson statement.

24. Undated statement by Eugene Bernhart, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On

microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Bernhart's statement is appended to

Schungel's after action report.

25. Telephone interview, author with Claude H. Turner, 25 October 1977.

26. Duncan statement. See also Brownlow, "Coordinated Effort."

27. Duncan statement.

28. Aydock statement.

29. Duncan statement. See also Glick. et al. interview.

30. Kenneth Sams, "The Air War in Vietnam 1968-1969," HAFB, Ha.,

PACAF, I April 1970, p. 34. This can be found at AFS H RC. See Glick, et al.

interview. See also Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," p. 2.

31. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," p. 2.

32. Schungel, "After Action Report Kham Duc."

77
Notes on Chapter II

1. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," p. 1. See also Brownlow,

"Coordinated Effort." pp. 92-98. Saris and Thompson write that there were

110 Marine CH-46 sorties. I believe this number is much too high. They

report that Army CH-47s carried out more evacuees than the Marines, and if

each CH-46 carried out its load of nine, then the Marines would have carried

out close to 1,000. It is known that the Air Force took out more than 665 and

that the Marines and Army took out slightly more than that; therefore the

figure of 110 is unreliable. Sams and Thompson got their figure from Lt Gen

Cushman's message to Gen Westmoreland, and that figure is repeated in

Brownlow's article. Taking the number of statements provided by Marine

pilots and knowing that the Marines rescued around 300 people, I estimate

the number of sorties to be in the low 30s.

2. Telephone interview, author with Philip R. Smotherman, 26 Oct 1977.

3. Statement by S. T. Summerman, 28 May 1968. See also statement by

Wesley R. Marks, 28 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. See microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup for both statements.

4. Statements by .James L. Busby and Ernest M. Wood, both 28 May

1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup for both

statements.

5. This information came from an unidentified voice on a series of

cassette tapes at AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. These tapes were donated to

AFSHRC by Philip R. Smotherman, who was a FAC on 12 May overhead

and on the ground at Kham Duc. He enters the narrative below.

Smotherman secured these taped statements and saved them for nearly a

decade. The tapes can be heard (they have not been transcribed, and there

are no plans at present for transcribing them) at AFSHRC. The call number

of the tapes is #K 239.0512, and this particular segment is on side I of tape 1.

The gunship pilots identified themselves as being from Chu Lai. The "Slick"

pilot was named Mr. Fitzsimmons (no other names). Unfortunately we do

not know the name of the pilot rescued by Fitzsimmons since not even his

unit history names him. Identifying fighter pilots involved in the evacuation

has proved to be impossible within the time limits of the project. Not a single

fighter pilot or crew is identified in any of the unit histories of all the units

involved, and most of the unit histories do not even mention having crews at

Kham Due that day.

6. Tape recording #K 239.0512, side I tape 2, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al.

Again, no names mentioned.

7. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 13, 14.

8. See Schungel, "After Action Report Kham Duc," for a critique of the

lack of coordination causod by lack of radio commonality. The Special

78
Forces and Col Nelson found the "control of tactical air and coordination of

tactical air strikes" to be a "critical problem" all day. Nelson, who believed he

knew the best targets, wanted to have some input into the targets struck by

the fighter pilot, but was unable to talk to the air crews. The lack of FM

radios in the fighters was a frustration, but it is doubtful that the Air Force

would want the ground element leader talking directly to its fighter crews.

9. Wood and Summerman statements. See also Sams and Thompson,

"Kham Duc," pp. 27, 28-30.

10. Statement by William F. Tinnan, 28 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB,

Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

11. Marks statement.

12. Statement by Paul H. Moody, 28 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al.

On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

Notes on Chapter III

1. Ltr ALO to G-3, Subject: Kham Duc Action, 11 and 12 May 1968,

dated 14 May 1968, AFSIIRC, MAFB, Al. See microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 &

Sup. G-3 is Army Operations.

2. Nalty, pp. 72, 74, 76.

3. Chronological Order of Events, Kham Duc Special Forces Camp, 12

May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. See microfilm 02CH/ 29/2/4 & Sup. The

times of specific events in this chronology do not always agree with other

evidence, but the sequence is more important than the timing. In some cases

the times used in my manuscript differ from the chronology when in the

author's judgment the documents cited are more accurate. When times are

used that disagree with the chronology, it is because an eyewitness recorded

the time and usually more than one eyewitness differs from the chronology.

This chronology was compiled for Gen Momyer on 14 May. It is an

amalgam of interviews with TACC personnel (who got their information

always after the fact and usually second or third hand) and logs from the

TACC and the TACC senior duty officer log book.

4. Telephone interview of Robert Gatewood, 26 October 1977. Gatewood

did not believe that the coordination between ABCCC and FACs and

fighters was as good as it could have been, but he thinks it was adequate

79
given the nature of the emergency. One FAC, James Gibler, thought the

ABCCC got in the way (telephone interview with Gibler, 10 November

1977). But the FAC longest on the scene, Philip Smotherman, thought the

ABCCC performed "outstandingly," acting as a "mini-DASC."

Smotherman telephone interview 26 October 1977.

5. Smotherman telephone interview.

6. Tape recording #K 239.0512, side 1, tape 1. The voice is unidentified,

but it is probably Willard C. Johnson's.

7. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 32-33.

8. Log, I Corps DASC, AFSHRC, M.AFB, AL. On microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

9. Chronological Order of Events.

10. Ibid.

11. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 7, 8. See Chronological

Order of Events. See also Document 6.

12. Updated Statement by Herbert J. Spier, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. See

microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

13. Tape #K 239.0512, side 1, tape 2.

14. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," p. 5. See statement by Reese B.

Black, 16 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29[2/4 &

Sup.

15. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 22-25. See statements by

Richard J. Smith, 16 May 1968 and Jack Anderson, 29 May 1968, both

AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup for both

statements.

16. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 22-25. See statements by

Richard J. Smith, 16 May 1968 and Jack Anderson, 29 May 1968, both

AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH-/29/2/4 & Sup for both

statements. See interview author with Walter Hersmar at MAFB, Al., 21

December 1977. Hersman was overhead Kham Duc on 12 May in an F-100.

See also statement by Richard J. Smith, 16 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB,

Al. On microfilm 02CH/29j2/4 & Sup.

17. Statement by Richard P. Schuman, 28 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB,

Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

18. Tape #K 239.0512, side 2, tape 2.

19. Ibid. See statement by Philip k. Smotherman, 29 May 1968,

AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

80
20. Statement by James Gibler, 18 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On

microfilm 02/CH/29/2/4 & Sup. See Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due,"

pp. 22-25.

21. Tape #K 239.0512, side 2, tape 2.

22. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 22-25; See also Schungel,

"After Action Report Kham Duc."

23. Tape #K 239.0512, side 2, tape 2.

24. Statement by James M. Mead, 16 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al.

On microfilm 02/CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

25. Smith statement.

26. Ibid. See also statement by James M. Fogle, 16 May 1968, AFSHRC,

MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

27. Fogle and Mead statements.

28. Brownlow, "Coordinated Effort." pp. 92-98.

29. Fogle and Mead statements.

Notes on Chapter IV

1. Document 6. See also Chronological Order of Events.

2. Statement by Charles Herrington, 17 May 1968, AFSI1RC, MAFB,

Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

3. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 10, 11.

4. Chronological Order of Events.

5. Ibid.

6. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 15, 16. See statement by Dave

C. Hearell, 17 May 1968. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

7. Jackson letter.

8. Schungel, "After Action Report Kham Due."

9. Gary H. Saban, "History of the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing, 1 July-31

October 1968," pp. 77-82. This can be found at AjSHRC.

81
10. Brownlow, "Coordinated Effort," pp. 92-98. See letter, Morton

Freedman to author, 30 October 1977. See also Bob Cutts, "On a Wing and a

Prayer," Pacific Stars and Stripes, 11 August 1968, pp. A3-A6.

11. Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," p. 14.

12. Ibid., pp. 17-19.

13. Ibid.

14. "History of the 463 Tactical Airlift Wing, April-June 1968," pp. 21-23.

This can be found at AFSHRC.

15. Tape #239.0512, side 2, tape 1. This is Spier talking.

16. Ted R. Sturm, "The Lucky Duc," Airman, Volume 14, Number 9,

October 1970, pp. 26-29.

17. Interview of John McCall by Ray Bowers, undated. This interview

will be deposited at AFSHRC.

18. Saban. See also Sams and Thompson, "Kham Due," pp. 17-19. See

Debrief of Aircrews from Kham Duc, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

19. Debrief of Aircrews. See also Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp.

17-19.

20. Telephone interview of James L. Wallace by Ray Bowers, 3 April

1972. This interview will be deposited at AFSHRC. See also tape

#K239.0512, side 2, tape 2, Smotherman speaking.

21. Kham Duc Summary Sheet, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm

02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. See Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp. 17-19.

22. Chronological Order of Events. See also Brownlow, "Coordinated

Effort." pp. 92-98. See Freedman letter. See telephone interview, author

with Burl McLaughlin, 22 Janupary 1978. Worse yet, there was another

airplane in the pattern with another CCT onboard. This C-130 was piloted

by Maj Norman Jensen of the 463 TAW. Jensen was on temporary duty to

Tan Son Nhut AB at Saigon and permanently assigned to Mactan AB. He

was in the landing pattern when called by Hilda to take the CCT back to

base. Jensen telephone interview by author, 3 Nov 1977. See also letter Paul

E. Dahle to Ray Bowers, 25 November 1972. Dahle was Jensen's navigator.

82
Notes on Chapter V

1. According to an undated statement by Richard F. Campbell, the major

in command of the CCT came to the A Team "right after the initial mortar

rounds began to fall" and said that he wanted his men evacuated. See

microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup for Campbell statement, AFSHRC,

MAFB, AL.

2. Cutts, "On a Wing and a Prayer." See also Mission Report for Tailpipe

Delta, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

3. Brownlow, "Coordinated Effort," pp. 92-98. See also letter, Edward

Carr to author, undated [November 1977]. Carr was Van Cleeff's navigator.

He confirmed to this author that the crew picked up no one. He was on the

ramp at the rear of the airplane taking motion pictures while the crew

awaited the return of the CCT.

4. Telephone interview of Carr by author, 3 November 1977. Interview of

Jan Van Cleeff by author, 22 May 1978.

5. Ltr Carr to Gropman; see also Ltr Gatewood to 834AD Commander,

AFSHRC, MAFB, AL. On microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

6. Freedman letter. See also "Mission Report for Tailpipe Delta."

7. Cutts, "On a Wing and a Prayer."

8. "History of 315 Air Commando Wing, April-June 1968," Tab 17,

statement by TSgt Morton J. Freedman, attested to by Maj Ira Allen. This

can be found at AFSHRC. See also Freedman letter. There are numerous

minor discrepancies in the various accounts of the final rescue. Freedman in

his statement to Allen said that men were picked up on Van Cleeff's C-130,

and Gatewood wrote the same thing to McLaughlin. But Carr denies this,

and he was with the airplane all the way out and back to Cam Ranh Bay.

Also, Smotherman wanted to be the last to leave Kham Duc, and in all the

conversations and correspondence he never mentioned anybody leaving the

airplane he boarded. He and Henderson were determined to be the last on

the ground and would not have permitted anybody to run off the C- 130 ramp

into the smoke and fire.

9. Telephone interview of Alfred Jeanotte, Jr., by author 5 November

1977. See also Ltr Gatewood to Commander 834AD. See CCT Mission

Report for Tailpipe Delta. See Sams and Thompson, "Kham Duc," pp.

17-19.

10. Flint Du Pre, "Rescue at a Place Called Kham Duc," Air Force

Magazine, Volume 52, Number 3 March 1969, pp. 98-100. See also Ted R.

Sturm, "Flight Check to Glory," Airman, Volume XIII, Number 9,

83
September 1969, pp. 52-54. See Oral History Interview of Col Joe M.

Jackson by Hugh N.Ahmann,7 and 13 October 1971, AFS H RC, MAFB, Al.

See statement by Joe M. Jackson, 18 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. See

microfilm 02CH./29/2/4 & Sup.

11. Flint Du Pre, "Rescue at a Place Called Kham Due," Air Force

Magazine, Volume 52, Number 3 March 1969, pp. 98-100. See also Ted R.

Sturm, "Flight Check to Glory," Airman, Volume XIII, Number 9,

September 1969, pp. 52-54. See Oral History Interview of Col Joe M.

Jackson by Hugh N. Ahmann, 7 and 13 October 1971, AFSHRC, MAFB,

Al. See microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup. Telephone interview of Jesse W.

Campbell by author, 3 November 1977. See citation to accompany the

award of the Air Force Cross to Jesse W. Campbell. This will be deposited at

AFSHRC.

12. Flint Du Pre, "Rescue at a Place Called Kham Duc," Air Force

Magazine, Volume 52, Number 3 March 1969, pp. 98-100. See also Ted R.

Sturm, "Flight Check to Glory," Airman, Volume XIII, Number 9,

September 1969, pp. 52-54. See Oral History Interview of Col Joe M.

Jackson by Hugh N. Ahmann, 7 and 13 October 1972, AFSHRC, MAFB,

AL. See statement by Joe M. Jackson. 18 May 1968, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al.

See microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup.

!he Medal of Honor to Joe M. Jackson and the supporting data for same,

Congressional Record: Senate, 1969, pp. 1043-1044. See letter Jackson to

author, undated [November 1977].

84
Bibliography

Manuscript Collection

Microfilm 02CH/29/2/4 & Sup, AFSHRC, MAFB, Al. This previously

classified body of documents forms the spine of this monograph. Kenneth

Sams and A. E. Thompson collected them for their report on Kham Duc.

Books

Nalty, Bernard C. Air Power and the Fight for Khe Sanh. Washington: GPO

(Office of Air Force History), 1973.

Westmoreland, William C. A Soldier Reports. New York: Doubleday and

Co., 1976.

Periodicals

Brownlow, Cecil. "Coordinated Effort Saves Force." Aviation Week and

Space Technology, 89: 92-98.

Cutts, Bob. "On a Wing and a Prayer," Pacific Stars and Stripes, 11 August

1968, pp. A-3 and A-6.

DuPre, Flint. "Rescue at a Place called Kham Duc," Air Force Magazine,

52: 98-100.

Sturm, Ted R. "Flight Check to Glory," Airman, Volume XIII, Number 9,

52-54.

_ _ ,_ "The Lucky Duc," Airman, Volume XIV, Number 9,

October 1970, 26-29.

Unpublished Reports

McLaughlin, Burl W. "End of Tour Report." This can be found at

AFSHRC.

Saban, Gary H. "History of 374th Tactical Airlift Wing, I July-31 October

1968." This can be found at AFSHRC.

Sams, Kenneth and Thompson, A. W. "Kham Duc." A Project CHECO

Report, HQ PACAF, Directorate of Tactical Evaluation, CHECO

Division, HAFB, Ha. This can be found at AFSHRC.

Sams, et al. "The Air War in Viet Nam, 1968-1969." A Project CHECO

Report, HQ PACAF, Directorate of Tactical Evaluation, CHECO

Division, HAFB, Ha. This can be found at AFSHRC.

Westmoreland, William C. "Report on the War in Vietnam, Section II,

Report on Operations in South Viet Nam January 1964-June 1968."

85

......
Washington, GPO. This can be found at MAFB in the Air University

Library.

'The Marines in Vietnam, 1954-1973, An Anthology and Annotated

Bibliography." History and Museums Division, Headquarters US

Marine Corps, Washington, DC, 1974. This can be found at MAFB in the

Air University Library.

"History of 314th Air Commando Wing, April-June 1968." This can be

found at AFSHRC'.

Interviews

Campbell, Jesse W. by author, telecon, 3 November 1977.

Carr, Edward G. by author, telecon, 3 November 1977.

Jackson, Joe M. by Hugh N. Ahmann, 7, 13 October 1971. This can be found

at AFSHRC.

Jackson, Joe M. by author, November, December 1977, May 1978.

Jeanotte, Alfred J., Jr. by author, telecon, 5 November 1977.

Jensen, Norman K. by author, telecon, 3 November 1977.

McLaughlin, Burl W. by author, telecon, 22 January 1978.

Niblack, Emmet A. by Ray Bowers, 3 May 1972. This can be found at

AFSHRC.

Smotherman, Philip R. by author, telecon, 26 October 1977.

Turner, Claude H. by author, telecon, 25 October 1977.

Van Cleeff, Jay. by author, 22 May 1978.

Award Citations

Citation to accompany Willian Boyd's Air Force Cross. This will be

deposited at AFSHRC.

Citation to accompany Jesse W. Campbell's Air Force Cross. This will be

deposited at AFSHRC.

Citation to accompany Joe M. Jackson's Medal of Honor with supporting

data, Congressional Record, Senate, 1969, pp. 1043-1044.

Citation to accompany Alfred J. Jeanotte, Jr.'s Air Force Cross. This will be

deposited at AFSHRC.

Tape

Cassette tape recording call number #K 239.0512, AFSHRC, MAFB, A!.

Letters

Carr, Edward to author, undated [November 1977]. This will be deposited at

AFSHRC.

undated [February 1978]. This will be deposited at

AFSHRC.

Dahle, Paul E. to Ray Bowers, 25 November 1972. This will be deposited at

AFSHRC.

Freedman, Morton to author, 30 October 1977. This will be deposited at

AFSHRC.

86
Gatewood, Robert M. to author, undated [October 1977]. This will be

deposited at AFSHRC.

Jackson, Peter H. to author, undated [November 19771. This will be

deposited at AFSHRC.

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