Friday photo: Arrowhead Lake in northern Laos

The view: Arrowhead Lake on the Plaine des Jarres (Plain of Jars (PDJ)), a strategic plain in northern Laos.

The pilot: Dale Hill

The airplane: OV-10 Bronco

The mission: Flying as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) over the PDJ trying to interdict the flow of enemy weapons, supplies, and troops moving along the Ho Chi Mihn Trail from North Vietnam to South Vietnam.  You can see the results of many airstrikes in carrying out this mission. 

The memory: As a FAC in southeast Asia, it was important to always know where you were and how to expeditiously get the fighter aircraft carrying their bombs to join up with you. We used a lot of terrain features that were easily spotted and widely known by those who flew over that terrain for navigation. Pictured is Arrowhead Lake which is dry because the dam at the far end that had created the lake was blown up, leaving the lakebed in the shape of an arrowhead.  There were other geographical formations such as river bends and karst formations (karst is limestone that jutted out of the jungle in places), which helped us to stay oriented throughout the region.  There were bends in the river like the “Catcher’s Mitt”, “Spade”, “Snoopy’s Nose”, or the karst that looked like a “Rooster Tail”, and “Road-Runner Lake” among others.  It was easy to get someone to join up with you when you radioed, “I’m about five klicks (kilometers) north of Arrowhead.”

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Dale Hill

Colonel (ret) Dale "Boots" Hill served 22 years in the Air Force, beginning his tour of duty flying 165 missions in the OV-10 as a Forward Air Controller in Vietnam. He was then a T-38 IP, A-10 IP and flight examiner, and an F-16 IP and commander of the 61st Top Dawgs. He worked assignments at TAC HQ (he told other fighter pilots where to go—they would tell him where to go). At the Pentagon he served on the Air Staff as a planner for Operation Desert Storm and on the staff of the Secretary of the Air Force. He lives in Canton, GA, with his wife, Susan, near three (soon to be four) of their seven (soon to be eight) grandchildren.

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