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The view: Herding Chicks in Southeast Asia
The pilot: Dale Hill, callsign ‘Nail 49’
The airplane: North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco
The mission: As Forward Air Controllers (FACs), we often supported supply convoys coming up the Mekong River to deliver food, fuel, and ammo to the people/defenders of Phnom Pehn (Papa-Papa), the capitol of Cambodia. The bad guys would lie in wait for the convoy and then attack it with heavy weapons (quad 50-caliber machine-guns and mortars). With inputs made by the convoy commander aboard one of the riverine boats (the smaller ships in the picture) we supplemented their ‘friendly fires’ by directing fighter aircraft on where to drop their bombs.
The memory: At the end of the day and getting our ‘chicks’ safely past the enemy, we made a low pass to say, “Happy trails to you, until we meet again…”. The picture captures several of the riverine boats that helped defend the convoy as well as one of the tugs who had to cut away the cargo barge it was towing because the enemy managed to drop a mortar round on it and set it on fire. The fire quickly spread to the ammo onboard, and it started cooking off. The convoy commander made a wise decision to cut it loose because the barge soon blew sky-high!
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Hey Dale, Can you give me any information on Joe Mejaski, he was a senior FAC at Can Tho.
He flew P-51s in WWII “STINKY”
O1Es and U-17s in Vietnam, 1965-? retired in 1978 as Colonel
Sorry Mike. That was before my time and I can’t find his name in any of the historic documents to which I have access.
Stephen stabler
July 4, 2024 at 12:16 am
Colonel Hill, thabk you for your service and for sharing some of your experiences during your service. I have enjoyed reading through some of the posts. I came across your uniform at the National Air Force Museum and wondering what the BUD patch on it signified—was this related to a apecific mission, call-sign, something else—many thanks in advance!
We were reluctant to use our actual names when talking to one another on the radio, so we relied on voice recognition (just like you can do when someone familiar calls you on the phone). The reason was, we didn’t want the bad guys to associate our name with our callsign as they would harass you, e.g., “Steve, we gonna shoot you down!” (read that in a Far East accent). So, we adopted the name ‘BUD’ and that became everyone’s ‘name’ on the radio and we created the patch and wore it on our party suits. I even had a license plate created, which I put on the front of my ‘Vette when I got home. I still have the plate, but not the ‘Vette.
Colonel Hill, thabk you for your service and for sharing some of your experiences during your service. I have enjoyed reading through some of the posts. I came across your uniform at the National Air Force Museum and wondering what the BUD patch on it signified—was this related to a apecific mission, call-sign, something else—many thanks in advance!