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This is not a Wild West story involving Buffalo Bill. Rather it’s from when I was a Forward Air Controller (FAC) flying the OV-10 Bronco in Southeast Asia from Nakhon Phanom (NKP) Royal Thai Air Base (KOP) in Northeast Thailand.
A DC130 carrying a Firebee.
“Buffalo Hunters” was a callsign associated with a DC-130 unit whose unique mission was carrying Ryan Firebee drones under its wings. After launching in-flight, the Firebees flew pre-programmed routes while taking pictures of the terrain below them. Read the tale of an enemy encounter with a Firebee here.
At the end of their mission, the drones recovered west of NKP where their engine would cut off. At that point, a parachute would deploy and, as the drone descended, a waiting helicopter with a sling below it would snag the parachute. The chopper would reel in its catch until the drone was 15-20 feet below it, and then fly to NKP where the drone was set down on a pile of mattresses. The exposed film was immediately downloaded, processed, and then analyzed by photo-interpreters.
Bringing a Firebee drone home.
One morning, I was scheduled to fly to an area in Northern Laos that we called “the PDJ” (or ‘the J’). PDJ is an abbreviation for Plaine de Jarres, which originated with French colonizers of Indochina during the mid to late 19th century. The name came from the thousands of stone jars scattered across the plateau that were left behind by a civilization in the late second or early first millennium BC.
The Plaine de Jarres (PDJ) in Northern Laos.
The PDJ was a strategically significant region. Whichever force controlled it–the Communist Pathet Lao or the Royal Lao Government–would have the upper hand in controlling Northern Laos.
After checking the NOTAMS, the weather, and filing my flight plan, I stepped into the Intel Shop for my pre-mission briefing. This was an update of enemy activity on the J to include the threat, which was primarily anti-aircraft artillery (Triple-A) ranging in size from 23MM to 100MM rounds.
Triple-A rounds had fusing allowing the gunners to set the range at which the shell exploded; think of the movie “Twelve O’Clock High” with puffs of German Triple-A detonating around the B-17s. Those puffs were airbursts containing shell fragments that could cripple an airplane, or worse, wound or kill the crew. A direct hit would create the greatest damage. There were few radar-guided Triple-A sites on the J, but the visual gunners were pretty good at ranging us with their several years of practice.
The most likely threat I would face was 23MM and 37MM Triple-A, which would be fired in streams of 25-50 rounds at a time. If the gunners were harassing you, they might fire only 25 rounds. If they were intent on you not destroying something of value (like themselves!), you could expect hundreds of rounds to be fired at you.
A 37MM Anti-Aircraft Gun.
At the close of the briefing, I was handed a black and white, 8×10-inch photograph and told, “We want you to find and destroy this.” I took one glance at it and immediately knew what it was–a 37MM Triple-A gun. On the right is a picture of a captured one sitting outside the very building in which I was being briefed!
I asked where the picture had come from, and was told the Buffalo Hunters had taken it. The gun was in plain sight and the briefer told me they believed the gun had just arrived and was being positioned/camouflaged when the Firebee took the picture.
It was a very close-up shot as the drone came in low and fast (500-1000 feet AGL at 500+ knots); the crew had no time to react, except to look up. I could actually see some of their faces turned upward; they wouldn’t want a copy for their wallets as their faces weren’t distinguishable.
Annotated on the picture was the location of the gun using the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system. Pre-GPS, the military used UTM coordinates or latitude/longitude to identify where something of interest was located, e.g., friendly positions–“No bombs here!”, or enemy positions–“Bomb there!” We FACs used UTM’s and, in this case, the gun’s position was given in eight figures; someone had pinpointed it to within 10 meters.
However, the maps we routinely carried were only accurate to within 100 meters of a desired point. Using clues in the surrounding area, i.e., rivers or streams, distinctive terrain, or roads (>90% dirt trails), I figured I could locate this gun. So, I set off knowing the gun crew was probably expecting someone would come looking for them, but NOT to take another picture!
As I approached the general area, I was keeping an eye out for any Triple-A, but as I neared where the gun was supposedly located, I noted it was either gone or was well camouflaged. The picture was such a close-up that it showed little of the surrounding area for me to use as a reference. So, I began looking for other clues on the ground, such as tire tracks leading into some shrubbery or under some trees. I also looked for signs of troops in the area such as tents/shelters below me in the jungle, or perhaps smoke from a cooking fire.
Firing Willie Petes.
I finally narrowed my search to an area I believed was close, but I wanted to make certain so as not to waste bombs probing for this gun. I could spare some marking rockets and, with the enemy knowing those rockets proceeded bombs being dropped, they might try to shoot me down before anyone showed up carrying bombs. We called our marking rockets “Willie Petes” for their White Phosphorous warheads whose billowing white smoke provided a great aiming reference.
Arming my rocket pods, I rolled in, taking my trusty Bronco nearly inverted to get the nose below where I was going to shoot; then, rolling upright, I pulled backpressure to get my aiming reticle pointed at where I wanted to strike. After firing a rocket, I recovered from my dive and then banked sharply to watch where it hit. When nothing happened, I repeated the maneuver and fired the next rocket at another point.
After shooting several Willie Petes, the expected happened. Thinking they had been spotted, the gun crew started shooting at me and exposed their position. I couldn’t see them outright; their camouflage netting and tree branches draped over and around them made it very difficult to break them out from the surrounding jungle! They also weren’t firing tracers as those would show me their exact position. However, I could see the muzzle flashes when I was looking directly at the gun as it fired; I could also see the gun smoke hanging in the air.
Getting quickly (DUH!) out of range, I contacted the Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (A-B-Triple-C)–callsign Cricket–and requested support to put this gun out of action. I also noted some visual clues I could give others to help them locate the gun. Cricket told me to standby. A few minutes later, they informed me two F-4 Phantoms were heading my way.
F-4 dropping Mk-82 bombs.
Sure enough, some F-4s soon contacted me and I gave them a DF steer to my position. As they approached, the flight lead told me they were each carrying six Mark-82 bombs with enough fuel remaining to drop them in pairs. As they continued toward me, I briefed them on the target elevation, where the immediate and the safest bailout locations were (if they needed to eject from a crippled jet), and the threat (a VERY ACTIVE 37MM gun!!), which was also our target. As there were no friendly forces in the area, I cleared them to make their attacks from random directions, making them less predictable. They acknowledged my briefing and were soon overhead and ready to go to work.
As soon as I spotted the F-4s and got their eyes on me, I talked their eyes into the general area of where the gun was, i.e., where to look and what to look for. I then said I was going to mark the target and to expect an immediate response from the gun. I once again rolled in; however, before I shot my next Willie Pete, I saw more muzzle flashes. Seeing the airbursts around my Bronco, one of the F-4 pilots hollered, “FAC, you’re getting hosed!”
I fired my rocket, pulled out of my dive and, when the warhead’s white smoke billowed upwards, I told the leader to drop twenty meters south of my smoke. NOTE: Getting shot at affects one’s accuracy while firing Willie Petes!
The leader rolled in and dropped his first two bombs. He was close to where I told him to drop, but the gun kept firing. As number two rolled in, I gave him a correction from lead’s bombs. His bombs were close as well, but this gun crew was determined to shoot one or more of us down; they kept shooting!
I gave the leader a correction from his wingman’s bombs and this time lead’s bombs were spot-on with a large secondary explosion following the bomb’s blast; the gun fell silent. I then shot another Willie Pete into an area where I believed the crew’s camp might be, and where their ammo supply could also be. The wingman’s next bombs also resulted in a large and several smaller secondary explosions, indicating he had hit the ammo supply. I directed lead to strike that area again; similarly, when his bombs detonated, they produced numerous small secondary explosions–probably more ammo cooking off. Number two’s last two bombs “bounced the dust and stirred the smoke” in the area, but there were no further explosions.
Out of bombs, the F-4s turned for home and the leader asked for their BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment). I told them the coordinates they had struck, time on and off the target, and concluded, “One 37MM gun destroyed, two large secondary explosions and numerous smaller secondaries with a dozen KBA (killed by air).” I based the KBA count on the number I had been in the picture.
The remainder of my mission was unremarkable and, upon returning home, I handed the intel debriefer the picture and told him the gun was no longer a factor; the Buffalo Hunters had led me to the prey.
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Another great story, Boots. Thanks for sharing.
Great arrival Col Hill. I was stationed at Osan 73-74 and I wonder if your unit replaced the O-2s (20th TASS I believe). The OV-10s arrived one afternoon, think in ‘75, and put on an impromptu airshow for 20-30 minutes in the pattern.
Afterwards we’d see the pilots walking on base and someone would holler out “dead bug” and they all fell to the ground, on their backs, feet and arms imitating a dead bug.
Osan also had a DC-130 and we’d see the UH-3 and drone on recovery go Osan.
Always enjoy your articles. Lived in Blue Ridge for 4+ years and my wife and I would drive to Canton for shopping and decent restaurants.
I returned to the States in October of ’73. Some of my compatriots were the ones who flew the 23rd TASS OV-10’s from Thailand to Osan while I was checking out as a T-38 IP at Vance. Yep, ‘deceased insect’ was a favorite to pull on someone not expecting it and they had to buy a round when they were the last to hit the ground in the correct position – on your back with arms and legs up in the air!
Great story Boots. Told with the detail only a slow FAC would have!
They were call Snorts when they show up at NKP in early 69m the vecame Nails replacing the real slow FACs.
Good stuff on there Fireees. Not many people know how much they were used to supplement the RFs.
Another good one!