CLOSE AIR SUPPORT


Courtesy of George Devorshak, Colonel, USAF (Ret)

From the onset of combat operations flown by the 12th TFW after their arrival at Cam Ranh Bay, Close Air Support missions were essentially limited to a small alert force consisting of two aircraft; one loaded with four tanks of napalm and a full GAU-16 centerline 20 millimeter cannon pod with 1200 rounds of High-Explosive Incendiarary ammunition, and the other aircraft loaded with four 19-tube rocket pods with anti-personnel rockets, and the centerline cannon pod. These aircraft were maintained on 15-minute alert status from daybreak to dusk. The support also consisted of bringing up replacement aircraft to 15-minute alert status if and when the aircraft on alert status were scrambled in response to tasking by the Tactical Air Control Center located in Saigon.

Scrambles from 12th TFW alert status occurred almost every day, and often several times a day. Usually the targets consisted of an enemy force in South Vietnam that was encountered by a U. S. Army ground force who asked for nominal air support. Many of the missions were in support of the several U. S. Army Special Forces compounds in South Viet Nam that came under attack by Viet Cong/North Vietnamese forces, so much emphasis was placed on the alert force to know about these locations. However, the alert force was also used to support rescue operations when an aircraft was shot down, particularly in Laos (the area around Tchepone and the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail) and the southern portion on North Vietnam known as Route Package One (where a North Vietnamese Anti-Aircraft Training Center existed at a place called Vinh Linh Barracks). Aircraft flying missions in these two areas occasionally were shot down because of apparent logistics significance to the North Vietnamese and they commited air-to-air defenses to the areas. Airborne control of these Close Air Support missions usually were by A-1 aircraft or by "Misty" Forward Air Controllers flying small, prop-driven aircraft. It was rare for ground based Forward Air Controllers to get involved with the 12th TFW alert missions.