Bombing The Ho Chi Minh Trail-1968

[Borg]

I came across a pretty good recording that I made while flying the "alleycat" ABCCC command post mission over Laos and North
Vietnam. It's a B-57 (yellow-bird) being directed by an O-2 (2-engine pusher-puller Cessna skymaster) FAC Foward-Air-Controller, callsign: NAIL . Go to:

http://www.rogue-gryffons.com/gallery/album04

Whenever an altitude is mentioned, it is referred to as " Base +/-
1,2,3,etc,) Base altitude being a classified altitude that is changed each day so the enemy anti-aircraft wont be able to know altitudes of planes they are monitoring.

It's a nighttime mission, bombing trucks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and North Vietnam.  This is a pretty good example of how FACs and Fighter-Bombers worked with each other .

 For the missions against the trail, we have seen one reference to what came to be known as the "funny bomb," which was the M-35 or M-36 incendiary bomb clusters that combined the effects of napalm, incendiaries, and cluster bombs. The 900-pound M-36 had 182 thermate bomblets that exploded on contact
with the ground. A single bomblet could set a truck on fire. Once the bomb struck, there would be a small flash of fire in the air that signaled the ignition of the bomb, then an aerial fire that opened, grew and descended toward the darkened jungle, and then flames spreading over an area larger than a football field by the time the fire reached the ground. Then scores of thermate bomblets exploded . Those who could witness the effects of the
"funny bomb" said it was "awe inspiring.

go to :   http://www.talkingproud.us/Military121504.html

for a very informative page about many of the aircraft that worked the "trail"  .
 
 I just learned that Col Chuck Yeager was in command of the B-57
squadron during the early years of the war. I remember his next command of an F-105 wing in Thailand that flew missions in North Vietnam and Laos.
 
Cheers,
Tom Bigelow - Borg

[Lizking]

Very cool, thank you for the audio and for your service, S!

[Bodhi]

pretty damn cool and a big to you.

[gofaster]

Cool!

We need flares in AH!

[Lizking]

You mean flair, don't you?

[oboe]

Very interesting.  Makes me wish we had smoke marker rockets we could fire from some planes in AH.

Question for you vets:  What does "Reaction 124 on guard, over." mean?

[Nefarious]

Not a Veteran but,

Reaction 124 might be a Call Sign for that particular Flight,

Guard sounds like it could be the radio Channel?

Im more sure of the first than the second.

[Toad]

Didn't listen to the whole thing.. got interrupted.

"Guard" is 243.0  At least one UHF radio was always tuned to receive that and you had to monitor it. It was the Emergency channel.

Reaction 124 most likely is a callsign, as that phrase is in the standard terminology.  Callsign then freq then message or, in this case, "over" meaning Reaction 124 is up on Guard and listening for any instructions meant for him.

Or it could be he's waiting to contact someone who is busy right now. Kinda like getting your name in the hat to be answered when they're busy.

[oboe]

Thanks for clearing that up.   I figured "guard" was some kind of special radio channel but wasn't sure what it was used for.

Its worth listening to the whole 17 minutes, just grab a cup of joe and sit back and listen.  Gave me a whole new appreciation for FACs, flying low in light, practically-civilian airframes, right in the teeth of enemy fire but still going about their business with a calm professionalism.

GVs in AH are so hard to spot from the air smoke marker rockets or flares might be kind of cool have.