Phantom Leader Part 38

The North Vietnamese, by the way, call it the Truong Son Road because it goes though the Truong Son Mountains."

The maps filled an entire 4-by-8 plywood sheet. The black, hydra-headed Ho Chi Minh Trail on the acetate overlay stretched from the three pa.s.ses into Laos, where it branched into Vietnam, looking like the trailing arms of a squid.

Court ran his index finger along the Trail. "From Hanoi down through Laos and on to the point where the supplies swing into South Vietnam is close to a thousand miles. Add the double trails, switchbacks, cat's eyes, truck parks, maintenance depots, resupply points, off-load and transfer points, and we have a system, in reality, which is three or four times as long. In most areas the Trail can be widened, switched, dualed, duplicated, or cut through a fresh new batch of jungle d.a.m.n near overnight." He pulled out enlarged mosaics of the Mu Gia Pa.s.s area. "We have geographical points designated by Delta numbers. Delta 22 is here, Delta 32 there, Delta 69 here, and so on. Other places are known by specific terrain features." He traced prominent river features that wound and looped into many shapes and forms easily recognizable from the air. "This is the Bird's Head, the Dog's Head is down here by Ban Loby, here are the North b.o.o.bs, here the South b.o.o.bs. You must memorize all of these. You frontseaters and backseaters must be as familiar with this area as your own backyard." He faced the audience.

"Right now the slow O-2 FACs and the fast F-4 FACs have been controlling the primary interdiction strike missions against the Trail, using Navy, Marine, and Air Force fighters. Right with them have been the Air Commandos from NKP, flying prop jobs day and night along the Trail.

Ask Toby. He's been there. Those guys at NKP have the greatest collection of World War Two aircraft this side of the Confederate Air Force. They fly the twin-engine A-26, the C-47, C-119s, C-123s, and the biggest single prop job in the world, the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. Added to their effort is the Igloo White missions, which drop electronic sensors in an effort to locate trucks and troops. Then there is the radardirected Skyspot mission."

The crewmen hissed. They called Skyspot "Sky Puke" because all they did was fly under the direction of a radar site to dump bombs "on a pile of sand."

"All those efforts, the Air Commandos, Igloo White, and Skyspot perform night missions to some degree," Court continued. "Unfortunately without great success. Supplies and troops are still moving down the Trail after dark. That's the main reason the powers-that-be have decided to form a dedicated night FAC unit. They hope we'll have better BDA."

BDA was the acronym for Bomb Damage a.s.sessment what each airplane destroyed or killed on a single mission.

He walked to the edge of the stage and folded his arms.

"The Wolf FACs here at Udorn, the Marine Playboy FACs from Da Nan , the Stormys, the Laredos, Falcons, Tigers, they've all done a great job stopping the flow of supplies on the Trail during daylight hours. As a result the trucks of the 559th NVA Transportation Division now have to run at night."

Court gave a broad grin. "And that, gentlemen, brings us to why you are here today. We are forming a new outfit, a special outfit. And you gentlemen weren't chosen from a bunch of names in a hat. You were chosen because I found you are all uniquely qualified in one way or another to perform this night FAC mission. I spent a lot of time going over pilot and navigator records and talking to your operations officers. Once we get everybody trained and on line, our mission will be to stop the nighttime supply flow down the Trail. We will do it by sniffing around for the trucks, the truck parks, the overhaul depots, the transs.h.i.+pment points, and anything else that makes up or protects the flow of supplies moving down the Trail at night."

There was a stir in the audience as Donny Higgens spoke up. "Protects?

Did you say protects? Like in guns? You mean we gotta go after guns?"

"Yeah, Donny," Court said. "Guns. At night."

"Me? Little old beautiful me?" Higgens said. "Marvelous me is supposed to fly at night?" He looked around, mock terror on his face. "If G.o.d wanted me to fly at night"-he was interrupted by a chorus from the audience-"I'd have been born an owl," they chanted. "Aw, howdja know?"

Higgens replied. He had been flying as a Wolf on the day FAC mission for months.

"Yeah, Donny, fly at night. But listen to this. We will not go on the line until each man has at least ten day Wolf FAC missions and twenty Night Owl missions in his logbook.

That means you Night Owls got to aviate in the day when everybody can see you, and you day jocks got to learn how to flog around at night without killing yourselves. Furthermore, you all must be volunteers. If at any time before we are operational you want out, let me know. You'll just go back to your squadron."

"What if we want out after we are operational?" Docks asked.

"Then I'll find you a nice slot in Seventh Air Force at Tan Son Nhut. Of course if you get shot down twice and still make it back, I'll find you a slot anyplace you want to go."

"s.h.i.+t, who gives a hoot about the Night Owls, " Higgens said. "How about being a night duck?"

"Speaking of owls," Court said, ignoring him, "we need a name and a call sign for this outfit. The day FACs are the Wolfs, the night squadron is the Night Owls. So what should we be called?"

After a moment suggestions came from the crewmen.

Night FACs, Owl FACs, Eagles, Night Strikers, Night Hawks. Higgens was booed when he proposed Night Ducks.

Then a voice said Phantom FACs.

"Phantom FACs," someone else said. "That sounds good."

"Yeah," Higgens said. "If we can't be Night Ducks, let's be Phantom FACs. What do you think, boss?" he asked Court.

"It's up to you guys," Court said. "Take a vote." Joseph organized the vote. It was 13 to 3 for Phantom FACs.

"Okay, we are now known as the Phantom FACs. How about a motto?" Court said.

After a lively discussion involving several scatological and reproductive terms, they decided on "We Get Ours at Night."

"Okay," Court said, "we got a mission, a name, a motto, all we need now is some organization." He pulled out a board with the crew roster taped on it. "And here we are."

He took a grease pencil and wrote the new name and motto at the top.

Phantom-FAC Roster We Get Ours at Night Position A/C GIB Commander 01AMaj C. 01B It Pete Bannister Stein Operations 02A Capt 02B It John officer Howie Martin Joseph Intelli- 03A Capt Tom 03B It Mike gence Partin Steffes Officer Mainte- 04A Capt 04B It nance/ Donny Horace Weapons Higgens Rhoades Admin 05A Capt 05B It Neil officer Chet Tallboy Griggs Supply 06A Capt 06B It Matt officer Lynn Henry 'Mitch.e.l.l Special 07A It Rolly 07B Maj Projects Grailson Carlos Bretone Flying 0 8A Capt 08B Capt Safety Deacon Toby Docks Parker The numbers and letters were each man's individual call sign. The Alpha and Bravo meant the position a crewman flew in the aircraft. If Phantom Zero Four was flying, Phantom Zero Four Alpha would be Higgens in the front seat, Zero Four Bravo would be Rhoades in the backseat. However, when a frontseater flew in the backseat, he took a Bravo code after his call sign.

Court pulled out a board with aircraft and weapons pictures and diagrams. "We will carry a 600-gallon centerline tank, two SUU-42 flare dispensers with sixteen Mark-24 flares each, three CBU-24s, and ten w.i.l.l.y Pete marking rockets. The flares are to find 'em, the rockets to fix 'em for the strike birds, and the CBU is for us to use on a fleeting target, gun suppression, or on movers if no strike birds are available."

He walked back to the podium. "The missions will be single-s.h.i.+p, no wingmen on these missions. The crew will report two hours before takeoff time to check the weather, intelligence, and current strike reports. Get out to your birds at least thirty minutes before start engine time. Night preflights are tricky. Take your time. We're all new to the SUU-42 flare dispenser. Make sure the fuzes and timers are set correctly. A dud flare is a wasted pa.s.s. Taxi extra slow at night, all nav lights on Bright. Watch the armorers in the armament area just before you take the active runway. They will signal you with flashlights what to do. Both front- and backseaters, put your hands outside the c.o.c.kpit so they can see them and know the c.o.c.kpit is clear.

The armorers will check the electrical continuity and stability of all the weapons under your wings, then pull the safing pins and signal that you are cleared. Do your standard pre-takeoff checks before taking the active runway, and standard run-up checks once on the runway. Here are your radio frequencies. Channel eleven is for us to talk among ourselves." He pulled out a board.

Channel Agency 2 UDORN GROUND CONTROL.

3 UDORN TOWER.

4 UDORN DEPARTURE CONTROL.

5 UDORN DEPARTURE CONTROL.

6 LION RADAR.

7 LION RADAR.

8 INVERT RADAR.

9 INVERT RADAR.

10 UDORN COMMAND POST.

"FAC TACTICAL.

"We go on line in two weeks. At 1800 on I March, as a matter of fact.

I'll take the first mission. Howie Joseph will post the rest of the schedule. Meanwhile I want you Night Owl GIBs to fly with the day pilots, and you day GIBs to fly with the Night Owl pilots until each of you gets the ten Wolf and twenty Night Owl missions." He grinned. "These are all night missions, gentlemen, over extremely hazardous terrain, generally in bad weather. It's hairy stuff. You must get used to flying on the gages. Plan on instrument takeoffs every night. Once airborne, Udorn Departure Control will hand you off to Lion Radar. When you are far enough out, Lion will hand you off to Invert Radar, who will give you a vector for the tanker. We don't have far to go to the tanker.

Once off the tank, stay in contact with Invert the whole mission, except when on tactical frequency conducting a strike. If you go down by yourself, only Invert will know where you are. They will tell you what SIF code to squawk."

SIF was the Selective Identification Feature device th t put out a coded signal preset by the pilot when challenge( by a friendly ground or airborne station. The coded signa provided a burst of energy on the receiving radar screen u iique to the code the pilot was asked to "squawk" on his "parrot" by the radar controller.

"After the tank, contact Moonbeam for clearance as you cross the fence into and out of Steel Tiger. Turn off your navigation lights when you reach the Lao border, which the radar controllers call 'the fence." Just tell them you are 'blackout at the fence." The frequencies for the tank and Moonbeam change every twenty-four hours. The Intelligence briefer will provide them each day on preprinted cards." Moonbeam was the call sign for the night Airborne Command and Control Center. "Your flares burn three minutes, give or take a few seconds. In a light mist or cloud, they make you think you're flying in a bowl of milk with no up or down. Keep one man on the gages at all times." That meant one man in the two-seat F-4 should be looking at the flight instruments while the other was looking outside the c.o.c.kpit.

Court continued with tactics and wound up the briefing by a.s.signing to each man the extra duties that keep a unit functioning. "Note," he said as he walked from behind the podium, "we have no CFC officer." Cheers greeted this announcement that no one had to dun the others for money for the Combined Federal Campaign. Although the CFC was the USAF's answer to all the requests made on it for charitable donations, things had gotten out of hand, and each year the luckless officer appointed (usually a junior) had to do better than his predecessor the year before "because," his boss would say, "the amount you raise is a direct indicator of your organizational abilities."

"Now," Court said, "we'll have a briefing from Toby Parker, who knows the Trail from the air and the ground.

He has flown over one hundred slow FAC missions on his trusty Oscar Deuce. Six weeks ago he was shot down and captured" there were sounds of surprise from the audience-"and was rescued by the guys in Laos we can't talk about except to say they eat snakes and wear funny green hats."

Toby mounted the stage. He looked trim and fit. The rolled-up sleeves on his flight suit accentuated his new muscle development. He pointed to the large briefing board with the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

"Some of you may know some of what I am about to brief, and most of you have flown the Trail many times, so if at any point I miss something, speak up." lie walked to the podium.

"You have been used to whipping along at Warp Nine, hitting a target clearly marked by a FAC, and hauling a.s.s.

But now, to successfully operate on the Trail, you have to completely change your way of thinking from strike pilot to Forward Air Controller.

You are controlling, not being controlled. To control means being in charge. You are the main man. You send colonels home if they are not performing well or correctly. But before you can control anything, there is quite a bit of material you have to know. And it must be memorized. You have neither the time nor the light to review notes or maps." He smiled. "First off you have to find a target. You are not fragged for a target, as you have been used to, you have to find your own. This can be a serious problem, depending on the weather and the lighting conditions. During the full-moon phase it isn't necessary to flare a target unless the definition is poor. Ideal light is when the moon phase is between the second and last quarter. This gives you enough light to see the road network from the air, but not enough for the trucks to run without lights. This doesn't happen often. What you get varies from max black when you are under an overcast with no moon, to full-moon clear sky, Under a full moon the roads are readily visible but the trucks run without lights. Under these conditions you must learn to differentiate between stationary shadows that appear to move because you are moving and actual moving shadows.

"During moonless conditions you may pick up the glow of the truck lights, but not the roads. A word on the lights. They, of course, are not the kind of high-beam, low-beam lights we are used to on stateside highways. Instead, they are little narrow slit lights, sometimes blue, that themselves are not visible, but the light they cast is.

They are attached under the front b.u.mper and give the driver only a few feet of visibility. They often get ripped off or shorted out in streams. You can see the light from them better by crossing perpendicular to the road at random intervals. At difficult spots sometimes women carrying white marker-cloths line the side of the road to help the drivers, But when a truck is. .h.i.t beyond repair, it is just pushed to the side or tumbled down the mountain.

Often with the dead driver still inside. The political commissars are supposed to write the guy's name, home village, and date of birth on a piece of paper, stuff it in a penicillin bottle, and put it in his mouth. The commissars were issued a real French ballpoint pen to do this. h.e.l.luva way to run a railroad." He made a face.

"That's not all. We carry a heavy burden around here. We have three categories of rules. We have the ROE, Rules of Engagement. These are from the JCS and define what we can and cannot hit, hara.s.s, harry, or blow up. Then we have the ORs, Operating Restrictions. These are from CINCPAC and define what we can and cannot hit, hara.s.s, harry, or blow up. Finally, we have the Seventh ORs, Seventh Air Force Operating Restrictions from Tan Son Nhut that define what we can and cannot hit, hara.s.s, harry, or blow up.

They tell us that all these rules are national policy translated for battlefield use. We lump them all together and call them the ROE. Every time the government talks to someone from North Vietnam, or every time McNamara has a new message to send to Ho Chi Minh, the ROEs change, usually for the worse."

"Heavy burden is right," Duckcall Donny Higgens said.

"Like a lead parachute."

"Then there is the Basic Operations Order from the AIRA in Vientiane,"

Toby said.

"The BOO," Higgens said. "Sounds about right. What's an AIRAT'

"The AIRA is the Air Attach to the American Emba.s.sy in Vientiane. He has to respond to the amba.s.sador, who, by Presidential Directive, is responsible for supporting the RLG-the Royal Lao Government. That's in northern Laos, mostly the PDJ area, the Plaine des Jarres, code named Barrel Roll. There are three armed recce zones there.

It's another story in southern Laos, the panhandle area code-named Steel Tiger. First it was divided into seven recce zones, then three, now four. Each has its own BOO and ROE. Our area of ' operation, along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, runs through Steel Tiger. No one can hit anything over two hundred meters from the Trail without AIRA approval and FAC control. West of Steel Tiger no one can hit anything without AIRA permission, and then they have to be controlled by a Nail or Raven FAC."

"Jesus Christ," Partin said in disgust.

"Yeah, probably Him too," Toby replied. "You have to memorize all these and be tested on them before you are authorized to control strikes along the Trail."

He went on to explain No Bomb Lines-NBLs around suspected POW camps; restricted areas around RWTsAmerican Road Watch Teams on the ground in Laos to recce the Trail; what ordnance was restricted in what zones (no Mk-36 mines or M-28 Gravel without photo justification); a special operating area called Cricket West; restricted areas; Yankee Team ops; Chinese road builders in PDJ Zone 3 West: no Arc Lights (B-52s) in SALOAs (Special Arc Light Operating Areas) without AIRA permission, which could take up to fifteen days; the requirements under MACV Directive 525-13 and 7th Air Force Reg 55-49; Short Round (friendly fire) reporting; no strikes within 1,000 meters of shrines, temples, national monuments, places of wors.h.i.+p, active huts or villages-none of which were in the Steel Tiger area anyhow.

"Magnificent! But it isn't war," Higgens said, in a heavy accent parodying the French general at Balaclava.

"One wonders," Toby said. "One f.u.c.king wonders." He pulled out a card.

"Now let's go over what you must know and be prepared to brief the incoming strike pilots on."

ALTIMETER SETTING.

WIND DIRECTION AND SPEED.

HIGHEST TERRAIN ELEVATION WITHIN TEN MILES.

BEST BAILOUT AREA DIRECTION AND DISTANCE.

TARGET DESCRIPTION.

TARGET ELEVATION.

RUN-IN AND PULL-OFF HEADINGS.

ORDNANCE TO USE.

AAA SIZE AND LOCATION.

FAC LOCATION.

"You get the altimeter setting from Moonbeam, who gets it from some spook on the ground. You must estimate the wind at ground level by seeing what happens to your smoke, and at flight level by drift of your airplane. Everything else is self-explanatory except FAC location. You and the strike birds are flying blacked-out. It's not like the daytime, when each strike pilot is required to have the FAC in sight before he rolls in. You must either be over the strikers or well off to one side.

Whatever the terrain and weather dictate.

"Use common sense when it comes to marking targets.

Don't mark moving targets until you have the strike flight about ready to roll in. Serves two purposes: the targets might move too far away from the mark by the time the strikers are ready, and it tips off the enemy that ordnance is on the way.

Try to have two prominent features to use as a yardstick.

Telling a striker to hit one hundred meters north of your mark isn't as explicit as telling him to hit twice or half the distance between two objects, such as two smokes or your smoke and the river."

Toby rested his elbows on the podium. "As to whom and what is actually on the Trail, let's start with the North Vietnamese soldiers, your basic NVA. As minimum load each man carries a tubular sack of rice slung around his torso and a knapsack with thirty pounds of other food, medicine, extra clothes, a hammock, and a waterproof sheet. On top of that he carries his weapon and ammunition. When he arrives at the Laotian border, his North Vietnamese Army uniform is exchanged for that of a Lao neutralist. This is to maintain the fiction there are no NVA soldiers in Laos. He is supposed to give up all personal effects, but few do. We've found scads of personal stuff on bodies. A LOCAL guide takes him halfway to the first of a series of way stations, called binh trans in Vietnamese, along the HCT. There he is met by the next guide, until he is in South Vietnam. These posts are linked by telephone wire to keep radio transmissions down. In South Vietnam he receives a set of black civilian pajamas, two unmarked NVA uniforms, a sweater, a hammock, mosquito netting and waterproof sheeting, a rucksack, a water canteen, two cans of insecticide, and one hundred malaria pills. This weighs about sixty-five pounds. After being issued a fiveday supply of food, he is a.s.signed to an operational unit and sent on his way. They travel from dusk until midnight, resting ten minutes every hour. They stop every third day to hunt, fish, and rest. They walk at six-meter intervals in the forest and fifty meters in the open.

"Next we have the human pack animals. They can be men or women. They either tote a sixty-pound load or they push a bicycle. Along parts of the Trail many of these bikes carry three to four hundred pounds. They steer them by sticks attached to the seat and handlebars. In the mountain sections they press-gang mountain tribesmen as load-bearers.

Their motto is, 'Walk without tracks, cook without smoke, speak without sound." There are no villages along the Trail to replenish supplies. But there are hundreds of supply caches and manned outposts for truck repair, road repair, antiaircraft sites, and underground hospitals. This information, by the way, comes from controlled American sources and Special Forces teams on the ground, prisoners of war, and SI and SPARS, which is Signal Intelligence and Special Aerial and Radio Sources."

He pointed to a recce photo. "This picture looks like just jungle canopy. Yet we know from a road-watch team there is really a truck park underneath. Truck drivers attach freshly cut foliage, palm fronds, and banana leaves to their vehicles. Jeep drivers weave leaves into nets stretched over their vehicles. Some of the maintenance people climb into trees and place fresh-woven green nets over the upper limbs that stretch over the entire park. They fabricate double- and triple-canopy jungle with fresh foliage every day. When they drive, they leave the nets over their vehicles to use at the next park." He tapped the photo.

"The reason we knew so much about this particular park was because a road-watch team was spying on it for three days. They even took before-and after pictures from their position on the ground. Based on their coordinates and time frame, we blew it away shortly after the recce photo was taken. Here is the poststrike photo.

With all the camouflage torn and blown away, you can see clearly the burned-out truck bodies."

He pointed to other photos. "They have many ways to deceive the day FACs. They make papier-mdch& trucks, phony roads and pipelines, bridges built just below the water level so they can't be seen from the air, fires to disorient infrared systems, and faked explosions near trucks to make the FAC think they have destroyed it. Or they'll build a fake bridge at the obvious point, then conceal the real one farther up or down stream under two feet of water. At night they might set off decoy fires or phony explosions to draw you away from the real storage place.