Category Archives: Navy

Inside the Airborne Command Post, part 10

Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy

Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 10.

I hear the SAM control officer loudly issue the terminal command: “Phóng!” (Launch!) 

Immediately, I hear the actual sound of the SAM missile blasting off—so good is our spy technology aboard our Hognose beauty!  Under these circumstances, Hognose is what sexy looks like!    The command to launch was clear and then one hell of a roaring sound as the SA-2 missile ignited its huge first stage rocket and took off. 

This is the first SAM launch of the night.  It’s 1:45am.  All SAM activity is in the east, over Haiphong Harbor.

At this moment, far from this launch, the Son Tay Raid assault formation is now sneaking in from the dark western mountains undetected.  They are on track to arrive at Son Tay in a half an hour.

We know exactly what that NVAF commander will say if he were to actually achieve a shoot-down of an American aircraft.  You would hear extremely excited voices in the SAM van declare, “Tiêu diệt mục tiêu rồi!”  (Target destroyed!!) or at other times it might be, “Bắn rỏi tại chỗ!”  (Shot down on the spot!!)

[NOTE:  In the case of shoot-downs, sometimes the only real status of a pilot is what has been gleaned by 11-Op and 7-Op intelligence.  This is extremely valuable to US authorities.  You can imagine that families of downed Airmen are thankful for the details we provide them.  And our information greatly aids rescues.] 

An SA-2.

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

Click Here:  The audiobook is now available.

Inside the Airborne Command Post, part 9

Air Force, Marines, Navy

Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 9.

I press the RECORD button. I steal a glance up at my station’s large reel-to-reel tape, directly over my two central screens.  They’re rolling, alright.  I quickly refocus my eyes to determine who their bogey is—which blip on my screen.  There are several of these Navy aircraft that he could be talking about.  He certainly sees quite a few.

Our Navy bogeys are now over Haiphong harbor, within the Fan Song radar’s range.  The tempo really picks up. 

I hear the SAM control officer call out “Cao độ” (altitude) and the number of feet.  I can literally hear multiple voices in the van assessing the situation.  Our technology is fantastic.  The launch control officer is issuing commands and directing everything among his soldiers in the small control building.  I picture him standing—like Colonel Frisbie—over the shoulder of his radar operator.

An SA-2 SAM site commander and his crew. This was painted by a North Vietnamese soldier who manned the SA-2 during the Vietnam War.
An SA-2 Surface-to-Air Missile site.

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

Click Here:  The audiobook is now available.

Inside the Airborne Command Post, part 8

Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy

Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 8.

Colonel Frisbie plugs his headset into my station to listen in.

I roll onto a promising signal.  I hear a radar operator in the SAM site van start tracking a target. 

We hear, in a clear voice, something like: “Xuất hiện tốp không một, phủỏng vị không chín không, cụ ly bốn mủỏi.” 

Translation: “Bogey #1 has appeared, azimuth/bearing 090, range 40 kilometers”. 

I press my microphone’s button and report this to my AMS.  He reports it on the appropriate frequencies, but I’m too busy to listen to what he does with it.

This hapless NVAF controller has no idea that every word he is saying is immediately being translated and broadcast in English to his executioner, an F-105 thousands of feet over his head. 

A North Vietnamese SA-2 SAM operator on his scope and controls (below). The markings are in Russian. You can scroll the view to the left or right by clicking on the image. (Painting by a North Vietnamese soldier who manned an SA-2 site.)
An SA-2 Surface-to-Air Missile. That night of the Son Tay Raid, the Green Berets and the USAF and Navy aircrews saw these terrifying weapons flying.

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

Click Here:  The audiobook is now available.

Inside the Airborne Command Post, part 7

Air Force, Navy

Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 7.

The SA-2 system has six missiles circling a command building, typically spaced about 100 yards apart. They are mobile but are often in fixed positions and we know most of their locations ahead of time. Most of them are around Hanoi and Haiphong.

[NOTE:  The SA-2 SAM was developed in the 1950s, continuously improved, and is still in use today in many countries around the world.  They are fast and deadly, and the North Vietnamese were proficient in their use.  On quiet days, with no airstrike threats by the US Navy in the Gulf, we could see that some Spoon Rest radars would track us on orbit.  The NVAF MiG pilots seldom went very far out over water.  Our big, slow-moving silhouette on their radar looks tempting for a Spoon Rest operator to share with air controllers.  Because of this, we sometimes have US Navy fighters on our wings.  The RC-135M has very few fuselage windows so as to keep it dark in the cabin but there was one on the over-wing exit door.  I remember looking out one time and waving to a US Navy F-8 Crusader MiG Combat Air Patrol (MiGCAP) pilot just off our wing tip as he waved to me.  We saluted each other and I went back to work.  In fact, on tonight’s mission there are two F-8s from the USS Oriskany providing protection (BARCAP, Barrier CAP) for us and the five other USAF aircraft orbiting over the Gulf in support of this Raid.]

An SA-2 SAM site.

1:30am.  The first flight of six Navy A-7 strike aircraft head into North Vietnam’s territorial waters straight toward industrial targets in the northern parts of Haiphong.  Even at this point, the NVAF Command and Control System is only just now getting their wits about them, reaching a level of organization to muster a coordinated defense.

The Spoon Rest operator, tracking them, then alerts the acquisition radar operator.  This acquisition radar is referred to as “Fan Song.”  This locks on to a target, tracks it, and guides a missile.  It can track a target at about 40 miles.  The operators call out targets by range, azimuth, and altitude constantly, so we know everything they are doing. 

I’m sweating a little, but tonight, it’s not just because my flight suit is zipped to the top.  And it’s not because Colonel Frisbie is now watching my screens intently over my shoulder.  It’s because this is the largest, most intense mission we’ve had the opportunity to participate in, to this point.  Colonel Frisbie plugs his headset into my station to listen in.

A Fan Song radar.
A Fan Song radar (on the left).

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

Click Here:  The audiobook is now available.

Inside the Airborne Command Post, part 6

Marines, Navy

Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 6.

At 1am, the battle begins.  A swarm lights up our screens.

A massive, lethal armada of aircraft is launched by the Navy. 

The carriers USS Hancock, Ranger, and Oriskany had staged seven A-3 tankers and electronic countermeasure aircraft at Da Nang AB.  All seven now head up the coast to North Vietnam.

From the USS Oriskany: Twenty-five aircraft launch, including an E-1B, eighteen A-7s, and six F-8s.

From the USS Ranger: Twenty-six aircraft launch, including an E-1B, ten A-6s, nine A-7s, and six F-4s.

The NVAF Air Defense Command immediately has startled to life.  They’re entirely surprised, confused, and slow to comprehend the enormity.

The first indication I get that a SAM site is active: I hear the enemy’s long-range radar operator calling out targets in Vietnamese.  These are Russian-supplied SA-2 SAMs, known as “Guideline” in NATO’s naming system.  (The Soviets’ name for it is the S-75 Dvina.)  Its long-range radar is known by the NATO name “Spoon Rest” and picks up targets nearly 150 miles away.  That gives them the range to watch all of this US air activity in the Gulf of Tonkin—including us.

A Spoon Rest radar system.
Inside a Spoon Rest radar control van.

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

Click Here:  Now also available as an audiobook!