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Deployment of E/RB-66 Aircraft
and Early
1965, the Soviet's began deploying SA-2 Surface to Air Missile (SAM) systems Notes by Gerry Reponen on his deployment to Vietnam My
navigator, Neil Woollen, and I were tdy from Eglin to Homestead when a C-54 came
in to pick us up and bring us on a classified mission to Shaw. Upon landing at
Shaw we went directly into crew rest, an hour late. We took of on 6 April and
refueled enroute to George AFB. I led the flight in and landed first, blowing
a tire on landing. The aircraft I had came out of maintenance and they had installed
the antiskid on backwards which blew the tire. The first person out to meet me
was General James D. Kemp, former Commander at 10th TRW. He wanted to know why
I closed his airfield and then he recognized me and gave me a good greeting. I
had flown 5:25 on this leg. Notes made by MGen H. Lobdell when researching B-66 operations in SEA while at Maxwell AFB, AL. "DOC 95F 60-62 RB66B (DET 1, 41ST TRS)" in SEA: In April 1965, six RB-66Bs departed Shaw for Tan Son Nhut AFB, SVN. Unit initially deployed at Det of 363d TRW, but later designated Det 1, 41st TRS, following activation of 41st TRS in Nov 65. Mission was to fly photo-recon in support of allied operations in SEA. Supported allied operations from DMZ to Phu Quoc Island. RBBs sptd battles for Song Be and Don Xoai. Dec 65 - nightly sorties into NVN using Red Haze equipment, photoflash bombs and cartridges. Jan-Apr 66 Det 1 involved in Sky Spot, ground controlled radar bombing and pathfinder operations during periods of poor weather in which RBB would lead flights of fighter bombers to targets using K-5 bombing system to determine release point for fighters. Det 1 returned RB-66B to Shaw in Apr 66. Recap of the Initial Deployment by Bob Long, Operations Officer The first B-66's that went to SEA were a package of six RB-66C's and four RB-66B's. The C's were flown by Dick Wilson, Hoss Cordoni, Ralph Lashbrook, Jim Estes, Rube Autery, and me - Bob Long. The B's were manned by Bob Mann (later KIA), Jack Seech and I think Bill Puckett but am not sure, and don't remember #4. We departed Shaw on April 6, 1965. Spent one night in George AFB, CA, then to Hickam, some one night and some two nights because of a shortage of tankers. Then, on to Guam, to Clark, to Saigon. All were in Saigon by 13 Apr. The C's went to Tahkli on May 25, 1965. Dick Wison and I flew up to Haipong and across recovering in Thailand. The others came over direct from Saigon, except for the one that went to Clark for heavy maintenance. Most of the time we had 5 C's at Tahkli w/one at Clark, which was also our RR (rest & recreation) place until later when the birds from France came in Oct., both C's and EB-66B, Brown Cradles. The first Sam's came up July 25 or 26, with Autery and Wilson airborne. Recap of the Initial Deployment by Larry Becker, EWO I was stationed at Shaw in the 9thTRS from 1963 until mid '66. In Feb or March of 65, we were alerted for a deployment to an unknown location and told to report to the base. We were locked up and told we would depart for Viet Nam early the next morning. On the morning the RB-66B (photo-recon) aircraft departed and I believe some RF-101s also went but I'm not sure on the RFs. The RB-66Cs were not deployed but were put on hold until they could be modified with jammers and an antenna system. This took about a month. In fact the first flight of the test airplane resulted in the antenna being ripped off the forward fuselage. We finally were ready to go and deployed in April 1965. Two airplanes with full crews departed and our crew, which consisted of Rube Autry, Joe Sapere, Joe Canady, Ken Sexton, an EWO whose name escapes me, and myself departed via commercial air to San Francisco. From there we went by vehicle to Travis and then flew MAC charter to Saigon with an overnight stop in Hawaii. We were in Saigon operating out of Tan Son Nhut until the end of May. As I recall we deployed to Tahkli on 1 June. The RB-66B photo birds remained in Saigon. We stayed the 9th until late mid summer when they activated the 41st. I never changed to the 41st but remained part of the 9th until I completed 100 missions over the North and returned to Shaw with John Neal in Jan 66. Memoirs of 1st RB66C EWO Deployment to Takhli Royal Thai Air Base by Maurice E. Turcotte, November 10, 2001 The first RB66C EWOs deployment to Takhli, in support of the Vietnam war effort, occurred sometime in late July 1965 - after the RB66C's had been outfitted with jammers and jamming patterns tested at Eglin AFB, Florida. All crewmembers were sent to the war zone on a TDY basis. The aircraft were ferried to Thailand by the pilots and navigators and the EWOs had the hardship of going by commercial aircraft - what a pity. The first leg of the journey was a RB-66C flight from Shaw AFB, SC to Nellis AFB, NV. Among the EWOs in this contingent were; David Anthony; Joe Canady; Dick Curtis; Paul Duplessis; Dick Moore; Howard Rhoads; and yours truly. That evening we all went into Las Vegas and were able to attend one of the evening performances at one of the major hotel nightspots. Though sold-out, we informed them that we were on our way to Vietnam and were put at the head of the stand-by list of the no-shows. It was an experience to remember - at least if you are a guy. The next day we departed for San Francisco - where we also spent the evening. This time, however, we went bar hopping, to include, seeing the female craze of the time, Ms Carol Dodda, as she was lowered from the ceiling on a grand piano with her "Silicone Implants" completely exposed. Let's just say - "there wasn't much give to them". The next morning, we left San Francisco International Airport for Bangkok, Thailand. Shortly after arriving in Bangkok, we boarded a train for Takhli - see photo.
That, my friends, was the ride of a lifetime - sweltering heat and more flies and bugs than one could stand, which were coming into the coach car through the open windows that were providing relief from the heat. If one dared upon his mouth, one would experience a varied delicacy of all sorts of bugs. In any case, we thought we would never get to Takhli. Seems as if the train stopped at every crossing - never picking up enough speed to provide relief from the heat. However, what I remember most of all about this train experience was the "dining car" where food was prepared - an open pit fire on the floor of the car where rice was boiled and fried rice prepared - with very rudimentary unsanitary utensils. Made you want to "puke"!!! We knew at this point that we were in for the thrill of a lifetime. We finally got to the Takhli Train Station some 5 to 6 hours later. And, what we saw upon disembarking the train was not very pleasing to the eye. At this juncture, we couldn't wait to reach the base where we would experience American Life once again. It was quite a surprise when we got there - yea, more of the same. We were escorted to our "hootch" -where some 14 metal beds were lined up, 7 per side, some 3 feet apart - see photo taken after we were established.
By the way, the yellow blouse shown in the picture was for the hootches mascot - a well built female mannequin. To this date, I still do not know how we came into possession of this specimen of a woman. Of course, we had the same air conditioning system that we had on the train. Except, in this case, the hootch was stationary. We did, however, have fans, when the electricity was working. What a pleasure that was!! After our brief indoctrination to our hootch and its amenities, we then were shown our communal showers and stalled toilets - privacy at last. On August 8, 1965 we flew our first mission over North Vietnam, trying to electronically pinpoint the location of the SAM sites prior to their being activated - see photo of aircraft with Ms CF Charming depicted on the side of the aircraft (this would never do nowadays). >> At this juncture, there was some scuttlebutt that a mission limit was likely to be imposed. One rumor had the number at 100 while the other had it at 150 or more. In any case, we were given the option of PCSing in-place or going back to the States. All but two of us, Howard Rhoads and I, chose to PCS in-place. And, as we all know now, the 100-mission number prevailed. Howard and I returned to the States on December 8, 1965 - Howard with 88 missions and me with 86 missions. The rest were given credit for a PCS tour and returned home shortly thereafter - as soon as they reached 100 missions. I believe that I was the only one that had to make a second tour to Vietnam, though the rules had changed to 80 missions in 8 months. Since I had 86 missions in 4 ½ months, I was sent back for another 7 ½ months in 1970 - still doesn't make sense to me but who am I to question this decision!! My second tour was with the Bat Cats - RC-121's based at Korat RTAB. All in all, I must state that the experience served me well. I look forward someday to returning to the area with members of my family to share with them the more enjoyable parts of this part of the world, e.g., Bangkok; the Temples; the Royal Fleet; the "Klong Tour"; and, of course, Hong Kong and its refined eating establishments. Postscript by Paul Duplessis, EWO After completing 9 months at the University of Omaha under the "AF Bootstrap" program and getting my Bachelor's degree, I took 30 days leave, then reported back to Shaw AFB. I was immediately was sent to Eglin AFB for a 2-week RB-66C reorientation and joined the group of 9th TRS personnel that departed Shaw AFB on July 30, 1965. We were assigned to the 9th TRS Detachment at Takhli RTAFB for 90 days TDY.
While in San Francisco, some of us took
in the sights. On
Aug 8, 1965 I flew my first RB-66C electronic reconnaisance mission all over North
Vietnam, including flying around Hanoi. At
the end of the 90 days, we were given two choices: Recap by Ken Coolidge, Navigator Our crew, consisting of Capt Bernie Russell (deceased) Pilot; Capt Ken Coolidge, Navigator; Capt Joe Canady, Chief EWO; Lt Larry Becker, EWO; 2Lt Bob Rines, EWO; and Lt Ken Sexton, EWO; departed Shaw AFB on August 18, 1965 for San Francisco. We left Travis the next day and arrived in Bangkok on Saturday, August 21st. Upon arrival at Don Muong we learned that they only had room on the C-130 for one crew. Bernie Russell and Ed Stokle arm wrestled as to who would go by plane and who would go by train. I'm not sure who got the short straw but we wound up on the train. We spent the night at a hotel and got on the train the next afternoon for a pleasant ride up to Takhli. Post Script by Bob Moraski: We arrived later and flew our first RB-66C combat mission on August 18, 1965 and last on January 3, 1966. Our group consisted of Ed Stoeckle, Russell, Ken Coolidge, Honus Wagner, and Neal Justice. I had an additional duty as Chief of the ELINT Cell with a air conditioned van where I spent most of my non-flying time of course. My NCOIC was SSgt Record who had worked for me at Chelveston and Toul. By the way, on the old 9th TRSq (E&W) insignia which Ed Sandelius and I had made at Shaw in late 1959 somehow made its way to Takhli and the F-105 crews had painted steel balls on the Eagle silhouette! Post Script by Ken Coolidge and Paul Henkle: Regarding which model of the B-66 flew the first Vietnam combat mission, Ken noted that RB-66B photo aircraft were assigned to Ton Son Nhut in either June or July 1965. The first B-66 aircraft lost was a RB-66B that flew into a mountain on a night mission. Ken heard it was Bill Puckett's RB-66B that was fired on by a machine gun nest when outbound on a night photo cartridge mission. The target was weathered in... on the way back they were fired on by the same gun site. Bill immediately turned around and jettisoned the full load of photo cartridges on the site. It was reported by the Army that the site was destroyed! Paul Henkle was TDY to Saigon about the same time and like Ken stayed at the RB-66B TDY house in downtown Saigon. It was reported that those RB-66B TDY crews had a mini-arsenal in their living room. Seems that the neighborhood where the house was rented was not too friendly at times. Post Script by Paul Duplessis: During my 8 months (Aug '65 to Mar '66) at Takhli, I went TDY to Saigon three times to meet with the 2nd Air Division mission planners to discuss EB-66 capabilities, tactics and airborne reporting procedures. During those trips I stayed in the RB-66B TDY house that was quite an experience. There were dozens of geckos (small nocturnal lizards) running across the ceilings all night long. On one trip the water was not running so it was suggested that I should take a sponge bath using the water in the cistern on the back of the house near the garage. Shortly after I began sponging off (without removing my flight suit) I noticed there were 3 pairs of eyes peering from the garage. Later, I learned that they were the wife and 2 children of the Vietnamese guard that the RB-66B crews hired to protect them during evening hours. Postscript by Joe Franco My orders to SEA were amended in September 1966 to report to the 6460th Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (PACAF) at Tahkli. The EB-66Bs from Toul had received that designation some time before that date. I left the squadron in August 1967 and the Squadron was still designated as the 6460 TEWS then. My orders also show the 41st TREW designation for the RB-66C squadron. Both Squadrons were under the 355 TFW for at least part of the time I was there. From my available orders, it appears the squadrons may have gone under the 460th TRW operationally but remained under the 355 TFW for support at Tahkli some time in 1967. I am positive about the EB-66Bs coming from Tahkli because I pulled alert in the same planes at Toul while assigned to the 1st TRS in the early 1960s before the 42 TRS moved to Toul.
Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) is located 130 miles north north-west of Bangkok. United States Air Force personnel began arriving at Takhli in early 1961 to support a detachment of F-100 Supersabres from the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing, Cannon AFB, N.M. The base continued to support F-100 rotational units until March 1965, when F-105 Thunderchiefs from the United States replaced the F-100s. The rotational Thunderchief units were replaced in late 1965, when the F-105-equipped 355th TFW was deployed permanently from McConnell AFB, Kan., to Takhli. Assigned to the 355th wing were the 333rd, 354th and 357th Tactical Fighter Squadrons. In Spring 1965, the first B-66's that went to SEA were a package of six RB-66C's and four RB-66B's. They departed Shaw for Tan Son Nhut AFB, SVN. The unit initially deployed as a Detachment of 363rd TRW, later designated Det 1, 41st TRS, following activation of 41st TRS at Takhli in Nov 65. Mission was to fly electronic warfare missions in support of F-105 Thunderchiefs operating from Takhli and other airbases in Thailand. |
