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Were you a FAC or a covey or both. If covey did you have any covey riders that you remember their names? If covey are you familiar with FOB 1,2 or 3, (particularly FOB2) or one or both of the safe houses at Nha Trang or Quang Ngai?

I was both. Started as a regular FAC supporting the 173rd Airborne Bd at LZ English.

Then "got volunteered" to do covert work with MACV/SOG. Did not use the Covey callsign, however, did fly with "robins" who served as translators to the indigenous teams we inserted into Cambodia. We just called them our little guys. Did that for about eight months. Accumulated 300 combat missions all told.

Didn't ever use those FOBs or safe houses.

If you have not read Baggy Four Zero, the book by Rocky, it is worth the read.

I read a book about the Robins back in the 90's dont remember title or author .But reading it made me think of the old sailing term with a twist .Iron men in wooden planes.(of course they was metal not wood)

I have two books. (I regret that my publisher has chosen to disallow the deep discount I once offered on them, due to higher costs. Digital versions are much cheaper.)

LINK

Rem, we were quite literally beer can pilots in beer can planes. Our ground crews patched a lot of bullet holes with beer cans. And some of us even flew with beer aboard.

well, I was curious as I worked some of the FOB 2 AO. I had friends at 1 and 3.

I knew you did something of the sort from your first post. Crisp salute, my brother.

Salute returned, brother!

I think the correct term is “voluntold”….😁🫡

That's a great one! Funny I never heard it before. But yeah, that's about how it happened. Reported to my Ops Officer who said, "You and Sandy will be leaving us for an assignment elsewhere. Can't tell you where or what you'll be doing because I don't know, but your ride will be here tomorrow."

Next day, a plain gray O-2 (no numbers, no USAF markings) landed and a guy in camo fatigues but no rank or patches stepped out. The two of us climbed in and with hardly a word, the camo guy flew us west...and west...and west. Across the Central Highlands to a civilian airport that had a small barbed wire enclosure near one end of its sole runway. That was Ban Me Thuot. The rest is in my second book.

, I have not been there but have a couple of friends that were there for a time.

BMT was a popular place for most of the "cloak and dagger" club. At one time or other, almost all of the covert-clandestine-secret-spy types paid us a visit.