Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire US Navy- killing trucks on the Ho Chi Minh trail

Here is a story most never knew and fewer now remember, the valiant efforts of some brave US Navy aircrews in the fight to stop traffic on the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos during the Vietnam War.

http://aircommandoman.tripod.com/id16.html

Cool, thx.

My younger brother did some work along those lines. He, and one other Army specialist would be air dropped into Laos. He observed, and radioed back about any activity.
Their best catch was a large NV outfit, that they located. They called in B52s, and after it was all over, it was figured that some 600 NV regulars were killed.

I flew one (count 'em - ONE!) sensor placement mission in the Cessna O-2. The O-2 wasn't rated to drop anything, but we used it that way for a couple of different clandestine uses.

For the sensor mission, I placed two of what were code-named Igloo White sensors on either side of a small river at a known truck crossing site. I was never de-briefed on whether I made a good drop, if the sensors worked or if they learned about truck movements. That's the way it is in covert intel: a one-way information flow.

My normal covert work was to place and hopefully recover observation teams along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. I worked only with Vietnamese, Montagnard, Cambodian and Chinese mercenary teams, never US.

When I was serving on EC-121's out of Korat, we landed at NKP a couple or three times to pick up additional personnel, spooks of some sort, I recall seeing those aircraft there and wondering what the hell they were doing. Never another word about them until I came across this story a couple of days ago.

My dad designed/worked with the USAF on a project developed around seismic sensors that were dropped in the RVN theater to monitor enemy movement in the late 60s-early 70s. In an interesting twist, some 30+ years later I became friends with a guy who I hunted with who is an ex-Air Commando. One of his tasks in the several tours he did in RVN (and surrounding countries) was to locate those sensors.

Yeah Col. and you did it from a lot closer to the ground too!

Great article, the Squid AF was Ok and this was a definite asset to the AF.. just too damn bad we didn't have drones back in those days the trail would have been much easier to police!

Too damn bad DC tried to run the war from the Whitehouse Situation room, should have left the Generals & Admirals in theater the fark ALONE!

Those guys had big balls. I can't imagine the Navy of today giving them the freedom to mod the a/c and make the mission work.

This guy's site is a good one that has quite a bit on them.

http://www.vpnavy.org/vo67_history.html

This issue of Naval Aviation News had a good article (and you get a bonus Grampa Pettibone)

http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/1980s/1981/jul81.pdf (The VN Special ops section starts on page 30)

How any here know the story of the Neptunes operated by the CIA and the USAF as RB-69A's (2 CIA, 3 USAF). Interesting stories, if someone here knows them and wants to open up.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Lockheed_RB-69A_Neptune_061122-F-1234P-007.jpg

In the late 60s I worked at Sylvannia, Sunnyvale Ca. We built a Gadget called "Bat Boy" They told us they were going to Nam to be dropped and send back any movement in the area.

Duce and a half backed up to our shop and loaded them.

Anybody see them in the field?

Good old Ashau Valley...

Thanks for the post.

Im trying to learn how to do the quote thing