Post by Kim Troboy on Apr 11, 2023 11:03:46 GMT -6
Hi!
I'm the eldest daughter of Maj. Gaylon O. Smith, USAF ret., and I want to share some memories of missions he flew with the 12th out of Cam Ranh Bay. I found them on his computer after he passed in Nov. of 2022. I have not edited these memories, and they are in draft form. He was not finished writing them. He did not necessarily fly these missions in this order presented.
If you know more about these missions, I would treasure your replies. Dad was in his late 80s. Mostly his memory was sharp, but there may have been a few gaps. After all, he had slept a time or two since then, lol.
Mission #1
It was the time of the southeast monsoons—overcast from the South China Sea into the central highlands. Rainy season. We were a flight of three F-4C’s out of 12th FTW at Cam Ranh Bay, VN. We had a target just north and west from Qui Nhon, just into the mountains from the coastal plain. The FAC was in a small cup shaped valley, with a small river valley leading out to the lowlands, and the clouds were covering the tops of the hills. We had to run up the river valley, one aircraft at a time, drop a bomb on the smoke the FAC had put down for us, then pull up into the clouds to avoid both the hills, the FAC and the explosion, turn east and fly out far enough to clear the ridges, let down till we were VFR again, then make another run up the valley, etc., till we had dropped all our bombs. The opposition was not appreciable, only small arms fire, but the tight maneuvering quarters made it really a tough one.
Mission #2
Another time we were headed for a “suspected truck park” up in Laos—along “the Trail”. We normally cruised out to the target somewhere between 25K and 30K MSL, then back to base at 40+ thousand. Anyway, we were just starting our letdown in smooth stratus type clouds when we hit someone else’s jet wash—it was so rough we couldn’t have missed them by more than a few seconds. I guess it wasn’t till then that I realized that the only thing the crews were given was a TOT, and the routing was essentially up to us. Flights out of other bases were doing the same, and it was a wonder we didn’t have mid-air collisions on a regular basis.
Mission #3
It was the time of the southwest monsoons—overcast from the central highlands westward over Laos. A FAC called us in on a target—a bulldozer trying to build a road, and again in a small valley. We had about 1200-to-1500-foot overcast, but no rain right then. Again, we were a flight of three F-4C’s, loaded with six 500-pound bombs each. The jungle provided pretty good cover for the ‘dozer, and with the low overcast we couldn’t acquire the target to just at the last second. To make a long story short, we threw a lot of dirt on the ‘dozer and driver, but he would just turn and head off in another direction—we never were able to hit him, but it was a definite cat and mouse game. especially with three of us and the FAC all in the same small valley.
Again, your comments and memories are welcome.
I'm the eldest daughter of Maj. Gaylon O. Smith, USAF ret., and I want to share some memories of missions he flew with the 12th out of Cam Ranh Bay. I found them on his computer after he passed in Nov. of 2022. I have not edited these memories, and they are in draft form. He was not finished writing them. He did not necessarily fly these missions in this order presented.
If you know more about these missions, I would treasure your replies. Dad was in his late 80s. Mostly his memory was sharp, but there may have been a few gaps. After all, he had slept a time or two since then, lol.
Mission #1
It was the time of the southeast monsoons—overcast from the South China Sea into the central highlands. Rainy season. We were a flight of three F-4C’s out of 12th FTW at Cam Ranh Bay, VN. We had a target just north and west from Qui Nhon, just into the mountains from the coastal plain. The FAC was in a small cup shaped valley, with a small river valley leading out to the lowlands, and the clouds were covering the tops of the hills. We had to run up the river valley, one aircraft at a time, drop a bomb on the smoke the FAC had put down for us, then pull up into the clouds to avoid both the hills, the FAC and the explosion, turn east and fly out far enough to clear the ridges, let down till we were VFR again, then make another run up the valley, etc., till we had dropped all our bombs. The opposition was not appreciable, only small arms fire, but the tight maneuvering quarters made it really a tough one.
Mission #2
Another time we were headed for a “suspected truck park” up in Laos—along “the Trail”. We normally cruised out to the target somewhere between 25K and 30K MSL, then back to base at 40+ thousand. Anyway, we were just starting our letdown in smooth stratus type clouds when we hit someone else’s jet wash—it was so rough we couldn’t have missed them by more than a few seconds. I guess it wasn’t till then that I realized that the only thing the crews were given was a TOT, and the routing was essentially up to us. Flights out of other bases were doing the same, and it was a wonder we didn’t have mid-air collisions on a regular basis.
Mission #3
It was the time of the southwest monsoons—overcast from the central highlands westward over Laos. A FAC called us in on a target—a bulldozer trying to build a road, and again in a small valley. We had about 1200-to-1500-foot overcast, but no rain right then. Again, we were a flight of three F-4C’s, loaded with six 500-pound bombs each. The jungle provided pretty good cover for the ‘dozer, and with the low overcast we couldn’t acquire the target to just at the last second. To make a long story short, we threw a lot of dirt on the ‘dozer and driver, but he would just turn and head off in another direction—we never were able to hit him, but it was a definite cat and mouse game. especially with three of us and the FAC all in the same small valley.
Again, your comments and memories are welcome.
12thTFW 559thTFS 1966, 15thTFW 45thTFS 1965 F-4C, D..