Air Commando!: 1950-1975 - Twenty-five years at the Tip ... - AFSOC

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Painting "Air Resupply" on the side of their H-19 helicopters was one experiment that was dropped abruptly after re-thinking the likely fate of a captured pilot should the North Koreans discover what "Air Resupply" really did at night. (Joe Barrett) maintained at such effort makes for some very interesting reading: as does a glance at some of the personalities making up the Flight's original roster. Included in the group of six pilots that activated the Helicopter Flight at K-16 was a very determined second lieutenant named Robert F. Sullivan. To date his determination had displayed itself primarily by the lengths he was willing to go not to "haul trash" in the C-82 transports to which he had been assigned. Perhaps forgetting the maxim "be careful what you ask for, you might just get it," Lt Sullivan made his moves. The former paratrooper's first escape move was to volunteer for Forward Air Controller duty with the infantry (remember this was in the middle of a war). With that qualification under his belt he volunteered for helicopter training to further mask the "fixed-wing skeleton" in his closet. Successful with both moves, Sullivan immediately found himself enroute to war-torn Korea, to a unit unknown even to the Replacement Depot staff. Further inquiries led to an intelligence officer who knew of the unit, but refused to disclose its mission. Some of Sullivan's adventures follow later in this story. By late 1952 the Helicopter Flight, 581 stAir Resupply Squadron, had four brand new H-19As available and crewed at K-16 for the mission that had only recently been divulged to them by "-LD", FECOM's previously described spook-to-helicopter liaison detachment. Flying blacked-out, single-ship, night low-level insertions of United Nations agents and sabotage teams behind North Korean lines was to be their primary mission; augmenting the 2157th ARS for combat rescue missions a secondary. The Flight's relations with the "white hat" 2157th ARS, with whom their living tents were co-located, cooled somewhat after the latter discovered the "black hat" mission of the new strangers in their midst. The local rescue commander immediately requested the Flight remove the RESCUE markings with which the Flight's aircraft had arrived at K-16. The ARS decision not to fly missions at night further separated the Air Commandos from their Air Rescue Service contemporaries. One unfortunate fallout for the Flight from ARS' "no night rescue" policy was that the North Koreans soon learned the sound of a helicopter at night could only mean one thing. An agent insertion or extraction mission was in progress, perhaps warranting an extra response that might not be worthwhile for a defensive-oriented rescue mission. As described later in this story, this operational distancing between "black hat/white hat" missions occasionally clashed with combat realities that demanded the two work closely together in rescue missions. Virtually all night insertion missions began with one of the Flight's H-19s 22
departing at night from Cho-do Island, a bleak rock located only ten miles from the Korean coast .. . and sixty miles behind North Korea's front lines. As vulnerable as it was, Cho-do's proximity to the peninsula's rugged coastline and mudflats provided an ideal base from which to conduct night unconventional warfare missions. Picking up the agents and a final brief on Cho-do, the H-19s flew north out over the sea, flying just above the treacherous waves to avoid North Korean radar. Attempting to keep the engine exhaust stack on the left side of the helicopter away from the coastline as much as possible during the run-in, the crews could only hope the North Koreans weren't waiting in ambush for them. Sometimes the threat started long before the Air Commandos crossed the shoreline, as on one mission for which the crew had the radio callsign "Treefrog 33." Barren Cho-do Island was the launch site for agent insertions along Korea's western coastline behind enemy lines. Described by one Air Commando pilot as "acres and acres of nothing but acres and acres", this photo shows the small radar site ("Kodak") that monitored the infiltration missions. (Joe Barrett) Flying an insertion mission north along the coast in total darkness the crew heard "Kodak" (the radar tracking site on Cho-do) ask "Treefrog 33, how many treefrogs are out there?" Maintaining radio silence the Air Commandos refused to respond. Kodak then announced "Treefrog 33, I am painting five, repeat five, slow moving targets your vicinity. 27 Without a word the helicopter banked out to sea, disappearing silently over the horizon enroute back to Cho-do and safety. Flying over the ocean in near total darkness, under radio silence, without lights, navigation aids, night vision goggles or radar altimeters, demanded superb airmanship at its rawest level. On one mission Lt Sullivan recalls feeling the nose of the helicopter tug and dip slightly as he flew the helicopter's nose wheels into the freezing ocean waters. Another Air Commando, Lt Frank Fabijan, reported the same hair-raising close call on one night flight. 23
Page 1: AIR COMMANDO! 1950-1975: Twenty-fiv
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS Acknowledgements •••
Page 7 and 8: In special tribute to Brigadier Gen
Page 9: FOREWORD From their inception as "A
Page 12 and 13: American Air Force and Army officer
Page 14 and 15: By attacking at extremely low altit
Page 16 and 17: THE PENTAGON's "Air Resupply & Comm
Page 18 and 19: Tough and fiercely anti-communist S
Page 20 and 21: Manchuria Sea of Japan ChoDo-~, Isl
Page 24 and 25: As dangerous as the night missions
Page 26 and 27: Taking off from Cho-do in the early
Page 28 and 29: ON THE RooF oF THE WoRLD With the "
Page 30 and 31: With all USAF markings removed, Civ
Page 32 and 33: BAHIA DE CocHINos With the Alabama
Page 35 and 36: The next day Somoza's son flew with
Page 37 and 38: 2 airstrikes as a tactic to mask U.
Page 39 and 40: And finally, where the American Gre
Page 41 and 42: _ -THE INDOCIITNA WAR 41
Page 43 and 44: The commandos' mission is to provid
Page 46 and 47: The early days in South Vietnam. A
Page 48 and 49: CHAOPHAKAOW! A Bhuddist monk blesse
Page 50 and 51: Det 6's (Water Pump) crudely-made s
Page 52: THE STINGING BUTTERFLY Combat Contr
Page 55 and 56: fighters and their targets, someone
Page 57 and 58: The phase-out of the Butterfly FACs
Page 59 and 60: Thailand's northeastern border with
Page 61 and 62: The Air Commando base at Nakhon Pha
Page 64 and 65: FIGHTING WITH THE HEART Apparently
Page 66 and 67: differences, profiteering, local po
Page 68: RANCH HAND I nearly November, 1961,
Page 71: target area, one of the twin-engine
Page 74 and 75:
The smoking ruins of a government f
Page 76:
From inside "Puff the Magic Dragon"
Page 81 and 82:
lit up the drop zone like a night S
Page 83 and 84:
PREDATOR AC-130s Prowl the Ho Chi M
Page 85 and 86:
sampans sighted, nine were destroye
Page 87 and 88:
that would destroy anything on the
Page 89 and 90:
equest for 25 twin-engine, single-r
Page 91 and 92:
were transferred to the 21st Specia
Page 93 and 94:
May Day! Moments before, this singl
Page 95 and 96:
With the arrival of the initial Far
Page 97:
The Air Commandos also took PSYWAR
Page 100 and 101:
AIR CoMMANDos ABovE AND BEYOND THE
Page 102 and 103:
een twenty days. Fisher made the sn
Page 104 and 105:
exact posttton. Then he spotted som
Page 106 and 107:
ENDNOTES "Rabbits" and Napalm: Agen
Page 108 and 109:
114. Ibid., p. 37 115. Ibid. 116. I
Page 110 and 111:
BIOGRAPHICAL NoTE CoLONEL MICHAEL E
Page 112:
• ··,··. 911 • . ,• • H
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Air Commando!: 1950-1975 - Twenty-five years at the Tip ... - AFSOC

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