Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS
26 December. See McCarthy and Allison, Linebacker II, 97–98.
64. Ibid., 155; Eschmann, “The Role of Tactical Air Support,” 94; and
George Allison, “The Bombers Go to the Bullseye,” Aerospace Historian, December
1982, 233; and History, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, October–
December 1972.
65. While several helicopters and transports were destroyed on the ground,
intelligence claimed that only two to three MiG-21s were damaged. The bulk
of the bombs fell on railroad yards (44 percent) and storage facilities (30 percent).
See ACSI, “Linebacker II,” Headquarters USAF, “Linebacker USAF Bombing
Survey,” 3, 14, 16–17, 40–43.
66. Clodfelter, “By Other Means,” 127. The Airmen had also run out of
worthwhile targets in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. See McCarthy and Allison,
Linebacker II, 163.
67. It would be a historical mistake to maintain, however, that the same
terms could have been reached in October. Some believe the Linebacker II
bombing was as much aimed at the South Vietnamese (to reassure them of
American support) as at the North Vietnamese.
68. Momyer, Air Power in Three Wars, 126; and Senate, Hearing on Fiscal
Year 1974 Authorization, pt. 6:4253.
69. American antiaircraft gunners tracked very few targets during the
course of the Vietnam War. There were at least two incidents of North Vietnamese
aircraft attacking American ground or sea forces. Although some US
Army AAA units served in the war, none fired their weapons against hostile
aircraft. The Navy credits its gunners, however, with downing three North
Vietnamese MiGs. The first fell to a Talos missile fired from the USS Long
Beach in November 1968, the second to a Terrier fired by the USS Sterett on
19 April 1972, and the third to a Talos fired by the USS Chicago on 9 May
1972. See History, Seventh Fleet, 1972, enclosures 1, 20, 25, NHC; and
McCrea, “Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses and Damages,” 2–30.
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