1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
year. By the close of 1967, however, Detachment 1
would have lost two of its four assigned Combat
Talons, and 11 crew members would disappear
over North Vietnam, not to be heard from for the
next 25 years.
The First Combat Talon Resupply
Mission into North Vietnam*
The first resupply mission flown in a C-130 aircraft
over North Vietnam was tasked to Detachment
1, 314th TCW, for the night of 16 January
1967. Using the established unit rotation schedule
for combat missions, crew SG-5, under the command
of Maj Howard Reeve, was tasked to plan
and fly the mission. An SOG OPLAN 34A road
watch team had been inserted into North Vietnam
four months earlier, and the team was running
low on food and supplies. The team had been
monitoring North Vietnamese forces moving down
the Ho Chi Minh Trail towards South Vietnam.
After receiving its initial mission briefing, the
crew began its mission planning by plotting allknown
enemy threats along its ingress route. The
low-level route was planned at 500 feet above the
ground, with the drop itself set for 1,200 feet. The
crew utilized the Doppler radar to provide course
and ground speed and the Loran C for navigation.
There was only one Loran C station in SEA in
early 1967, and there were no means to get a
cross-fix to determine the aircraft’s exact location.
Consequently, the crew relied heavily on map
reading to maintain orientation with known landmarks
on the ground.
To identify prominent terrain features, the
crew was limited to a minimum of 50 percent
moon illumination and 10 to 15 miles flight visibility.
The weather forecast predicted marginal
visibility for the primary mission night. Being the
dry season, farmers across SEA were burning
their fields, and the smoke remained suspended
in the atmosphere without sufficient air currents
to dissipate it. Other than the marginal en route
visibility, everything else looked good for the mission.
Knowing that they would have to rely almost
exclusively on the Doppler radar to maintain
course, the crew made the decision to fly the mission
as planned on 16 January due to the need to
resupply the team on the ground.
The drop zone was located 90 miles southwest
of Hanoi, surrounded by dense jungles and situated
behind a low ridgeline. The crew was given a
time over target (TOT) of 0100 local, with a drop
signal consisting of five lighted flare pots arranged
in a cross. The drop zone would be lighted
30 seconds either side of the TOT.
For the mission the crew planned to depart
Nha Trang AB (fig. 25) and climb to its en route
altitude. The aircraft would fly north along the
coast to Da Nang AB, then turn due west and fly
over Laos until reaching Udorn Royal Thai Air
Force Base (RTAFB), Thailand. At Udorn RTAFB
the aircraft would fly an instrument approach to
the airfield and then enter low level after executing
a low approach. The Combat Talon would proceed
north into Laos and continue low level until
reaching the drop zone. The return leg basically
retraced the route of flight back to Nha Trang AB.
On the night of 16 January, the crew launched
in aircraft 64-0563 and flew the first half of the
inbound route as planned. Visibility was marginal
at best (just as forecasters had predicted), thus
requiring the crew to rely on its Doppler radar as
the primary means to maintain course. About halfway
through the first half of the mission, the Dop -
pler radar failed. Without a means to maintain
course, the crew had no choice but to abort the
mission. A disappointed crew reversed course and
returned to Nha Trang AB. SOG subsequently
slipped the mission 24 hours, and the crew entered
crew rest for the mission the following night.
The night of 17 January 1967 was clear, with
15 miles of visibility and a bright moon. A weak
cool front had moved through the area during the
day and had cleared the smoke from the air. All
systems on Combat Talon 64-0563 were working
perfectly as the crew entered low level at Udorn
RTAFB. As the crew flew across the Plain of Jars
in northern Laos at 500-feet altitude, there were
numerous AAA bursts above their altitude. Enemy
forces on the ground were firing at the sound of
the Combat Talon as the aircraft passed near their
positions, but the gunners could not see the
blacked-out aircraft in time to get an accurate shot.
Two minutes before the drop, the crew slowed to
115 knots, opened the rear cargo ramp and door,
and prepared the five-bundle load for airdrop.**
__________
*The following account was extracted from an unpublished article titled “STRAY GOOSE: Memoirs of a C-130 Special Operations Pilot,” dated
22 April 1999. The author of the article, Richard H. Sell, was one of the pilots assigned to crew SG-5. He also flew onboard the Combat Talon for the
mission.
**A slowdown below 150 knots was required since the HSLLADS had not been developed at that time. Enemy response to the airdrop indicated
that Hanoi could track the aircraft when it climbed to 1,200 feet and slowed to drop speed. Had the HSLLADS been available, the Combat Talon
could have remained at 500 feet and dropped its resupply load at 250 knots, thus eliminating the dangerous exposure of the aircraft and crew to
enemy fire.
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