The Air Force in the Vietnam War - Air Force Association

Command and Control
T
he elegant Lockheed Constellation—its
profile easily recognizable by
its three tail fins—had a distinguished
record of airline and military service,
beginning in the 1940s. A specially
built Constellation, “Columbine II,”
was President Eisenhower’s personal
airplane from 1954 to 1961.
The EC-121 was a radar-picket variation
of the Constellation, in service with Air
Defense Command in the 1950s as an
aerial extension of the Distant Early
Warning (DEW) Line. Two variants of
it flew unusual missions from Korat Air
Base, Thailand, in the Vietnam War.
The EC-121D flown by the College Eye
Task Force had radomes above and below
the fuselage and packed six tons of
electronic gear. In their primary mission,
these EC-121s flew elliptical orbits over
the Tonkin Gulf, their powerful radars
collecting and reporting data on air activity
in North Vietnam. In 1967, an EC-
121 controlled the intercept of a Mig-21
by a US fighter, which had never been
accomplished before in combat. After
China complained that US aircraft had
violated its borders, College Eye took on
the job of warning airmen if they were
too close to Chinese territory. On Aug.
15, 1973, a College Eye EC-121 had
the distinction of flying the last USAF
mission of the Vietnam War.
The “Bat Cat” EC-121Rs had camouflage
but no radomes. They flew in
support of “Igloo White,” an operation
that seeded the Ho Chi Minh Trail with
sensors to detect troop and vehicle
traffic. The EC-121s, on missions that
lasted about 10 hours, orbited the Trail,
picking up signals and relaying them to
Task Force Alpha at Nakhon Phanom
or passing them directly to 7th Air
Force in Saigon. The intelligence was
used to direct gunships and other attack
aircraft against the trucks or troops.
A Pave Eagle U-22 “Mini-Bat” drone
was developed as an alternative to the
EC-121 as a signal collection platform,
but it never flew an operational mission
without a pilot.
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