The Ravens: The True Story of a Secret War Read Free

for the enemy and suffered high casualties, and as a result there was always a slot for any young pilot who wanted to volunteer.
    A FAC did not have the glamour of flying a high-tech jet, but his role was dignified by danger. He took enormous risks to coordinate air support for ground troops, working with slow, low-flying aircraft (described by the Air Force as ‘noncosmetic’). Of the twelve Medals of Honor awarded to Air Force personnel for bravery in the Vietnam War, two went to forward air controllers.
    A good FAC needed a fighter pilot’s mentality but was obliged to operate at the pace of a World War I biplane. Until as late as 1971 the FACs flew Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs, fore-and-aft two-seater, high-wing monoplanes, most of which had been built for the Army in the early 1950s, although production continued until 1961. The Air Force felt the plane was inadequate for its task in Vietnam. The plane had no armor, lacked self-sealing fuel tanks, its range was only 530 miles, it carried too few marking rockets, and its maximum speed was 115 mph (although 60 knots was more likely when configured for combat). In addition, its ground-looping characteristics made it unforgiving to the uninitiated on the taxiway. (Pilots did not like to turn their backs on the O-1 until it had been taxied to a halt, the engine turned off, and the wings tied down.) Eventually, the Cessna 0-2 was introduced to replace the older plane. This was a modified business aircraft with double the range of the O-1 and the ability to carry twice as many rockets. Although it too was insufficiently armored, the Air Force felt it could serve as a stopgap until enough North American OV-10 Broncos were available. The Bronco had been specially designed for the job, with a glass canopy providing excellent visibility, armor, rockets, bombs, and machine guns.
    The FAC was essential to every aspect of the military operation in Vietnam. It was his job to find the target, order up fighter-bombers from a circling airborne command and control center (AB Triple C) or ground-based direct air support center (DASC), mark the target accurately with white phosphorus smoke rockets (Willy Pete), and control the operation throughout the time the planes remained on station. And after the fighters had departed, the FAC stayed over the target to make a bomb damage assessment (BDA), which he relayed to the fighters and airborne command. Putting in a strike meant that you were busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, the pilots said.
    The FAC also had to ensure that there were no attacks on the civilian population, a complex and constant problem in a war where there were no front lines and any hamlet could suddenly become a part of the combat zone. As early as 1961 it became established policy that all tactical strike aircraft - fighters, fighter-bombers, and gunships - would be under the control of a FAC, who cleared combat strikes with local civilian officials. FACs worked in every one of Vietnam’s forty-four provinces and became a prime source of combat intelligence. When major U.S. ground combat units were first sent to Vietnam in 1965, each battalion was assigned a number of FACs, whose role became that of local air commander. [4]
    The initial training of the FACs was undertaken by the Air Commandos, and young pilots were sent to the base at Hurlburt Field, Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The Commandos flew all the special-operations airplanes - old prop fighters and adapted transports with not a cosmetic one among them - and performed a wide variety of strange missions not usually associated with the Air Force. The Air Commandos were given the clandestine, classified operations, and their school was designed to put a young FAC through his paces.
    A FAC also had to know how the Army worked. At the Air and Ground Operations School he was taught the difference between a platoon and a brigade, how soldiers operated in the field, the way artillery was used, and so on. The