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Posted to the Forward Air Controller net by SUNDOG 12: SEARCH AND RESCUE Douglas B. Aitken Rustic 16 Editors Note. This story was taken from the Rustic archives or from The Rustics, A Top Secret Air War in Cambodia which was self published by the Rustic FAC Association, which holds all rights, which can be reached at www.rustic.org . My 19th TASS Form 0-13, "INDIVIDUAL FLIGHT SUMMARY," showed that on February 17, 1972, I flew aircraft 681 and logged 5.0 hours of First Pilot (FP) time. The line directly under that one shows a second sortie that day on the same aircraft, during which I logged 2.0 total time, with 0.8 of that being night, and one night landing. The small remarks box shows, "SAR--SUN 12--H05." If someone were to be casually reviewing these records for whatever reason, there is no way they would ever know that the second sortie that day was to return to Ubon after landing at Phnom Penh for fuel at the end of a Search and Rescue (SAR) for Sundog 12, 1Lt Richard Neil Christy, and his right seat interpreter, SSgt William E. Silva. TSgt Joe Garand was in my back seat that day, and he was one of the older, though newer, interpreters. As I recall, we had found an unusual target that afternoon---several POL barrels stacked on the north side of a small lake northeast of the town of Kompong Thom. It was unusual because we very seldom saw supplies in the open like that. I requested an airstrike through Sundog Alpha (the radio relay station on top of Nui Ba Den mountain in Vietnam, formerly known as Rustic Alpha). The only fighters available from Bien Hoa AB was Hawk 05---a pair of A-37s carrying 500 pound bombs and 2.75 inch rockets. This was not the best ordnance for my target (the rockets were fine, the bombs were not), but since they were the only thing available, they were launched. They checked in, and I gave them the standard briefing. Just as they were overhead, we got a call from Sundog Alpha, asking if we would share our "Hawks" with Sundog 12, an 0-2A who reported he had enemy troops in the open to the east of Phnom Penh. Since the A-37s were ready to go, I quickly (and selfishly) put Hawk 05 flight through on one pass then headed them south to Sundog's rendezvous point. As they left, I watched the rising black smoke of the burning POL barrels. It was then that Sundog Alpha called us on the VHF radio and asked if we had heard a "Mayday" call from Sundog 12 on the radio. I replied that we had not, and a query to the Hawks returned "negative" also. Alpha stated that he thought the call was on his VHF frequency and not on UHF Guard, but he was not sure. Normally any MAYDAY call would be sent over UHF GUARD frequency 243.0 since all USAF airplanes had a second receiver which is always set to that frequency. I immediately headed down to the rendezvous location Sundog 12 had planned to use for the fighters. Both Joe and I were calling on all our radios --UHF, VHF, FM-- to see if we could raise Sundog 12. Since the A-37s did not have VHF radios, I passed along the latest information to Hawk 05 and requested they climb to altitude and hold in the area---they did so and helped out by shutting down one engine to conserve fuel and increase their loiter time. At 150 knots or so, it was going to take us awhile to get to the rendezvous area. The A-37s did have FM radios, so they kept calling for Sundog on both the UHF GUARD frequency and the FM frequency we knew he had been using to talk to the ground commander. Sundog Alpha passed along the call sign of the ground commander who had been working with Sundog 12. As we got into radio range, Joe got in contact with the ground commander on the FM radio. About this time, several other developments took place---the fighters said they could hear a survivor on the UHF 243.0 GUARD frequency. (I still could not hear anybody on GUARD.) Sundog Alpha set the rescue forces in motion, and 7th AF (Call sign "Blue Chip") designated me as the on-scene commander until the Search and Rescue (SAR) aircraft arrived. In addition, Rustic 03, LTC Ray Stratton, checked in and said he was enroute to assist. While the backseater talked to the ground commander that Sundog 12 had been working with, to try and find out all he knew, I worked with the A-37s as they talked to the survivor. Sometime about here, we determined that we were talking to the interpreter, not the pilot. I asked the Hawks to try to determine a location---any major roads, fires, mountains, lakes, etc.---anything at all to help us try to find the survivor. The ground commander said that the last he had seen of Sundog 12, he was headed north, away from the area, with smoke trailing out of his aircraft. The fighters reported that the survivor told them he had nothing of significance he could see to help us find him--consequently, he was going to stay close to his parachute, which should be visible from the air. Rustic 03 showed up, and we established a circular search pattern, paralleling each other as we headed north away from where the friendly ground commander had last seen his aircraft. After about 15 minutes of going north, the fighters relayed that the survivor reported he heard our engines. Rustic 03 and I had discussed this scenario (which of us would he see?), and we each immediately went into a hard orbit and took turns "jazzing" our engines, in an attempt to see which of us was closer to the survivor. The OV-10 engines have a very distinctive sound when this is done--almost like a bumblebee. To our amazement, confusion, and intense disappointment, the fighters relayed that the survivor reported that the engine noise had gone away. Hmmmm. We had not moved, so we determined that the sound did not come from us, and we resumed our search. Shortly after this episode, we began to faintly hear the survivor on UHF, so we knew at least that we were heading in the right direction. Rustic 03 had him stronger than I did, but it appeared that LTC Stratton's directional finding equipment was malfunctioning, and he was unable to get a good bearing on the radio signal. Then the survivor reported that he saw us---we immediately went into our tight circle again---separately performed the "engine jazzing" routine again, and were really confused when the survivor, in a rather high pitched voice, reported that "we" were flying away from him---something which, of course, we were not doing, as we were both in a tight orbit. Later, we found out that there was a Cambodian AC-47 airborne, and this was the plane which the survivor was seeing. The AC-47 had been called into the area by the ground commander, and the crew was trying to help locate the survivor---but they unknowingly made the situation more confusing for us. We also established radio contact with a flight of US Army helicopters who had been working on the border area southeast of Phnom Penh, and who responded to Sundog Alpha's call for help. They were enroute to the area, as were the "Jolly Green" rescue HH-53 helicopters and the A-1E "Sandys." We continued our northerly heading, and I began to get a good bearing on the radio signal. The survivor was sounding louder and clearer by the minute, so I knew I was getting close to his location, and I really concentrated on finding that parachute. Also, I was really pushing it as far as my fuel status was concerned-----I was really getting "skosh." I kept the TACAN tuned to Phnom Penh and was continually mentally updating my estimate of fuel remaining vs. distance to the airport. I was in a left bank, looking for the parachute, and almost crapped when a US helicopter buzzed directly underneath me. Simultaneously, I heard the survivor yell, "I see the helicopters! They are right over me!". While thinking, "If he can see them,----why hasn't he seen me, and why haven't I seen the chute?," I made an immediate turn towards Phnom Penh. I switched my radio to FM to tell the Army helicopters to go into an orbit as they were right over the survivor. When I left, the "Jolly Green" and "Sandy" rescue force was about five minutes out. SSgt Silva was picked up shortly thereafter by one of the Jolly Greens. Somewhere along the line I read or heard that the Jolly Green wasted a bad guy or two with his mini-gun during the pickup, but the "Stars and Stripes" article I still have states that the pickup went smoothly, with no mention of bad guys. It turned out that Sundog 12, Lt Christy, had located some VC troops in the open. While waiting for Hawk 05, he was maneuvering the aircraft to keep the enemy in sight and was shot at and killed by AK-47 rounds which also damaged the front engine. SSgt Silva, seeing Lt Christy slumped over, took control of the O-2 and tried to keep it airborne. He was successful for awhile, but when the front engine quit, and the airplane nosed over, he bailed out. From the time he bailed out until the time he was picked up was almost two hours. The "Jollys" reported he was in good health and very happy to see them. I do not recall what altitude Rustic 03 was during the search, but I know that I was at 1000 ft. AGL, hoping to see the chute easier from that altitude. It turns out that this was a big mistake----no, I did not get hit, nor even fired at that I know of, but this low altitude absolutely eliminated any chance of my quickly finding the survivor's location, since I was too low to directly communicate with him. In retrospect, it would have been much better for one of our two OV-10's to climb to altitude to attempt to get voice contact and a subsequent directional (ADF) bearing on the survivor. Staying at the lower altitude probably cost us 25 minutes or so in locating the survivor---not good in this situation. The actual pickup time could not have been shortened, as helicopters were not in the area until just before the actual pickup, but if I had been a smarter, he may have been located a lot sooner. I will always remember where the fuel gauges on the OV-10 are located, as I sure looked at them a lot on the way over to Phnom Penh. What I really remember is looking in the mirrors and seeing Joe Garand leaned way over to his right as he tried to read those gauges also. I recall thinking how stupid I was gonna feel if they had to pick up three guys instead of just one. I was so low on fuel I actually set up a flame-out pattern over Phnom Penh just in case---but once again I lucked out, and as I rolled into to the parking area, I was happily surprised to see Maj Keth Thoral, who was the Cambodian Helicopter Commander. Maj Thoral had spent the month of July 1971 with the Rustics as an exchange officer at Bien Hoa. I got to fly with him all the time because he spoke no English, and at that time, I was the only French speaking pilot in the outfit. He had dramatically improved my French, patiently correcting my pronunciation, grammar, and adding to my French wartime vocabulary. He also added to my meager knowledge of many French words for the female anatomy as we watched the strippers at the Bien Hoa Officers' Club. I can still see him in the Rustic bar, wrapped in his colorful sarong, a cigarette in his hand, as he passionately educated me on the long history of ill will between his country and the Vietnamese. He felt that there was no difference between the North and South Vietnamese. In fact, he stated that whichever side won the conflict, the Cambodians would have to fight the winner. At any rate, he was happy to see me in Phnom Penh and asked me if we had gotten the gifts he had sent. I replied that we had not, and he explained that he had sent them to us via some US Army helicopter pilots who were stationed at Long Binh (across the field from Bien Hoa). I tried to explain to him that US Army pilots were not as trustworthy as US Air Force pilots---sadly, we had never received his gifts. He made me promise to not take off until he returned. He then drove from the airport to his house in the southern portion of Phnom Penh and returned with many gifts---all from his house--- for his Rustic friends. I still have the black Apsara dinner bell he gave me. This was the last time I saw or talked to him. According to "Sam," whom I talked to in 1977, Major Keth Thoral, his wife, and children were all killed by the Khmer Rouge when Phnom Penh fell. Upon my return to Ubon, I learned that Rustic 03 had landed before me and had already done the debrief, and there was little I could add. But, as I was not real happy with the way I conducted the initial portion of the SAR, I suggested that perhaps we could all learn from a little seminar from the experts. We soon had a Rustic pilot/interpreter evening meeting in operations with the experts ---the "Sandys" and "Jolly Greens," who came over from their strip alert to educate us. I returned to the "world" before the next Rustic SAR effort, but I hope the lessons learned in the search for Sundog 12 helped future recoveries.
Editors Postscript : The body of Sundog 12 was recovered by the FANK (Khmer Army) and was returned to Phnom Penh where, with fully military honors it was transported to an awaiting USAF C-47. The pilots of the Khmer Fighters Squadron (Scorpions) and Helicopter Gun Ships (Red Eagles) were the pall bearers and provided an honor guard. After this the Air Attaches from the embassy sent a letter of appreciation to the Khmers for their honoring of Lt Christy. The last two paragraphs follow.. To Lt. Col. Sok Sambaur, Major Kim Puon, and Captain Sampong, and their squadron mates who acted as pallbearers for our comrade, we also offer our sincere appreciation. These profound expressions of sentiment and honor shown by the Khmer Air Force to a fallen American Pilot will long be remembered and treasured. In these dark days when your country is so gallantly fighting for its very existance, we American airmen are proud to assist you with what efforts we can. When duty in battler requires, we also offer our lives for the Khmer Republic Col Clement L. Counts Lt Col Mark E. Berent Major Nathan K. Goldsmith |