Rolling Thunder
Page 16
MISSION CARD
Each pilot also had a card on his kneeboard listing all the AFVN repeater station frequencies and locations in South Vietnam. Tuning their AN/ARN-6 Radio Compasses, that looked like the WWII coffee grinders, to the proper station would allow the needle on the automatic direction finder (ADF) unit to point to the station. Besides being a handy navigation device, the pilots could listen to the music being played on AFVN. Pilots called the card "Music to Strafe By." The two wingmen were tuned in to some Tijuana Brass. Court normally had his on, but refrained because of Rawson in the backseat.
After several minutes of holding the heading, Darlington called for his FAC. "Copperhead Zero Nine, Ramrod Two Zero." After thirty seconds with no answer he called again: "Copperhead Zero Nine, this is Ramrod Two Zero. How do you read?" This time he got an answer.
"Ah, roger, Ramrod, this is Copperhead Zero Three. Zero Nine had some problems. I'm replacing him. How do you read?"
"Loud and clear, Zero Three. Are you ready for my lineup?"
Captain Phil Travers said to go ahead then told his new backseater, First Lieutenant Toby Parker, to copy Ramrod's lineup.
"Ramrod Two Zero, Mission Number 6 dash 2651, four Fox One Hundreds with eight Mark-82 Snakeyes, four BLU-27 napalms, four CBU-1s, and 3200 rounds of twenty mike-mike."
"Roger, Ramrod. Copperhead copies eight snakes, four napes, four CBs, and 3200 times twenty mil. You got sparklers or balls?"
Travers explained to Parker that sparklers were the 20mm High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) that exploded in bright flashes whereas balls were 20mm solid slugs. Darlington said they had some of each; every fifth round was a sparkler. Once in a while the airplanes carried Armor Piercing Incendiary (API), but not unless they had to because its destructive properties were useless in the jungle against soft targets.
"Listen up, Ramrods, here's what we got. Your target is near a small unit patrol that got bounced by a large force of Charlie and are pinned down. There is one canopy of jungle. Target elevation is 50 feet above sea level, wind is 10 knots from 250 degrees, safe bail out area is about 10 miles northeast of us at the Loc Ninh SF camp. You copy?"
"Ramrod copies."
"And the weather is going to get delta sierra (dog shit). You'll have to thread around the best you can. Copy?"
"Ramrod copies."
"We'll start with the Snakes first to open things up, then nape and CBU, and if we have anything left we'll use the 20 mike-mike. Copy?"
"Zero Three, Ramrod copies. We're at the rendezvous point now. What's your position?"
"If you see the horseshoe bend in the river with the rice paddies to the north, I'm orbiting south at fifteen hundred."
"Tallyho, Zero Three," Darlington transmitted and began a left orbit over the FAC. He pumped his control stick fore and aft to make his F-100 bob up and down, the signal for his flight to go into trail formation, one behind the other, with about 500 feet between each airplane. When the FAC marked the target the four ships would form a box pattern around the target each rolling in after the other spaced so as to keep their guns on the target while the F-100 in front pulled off. The pilots preferred to fly a wheel pattern where they could roll in from random headings to confuse the gunner's tracking solution; but with friendlies on the ground, precision was the word even if it meant taking a round or two. Often the FAC told them what heading to use in a simple code.
"The FACs rolling in Florida to New York to mark," Travers said.
"Roger, cleared. Set 'em up, Ramrod," Darlington transmitted.
Each pilot reached down to his armament control panel and set the switches: Bomb to Single Release; Bomb Arming to Nose and Tail; Release Signal to Manual; and Master Switch to On. The little button left of the trim switch on top of the pilot's control stick closed an electrical circuit each time the pilot pressed it to release whatever weapon was selected on the armament panel. Pilots called it the pickle button. The two wingman lowered the volume of their AFVN music.
"Oh, yeah," Travers said, "Copperhead Zero Nine reported light to moderate ground fire, but was unable to pinpoint the positions before he took a round in his engine and had to RTB (Return To Base)."
Bannister tightened when he heard the guns were up. He could see the general area to the north where Austin had gone in. His fireball flared and played just behind Bannister's eyes. Damn, he said into his mask, not at all certain he was ready to go up against the guns again. He arranged his switches and noted his fingers were trembling as he flicked up the Master Arm switch to ON.