As the war escalated, more US ground forces deployed. They soon required emergency close air support plus air interdiction, seeking out enemy vehicles and strongholds. Added to this, major separate campaigns attacked fixed targets and war materiel across North Vietnam and into Laos. Pilots flying MiGs shot down 67 US aircraft. North Vietnam lost of theirs. Air operations peaked with ground operations from to The Air Force flew a total of , combat and combat support sorties in , its busiest year.
Losses piled up as airmen took risks to complete ground support missions. Merrill A. McPeak saw it first-hand. Many aircraft were lost to gunfire because they were slow movers, he wrote in his memoir, Hangar Flying. In his view, the compromises required to handle surface-to-air missiles made US aircraft more vulnerable to guns and interceptors.
The volume of losses tracked with number of sorties flown. But there were other factors. The lethality of the air war derived from the deadly combination of anti-aircraft fire, SAMs, and handfuls of MiGs creating a multilayered problem for strike packages. The aerial combat war in Vietnam had two major phases—from the first kills of mid to , and then again from December to December North Vietnam had begun building its air force after driving out the French in Several main airbases such as the new jet field at Yen Bai in the North were built in the late s and early s.
China and the Soviet Union supplied aircraft, air defenses, and fighter training. Vietnamese pilots took Russian language lessons and ground school at Bataysk, Russia, then transferred to Primorsko-Akhtarsk for flight training in the Yak or later the L Forty percent of the F inventory was lost during the war. Photo via Bert Hester, www.
By the early s, North Vietnam also had pilots training on the MiG in China—with Chinese pilots flying and fighting in North Vietnamese airspace at the beginning of the war. Records indicate that the first air-to-air kills by MiGs were credited to Chinese pilots. Fortunately, these were kills of the AQM Firebee reconnaissance drones.
The year marked the beginning of steady losses to anti-aircraft fire, surface-to-air missiles, and MiGs. By mid, several manned aircraft were lost due to ground fire, lack of fuel, mishaps, and other causes, and many aircrews were already prisoners of war. The increasing pace of flights provided a target-rich environment for North Vietnam.
This was the first F-4C lost in combat. Clinton B. Johnson in a widely reprinted memoir. Chasing MiGs at low altitude, Johnson and his wingman flew around a hill to see a MiG ahead of them lining up on other A-1s. These were deliberate tactics. In front of Chinese-made MiGs, North Vietnamese pilots listen to a briefing on dogfighting tactics. The MiG superceded the MiG Via Vietnamese News Agency. USAF Col. British historian Christopher M.
Hobson believed the North made a careful decision about how and when to use its precious MiGs. Day 1 of the air-to-air war might be traced to April 4, Four MiGs dove across a package of Fs then disengaged. Down went two Fs, with both pilots killed. This was the first blast of the classic hit-and-run tactics MiGs would use throughout the war.
They took shots but preserved aircraft for future opportunities, which were sure to come as the US flew more and more sorties. As long as the US rules of engagement barred strikes on their bases, the MiGs could operate almost at will as raiders and stretch their small aircraft force into a thin but consistent threat.
The MiG was a known gun killer. It carried three 23 mm cannons; some of the airplanes were later modified with a radar scope. A direct descendant of the MiG of Korean War fame, the MiG also took advantage of the light weight and maneuverability characteristics of the MiG family.
Over time, the numbers added up. Van Bay claimed seven kills in the MiG The US response was to implement combat air patrols to keep the airspace open. Numbers again made the task harder for the US.
Not knowing where the MiGs might pop up, combat air patrols had to be in place to cover every mission from bombing to rescue operations. For years it took bases in South Vietnam, bases in Thailand, and carriers on station to provide enough fighters to keep airspace open for aircraft on interdiction and CAS missions.
USAF photo. This series provides select data on enemy initiated incidents during the Vietnam War. This series contains records about aerial and surface psychological operations carried out by the U. This series contains aggregate data about psychological operations carried out by the U.
This series contains data about incidents by the enemy against the civilian population, and public and private property. Incidents captured in the system include deaths, abductions, seizure of property, damage to property, and injuries, to name a few. This series contains records of ground combat operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and includes but is not limited to information on the type of military operation, nationalities of armed forces, location, and dates.
This series includes statistical operations data about friendly initiated FO incidents and actions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. This series includes operations data about enemy initiated VC incidents and actions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. This series contains data that define enemy base area locations in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and Cambodia on a monthly basis. This series contains information on the identity and location of American, South Vietnamese, and Allied maneuver battalions infantry, armored, cavalry, airborne, and air mobile deployed in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
This series contains data on ground combat operations, whether enemy or friendly initiated, in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. This series contains data for 48 U. The data was compiled as part of a study on the exposure of U.
Army personnel to Agent Orange. Military Personnel. Record Group Records of U. Army Operational, Tactical, and Support Organizations. These records contain information about the use and the loss of military supplies, such as ammunition and equipment, by unit and by type of combat activity during the Vietnam War. This series contains information on ground combat missions involving military units of the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
This series contains bimonthly data on air combat missions flown in Southeast Asia by U. There is some duplication between these CACTA files and those in Record Group and there are some records in one version that are not in the other and vice versa.
This series contains data on air warfare missions flown over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. NARA received three files from the U.
There may be some duplication between the sets of files. This series consists of files with records on air combat missions flown in Southeast Asia by U. This series contains data on herbicide spraying missions, including the use of Agent Orange, during the Vietnam War.
This series contains monthly data on air combat missions flown in Southeast Asia by U. This series contains data identifying reconnaissance objectives, imagery requests, and imagery characteristics for imagery reconnaissance missions flown over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
This series contains information about combat incidents of hostile fire directed at U. This series contains data from two military operations during the Vietnamese Conflict, Operation Linebacker and Operation Pocket Money, which concerned all mining operations conducted against North Vietnamese interior waterways and harbors.
This series contains information on operation Market Time surveillance of the coastline of South Vietnam and operation Game Warden patrolling South Vietnamese rivers. Series containing data on U. Public use versions of the files are available. This series contains information about some of the awards and decorations of honor awarded to U. A public use version is available. This series contains counts of the number of war casualties during the ceasefire period.
This series contains monthly data on the total number of policemen within the South Vietnamese National Police Force by both administrative unit and assigned police function.
Several Farm Gaters likewise went on to greater fame. John L. Piotrowski, the first Farm Gate armament officer, became commander in chief of U. Space Command. Richard Secord was a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. Farm Gate carried the air war to the Viet Cong throughout Vietnam. The Ts also provided escort and support for U.
The number of combat missions increased steadily. Sixteen Farm Gate crewmen were killed in action between early and the middle of In-service rates declined for the Ts and Bs—old to begin with and given limited rehabilitation before going to Vietnam. Attrition losses from structural failures increased. The detachment was augmented with additional aircraft and aircrews. Looking back years later, Col. By , U.
The fiction of Farm Gate as a non-U. Air Force chief Gen. Curtis E. LeMay argued that the main effect of the secrecy was to impose an administrative burden and persuaded the Joint Chiefs of Staff to declassify the mission. Rossel in a retrospective for the Air Commando Association. The demand for Farm Gate-style sorties continued.
The Air Force proposed replacing the Ts and Bs with jet aircraft, but McNamara approved A-1E Skyraiders instead, propeller-driven attack bombers that nevertheless represented a substantial increase in capability and effectiveness. The A-1s took over in the spring of The war shifted gears in August , when Air Force fighters deployed in strength to Southeast Asia in response to an attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats on U.
In the south, two A-1E squadrons continued to fly 80 percent of the sorties in support of the South Vietnamese Army. Indeed, there had been U. It was Farm Gate that created the real basis for what was to come as air commandos moved into the Air Force mainstream. It also carried the brunt of the air war against the Viet Cong for two years and demonstrated the value of employing air power in less conventional modes.
It is a reasonable question whether it would have happened without the secrecy and deception early on. John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is a frequent contributor. Skip to content. Air Commando Association. By John T.
We never trained a Vietnamese pilot. Benjamin King, Farm Gate commander. Maintainers work on the guns of a B twin-engine attack bomber at an undisclosed airfield in Southeast Asia.
A B pulls up after dropping bombs during Farm Gate. Jungle Jim. View or download this infographic. Farm Gate.
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