Many moons ago…
We had this ‘thing’ called the ‘Circuit’. Deployment site to Utapao, Thailand, to Diego Garcia, to Bandar Abbas, Iran, and ‘other places as directed’, then back…
With flights from each location on what were known as MAP (Maritime Air Patrol) tracks. They were usually 8-12 hour flights, making for some long days!
And this was what Utapao looked like back then!
Our ‘det’ site was off the far end of the runway to the right.
And this was what our ‘hooches’ looked like. These were the officer’s (note the AC unit). Ours were open bay with a head (bathroom) on one end, and a Mamasan who took care of the place and did our laundry (for a price)…
When Vietnam fell, our ramp and the grass was packed with RVAF airplanes including C-47s, C-119s, AD-1 Skyraiders, including one VIP Lockheed Loadstar (beautiful little airplane), Vietnamese Airline C-47s, and a bunch of cats and dogs airplanes…
We were also involved in the rescue of the SS Mayaguez, a cargo ship taken by the Khmer Rouge.
I ‘think’ this might have been one of our FLIR pics of the Mayaguez when we were trying to see if her engines were running…
And yes, those were two ‘former’ Swift boats tied up alongside… and they shot at us!!!
Since we had the prototype FLIR system, we got all the night flights… sigh
This is the picture taken by another P-3, I think from VP-17 of the fishing boat with the Mayaguez crew on board.
Helluva busy couple of weeks!!!
Oh yeah, and because USAF Utapao was processing all of the film/pictures, everything was stamped USAF, not USN… Grrrrr…
Sadly, the abortive raid on Koh Tang cost ten Marines, two Navy corpsmen, and an Air Force crewman killed in the crash of Knife 31; an Air Force crewman killed in the crash of Knife 21; one Marine killed in action on the West Beach; and three Marines missing in action and presumed dead. A total of fifty were wounded including thirty-five Marines and six airmen.
Additionally, eighteen USAF Security Police and five flight crew were killed in the CH-53 crash on the way from NKP to U-Tapao prior to the operation.
Hey Old NFO;
I remember you telling me about that one. I recall from what I read about the raid, it wasn’t the best planned operation(Goat screw)
and leaving 3 marines unaccounted for( I personally believe that they were left behind) because the planning was subpar. Maybe I’m wrong…but that has been my opinion for many decades, and as I recall that was basically the last combat operation of the Vietnam War. Now your pictures are bada$$ though.
We had a 3-plane det there on our ’69 Iwakuni deployment. I remember walking into the cockpit and almost crapping myself because of the stuffed cobra on the center console.
Bob- Yeah, it was…sigh
Flugel- ROTFLMAO! Those sumbitches were everywhere over there! Remember having to beat on the wheelwell doors on preflight to get the snakes out of the landing gear?
So Samuel Jackson was right.
M-F Snakes on the plane…
*snorts*
VP 22 started the whole round robin thing in early 74 when the Soviet Union sent a squadron of ships from Vladavostok into the Indian Ocean. All we had was a poor sub keeping track of them without any way of reporting. The det left Cubi for U-tapao then on to Diego Garcia (under construction) and hence to Bandar Abbas. Lather rinse repeat
Beans- LOL, yep, except for real!!!
Thyne- Yep! And by the 80s, DG was a full deployment site! In 74-75 we lived in hooches on the beach, no hangar, one Butler building was our ‘hangar’ and a drunk Jenny for entertainment…
The Thai Navy sent someone to our Tweet Shop one day asking if any knew anything about IFF systems. Seems that all of their Stoofs were down for IFF and their AMD IFF test bench was down.
Since I had been to APX-72 training I said “Sure, put me in coach.”
When I started taking off the Air Force “DO NOT BREAK!” seals on the test bench the Thai techs had a Sh!t Fit with a lot of screaming and yelling and pointing. I explained to the one Thai officer that it was that or I would leave so he grudgingly gave the go ahead.
Turned out to be a broken solder joint on a vacuum tube and an easy fix.
They took mt to their O Club for lunch as a thank you, tried to burn out all my nasal passages with the food, and were impressed with my ability to consume the heat. Fortunately there was plenty of beer.
Flugelman- LOL, of course you did… And yes, their ‘mild’ was HOT!!! But the Singha went down pretty good!