The Cold War

 

 

On September 2, 1945, the Second World War ended with the surrender of Japan by the formal signing of surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. It had been a long and difficult war, and Americans were tired of the war and simpl;y wanted to get on with life. In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President of the United States.

 

 

But the end of World War Two did not bring the peace everyone had hoped for. By 1947 the United States and the Soviet Union found themselves competing for global hedgemony and ideological supremacy. Each country sought to have infulence over various parts of the world. Europe aligned more with the United States, while Southeast Asia aligned more with the Soviets and Chinese Communists. 

 

 

In April of 1954 then President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially popularized the Domino Theory, a Cold War foreign policy concept suggesting that the fall of one non-communist nation to communism would trigger a chain reaction, causing neighboring countries to collapse like falling dominoes. It was the primary rationale used by U.S. administrations to justify escalating military involvement in the Vietnam War.

 

 

The Communists were trying to extend their ideology throughout Southeast Asia into Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Vietnamese were divided between those in the north who wanted communisim, while the south wanted to have a democracy. Starting in 1955 the US began sending military advisors into South Vietnam to help them slow the spread of Communism.

 

 

In August of 1964 there were reports of attacks on US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and the US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Lyndon B. Johnson broad military powers. Soon President Johnson began sending more and more American troops into South Vietnam in an effort to stop the spread of communisim, and to help the South Vietnamese protect themselves.

 

The Steve Canyon Program

 

This covert operation in Laos took its name from  the popular 1950s comic strip and television show about an adventurous Air Force pilot. Canyon was a patriotic flyboy who, upon his return from World War II, established a one-plane flight service known as Horizons Unlimited that served as cover for his covert activities. For a time the comic strip character operated a charter air service, but he eventually rejoined the military to fight communism.

 

 

Captain Jack Teague, the first dedicated FAC in Laos and members of the Hmong Special Guerilla Units controlling airstrikes over Laos.

 

 

Stringent rules of engagement over Laos necessitated the use of Forward Air Controllers (FACs) to ensure no mistakes occurred that could have resulted in the death of friendly ground forces. Before the program was created, Air Force noncommissioned officers, known as “Butterflies,” who were not Air Force pilots, conducted forward air control flying in the right seat of an Air America-owned Pilatus PC-6 Porter utility aircraft. 

 

 

In 1964 a handful of US Air Force Air Commandos entered Laos to serve as FACs. As airstrikes increased, more skilled combat controllers were necessary to replace the earlier Air Commandos who operated under the call sign Butterfly in 1966 to direct air strikes from the ground and as FACs in civilian aircraft.

 

 

3 Butterfly FACs standing by a Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter aircraft.

 

Specifications of the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter:

• Crew: 1;
• Length: 35.76 feet;
• Wingspan: 52.07 feet;
• Height: 10.50 feet;
• Maximum weight: 6,195 pounds;
• Empty weight: 3,075 pounds;
• Powerplant: Pratt & Whitney PT6A 650 shp and 4-blade propeller;
• Cruise speed: 137 mph;
• Range: 1,000 miles.

 

 

When Seventh Air Force commander Lieutenant General William Momyer discovered that the FACs in Laos were not pilots, and in most cases were enlisted, he created the Steve Canyon Program. This effort was to recruit officer pilots to serve as FACs under the call sign Raven. When the rated Air Force jet fighter pilots serving in the CIA’s covert war in Laos began conducting forward air control in Cessna O-1 aircraft in 1966, they replaced the Butterflies.

 

The Ravens and the Secret Air War in Laos

 

Before the program was created, Air Force non-commissioned officers, known as “Butterflies,” who were not Air Force pilots, conducted forward air control flying in the right seat of an Air America-owned Pilatus PC-6 Porter utility aircraft. When the rated Air Force jet fighter pilots serving in the CIA’s covert war in Laos began conducting forward air control in Cessna O-1 Bird Dog aircraft in 1966, they replaced the anachronistic Butterflies.

 

 

 

 

When the Steve Canyon Program came into existence in 1966 it marked a major improvement in the forward air control supporting the guerrilla forces battling the communists in Laos. It took a special breed of fighter pilot to become forward air controllers, and to meet the demand of the CIA’s top-secret war in Laos, and they were given the name Raven Forward Air Controllers, also known as The Ravens.

 

 

Initially the FACs were enlisted non-commissioned officers who rode in the right seat of the Pilatus Turbo Portor and were called "Butterflies." Air Force officers who joined the secret war in Laos through the Steve Canyon Program established in 1966 were a different breed. Now, let's meet one of these special Raven pilots.

 

 

Landing view of Lima Site 20 Alternate (LS20A), located at Long Tieng, Laos.

 

 

The non-communist forces in Laos had a critical need for military support to defend their territory being used by Laos and North Vietnamese communist forces. The United States, in conjunction with non-communist forces in Laos, devised a system whereby U.S. military personnel could be "in the black" (clandestine: mustered out of the military to perform military duties as a civilian) to operate in Laos under the supervision of the U.S. Ambassador to Laos. 

 

Captain Richard Herold

 

 

On December 3, 1944, a young boy by the given name of Richard Walter Herold was born to Walter and Fern Herold in Metuchen, New Jersey. Richard had one brother, Robert, and two sisters, Karen and Barbara. Richard attended Metuchen High School in New Jersey where he played tennis, golf, and loved playing cards. In 1962 he graduated from high school, and then continued his education at Rutgers University. While there he was a member of the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity.

 

On October 21, 1967, Richard joined the U.S. Air Force, and during his time in the U.S. Air Force Richard was sent to flight training to be a pilot, and soon had won his wings. We don't know where all he was stationed during his career, but we do know that he attained the rank of Captain.

 

 

On the morning of September of 1972, at approximately 0900 hours, a flight of two McDonnell Douglass  F-4E Phantom II jets departed Takhli airbase in Thailand with the call signs TUFA 1 and TUFA 2 on a mission in Military Region II in Laos. Their target was some 5 miles east of the city of Ban Na Mai in the Plain of Jars region of Xiangkhoang Province. The number two aircraft in the flight was piloted by Capt. William Wood, and his Weapons Systems Officer was Maj. Robert Greenwood. Enemy defenses in the area were reported as light to moderate.

 

 

In the meantime, Capt. Herold departed Vientiane, Laos, flying an O-1F Bird Dog (tail nmber 57-2799, call sign Raven 23) on a visual reconnaissance and FAC mission. As they approached the target area they contacted Raven 23, the Forward Air Controller who was already in the target area. Capt. Wood's aircraft, TUFA 2, made two passes and was rolling out of his third when TUFA 1 observed the aircraft burst into flames. TUFA 2 remained intact but was on a ground impacting course. It was later confirmed that Raven 23 had also crashed.

 

 

It was unclear whether the two aircraft had a mid-air collision, or that both had been hit by enemy fire. Two ejections seats could be seen, and one personal parachute was seen, and possibly a second. Several parachutes were seen on the ground, but it was not possible to determine if the were personal parachutes or flare parachutes.  The enemy had moved the tail section of Herold's O-1 aircraft, but no ground search was possible, and no radio contact was ever made with possible survivors.

 

 

Captain Wood and Major Greenwood were listed as Missing in Action, and Captain Richard Herold's records state that he was killed in captivity, though he is listed as killed in action on September 2, 1972. He was survived by his ex-wife, Lois. Capt. Herold was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with 10 Clusters, and the Purple Heart. 

 

There is a memorial at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, dedicated to the graduates who were killed or missing in action from the Vietnam War. Herold’s name is listed among those killed in action. Today, Captain Herold is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

 

 

Capt. Richard Herold USAF Vietnam.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed the story, please share it with all of your friends. And, if you are new to this blog, sign up to receive your own weekly blog post here: Subscribe here!

 

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!