Nixon's Secret Air
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NIXON’S SECRET AIR WAR THE U.S. PRESIDENT AUTHORIZED COVERT CROSS-BORDER B-52 STRIKES TARGETING NORTH VIETNAMESE FORCES STAGING BOMBS AWAY A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress unleashes its IN CAMBODIAN SANCTUARIES BY ROBERT O. HARDER massive payload during an Operation Arc Light raid. 28 AH JULY 2017 the fierce fighting in Vietnam bombing halt gave the enemy the opportunity to rebuild their continued throughout 1968— air defenses, receive more Soviet matériel through the Port of including the 77-day siege at Haiphong, and dramatically increase the flow of supplies and Marine Fire Base Khe Sanh, men down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. the “mini-Tet” offensives in By February 1969, newly inaugurated President Richard May and August, and Opera- Nixon understood the peace talks were going nowhere, never tion Arc Light, the ongoing, mind hopes for a clear allied victory. He decided to do some- wide-ranging B-52 carpet- thing bold. American air power would strike the NVA and Viet bombing campaign. Tacti- Cong (VC) at one of their most vulnerable points, near the end cally, nearly all those engage- of the Ho Chi Minh Trail where two peninsulas of Cambodian ments were allied wins. To the territory—known as the “Fish Hook” or “Parrot’s Beak”— jut- American people, however, ted into South Vietnam just 50 miles northwest of Saigon. On who were getting battlefield the evening of February 28, I took my place with Crew E-30 in coverage from increasingly a jam-packed briefing room at U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand. skeptical reporters, the con- It soon became clear to the six of us that something very big flict seemed more and more was going down in the Fish Hook area. The intelligence briefer to be shaping up like a World explained that the enemy had moved four divisions of infantry BIG BAD BUFF A “Big Ugly War I stalemate, complete plus equipment out of their Cambodian sanctuary, and were Fat Fellow” (to use the polite with high casualties and no crossing into South Vietnam, apparently heading for An Loc. term) departs U-Tapao on a light at the end of the tunnel. The aircrews came alive; this was what we had been waiting for, THE WHITE HOUSE mission in October 1968. An important turning point a chance to strike the NVA and VC out in the open. occurred on October 31, 1968 That night, 60 B-52D “Big Belly” Stratofortresses, each car- HAD DECIDED THERE with Cambodian neutrality (not coincidentally, just days rying 60,000 pounds of bombs—the equivalent of about 600 and the idea that the enemy before the presidential election World War II B-17G Flying Fortresses—were launched against WOULD BE NO MORE could conduct the war with between Hubert Humphrey the freshly massed enemy formations. Over a four-hour period, impunity from safe havens on and Richard Nixon). As a the BUFFs (Big Ugly Fat F---ers) smashed a 10-square-mile tar- TIPTOEING AROUND the other side of the South B-52 navigator-bombardier Vietnamese border. with Strategic Air Com- WITH CAMBODIAN Late in the day on March mand’s 306th Bomb Wing, 17, my B-52 crew and 59 I remember only minutes NEUTRALITY. others throughout Southeast prior to a pre-mission brief- WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Asia reported to briefings for ON JANUARY 30, 1968, ing listening to a beleaguered a replay of the February 28 President Johnson on the get box whose northwesterly raid. This time, however, there THE NORTH VIETNAMESE Armed Forces Radio Net work CHINA edges were within a stone’s was a huge new wrinkle. After make the dramatic announce- NORTH throw of the Cambodian the maintenance, weather and ment that all fighter and heavy VIETNAM border. I clearly recall looking other routine briefings, and ( ) bomber airstrikes north of back in the dark early morn- in an unprecedented move, ARMY N VA LAUNCHED the 17th Parallel would cease. HANOI ing hours while well out over the security people cleared The previous March, Johnson LAOS Gulf the South China Sea and see- the room except for the com- of THE TET OFFENSIVE, had halted bombing of the Tonkin ing the sky lit up from the fires manding officer, two or three vulnerable North Vietnamese still burning. The word the key wing officers and the basic metropolitan areas of Hanoi a next day was that we had dealt crews. Everyone else—wing Se BRINGING THE VIETNAM and Haiphong, and with that ina the enemy a serious blow and, staff, weathermen, intelligence UDORN AFB Ch NAKHON uth the enemy had agreed to meet PHANOM AFB So even better, their offensive officers, maintenance, chap- WAR TO FEVER PITCH. in Paris to begin peace nego- plans had been knocked into lains, extra crewmen, slide tiations. But those talks had THAILAND a cocked hat. projector operators, visitors— While that bloody campaign eventually became a tactical bogged down. Now the pres- UBON AFB After that success, Ameri- was ordered out and guards victory for U.S. and South Vietnamese armed forces (some- ident had completely stood can military planners’ appe- sealed the briefing room. thing few fully understand even today), the perception televi- down Operation Rolling tite for more of the same The commander told us sion brought to U.S. living rooms left the distinctly opposite Thunder, the combined U.S. CAMBODIA was thoroughly whetted. that we would again strike impression. With all the blood, gore and horror of modern war Air Force and Navy aerial Unbeknown to all except in the vicinity of the Fish U-TAPAO coming to Americans in living color, Hanoi had achieved one bombardment campaign of AFB SOUTH the highest U.S. government Hook, but this time we would BASE OF OPERATIONS major objective: Support for the war plummeted in the United the North. VIETNAM officials, the White House drop our weapons inside B-52s taxi on the ramp at States. Even the highly influential CBS-TV broadcaster Walter Unfortunately, that good- FISH HOOK had decided there would be Cambodia. We were to hit U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand. Cronkite, after a personal trip to Vietnam in late February 1968, faith gesture had almost the no more tiptoeing around a very juicy target just one On March 17, 1968, the publicly joined the growing anti-war chorus. When President reverse effect to that intended. DMZ author took off from U-Tapao Lyndon B. Johnson learned of the anchorman’s disillusion- Not only was there no prog- HO CHI MINH TRAIL on a secret B-52 mission ment, he reportedly said, “If I have lost Walter Cronkite, I’ve ress made in Paris, North to strike North Vietnamese lost middle America.” Vietnam was re-invigorated sanctuaries in Cambodia. Nevertheless, despite all that was going on back in the U.S., militarily. Johnson’s complete U.S. AIR FORCE; MAP: DIT RUTLAND PERVIOUS SPREAD & THESE PAGES: 30 AH JULY 2017 JULY 2017 AH 31 1 2 TECH NOTES 24 CREW POSITIONS 3 4 5 5 41 IN B-52D 25 40 10 10 11 11 PILOT (PORT) ELECTRONIC 6 7 8 9 26 COPILOT (STARBOARD) WARFARE OFFICER (ON CENTERLINE) 27 9 12 13 28 42 43 15 16 29 44 14 45 45 31 32 TAIL 18 19 20 30 GUNNER 17 33 (IN TAIL TURRET) 34 21 21 35 36 37 22 22 22 22 23 38 39 RADAR NAVIGATOR (PORT) NAVIGATOR (STARBOARD) he relationship of the two navigator-bombardiers BOEING B-52D STRATOFORTRESS COCKPIT down in the “Black Hole” of the Cold War-era B-52 Stratofortress was similar to that of a pilot and copilot. Each was trained as both a navigator and a 1. Oil pressure gauges 9. Flight command indicator 18. Tone scoring interrupt firewall fuel shutoff switches 32. Throttles 40. Master fuselage overheat bombardier. The junior officer, called the navigator or Magnetic standby compass Attitude-director indicator switch Engine-pressure ratio Landing gear controls (fire) warning light T“nav,” sat in the right seat and served primarily as the 2. 10. 25. 33. 3. Automatic pilot disengaged 11. Terrain display indicator 19. Auto-pilot turn control gauges 34. Landing gear control 41. Gunner’s cabin pressure navigator but also assisted with bombing. The left seater, light 12. Vertical velocity indicator selector switch 26. Tachometers 35. Airbrake lever warning light the radar navigator or “radar,” was primarily the bombar- 4. Hydraulic pack pressure low 13. Radar altimeter 20. Radio magnetic indicator 27. Exhaust gas temperature 36. Throttle break lever 42. Altimeter dier and assisted with navigation. As the senior officer, master light 14. Aileron trim indicator 21. Control column gauges 37. Drag chute lever 43. Airspeed indicator the radar navigator was also the lower compartment 5. Clearance plane indicator 15. Mach indicator 22. Rudder pedals 28. Fuel flowmeters 38. Stabilizer trim cutout 44. Total fuel flow indicator commander. Here radar navigator Captain Bobby Long 6. Trim control 16. True airspeed indicator 23. Stabilizer trim wheels and 29. Heading indicator (gyro) switch 45. Fuel system controls and the author, navigator 1st Lt. Robert O. Harder, man 7. Intercom switch 17. Engine fire detector system indicators 30. Lateral error meter 39. Crosswind crab control their stations after a November 1968 bombing mission. 8. Mach indicator switch test switch 24. Engine fire warning lights/ 31. Time-to-go light JANSMA, AEROCAPTURE IMAGES; ABOVE: LYLE RIGHT PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ROBERT O. HARDER knob 32 AH JULY 2017 JULY 2017 AH 33 Despite SAC’s precautions, 1970, a full year later, that U.S. and Army of the Republic of the secrecy lid blew off just a Vietnam troops launched a ground invasion to clean out the couple of months later when Fish Hook border area, in what became known as the Cambo- the New York Times broke the dian Incursion.