Place : Republic of South Vietnam, I Corps ( border w/ Laos & North Vietnam            
Time: Year leading up to the 1968 Tet Offensive (May 1967 through May 1968)          
Pilot A/C: Lt. Colonel HAL Littman from Offutt AFB (SAC Hqts.) 

WWII: B-29, Korea: Gooney Bird C-47 Medivac and  'Nam: O-1 & O-2 FAC         

O-1 "Snoopy" BIRD DOG /                               
                              O- 2  SUPER SKY MASTER

The Forward Air Controller or FAC is a military program for controlling
air resources from slow and low flying aircraft.   Its primary mission was to
support ground troops by affording them tactical air coverage. This was
done by three methods. ONE, air reconnaissance;    TWO, troop support by
air surveillance; THREE, by directing fighter -bomber assets on selected
ground targets with the use of marking rockets that would leave a cloud
of color smoke as an aim point for the fighter aircraft flying 'Top Cover.'.

FAC’s have actually been around since the dawn of flight, beginning with
observation balloons during the civil war when they were used to direct
canon (artillery) fire. In Vietnam FAC’s were in either 0-1 (Cessna's) Bird
Dogs or 0-2 Super Skymasters (although the Army would try and
incorporate the OV-10 Bronco as FAC's from lessons learned in S.E.A.).
The main difference between the earlier 0-1’s and the later 0-2 was that
the 0-2 had to fly off from a more improved runways and therefore there
would always be more 0-1’s in country & available than 0-2’s.  Also, the
O-1 was a tail dragger while the O-2 had a tricycle landing gear configuration.

I arrived in country May 1967 & went directly to FAC-U at Binh Thuy (to-wee)
AB for theater indoctrination after having gone through the required O-1
conversion school at Angels Gate at Hurlburt Field, Eglin AFB in Florida
for former fighter & bomber pilots who were then being recruited into the
Viet Nam Forward Air Controller program and then Fairchild AFB, state of
Washington for SEA (South East Asia) survival training school.

NEXT Up...
KHE SANH (K-San) TOUR OF DUTY
After Binh Thuy I then reported to Khe Sanh outpost which was located in
the north west corner of I Corps RSVN where North & South Vietnam and
Laos all come together near the Mekong river. Khe Sanh prior to the '68
TET Offensive had a compliment of Army, Air Force and Marine contingents
that numbered about 300 personnel. Khe Sanh was an Army outpost with two
artillery batteries that covered both ends of the PSP (perforated steel planking)
single runway. The Air Force contingent was made up mostly of the FAC's
assigned unit with FIVE O-1 Bird Dog spotter aircraft.

This was the famous battle location in "I" Corps that made the news all
around the world just after I left. By the way, when I refer to "I" Corps
(pronounced Eye Core) we are referring to the common practice of how
everyone stated their location IN COUNTRY. The U.S. Marine Corps
broke the country of Viet-Nam up into corps where they had their divisions.
The U.S. Army would latter adopt this demographic reference as well.

The closest to the border with North Viet-Nam was I Corps with Khe Sanh
in the West, Quan-Tri (Tree) provincial capital in the central area & Da-nang
our main Northern base on the Pacific coast. Two Corps (II) was next and
then Three (III) Corps with Cam Ran Bay huge military complex and Saigon.
Then we had IV or Four Corps to the South where Senator Kerry had his
missions on the Mekong River Delta followed by Five (V) Corps in the South.

We had the most constant activity due to our location to the Ho Chin Minh Trail.
Our job was to interdict and disrupt all the traffic Charlie was using thanks to
the direct intervention of the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and even the
in direct contribution by Communist Red China. Khe Sanh (San) sat at the cross
roads of the main highway and over looked the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

We would have air missions and sorties set every day... seven days a week. Never
a day off. We would fly at a low altitude around 500' so that we were able to
observe up close if there was any hostile intentions of those we spotted on the
ground. You might think that would be fool hardy or subjected us to enemy fire
but you would be wrong, Charlie soon was able to figure out by waving and
smiling he had a chance to live another day to fight another day. Shooting at
a slow one propeller O-1 Bird Dog unarmed Piper Cub or O-2 twin engine Cessna
would get a whole squadron of screaming fighter jets or worse like PUFF ( a
Korean war vintage AC-47 gunship) right down on the deck in seconds with 
napalm , HE or White Phosphorus which was almost impossible to stop burning.

This was sort of a 'gentlemen's agreement... much like our R&R beach on the coast.
There a nice white sandy beach called Na-Trang. We would get time off for good
work with some rest relaxation R&R)... but, not too far up the beach, so did Charlie!
Nothing ever happen while at the beach and we all sorta just got along I suppose.
Funny when you look back on it many years latter how we co-existed in battle.

Speaking of funny, my son asked me once what was one of the more memorable
moments I had while on tour of duty in theater. Well, got my morning assignment
to head up a big Army push into what had been a Marine Corps area of operation
which the Marines wanted to free up their troops in that quadrant. I would be alone
on this mission. I had to wait as the fighter aircraft was slow for some reason to get
on station that morning and so I sat with my prop on idle at the end of runway.
Well, as luck would have it I got a little bored after almost two hours in the hot humid
Viet-Nam summer day. So I went through all the switches and cockpit controls. Uh,
then there was this one funny looking knob... yup I just had to find out what it would do
if I threw the switch on. It turns out it was an emergency release so that in the event I
went to fire my marking rockets and they did not launch and I could have an on board
explosion, this switch would immediately release the rocket. Well, it went straight across
the field and wound up in the dining hall tent that luckily was unoccupied at that late hour...
I then decided to take OFF immediately. When I returned to base later that day, everyone
came running up to me saying they finally got rocket attacked by Charlie but no one
was luckily hurt. I expressed my surprise and surveyed all the damage which later got us
all brand new dining room equipment, furniture and even a new cook since our old cook 
could no longer talk coherently anymore for some frightful reason... ! So ends the exciting
story of the "Attack On Our Base Camp."  I believe we all got a medal or something from
the South Vietnamese Air Force as I later would recall.  Combat can sort of be like that.
   
I then was assigned to the provincial capital of HUE (Weigh) where I converted
to the newer and a faster FAC aircraft the 0-2 pusher/puller twin engine plane
with 28 tubes for marking rockets although we rarely carried more than ten
total since our loitering time was about an hour. While the 0-1 carried 4
marking rockets, two under each wing; the 0-2 had four stations, two under
each wing in four launchers of 7 tubes each. A typical O-2 mission would be...
We were also armed with a 45 cal pistol and collapsible stock AR-15 (M-16).

After Khe Sanh outpost which was located in the north west corner of I Corps
I reported to our O-2 conversion base in III Corps and was posted right back
up to I Corps but this time to La-Vang airport across from the big Marine
forward headquarters at I-2 which was under construction during the time
I was station there. We flew all the time with an Out-Rider which was a U.S.
Marine Corps company officer usually a Major who maintained direct
communications with HIS forces and company commanders on the ground.
This was a joint service operation as the Marines had very little air assets on
the ground and in theater at the time. They also very little in the way of heavy
armor, that was all Army and they don't share !

Sometimes we would also have South Viet Nam officers along which gave us
local linguistic communications with their forces also on the ground in theater.
This actually was suggested by a USAF FAC and proved to be one of the smartest
things we can lay claim to in a Combined Forces situation. This is all the norm
today but was extremely rare and a radical departure in those days.

We were able to spot for the commanders on the ground, enemy deployment
or Charlie's trying to lay ambushes or planting roadside devices... yup same
thing we call IED's in Iraq today. We were most successful in preventing ambushes.
Many a mission we found ourselves warning those on the ground to watch
out to their SIX (directly behind them) or we are spotting movement to your
2 O-clock...  turned out to be a very successful life saving procedure.  


Daily activities consisted of reconnaissance flights of the RSVN and Laotian
border areas. An RC-135 (Boeing 707 type) airborne control aircraft was always
on station when fighters were put into action (sorties) controlled by FAC's. On
board as a matter of American policy was in addition to a general officer was
a liaison of the Laotian military who would provide final permission to strike
targets within the borders of Laos. Same applied to RSVN Army liaison as well. 
 

Hazel and Good Buddy...   Ms. Vicky Summer 2006 in Murrell's Inlet S.C.

 
    Colonel Hal's Korean War Gooney Bird & Soul Mate and Pilot Instructor Hazel's 1939 trainer
Type: O-1E Bird Dog Task: liaison Year: 1956 Crew: 2 Engines: 1 * 213hp Continental
O-470-11 Wing Span: 10.97m Length: 7.85m Height: 2.22m Wing Area:
16.16m2 Empty Weight: 732kg Max. Weight: 1089kh Max. Speed: 209km/h
Ceiling: 5640m Max. Range: 848km

Type: O-2A Task: observation
Year: 1961
Crew: 2
Engines: 2 * 155kW  Continental TSIO-360-A
Max. Speed: 370km/h
Ceiling: 8930m
Max. Range: 2500km
Comm Gear: Full Ground to Air and Combat Air to Air to call in any air assets!
Family T-Bird...

Here we have a Thunderbird with chuckmeister's last name emblazoned on the side,
Thanks to Brian Littman (member of the 1998 Thunderbird Team in the center with
 my son Dave on the left & me in my Habitual Honolulu Hat.  BTW, I am not really
 that short... as my seven foot son and my 6'11" Thunderbird relative can attest to          

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• As you can see we are in deep construction, but this site will improve with age,
  guaranteed! More first hand related material coming to this site with some
  anecdotal experiences thrown in like the battle on the Plain of Jars & TET.
  
  Final thought... in a last phone call on the day before dad passed away he related
  that he would like very much for me to do that project I always promised both him
  and his dad (my grand father) to do the family history / tree / story  that I never
  seem to get the time to do. I think it is time and I WILL get it up & running and
  with a lot of help, have all the research, narratives and web site finally complete. It
  will take about seven hours to collect, sort, transcribe and post each set of 100
  LITTMAN names from the archives, records and from e-mail of family members.
  Dad... I. Edward... the site is up and I have found at least a 5,000 in the clan!    
  
                                   LITTMAN/N'S.htm 
  

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  My Mom Always Thought This Picture Was.... PHUNNY !
  
  Hit the back button on your Navigator or click HERE to return to the Littman web page.
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