CCC's Assigned Air Assets

By Pete Johnston, SPAF (Sneaky Pete's Air Force)-4

FOB2, CCC had a unique situation with FAC support that was not shared by CCN and CCS. While John Plaster has done a magnificent job with both books (SOG The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam and SOG A Photo History of the Secret War-page 114) he has generalized the SPAF mission based on his observation of CCC support in late 1970 only, and that does an injustice to the great relationship enjoyed by the recon teams of CCC and SPAF pilots in 1969 and earlier. He also generalizes/misrepresents some SPAF missions in his first book, as Covey missions.

Myself and Bruce Bessor arrived in country in early January 1969 and were assigned to the U.S. Army, 219th Aviation Company "Headhunters" (O-1 Birddog) at Camp Holloway in Pleiku. We were given the opportunity to volunteer for a mission, restricted by 1st Avn Bgde to volunteer, single (unmarried) pilots. Since this was "where the action was" and we were both young, single (okay! and stupid), we volunteered and found ourselves headed for Kontum. We joined a detached section of fourth platoon (Kontum) and lived separately from the Platoon along with our enlisted crew chiefs. We were OPCON'ed to MACVSOG, FOB2 (later CCC), Colonel Frederick T. Abt ("Butler") Commanding, Clyde Sincere XO.

We reported to our section leader, Capt Lyle Rex Hill, in our new quarters on the CCC compound adjacent to the mess hall where we met Capt Russ Walker (SPAF2) who was scheduled to rotate home shortly, along with Rex. (Rex had taken a 37mm in the horizontal stabilizer the previous week while working a "Prairie Fire" emergency, I have a photo of that bird).

My first flight into the AO drew a fair volume of AK fire which tickled Rex and Russ to no end. On 13 MAY 1969, my best friend and flight school companion, Capt Bruce C. Bessor and SF NCO Scott were shot down over Laos, near Dollar Lake, while collecting a first light SITREP from a team. The weather that morning was too low for Air Force assets to fly in the AO, including Covey, which left the team without commo (I wish I could remember which team that was). Truth be known, it was too low for us to fly also, but our friends were out there on the ground and were counting on us. Hillsborough received a report from the team that they had lost contact with SPAF3 after hearing an enormous volume of AAA and small arms fire. I departed Kontum and proceeded toward the area. It took quite a while since the weather was so low and we were forced to fly up a few valleys and back again before being able to work our way to the team. While I'm not sure who my SF rider was that day (SSGT Lonnie "Steve" Pulliam "Garlic", SSGT Luke Dove "Vigilant", Or SSGT Howard "Karate" Davis) we contacted the team and were "talked" into the approximate position of last contact w/ SPAF-3, whereupon we were met with the same aforementioned high volume AAA and small arms fire, saved only by our proximity to the treetops (necessitated by the Wx) and therefore offering less exposure. Bessor and Scott are carried as MIA to this day. Capt Hill was home on special leave during this time because he had extended his tour for six months and volunteered to stay at CCC (Capt Long had rotated home)

Shortly thereafter, WO1 Jeff Bales arrived (Single, Volunteer) as Bessor's replacement. He was shot down on his very first flight over the fence, with SSGT "Monty" Montgomery as his SPAF/Covey rider, while observing a BDA of a sixty ship ARC LITE in the tri-border area of Cambodia, being conducted by myself and SSGT Luke "Vigilante" Dove. We were fortunate to recover both Bales and Montgomery from an obviously occupied enemy sanctuary, during bad weather, using only U.S. Army assets (even the SPADS couldn't get into the AO), after a prolonged gunfight. Bales never flew another mission outside of the traffic pattern of Camp Holloway.

Several emergency extractions were conducted by SPAF pilots (sometimes with a SF rider, sometimes without) assigned/attached to CCC because of foul weather, reduced response time (from Dac To or Kontum) or their presence over the team at the time of contact. Having formed personal relationships with guys like Fred Abt, Frank Jaks, Major "Fini Hair", Luke Dove, Ken Snyder, Tom Waskovich, Norm Doney, Bill DeLima, Frank Longaker, Glenn Dahl, Reinald Pope, Oliver Wainwright, Steve Pulliam, Ben Thompson, Howard Davis etc, etc, etc, we weren't about to say no to any request from our friends on the ground, for air support, regardless of the conditions. Sometimes the only accompanying support we could get was 175mm guns out of Ben Het. I specifically recall pulling Bill DeLimas "fat out of the fire" in Hotel-9 more than once when the weather was too bad to obtain air support from other services. I'll be the first to admit things went a little easier with TACAIR, but the monsoon season handed us some real challenges and the fact that CCC had its own organic FAC assets on location allowed us success where otherwise we would have lost whole teams from lack of communication and unavailability of air support. 

Then again, had we been anything larger than a detached section, someone more senior, would have been more concerned with Regulations compliance and their Efficiency Rating, than with the well-being of their friends and success of the mission. 

Ultimately the SPAF section had done too good a job, and lost too many aircraft and crews. After Rex and I left CCC (Feb 70) the OPCON section arrangement was abandoned and the SPAF mission was given to the Fourth Platoon, located at Kontum airfield but housed at the MACV compound downtown, thereby bringing the mission under "adult supervision" and eliminating the close personal bonds of friendship enjoyed by the SPAF pilots and the recon team members. This latter arrangement is the one John Plaster references in his books without regard to our arrangement which predominated throughout most of the war.

Although I've lost contact with Jeff Bales and Russ Walker, Rex Hill and I have maintained contact through the years and he, amongst others mentioned previously, can vouch for the "assigned SPAF (Sneaky Pete Air Force) section" that was organic to CCC. I'm not attempting to denigrate the great work of John Plaster, I'm just trying to set the record straight. (After all John is working with a memory as old as mine :-) And I'm certainly not trying to diminish the support of air assets other than SPAF, just trying to point out, for the record, the strengths of the SPAF section and our unique arrangement within MACVSOG.

I described my first flight "over the fence" and so feel obligated to tell of my last day at CCC. The day I was to leave country, I flew Reinald "Magnet Ass" Pope ("Aborigine"), a team 1-0, into Laos for a pre-mission Aerial Recon of his AO, to reconnoiter terrain and possible LZ's for insertion and extraction. Sure enough we drew a significant amount of small arms fire (on your last day any amount is significant), of which Reinald enjoys reminding me!

Life compared to CCC has been anti-climactic and I have never again been associated with as fine a group of people as the recon men of the U.S. Army Special Forces in MACVSOG.

"Above the Best"