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    Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc [Illustrated Edition]
    Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc [Illustrated Edition]
    Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc [Illustrated Edition]
    Ebook155 pages1 hour

    Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc [Illustrated Edition]

    By Lt.-Col. Alan L. Gropman

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    About this ebook

    Illustrated with over 30 maps, diagrams and photos
    THIS slender volume has value for both the general reader and the aviation specialist. For the latter there are lessons regarding command and control and combined-unit operations that need to be learned to achieve battlefield success. For the former there is a straightforward narrative about American aviators of all four services struggling in the most difficult of conditions to try to rescue more than 1,500 American and Vietnamese military and civilians. Not all the Americans moving through the events recounted in this monograph acted heroically, but most did, and it was their heroism that gave the evacuation the success it had.
    Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc is fully documented so that readers wishing to look deeper into this incident may do so. Those who study the battle will see that it was something of a microcosm of the entire Vietnam War in the relationship of airpower to tactical ground efforts. Kham Duc sat at the bottom of a small green mountain bowl, and during most of 12 May 1968 the sky was full of helicopters, forward air controller aircraft, transports, and fighters, all striving to succeed and to avoid running into each other in what were most trying circumstances. In the end they carried the day, though by the narrowest of margins and with heavy losses.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNormanby Press
    Release dateAug 15, 2014
    ISBN9781782898962
    Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc [Illustrated Edition]

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      Book preview

      Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc [Illustrated Edition] - Lt.-Col. Alan L. Gropman

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – [email protected]

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1978 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      USAF Southeast Asia Monograph Series

      Volume V

      Monograph 7

      Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc

      Lieutenant Colonel Alan L. Gropman

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      Foreword 6

      Acknowledgments 7

      Biographical Sketch 8

      Abstract 9

      DEDICATION 10

      CHAPTER I — The Setting 11

      INTRODUCTION 11

      GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY 11

      REINFORCEMENT OF KHAM DUC 13

      THE FALL OF NGOC TAVAK 14

      THE DECISION TO EVACUATE KHAM DUC 19

      THE CAPTURE OF THE OPERATING POSTS 20

      EARLY DAYLIGHT ATTACKS 21

      DISASTER AT THE AIRSTRIP 23

      CHAPTER II — Marine and Army Helicopter Support 27

      INTRODUCTION 27

      EARLY ARMY HELICOPTER MISSIONS 27

      HELICOPTER COORDINATION EMERGES OVER KHAM DUC 29

      CHAPTER III — Tactical Air Support 35

      INTRODUCTION 35

      ABCCC COORDINATION 35

      THE TACTICAL SITUATION 36

      THE FAC MISSION 42

      FAC SMOTHERMAN’S ORDEAL 46

      THE FIGHTER MISSION 47

      CHAPTER IV — Tactical Airlift At Kham Duc 55

      INTRODUCTION 55

      THE DECISION TO EVACUATE WITH C-130S 55

      THE FIRST C-130 INTO KHAM DUC ON 12 MAY 57

      THE SECOND C-130 INTO KHAM DUC 59

      FOR GOD’S SAKE STAY OUT OF KHAM DUC. IT BELONGS TO CHARLIE 60

      THE FOURTH C-130 INTO KHAM DUC 61

      THE END OF THE AIRLIFT EVACUATION 62

      THE CCT REINSERTED 64

      CHAPTER V — The Last Three Men at Kham Duc 67

      INTRODUCTION 67

      THE RETURN TO KHAM DUC 68

      THE CCT ON THE GROUND ALONE 69

      THE LAST C-123 MISSION INTO KHAM DUC 70

      Appendix A — Glossary of Terms and Abbreviation 78

      Appendix B 80

      Appendix C 81

      Bibliography 82

      Manuscript Collection 82

      Books 82

      Periodicals 82

      Unpublished Reports 82

      Interviews 83

      Award Citations 83

      Tape 83

      Letters 83

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 85

      Foreword

      THIS slender volume has value for both the general reader and the aviation specialist. For the latter there are lessons regarding command and control and combined-unit operations that need to be learned to achieve battlefield success. For the former there is a straightforward narrative about American aviators of all four services struggling in the most difficult of conditions to try to rescue more than 1,500 American and Vietnamese military and civilians. Not all the Americans moving through the events recounted in this monograph acted heroically, but most did, and it was their heroism that gave the evacuation the success it had.

      Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc is fully documented so that readers wishing to look deeper into this incident may do so. Those who study the battle will see that it was something of a microcosm of the entire Vietnam War in the relationship of airpower to tactical ground efforts. Kham Duc sat at the bottom of a small green mountain bowl, and during most of 12 May 1968 the sky was full of helicopters, forward air controller aircraft, transports, and fighters, all striving to succeed and to avoid running into each other in what were most trying circumstances. In the end they carried the day, though by the narrowest of margins and with heavy losses.

      RAYMOND B. FURLONG

      Lieutenant General, USAF

      Commander, Air University

      Acknowledgments

      I was especially blessed on this project with thoroughly warm interest from numerous people. All historians depend utterly on archivists, and those from the Alfred F. Simpson Historical Research Center were especially cooperative. Three of the many stand out—Judy Endicott, Wayne Robinson, and Kathy Nichols were as eager to tell of the evacuation from Kham Duc as I was. The narrative before the reader would have been incomplete without help from numerous officers and enlisted men who gave their time for interviews or writing letters. Their names can be found in the bibliography. Likewise, the monograph would have been empty without the fine photographs supplied by the Air Force Audiovisual Service, and the many others supplied by participants in the evacuation. I was also helped by several skillful and interested editors who sanded the rough spots off the manuscript. Robert Bogard, John Schlight, and Glenn Morton spent many hours making intelligible syntax of my drafts. I am especially grateful for the encouragement I received from Donaldson Frizzell, who helped me conceive of this school project as a publishable monograph. I was also greatly aided by my wife, Jackie, who supported me throughout by reading and criticizing preliminary drafts, and by my daughter, Beth, who did likewise. They took a special interest in Kham Duc because they knew some of the principals and, with my elder son, Mike, waited for me in 1968 and 1969 while I flew in Vietnam.

      ALAN L. GROPMAN

      Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

      Biographical Sketch

      Lieutenant Colonel Alan L. Gropman (PhD, Tufts University) has been a long-time student of military history. His interest in the evacuation of Kham Duc was born of his many years as a C-130 navigator, the loss of several friends during the evacuation, and his long friendship with one of the last men rescued. He is a graduate of Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College (non-resident seminar), the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (correspondence), and the Air War College, class of 1978. He has served as a branch chief in the Directorate of Operations, Headquarters United States Air Forces in Europe, and a Section Chief in the Directorate of Plans at Headquarters Air Force.

      Abstract

      TITLE: Airpower and the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc

      AUTHOR: Alan L. Gropman, Lt Colonel, USAF

      This narrative describes the evacuation of more than 1,400 American soldiers, Marines, and airmen, and Vietnamese men, women, and children from the Kham Duc Special Forces camp in southern I Corps on 12 May 1968. It treats the geographical and topographical setting, the threat to the camp posed by two regiments of the North Vietnamese Army, and the danger to the camp and its inhabitants from the communist seizure of all the high ground around the camp. The monograph devotes individual chapters to the US Army and Marine helicopter rescue efforts, tactical air support, and tactical airlift. The final chapter deals with the attempts to rescue the last three men at Kham Duc. American aircraft losses were severe during the evacuation, and the successful outcome of the mass rescue depended upon the skill and courage of American aircrews. Had command and control been better, losses probably would have been less severe.

      DEDICATION

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