“Guns of Tchepone” is a real story. ihub’s pure nonsense. My 1st instance getting shit shot outta the sky fat dumb and happy in June ’66. Only got worse and worse due location location location . We laughed at it as a phone booth at a strategic jungle rd junction in Laos where if did not hit the guy on the phone 1st they got you instead. Taught never do the same thing twice and jink jink jink off target!
Flew with Larry, June-Aug ’66 but Jerre was still recovering and did not return to 8th. Lar had had his fun and 1st newly created Air Force Cross , flew ANG then on. Canberra was the funny little bomber 1st in USAF to drop a bomb or fire in combat nobody knew existed used for Over the Shoulder Nuc bomb maneuver to escape, we hoped. 8
Much of my personal screamers PTSD is Tchepone under flare lights if it aint Khe Sahn back up top Hiway 9 in Viet. 3rd msn brief Da Nang cmd post I plotted the cords for evening’s tgt Tchepone and yelled , “Hey, that’s in Laos!” Briefer laughed and said “Welcome to Mr Johnson’s war, Lt! Turned further N you went worse it got then came the SAM circles drove you down into the guns again. Joe Rup checked me out in 20 days Clark AB and a good friend 50 years. Got to Spangdahlem AB Ger in ’69 and I checked him out in the EB 66 electronic counter measures another Tac Bomber ” Unarmed, alone and scared shitless!”
I thot we’d learned NOT to fight war by politics hands hind back , Guess not
8th TBS had another real well known hero when I got there Memorial Day ’66. W Va kid Johnny Lynch. John’d walk around Da Nang crew area chewing gum and snapping his fingers . Had been in Ia Drang Valley mid-Nov ’65 1st real engagement with N VN regiment as attached fwd controller. The real air support was B-57’s not the BS Huns and Phantoms. Check the bat wings in the films. We’d get down and dirty with big stuff the fighters’d not dare to except for the Spads ( A1E) who were mostly in far S. Viet and Laos. Totally surrounded Johnny told us to “Hit my smoke” and survived. Silver Star and volunteered for another tour as a Canberra jock to do some damage in return. 8
http://b-57canberra.org/guns_of_tchepon.htm
Sound mind enough to cope with usually. But after 10 years trying to keep up with healthy bodies Chief of Neurosurgery at Lackland told me, Don, I’m recommending a disability retirement bd or the commanders you’ve had last decade will never let you recover to fill a flight schedule. Met temp bd in Oct ’77 and was a year temp then met for perm Oct ’78. Best you get military is 50% base pay so was hurtin for 2 years while paid back a 6 mon 50% base pay advance for down pay 1st house ever in Clyde TX by Abilene . Drew 6 mo unemployment and started EdD program full time TX Tech for GI Bill . After 6 mon disabled can apply for SS Disability and was the day Elvis died! SSA Office went shocked dead quiet on the news break hard to forget. Had to go to San Antonio in Feb. ’78 for the admin judge hearing room full of applicants one by one and Judge said find for the plaintiff so we walked out and asked my DAV Rep what that meant. “Monthly check rest of yo life and one for her as a mom till child 18″. . . GASPP!! We could live again. Craziest reason in records . No jobs for Strategic Navigator Bombardiers cleared for Hydrogen Weapons delivery. So I thot we’d get a bunch for a crew and buy a B-52 from boneyard and build one our own to free lance. Bit later found easier to open gold mines instead. As the man said of banks? Is where the gold is! 8
Location” meant was the one possible choke point on the road junction from Hiway 9 across the low mtns from Hue thru Khe Sahn to Laos Tchepone on south bound Ho Trail to Cambodia. Trucks’d leave Hanoi down Hiway 1 along coast with ferry points we attacked days while they ferried across nights then by narrow passes up across the mts to the Ho Chi Minh trail. Past Tchepone they used push bicycles and trucks returned empty back to Hanoi. My last job N Viet was hitting the trucks in the passes night missions on trucks using no lights but following one taillight in lead and a middle truck . Find one glimpse hit them and if they catch fire you bomb all night. Job not worth N Viet Teamster pay! Passes exit had least 1 100MM AAA shot a bright white shell straight up to 50K’ Sumthin to see. But was a low tracking glow SA 2 that was a worry. Keep full in sight and turn into tight and get down past pulling the possible telephone pole G’s to disable and yell “Elephants” on Guard freq. Happen first nite SAM fire just N of DMZ night SAM code was “Elephant” We just kept the use as was a great radio call no matter Saigon’s Puzzle Palace night code briefed .8