In 1970 Colonel Pat McCaslin was transferred to Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, where he flew an OB-10 light attack plane. He was the commander of a flight supporting Operation Prairie Fire, which, when needed, grew up to 2 CH-53 helicopters and 4 A-1E Skyraiders in addition to his own aircraft. The group was responsible for inserting and extracting special forces ground troops from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. I cant remember any of my missions that werent done under enemy fire, he said. We later found out the enemy knew about our missions in advance because our people discovered a saboteur back at headquarters leaking information to the enemy. Once, when on assignment over...
Vietnam
RUFUS DYE, JR.
This is a fighter pilots story, shot down behind enemy lines, parachuted into the middle of a major German withdrawal, and pedaled to safety by a French boy on his bicycle. In WWII, Lieutenant Rufus Dye was a 9th Air Force fighter pilot in the 392nd Squadron, 367th Fighter Group. The 392nd was a squadron of P-38 Lightnings that normally flew missions of Bomber Escort, Armed Reconnaissance, Interdiction, or Close Air Support. On the evening of September 8, 1944 his unit had been ordered to do something unusual, that was to conduct a very late in the day raid into Germany. Normally the 367th Fighter Group was a daylight operations unit. The squadron bombed a rail marshalling...
ARTHUR MANN – USMC – Vietnam
Arthur Mann was in the Brown Water Navy, and the engineer aboard the type of small river patrol boat made famous in the movie Apocalypse Now. He earned a Silver Star along with his three awards of the Purple Heart. Here is that story in brief. In 1967 and 1968, Arthur Mann was assigned to the ARMY-NAVY MOBILE RIVERINE FORCE, RIVER DIVISION NINE, RIVER ASSAULT FLOTILLA ONE (CTF117). Almost everyone in Vietnam simply knew them as the "Riverine Force". Petty Officer Arthur Mann was the Engineer on Assault Support Patrol Boat 91-3, that operated on the waterways of the Mekong Delta and the Rung Sat Special Zone, and was variously based at Dong Tam and My Tho, while...