Part 2 Flight Sim DIY by Guest Writer Phil “zoombapup” Carlisle Very recently, I was doing a quick google search to see who had linkedwww.airaceonline.com in their websites. Sadly there weren’t many links (please do so, it makes our lives a lot easier! but I digress). So I decided to see if there were any mentions […]
Back To Page 8 Q. What was the most unique mission you flew? A. The night of November 6, 1970 when we were forced down at midnight into that deadly karst, deep behind enemy lines, and were listed as Missing In Action — Presumed Dead. Our NKP comrades held our memorial service, knowing we were lost. […]
Back To Page 7 Q. How were targets spotted, and what was the typical time period and procedure for calling in strikes? A. With our starlight scope. But Laos is a big country. We needed help, so Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara created NKP’s Task Force Alpha (TFA). Task Force Alpha (TFA) Wiley explained, “Remember those huge […]
Back To Page 6 Q. How were targets identified by your aircraft? A. This once-top secret starlight scope that magnified moonlight a thousand times. Our scope navigator lay prone on an old mattress and peered out a three-foot-square hole in the cargo floor, using the scope to spot truck headlights. Starlight scope Q. What type of aircraft […]
Back To Page 5 The C-123K Q. How many combat hours or sorties did you log in the C-123K? Any other aircraft? A. About seven hundred and fifty combat hours. We didn’t count sorties. I also logged combat time in the C-5 during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Q. The aircraft has somewhat of a reputation for […]
Back To Page 4 Karst Q. What were the general flying conditions in and around NKP? Weather? A. Except for the rainy season, the weather was excellent. Aside from dodging flak, the Laotian karst and jungle were our second-worst enemies. [F-105 pilot] Karl Richter bailed out in broad daylight into these razor-sharp mountains. Jolly Greens picked […]
Back To Page 3 Chow Hall (Penetrator Inn) Q. What was your initial reaction to your deployment there? A. I was thrilled at the prospect of flying cargo around Thailand. When I arrived at NKP, I was stunned to learn that the Candlesticks flew night combat missions, killing trucks charging down the Ho Chi Minh Trail under […]
Back To Page 2 Navy P-2 A-26 Nakhon Phanom Q. The covert air war over Laos was largely supported by a somewhat motley collection of WWII-era aircraft operating out of Nakhon Phanom RTAFB (NKP). Please describe the base itself, your living quarters, and ‘life at NKP.’ A. I’ll do better than describe; I’ll show. But NKP life […]
Back To Page 1 C-133 Q. What was your training prior to joining the 606th SOS? A. The standard one year of Air Force pilot training, flying the T-37 and supersonic T–38. After graduation, they assigned me to fly the C-133 at Travis AFB, California. I attended three months of training at Dover AFB, Maryland. After eighteen […]
Author, Flying Through Midnight by John Sponauer Candlestick C-123 Introduction The sparsely-populated Asian nation of Laos is generally regarded to be the most-bombed nation on earth, having served as a second secret front of US involvement in the Vietnam War. Using its remote, difficult terrain as a political and military sanctuary, North Vietnamese forces massively infiltrated […]
Back To Page 1 SimHQ: Ground and mechanical object detail is another area that obviously has received a tremendous amount of work. Given the fact that this is a combat flight simulation, some people might say that all that effort on objects whose details won’t be all very visible from the aircraft is “overkill”. Any […]
Storm of War: The Battle of Britain by Tom “WKLINK” Cofield, Jim “Hornit” Campisi and Tom “20mm” Hayden SimHQ: We know you are very busy so we appreciate your time to put together this second interview with SimHQ on Storm of War: The Battle of Britain. Many of our readers are excitedly anticipating it’s release and will very much […]
