Mayaguez incident

[Wil Sanchez]

I was watching the Military channel the other night when a program came on about the Mayaguez ship that was captured and the crew held hostage.

What I would like to know is which of you flew the Herk that dropped the BLU-82 which gave the troops on the ground a breather from the intense attacks. whoever you are thanks for helping those fellow warriors. Many of them came home because of that bomb drop. Take care.

wil

[spec13fe]

Will,

I don't remember the BLU-82, but more that likely the ? SOS [can't remember the number] out of Kadena or the 21TAS out of Clark.

We flew gunships for about 3 days in support of the Marines.

Mike

[Bullwinkle]

It was dropped by one of the Clark crews.

My crew was there on alert for backup.

[tinyclark]

All I know is, we were all helping to do everything we could to load up our Khorat aircraft so their bite was worse than their bark.

[Whiskeyglenn]

The pilot was Dougy Way, the engineer was Bobby Bottoms. and one of the loads way

Little John Lowry. I don't remember the rest. They were from the 21st at Clark. I like

quite a few others were on alert at Utapao. when they dropped the Blu 82.

Rg Glenn Secrest

[wukong]

There were several BLU-82 drops on Koh Tang after the seizure of the ship. In order to answer your question the date and time of the drop would have to be known.

http://www.afhra.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=10256

[Wil Sanchez]

Glenn thanks for the rundown on the crew that dropped at least 1 of the Blu-82's. there are many Marines that owe their lives to them and also the others that responded to his post that participated in some way. The Marines, America and I want to thank all of you that helped.

Wukang, I don't remember them mentioning more than 1 Blu-82. I assume that the one they showed was right before they were actually rescued. Boy did Intel screw that job up royally. Take care all.

Wil

[Whiskeyglenn]

I think there was only one Blu-82 dropped. I was sitting at Utapao, The 21st Sq, had

several crews on alert at that time and I was one of them. At that time, the Sq Comander

Lt Col Jack Randal. called us into the Sq. declared us in crew rest. We went out an configured the aircraft with litters and flew to Utapao.

Rg Glenn Secrest

[Ray]

Klong 960 dropped at 1119Z on the 15th.

Blue Chip relayed drop coordinates for Klong 963 – 10/19/2N 103/08/2E - UTM coordinates TS9742 at 1258Z.

Klong 963 arrived on station minus computer; Spectre 21 was going to mark the target but Klong 963 had no drop instructions.

At 1347Z, Blue Chip directed Klong 963 to RTB. Cricket and Spectre were directed to remain on station.

[Wil Sanchez]

Thanks Guys. What an incredible wealth of information exists on this site.

BTW what was Blue Chip. I recognize Cricket since I worked it in 1967. I assume Spectre was an AC130A. :cool:

Wil

[jbob]

Will,

I don't remember the BLU-82, but more that likely the ? SOS [can't remember the number] out of Kadena or the 21TAS out of Clark.

We flew gunships for about 3 days in support of the Marines.

Mike

Mike I used to fly with one of the gunship pilots from those missions. Pete King I think was his name. I remember him telling me the story of that incident. Who they could and couldn't shoot at!

[Ray]

The 7AF Command Center (Blue Chip) at Tan Son Nhut, controlled and directed the subordinate controlling agencies, which included ABCCC (Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center) and Task Force Alpha (TFA). The Tactical Unit Operations Centers (TUOC) and Forward Air Controllers (FAC) were also extensions of the command and control system. Blue Chip made decisions from Saigon that affected operations in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand; even in Thailand, 7AF had operational control of 13AF assets operating in Laos and North Vietnam.

Blue Chip was in Saigon until we folded our tents; then 7AF moved to NKP and became United States Support Activities Group & Seventh Air Force. The Blue Chip call sign was used as late as 1975 during the Mayaguez affair.

Ray

[wukong]

http://www.kohtang.com/growth.htm

I believe that history will show that at least one was dropped to clear a helicopter landing zone to get some of the Marines in and at least one was dropped during the extraction of the Marines. The 50th is on record as having dropped one of the BLUs, if Doug Way of the 21st dropped one then there are at least two.

[SamMcGowan]

There were several BLU-82 drops on Koh Tang after the seizure of the ship. In order to answer your question the date and time of the drop would have to be known.

http://www.afhra.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=10256

According to the Office of AF History account of the Koh Tang disaster, there was only one Blu-82 dropped. C-130 participation in that outfit was minimal. The helicopters flew down from NKP and the troops were flown to Thailand in C-141s.