Southeast Asia
1972 - 1973

A compilation of photos from my tour as an airborne Vietnamese linguist
Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia


B-52D's at U-Tapao air base, Thailand
Operation Linebacker II - the bombing of North Vietnam, December 1972


B-52D landing after a bombing mission over North Vietnam, a KC-135 tanker ready for takeoff


B-52D takeoff



Drone reconnaissance program



DC-130 drone mothership, B-52's on the ramp


The Buffalo Hunter drone


Air Vietnam

EC-47 "Electric Goon" reconnaisance aircraft
Seven of these planes were lost to hostile fire
Five were shot down and two were destroyed in ground attacks



Somewhere over Cambodia - 1973
(sounds like a Jimmy Buffet song)


Danang air base, Vietnam


On the ramp at Nakhon Phanom (NKP), Thailand

 


Coming home


My last flight


Laos


Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos with some USAF input


Laotian roads used to tranport supplies south


Camouflaged road


Laotian air base


Laotian air base


Laotian T-28 attack aricraft


EC-121 Rivet Gym at Korat AB, Thailand


NKP, Thailand

HH-3 Jolly Green training in the Philippines prior to heading to Vietnam

 


Ready to go to work


The office


Vietnam


Going somewhere unpleasant on an HH-3 helicopter


Helicopter landing site/staging base in Laos

 


Helicopter landing site/staging base in Laos

 


Laos

 


Laotian roads used to tranport supplies south


Camouflaged road

 


More roads


Laotian air base

 


Laotian air base

 


Laos - downed aircraft wing


A Thai beauty


The flower girl


Mekong River from above


The Mekong River


A main road


Water buffalo

 


NKP


NKP monsoon


Vietnamese transport

 

 


Not part of the American chain...


Mekong - Laos across the river


Mekong River - Laos across the river


Girls wearing ao dai (traditional Veitnamese dress)


The Ho Chi Minh clock tower in NKP

It reads:
We (the abroad Vietnamese) commemorate the occasion of our return to the homeland..

The clock tower was a gift from Ho Chi Minh to the Vietnamese in Thailand.  There was a significant "diaspora" leaving the country after World War II and with the extended conflict after that many families were banished or left for Thailand/Kampuchea.


Rice paddies


Market


The modern rickshaw


Small temple


Buddhist monk candidates


Nicer temple

Inside the temple

Side view of temple

 

These last few photographs are technically not of Southeast Asia, but they are a part of the story.

Part of my tour of duty as a Vietnamese linguist involved aircrew duties on the RC-135M "Combat Apple."

The aircraft were based at Kadena Air Base, (Okinawa), Japan.



Airborne from Kadena


In the revetments at Kadena


Interior of the Combat Apple


Interior of the Combat Apple


Landing at Kadena


Aerial refueling over the Gulf of Tonkin


Refueling from the KC-135



During typhoon evacuation at Clark Air Base, Philippines


B-52G's at Kadena for Linebacker II

 

(Some photos courtesy of my colleagues from the 6908th and
6994th Security Squadrons and the 6990th Security Group)