Expeditionary Airborne Battlespace Command and Control Center (EABCCC)

Hind Sight is nearly always 20-20…

“In the two most recent operations involving U.S. forces, the EC-130E ABCCC platform was not available. The Air Force had retired it in 2002 on the premise that the CAOC would have sufficient communications resources to exercise command and control over vast distances in a widely distributed battlespace. In the absence of an ABCCC, the airborne warning and control system (AWACS) and joint surveillance and target attack radar system (JSTARS) had to fulfill the battlefield management role. This led to problems, both real and perceived, in providing air support to ground forces in a widely distributed battlespace.”

Read the whole Report

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Biloxi Newspaper Article - 7ACCS

We got this from the Clarks.



That’s Tony Youngblood in the foreground…

Click Here for the large version...

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YouTube Videos

Here is some youtube.com video I’ve found - pokin around when I should have been working… I’ll post more as I find them and re-date this entry to get it back to the top of the “Recent Entries” list when I do… If you come up with any youtube videos that you think should be here - email the URL to me -

History Channel:


Thailand/Laos - What wonders 30+ years can bring...

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Project Credible Sport - Operation Eagle Claw Followup

We all know that several of the 7ACCS birds were used in the ill-fated attempt to rescue American hostages from Teheran in May of 1980… and one was lost, along with its crew.  But some of may be surprised to learn that preparation for a second rescue attempt had been initiated.

Dubbed Project Credible Sport, it was aimed at heavily modifying three C-130H aircraft so they would be able to land and take off from the Amjadien soccer stadium across the street from the U. S. Embassy in Teheran.  You can read all about it here: http://www.crediblesport.com/.

Here is a youtube.com video that shows some of the testing - including a test that went bad-wrong at the end of this video.



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Lam Son 719

For you old dogs from Udorn - this is a great video site that recounts the Lam Son 719 operation where MACV and SVN invaded Laos in an attempt to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail. 

ABCCC isn’t mentioned but I recall many nights of providing support to these guys.  It looked like it might work at the get-go… but it was not to be.  http://military.discovery.com/convergence/lamson/videogallery/videogallery.html

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The Guns of Tchepone

Moonbeam is mentioned in this SAR report:
http://users.acninc.net/padipaul/pnl016_10_06/SEA.htm

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A war too long -

We get a passing mention on page 61 of this document…
https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/a_war_too_long.pdf

It has some good reading… brings back a lot of memories…

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Desert One - the loss of 62-1809

Then Schaefer heard and felt a loud, strong, metallic whack! It sounded like someone had hit the side of his aircraft with a large aluminum bat. Others heard a cracking sound as loud as an explosion, but somehow sharper-edged, more piercing and particular, like the shearing impact of giant industrial tools…
Read More - http://iran.theatlantic.com/interactive_article_page_9.html

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Military Aviation: Issues and Options for Combating Terrorism and Counterinsurgency

Air Force officers experienced a certain “comfort� in knowing that an EC-130E was pushed forward, and its sole mission was supporting CAS and combat search and rescue (CSAR) communications. While these officers say they were unsure whether AWACS could satisfy the ABCCC’ s role in combat, they did not express grave concern. Regardless, if anti-guerrilla scenarios are to be increasingly encountered, exploring the efficacy of resurrecting the ABCCC’ s capabilities may be warranted.
(Note:  Efficacy is the ability to produce a desired amount of a desired effect.)
Read More: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RL32737_01272006.pdf

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Bat-21 SAR

Lt. Col. HambletonIn one of the most bizarre rescues of the Vietnam War, Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton was recovered from enemy territory in northern South Vietnam after 11 1/2 days on the ground. This was the largest rescue operation in USAF history.

On Easter Sunday, April 2, 1972, Lt. Col. Hambleton was flying as navigator in an EB-66 electronic counter-measures aircraft (call sign Bat-21). When the aircraft was struck by a surface-to-air missile, he was the only man to eject safely, landing near a busy highway junction on a Communist supply route. Intelligence sources reported the area contained 30,000 enemy troops. (While initially awaiting rescue, Lt. Col. Hambleton directed USAF aircraft that destroyed many enemy vehicles on the highways.)

Intense ground fire prevented the first attempts to rescue him. A plan was devised to direct him by radio contact with a forward air controller aircraft to a safer pick-up point. USAF reconnaissance aircraft photographed the area, and photo analysts laid out a course for him to follow to a river two miles away. Lt. Col. Hambleton, an avid golfer, remembered in great detail various golf courses where he had played. To guide him safely past enemy camps, gun emplacements and unfriendly villages and then downstream to a rescue point, specific holes at certain courses were used to establish distance and direction of travel for each segment of his journey.

Traveling only at night, he reached the 10th day, exhausted and with nothing to eat or drink since bailout except several ears of corn and rainwater. Floating downstream, at the last “hole” he was met by Navy SEAL Lt. Thomas R. Norris and a Vietnamese Ranger who had stolen a boat. Despite several enemy ambushes, they delivered Lt. Col. Hambleton to a waiting USAF helicopter that took off under enemy fire. Lt. Col. Hambleton’s experience was the basis for a book and a movie, but neither portrayed the complexity of the operation, the exotic technology or number of people involved in the rescue. 234 medals were awarded to individuals for this rescue, and Lt. Norris received the Medal of Honor for his role in this and a related rescue.

Displayed on the mannequin (at the museum) are the baseball cap, monocular and glasses that Lt. Col. Hambleton had with him when rescued. His original flight suit was taken from him in the hospital for laundering, and he was transferred before it was returned. The URC-64 survival radio was his most important survival item. He was enthusiastic about how well it worked despite submersion in water and other hardships. The framed photomontage was composed of reconnaissance photos and was used to plan the escape route since there were no usable maps of the area. The plaque was given to him by the commander, 42nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, in memory of the EB-66 crew members who died.

Items on display at the museum were donated by Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton (USAF Ret.), Tucson, Ariz.

Source: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1236

Additional Bat21 Links:

http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/seals.html
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tho0int-9
Must Reading - http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976873360

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The war against trucks: aerial interdiction in southern Laos, 1968-1972

By directing operations through his own command and control mechanism, Momyer believed he could ensure that “All necessary air, and not just a dedicated force, can then be quickly switched via ABCCC [airborne battlefield command and control center] to exploit lucrative targets developed by the Infiltration Center, FACs [forward air controllers] or any other collection source.� His concern for centralized control, however, reflected the possibility that dividing the recently unified aerial resources between Seventh Air Force and Task Force Alpha might well encourage the Marine Corps to revive its campaign to regain operational control of its own aircraft.
Read More: https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/WarAgainstTrucks.pdf

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The Clash About CAS (AFA.org)

Without ABCCC to sort through the CAS requests and prioritize the missions of strike aircraft, the job was even tougher.
Read More: http://www.afa.org/magazine/jan2003/0103cas.asp

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How To Command and Control a War (AFA.org)

The Iraqis operated blind, their aircraft and radar out of action. The coalition had superb intelligence and used it with stunning effectiveness.
Read More: http://www.afa.org/magazine/perspectives/desert_storm/0491watch.asp

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The Awesome Power of Air Force Gunships (AFA.org)

In warfare, timing is critical, and few weapons have had better timing than the gunship, the epitome of on-scene firepower in the Vietnam War. History, requirements, resources, and-most of all-personalities, all came together at a critical moment to create a piece of side-firing airborne artillery, a weapon North Vietnam considered one of the most important of the war.
Read More: http://www.afa.org/magazine/April1999/0499gunships.asp

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The Plain of Jars (AFA.org)

The Plain of Jars is a 500-square-mile, diamond-shaped region in northern Laos, covered with rolling hills, high ridges, and grassy flatlands. Its average altitude is about 3,000 feet. It derives its name from the hundreds of huge gray stone “jars” that dot the landscape.
Read More: http://www.afa.org/magazine/June1999/0699plain.asp

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Operation Niagara

Operation Niagara was a US Seventh Air Force close air support campaign carried out from January through March 1968, during the Vietnam Conflict. Its purpose was to serve as an aerial umbrella for the defense of the US Marine Corps Combat Base on the Khe Sanh Plateau, in western Quang Tri Province of the Republic of Vietnam. The base was under siege by an estimated three-divisional force of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN).
Read More: http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Operation_Niagara

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Blind Bat (AFA.org)

A flareship crew might find Communist trucks on the trail, but it would take time for fighters arrive. In addition, we would have to wait for our C-130 ABCCC (Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center) ships, orbiting high overhead, to obtain permission to attack.
Read More - http://www.afa.org/magazine/perspectives/Vietnam/1189bat.asp

Here’s another good Blind Bat article I ran across:  http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1982/may-jun/hasen.html

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The Nato Explanation (The Guardian)

The Serbian army did not usually travel this way. This concern led ABCCC, at 12.50pm, to send an A10 “Warthog” anti-tank plane to take a look with ninefold magnification binoculars.
Read More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,,206924,00.html

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The loss of Baron 52

At 0200 hours local time 5 February, Baron 52 failed to make its scheduled report to Moonbeam ABCCC. Two ground stations, Moonbeam ABCCC, and other aircraft tried unsuccessfully to contact Baron 52 on guard frequencies and other radio channels.
Read More - http://www.ec47.com/baron.htm

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Rescue at Kham Duc (AFA.org)

From Kham Duc, US Special Forces, augmented by South Vietnamese soldiers and Montagnard irregulars, kept watch on the Ho Chi Minh Trail on the other side of the mountains. The camp also impeded enemy infiltration of the South Vietnamese highlands.
Read More… http://www.afa.org/magazine/Oct2005/1005KhamDuc.asp

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Operation Tailwind - Prairie Fire

On 11 September 1970, Marine CH-53 helicopters and AH-1G Cobra gunships carried into Laos, near Chavane, a team of 16 Americans and a Special Commando Unit (SCU), consisting of Montagnard troops. The Americans were in Company B, Command and Control Central, Military Advisory Command Studies and Observation Group (MACSOG). Their mission, Operation TAILWIND, would last until 14 September 1970, and their objectives were reconnaissance, intelligence collection, and a diversion for a larger operation to the north.
Read More…

Original Tailwind Article - Time Magazine - http://www.aim.org/publications/special_reports/TIME06-15.html
USAF Tailwind Report - https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/TAILWIND-front.pdf
Tailwind: An Apology - Time Magazine - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988707,00.html

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The Essence of Forward Air Controlling

FAC Rescue Mission in Laos
by Bill Townsley, Yorktown, VA

A FAC Story from Vietnam/Laos - “The Essence of Forward Air Controlling”

This story is about a Special Operations Group (SOG) team. These were what we also called “road watch teams, “ but they did more missions like search for previously downed airmen, POW camps, enemy command posts, and just about anything that the Intelligence Community wanted to know. They were inserted by helicopter quickly and without fanfare, whenever possible. I used to run “dummy” air strikes and/or fly circles over and shoot off one or two of my 14 ‘willy pete’ (WP or white phosphorus) rockets into another nearby area to make cover up noise in an attempt to draw attention away from the area where we planned to helicopter insert a 6 to 10 man SOG team.

This is about one such team that got in trouble someplace in Laos. It was sometime in July or Aug of 1969. I had not been a part of the effort to insert them, i.e., they were not one of “my” teams. It all starts with one of the enlisted 20 TASS (Tactical Air Support Squadron) Operations Specialists knocking on the door of my Q room at about 4 a.m.
“Sir, we need you to fly a Prairie Fire.” I never turned down any opportunity to fly, especially a Prairie Fire. He drove me to Operations about a mile and a half away.
“There’s a team in trouble in the vicinity of…” (I couldn’t tell you where now, and the area was new to me then). “You’re to take off as soon as possible and to meet up with (I think it was) Nail 08. He’s was a night FAC out of NKP (Thailand). He’s not Prairie Fire qualified, but he has contact with a team in trouble.”

I was probably airborne by 4:45 or 5 a.m. Shortly after takeoff, I contacted “Moonbeam,” the Airborne Command and Control Center (ABCCC) C-130 that flew the night shift of 12 hours high over Laos. The day shift ABCCC’s callsign was “Hillsboro.” Moonbeam put me on frequency with the Nail FAC.

“Nail 08, this is Covey 264, inbound you’re location,” I said.

“Roger, Covey. I’ve been getting this round-eye (no offense meant, but that’s what we called Americans then for some coding purposes) on ‘Fox Mike’ (FM radio, and he gave me the frequency). He comes up about every 10 minutes and just calls for help. He says he’s running, he sounds out of breath, and he wants help. I can barely understand him. He won’t stay on the radio long enough for me to ask him any questions. I have no idea where he is, except that I’m in his area because this is where I stayed once I heard him come up.”

The Nail had literally been working in the dark, and so finding a SOG team at night would have been next to impossible anyway. Light was breaking and I could begin to make out terrain features on the ground.

The SOG team leader had a callsign I don’t remember. I’m going to call him Lucky from now on. We seldom use it after the first contact, if it’s continuous. We just talk like we’re on a telephone, with none of that “Over, Wilco, Over and out, and This is…” stuff.
After taking the briefing from Nail, I told him I was on-scene. We visually found each other. I came in a thousand feet higher than he said he was. Once we had each other in sight, we passed on-scene control to me.

“I have it.” and we traded holding altitudes.  Somewhere in here, Lucky called and everything went just as the Nail FAC had previously briefed. I tried to talk to Lucky, but he went off line too fast. I got the same mental picture that Nail had briefed. Nail asked permission to stick around for a few minutes to observe and I let him.

I called Moonbeam and asked them what firepower was immediately available. Moonbean said they had a AC-119 that was about 15 or 20 minutes from my location. The “Dollar 19,” or “Shadow” as we called them had a mounted side firing 7.62 mm Gattling guns capable of firing up to 6,000 rounds per minute per gun.

I had seen a AC-130 “Specter” and the AC-47 “Puff, the Magic Dragon” work out around DaNang at night, so I understood their firepower capability. I also knew they were accurate and that the TIC (troop-in-contact) clearance was 25 meters.

“Bring him on, Moonbeam, I’m declaring a Prairie Fire. See if you can get me some A-1s or “Gunfighters” with “snake and nape” (F-4s with the more accurate 500 pound high drag bombs and napalm) Just keep them on alert.”

Lucky came up again. Still, I couldn’t get him to remain on long enough to ask him a question. He was just running and running and wanted help.
I waited and waited, trying every minute or so to contact him. About the time that I figured he would be coming up again, I kept up a steady stream of talk.

“Lucky, Lucky, this is Covey. I need to find you, can you hear my Oscar Duck?” (our nickname for the O-2)? I kept repeating this, pausing only briefly for him to come up. I was hoping that as he brought the phone-like microphone to his ear, that he would hear me ask him questions.

About this time, Moonbeam came up on victor (VHF radio) telling me that Shadow was coming my way. At the same time, “Shadow 21” is checking in on my Uniform (UHF radio). We controlled who we talked to on which radio, uniform, victor or fox mike with a little turn knob, like on an stove or air conditioner, and we controlled the volume of each radio with smaller turn knobs on that same panel)

Before I could answer either, up pops Lucky, “I think I can hear you, but I don’t know where I am. We just being chased.” And he was off line again. Again, I couldn’t get him to answer. While he was talking on fox mike, I could “home in” on his location via a needle in the cockpit. It didn’t tell me how far he was away, it would only give me a direction. I decided to head in his direction about a mile and take up another orbit. I acknowledged the arrival of Shadow, giving him an arrival or above altitude, and I just said “Roger, got him” to Moonbeam. I was trying to get into my maps to figure out where I was Laos, but it was taking too much time, and it rally didn’t matter for now.

Then I started repeating again and again, “Lucky, this is Covey, can you hear my aircraft and what direction are you running? After another 3 or 4 minutes of continuing to repeat this question, he finally came back, “I hear you louder, I don’t know what direction I’m running.”
I quickly said, “The Sun is rising in the East.” He came back, “Oh yeah. OK, Covey, I’m running South. We’re being chased by at least a company.” To me, that meant his squad was outnumbered at least 3 to one, and probably more like 5 to 1. And, once again, that was it for awhile. The reader has to appreciate that Lucky is talking on the radio while running through the jungle and he’s panting the whole time.

During this break, I begin talking to Shadow and started to tell him what my plan was. I hoped to try and spot Lucky and go to work for him. But in the jungle coverage I was looking at, I didn’t see how we were ever going to see him. Once we spotted him, let’s remember he’s running South. “Roger South, Covey.” Somewhere in all of the chatter, I gave Shadow the fox mike frequency so he was listening to everything that was going on between Lucky and me. Lucky pops up again, “Covey, we’re still running, I can hear you nearly overhead.”

“Pop a smoke, pop a smoke, pop a smoke,” I repeated.

“What? Charlie will see me!” Lucky yelled back.

“Hell, he already chasing you so he knows where you are. Pop a smoke, keep running, and when your 25 yards South, tell me the color.”

“####, here goes. I’m popping and running.”

I asked Shadow to be looking for some smoke coming up through the jungle canopy. He said “Roger.”

After about 30 seconds, I saw very dispersed wisps of red smoke coming up through the trees. I started to point it out to Shadow, but he interrupted saying “I got it, Covey.”
About a minute later, Lucky comes back on and says, “I’m 25 meters South of my red smoke.”

“Keep on running, Lucky.”

“Shadow, cleared hot on the red smoke and North for 1 minute.”

“Roger”

For the next minute, Shadow unloaded about 6,000 rounds into the area of the smoke and a little North of it.

“Shadow, fly off about 2 or 3 miles. I’m doing the same. We need him to be able to hear what’s going on down there.”

We waited for what seemed like an eternity. It was taking so long, that I thought we had killed the good guys. The seconds were ticking away.

The next thing we heard was, “Here’s another red smoke.” Then nothing.
I brought Shadow back over the area.

There comes the signs of new red smoke through the trees.

Then “Covey, I’m 25 meters South.”

“Shadow, cleared hot!”

“Roger!”

Another minute of hell on Earth for the bad guys, whoever there were, and however many of them there were.

I then told Shadow to get clear of the area again, and I did the same. He’d already moved away, but I wasn’t watching him.

“Covey, that is #### hot. I don’t hear anything anymore.” Came the long awaited radio call from Lucky.

“Good, now what do you want? You want to stay, or you want out.”

“We need to get out. Can you get me to an LZ (landing zone)?”

“Roger, I see one. I’m going over your position high overhead, but offset some. When I tell you, you need to go toward the sound of my a/c about 500 meters. There’s a good LZ there.

“That’ll take us the rest of the day.”

“That’s the best I see in the area. “

“Roger”

“I’ll brief the boys back home to be ready with strings later on the afternoon.” That meant I’d debrief SOG command to have another Prairie Fire FAC with rescue Huey’s and Cobra gunships ready for an extraction. The Huey’s would have 100 foot ropes (strings) to lower to Lucky’s team to pull or carry them to safety. Sometimes they had to travel many miles dangling from the end of the string.

“Roger, Covey, I owe ya.”

“Me and Shadow. We’ll see you, out” I replied.

“Shadow, well done. Outstanding how you were on top of everything before I even had to say anything.”

“Roger, good job,” he said back.

“Roger that. Felt good, didn’t it?”

“Moonbeam, this is Covey 264 RTB (returning to base).”

Covey, this is Hillsboro, Moonbeam RTB’d an hour ago. We monitored all. Understand RTB, good job.”

That story, which I’ve told many time, but never in this detail, to me epitomizes the essence of being a Forward Air Controller.

You’re called out of bed to save somebody. Who, what when and where? You go out there not knowing much about what’s going on. You don’t know their location, nor the terrain elevation.  You can’t see either the good guys or the bad guys.  You take whatever firepower you can get. And it doesn’t have to be A-1As, or F-4s or F-105s.  You find the good guys and you start shooting hoping your hitting only the bad guys.  You hit the bad guys, you save the good guys.

What more could you ask for?

Source: http://airwarvietnam.com/faccovey264a.htm

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Ravens.org - ABCCC Page

“Attached are extracts from ABCCC - Cricket & Hillsboro.  Ray Roddy, who was their crew chief, sent them to me. Interesting reading. Ravens might want to research these records & bump them against their log books? Some interesting reading in here.”
Read More…

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Ho Chi Minh Trail - Then (AFA.org)

During the Vietnam War, US pilots could see weapons, military equipment, and war supplies moving on 40-car trains on the railroad near Hanoi and being unloaded from ships in the Haiphong harbor.
They could look, but not strike…
Read More...

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Ho Chi Minh Trail - Today (MSNBC.com)

From soldier’s road to tourist highway
Ho Chi Minh Trail is a ‘must see’ on visitor’s itineraries…

HO CHI MINH HIGHWAY, Vietnam - If relentless American bombing didn’t get him, it would take a North Vietnamese soldier as long as six months to make the grueling trek down the jungled Ho Chi Minh Trail. Today, you speed along the same route at 60 mph, past peaceful hamlets and stunning mountain scenery.
Read More...

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Circles in the Sky

Ray Roddy has completed his masterpiece.

Circles in the Sky - The Secret War in Southeast Asia - A Command and Control Perspective

Click Here to order from the publisher - or if you'd like a signed copy, contact me at ray.roddy@gmail.com. I will have to order 20 books at a time from Infinity to avoid double shipping charges. I will sign them as per request and mail them ASAP in a padded mailer with tracking information.

Thanks,
Ray Roddy

ABCCC Reunion 2010


7-10 October 2010
Holiday Inn North
Dayton, Ohio
For More Info - Click Here

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