Bailing out over ‘Nam
American pilot Vic Vizcarra flew F-105 Thunderchiefs during the Vietnam War and survived anti-aircraft guns, surfaceto-air missiles and ejecting from his aircraft over enemy territory
Veteran pilot Vic Vizcarra reveals his ordeal behind enemy lines in Vietnam
The Vietnam War became synonymous with the distinctive sound of ‘Huey’ helicopters, but the use of jet fighters was a huge part of the American military strategy against North Vietnamese forces. The air war was decisively fought in America’s favour, with a heavy emphasis on bombing missions over North Vietnam.
Nevertheless, American pilots were not immune from risk because the North Vietnamese were supplied by the USSR with MIG fighters. More importantly, US aircraft came under the most destructive attack from anti-aircraft guns and new surface-to-air missiles. Consequently, over 1,400 American warplanes were shot down over North Vietnam between 1965-68.
One of the pilots who fought against the dogged North Vietnamese air resistance was Captain Vic Vizcarra of the United States Air Force. Vizcarra flew hundreds of missions during the war, 59 of which were combat missions in F-105 Thunderchiefs with 80th and 354th fighter squadrons. Vizcarra experienced many dramatic incidents while flying in the F-105 but managed to survive a uniquely modern conflict where technology became the face of a hidden but determined enemy.
Deployment to Southeast Asia
Vizcarra had always wanted to fly and was greatly influenced by his older brother. “I got bitten by the flying bug at the age of six and knew that I not only wanted to fly but to fly fighters. I was greatly influenced by my older brother, who was 15 years older than me and flew in World War II. My dad would tell me stories about him fighting the bad guys and I said, ‘How do you fight the bad guys?’ He said, ‘You fly an airplane.’ That got me into aviation and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
Having joined an officer training corps program, Vizcarra was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1960 and began flying fighter jets. He built up his flying hours and even found himself caught up during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 while stationed at Okinawa, Japan. By the time Vizcarra was deployed to the Vietnam War to fly F-105 Thunderchiefs in October 1964, he had accrued hundreds of hours of flying experience and spent a large amount of his first deployment escorting reconnaissance aircraft over Laos.
Based in Korat, Thailand, from Octoberdecember 1964, Vizcarra recalled the enthusiasm he shared with his fellow pilots for the opportunity of active service: “I was biting at the bit to get in there because, until you’ve been shot at, you really don’t know what it’s like. We were all keen to go, and during the first few days of combat we thought that it was exciting and the adrenaline was pumping. It wasn’t until people started getting hit that all of a sudden you thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is serious.’”
While conducing an airstrike over Laos on Christmas Day 1964, Vizcarra remembered feeling a “tinge of remorse. It really hit me, because we were celebrating the birth of peace, Jesus Christ, but dropping bombs.”
Although Vizcarra had been flying active missions since October 1964 he didn’t receive his first taste of combat until 19 July 1965. By then based at Takhli, Thailand, Vizcarra’s mission was a bombing flight against North Vietnamese army barracks at Vinh. Flying at a speed of 550 knots [1,019 kilometres per hour], he remembered, “I messed up. I was suddenly in a plane with eight 750-pound bombs and when you release them, they don’t all release at the same time. If they did there was too much chance of the bombs colliding with each other. When you release the bombs simultaneously there is a 120-microsecond separation between each bomb. When I hit the release button I didn’t hold it until all the bombs had gone. I pushed the button real quick, and once we left the target I still had two bombs left on the bomb rack.”
Adrenaline played a large part in Vizcarra’s first combat mission: “Because of the butterflies and the excitement of being in combat for the first time I really didn’t know the target and was a little slow. I messed up again coming out of a dive recovery and was grinning from flying so fast.”
Operation Spring High
One of the military firsts of the Vietnam War was the aggressive use of surface-to-air missiles. Known by the Americans as ‘SAMS’, North Vietnamese forces had first used these weapons in April 1965 and a rigorous debate ensued within the US government on how to deal with them.
The threat became real on 24 July 1965 when a SAM shot down an American F-4 aircraft, and the danger to US pilots increased. Vizcarra explained, “We couldn’t attack SAM sites up to that point. The head of the CIA had recommended to President Johnson many times that the SAM sites should be taken out before they became a really serious threat. Unfortunately, Robert Mcnamara, the secretary of defense, was opposed to the idea because he was concerned that it would be seen as an escalation of the war. He would always overrule military advice, and Johnson would always side with Mcnamara. As we were flying our missions we could see these SAM sites being constructed but we couldn’t attack them. It was not until the F-4 was shot down that Johnson finally approved to take them off the ‘Do Not Attack’ list.”
Because of Mcnamara’s reluctance to destroy SAM sites, Vizcarra and his fellow
“MY DAD WOULD TELL ME STORIES ABOUT HIM FIGHTING THE BAD GUYS AND I SAID, ‘HOW DO YOU FIGHT THE BAD GUYS?’ HE SAID, ‘YOU FLY AN AIRPLANE.’ THAT GOT ME INTO AVIATION AND I KNEW THAT’S WHAT I WANTED TO DO”
pilots despised him for putting their lives in danger. “Many military people did not hold Mcnamara in high regard. I would later tell my children when they were growing up, ‘Hate is a very harsh word and you need to reserve it for people that you really do hate.’ However, I have to admit that I hated Mcnamara.”
On 27 July 1965, 48 ‘Thuds’, including Vizcarra’s, were finally ordered to attack two SAM sites in North Vietnam on a mission called ‘Operation Spring High’, which was the first counter-airstrike against SAM sites in the history of aerial warfare. Vizcarra approached this mission with trepidation. “I was really feeling fear. There were supposed to be 48 aircraft simultaneously hitting two SAM sites that were three miles [five kilometres] apart, and this was the first time we had gone against them. I was in the final flight of six flights from Takhli. Two aircraft from the first and third flights got shot down and I could hear it, we were all on the same frequency, so I found the target under quite stressful conditions.”
Armed with napalm, Vizcarra’s target was a barracks housing personnel that manned a SAM site near Hanoi. Descending to 31 metres (100 feet), Vizcarra flew down the Red River valley and was exposed to anti-aircraft fire. “It was really wide, flat terrain and you couldn’t use it to hide. We were out in the open and flak burst right over our heads, which forced us to descend even lower. The closer we got to the target the lower it would get and my flight lead got so low that he probably got within 20 feet [six metres] of the ground. As we approached the target we had to climb to 50 feet [15 metres] to release our weapons at the target.”
Vizcarra and his flight were now flying at extremely high speeds at a very low altitude. “It took us between 5-6 minutes to travel 50 miles [80 kilometres]. I remember turning at the
Red River valley and we were about 50 miles from the target and going at 500 knots [926 kilometres per hour], which was close to eight miles a minute.”
Once he reached the SAM site, Vizcarra’s flight deployed their weapons. “Half the strike
“THE MISSION WAS SO STRESSFUL THAT VIZCARRA WAS GIVEN A SHOT OF WHISKEY TO CALM HIS NERVES UPON HIS RETURN: “IT WAS THE ONLY MISSION WHERE I WAS SERVED ‘COMBAT WHISKEY’”
force was armed with ‘CBU’, which were intact pieces of bomb nuts. These would be torn into thousands of pieces and used to destroy soft targets such as armoured trucks or personnel. Two flights would give the SAM sites CBU and one flight went with napalm. I was carrying napalm so we dropped it and destroyed the barracks,” Vizcarra explained.
The mission was so stressful that Vizcarra was given a shot of whiskey to calm his nerves upon his return: “It was the only mission where I was served ‘Combat Whiskey’. At the end of a flight, the flight surgeon would open up his whiskey cabinet and pour each guy a shot. I’m not a whiskey drinker, but I was so tense from that mission that the gentleman came up my ladder before I’d even unstrapped and handed me a shot. I didn’t ask what it was, I just took it and it burned my throat!”
Anti-aircraft fire
Days after destroying the SAM site, Vizcarra came under fire from 37mm triple-a anti-aircraft guns while flying at 1,370 metres (4,500 feet) around the Laotian-north Vietnamese border on 3 August 1965. Vizcarra’s target was a bridge, and he recalled seeing anti-aircraft fire flying up towards him: “The 37mm looks like a large, glowing orange golf ball, and you could see them streaking up beneath you. When they sprung them there was a white puff, and I was