Defeating a Surface-to-air missile
Vic VIZCARRA had To Frequently combat The sa-2 missile – A dangerous weapon THAT Revolutionised Aerial WARFARE
Developed by the ussr, the Sa-2 was widely used during the vietnam War. the heat-seeking missile used a two-stage rocket booster system and was fitted with a 197-kilogram (434-pound) warhead. its range was up to 48 kilometres (30 miles) with a maximum height of 18,288 metres (60,000 feet).
the Sa-2 was an innovative threat to american pilots in vietnam, but vizcarra explained that they could be successfully outmanoeuvred: “We referred to them as ‘flying telephone poles’. they were easy to spot and luckily they were large enough that you could see them coming at you. You had to take defensive manoeuvres, and with hard manoeuvring you could out-run it, but that’s not how you would defeat it.”
Defeating a Sam required skilful flying. “When you saw a Sam coming at you, you had to see the launch so you could spot it early because they spewed a lot of burst and smoke. the burst would put out a large flame, so as soon as you spotted one you really had to put it off. You’d manoeuvre to a three or nine o’clock position so that it came at you from the side. the Sam always launched to a high altitude, so it would start off high and turn down towards you. as soon as you saw it you had to put your nose down to force it to do a bigger turn towards you. once you got it coming down towards you, you would pull back up. it would try and follow you but it couldn’t do it because it had very small wings. So as it tried to pull back up it would just tend to stall out and tumble. that’s the way you would defeat a Sam.”
vizcarra recalled that surviving these missiles was different from standard anti-aircraft fire:
“it made it very personal. because the north vietnamese would shoot at you with triple-a fire, they would just put up a large barrage and hope that you’d run into it. a Sam is looking right at you, it’s got your lead and it’s going after you, so it’s much more personal. to be honest though, the Sams were not very effective at all. You could defeat them, and for the whole vietnam War their effectiveness rate was actually less than 1.2 per cent.”
“ONCE YOU GOT IT COMING DOWN TOWARDS YOU, YOU WOULD PULL BACK UP. IT WOULD TRY AND FOLLOW YOU BUT IT COULDN’T DO IT BECAUSE IT HAD VERY SMALL WINGS”
rolling in on a wooden bridge. I could see the orange golf balls flying all over me, and when I released my weapons I started pulling to recover from my dive and rolled to the left.”
During this engagement, while under fire, Vizcarra thought his aircraft had been hit: “Once I rolled up and was climbing out I looked over to my left and three feet [0.9 metres] of my leadingedge wing flap was missing. You could see that it had torn off so I thought I’d been hit. But after looking at the damage back at base it became obvious that the pressure equalisation valve in the drop tank had failed during the dive on the bridge and it had imploded.”
Mechanical problems would later cause Vizcarra even more worrying problems, but it was the constant flying that was beginning to induce stress. During what was his second deployment over Vietnam, Vizcarra regularly began attending Mass: “When you get shot at, you get very religious all of a sudden. There was a very small circle of guys that thought they were invincible and were always biting at the bit to lead the dangerous missions. Then the junior pilots, where I placed myself, strapped up everyday, day after day. You felt that, ‘This could be the guy going to be hit, not me.’ If you ever thought you were going to be hit all the heart went.
There was also a very small circle of those who thought they weren’t going to make it and actually asked to be relieved of duty. I needed religious faith to give me the courage to go day after day.”
Conversely, Vizcarra admitted that flying combat missions was “really addictive because of the adrenaline. It was like the challenge and excitement of scoring in rugby. As long as you weren’t getting knocked out and getting hit it was exciting, particularly when you’re on a roll and flying some pretty interesting missions. You had a lot of anxieties going to the target, but there was a great feeling of satisfaction coming home and accomplishment that you shot the target.”
For Vizcarra, this addiction to combat missions was put into sharp perspective when he went on his third deployment between Septembernovember 1967. “The more you did it, the more you wanted to do it – until I had the experience of bailing out.”
Ejecting over enemy skies
By 1966, casualties were rising among Thud pilots and Vizcarra was losing colleagues in combat. “It got to be a little bit troublesome, and the reality hits you that you may not come back.”
He was also coming to respect the North Vietnamese forces: “They appeared to be very capable learners. The Russians trained them, and because they were operating the SAMS they knew how to use sophisticated equipment. They did things that Americans did not think was possible so they deserve recognition for being capable people.”
Vizcarra was now taking part in ‘Iron Hand’ missions, with the objective to suppress enemy defensive systems, particularly SAMS. Thud pilots would deliberately challenge SAMS before airstrikes destroyed their sites. Dedicated crews in two-seater F-105GS would act as ‘bait’ while wingmen such as Vizcarra would bomb the targets. By November 1966, “the North Vietnamese were establishing more and more SAM sites and putting them up from Hanoi down towards the south, and they kept moving them down there.”
On 6 November 1966 Vizcarra went on an Iron Hand mission acting as wingman to an F-105G over a southern area of North Vietnamese
SAM activity. Vizcarra and his lead aircraft were looking for three suspected SAM sites, but their flight turned into a fruitless search. On a return journey to the first site Vizcarra began having problems with his aircraft. “So far we had not been shot at by the North Vietnamese, so we started this journey back to the coast again to look at the first suspected site, but I got an engine compressor stall. If you got a compressor stall in the F-105 you knew there was something wrong with the engine.”
Vizcarra initially believed he could nurse his aircraft back to base, but “after a short time it became obvious that I had an engine failure. It was still running but I could not maintain altitude or air speed, and I didn’t realise how quickly it deteriorated. It wasn’t until the flight lead said, ‘Dip your flaps’, which you needed when you’re very slow, that I realised the plane wasn’t flying anymore and I had to get out.”
With the F-105’s sudden engine failure, Vizcarra now had no choice but to eject over enemy territory: “I told them I was going to have to eject and I did. The ejection was surprisingly smooth and mild because I took it at such a slow air speed. I didn’t panic and everything worked properly. The seat blew up and did a kind of summersault before the seatbelt was automatically disconnected.”
Vizcarra was now parachuting over “extremely dense jungle” and prepared for a tree landing. “I was shocked at the sudden stop, and it knocked the breath out of me because I hit the trees very suddenly. I ended up hanging upside down with my right ankle wedged between a tree branch that was split like a ‘Y’”.
Now in a precarious position, Vizcarra did not know how high up he was from the ground. “Trying to get out of this tree took a lot of effort, and I was doing pull ups upside down to grab hold of this branch. I managed to pull myself up but then did something really foolish. North Vietnamese trees are very tall, and guys who had bailed out had hurt themselves not realising how high up they were and they would break bones from the fall. I did have a 200-foot [61-metre] lanyard in my parachute that you could use as a pulley to let you down, but with
“THEY APPEARED TO BE VERY CAPABLE LEARNERS. THE RUSSIANS TRAINED THEM, AND BECAUSE THEY WERE OPERATING THE SAMS THEY KNEW HOW TO USE SOPHISTICATED EQUIPMENT”
the adrenaline pumping and the excitement of ejection I couldn’t remember how to rig it up.”
Vizcarra took a dangerous step to get down from the tree: “I dropped my helmet to determine how high I was and then let myself go. I was shocked when I landed within six feet [1.8 metres] of the ground! I must have dropped dozens of feet before I was hanging upside down and my head had been only feet above the ground. I couldn’t tell from my position because the leaves were so thick, so that was really chancy what I did there.”
A hostile environment
Once on the ground, Vizcarra had to be rescued as soon as possible, but that was easier said than done. He had landed in isolated jungle 33 kilometres (20.5 miles) southeast from the Mu Gia Pass on the Laotian-north Vietnamese border, which was used as a military route to infiltrate supplies to the Viet Cong. Vizcarra knew he could not be captured: “A dear friend of mine had bailed out a few months before me and was captured immediately. I saw pictures of him and already knew what he was going through. I have to say that becoming a POW was not an option you wanted.”
Vizcarra immediately attempted to contact his flight lead on a survival radio: “In my excitement I pushed the lever and asked to talk, but it was poorly designed. I pushed the button right through ‘Talk’ into a beeper signal without realising it. So there I was standing there talking, when really I was sending out a beeper signal. My flight leader and I couldn’t communicate because I was not using the proper mode.”
Fortunately for Vizcarra, his flight leader found a way around the communication problem. “Luckily he was very smart. He started playing ‘20 Questions’ where he would ask me a question and get me to answer by using the beeper. One beep was ‘Yes’ and two beeps were ‘No’. We communicated like that for a while and he eventually said, ‘We’ve got rescue on the way. Turn your radio off, save the battery and come back up in 15 minutes’”.
Vizcarra was now alone and had to prepare for hiding and surviving in the jungle in case the rescue attempt failed.
Surviving in a cave
While he waited to be rescued, Vizcarra had to find immediate cover. “I sat there waiting for the time to go by and realised that, even though I was in really thick jungle I still was coming out in the open and needed to find a hiding place.”
Vizcarra soon came across a large hill of karst to the north of his landing position and discovered many caves. “Karst is a type of lava formation, which is indigenous to that area. I was shocked how porous it was and had a selection of many caves to go into. I picked the one that was right in front of me and found that it was a good hiding place and hid in there.”
There was no accurate way of knowing how long it would be before the rescue came, so Vizcarra had to rely on his survival kit. “One pilot spent 30 days in the jungle before he got rescued, so you had a poncho to keep yourself covered from the rain as well as a knife, plate, compass, mirror and fishing gear.”
One particular item had a novel use: “There was a condom in the survival gear. I joked with a friend years later that it was there in case you had to sleep your way out of Vietnam, but it really wasn’t. Your condom was to be used as an additional way to collect water even though you had cans of water in your gear.”
While he was in the cave, Vizcarra reflected on his situation: “Up to this point I was reacting to my training, but I was now sitting waiting to be rescued with nothing to do. I suddenly started to think about my family and the terrible situation I was in. I resorted back to my faith again and said a little prayer, and sure enough as soon as I finished saying it I heard aircraft coming back. I felt like some of my prayers had been heard.”
“A DEAR FRIEND OF MINE HAD BAILED OUT A FEW MONTHS BEFORE ME AND WAS CAPTURED IMMEDIATELY. I SAW PICTURES OF HIM AND ALREADY KNEW WHAT HE WAS GOING THROUGH. I HAVE TO SAY THAT BECOMING A POW WAS NOT AN OPTION YOU WANTED”
Rescue
Vizcarra was being rescued by a US Navy helicopter, but the device the naval crew used to rescue him almost caused another accident: “The jungle rescue device is called a ‘Tree Pole Trainer’ and looks like an anchor as it’s lowered through the trees. It had a safety harness but I didn’t have enough strength in my thumb to open the clip all the way. It only partially opened or popped out. I heard the radio saying, ‘Hurry up, we’re low on fuel, let us know when we can pull you up.’ That made me even more nervous so I wrapped this cable around me.”
Vizcarra was then pulled out of the jungle slightly prematurely. “I was going to say, ‘OK, go ahead’ but as soon as they heard ‘OK’ they
started to pull me back up. I dropped the radio, which at least freed my hands so I could hang on for dear life, because I wasn’t strapped in properly. The cable then draped over a branch and they used me as a battering ram to break it. On the fifth attempt they succeeded and I was finally free. When the helicopter landed on the ship it only had two minutes of fuel remaining.”
The feeling of being rescued was a great relief: “Once I was on the helicopter I felt very good. I was on the ground for a little bit over two hours, and although it was only short it seemed like a long time.” Vizcarra was flown to USS Halsey and “treated like royalty” before he was transferred to the USS Constellation and finally reunited with his squadron. For minor injuries he had received during the rescue Vizcarra was awarded the Purple Heart, although he recalled, “I did suffer bruises and scrapes on my arm, which drew blood, but I really didn’t think I deserved it. It was a miracle I got rescued because I made lots of mistakes.”
The cost of war
Vizcarra’s ejection and rescue occurred towards the end of his time flying the F-105 and he recalled not being as enthusiastic to fly afterwards: “You’re not so anxious to get back in a plane the minute you have to bail out over enemy territory.” Although there was an unwritten policy that rescued pilots were sent home, Vizcarra’s experience was valued, and he had to remain on active duty. After another nearaccident Vizcarra was feeling edgy: “I was shook up and told [my superior officer], “Sir, this is my third miss in a row and I think the good Lord is trying to tell me something.”
397 F-105s were shot down during the Vietnam War between 1965-72, and in Vizcarra’s wing dozens of pilots had been shot down by mid-1967. Many were rescued, but a significant number were killed or captured. Vizcarra was eventually sent to Bangkok, but while he was there his flight commander Major Art Mearns was killed in action. “He was a good guy. I liked him and flew most of my missions with him, so that hit me hard. I felt guilty that I was in Bangkok instead of flying with him, and that’s what keeps coming back. I don’t think I could have saved him, but I did feel terrible that I was not with him on that mission.” Vizcarra flew his last Thud mission shortly afterwards on 19 November 1966.
As for enemy casualties, Vizcarra explained that he had different views from some of his fellow pilots: “I didn’t care for a few of the pilots’ attitudes. Their attitude was that anybody in North Vietnam was an enemy, but I didn’t see it that way. I had no qualms about killing the military because that’s the enemy and that sort of thinking made it easy for me to bomb targets over North Vietnam. But civilians are civilians, and I didn’t want to kill them.”
The Vietnam War, then and now, has always been a deeply controversial conflict, and Vizcarra, who later retired as a colonel, felt that American politicians should bear the responsibility for the US defeat. “Unfortunately there was too much politics involved in the war.
“THE CABLE THEN DRAPED OVER A BRANCH AND THEY USED ME AS A BATTERING RAM TO BREAK IT. ON THE FIFTH ATTEMPT THEY SUCCEEDED AND I WAS FINALLY FREE”
My philosophy is that if a nation needs to go to war the politicians should tell the military what the objective is but then let them use military strategy to achieve the objective. But unfortunately the United States has got too involved in too many wars since World War II where the politicians run the war rather than the military.”
Since the war ended, Vizcarra has thought about the consequences of the conflict and concluded that those who died should be honoured. “I went through a period where it kind of oppressed me because people had been lost unnecessarily. I started questioning in my mind, ‘Was it all worth it?’ I almost came to the conclusion that it wasn’t, but what changed my mind was when I thought it would be a disservice to those that made the ultimate sacrifice. If it wasn’t worth it, how can you say this to people who went there and did what their country asked them to do, even in adverse circumstances? Time changes your feelings somewhat, but as a combat pilot I mostly remember the good.”