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  • COMBAT SKY SPOT

    The enemy moved and attacked under the cover of monsoon rains, low-laying clouds and darkness. The U.S. Air Force was hampered during these times by a limited all-weather and night bombing capability.The U.S. Air Force adapted an existing system to address this problem. To train its crews, the U.S.

  • LS 85: In the Jaws of the Enemy

    "... it appears we may have pushed our luck one day too long in attempting to keep this facility in operation ..."- Cable from William Sullivan, U.S. Ambassador to Laos, to the U.S. State Department, March 11, 1968In the fall of 1967, the U.S. secretly put a modified COMBAT SKY SPOT radar on a

  • Laos: Plain of Jars

    THE SECRET WARIn response to a Laotian request for assistance, the U.S. initiated covert operations to keep "neutral" Laos from falling to the communist offensive across the Plain of Jars. The U.S. ambassador in Laos assumed control of all US operations in northern Laos, including the CIA-operated

  • Laos

    OVER THE FENCE In 1954 the Geneva Peace Accords established Laos as an independent state led by the Royal Lao government. Shortly thereafter, opposing groups, including the North Vietnamese-supported communist Pathet Lao, started a civil war. The U.S. sent a small number of advisors to assist the

  • Forward Air Controller: O-2A Under Heavy Ground Fire in Southeast Asia

    This painting, by Andrew Whyte, depicts the museum's Cessna O-2A Skymaster (serial number 67-21331) on a forward air control (FAC) mission during the Southeast Asia War. To avoid being located, the enemy normally did not fire on FAC aircraft, but once discovered, they shot at the FAC with everything

  • Wilson Hurley: Painting the FACs in Action

    Since pre-historic times, artists have attempted to convey the experience of warfare through art. Oftentimes, these artists base their interpretations of military actions on written or verbal accounts. Wilson Hurley, a FAC during the Southeast Asia War, put his personal memories of the war in

  • Capt. Steven L. Bennett

    Medal of Honor - Posthumously Awarded On June 29, 1972, Capt. Steven Bennett piloted his OV-10 on an artillery adjustment mission southeast of Quang Tri City. A forward air controller (FAC) assigned to the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron, Bennett had already directed two close air support strikes

  • Capt. Hilliard A. Wilbanks

    Medal of Honor - Posthumously AwardedOn the afternoon of Feb. 24, 1967, Capt. Hilliard Wilbanks, a forward air controller (FAC) assigned to the 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron, was flying a reconnaissance mission in support of a South Vietnamese Ranger battalion. About 100 miles north of Saigon,

  • FAC in SEA: The Legacy

    During the Southeast Asia War, propeller-driven FACs participated in every major military action against the enemy-flying with the first military advisors and supporting the last combat action in the SS Mayaguez recovery-with the possible exception of the strategic bombing campaign against North

  • FAC in SEA: Fast FACs

    Reacting to the increasing threat to their supply lines from air power, the communists gradually improved their antiaircraft defenses down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In addition to heavy-caliber antiaircraft artillery (AAA), the communists deployed SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles (SAMs)