ROLLING THUNDER: An Historical Novel of War and Politics (Wings of War Book 1) by Mark Berent

Author:Mark Berent [Berent, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-07-31T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

1300 Hours Local, 29 January 1966

Headquarters, 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing

Bien Hoa Air Base, Republic of Vietnam

Two days after the battle, the final and most formal debriefing of War Zone Charley Three was held at the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing headquarters. In attendance to hear the tactical air support side of the story were two MACV brigadiers, one from J-2 Intelligence and the other from J-3 Operations; the lieutenant colonel from the 1st Infantry Division who had been in command of Task Force Rover; and Colonel Leonard Norman of USAF Intelligence.

The Army representatives had already met with the commanding officer, 5th Special Forces Group at the C Team facility in Bien Hoa. As Wolf Lochert was their representative, the men from 5th were particularly interested in his report.

Lochert had already read Myers's after-action report before the briefing. After he listened to Myers orally debrief and answer questions from the MACV people, Lochert said he had nothing to add except that Myers and Detachment A-302 of the 5th Special Forces Group were the best unit he had ever been in the field with, and he, Major Wolfgang Lochert, hereby notified the assembled officers that he was putting the Mike Force Team in for a unit citation and submitting SFC Charles Haskell, better known as Snake, for the Medal of Honor. The SF people and the armor lieutenant colonel nodded in agreement. MACV J-3 Ops immediately concurred. MACV J-2 Intel coughed and said he'd decide each case on its own merit. "I'm sure," said MACV J-3 Ops looking MACV J-2 Intel straight in the eye, "that COMUSMACV will favorably endorse both recommendations without requiring extraneous counsel."

On that note, the session was recessed to be reconvened at the Bien Hoa Air Base. Along the way, Lochert and Myers stopped by the team house to pick up Monaghan.

The commander of the 3rd Tac Fighter Wing, Colonel Jake Friedlander, welcomed the group to the Wing's main debriefing room where he gave them a quick show-and-tell of the USAF participation in the relief of the Task Force Rover armored column as well as the support for the Mike Force rescue. He explained his first chart depicting Bien Hoa F-100s flying 121 sorties dropping 50 tons of ordnance over the three-day battle. His second chart displayed the sortie count from supporting USAF bases that supplied fragged close air support, and air support diverted from other missions with a lesser or expired priority. He was also pleased to report the 3rd Tac Fighter Wing maintenance people had put forth such a fine effort that all squadrons were able to report a 92 percent in-commission rate for their F-100s. Finally, he compared response time for air support arriving overhead from the moment the request was made by the ground commander.

"It is clear," he said, "that the request from a ground unit via a FAC relaying directly to a squadron for immediate air support is fast. Faster than putting the request through the DASC (Direct Air Support Center) who, if

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