n in the Delta. Very bad weather going down. Flew at from 200 to 800 ft, was dark, raining and low clouds...After 123s left FAC stated he had targets for us. Huts and boats hidden under trees in VC training area. Destroyed about 7 boats and 2 huts. Coming back, when we hit the Mekong, weather got very bad. Flew up the river toward BH [Bien Hoa] at 100 ft and could just barely see the ground. Near BH weather cleared to about 500 ft. Runway was slick.'
Monday 8 October 1962:
'Out on strike this morning. Terrain very difficult. A valley about 1½ miles long by ½ mile wide with one end closed by mountain and other open. Stream in the middle with rice paddies and houches. The steep sides of the mountains are covered with jungle. The FAC marked at each end and stated that all in between was target area plus one village on the rim. This was a reported VC Battalion training area. We destroyed the village and set lots of fires up and down the valley. Very difficult to get in close and pull up. We saw zip but FAC reported ground fire. The valley was very pretty. I sometimes wonder if we aren't making more enemies for the local government than we are doing good. Sure hope their intelligence was right. On the way back we lost # one engine. Feathered and returned home.'
Monday 25 October 1962:
'Strike this morning. Caught VC on the ground. Number killed unknown [later confirmed at thirty-one]. Mission in support of helicopter assault operation. We flew cover, T 28s flew prestrike sorties. We observed choppers coming and "Butterfly", our FAC, called and put smoke in and directed us to an area about ¼ mile from a bridge. We put in napalm on visible VC. A guess would be 15 to 30. Second pass we straffed. We hit around bridge with napalm and guns as FAC called "many VC in area". Went back up and orbited for another hour and tacked onto a flight of three VNAF AD 6s. Put rest of our ordnance on their target. Headed for home and got call from L 28. Said I was right above him and he had VC on ground. Picked up four VC running and put in short burst, two fell and two made it to a ditch. A chopper hit the two in the ditch.'
Friday 16 November 1962:
'Fri flew strike in Delta. Was giving close air support to ground operation when five hidden boats were found. Got three. Couldn't hit my butt. Everyone else busy so even though I have duty officer, Charlie and I pull alert. Got scrambled at 2300. Fort under attack at Can Tho. Covered it for two hours. Appeared to be good mission. Fort called flareship and told them to thank us. Had been up since 0600 Friday morning. Finally got to bed at 0330 Sat morning.'
Saturday 17 to Monday 19 November 1962:
'Slept most of Sat. Duty officer Sunday. Poker Sun night. Lost $12. Flew mission # 100 Monday. Made a total of 25 passes on a large target area. Hit boats, houches and personnel. Word came in on Friday night's fort defense mission. 18 VC confirmed KIA.'
Tuesday 20 November 1962:
'Zip today. Yesterday's mission. 6 structures, 14 boats and 25 VC confirmed KIA. They certainly were everywhere. Dave...told me about one of their missions. The FAC directed them at VCs under trees. Just before they dropped Dave saw women under a tree. They didn't drop and pulled off. We agreed that it sometimes gets to be a gut call. The FAC, who is Vietnamese, is in a position to see and he directs the fire, still it's pretty bad sometimes. Some time I'm going to add up the total KIAs and destruction and then again it would probably be better if I didn't.'
There were two B 26 losses during the autumn. The first of these was RB 26C 44 35813, seriously damaged at Bien Hoa on 10 October. 'My camera crew was uploading photo flash cartridges for a night photo mission,' Colonel (then Captain) Jimmy Ifland recalls. 'Although properly grounded, all cartridges ejected from their dispenser during camera preflight and exploded four seconds later on the ramp beneath the aircraft. As you can imagine, there was quite an explosion - eye witnesses claimed that the aircraft was lifted off the ground four to six feet (I find that hard to believe). F