lot had been killed and also Bennett, Tully and the VNAF on board. Bennett was my room mate. In a four man hut Charlie and I have lost two room mates. Doyle had a meeting about 2000. They, of course will never know exactly what happened. Shot down or just flat flew into the ground. That's easy at night on napalm runs. The VC had gotten to the A/C and taken everything available. The bodies were recovered.'
This was the third USAF strike aircraft lost in Vietnam, the previous ones being two T 28s shot down in August and October. In addition, a B 26 was damaged when the undercarriage collapsed during a landing in July 1962, and another Invader lost an engine to ground fire on 13 November. Several other aircraft also received superficial damage from small arms fire.
The serviceability of the B 26 initially left a few things to be desired. During the second half of 1962, only an average of 54.5 per cent of the Invaders were serviceable at any given time. This was by far the lowest figure for any contemporary USAF aircraft in Vietnam. In comparison, the T 28s managed an average of 80.3 per cent serviceability.
In providing information for this chapter, Roy Dalton commented: 'I was surprised when I reread the diary to note the difficulties we had with the aircraft and armament systems. Keep in mind that these were aircraft that had probably been used in WW II and certainly in Korea. They were old and had had little modification...However, every man associated with the operation was dedicated to make it work. Therefore we had few qualms about flying aircraft that might not be 100%. Had we not done so, operating under the conditions with which we were faced, we would not have been effective.' The below list details the malfunctions encountered by him during a three month period in 1962:
16 Aug Six bombs stuck in bomb bay
20 Aug Bombs in bomb bay failed to release
22 Aug Could get only 50" manifold pressure on no. 1 engine
No.2 engine backfired if throttle was moved rapidly
Gear handle came up only when manual detent button used
(Aircraft flown anyway)
2 Sep Rockets failed to fire
5 Sep Airborne radio failure
20 Sep Bombs fell out of bomb bay when battery switched on
26 Sep Hydraulic line on brakes blew on landing
28 Sep No. 2 engine failed on pull out from bomb drop
30 Sep Brake failure on landing
2 Oct Left magneto failed on run up
7 Oct Hydraulic leak in left wheel well on start up
Right generator out
Right cowl flap inoperable
Only two of eight guns would fire
(Aircraft flown anyway)
8 Oct No.1 engine failed on return from strike; feathered
12 Nov Unsafe gear indicator (bad switch)
To a large extent, these problems were due to the age of the aircraft and the limited rehabilitation given them before being sent to Vietnam. The Invaders had between 1,800 and 4,000 flying hours each, and had been through varied degrees of modification. A report from April 1963, at which point fourteen aircraft were at hand, remarked that, 'none of the B 26s at FARM GATE are configured alike. Each IRAN depot and each work package change within each depot resulted in some variation in electrical wiring, communications equipment, location of cockpit controls, etc. As one result, valid wiring diagrams do not exist for many of the aircraft...Armament switches for the various stores and stations are placed in five separate locations in each of the four different armament switch configurations within the B 26 fleet.'
These variations in aircraft configuration had caused exactly the same problems for the USAF squadrons using the B 26 in Korea. They, too, had received aircraft which had been in storage for several years, and only given a minimum of rehabilitation before being sent to the combat units. Apparently these lessons had been forgotten by the time the Invaders were wheeled out of storage for the second time.
But, all in all, the B 26s were still effective aircraft, and were considered definitely superior to the T 28s. Despite the slow start, Farm Gate had flown a total of 1,135 B 26 combat sorties by the end of 1962, and some crews had completed o