“My Fighter Career” is a limited series of articles by Byron Hukee. He’s a humble, bad ass, retired USAF pilot who flew everything from the F-100 to the F-16. You can read his previous posts here:
Part 1: “I Wasn’t Born to Fly”
Part 2: The F-100 Super Sabre Is My New Ride
Part 3: Flying the A1-H Skyraider
After getting my wife and small son settled in Minnesota in a small town not too far from my parents, I was off to Southeast Asia (SEA) for my Skyraider combat tour. I would be assigned to the last remaining A-1 squadron at Nakhon Phanom (NKP) Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. The squadron was the 1st Special Operations Squadron (SOS) and coincidentally it was also the first USAF A-1 squadron. In 1964 it was the 1st Air Commando Squadron and its initial role was to provide training to the fledgling Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). The first USAF Skyraiders had VNAF markings since thy were ostensibly providing training for young VNAF pilots. It wasn’t long before the markings were changed to the red, white, and blue of the USA.
Departure Date Looms
My port call was on 13 October 1971 and I departed from Travis AFB on a World Airways contract charter Boeing 707. Traveling with me in addition to the several other GIs headed for the war were three other Skyraider pilots I had trained with, one of whom was also in my pilot training class at Webb AFB and in my F-100 training class at Luke, Captain Ross “Buck” Buchanan. Buck was a “retread” nav who had already spent time in SEA on both the C-130 and the KC-135. The others I knew were two OV-10 pilots who also had trained at Hurlburt. Both were also in my F-100 class at Luke. After a refueling stop at Hickam AFB in Hawaii, we continued on to land at our first destination of Clark AB in the Philippines.
Our task there was to complete the USAF Jungle Survival Training course in the jungles in the vicinity of Clark AB. After a couple of days of classroom training and a visit to the “petting zoo” where we were introduced to all the caged creatures in the jungle that wanted to eat you, we were taken outdoors to learn how to survive in the jungle. Our graduation exercise was to play hide and seek with the local Negrito villagers. We were all given a chit that we had to surrender to the hunters when were found. Their reward for every chit they collected was the equivalent of about two days of food that they normally had to harvest or catch, so they were motivated to say the least.
Survival training was difficult to say the least
For most of us, it was indeed when we were found, not if we were found. We were given about 10 minutes to disperse and find a place to hide before an air horn sounded meaning the hunt was on. Based on my training at Hurlburt and getting “indoctrinated” about what to do if we were forced to extract from our Skyraider, I knew the stakes were high once we “arrived” in the jungle via a “nylon letdown.”
I put away my innate fear of snakes and decided I would not be found. a mass of vines and jungle vegetation just beside one of the trails looked like it would work to keep me hidden. I cleared my tracks from the trail and moved cautiously to the side of the entangled vines and spotted a small opening that I crawled into. There, I was able to conceal my entry point with vegetation and moved further into the thicket. Then I tried to relax and listen. When other students were found, a whistle would be sounded. I heard several nearby and some further in the distance. I could hear barefooted footsteps not so far away, but they went right on by. After the prearranged period of time, the airhorn sounded again and I eased my way out of my hide and walked back to our muster point and handed my chit to one of the instructors. I believe I was one of three others out of about 50 students who were not found!
The Long, Slow (And Somewhat Fun) Ride To Combat
The next day we were loaded on a C-130 and headed to Bangkok. I checked in with our new squadron and were told to “chill” in Bangkok and to enjoy ourselves. We checked into the Siam Intercontinental Hotel and did indeed enjoy our selves! We all were anxious to get to NKP and renew acquaintances with some other pilots who had already arrived at NKP. While at Luke AFB during F-100 training, I met two other pilots who also were switched to Skyraiders when their F-100 assignments to Vietnam were also changed to A-1s. Capt Ramsay Vincent and Maj Esequiel Encinas were a class ahead of me at Luke and had arrived in Vietnam in mid September. It would be great to meet up with them again.
