I Was Just Minding My Own Business

Early one morning I was just flying into my area of operation.  After I was a few miles "feet dry" in the northern part of my area... near the DMZ... I heard our guys on the ground make the first radio call of the day...  "Covey they are shooting at you".  My first thought was no big deal... happens every day... I was still climbing and I felt pretty safe at close to 8000 feet.

This time though... it was different.  

I started looking all around... mostly down.  I was looking for muzzle flashes, seeing none I turned the airplane around to search harder.  To my surprise I found 3 large black clouds that had been right behind me.  

This day the bad guys on the ground were waiting for me.  I reasoned I made some bad guy mad by taking out a bunch of his artillery pieces a few days prior. 

They were shooting the big stuff...  A 100mm radar controlled anti-aircraft gun.  I figured it was 100mm since there was only 3 black clouds.  Intelligence had told us that they could only shoot 3 times and then they had to let the barrel cool down or it would warp.  They had my altitude perfect but they just shot behind me... maybe their barrel was already warped.  The presence of that gun in my area was a big deal but it would require special aircraft (F-105 Wild Weasels or A-6 Intruders) to sniff out the radar (Fansong) unit that was associated with that gun.  They would use it only when they thought they could get away with it... which was everyday with just me around.  Those special airplanes (think the movie "Flight of the Intruder") had all kinds of electronics that could jam the radar and missiles that would follow the radar beam straight to the transmitter and take it out... even after it was turned off.  I had my eyes.

I found myself laughing out loud... bulletproof...

I had no defense for this weapon.  It could shoot up to 24 miles away and up to 50,000 feet.  I had no early warning device like the fighters... they had a red light and an audible warning when a radar locked on to them... "deedle deedle deedle."  The fighters had speed... they could go Mach 2.5... I was going 80 mph while climbing and trying to get away from the SA-7 missiles... and I was laughing...

I called my controller to let them know where this happened so the next FAC could be briefed.  I remember laughing and saying "I can't believe they are shooting 100mm at me." My controller must have been thinking "where do we get these new guys?"  For some reason this was the high point of my day, I remember laughing with my roommates about it later in the day.

As I look at the scene above, it wouldn't take much of a hit to rip the skinny tail right off of my airplane.  Someone was looking out for me.


I kept looking for that big gun but I never found it.