Smart Bombs and SA-7's

One day our ground troops were taking incoming artillery fire.  So I went searching and I found one 130mm artillery gun down in a small ravine, almost like a ditch.  The area was narrow and not very long so they didn't have a lot of choices where to aim it and the enemy could only pull it out of there in one direction.  But they could hit our guys from there and it needed to be taken out.

So I ordered up some air support.  It seemed like my lucky day for helping out.  I ended up getting 4 different flights of fighters.  There were 4 airplanes in each flight... so I got 16 airplanes.  In other words  we dropped 16 airplane loads of bombs on that gun... great for target practice... but that gun was so well protected that we never hit it or damaged it. Needless to say it was my day to harass fighter pilots.

Finally they sent another FAC over to my area that had a laser pointer of sorts that would light up the target for a smart bomb.  We waited around for a fighter to come out of Thailand with one single smart bomb.  When he finally showed up I watched the other FAC point out the target area and then invisibly  "light up" the gun with his laser.  That fighter dropped that one single bomb and it was a direct hit... just like we see on TV now days... but this was 1972.  

I also believe that this was the day that the guys on the ground said "Covey they are shooting missiles at you"!  That really got my attention.  I figured they were shooting shoulder launched, heat seeking (SA-7's) missiles at me.  This was the new weapon that was wreaking havoc on the FAC's.  If it was possible to look in every direction at once I sure tried. Within 30-45 seconds after a SA-7 was launched it would be flying up my tail pipe and detonating.  So I looked for a minute or two and never saw them... apparently they had a lot of them...  because it happened to me several times.

For protection against the SA-7 I had two things:

1. Altitude -  The max effective altitude of the SA-7 was thought to be 9000 feet above the ground. Early in the morning I could get to 9000 feet above the sea but I wasn't able to get 9000 feet above the mountains.  As I conducted air strikes I would constantly be giving away my altitude cushion.  So I was very often in range.  In reading on the web, they now say the maximum range was 7000 feet back then...so I was in and out of their range.
2. Infrared Flare -  They gave us a infrared flare that was mounted on our wing next to a rocket pod. The idea was the missile would follow the falling flare since it was hotter than my airplane. Problem was, you had to flip a couple of switches, punch a button and they flare would release... but... it had to fall 10-12 feet away from the airplane before the safety would come out and then it would light off.  So i never bothered to test it out... I figured it would light just as the missile was wondering where to go and it would just be a beacon saying here Joe is... Besides, I was too busy looking for those little missiles... of course if I ever saw one it was too late to do anything.

So... even though I had defenses against the SA-7, they weren't much.  We were losing 2 FAC's a day to that missile until we changed our minimum operating altitude to 9000 feet... that changed happened about the time of my arrival in DaNang.  Our minimum operating altitude before the change was 1500 feet, which was in range of everything (and that is a lot) except rifle fire.  I would like to give the guy that made the decision to raise the minimum altitude a hug... I think I love him...I know my family does. 

As I sit here at the keyboard typing I wonder if the loss of my roommate Steve was the reason for raising the minimum altitude...........................