Home Page : Feature Stories : Last Updated March 26, 2005
It Takes Five to Tango - Wiren Not much has been said or written about the Tango Program. Perhaps because it is not a well- known subject, and relatively few pilots were involved. The Tango Program was an offshoot of project 404 implemented by now retired General Harry (Heine) Aderholt. It consisted of a group air commandos from Hurlburt AFB Florida that were assigned to Udorn Thailand for the purpose training the locals Thai, Lao, and Meo to fly the T-28 code named (Water Pump). Early
in may of 1964 1 was instructed to go see the station manager. I
immediately wondered what I had done wrong this time but, when I found out
that four other of my cohorts were likewise summoned, I was somewhat
relieved. With the station manger was a customer type (CIA). We were
ushered into the office, and it was immediately evident that this was a
closed- door meeting. We
were asked in the most strictest of confidence whether we would be
interested in flying the T-28 (Trojan) for interdiction of roads, air to
ground combat and SAR. To the man, we eagerly accepted the offer. It was
our chance to retaliate after being shot at for several years in unarmed
aircraft. The
reason for our selection was that we all (Rick Byme, Ed Eckholdt, Joe
Hazen, Tom Jenny and myself, John Wiren, (and later Don Romes) had prior
experience in the T-28 and close air support training. With the exception
of Eckholdt, we were all Marines. Ed was Air Force, but had flown the F-5
1. On
acceptance, we were asked to resign from Air America, Inc. our personal
records were sanitized in the event we were shot down and captured. We
would then be classified as mercenaries for the Royal Laotian Air force to
protect the U. S. government from violating the Geneva Accord Agreement. The
rational for this I program was that there was evidence of a big enemy
build-up massing to come down highway 47 from North Vietnam to gain as
much territory as possible before the monsoon season. The road needed to
be cut and the bridges destroyed to halt the advance, but the Laotians
just did not have the experience at that time to do the job. Because
of the urgency of the situation our training commenced shortly after our
agreement. We went to Udorn for several days of intense recurrent training
with the air commandos, several of whom (Joe Potter & Bill MacShane)
later joined Air America. We now had been formed into what was called the
"A" Team (A for American) long before Mr. Tand, George Peppard. Because
of the time lapse and compressed activities, the chronological order of
the following events became jumbled and hazy but after conferring with the
participants, a consensus and time line has been established. On
our first mission, we departed Udorn at "zero dark thirty" to
Vientiane. Air Force personnel had been placed there ostensibly as
civilian technicians to the Lao government. Point in fact, they were
really ordnance specialists there to load and hook us up. We were now
armed and ready for action, and off we went on our first mission to
destroy a bridge on hwy. N7 east of the PDJ and Ban Ban. We were carrying
500 lb. bombs, rockets, and 50- cal. ammo. We made our dive runs from east
to west targeting the bridge. We didn't get the bridge, but we must have
seared the hell out of it. We did, however, crater the road. Tom Jenny
didn't get a release on his bomb so he had to make an additional run. By
now we woke up the bad guys, and the AA was flying thick and heavy. Later
the same day we returned to the same area and caught a truck convoy of 10
coming down the road from Vietnam. I believe Joe Hazen got the first one
and I got the last one, trapping the rest in between. From then on, it was
a turkey shoot. General Vang Pao later expressed his complete elation for
the fact that he was now getting aerial support. The
very next morning at the crack of dawn, we launch again for an assault
mission on the PDJ. I think it was primarily a psychological effort
against the enemy to let them know we were around, and had the capability
to hit them at home base. As we came around the west edge of the PDJ, a
voice came up on our radio frequency and said "go get cm guys".
I never knew for sure who said that, but suspect it could have been Pop
Buell or Tony Poe. As we skirted the north side of the PDJ we slipped down
a pass at very low level letting us out on the plain itself it was a
complete surprise attack for targets of opportunity. Tom Jenny selected an
armored vehicle and got into a shoot-out with it. As a result he sustained
8 holes across the leading edge of his wings. Joe Hazen and Rick Byrne
went after a flat bed truck with 55gal. drums of fuel. Joe took a bullet
hole in his canopy less then a foot behind his head and his voice went up
at least one octave. I never got to discuss this business with Ed Eckholdt,
as he passed away before I had the chance. I spotted a jitney bus
chock-full of the enemy hanging on as it traveled east down the dusty
road. took aim at it and pulled the trigger, but was so low and close that
the bullets converged beyond them (300 yards). My pass was from north to
south and I quickly turned out to the left to come around for another go
at them. As I started my run again, I noticed that soldiers were running
up a hill right next to me taking the tarps off the AA. By now the jitney
was going full out and the driver was intent on keeping watch on me. His
eyes were as large as the proverbial saucers accompanied with a look of
terror on his face. The road forked and in the middle was an abandoned
derelict Russian tank. The driver was so intent on me that he plowed full
speed into the tank making human Frisbees out of the occupants. Scratch
one jitney bus! My adrenaline must have been pumping 200% since I
continued to make passes even after I had expended all ammo. Some
years later I had the occasion to have a drink with Dick Crafts who was
then a pilot with Eastern Airlines out of New York. We reminisced about
Air America days, and he asked me if I recalled that day on the PDJ. He
revealed that he was with a customer type in a chopper back up on a hill
to the northwest, watching the whole event, standing by for pick-up in the
event we got shot down. He said he had never seen so many tracer bullets
flying that were directed at us, as we did our thing. Knowing that between
each tracer there were several other projectiles. He said he would
probably have faked a bad magneto check should one of us go down. We
returned to Vientiane and for some unknown reason, General Ma, commander
of the Laotian air force wanted us to leave the aircraft there instead of
going on to Udorn. Joe Hazen said to tell the general to go get his own
holes. After landing back at Udorn later that evening it was found by the
maintenance crew that all five of our aircraft had taken hits. Over
the next several years we were involved in many more missions, all of them
different, all of them exciting; e.g., rescuing Billy Zeitler from his
downed Hotel 19, plucking a downed military pilot out of North Vietnam. As
the US Military became more involved in Laos our mission was reduced to
mostly SAR. New pilots came into the Tango Program as some of the original
group were transferred north to Japan or elsewhere. All
said and done, we were very fortunate in not losing any pilots and only
two aircraft. I was just a bit player in the scheme of things but was
pleased and honored to be part of this group. We sure had one hell of a
run. |
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