Operation Commando Vault 1969

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Ot Mean Loi
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Operation Commando Vault 1969

Post by Ot Mean Loi »

Operation Commando Vault 1969

Although in the Australian Army, in late 1969 I became involved with the preparations for the US/ARVN "Incursion" in to Cambodia in early 1970 because of Operation Commando Vault.

Because of my then ECN/MOS in late 1969 I was seconded from my command of Detachment 176 Aerial Dispatch Coy at IATF Nui Dat, when Captain Kevin Plew RAASC arrived to take over from me, to US army 109 Quartermaster Company (Aerial Delivery), at Cam Rahn Bay and commanded at that time by Major Basil J. Hobar 3rd, and was involved with “Operation Commando Vault”.

The Cam Rahn Bay military complex at that time was commanded by Brigadier General Henry R. Del Mar, a one star, and to whom I was very promptly paraded before on arrival on stepping off the 123 Provider aircraft, a mini Hercules C-130, on which I had arrived and refusing to surrender my personal side arm and ammunition, my Australian army issue 9 mm Browning pistol and a quantity of ammunition, not knowing that he had disarmed all troops under his command – but that is an entirely different story. Commando Vault was classified for quite a number of years after the Vietnam War but details are readily available on the internet these days. The Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System – LAPES – from C130 Cargo aircraft was undergoing further development in SVN, following its limited use with very mixed and tragic results during the 77 day siege of Khe Sanh in 1968, and I went to the delta region to observe my first LAPES delivery.

In brief, we were involved in rigging surplus ex WW11 10,000 pound bombs that had been sold as surplus in Europe, in Germany I believe, after the war so that the explosives could be reclaimed and turned in to fertilizer and the metal bomb casings used as scrap iron and recycled. However, some of these had to be repurchased by the US military at a considerably higher price and then shipped to Vietnam for Operation Commando Vault.

These 10,000 pound bombs were then fitted with a three or six foot fuse extension and then rigged on Oregon and plywood combat expendable platforms (CEP). Once rigged, they were then fitted with a small drogue chute. We loaded two combat expendable platforms, each with one 10,000 pound bomb, in to a USAF C130 aircraft.

Sorties to Cambodia were mostly over Kien Svay province, the Parrot's Beak area as we called it then, and were always very early in the morning with take-off well before first light, and with bomb release shortly after first light, when ground and other winds were usually at their stillest for the day and the air moisture content was at its maximum and had not been burned off by the early sun. These were as close as one could hope to get to "still air" conditions in the tropics. You have to remember that this was all done long before GPS became available.

On the way to target area, the C130 would fly at various altitudes so that the controlling ground radar stations using the radar Doppler Effect could accurately calculate wind speed and directions and calculate a precise release point. All very clever indeed and all done long before GPS became available.

On the final run in, the pilot would start well out from target area and the master ground radar station, there were three radar stations I believe, would give precise directions to the pilot as to altitude, airspeed and bearing/heading and he would correct and fly the aircraft accordingly. Then would start, from memory, a twenty second count down to release. On the "execute" command, which was oddly called something else, the load master popped the small drogue chute which immediately acted as an “air anchor” and extracted the CEP from the aircraft as the aircraft flew on. The very small drogue chute had only two purposes. Firstly to extract the loaded CEP from the aircraft by acting as a brake as the aircraft flew on and secondly to keep the 10,000 pound bomb falling vertically, fuse extension down. It was not intended to slow the fall of the bomb in any way at all as this would have exposed the falling bomb to any wind drift.

Once load was released, I would race back from the cargo hold in to the cockpit flight deck to stand between the pilot and co-pilot to observe the point of detonation and observe the semi-circular blast shock wave come very rapidly up from point of impact and through the aircraft and beyond. Now, the moisture in the early morning air made this huge semi-circular, rapidly expanding blast wave very easy indeed to see and it moved at a highly impressive speed. On my first release, the passing of the shock wave blast through the C130 really caught me by surprise and it felt and sounded to me as if every rivet in the aircraft had fallen out! Of course, the more seasoned aircrew always looked forward to having a first timer on board! We are all a virgin at something in our lives, even when it comes to dropping 10,000 dumb bombs from a C130 aircraft over Cambodia! Thereafter it becomes fun. Later in this operation a 15,000 pound bomb was used for the same purpose but I had no involvement with this.

So accurate was the ground triangulation by the ground radar stations that we could place overlapping blast zones on to the desired future Landing Zones (LZ). It was impressive to see the results and especially so in dense forested areas. The denser the vegetation the cleaner and neater the future LZ.

Now, back to the secrecy question. Unfortunately, it would appear, either General Westmorland or Abrams, and I forget which now, had not fully cleared any Invasion/Incursion plans in to Cambodia with POTUS or Congress, never mind the preparatory work we were actively involved in. So to this extent it was far from being public knowledge and therefore secret. This secret state of affairs was to prevail for the first week or so of the actual incursion in first quarter 1970 due to COMMUSMACV's total control of the accredited press corps and their total exclusion from involvement or observation or reporting of the Incursion/Invasion, call it what you will. Of course, once the proverbial excreta hit the fan all hell broke loose at the highest political levels in Washington and at the Pentagon. But by this time I had completed my tour of duty in SVN and RTA,d/DEROS'd out of country and was back in Australia at Puckapunyal in Victoria.

I hope that this provides some background and context to what was taking place in Cambodia at that time.

Best regards. I N B aka Py Mean Loi

PS. The Incursion in to Cambodia is well worth reading about if you are interested in Vietnam War military history. Here is one such account: https://www.historynet.com/nixons-cambo ... ursion.htm

PPS. This is also worth reading for background and context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian ... d_Fishhook
See also:
https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/Magazin ... culean.pdf
The bomb fuse extension is very clearly visible in the CEP extraction photo.
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit ... t-blu-82b/
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