combat aircraft

low along the roads to intercept vehicles

moving at night.

Nocturnal  ights in support of USAF

road tra c attacks were much di erent

from other ECM missions. The strike

package consisted of four aircraft: a

Lockheed C-130 Hercules with ground

search radar, a single EF-10B and two

Martin B-57 Canberra bombers. They

would all launch from Da Nang, sometime

well after dark, and join with the C-130

south of the DMZ.

The EF-10B would tuck in under the

C-130’s starboard wing, just aft of and

between the engines. The B-57s would

join in trail and above the Hercules. On

crossing the DMZ, running lights on all

aircraft would be turned o , except for a

row of green lights on top of the C-130’s

wing. Once a potential target was located,

the Hercules would  y over it, dropping

 ares for the two bombers to see. When

the B-57s had expended their ordnance,

the  ight would return to Da Nang.

EF-10B pilot 1st Lt Hoyt Wayne Young

 ew on some of these missions. He recalls

what went on during low-level sorties:

‘One of the  rst ones I  ew, we took o out

of Da Nang and rendezvoused with our

other contacts out over the Gulf of Tonkin.

On that particular night, it was

very cloudy and the C-130

was orbiting at a certain point

at 16,000-17,000ft. So, we

went out at 18,000ft and

the B-57s hadn’t launched.

We were out there with

the C-130 in a racetrack

pattern in a right-

hand turn and

On our second pass, we took a hit that sounded like

an artillery shell exploding, and as my pilot pulled up

and away we decided discretion was the best part of valor...

1st Lt H. Wayne ‘Flash’ Whitten

GLORY DAYS // EF-10B IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA

66 October 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net