Above: A flight of
F-102s from the
509th en route to
Saigon from Clark
Air Base. This
photograph was
taken over the
South China Sea
during early 1964.
Clair Carling
via author
Above left:
509th FIS Delta
Daggers lined
up at Bien Hoa in
December 1968.
Chuck Mordan
via authorinto Da Nang, with no breakout until
almost touchdown on the runway. In the
northern sector we were responsible for
intercepting battle-damaged aircraft — I
personally escorted back a couple of
RF-101 [Voodoos] that had been shot up
with their pilots injured.’
In late 1964, there were approximately
20,000 US troops in Vietnam. By mid-
1965, there were about 200,000 inside
the country, and that number was rising.
The 509th’s F-102s were covering three
bases operationally. Maj Harley Brandt,
the deployment commander at Tan Son
Nhut, and his team were particularly busy
— the squadron records state the unit
flew a total of 913 hours in September,
giving each pilot an average of almost 25hours’ flying time. Far north at Da Nang,
only 75 sorties were flown that month
as heavy daily rain and low ceilings
hampered the flying schedule.
The long hours with no relief would
continue for the 509th’s pilots until
December 15 when new blood arrived
from the States. This was the first major
influx of reinforcements for the original
group, which went all the way back in
August 1964.Welcome to Udorn
By early 1966, numbers of aircraft and
personnel in South-east Asia had grown
to the extent that all major air bases were
beyond their normal capacity. The air
defense responsibility and the workload ofthe 509th had reached a point at which it
could no longer handle the task at hand.
Another detachment, at Udorn AB
in Thailand, was established on April
18, and it was obvious that a further
squadron was needed. High command
decided that the 64th FIS, normally
based at Paine Field, Washington, would
bolster the 509th. This occurred during
May-June. Maj William Winkeler, a flight
commander in the 64th, remembers
the monumental task of moving the
squadron across the Pacific. ‘Our F-102s
had been equipped for the navy’s ‘probe
and drogue’-type in-flight refueling, so
we flew them to Clark via Hamilton AFB,
Hickam AFB and then on to Andersen
AFB, Guam.
‘Prior to departure, we underwent
intensive training in air-to-air refueling.
The route took us over Washington,
Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. Normally,
we joined on the tanker over northern
Oregon and went on from there. These
were usually three to four-hour missions.
‘The refueling plumbing was attached
to the outside of the F-102, resulting
in an overall reduction in the aircraft’s
performance. In our first leg over the
Pacific, we had to keep our tanks filled
to make it back to either the coast of
California or Hawaii in case we ran into
a problem. Someone was always on the
tanker, which was shared by two aircraft.http://www.combataircraft.net // August 2018 61
58-64 F-102 Vietnam C.indd 61 21/06/2018 13:55