combat aircraft

‘The second leg of our trip, Hickam

to Guam, was the longest. I remember

logging about eight hours and most of

the time we were in the clouds. On our

finals into Clark, a thunderstorm cropped

up to cause us some concern because it

looked like a storm coming out of west

Texas with a height all the way to 80,000ft.’

Clashing with MiGs

Capt Bob Donaldson flew a complete

tour in South-east Asia in 1966-67. One

sortie in particular sticks in his memory.

‘My wingman and I were launched from

Udorn in northern Thailand to join up

with two CH-46 helicopters at the Mekong

River just north of Udorn. The mission was

briefed to escort and protect the ‘46s’ from

MiGs that would probably be in the area

of Dien Bien Phu, North Vietnam. Just east

of us was Sam Neua, the headquarters for

the North Vietnamese forces in northern

Laos. The goal of the mission was to place

a TACAN [tactical air navigation] station

on a flat-topped karst on Black Mountain.

It would [be] a very valuable navigational

aid for all of our strike forces going into

and recovering from North Vietnam.

‘The rendezvous with the helicopters

was accomplished as briefed and we

headed into Laos at 8,000ft, which was the

highest altitude attainable by the heavily

loaded CH-46s. We would have to cross

some mountains that were 6,600ft high.

‘We crossed over the Plain of Jars, and

circled east of Ban Ban village at the

junction of highways 6 and 7, all of which

could produce plenty of ground fire.

About that time, we heard ‘Motor Pool’,

the navy cruiser out in the Gulf of Tonkin,

broadcast a MiG warning for the area

north-east of Hanoi and tracking in our

direction. A few moments later, ‘College

Eye’, an airborne early warning aircraft

close to us, also had MiGs on its scopes.

They were approaching the Dien Bien

Phu area at an altitude that was about

10,000ft above us.

‘We told the helos to press on with

their delivery and we would head for the

MiGs. We plugged in the afterburners,

climbed to 20,000ft and, with the aid of

vectors from ‘College Eye’, were able to

pick up the MiGs about 30 miles ahead. I

locked on to one of them and noted the

overtake ring on the radar presentation

wrapped around 800-900kt. I asked for

permission to fire as it took a minimum

of 16 seconds to arm our missiles; I got a

‘stand by’ reply. At that time, we did not

have permission to fire on anything in

Laos without clearance from a GCI site or

‘College Eye’. Distance was now down to

less than 20 miles, so I broke the safety

wire on the missile arming switches and

depressed the trigger to begin the missile

preparation. Again, I requested permission

to fire and got another ‘stand by’.

‘Within a few minutes the target was

moving away from us. ‘College Eye’

said the MiGs were in a left turn and

descending. We continued our pursuit

until we were just north of Dien Bien Phu.

I could see one of them, but our overtake

had dropped off to nearly zero and there

was still three to four miles separating

us. At that point the airborne controller

advised us to break off and return to the

helicopters.’

Amazing missions

The most extraordinary role the

delta-wing Dagger played was that of

harassing Viet Cong (VC) ground forces

by using the aircraft’s heat-seeking air-

to-air missiles. Maj Bill Winkeler recalls,

‘Since the F-102 was about the only

aircraft equipped with the infra-red

missiles, AIM-4Ds, they were tasked with

picking up the heat from VC campfires in

the jungle. From altitude, at night, they

were locked on to the heat signal and

fired. The results were never confirmed,

but it must have been caused quite a

stir, and you can imagine enemy troops

gathered around a campfire after a long

day’s trek and suddenly [there’s] an

explosion in their midst.

‘The F-102s were also called upon to

go after trucks, aircraft, helicopters etc,

and they would fly above the Ho Chi

Minh trails. They would usually fly north

and south high above the trails and [get

an] IR [infra-red] lock on any heat source

If there was any indication of an

unknown aircraft over North Vietnam,

we were scrambled. We were very good at

getting airborne in less than three minutes

Capt Robert Mock

Clockwise from

top left:

This 64th FIS

Dagger is airborne

for a post-

maintenance

shakedown flight

in September

1966 over South

Vietnam.

Ron Hoelzer

via author

Tail codes being

amended in

November 1969.

‘PK’ was typically

applied to 509th

FIS jets.

Bob Donaldson

via author

An obligatory tiger

marking is applied

to a 509th FIS

F-102.

Tom Hally

via author

Lt Harry Hoover

stands with his

loaded Delta

Dagger at Udorn

in late 1958. This

angle shows

the AIM-4A and

AIM- 2 6B in their

bays.

Harry Hoover

via author

The F-102s were

rigged with a

crude apparatus

to help them

air-refuel over the

Pacific.

Bill Winkeler

via author

http://www.combataircraft.net // August 2018 63

58-64 F-102 Vietnam C.indd 63 21/06/2018 13:55