One Big Boom

longshot1
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(10/14/01 12:32:09 pm)
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I don't know how often they were used, but once we landed in an LZ created by a Daisy Cutter.

Anyone ever see one of those things go off ?

NickG

LarryJK
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(10/14/01 2:50:21 pm)
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I never saw one, however, I heard that it was one bad muhfugger!!

dap22
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(10/14/01 8:09:16 pm)
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Nick,
Landed in several lz's that had been cleared by one but never saw it being done. Judging by the way the lz was cleared out, it had to be one ugly detonation!

longshot1
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(10/14/01 9:31:18 pm)
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We were kept far from the area when they dropped it, but you could feel the concussion from several miles
away. I think they weigh 16,000 lbs and are parachute dropped from a C-130
I read where they used them in Desert Storm and upon seeing one detonate some Brit soldiers thought we
had used a tactical nuke.

NickG

homer4
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(10/17/01 7:16:37 pm)
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Never heard one go off, but the ARVN Arty's (elements of the 213th or 18th or something like that) fire support base camps were ploped down there after the daisies some years back I recall.
...and two hard boiled eggs.

longshot1
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(10/17/01 9:37:49 pm)
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. Just remembered this out of the blue.

We used to fly some missions, in the Iron Triangle area I think, where the object was to attempt to get an enemy force to move to certain areas in which our troops were waiting. In order to accomplish this we dropped what were called Nightingales.
They were nothing more than fireworks, m80s, 105 simulators, cherry bombs, you name it, all fused
together on a piece of chicken wire, and waterproofed with something like a rubber compound. They
were about 2 by 4 feet with a chemical delayed blasting cap for ignition. They were supposed to make
the bad guys think some kind of battle was going on and they would evade it towards the waiting troops.
This was always hush, hush and some nondescript person would fly with us to drop these things. He
was so serious about it and we would just laugh our asses off the whole time. I bet the bad guys did as
well.
The only good part was flying at night, which had it's own sort of fireworks show. Nickg

Edited by: longshot1 at: 10/18/01 7:22:27 am

dap22
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(10/18/01 5:17:52 pm)
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Speaking of secret hush hush stuff, I don't think we've given the bad guys enough credit for their ability to get our G2 info. I imagine they were aware of most of the things we did despite our best efforts to be secretive.

It took me a month or two in country but I got to where I preferred flying at night as opposed to day. As it ended up, a good percentage of my flying time was night. The nights I didn't like, however, were the missions around and to the north of Song Be up into the mountains since we could get no radar coverage and navigating was nearly impossible on a non moonlit night.......the benefit of youth!

longshot1
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(10/19/01 6:15:33 am)
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I agree dap. I also preferred to fly at night although we didn't do enough of it. We used to fly what would later be known as hunter/killer teams and attempt to draw fire. The Indians didn't like to play that game at night as they were too easy to locate, tracers or not. Some of the the night missions were of the voodoo variety but mostly during situations where ground troops were engaged and needed support. Also couldn't get the LRRPS out at night effectively and there was the occasional sampan hunt. .It was also SOP for the teams on alert to leave their cover, take off and suppress incoming mortar fire at night. I don't know if they were ordered to keep firing the tubes (a sound I'll never forget) or with all the noise they couldn't hear us, but they were easy to spot and easy to take out. Although I never did a warm fuzzy feeling running around above ground trying to get the ship in the air.
It also used to surprise me how many A/F planes flew at night, lights out, fast and low. Assuming they knew we were there, I can think of numerous occasions when a big black shadow with it's arse on fire would come screaming by, leaving us bouncing in it's wake. I think most of this took place around the Cambodian border.
Seem to be remembering a lot of this lately. You are sooooo right about youth.
NickG

Edited by: longshot1 at: 10/19/01 7:21:11 am

dap22
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(10/19/01 7:55:13 pm)
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Nick, you're absolutely right about the Air Force flying black out.......had a couple near misses at night coming out of LZ's blacked out, popping up above the cover only to see some black object whooosh on by and shake the **** out of us... As fast as they were travelling, I think they could have had all their lights on and not have to worry a whole lot!!