Camouflage
It’s sometimes hard to
remember what Air Force planes looked like in the earlier parts of the Cold
War before they were camouflaged during the War in Southeast Asia.
This picture well illustrates the value when you just ask yourself the
question: Which of these aircraft would I have rather not fly up to Route
Package 6 around Hanoi? Camouflage
wouldn’t make much difference to SAMs or Ground Controlled Intercept
controllers. However, once the
scramble starts with enemy MiGs going to guns and picking targets.
A contrasting problem was
that as we pulled in more Bird Dogs from the Army, we received some olive drab
birds that got some pilots killed. The
Army concept had involved keeping Bird Dogs forward for observing the enemy,
directing artillery, etc. Camouflaged
Bird Dogs were easier to hide from enemy air that might become a threat.
The Army doctrine didn’t center on Close Air Support (CAS) as that
was the role of the Air Force.
CAS or deep interdiction
becomes a different problem with jet aircraft swooping by the Bird Dog at
400-500 knots. During the first
week I was at Hurlburt for my O-1 checkout in late 1966, an A-1 ran through a
camouflaged O-1 on the range. Karl
Worst, the first FAC lost in the 23rd TASS, was killed in a mid-air
collision with an F-105. Seem
like I heard that he was flying a camouflaged Bird Dog, which had just
recently been brought over from South Vietnam.
The key of course is the
basic Air Force doctrine that says first we achieve control of the air.
If that has been done, FACs need to fly in aircraft that are easily
seen from other aircraft. If MiGs still roam the forward area of battle, then FACs in
uncamouflaged aircraft take bigger risks.
A camouflage-related story:
In October 1977, I was one of a limited number of Aircraft Commanders at
Norton AFB, CA qualified with the new Inertial Navigation System (INS) on the
C-141. A C-141 at McGuire AFB had
been painted in some terrible green camouflage and MAC wanted to run it on the
ranges up at Nellis. So, I
deadheaded with a basic crew (probably two Pilots, two Flight Engineers, and a
Loadmaster to McGuire to bring the aircraft back to California. We couldn’t believe it when we saw it. It wasn’t the good deep greens and browns like on the F-4s.
It was a wimpy mix of light greens that might hide better over the
desert than over the jungle. One
of the Flight Engineers came up with the best line: If we paint the tires red,
we could hide it in a strawberry patch.
Obviously some serious
thought needs to go into the use of camouflage on aircraft. Obviously we
weren’t prepared before jumping deep into the War in Southeast Asia.
