C-123 Provider
One of the standard tactical
transports of the US Air Force, the C-123 Providers entered the war primarily
in the role of maintaining air links with remote airfields and Special Forces
camps.
In early 1967, the
“Candlesticks”of the 606th Air Commando Squadron at NKP began
performing the Strike Control and Reconnaissance role in night missions over
Steel Tiger. Using a large
Starlight Scope on the ramp (the bigger scopes designed for crew-served
weapons compared to the hand-held Starlight Scopes used by night FACs) and
carrying a large load of flares, the Candlesticks roamed the Ho Chi Minh Trail
looking for truck convoys. With
their large stock of flares, they could more readily direct night strikes by
jet aircraft than the FACs in O-2s with 6 flares could.
I believe a Candlestick was
directing Captain Lance Sijan’s flight of F-4s out of Danang the night Sijan
and his pilot were shot down on the west edge of Harley’s Valley close to
the Ban Laboy Ford. After one of
the largest air rescue attempts yet mounted during the War in Southeast Asia
ended unsuccessfully on 11 November 1967, Captain Sijan evaded capture for six
weeks. He was taken to Hanoi in
late December and died in late January 1968.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor after the POWs returned
in 1973.
Thus (I believe as a result of
Colonel Heinie Aderholt’s efforts to carve out a larger combat role for his
Air Commandos) the old transports and the men who flew them emerged in a new
combat role.
