Refueling an
O-2:
A 23rd TASS
flight-line troop refuels an O-2. I believe this picture was taken at the 23rd
TASS detachment at Ubon in 1968 by my former roommate, Craig Elliot.
When I left NKP in January 1968, our parking area still had the PSP
with the round holes.
The engine cowl is marked with
the standard 23rd TASS Cricket (which always looked like a black
grasshopper to me), a crown with Queen of the Fleet stenciled under it, and a
stencil of an O-2 with Snoopy riding the back.
I don’t know the history behind the last two, as those markings
weren’t around that I knew of in 1967.
I can see some resemblance between riding that top of a doghouse and
the top of an O-2.
Note the warheads of the 7
rockets at the front of the rocket pod that shows behind the airman’s knees.
It appears that the right seat has been removed from the cockpit.
I don’t recall ever flying an O-2 in 1967 with the right seat
removed.
You can see the windows on the
lower part of the cockpit door and just forward of the door and after of the
box to mark the armament on the aircraft.
When I flew the O-2 at night in November 1967, I had to keep the road
on the navigator’s side of the aircraft, so I spent much of my time watching
that forward window by the navigator’s feet.
When that window started glowing red, I usually rolled left.
One time I saw the first three shells come out gun when I was watching
by Captain Burt Bilton’s feet as we were going west along Route 91 just
northwest of Foxtrot.
For those who occasionally challenge the importance of
the work done by the support troops in Thailand, my response is that I
didn’t maintain, refuel, or rearm my aircraft before heading off to Steel
Tiger in Laos. Without the help
of the support troops, we couldn’t have stopped the thousands of tons of
ammunition that never made it to South Vietnam.
Fighting a war is a team effort and there are veterans of serving in
South Vietnam who are alive today because of guys like this airman, who went
where they were assigned and kept us in the air over Laos.
