Zorro
The Zorros of the 56th Air Commando
Wing at NKP concentrated on night strikes against the Trail during the dry
season and flew ground support missions in Cricket West during the summer
months. When the T-28s were
teamed with the FACs’ O-1s, the hunter-killer teams formed were a major
advancement in night interdiction operations in early 1967.
This team was strengthened in the fall of 1967 when O-2s replaced the
O-1s. The O-2s’ TACANs gave the FACs more capabilities at night to locate
the road. These hunter-killer
teams greatly improved responsiveness and the disruption of the NVA’s night
operations. Often when the FACs
spotted using a starlight scope spotted a convoy of trucks, the circling
Zorros could be dropping bombs on the convoy within 4 or 5 minutes.
In this picture, note the southwest monsoon rains
have taken the Mekong River well beyond the normal banks you see below the
T-28. Also notice the ripples in
the skin on the fuselage.
