Our Unit; Our History in Vietnam

*(Note from our Guestbook - ref Sam McGowan)  8th Aerial Port wasn't always under the 377th Combat Support Group. Originally, it was organized under the 315th Air Division and the Second ADVON. When 834th Air Division activated under Seventh Air Force in August 1966, 8th Aerial Port fell under it, along with the 315th Air Commando Group.
Ref: Captain (retired LC) Ray Rubel, our OIC in 1970, the 8th APS came under operational control of the 834th Air Division, but was a *tenant* of the 377th CSG at TSN.

*Webmaster note: When this site began, I'd been pretty much out of touch with other MOB team members for about thirty years, so it was based mostly upon my own recollections of 1970. As the site has grown, it's collected comments, information, photos and stories from MOB members, as well as the loadmasters, pilots, Special Forces and US Army members we worked with . This is not "my" website, it's "our" website and grows in meaning and value because of the contributions of all readers and friends.

Although the 8th Aerial Port handled all cargo and passenger traffic at "the world's busiest airport" (Tan Son Nhut Airbase in Saigon), it also included a lesser known special organization known as "Dets & OL's" - Detachments and Operating Locations - which included 8th APS' Mobility Operations, which we simply called "The MOB teams". 

Detachments ("Dets")  typically included 6-10 men stationed at larger US Army base camps with runways, running water and sufficient need to justify a full-time USAF presence to handle passenger and cargo traffic at more or less permanent bases. 8th APS had permanent detachments at Bien Hoa, Cu Chi, Tay Ninh, Song Be, Quan Loi, Phuc Vinh and other bases to the north of Saigon as well as Can Tho, Binh Thuy and other bases deeper in the delta. 

These detachments (such as TayNinh's, photo from Ssgt Jim Lavender) typically included relatively permanent buildings, communications facilities, US Army defenses and hot meals... ... and frequent attacks by the Viet Cong, and in some cases even the troops of the North Vietnamese regular army.
 

Operating Locations ("OLs") were spread all over the countryside and were manned as needed by 7-man "Mob" teams of the Mobility Operations Branch, a part of Dets & OLs. On these missions, the mixed teams of Loadmasters and Air Freight specialists lived on the largess of their hosts or subsisted on C-rations and slept in very crude bunkers, muddy holes in the ground or directly under the stars - often outside of the SF defensive perimeter. Communication was supplied by 2-man Air Force "Blue Beret" Combat Control Teams (CCT) or the infamous antiquated, unreliable and very heavy PRC-25 'radio' which almost never seemed to work as expected...

This site is dedicated to those airmen who participated in

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Aerial Port Mobility Operations

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throughout Vietnam, during time of conflict,
and salutes those who carry on the tradition of the original 8th Aerialport MOB in the Mobility Airlift Command units of today's Air Force.

There is no doubt about it. Since our mission included tactical airlift support in areas which could not be easily - or safely - reached by road, since many of our missions were classified as "Combat Emergency" and each takeoff and landing was counted as a "Combat Assault", and since many of our men were wounded - and some died - by enemy fire, and we were often targeted specifically as we worked our aircraft...	And since we were armed and equipped and actively contributed to camp defense where ever we were and since we often spent days and nights - and sometimes weeks - with the Army in their little jungle firebases and with The Special Forces in their jungle camps, Mobility Operations was quite often close to or involved in direct combat, and was by no means the typical 'safe' rear-echelon sort of Air Force assignment some might otherwise assume.
8th APS MOB TEAM AT WORK 8th MOB team member A1C Runfeldt carrying M-102 (105mm) howitzer on one of our famous USAF 10K Adverse Terrain "Flying" Forklifts. Ssgt Roy Shinley approaching C-123 about to be loaded. Location: Djamap (aka FSB Snuffy/Bu Gia Map) spring or summer, 1970. See Caribou pilot Ken Fillmore's aerial photo of this airstrip. This scene took place in the bottom right corner of Ken's photo. Click on image above to see original full scene. By the way.. who snapped this photo?
For that matter, many of the Detachments experienced just as many attacks as we did in the field. That's why they call this "Combat Airlift". And we were all volunteers, proud to be part of - and accepted by - our Mob Teams. According to documents published by Maxwell AFB, official doctrine was as defined below: "Air transport in major warfare should be used when practical for the supply of combat units, for evacuation, and for emergency troop movements... That's what we did.

In both cases, the planes handled by these 8th APS teams typically included C-7 Caribous of the USAF, US Army Special Forces, and the Australian AAF, USAF C-123s based within Vietnam and many C-130's manned by crews based outside of Vietnam, but on 30-day rotating tours "in country". We also occasionally handled - and traveled in - Chinook CH-47 Cargo helicopters of the US Army. Sometimes, our teams had to be transported - or evacuated - by UH-1b "Huey" choppers as well.

These locations were typically at remote Special Forces camps or 1st Cav artillery bases, although the 8th Mob also supported the Vietnamese & U.S. Marine Corps at times, and some Mob team members received commendations from the U.S. and Vietnamese Marine Corps.

The Special Forces camps at Bu Dop, Tonle Cham, Katum, Rang Rang and others along the Cambodian border were frequently visited by the MOB teams for 1-3 day stays. U.S. Army Fire Support Bases such as Bu Gia Map (FSB Snuffy, aka Djampa on Air Force maps) and others were also familar to these traveling freight handlers.

While much of the time, things were quiet and the only dangers were accidents, sunburn, heat exhaustion, homesickness and malaria, there were also many times when the Viet Cong added to the danger and attacked these teams at work. 

• Khe Sanh -
  During the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968, volunteers from the 8th APS were sent TDY to augment 15th APS' airlift support of Khe Sanh. At least one of these 8th Aerialporters wound up at Khe Sanh with the 15th APS mobility team and lived with the US Marines in the trenches and bunkers of the besieged camp. Their purpose was to load and unload the C-7's, C-123's & C-130's that made it through the NVA fire to land at what was quite likely the most dangerous airfield in the world at that time. Not all of the planes that took off from or tried to land at Khe Sanh made it. (We are currently getting information about their time at Khe Sanh from 8th APS' Neil "Brownie" Brown, 15th APS' Ted Winkelman & Bob Byers and LT.Col (army) Ron Parsons, all of whom were there during the seige.
  
  In June of 1970, 8th APS Mobility and Combat Control teams assisted the US and Vietnamese Marines in their efforts at Kham Duc, a Special Forces camp near Khe Sanh. CCT Sgt Dave Gfeller was wounded during that mission.
  
  In 1972, a large 8th APS MOB team supported Lam Son 719 from Khe Sanh during the last major offensive of the war - the drive into Laos. Their story and photos will be added to this site in the future. For now, we have the Vietnam Airlifter report as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file. Vietnam Airlifter
  

"Mortar Magnet" - Khe Sanh, 1968 Incoming rounds slammed into the runway and apparently struck the C-130's left main landing gear, causing the aircraft to swerve and smash into a forklift. from Bruce Geiger's account of his time at Khe Sanh Also: See Sam McGowen's account of Tactical Ailift at Khe Sanh

• Bu Dop - Special Forces Camp A341
  Correction: Through the fog of long-past memories (and, since I was not there myself), three "incidents at Bu Dop" (circa Nov-Dec, 1969) had been erroneously merged into one. There were many bad times at Budop, both before and after Nov-Dec 69. But few match these two particular incidents, which have been clarified through the help of former Mob Team members Sgts Neil Brown, Lou Cox & Paul Appel, the SF Medic who treated our wounded - four who were there and Sgt Jim Wade who was at HQ that day.
  
  Here's the update as we have reconstructed events as of 2006.0208, with further updates after the reunion 2006.0929:
  
  
• November, 1969 - Special Forces Camp A341 Bu Dop. Sgt Neil Brown, operator of the 10K Adverse Terrain Forklift designed specifically to be used in such environments, became trapped between exploding munitions and burning fuel as he was trying to separate them during a rocket attack. Sgt Brown was forced to abandon his rig, which was burned to a crisp. A dramatic photo of this incident (which many of us may have already seen hanging on the wall outside the Squadron Commander's office at 8th APS HQ in Saigon over thirty years ago),  is now in our posession and will be posted on this site in the future.
  
  
• December 1969 - Bu Dop. (updated 10/06)  In two seperate incidents, an entire MOB team was effectively disabled, with 5-6 WIA during during one of the increasingly frequent rocket attacks directed at the dirt airstrip near the SF camp at Budop.
  
  
• According to recently-re-connected Team Members Paul Appel, & Lou Cox (and soon to be corraborated by Ssgt Jim Greene who were all among the WIA list of that morning), the team was leaving BuDop Special Forces compund on their AT Forklift when a round landed in front of them.
  
  The blast sprayed the forklift and all mounted members with shrapnel, wounding Paul Appel, Doug Cave, Scott McCoy, Jim Greene & Lou Cox. A Vietnamese Irregular soldier who was with them apparently bore even more of the blast, since, according one of the survivors, "he simply disappeared".
  
  
• On a seperate mission on December 7. 1969, Ssgt Webb Layton was killed by a single mortar round. Jim Wade recalls returning to the MOB HQ that afternoon and being told by TSgt. Allen that we'd "lost a team member"...
  


• At Tonle Cham in May, a 5th SF C-7 Caribou came under motar attack during offload, and in their haste to escape, dropped their cargo load on the ground as they taxied away and took off "like a bat out of hell." At this time, the Tonle Cham camp already had a few planes laying in wreckage on the side of the runway. Their quick takeoff kept this crew alive and their plane intact and flying.. but it did cost us the fresh fruit and vegetables A1C Runfeldt was trying to offload when the plane moved out of reach of our AT...
  
  

 
• In the spring of 1970, an 8th APS team member at Song Be jumped into a foxhole during a particularly devasting VC attack and manned an M-60 machine gun for hours, warping the barrel by the heat of continued long bursts at the attacking VC. Not at all a typical Air Force experience... and one not easily forgotten.

 
• During a May, 1970 communications mission at the infamous northern base at Kham Duc (see http://members.aol.com/BlndBat/khamduc.html (search on "Kham Duc" at Google for more), CCT Ssgt Dave Gfeller was wounded by shrapnel from a VC RPG rocket. Although wounded and medevaced to an Army hospital, Dave made it back to Saigon - on his own - by late that evening and was warmly welcomed by his friends who had simply heard a radio transmission earlier that day requesting "We need a replacement controller at Kham Duc". Since the transmission was by SSgt Charlie Brown, we all knew it had been his regular teammate, Dave Gfeller who had been wounded. We were all happy and relieved to see him in bloodied hospital garb, but alive and home with his teammates. A photo of Charlie making this radio transmission is in the official USAF history of tactical airlift in Vietnam...

 
• During the 12 months beginning in the summer of 1969, we lost one man KIA, with 14 Purple Heart medals and at least a half-dozen Bronze Stars awarded to the 21 members of the 8th APS Mob and dozen or so Combat Control team members who worked with us - for their wounds and brave action under the combat conditions of the 8th APS MOB missions. This was not a typical "safe job" for USAF personnel...
  
  
• The above commentary chronicles only those events during this webmaster's tour (and shortly before I arrived). But now, with the input of MOB team members who served after 1970, the story is being expanded. Prior to 1969, the MOB unit was more loosely organized and after 1970, as the US Army stood down and left Vietnam, combat support at remote airstrips dwindled, leaving MOB teams quite literally alone on the air strips where they worked. As the war wound down, many detachments were closed and became operating locations with no permanent staff. See Cary Louderback's letter.
  
  
• During Operation Lam Son 719 in 1972, the MOB team went back to Khe Sanh - oddly enough, where the MOB team story began in 1968 with a "TDY" to Danang which sent 8th APS mobility volunteers into hell for the three month Seige of Khe Sanh.
  
  In 1972, a formally organized and well-trained and well-equipped Mobility Operation served at the same location in support of the US and Vietnamese forces which attempted to stop the NVA. See the Adobe Acrobat .pdf file copy of the Vietnam Airlifter with their complete story of the 8th MOB at Khe Sanh in 1972.
  
  
• Kontum
  In 1971, there were plenty of missions to Kontum - with some hairy stories to go with them. Some of this story is recounted on Cary Louderback's page
  

- Alan Runfeldt, USAF 1968-72, Vietnam 1970, Thailand, 1971.

Note: The above accounts are personal recollections (after 30 years) of one Mob Team member. We welcome your comments, additions and corrections.

See our "Personal Pages" links below for member's own stories.

Photos - we need photos - of any of the places mentioned within these pages. Photos of the places we worked at provide a verifiable link between our often-fogged memories and the reality of our lives 30 years ago. Thank you for any photos you can provide us with.

 Please contact the webmaster via the guestbook or by using this secure message form.

• Tactical airlift in Vietnam 1971-72 An Loc air drops, C-130 hit at  Kontum - by General Ed Byra, USAF
  
• Troop Carrier/Tactical Airlift Association - ref Sam McGowan's invitation for us to join them.
  
• The Mule Train - where it all began, 1962
• There at the end - the last days of 8th APS, 1975 (coming)
• Sam McGowen's EXCELLENT article on Air Force's Ground Support in Vietnam
• Air America websites
• http://www.air-america.org/
• The CAT / Air America Archive - http://www.utdallas.edu/library/special/cataa.html
• AA C-130 histories
  
• Air Mobility Command Museum - Dover, Delaware
• Official Air Force Historical Lessons From Air Mobility Operations from Maxwell AFB website
  (1932-to date discussion of organizational responsibilities and utlization of airlift.)
• More on Air Mobility from Maxwell AFB website
• A unique perspective on the Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc in May, 1968 (three 8th APS Combat Controllers were almost left behind)
  note: 8th APS CCT Dave Gfeller was wounded at Kham Duc while on a mission there in June, 1970. It was still a bad place to visit...
• SMSGT Jess Goddard supervises Aerial Delivery by 8th APS CCT & Mobility - Firebase David, Camobdia June, 1970
• Social Security? Yep. Soon this will be important to us. Here's something worth taking a look at. For some of us, it could mean additional non-military retirement benefits. Briefly, it could mean an additional earned income credit of $4800 towards Social Security retirement benefits take a look - Special Extra Earnings for Military Service - special thanks to Jim Wade for passing this on.
  

Visit the New - Member Photos directory
Visit the New - Member Pages - Our Stories of Vietnam
New Detachments Page (coming0
New Mobility Locations Page (coming)

• Our Commander, Colonel Victor Lisec
• Vietnam site of SSgt James R Lavender (link appears to be broken.)
  
  
• 377th Combat Support Group, 8th A.P.S. Tactical Operations
• Tay Ninh, Song Be, Soc Trang, DMZ - 1970 - 1971
• 8th APS Commanders - Cols Lisec & Johnson (69-71)

• Rob Carson's Photos of Tay Ninh
• Alan Runfeldt "My Story" -  Notes on my time with the 8th MOB in Vietnam, 1970
• Harold "Robbie" Robinson's Photos from Song Be. Can you name these guys at song Be in 1970?
• Letter of Commendation to MSgt Robinson at Song Be - following attack on camp in January, 1970.
• Mobility Operations in Vietnam 1971-2 - a letter from MOB Team Member Cary Louderback
  
• Photos from Chuck McClellan 70 & 72 (including Chuck, Jim Gordon, Mike Ragan Charlie Reyes, Bob White, Ron Alstatt & Cary Lauderbeck) - with more coming (Budop, 1970)
• Joe Allison's story, Last scheduled C-141 to leave Tan Son Nhut - March, 1973
  
  
• Iraq - 2005 - A LETTER from active duty airlifter MSgt Chris Swinson, who "followed where you (we) paved the way".
  "I learned an oral history of the MOB units in Viet Nam through half-remembered tales from older aerial porters...
  ...Many of us used to sit around and speculate on what it must have been like, but the stories and
  the pictures on your page bring it home.Thank you! "
• David Perelman's Purple Heart Citation and other photos from 1971
  
 
 

MAPS:

• Longtree's Maps of Special Forces Camps 
• Jim Henthorn's HIGHLY DETAILED Hi-res scans of the US Gov map Southeast Asia, circa 1972

• Bu Dop
• Ken Fillmore's photo of Budop SF Camp (A-341?)
• Djamap Airstrip - aka Bu Gia Map,  FSB Snuffy)
• GREAT Aerial shot of Djamap Airstrip from the north. FSB Snuffy at south end of air strip.
• Now, a Nature Preserve (pdf)
• Vietnamese Rangers a having problems with poachers
  
• Duc Phong
• Ken Fillmore's photo of the ramp at Duc Phong
• Katum
• Sam McGowen's page about C-130 dangers at "Kaboom"
• Petesters Photo of Katum
• Fire Fight at Katum 25 Jun, 68 - C-130 limps to Tay Ninh, hit and on fire
• Newspaper article about attack on Katum Aug '68 from TheSpecialForce.com
  
• Ham Tan
• Petesters Photo of Ham Tan
• Bob Payne's photo of Ham Tan Terminal
• Quan Loi
• Petesters Photo of Quan Loi
• That Son (Chi Lang)
• Petester's Photo of That Son
• Loc Ninh
• Petester's Photo of Long Tom at Loc Ninh
• Petester's Photo of fuel blivets (aka "Elephant balls") at Loc Ninh
• Phouc Vinh
• Petester's Photo of Phouc Vinh tower
• Thien Ngon
• Petester's Photo of Thien Ngon
• Tonle Cham
• Aerial View of Tonle Cham
• Gerald Skokandich Photos of Tonle Chon
  
• Xuan Loc "International Airport"
• Bob Payne's photo
• Petester's Photos Index page

• Vung Tau - see http://www.geocities.com/det_1_8th_aerialportsq/index.htm
  

• Ron Stanford's photos of 14th APS OLAD - Dalat
  

• Tien Phouc (Tien Phuc) Special Forces Camp
- Mike Warren managed a 15th APS Det at Tien Phuc in 1970, Tom Finkler worked with C-7s' during the same time.

• Song Be - Bob Payne's photo of Song Be Ramp
  (This photo was probably about 1968 - they were still using yellow Hyster forklifts. Note the beginning of the 8th APS HQ at Song Be - that little bunker beneath the tip of the wing of the C-130)
  

• Tay Ninh
• Bien Hoa
  

Who we worked with

• "Tacair" - C-7, C-123 and C-130 in one photo
• Forklift Driver's View of C-7a Caribou loading ramp and cargo compartment
• C-130 Hercules
• The "Blind Bat's" C-130 Stuff web pages
• C-7 Caribou
• Caribou Association
• Infamous C-7 caribout post card - http://www.c-7acaribou.com/album/bpphotos/pc_1.htm
• Petester's Personal Caribou Page
• USAF Combat Control Online 
• 8th APS CCT Memorial plaque http://www.usafcct.com/imagery/combat/pages/cbt0020.htm
• 8th APS CCT Team photos late 60's: photo #1 photo #2 photo #3
• 5th Special Forces
• Professional Loadmasters Association. Our teams were comprised of 50% loadmasters, here's their site.

• Earlier History - C-47 airlifts to  Dien Bien Phu in 1954
• Tactical Airlift in South East Asia - The Book (a pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat to read)
  
• The New Air Mobility Command
• "We Deliver" 1996 Airman Magazine article on Aerialport Operations in the AMC
• Airlift and Mobility Support - Kosovo
• March, 2005 - Tactical Airlift In Iraq - where convoys can't go...
  The Airmen, deployed from the 621st Air Mobility Operations Group based at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, along with a few Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, make up the almost 50-person detachment responsible for the loading, unloading and tracking of C-130 and C-17 flights within the OIF area of responsibility.
• Aerial porters firing on all cylinders in Iraq
• C-130 Speed Offloading Technique as used in Vietnam