The First and Last Combat Flight

We had been flying in-coutry for about six weeks and still hadn't dropped a bomb in combat. We were flying out of Da Nang and tracking about 5,000 NVA troops from the DMZ to Charlie Ridge outside of Da Nang. A marine colonel ( later the Commandant) was flying as an observer with us. Every night we had taken ground fire but didn't fire back and we dropped our bombs out over the sea before returning to base.

One night we started taking ground fire and the colonel, who was in the forward nose section with me, asked why we didn't fire back ? I told him we didn't have permission to return fire. He went up into the cockpit and we soon had permission to return fire. We dropped our bombs and fired on Charlie ! That was the first combat strike for the AP2-H.

Last Flight

The last strike of the AP2-H was up in IV Corps, down by the Cambodian border. We were making our runs on the enemy and took several hits. Starting back to Cam Rahn Bay we tried to get clearance to fly over land, but this was denied because of heavy artillery fire and there were heavy thunder storms on the coast that we couldn't fly around.

Commander Neville D. Dunnan requested clearance to land at an Air Force base above Saigon at Binh Thuy. We landed about 2:15 in the morning and while the pilots went to the BOQ, the crew worked on the plane. The plane was gassed, oiled and we did a post-flight inspection. During post-flight inspection we found several hits in the starboard wing. Opening up the hit section of wing we found the push-pull rod for the ailerons almost shot in two. The push-pull rod is an aluminum extruded tube about 1.25 inches in diameter and there was only about 1/2 to 3/4 inch left holding it together. We called Cam Rahn Bay and told them to send us a new rod. The rod was sent to us on a jet.

The next morning I showed the skipper the shot-up rod and told him a new one was on the way. We installed the new rod and flew back to CRB. The next day we held an all hands meeting and the skipper said we were supposed to fly five more combat flights. He asked if there was anyone who wanted to fly them to get any medals. No one was wanted any more medals !

The squadron then started to pack up at CRB and regroup at Sangley Point in the Phillipines. That was our last combat flight. I was on both, the first and the last combat flights of VAH-21. Stories submitted by Steele S. (Sam) Gore, ADR1, Plane Capt., Crew 1