Here's a story I wanted to do from the beginning of Yankee Air Pirate. All we needed was a Caribou, a Special Forces camp in the right place, an AC-119, a workable spotlight, the right tracers, parachute cargo and LAPES pallets. And two years later, here it is.

Dak Seang was a Special Forces Camp near the Cambodian border that received all its supplies by air. In 1970, supplies were being airlifted out to other camps thought more likely to be attacked. Almost immediately, the story changed. North Vietnamese regulars surrounded the camp, put AAA in the hills and made it clear that they intended to over-run the camp. Giap wanted headlines of an American loss.

The first I knew of it, I was below a cloud deck in very gloomy conditions destroying the surroundings and the "soft targets" within. Dak Seang was to be held. I think I flew 5 or 6 strikes there. I could see downed aircraft amidst the slowly disappearing jungle and a camp that looked like a fence around a rubble pile.

Note: 390th TFS has LF on the tail finally.


Our tale is more about how Dak Seang held, from an air power standpoint.



C-7 Caribous from various units were charged with dropping supplies to the camp. They did this all the time and were very accurate at placing parachutes within the drop areas. But they seldom faced ground fire like at Dak Seang. At Intelligence, I saw that a Caribou had been shot down, a rare thing. Then another. Then another. All aboard were killed in each case. Twenty-five other Bou's were hit in the process. We tell that story through the eyes of Bob Davis of the 457th Airlift Squadron.

It was hot. See these pictures of a Hun damaged in the fight...provided by the Caribou Association and Peter Bird.







In one of my strikes, Lead took a large round through the port engine causing their seat cushions to be gobbled up by the wrong end of their digestive tracts.

The C-7 squadrons were told that Dak Seang was to be held AT ALL COSTS and the cost was running up. Our final mission tells of the solution that guaranteed the resupply and did its part to save Dak Seang.

Col. John Larivee was approached by Capt. Tim Black on a way he thought they could survive the flights. Black had been flying B-26K's an Nakhon Phanom in night missions which were famous for their production of BDA and adrenaline. It was his idea to do LAPES drops in a valley, in bad weather, under heavy ground fire...at night.

So the two of them tried it. Shadow, an AC-119G, was to light the drop zone with their Xenon searchlight at just the right moment so that the Caribou could get his bearings and orientation...then lights out.

In the game, it is all very visible. On some monitors, screenshots of night missions just don't show up well.


I knew this was a story for YAP. In a way, it is the point of YAP. Individual bravery in the small places where they commonly occur...not just in combat. (The bravest thing I ever did was change a tire for a woman on a narrow bridge in heavy traffic.) I thought these guys were crazy. But they are credited by the Special Forces with saving the place.

In YAP, you will first go bomb the place. Then you will get a chance to air drop supplies. Anything within reach is good and anything outside goes to the enemy. And you are going to get hosed. Finally, you take Tim Black's idea and put it to work on that first try at night LAPES. If you hit the drop zone, you get a LAPES pallet. Miss and you get a crater.

These are hard missions. Very realistic. Very challenging. But we think when you have completed them, you will know better than anyone (other than a bunch of old men) what was done when it had to be done.

The camp held. The siege ended. The North Vietnamese withdrew to their sanctuary in Cambodia, it's regiments no longer able to call themselves fighting units. And in two weeks were to face a big surprise.

Outstanding and a great story!