November 1971 out post overrun near BT ?

[Mike Dobson]

I just watched a doc about the Black Ponies where they were scrambled to respond to an outpost being overrun during the middle of the night . The outpost , by the flight time stated, had to be less than 20 from Bihn Thuy if that was the launch runway.  The out post was completely overrun, the friends were now in the jungle, with the bad guys in pursuit. By the dialog, the bad guys were within 300' of the friendlies and initially declined due to the "closeness " to attack. The friendlies cleared them "in" and the "Ponies" attacked --- ultimately saving all of the remaining friendlies and earning a DFC for the Pilot of at least one of the "Ponies" .  It seemed strange to me that we weren't there ---- but perhaps there was another "pony" Scramble site that would have us out of the fray ??    Anybody remember this event ?

[Howard Jacobs]

I was there in 71.... don't remember hearing anything about it.

[jimjoyce]

Mike, I saw the same documentary on the Smithsonian channel, Air Warriors, OV-10. I had recorded it and played it back several times to make sure I was hearing and seeing what I thought I heard and saw. The 300 ft restriction immediately caught my attention until I realized he was talking about the killing radius of his 5" Zunis that "everyone wanted". I was an FTL on Det 8 in Rach Gia at that time, the majority of outposts in the U-Minh had been turned over to the ARVN with only a few American advisors. We routinely  scrambled nightly to support those that were hit in the northern area, the advisors were most appreciative. I don't remember hearing anything about Pony incident and found it strange because our NOC always called on us. Since that was 49 years ago, my memory isn't what it was, I emailed a friend who was on Det 3 CaMau at the same time, asking if he had ever heard about it. He said they also routinely scrambled into the southern U-Minh for ARVN outposts and never heard about this incident. As for the DFC, on several occasions we had Ponies pop into our AO after we had hit some intel targets of opportunity and they'd get permission from the NOC to also put in a strike. More than once as we departed the area we heard them call out .51 Cal fire after we had not heard and seen any return fire. Not casting dispersion on the Ponies but by late '71 there were some folks trying real hard to get their medal.

[Mike Dobson]

Jim, agreed,    hahahaa   I remember one where we were on station and Put the bad guys under attack --- about the time we were wrapping it up , a couple twin booms showed up and asked to "get some"  ---- so they roll in from some obscene altitude and launch , with a pull out way above above our 800' observation altitude ---------   and they had the nuggets to claim they could see blood trails on the ground ----- hahahaa    well, we did a low level and spotted some bodies that they at least rolled over so we gave them a couple kills --- but it was funny as hell ---- until then, I ddid't realize what a chance I had been taking flying with half blind pilots --- those guys had "Eyes of an EAGLE " !!! !!! hahahhahahhaahah

[Mike Dobson]

BTW, If I remember correctly, the Doc said Nv 71 was the time of the incident

[jimjoyce]

Nov '71 is correct, that's what initially drew my attention. Then I had to chuckle at the rest of the story.