Vietnam War Airfield Codes

[Fris B. Fairing]

Does anyone have a list of three letter codes used for the various airfields and strips during the Vietnam war? My interest is primarily RAAF but I suspect the codes were issued by the US military. These codes appear to be unrelated to the handful of airfields that have ICAO/IATA codes.

[seven g]

Not sure if this is what you're after but each strip/major heliport had a code number based on the US Army Corps area of operations (1 to 4). This number was VAx -00 with x being the Corp and 00 being the sequence number of the strip within that Corps..

For example:
Da Nang - VA1-3
Nha Trang - VA2-7
Phan Rang - VA2-28
Dalat/Cam Ly VA2-8
Pleiku VA2-4
An Thoi VA4-264
Can Tho - VA4-17
Tan Son Nhut VA3-1

[gums]

Salute!

The RAAF ones were mostly in III Corps and IV Corps, so I will look and post back here, but look at VungTau and then Soc Trang

,,Gums

[megan]

Flew and landed at every airfield/helo pad in IV Corp and never heard of the V code thing, every day is a learning day. What document would have carried the codes? Only documents we ever carried were the crypto code book and relevant maps.

[Fris B. Fairing]

seven g
Thanks for your reply but I've never seen those V codes before and they are certainly not used in 35SQN's history sheets. The codes used by the RAAF were three letter codes e.g.
VTA Vung Tau (today's IATA code is VTG)
TSN Tan Son Nhut etc etc
I've found more thany 70 of them but there could be some duplication through illegibility. It's my understanding that 35SQN was tasked by the US military, hence my assumption that the codes may have originated with the US military.

[gums]

Salute!
Great research here, and I am trying to find my old TPC charts that have the U.S. 3 letter designations, but i am leaning toward the IATA or ICAO designations.
Still looking for old maps.

..Gums sends..

[Fris B. Fairing]

gums
Well they look like IATA codes but a lot of these places were just bulldozed strips that would not have qualified for IATA classification and probably don't even exist today.
Rgds

[gums]

Saute!

Well, Fairing, we had many landing strips in Laos that were not U.S. places, ROFLOL. Most were marginal for Porters or O-1 types, and our charts were labeled LS-19. LS-32 and the infamous LS-85

Down where the RAAF folks flew we basically called the fields by name or their navaid ID. So we would say Channel 72 or such.

..Gums..

P.S. hope you are not near coast in NSW, as seems lottsa floodibng there

[seven g]

All,
The codes I referred to are listed for all airports/dirt strips etc. listed in the Tactical Aerodrome Directory issued by the USAF 7651st Aeronautical Chart and Information Squadron in San Fran. I think they published one every month.
May not have been a relevant document for helo ops but was the bible for tactical airlift (C7, C123 & C130). Major aerodromes also had an ICAO designator such as VVSD for Da Nang.
Only other codes I can think of would relate to radio nav aids such as Da Nang TACAN Ch 77 (DAG), although the Da Nang VOR (when working) was DAN.

[gums]

Salute!

Great work, seven.
That is the ref I was trying to remember.

..Gums sends..

[GlobalNav]

example page

http://www.c-7acaribou.com/history/TAD/006.pdf


document circa 1973

http://www.vietnamairlift.com/images/tacticalaerodromedirectory.pdf

[Fris B. Fairing]

GlobalNav
Many thanks. That directory is a gold mine of information. Unfortunately the only three letter identifiers I can find are the TACAN codes but these don't match the codes the RAAF were using. It looks like the RAAF must have invented their own system.
Rgds

[BBadanov]

During my time at Phan Rang, it was PRG.

That seems to have stuck to with the vets ever since.

[Fris B. Fairing]

During my time at Phan Rang, it was PRG.

That seems to have stuck to with the vets ever since.

BBadanov
That's what 35SQN RAAF used as well.
Rgds

[BBadanov]

I think the 3-letter codes were from the local TACAN.
From my logbook, others I have:
TSN Tan Son Nhut
BNH Bien Hoa
PHT Phu Cat
CRB Cam Ranh Bay
BTH Binh Thuy
Of course, back in the day, the whole country had a 3-letter code - SVN !

[Fris B. Fairing]

BBadanov
Thanks for those. There are at least 70 more in the 35SQN Unit History Sheets. Hopefully a list will emerge.
Rgds