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USA to decontaminate Bien Hoa Air Base
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-48000185 Agent Orange: US to clean up toxic Vietnam War air base The US has launched a multi-million dollar clean-up operation at an air base in Vietnam it used to store the notorious chemical Agent Orange. The ten-year programme, unveiled more than four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, will cost $183m (£141m). The site at Bien Hoa airport, outside Ho Chi Minh City, is considered the most contaminated in the country........ The amount of dioxin in the area is four times higher than that found at Danang airport where a similar operation was completed in November. A statement from the US development agency USAID, which is behind the clean-up, described the site as the "largest remaining hotspot" of dioxin in Vietnam. “The fact that two former foes are now partnering on such a complex task is nothing short of historic," US ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kritenbrink, said at Saturday's programme launch..... |
Decontamination
Wonder when they'll start to clean up after the atomic bombs dropped on Spain ?
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So when will depleted Uranium be cleaned up from Iraq ?
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Salute!
Nice call, Wolfie, but it's too good a base for the Vee to lose. Two long runways that could handle biggest thing we had at the time, including C-5 Galaxies. I flew over 300 missions from Bien Hoa, 1967 to 1968. And dozen or so were Ranchhand escort as they sprayed the vegetation. Their hootch was about 50 yards from ours and we shared a squadron bar for a few months. We flew an orbit around them and got down alongside for "intimidation" factor, then came around the oval again. With four of our Dragonflies, we always had someone on the perch if they took groundfire. One of their troops would throw out a flare, and we could drop some CBU or shoot a few rockets near the smoke. Of course, if we could see where thefire was coming from, then that sucker wouldn't shoot at another C-123 again. One of their birds was supposedly very "clean", and it would fly over Bien Hoa once a week or so and spray for mosquitos. We weren't too worried about the chemicals, as most of the leaks happenedwhen they loaded the stuff on their planes for a mission. That being said, they prolly had a few serious spills in their storage area. Gums recalls.... |
Tweets and Intimidation?
Interesting concept. |
Land mines next?
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I had a look at Bien Hoa a while ago on Google Earth, and there were at least 20 Skyraiders stored there. Recently, the area's been cleared of the ADs, but some could be seen in various stages of what, refurbishment maybe? I know the US forbade trade with Viet Nam for a while, but I hope these rare birds are being looked after. |
Bien Hoa had many vintage aircraft going to rot the last time I was there.
Considering the capability of most Historic Aircraft Restoration operations....I an sure quote a few of them could be made airworthy again with enough money thrown at them. Buster....just so you know...there are Japanese, French, and Vietnamese Land Mines laying about. I managed to land a Chinook in such an area a bit west of Saigon in an area known as "The Pineapple". One of our Army Artillery bases had such a minefield that was present when American units took up operations at the former Japanese/French/Vietnamese site.....with the previous occupants failing to leave the maps to their mine fields. US Forces used surface mines called Claymores that were either detonated by a soldier or by trip wires. Key point is they were above ground and removed or used. The NVA and VC left many land mines and IED's scattered about. |
Salute!
@ SAS..... Tweets and Intimidation? Interesting concept The Corona Harvest historical documents gave us the smallest CEA of any attack plane in the war, closely followed by my second tour plane - the A-7D SLUF. Think 15 meters for dumb bombs as scored by the FAC's. And we would be called for by name if the grunt unit had seen us before --- Raps ( and Hawks for short period) . You can bet that NVA and Vet Cong folks who had seen our work would be :intimidated". P.S. I was there in November 1972 when USAF delivered our last AD's to the Vee at Bien Hoa. They were from our Special Ops folks at NKP, Thailand. We were pulling out and leaving behind $ billions of stuff. The last in-country USAF attack plane was handed over in October from the 8th Attack Squadron - an A-37B. So we SLUF driversin Thailand had to assume the CSAR role, and I got to do that a few times before we ceased all bombing in Laos and the North two months later. Gums recalls... |
Hey gums. Have a look on Google Earth, and you might see some of that hardware is still there! |
Sasless recalls slinging a Tweety from Vinh Long to Bien Hoa arriving after dark with it.
One of the sling points broke and the wee thing took on a very unusual attitude....which almost got it pickled. We set it down with just some very minor ramp rash to one Tip Tank. |
Salute SAS !
Thanks, and if it was one of the "A" models ( no refueling probe on nose), then I prolly logged some hours in it. Gums sends.... |
Thanks you guys! I did some research into the Tweet and came across this article. A fascinating read. I take my hat off to all of you. https://www.airspacemag.com/military...tweet-8974282/ |
Originally Posted by SASless
(Post 10453143)
Buster....just so you know...there are Japanese, French, and Vietnamese Land Mines laying about.
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Salute!
Yeah, Drainpipe, decent article and I missed that rejoin 'cause my Dad died the morning I was leaving to get there. I was in the first replacement pilot group for Combat Dragon and got there in time for two months of the test phase. We replaced the test pilots and "experts" from Tactical Air Warfare group who went home in December. Plus, the sortie rate was so high they increased the pilot manning numbers. So I flew with the guys in the article and roomed with Blaha, the astronaut. Lon Holtz and I were at Korat Thailand for the first end of the war in 1972 - 73. He managed to bag a Mig in an F-4E and I got to fly up north and bomb Hanoi a few times In my SLUF. We just flew a lotta missions with lowest loss rate of any attack plane over there. We had several logos, and one was "Closest Air Support", but mostly we like " Smallest fighter, fastest gun. When you care to expend the very best, wire Rap at Bien Hoa, Dragon at Pleiku" We only flew outta Pleiku from November 67 to April 68. Was supposed to leave there after the Combat ragon test phase was over, but Tet broke out and we switched from armed recce over the Trail to CAS. @ SAS... That Vinh Long bird was likely my wingie. Had some kinda smoldering fire that the environmental system ( air conditioning and heating) heated/fogged up the cockpit really bad, so he saw a runway ahead and landed on it!! We could use anything with 2500 to 3000 feet Gums recalls... |
Memory serves me that it was a hydraulic failure of some kind....but that was a very long time ago....it could have been as you mention.
The Lifting hardware was the same as used for the O-1E Bird Dog (Think Cessna 175) as we were told. The right rear part of it snapped apart and the Bird pitched up and rolled to the right....with the initial upset causing a rather fast violent oscillation that led to a hurried conversation about jettisoning the thing....but we got it calmed down and carried on.....after calming our own selves down in the process. |
gums,
Pleiku was hit on the night of 29/30 Jan 68 (Tet) . Were you guys launched for that? seven g |
Salute! Yep, seven_g We were standing down for the Tet "truce", and over at the MACV club on the western part of the base, near the radar site CRC named Peacock. The ops area was all at the east edge of the base. There was a fairly small USAF "base" toward the west end that had barracks and a small dining hall, post office, etc. About 1900 or so the Ops Officer came in and asked all of us how many drinks we had already consumed. Ollie ( from that article) and I were still working on our first one so he told us to get down to the ops building for an emergency mission. We went out to our normal Tigerhound area to hit trucks that a Covey FAC or Blindbat flareship would hopefully find. On the way, an American voice came over the VHF emergency frequency and said that attacks were occuring all over VietNam and the Tet truce had been broken. Very strange. Found no trucks and though we had plenty of playtime they ordered us to RTB. Walking in from the plane an enormous mortar attack began on the U.S. Army base about 2 or 3 miles north that we called "Engineers' Hill" It did not house a lotta troops, just heavy equipment and their operators. Not 30 seconds later the first 122mm rocket zoomed in!!! Into our "bunker", and fast as we could run. For the next 20 minutes or so, between 40 and 50 of those things hit within 100 yeards of us, but they were targeted at the ramp it seemed. Outside the bunker, I picked up some of the "diamond" scored warhead casings and kept a small number with me for many years. Our jets came out fine, but seems we had a badly damaged Gooney Bird and AD of the 6th ACS. Army chopper gunships worked over the ravine between us and Engineers' Hill. They musta been early Cobras, as they had miniguns a rapid fire grenade turret. No more Trail misions for our detachment, and we flew CAS plus helo insertion/extractio cover from then on. One day in early February only two flights of U.S. air got to hit near the Citadel in Hue due to poor weather - I was in one and the other was also from our A-37 detachment at Pleiku. Gums recalls.... |
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