A Tale of Three Fizzles:

USAF Firebombing in SVN

Much of the war in Vietnam was characterized by the strategic principle of making it up as we go along.The following story starts with an e-mail from Tony Burshnick.

FIRE IN THE BOI LOI WOODS

Northwest of Bien Hoa Air Base was a jungle area that was supposedly infested with Viet Cong who made attacks on both the base and the area around Saigon. They tried to bomb them out with the B-52s, but it wasn't working. So the leaders decided to kill all the vegetation using AGENT ORANGE. For weeks the C-123 spray birds dumped tons of the Agent on the area. When the vegetation rotted and dried the decision was made to set it on fire. We brought all the C-123s in Viet Nam to Tan Son Nhut. Each plane was then loaded with eight wooden pallets each containing four fifty-gallon drums of fuel oil or gasoline. In between the four oil drums was stuffed a five-thousand candle-power flare that was taped to the drums. The lanyard to set the flare off was connected to the line normally used by paratroopers to pull the chute lanyard. We took off, leveled at 1000 feet, and formed into probably twenty flights of three ships in trail.

Starting at the South east corner of Boi Loi we started to drop the flare-triggered fuel drums by pushing half of the pallets out the C-123's ramp while flying East to West. It took that flare about thirty seconds to burn through the fuel drum and set it on fire. Fighter pilots would probably call that napalm. Then the formation circled around to the North, and when it was abreast of the starting point we turned South and started another line of fire with the rest of our fire load. This created a tremendous venturi effect, and soon the entire area was ablaze. It probably took us an hour to take off and start the fire and another hour to recover all the C-123s. I can remember that we had a big Post Beer Party planned. I was drinking my first beer and half the formation was still in the landing pattern. But shortly thereafter we were all on the ground and having a great party. Then we noticed dark clouds building above the blazing area. In no time at all we created one of the biggest thunderstorms I had ever seen in Viet Nam. You guessed it. The storm pretty much put the fire out. True story. The base weather officer had the audacity to tell us that if we asked him for advice he would have told us we would only create a storm. Isn't hindsight great???

This story triggered the following response from Bill Goodyear:

The story about "FIRE IN THE BOI LOI WOODS, " in your message, reminds me of February 1966 when Denis Walsh and I did the same thing as part of a fifty B-52 raid from Guam. The mission was called "Pink Rose II." The forest service had placed oil drums in the target area, and we dropped a full load of incendiary bombs, the same type used on Japan during WWII. The target area was ten miles side and ten miles long. After all bombers had cleared the area we made a slow 180 degree turn back to the east. There was a large fire, a big column of black smoke, and after we left the country a big thunderstorm, which put out the fire. Same result as was created by the C-123s.

Then Doug Reckenthaler comes on line.

Ditto: 36 ship C-130 formation, each with 44 barrels and thermite grenades in each. Operation "Burn Brae" (I guess named after the dinner theater out in MD). As I recall (I was the airlift command briefer for the morning briefs at 7th AF in Saigon at the time of the C-130 op), these occurred during the handoff from Momyer to Brown, and Brown did not like the operation; so, it was closed down. At 71, my memory may fail me (this was in 1968), but I think Brown was sensitive to the political aspect.

And Jerry de la Cruz adds:

I was the tower duty officer for the 3rd Tac Ftr Wg at Bien Hoa in 1968 when one of those C-130 missions took place. I remember that the whole ramp and runway was shut down for a goodly period while the C-130s were marshaling, taxing and taking off. It was an impressive sight. I think we sent in a flight of F-100's with napalm after the drop to insure that everything ignited. I don't recall any thunderstorm, but I remember hearing that the results were disappointing.