'Ghost Squadron' honored for secret missions on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

By RICHARD HANNERS/Whitefish Pilot

Forty years after they flew through heavy enemy fire over the snake-infested jungles of Southeast Asia, members of a secret Navy flight squadron have been recognized for their valor.

Cdr. Adam Alexander, of Whitefish, a pilot in what became known as the "Ghost Squadron," was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation at the Navy Memorial Building in Washington, D.C., on May 14.

This was the first time since World War II that a Neptune or Orion squadron was awarded the Presidential Citation and the first time the award was given 40 years after-the-fact.

The reason — their mission and their accomplishments were classified until 1998.

By mid-1966, large numbers of troops and quantities of ammunition were moving undetected down the Ho Chi Minh Trail — code-named Steel Tiger — from North to South Vietnam.

The military advised Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to attack targets in North Vietnam and to mine its harbors, but he was opposed. Instead, McNamara ordered the military to figure out a way to stop the flow of troops, trucks, tanks and ammunition down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

What they came up with was a combination of World War II and Navy technology code-named Igloo White. Twelve retrofitted P2V-5F Neptune planes, now called OP-2Es, were sent to Vietnam as the VO-67 squadron to drop sub-detecting sonobuoys, renamed Accubuoys, to pick up the sounds of troop movement along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Equipped with two radial-engine props and two jet engines, the OP-2Es were initially designed to hunt subs at sea. Montanans are familiar with Neptunes used as retardant bombers to fight forest fires.

The large submarine-search radar-dome was removed and self-sealing fuel tanks and armor plating were installed to protect the plane and crew. Two six-barreled mini-guns were hung from the wings and two hand-fired M-60 machine guns were installed at the hatches.

The bomb-bay racks were modified so the planes could haul additional Accubuoys. Painted camouflage-green, the sensors were to be parachuted into the jungle where they would snag unseen high in the treetop canopy. The sensitive hydrophones would pick up the sounds of truck and troop movement.

The planes also carried the Air-Delivered Seismic Detection Sensor (ADSID). While the Accubuoys were dropped from practically treetop level, the ADSIDs were dropped from 2,500 feet and required more accuracy in targeting.

The solution was the famous Norden bombsight used extensively in World War II. Members of the VO-67 squadron requested the sights, and they were proven at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida before the squadron was deployed.

When the VO-67 squadron arrived at the Nakhon Phanom Air Commando base in Thailand in November 1967, the question for many at the air base was, "What's the Navy going to do — hunt for subs in the Mekong?" But nobody in the squadron was talking. code-named Muscle Shoals, the squadron's work was highly classified.

"Even some of the squadron members didn't know what was going on," Alexander said.

By this time, the North Vietnamese had heavily fortified the Ho Chi Minh Trail with highly-mobile 23 mm, 37 mm and even radar-controlled 57 mm anti-aircraft guns. The chances for the slow moving OP-2Es was not good, but they provided an interim solution until Air Force F-4 jets could take over the job.

VO-67 pilots began by familiarizing themselves with their mission by flying Cessna O-2A prop planes over the Ho Chi Minh Trail to check out the terrain and gun emplacements. Each VO-67 crew planned their own assignments and determined the safest flight plan.

"The North Vietnamese knew what we were doing, and they didn't like us at all," Alexander said.

Some missions called for diving down from 12,000 feet, slowing down at drop level — 500 feet for Accubuoys — and then climbing back quickly to 12,000 feet.

"We had to slow down to 250 knots or the Accubuoys' parachutes would tear apart," Alexander said.

To avoid enemy fire, pilots took advantage of high cliffs or made "jinking" dives and numerous heading-changes. In some heavily defended areas, the pilots flew at treetop level then climbed up to 500 feet to drop the sensors.

"We all knew it was going to be dangerous," Alexander said. "I'd go right down to the treetops. To this day, my crew swears that when we landed, I had limbs hanging on my engines."

The squadron's first loss came on Jan. 11, 1968, when Cdr. Dell Olson's plane crashed into a cliff about 150 feet below the 4,583-foot ridge line of Phou Loung Mountain, in Laos. Alexander had just finished dropping his Accubuoys and was listening in on the radio as he climbed into the clouds.

"I heard the pilot tell the flight controller, 'I am going down through this hole in the clouds,'" Alexander recalled. "And that's the last thing I heard."

Nobody knows for certain what happened, but Alexander had flown with Olson in three previous squadrons and knew he was a good pilot. There was a lot of anti-aircraft fire, and Olson could have been shot down, Alexander said.

Thirty-five years after the crash, all nine crew members were recovered and buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Also recovered was the crew's dog, Snoopy.

A second plane crashed on Feb. 17, 1968, after its starboard engine caught fire. No parachutes or emergency beacons were detected.

Ten days later, the pilot of the third plane lost in combat, Cdr. Paul Milius, stayed at the controls of his burning plane until his seven crewmen were able to bail out. When the 12th plane in the squadron arrived from the U.S. two days after, its identification number was repainted with the lost plane's number, and the seven rescued members continued to fly as a crew.

Before the VO-67 squadron left the U.S., military planners estimated 75 percent of its planes and crewmen would be lost. Instead, they lost three of 12 planes and 20 crewmen.

Military historians agree the VO-67 squadron played a key role in protecting the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh during the Tet Offensive. An estimated 20,000 North Vietnamese Army troops, supported by tanks and anti-aircraft weapons, attacked the base in January 1968.

Sensors dropped by the squadron enabled Marine artillery to pinpoint enemy positions. Despite intense fire, none of the squadron's planes was seriously damaged and no crew members were hit.

But since VO-67 technically didn't exist, some Marines didn't know what they were seeing. One Marine was heard shouting into the radio, "Look out! Here comes one of those big green planes right on the deck again!"

The squadron flew its last mission on June 25, 1968. Squadron members were sworn to secrecy and then "scattered to the winds."

Alexander, who had joined the Navy in 1947 after serving in the reserves during high school in southern Ohio, retired in 1977. He had injured five disks in his back from flying before going to Vietnam, and when he went in for surgery, he was told he had a heart attack while serving in Vietnam. That marked the end of his career as a Navy pilot.

He moved to Whitefish right after retirement, where he dabbled in timber and real estate and finished raising two sons.

In 2003, Alexander and his 2nd Mechanic from the VO-67 squadron, Kerry Biginal, began work trying to convince the Navy that the 337 members of the squadron deserved recognition by the Presidential Unit Citation. It took five years.

"The main thing Kerry and I worked for was that the citation would give the people on the ground an award they had not received before," Alexander. "This was an award for everyone, including the enlisted men."