Yeah, I know this one’s pretty obscure, but does anyone out there know, or have a way of finding out, what the (doubtless fictional) tail number was on the O-2 Skymaster that Danny Glover flew in the movie “Bat 21”? I know someone who’s building it, and wants to make sure he has the right fake number on the tail. How’s that for twisted historical accuracy?
Of course, in a weird kind of logic, it kind of fits with the whole fictional movie. Bat 21 was given the Hollywood treatment when, like the fake history that made up the script to “The Right Stuff,” the true story was even more exciting, full of action and mostly, genuine heroism.
Tom, “Bat 21” was based on a true story of a pilot shot down in Viet Nam and how he survived until he could be rescued. FAC’s (Forward Air Controlers) who flew Skymasters and OV-10 Bronco’s played a crucial role in relaying the pilot information. They used golf terms to lead the pilot to a pick up point and to fool any NVA listening in on radio. The pilots call sign was Bat 21. In the movie Gene Hackman played the pilot.
Air Master
EDIT: FAC flew an OV-10 Bronco not an OV-2 Skymaster.
I think I may have a copy of the Movie “Bat 21” I used to have the book but lent it out a few times and don’t know if I still have it. I’ll try and remember to check my videos this week and get back to you. Not a bad idea to “model” a movie “bird”!
Bat 21 was an EB-66 that was assigned to the 42nd Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadron (T.E.W.S.) out of Korat. By the beginning of 1974 the squadron was leaving the base for parts unknown. By about March of that year, the last one was gone. Shortly after that I had to go to Clark A.B. in the P.I. to transfer a prisoner and turn him over to the Base Police there. Not far from the main drag leading off base was a field with a tall tree. I found the squadron sitting there near the tree. They were stripped of everything useful. I managed to crawl around them for a while and get some shots of each one. Later that year I had to return and found the landscape had changed a little. The lowest branch of the tree used to be a good 10-12 feet high, now it was less than a foot above the ground. Evidently they just buried the entire squadron and left them to rot. What a shame. A squadron of sharkmouth aircraft, now a small hill in a field.
An EB-66 electronic counter-measures aircraft (callsign Bat-21). Was shot down by a surface-to-air missile (SAM)
Bat 21B is the aircraft call sign of an EB-66 that was slammed by an SA-2 missile just south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in 1972. The Navigator, lone survivor of the aircraft parachutes into the middle of a vast North Vietnamese Army (NVA) invasion of the south. Search and Rescue (SAR) missions launch into an area where the NVA has brought sufficient antiaircraft weaponry to contest American air superiority.
I must not have been clear in my original post. I’m quite familiar with the real story as it has been related in official documents and in various oral and written historical accounts, including the popular book “Bat 21.” The film version, in order to make things simple, took the dozens of aircraft and crews, many of whom did not survive the mission to save Col. Hambilton, and molded them all into a composite of one lone FAC and one a/c: Danny Glover in his O-2. I’m aware that OV-10’s were used as FACs in this incident, not surprising since it occurred quite late in the air war over SEA: in the first half of 1972 during or around the time of Linebacker 1, if I recall correctly. (I’m writing from memory, which is quite faulty these days.)
All I’m trying to find out is if someone watching the movie might catch the serial number. It was a long shot, but I’ve hit on some pretty long shots on this site.
BTW, Gene Hackman is an accomplished pilot in a number of types, and is quite the aerobatic whiz.
No luck with getting a serial number for the O-2 in “Bat 21”. I went through my copy of the movie and the few shots were too far away and the number were really small. Actually looked more like letters. Unless there were some still shots in a magazine about the movie that someone would happen to have you are out of luck on this one.
As the “O2-A” Was a 337 painted grey to look like the O2 I do not think it had standard tail numbers. They left the spinners on, and there are no windows in the R door and just in front of the door. It is quite obvious it is not a real O2. I’ll keep looking.