[:)]hi guys,can anyone tell where this plane served,? i got it from testors,looks like a nice kit,any comments on it.?thanks
Im assuming you mean the aircraft in general, and not just a particular unit. I know it saw action in the SE Asia theater during the Vietnam War as a platform for FACs. (Forward Air Controllers), and I know it has been retired from active service, but doing some research, (here’s the link I used, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OV-10_Bronco) I found that other agencies are now using it for other purposes. Good pics on photobucket!
It was in Viet Nam. It has been used by the California Division of Forestry for 10 or 15 years now as a spotter for the water bombers. The maintenance base is in Sacramento, near me.
The Testors kit is of the prototype. There is a resin conversion set that supplies wings with a longer span and other such stuff to make an accurate OV-10 as they were in service, but it builds OK as it is.
Gotta love the FAC aircraft. What brave warriors! I’ve had the honor of flying with these men and they continue to impress me every time.
http://www.ov-10bronco.net/OBA/
Should get you to all you need to know.
Our operations officer in the 5th FIS was an O-1 pilot with over 900 combat hours.
Everywhere the Air Force and Marines had need of light observation and forward air controllers. From Vietnam to Europe and the first Gulf War. It was retired in the early nineties.
[:)] thanks for all the input guys,i should fun building the kit,thanks again.
Don’t forget that the Navy flew them in Vietnam as well. VAL-4, the Black Ponies. My uncle was in the maintenance squadron for the wing. Pretty interesting paint schemes for these Broncos.
Yes, the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps all flew the OV-10. I always liked watching the way that the Marines used them to insert Recon or ANGLICO teams. Very impressive! In all the different services the OV-10A has quite a variety of paint schemes throughout it’s career.
Here is the story of a MOH winner flying an OV-10. Tomarrow is the anniversary of his loss.
Capt. Steven L. Bennett
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Capt. Steven L. Bennett, Medal of Honor recipient. (U. S. Air Force illustration by Virgie Reyes) |
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On June 29, 1972, Capt. Steve L. Bennett, a forward air controller and Marine Capt. Mike Brown, his observer, were answering a call to help a South Vietnamese platoon from the North Vietnamese Army. On that fateful day, Bennett chose to sacrifice his life to save another and was awarded the Medal of Honor from a grateful country. He had only been in combat for three months.
Bennett was born in April 1946 in Palestine, Texas, and entered the Air Force in 1968. He earned his pilot wings at Webb Air Force Base, Texas. In 1970, he completed the B-52 bomber training course at Castle AFB, Calif. He then transitioned to become a forward air controller, and graduated from the FAC and fighter training courses at Cannon AFB, N.M., before reporting to Vietnam in early 1972.
By June 1972, many U.S. servicemen had headed home and most of the remaining were preparing to furl their colors and return to the United States. North Vietnamese regulars were pushing south and the South Vietnamese were trying to block their descent.
Bennett was flying an Air Force OV-10 Bronco and directing American close air support fighters. His backseater was Marine Capt. Mike Brown. At dawn on June 29, Bennett got an emergency call. Several hundred North Vietnamese were preparing to strike a South Vietnamese platoon only about a mile away. Without U.S. help, the platoon would be overrun.
Bennett, call sign Covey 87, put his OV-10 into a power dive and attacked with his 7.62-mm machine guns blazing. After four strafing passes, the North Vietnamese began to fall back. Bennett swung around and began a fifth pass. By this time, another OV-10 had arrived to add firepower. As Covey 87 made a turn north in concert with his partner’s turn south, a surface-to-air missile hit the exhaust port on the left engine of his plane and destroyed it. The left gear was hanging and flames were leaping in the engine bay.
Bennett veered south toward an emergency landing field. The fire got worse and the pilot of the companion plane radioed to Bennett that he and his backseater had better punch out. Brown looked over his shoulder and discovered his parachute was shredded by fragments from the explosion. Bennett’s parachute was intact, but because of the configuration of the plane, he couldn’t go out alone. The backseater had to be ejected first before the pilot’s seat could go. Brown wouldn’t survive.
With complete disregard for his own life, Bennett elected to ditch the aircraft into the Gulf of Tonkin, even though he realized that a pilot of this type aircraft had never survived a ditching. The ensuing impact upon the water caused the aircraft to cartwheel and severely damage the front cockpit, making escape for Bennett impossible. The observer successfully made his way out of the aircraft and was rescued, but the OV-10 was sinking fast. Bennett, trapped in the broken cockpit, sank with it. A few minutes later, a rescue helicopter arrived and snatched the soaked Marine from the water. Bennett’s body was recovered the next day.
On Aug. 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford presented the Medal of Honor to Bennett’s widow, Linda, and his daughter, Angela.
On Nov. 20, 1997, a U.S. Navy-chartered commercial sealift ship was renamed Capt. Steven L. Bennett.
Fireball Modelworks [tup] produces decals for VAL-4 Broncos in both 1:48 and 1:72 scale
I have seen a photo and read a small snippet about an OV-1 that was assigned to an Aussie pilot who was on secondment to the USAF for FAC operations in Vietnam. The pilot (and/or his crew) painted a small red kangaroo (a la RAAF markings) onto the starboard nose of his Bronco.
Being against US regulations (or perhaps just against the base commander’s ideals), the Aussie was ordered to remove the 'roo from the aircraft. The symbol was duly removed, only to be reapplied a few days later.
This apparently then turned into something of an amusing cat-and-mouse game where the commander repeatedly ordered the removal of the 'roo, only to have it continually reappear on the aircraft overnight.
Does anyone know any more of this story? Specifically, I’d like to know the identity of the aircraft.
I think I remember that story too.
I’ll check.
O2
Sitrep:
The Jade FACs operated O-2s from Vung Tau in support of the First
Australian Task Force. We painted the Snoopy symbol on a red kangaroo
on the side of our aircraft.
When the aircraft were scheduled to visit Bien Hoa for maintenance, the
engineering officer ordered the removal of the Kangaroo. We added a
miniature kangaroo on the top of the fin which he never did notice. I
have photos if you wish.
More:
Hallo,
I know at least one such RAAF OV-10 pilot who had involvement with red
kangaroos on OV-10s. In this case the base was Lai Khe 1969, the
then Sidewinder TACP with the 3rd Brigade 1st Infantry Division, the
Big Red One!( therein lies maybe one implication of the adornment
chosen). The only thing is I was the ALO there at the time and I was
also RAAF on secondment to 7th AF, and while I remember there being
some kind of kerfuffle over the kangaroo when an aircraft was flown
to Ben Hoa for maintenance , I do not recall there being any local
problem at Lai Khe with the kangaroo’s presence on the OV-10(s), either
from me or the Division ALO, a USAF officer.
Some other evidence may be pertinent ( but purely circumstantial you
understand); in the 60s it was widespread practice on all bases
around south east asia where Australian (RAAF) units were based ( or
visiting) , whereby 6 inch red kangaroo stickers became affixed to any
foreign aircraft which could be approached( and some which could not) .
This practice was demonstrably frowned upon by much senior authority
as being quite delinquent behaviour. Understandably therefore , such
attitudes by authority was like red rag to a bull. Henceforth it
became very man’s duty to affix red kangaroo stickers to just about
anything that moved belonging to other nations . Now there were at one
point three RAAF pilots at Lai Khe including me , and two at Dian(
2nd Brigade Sidewinders) flying the OV -10s. So OV-10s from both
those bases often conducted VR missions involving landing at the
Australian base at Vung Tau for mainly administrative reasons, but
also to re-load the relevant TACP hooches with good Aussie Victoria
Bitter (also known as “green”). The back of the Bronco was
particularly suited to this task. Inevitably , any OV-10 which had
been to Vung Tau probably came away with a kangaroo sticker. But just
to further muddy the waters , there’s more.
The RAAF had a major base at Butterworth in Malaysia, near the resort
island of Penang where the RAAF pilots in Vietnam often went for their
short R&Rs. It’s quite possible that red kangaroo stickers from that
source could have found their way back to Lai Khe in luggage and to the
nose of OV-10s .
What aircraft tail numbers? Well of the Lai Khe inventory the first
which comes to mind is 14619 as almost a certainty, but others could
well have been 14633,14647, 14650, 14688,14690, or 3802.
Who were the pilots? WELL, I could not possibly comment as some of
them became very senior officers,
Mate, that’s all fantastic information. Thanks!!!
I usually model Aussie military or civil subjects but sometimes I like to extend this to foreign aircraft with an Aussie connection (such as the place-getters in the 1934 MacRobertson England-Australia air race, for which there are fortunately 1:72 models available for all aircraft). I have always liked the OV-10 but wanted something a little different from the usual “stars & bars”, so the Aussie connection here prompted me to ask about aircraft identity.
The reference where I saw the OV-10 with the red roo was an Australian publication titled “Target Charlie” that describes Aussie activity in the Vietnam air war. There is a photo of a Bronco and its pilot with the red roo on the nose but the aircraft’s identity was not apparent.
If you have any photos that you could share, I’d be most grateful. If you can’t post them here, you could send them to me directly at jvenables@iimetro.com.au
Alternatively, I’d be happy to pay for copies (& postage) if you can’t scan & e-mail them.
Thanks again - you have gone a long way to providing information that I have sought for 10 years or more!!!
Still more info:
The basic story is true. However, the Base Commander was not
involved. The unit crew chief was. The pilot involved was Ken
Mitchell and here is a repeat of what is written in a book called
“Hit My Smoke” by Chris Coulthard-Clark; a book about Aussie FAC
exploits in Vietnam while serving with the USAF.
“On my monthly trip to Vung Tau to collect my pay, I used to stencil
a red kangaroo on the nose of my OV-10. On my return to Bien Hoa the
USAF crew chief would get excited and tell me that it was against
regulations to paint foreign emblems on USAF aircraft and he would
promptly paint over it. As soon as he was out of sight, I would paint
the red kangaroo back on. This game went on for the duration of my
tour - the on-and-off-again red kangaroo”.
The caption under the photo says the Cu Chi crew chief was the law
abiding bloke. No doubt Ken would have got the same reaction from
Bien Hoa too.
Thanks to the Black Pony ground and air crews that flew out of Can Tho to support us in the Mekong near Seafloat/Solid Anchor. I was on an MSSC and I will NEVER forget the support by those guys. (Sept 70- April 71) BSU-1 Coronado, CA
Thanks and the best to all who served in the crews,
GMC John M. Staehle, USNR (Ret.)
well there are two different kinds of Broncos, but I actually only saw one in service. It was the one with the three tail fins. Where it came from I have no idea, but it must have been out of Da Nang AFB, as I never saw any in Chu Lai. The one we used to see almost everyday was painted a very dark blue or maybe even charcoal. It used to set up it’s compass orientation off out base at A102 about seven in the evening daily, and the head for the Ho Chi Min Trail out at the far end of the Que Son Valley. The plane carried these very large pods under each wing (not wing tanks), and we were told they were somekind of personel detection devices. Suspect that he flew a route from Kam Duc north to Lang Vie just inside of Laos because he never returned by our way.
gary
The OV-1 Mohawk had the 3 verticle fins. The OV-10 Bronco had 2.