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The Fairchild C-123 Provider is an American military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and built by Fairchild Aircraft for the U.S. Air Force.In addition to its USAF service, which included later service with the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, it went on to serve the U.S. Coast Guard and various air forces in Southeast Asia.
The squadron flew C-123 Provider and A-26A bomber aircraft over the Ho Chi Minh trail at night during the Vietnam War to interdict the movement of people and equipment. The squadron was inactivated on 30 June 1971.
After completing a staff tour in Europe, Jackson volunteered to go to Vietnam. He was assigned to the 311th Air Commando Squadron as a commander flying the C-123 Provider over South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The unit flew flare, communications cover, air evacuation, and search and rescue missions for downed aircraft.
The T-28 was the first North Vietnamese aircraft to shoot down a US aircraft, a C-123, on 15 February 1964. [4] The VPAF received its first jet fighter aircraft, the MiG-17 in February 1964, but they were initially stationed at air bases on mainland China, while their pilots were being trained.
A few months later the squadron was activated as a fixed wing troop carrier assault unit at Sewart and equipped with Fairchild C-123 Provider aircraft. It moved to Pope Air Force Base , North Carolina in 1958 when Tactical Air Command consolidated its C-123 units there and continued to fly the Provider until 1963, although after December 1961 ...
A C-47 was the very first USAF aircraft lost in the SEA conflict, C-47B 44-76330 (315th Air Division) on TDY at Vientiane, Laos which was shot down by the Pathet Lao on 23 March 1961 killing seven of the eight crewmen. The sole survivor, US Army Maj. Lawrence Bailey was captured and held until August 1962.
The airfield was capable of accommodating C-7 Caribou and C-123 aircraft. [1] The Mobile Advisory Teams advisor school operated at the base from 1969 until September 1971. [4] On 30 July 1969, US President Richard Nixon visited the base on his only Presidential visit to South Vietnam, meeting US military personnel. [5]
The missions in 1966 defoliated areas surrounding parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, near the Vietnam border and north of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone and had the approval of both the Thai and Laotian governments. C-123 aircraft were used on the missions. The missions were extensive enough to have required pre-positioning or ...