An Improvement in the Air

When U.S. infantrymen or their South Vietnamese allies need fast air support these days, the planes that scramble to help them may well carry red, gold, blue and white markings rather than the simple blue and white of the U.S. Air Force. The planes are those of the Viet Nam Air Force, and the results are usually similar whichever service answers the alarm. The Viet Nam air force, as well as the MIG-equipped North Vietnamese air arm, grew out of a nine-pilot unit that the French organized in 1951. After the 1954 Geneva agreements split the country, some of the pilots joined the South and the V.N.A.F. was established.

Power at a Price. The V.N.A.F. has developed into an organization of 1,000 pilots, 15,000 other officers and men and 400 planes. In its latest upgrading, the V.N.A.F is turning in propeller-driven A-1 Skyraiders for twin-engine A-37 jet attack planes. The 524th, or Thien-Loi (Thunder) Squadron recently went operational in A-37s at Nha Trang airbase, and two more squadrons of the jets will be flying by year's end.

The air force mission is to provide close air support for ground troops and handle the logistical needs of the South Vietnamese army. Like the army, the air force is now being equipped and trained by the U.S. to operate eventually on its own. Toward that goal the V.N.A.F. has been given about 100 helicopters, with three times that many still to come. C-47 cargo planes are being supplemented by bigger C-119s. One fighter squadron is already flying supersonic F-5 jets.

Though Vietnamese pilots could learn to fly any plane, the U.S. for now is equipping the V.N.A.F. with less sophisticated models. The A-37 is designed for counterinsurgency fighting: it maneuvers neatly with a sizable bomb load and can linger longer over targets than bigger fighter-bombers. It can reach a target more rapidly than the old A1. "This is the aircraft we need," says Captain Pham Van Pham of the 524th.

Jets may be a novelty to most Vietnamese pilots, but combat is not. U.S. flyers usually spend a year in Viet Nam, then go home. The Vietnamese airmen have been fighting many years for a fraction of the pay ($80 a month for a first lieutenant v. about $1,000 for his American counterpart). Major Nguyen Va Le, commander of the V.N.A.F.'s 518th Squadron, knows he has flown at least 2,000 combat missions but adds, "I lost track after I reached 2,000." Colonel Nguyen Huy Anh has flown for so long that he is wise to the cruel tricks of the Viet Cong. One of them is to force peasants into a clearing and make them hold up signs proclaiming their allegiance to the Viet Cong. "The V.C. want the peasants to die," explains Anh, "so they can say that we killed them. But we fool the V.C. We know V.C. hide in the bushes, so we fire into the bushes and not at the peasants in the field."

Lafayette East. Until three years ago, the V.N.A.F. was a kind of Asian Lafayette Escadrille. The pilots came from good families, had their pick of Vietnamese girls to date, were togged up by then Commander Nguyen Cao Ky in natty black flying suits, black boots and sunglasses. But they had scant discipline and seldom bothered about flight conditions or briefings on enemy preparedness. In those days, some pilots refused to fly at any altitude except 9,000 feet because nine is the Buddhist lucky number.

The arrival of U.S. advisers and the appointment of Major General Tran Van Minh to succeed Ky as commander have changed some of that. The Americans have taught aircraft care and flight safety. Minh, who works at a nine-phone desk but writes poetry in off-hours, wants his pilots to continue their sociability, "especially with the ladies," but to be disciplined when airborne. The improvement has raised the limited hope that some day, when the fighting is finally scaled down, the South Vietnamese will be able to carry their own in the air as well as on the ground.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.