US Airbase DaNang during Vietnam War

[Ian Warren]

Great piece of work, that is something I did not follow up on and shown in this scenery just how vast DaNang Airbase really was , many photos here on hardstands and fleeting glimpse, so it puts a good perspective on how compact and a busy place it was ... Crikey I was thinking of a full on multiplay , really make it busy.
Superb piece of work Klaus

[Crusader]

Was at Danang from Feb 67 to 1st of Aug 67 with VMFA - 235 " Death Angels " , we had the F-8U Crusaders . We occupied the Northwest corner of the airbase . In the six months I was there I saw six different airplane crashes . The worst being an A-6 Intruder taking off 35L in very heavy fog and struck a C-141 as it was crossing 35L on a taxiway . I believe I read it was a major air traffic control screw up . If I can get a decent scan out of my squadron cruise book it has a pic of the huge fire ball from the C-141 . Danang was a favorite target for the VC and their 122(??)rockets except on one particular night (I also witnessed this)as I was on the far sw corner of the tarmac at 35L where we had an area to de-arm and arm AC . We started getting hit by rockets and I could see an AC on approach on 17L and it happened to be an AC-47 "Puff" and needless to say he did a very quick T & G because he apparently saw the rocket flashes when the VC were firing them and a few short minutes latter you heard the familiar buzz saw sound from the mini guns .No more rockets.I hope the pilot and crew got a metal because I'm sure they saved a lot of lives . . The VC gun crew on the other hand , probably not much left .

Rich

[Ian Warren]

Was at Danang from Feb 67 to 1st of Aug 67 with VMFA - 235 " Death Angels " , we had the F-8U Crusaders . We occupied the Northwest corner of the airbase . In the six months I was there I saw six different airplane crashes . The worst being an A-6 Intruder taking off 35L in very heavy fog and struck a C-141 as it was crossing 35L on a taxiway . I believe I read it was a major air traffic control screw up . If I can get a decent scan out of my squadron cruise book it has a pic of the huge fire ball from the C-141 .

Rich I do have a good description and the whys and how that happen with photo's I'll dig that for you.

[awstub]

Is it possible to have the various squadrons stationed at Da Nang park in their area of the flight line? (i.e. the USAF park in the NE corner and the USMC in the NW corner, etc...).
If so, what would be the best way to accomplish this?

[Crusader]

Rich I do have a good description and the whys and how that happen with photo's I'll dig that for you.

Thanks Ian , I remember it was a HUGE fireball !

Appreciate it , even if it was foggy and it was way back in 1967 , as big a tail as the 141 had on it I don't know how that should have happened .

Rich

[tankerguy72]

Nice! This looks like the perfect base for my 123 project when I finish.

[Ian Warren]

That C-123 would be Ideally suited , Tankerguy , that looks Brilliant

[Ian Warren]

Thanks Ian , I remember it was a HUGE fireball !

Appreciate it , even if it was foggy and it was way back in 1967 , as big a tail as the 141 had on it I don't know how that should have happened .

Rich

[Crusader]

Wow Ian , quite an article . I had my 35 R and left turned around . Very detailed . Did not realize it was a Vietnamese controller involved .

Thanks for posting . That was almost 50 years ago . Brought back some memories .

Rich

[Ian Warren]

It is a bit sad really with loosing aircraft and crews that way, Da Nang looking at how Vast Klaus showed in his model , you could it would a base that was so busy add the weapons to mix with the time tables, very surprised anyone one survived that at all, the A-6 crew were very Very lucky!

[p14u2nv]

Thank you very much Klaus, this is very much appreciated.

[klnowak]

Thanks to all user for you nice words. Hope you will enjoy this one for a long time.



Update :

Just made the first update to the scenery by using all the information and tips i`ve been given by some users here.

What you will get with this update :


1.) Some changes to the AFCAD so it now will be a little smother on fps.
2.) Some new buildings are placed.
3.) The DaNang tower and the tower of Marble Mountain airport are changed and now look more realistic. Just placed them to the right place now.
4.) The repaints of F-4C Phantoms are more realistic now and ai-flightplan has changed a little bit.

Uploading just now to the library

Greetings
Klaus

[Rami]

Good evening,

This is the SOH librarian. I have modified the original package following the instructions carefully. However, given the size of the original download versus the update, I will leave the update in the library for seven days prior to removing the update. This should allow time for those using the scenery to get their hands on the update without having to download the entire package again. After one week, the update will be removed, leaving the original download with the update included.

[Crusader]

Excuse poor quality scans from my cruise book . The pics were old and so is the scanner . Danang made a aircraft history buff out of me for sure . Just a small list of AC I saw there : The grand old " War Horse " F-8U " , A-6's , A-4's , F-4's , 105's , Navy and Air Force versions of the 121's , 130's , 123's , A-1's , O-1's , O-2's just to name a few . Loved watching the S Viet AF taxi the A-1's loaded with every known piece of ordnance you could think of and the big old radials grunting and growling . The 141's tail standing out in the huge fireball .

Rich

[SSI01]

You need to add this aircraft, parked in one of the revetments on the south side of the field. It is a Navy NC-121J of OASU in 1966/67,
which became VX-8 then VXN-8 in the 1970 time frame.

I crewed on that aircraft, ,flying missions every evening in the summer of 1967. We went north and orbited over the
South China Sea of Haiphong and as soon as the NVN radio station went off the air I 'brought us up' on the same frequency,
broadcasting audio tape content that was delivered to us on the flight line every evening. We flew missions under the
auspices of SOG.

From one of the web sites: "The objective of Project Jenny was to build a flying platform for TV and radio broadcast for troop entertainment and psychological warfare"

I think I have an FS2004 L1049 painted as 'Blue Eagle 1', '627' floating around on one of my hard drives. Could be converted to
a static MDL of just a static AI.



A page on the VP Navy Site

A link to the Project JennY site

More Project Jenny info and aircraft descriptions

A link to the Blue Eagles of Vietnam site

Paul

If you can find that texture you've mentioned it would be greatly appreciated. I've got an interest in special or arcane aircraft from that period. Those antennae on top of that -121 are impressive.

[Ian Warren]

Excuse poor quality scans from my cruise book . The pics were old and so is the scanner . Danang made a aircraft history buff out of me for sure . Just a small list of AC I saw there : The grand old " War Horse " F-8U " , A-6's , A-4's , F-4's , 105's , Navy and Air Force versions of the 121's , 130's , 123's , A-1's , O-1's , O-2's just to name a few .

Thanks for those Rich, it is amazing the amount of people with the interest and peoples still following up with so much, the aircraft types and adding today's movies showing a little

Loved watching the S Viet AF taxi the A-1's loaded with every known piece of ordnance you could think of and the big old radials grunting and growling.

That is one aircraft the captures everyone's imagination "every known piece of ordnance you could think of" Ya simply have to love it !

[Ian Warren]

Good evening,
This is the SOH librarian. I have modified the original package following the instructions carefully. However, given the size of the original download versus the update, I will leave the update in the library for seven days prior to removing the update. This should allow time for those using the scenery to get their hands on the update without having to download the entire package again. After one week, the update will be removed, leaving the original download with the update included.

Thanks for the heads up Rami , an excuse to get in there now and have a look at it

[Ian Warren]

Now there was word on one working on a C-141 a few years back, be nice to see the C-141A again course bring on the 'B' and 'C' may as well , last flight of the Starlifter out off Christchurch before getting retired was 2006 , it was not heading to a hot-spot tho .. 'Operation Deep Freeze' cooled that down.

[joe bob]

Speaking of 141's I remember whilst engaged in a doomed attempt to chat up a female 141 flight engineer in the boxed lunch line she mentioned that a C-141 could beat an F-4 to 10,000 feet.
Despite my best efforts, that was the only memorable part of the encounter. As I was going down in flames I neglected to ask her how the 141 and F-4 would have been loaded.

[Crusader]

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Vis...anoi-taxi.aspx

Have seen this beauty many times as I am about an hour and 45 minute drive from the National Museum of the Air Force . I would guess I've there at least 15 to 20 times over the years . Now how lucky can a guy be ! Sorry for straying way off Klaus's excellent Danang scenery .

Rich

[GypsyBaron]

If you can find that texture you've mentioned it would be greatly appreciated. I've got an interest in special or arcane aircraft from that period. Those antennae on top of that -121 are impressive.

"Blue Eagle I" BuNo.131627 was a 'radio plane' and flew missions out of Da Nang while Blue Eagles II, III and VI (444, 641 and 655)
were Radio/TV birds that flew missions out of Tan Son Nhut. Those aircraft had antennas protruding from the underside of the plane.

I was deployed with '627' to Da Nang in the summer of '67 and by then those antenna were gone, As I recall, replaced instead with a
winch which let out a long trailing wit\re that served as the broadcast transmitter's antenna.

Each night, when we arrived on station off the coast 'up north' I would leave my control console and go back aft
and start letting out the antenna which had a heavy bronze 'bomb' attacked to keep the wire trailing straight out
behind us as we flew a long race track while we broadcast to the people of North Vietnam. I remember that there was
an axe back there next to the winch which could be used to cut the wire should the need arise.

Back at my console, I listened to the NVN radio station and when I heard their anthem being played I put our transmitter
in 'standby' and as soon as they went off the air I started the audio tape player rolling and threw the switch to put us 'on the air'
on the same frequency. We orbited until the taped programming ended then I shut the transmitter down, went aft and started
the winch and reeled in the antenna.

On a note regarding the C-41 - A-6 disaster, when I was there in '67 I recall that there was the tail section of a B-52 off the end
of one of those runways. Apparently, as I was told, the B-52 was making an emergency landing there and ran off the end of the
runway into a mine filed.



Paul