Vietnam War memories still fresh after 50 years for area veteran

  • Published
  • By Will Huntington
  • 88 Air Base Wing Public Affairs

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The passage of fifty years can dim recollections for many, but the events of Jan. 31, 1968, at Bien Hoa Air Base, Vietnam, located northeast of the then-capitol, Saigon, remain clear in the memory of Col. (ret.) Fred Abrams.

That day at Bien Hoa during the Vietnam War, was part of the beginning of the initial phase of the infamous Tet Offensive, so-named for coinciding with the Tet holiday, or Vietnamese New Year, when North Vietnamese forces drove deep into South Vietnam in a series of coordinated attacks through January and February. Subsequent incursions from the North followed in May and June and later in August and September of that same year.

Then-1st Lt. Abrams, a 24 year-old, Air Force F-100 “Super Sabre” fighter pilot, had been awakened that morning by enemy rocket and mortar explosions and he, like many of his fellow Airmen, had to shelter in bunkers while the attack began to play out nearby.

From the early morning hours, the North Vietnamese Army and their fellow Viet Cong combatants occupied the east end of the air field, including the aircraft arming and de-arming area, and were in a position to shoot at any aircraft attempting to take off. Further complicating matters, battle damage and debris from rocket and mortar attacks made the runway unsafe. As a result, flight operations for Abrams’ squadron were curtailed most of the day.

At noon Abrams and his flight leader were able to get their aircraft on alert status and wait for the call to launch. Finally, at 4 p.m., the two in their bomb-laden aircraft took to the skies to try to provide the close-air support that the current situation for the U.S. forces called for.

Because of the closeness of the enemy and the fluid situation on the ground, Abrams and his flight leader weren’t permitted to engage targets right away.

“We orbited over the base for an hour and 20 minutes while the army tried to relocate and the army general tried to handle it with artillery,” Abrams later wrote in a letter home. “The artillery strike was ended when rounds started hitting our army troops. Then we were called in.”

What he was called in to do, was to attack enemy positions on the installation itself, or, in essence, to bomb his own base.

“They were very hesitant about an air strike because the troops were so close to the target and there was absolutely no margin for error,” Abrams wrote. “The friendly troops marked their positions with colored smoke. My leader, Major Bulger, rolled in and put his napalm on target. I followed with my napalm right on target.

“We could see them shooting at us the whole time. We each made two bombing passes after that and put all bombs right on target,” Abrams continued. “My bomb, which was the last one dropped, scored a direct hit on a storage building and caused numerous secondary explosions.”

According to after-action assessments, the strike’s controller indicated that the airstrike brought about the end of the battle. Abrams, however, gives credit for the successful repulse of the attack at Bien Hoa to the base’s Security Police and also the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division based nearby.

Abrams recalls two other encounters with the enemy in March of that year where he was called upon to provide close air support for the Army. One mission came to the aid of “troops in contact” on March 13, and, because of intense enemy ground fire directed at him as he maneuvered in to attack his target, it was an encounter that Abrams still vividly remembers as one he almost didn’t return from.

“I ended up in a face-to-face shootout with the 50 cal site that was shooting at me,” Abrams said of a large-caliber, enemy machine gun crew intensely focused on knocking him out of the sky; a crew who he felt might actually succeed. “The real significance of that day was that I fully expected to die.”

Another mission on March 21, successfully assisted an embattled and surrounded long range reconnaissance patrol, or LLRP. Because of Abrams actions to keep the enemy at bay, Army helicopters were able to safely extract the soldiers.

Abrams retired at Wright-Patt in 1992 where he spent 17 of his 27 years of service, including time at the then-Aeronautical Systems Center, now the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and the then-Air Force Logistics Command, which became the Air Force Materiel Command shortly before his retirement.  He now lives locally and this January he travelled to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC to attend the unveiling of a painting depicting an F-100 lifting off from Bien Hoa during the Tet Offensive. The painting is a tribute to the crucial role that the jet and its pilots, including Abrams, played. Abrams also looks forward to a planned reunion in June with some of the soldiers he helped 50 years ago.

“The 50th anniversary of my time in combat is giving me a lot of time to reflect,” Abrams said. “The event in June with the U.S. Army troops will likely be a highlight of the year, surpassing the Jan. 31 event at the Smithsonian.”

While war is typically associated with battles and destruction, it wasn’t all flying missions for Abrams in Vietnam and those activities also had a lasting impression on him. He had additional duty at Bien Hoa as a civic action officer for his squadron, the 531st Tactical Fighter Squadron. The 531st “Ramrods” supported a school, an orphanage and a leper colony. Those non-combat experiences away from the cockpit helped shape his future desires to provide service to others. He related how that humanitarian effort still colored his life.

“That was incredibly rewarding and formative in my more recent efforts leading Rotary projects for water, sanitation, health care and education in Africa since 2007,” Abrams said of his experiences working with the service organization, Rotary International.