For educational purposes
The constant threat to all American aircraft missions was the Russian built missile known as SAM, which employed various levels of sophistication.
One counter action taken was the Wild Weasel mission : Weasel pilots would fly ahead of other aircraft, exposing themselves to enemy radar lock-on, so the Shrike missile they carried could use the same signal to target enemy ground-base, and thereby clear the way.
The fascinating legend of Wild Weasel has never been told before today.
The constant threat to all American aircraft missions was the Russian built missile known as SAM, which employed various levels of sophistication.
One counter action taken was the Wild Weasel mission : Weasel pilots would fly ahead of other aircraft, exposing themselves to enemy radar lock-on, so the Shrike missile they carried could use the same signal to target enemy ground-base, and thereby clear the way.
The fascinating legend of Wild Weasel has never been told before today.
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LearningTranscript
00:00North Vietnam, the heart of enemy territory, had evolved into a fortress, ringed by the
00:19latest Soviet weaponry.
00:21SA-2 surface-to-air missiles lined common flying routes and protected air bases, supply
00:27lines, and city centers.
00:30All too often, the weapons proved to be deadly accurate.
00:36The only way to stop the SA-2s was to lure them out and hopefully escape before they
00:42claimed another life.
00:43It was a mission that took skill, instinct, and guts of steel.
00:51The planes and pilots who dared to carry out this cat-and-mouse tactic were called the
00:56wild weasels.
01:24Flying planes and pilots were engaged in a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam
01:30called Rolling Thunder.
01:34The operation required F-105 fighter bombers to strike increasingly deeper into enemy territory.
01:46Using payloads of 500-pound iron bombs, the planes went after the communist war-making capability.
01:53Bridges, refineries, and rail yards were just a few of the strike fighters' targets.
01:58Initially, the U.S. air crews easily defeated the relatively primitive North Vietnamese air defense network.
02:12Other than a few radar-directed anti-aircraft guns, the most threatening air defenses came from the Viet Cong.
02:28They fired everything from Russian AK-47s, to muskets, to muskets, to handguns.
02:40However, as rolling thunder progressed, the North Vietnamese realized the need for better air defenses.
02:46Soon, greater numbers of big anti-aircraft guns, ranging from 57 up to 120 millimeter, began to arrive from the Soviet Union.
03:02And finally, in the spring of 1965, the Soviet-built SA-2 surface-to-air missile showed up in the port of Haiphong.
03:21This two-stage, radar-controlled rocket could travel at three times the speed of sound.
03:30Weighing as much as an SUV, and measuring up to 35 feet long, the missile aptly earned the nickname, the Flying Telephone Pole.
03:40It was also controllable.
03:43The SAM could be rigged to explode at a specific altitude, or within range of a certain aircraft.
03:56If a pilot was unaware that a SAM had launched, and if the radar trackers could keep the plane in their radar beam, the missile would strike with devastating accuracy.
04:07On July 21st, 1965, an American jet came face-to-face with the SAM's capability.
04:18The first plane was lost, followed by eight more in less than four months.
04:23Something had to be done.
04:29Immediately, a top-secret program called Wild Weasel was launched.
04:34The plan called for F-100Fs to be outfitted with the latest radar homing and warning gear.
04:40To test the new weapon, five volunteer flight crews were hand-picked from among the Air Force's best F-100 pilots and electronic warfare officers, or EWOs.
04:51Major Gary Willard was in charge of their training.
04:54It seemed rather funny to us at the time that the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force came down to talk to us,
05:01as did Secretary of the Air Force Brown.
05:07We knew then that we had a pretty important mission, but we didn't know exactly what we were getting into.
05:16There was no time to lose.
05:19Within a month, the Weasels, as the new planes and crews were called, were bound for some real-world testing in Southeast Asia.
05:25The men were briefed that the strike forces were taking a beating.
05:30If U.S. planes weren't taken out by SAMs, then they were at least forced down into the range of some of the most deadly anti-aircraft barrages in history.
05:39The Weasels jumped into action.
05:43On November 21st, 1965, Major Willard, leading a covert flight of four, met up with a squadron of F-105s heading to Korat Air Base in Thailand.
05:57We were all top secret. I mean, it was so secret that when we joined up with the 105s over the coast of California,
06:07we took 20 airplanes into Hawaii, and they never knew we were there until we landed.
06:13So what are you guys doing here?
06:14The overhauled planes were packed with a series of electronic sensors.
06:23With these, the electronic weapons officer, or BEAR, could find the type and direction of enemy radar.
06:30If he wasn't able to find the SAM from its radar signature, there was an experimental warning receiver built in to warn of a SAM launch.
06:37But the ultimate goal of this warning capability, to ride the radar beams to their source, so that the weasels could kill before being killed.
06:48I can remember Bill Cooper, who lost his life in Vietnam to a SAM.
06:55He said, Gary, you're going to do what? With what? To whom?
07:01SAM's suppression flights fell under the code name, Iron Hand.
07:07Generally, the weasels preferred to fly ahead of the strike force to allow more time for identifying and hopefully destroying potential threats.
07:17Essentially, they were sent in to act as bodyguards to the strike force, a job that put them directly in the line of fire.
07:25On December 20th, the weasels learned firsthand just how dangerous their job was.
07:30Two crews, led by John Pitchford and Bob Trier, were flying in typical formation ahead of a strike force of F-105s.
07:39Thirty miles northwest of Hanoi, they picked up several enemy radar signals simultaneously.
07:46There was no time to react.
07:48Pitchford and Trier's plane was hit.
07:54Almost immediately, the hydraulics began to fail, and their F-100 nosed into an uncontrollable dive.
08:01While both men were able to bail out after considerable difficulty, they were immediately confronted by North Vietnamese militia upon landing.
08:16John and Bob didn't come back.
08:23John was a prisoner of war for over seven years.
08:27Bob Trier, unfortunately, what we have been able to piece together was killed, trying to escape capture.
08:37So that was really a bad day.
08:39From that day forward, the weasels changed their tactics.
08:46To mask their movements, they decided to fly as low as possible, just above treetop level.
08:53Just two days later, during a strike against the rail yard located on the notorious Red River, this tactic was put to the test.
09:00As soon as the lead weasel crew crossed into North Vietnam, they identified a SAM radar signal that was apparently searching for their flight.
09:11The crew immediately dove to mask their position.
09:16Periodically, the crew popped up from behind the hills to fix a new bearing on the enemy signal.
09:21Soon, a second SAM radar was identified, while the first had locked onto and was tracking their aircraft.
09:30The pilot approached a tiny village where he discovered a well-camouflaged radar control van and three missiles.
09:38The crew unleashed a barrage of 2.75-inch rockets and then strafed the village with 20-millimeter cannon fire.
09:46The pilot could see the North Vietnamese troops scattering from the site.
09:51The 20-millimeter walked right into one of the SAMs, causing a large explosion.
09:56With smoke billowing from the site, the rest of the flight struck with tremendous force,
10:02repeatedly unleashing barrages of rockets and cannon fire until the site had been destroyed and the radar signal was off the air.
10:09While the other SAM site furiously searched for the strike force, the weasels led the 105s down behind a hill and sped from the area.
10:20The mission had worked exactly as intended.
10:24The following day, the 7th Air Force publicized destruction of the SAM site to the world.
10:30But there was no mention of the wild weasels.
10:34Instead, the F-105s were credited with the kill.
10:39The project was still so secret that no one outside of the Pentagon and the men back at base knew about this new and unusual strike force.
10:49That was really the beginning of the wild weasel program, and it demonstrated that, yes, we could find them and destroy them.
10:59A secret program called the wild weasels intended to counter surface-to-air missiles has been deemed a success, but its fate is still uncertain.
11:18Two problems continue to plague the fledgling project.
11:21One was the speed of its aircraft, F-100.
11:25They were much slower than the F-105s they were supposed to protect.
11:29This forced the F-105s to fly at much slower speeds on approach to the target area, posing unnecessary risks to the strike pilots.
11:38This also meant that the slower weasels were often left to fend for themselves on the way in and out of the target area.
11:45As soon as we came off the target, I noticed that we were alone, of course, because the F-105s, the only thing we could see was them disappearing in the distance heading south.
11:58So there about came that expression, first in, last out.
12:04Had nothing to do with anything amounting to a great amount of courage.
12:07It just was that we didn't have enough ghost stuff in our airplane to keep up with the F-105s.
12:16Another problem had to do with the weasels' ordnance load.
12:20They just couldn't carry as much as the F-105s.
12:23While both carried 20mm rounds and rockets, the F-105s also carried conventional bombs.
12:29Also, to destroy the targets with their particular payload, the weasels had to head straight into the SAM site at an extremely low altitude.
12:42This put the airmen well within range of anti-aircraft and even small arms fire.
12:47In March of 66, the danger became a reality.
12:51A second weasel crew was downed and both men killed when their plane was struck from below.
12:56The loss served as a lesson to test new ordnance configurations.
13:09Cluster bomb units proved to be among the most promising for suppressing anti-aircraft fire and triggering explosions in the missiles.
13:17Each bomblet detonated just above the ground, sending thousands of steel pellets throughout the site.
13:22In addition to conventional bombs carried by the 105s, the weasels also tried dropping napalm canisters.
13:32However, the large tanks also required a low release altitude and created considerable drag on the already slow F-100s.
13:39In March of 1966, the Air Force found a solution. They replaced the plane. A new version of the F-105F would take over the weasel mission and it would carry a new missile.
13:53The radar-seeking AGM-45 Shrike.
13:55The arrival of these specially configured two-seat 105s finally provided the weasels with the speed needed to keep pace with strike aircraft and to evade enemy threats when necessary.
14:08However, it was the Shrike that had the biggest impact on the weasel's ability to suppress SAMs.
14:13We saw a big change in the way the radar operators on the ground, the North Vietnamese and their Russian advisors, when we would launch that Shrike, the radars would go down.
14:27When the radars went down, of course, that's when they'd lose their ability to launch the missile accurately.
14:33The Shrike was being developed as early as 1958 to counter the emerging threat posed by Soviet SAMs.
14:42The missile was rushed into service after a U-2 reconnaissance plane became the first confirmed victim by an SA-2 during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
14:52During a typical mission, the weasels and all other strike aircraft joined up with a KC-135 tanker almost immediately after takeoff.
15:08The 105s were notorious fuel guzzlers, especially during combat operations when pilots frequently employed their afterburners.
15:15As a result, it was critical for crews to take on the maximum amount of fuel possible before heading north.
15:24Once refueled, the weasels moved out ahead of the flight, usually in a Y formation with the strike aircraft trailing in the middle and some distance behind.
15:34For the duration of the mission, the safety of the entire flight rested in the hands of the electronic warfare officers, or BEARS.
15:42Well, the real key to the weasel mission is the guy in the back seat, or the BEAR.
15:48The BEAR has been trained to understand and to operate in an electronic environment.
15:55He knows the signals, he knows how to identify and to react to the signals, which ones are good and which ones are bad, which ones are going to hurt us.
16:05He's very proficient in the use of the weapons, even though he didn't actually fire the weapons themselves, but that's irrelevant. He could say, shoot.
16:15In addition to monitoring radar threats on various scopes, the BEAR listened intently to hundreds of strange signals emitted by North Vietnamese radars.
16:23To his trained ear, each sound was quite distinct and contributed to a mental image of how radar operators on the ground were responding to the incoming strike force.
16:34It would have been impossible for the pilot alone to effectively digest the dense signal patterns over North Vietnam.
16:40But the BEAR could focus solely on pinpointing the location of enemy threats, instantly assign a priority to them, and recommend a course of action.
16:49We had essentially a receiver that picked up the frequency of the SAM radar.
16:57We turned in the direction, we had needles that told us that we were going straight into it.
17:02And at that time we didn't have missiles that could go around the corner to hit the site.
17:07We had the Shrikes, which had to go straight in.
17:10And once we lined up, we thought we had to kill, we fired the Shrike.
17:14The Shrike had a range of 5 to 10 miles and was designed to destroy the radar control antennae by riding the signal beam back to its source.
17:28When the missile struck, its warhead scattered 23,000 steel fragments throughout the target.
17:34There was one hitch, though, with this anti-radiation missile.
17:37If the enemy radar signal shut down before impact, the Shrike's guidance system was rendered useless and the weapon would miss its target.
17:47In addition, the missile had a relatively small warhead.
17:51As a result, Weasel crews and the 105s that accompanied them frequently struck sites with conventional bomb loads after a Shrike hit just to make sure that the site was destroyed.
18:01Among the conventional weapons favored by Weasel crews were cluster bombs.
18:10The dispersion pattern of the bomblets and the steel pellets that they emitted allowed the Weasels to saturate a relatively large site.
18:18These cluster bombs would go out and hopefully hit some of the missiles and cause explosions in the missiles and cause explosions in the fuel vans and the other kinds of things so you could blow the site up.
18:29Blow the site up. That was the reliable way of tearing down a site, is go in there with the bombs and blow the site up.
18:37The Shrike's function was to hit the radar antenna and shut the radar down.
18:43Maybe the Shrike would get into the radar van, but you wouldn't do damage to the rest of the site.
18:49By mid-1966, they had figured out an effective way to destroy the SAM sites before they launched.
19:05In the meantime, the threats had multiplied. There were far too many for the Weasels to take on individually.
19:12As a result, they simply tried to position themselves far enough out in front of the flight to act as a decoy for the missiles that were launched.
19:20To many strike pilots, this seemed like an admirable but somewhat suicidal goal.
19:25I felt the Weasels had the advantages because we knew where they were coming from and we were expecting them. We were the decoys.
19:37So it was our job to invite them up to shoot at us and then get the hell out of the way.
19:41Weasel crews learned early on that they could evade oncoming SAMs in a high-stakes game of chicken, provided that they could actually see the missile.
19:53The bear immediately knew when a missile had launched. He and the pilot would then frantically search below for signs of a large dust cloud or for a smoke trail left in the rocket's supersonic wake.
20:04Once the missile was in sight, the pilot began evasive procedures.
20:11As the missile was coming up, you start down and then as the missile got closer, you would then start up again and start like what we call the yo-yo, up and down, up and down.
20:24And the missile would then get out of sequence with you and pretty soon they couldn't track you anymore.
20:29It just didn't have that capability because it was going so fast, it was so heavy and had a limited guidance capability.
20:37Debris from SAMs that missed their targets, and even those that struck, often landed among civilian populations.
20:46This led to cries of American bombing atrocities by the North Vietnamese government.
20:51Teamwork was critical to the success and survival of Wild Weasel crews.
21:02The slightest bit of strife between the pilot and his backseater could ultimately pose a threat to an entire strike force.
21:09This guy and this pilot had to live in harmony. You know, they could not afford for these two guys to be bickering at each other.
21:22We tried to find out which guys really gravitated toward each other. We normally found out about that at the bar.
21:27The pilots and their backseaters were allowed to pair up into teams based on their own preferences.
21:37From that point forward, the crews lived, ate, socialized, slept, and trained together in order to develop close bonds.
21:46Trust between the bear and the pilot was the single most important element of their relationship.
21:51Many backseaters had never set foot in a high performance jet fighter, let alone one that was threatened in combat.
21:59And many of the pilots had never flown with or wanted to fly with a backseater.
22:04In fact, many opposed the idea at first. But there was simply no choice in the matter.
22:10Weasel missions required the skill and attention of both men.
22:15We had a hot mic, so we could hear each other breathing.
22:18And whenever one of us had something to say, we talked.
22:22And there were crews, some crews that were talking constantly.
22:27So much so that when I flew with some of the guys that were big talkers, I asked them to just cut it.
22:33But my pilot and I, for whatever the reasons were, we were good friends.
22:38We understood each other. We were able to speak to each other.
22:41The reactions between the two of us, the interaction between the two of us was perfect.
22:45I mean, we survived. And I think that was the reason for having guys team up so they could learn to understand and know each other.
22:55And that was one of the keys to survival in the Weasel business is that you and the pilot kind of worked as one guy rather than as two separate individuals.
23:01The crew's ability to anticipate each other's thoughts became critical when entering high-threat areas.
23:09The radios were often jammed with excited calls from other members of the flight.
23:14This, coupled with the endless array of audio signals emanating from enemy radars and other electronics, meant that communication had to be precise.
23:22As a result, Weasel crews often communicated with grunts and one-liners.
23:36Even in dead silence, some crews felt that they could still communicate.
23:40That's a great deal fight. A lot of flack out there. That's a little fight.
23:43That's a little fight. A lot of flack out there. That's a little fight.
23:47Roger, let's go get in.
23:56Roger, I'm right over the target right now. I've got a 17 right before I'm here.
23:59Roger, I'm right over the target right here.
24:00Roger, I'm right over the target right now.
24:02The weasel's motto, first in, last out,
24:29did originate from the mismatch in airspeed between the slower F-100s and the F-105s that they escorted.
24:36However, the motto took on a whole new significance after 1966, when the weasels received their own 105s.
24:45Rather than changing their tactics, the crews continued to practice this strategy out of necessity
24:51and out of a sincere desire to provide strike crews with adequate protection.
24:59As the first in, last out says, we're in there looking for the threats.
25:05Hopefully we can kill them or get them, get them to put their heads down or do whatever,
25:10while the strike force comes in behind us.
25:12So we did lead the force in.
25:15And then when they left, yeah, we were hanging around to make sure nobody got them on the way out.
25:22Okay, this is Banjo, got a contact down in the target area.
25:26Pulled up about 10 degrees inside a punch.
25:30Well, let me see, get me lined up.
25:31Okay, keep sending luck.
25:33Okay.
25:33I'm moving out now, he's strong.
25:35My punch, he's going to get strong in a minute.
25:38Okay, I got that, ma'am.
25:39And he's going to drop the line.
25:42He's coming, right, yo.
25:43Strong.
25:44And, launch, take it down, take it down, launch, launch, launch, launch.
25:48Take it down, Chris.
25:50Which way, now?
25:51So there's a launch, 11 of the plot.
25:53We can take it down.
25:54Roger, Banjo, take it down.
25:56We got a launch, I see them coming off the band as well.
25:58It's a lot.
25:59I think we're all right for the time, man.
26:01Pretty much, looks good.
26:02Okay, Detroit, let's get out of here to the south west.
26:08Sams and Flack were not the only threat that the Weasels had to contend with.
26:13There was also the ever-present threat of Soviet-built MiGs.
26:20We got a bogey-low at two.
26:23Okay, Detroit, sir.
26:24There's a MiG going, uh, turning south there.
26:27Roger, I'm going in and break off right.
26:29I see in loud and clear.
26:37The Weasels were forced to tangle with MiGs periodically.
26:41On April 19th, 1967, Major Leo Thorsness and his bear, Captain Harold Johnson, became the first to down one of the Soviet planes.
26:51More victories would follow, along with several losses.
26:54The mission usually ended much as it began, with the strike force and then the Weasels returning to the tankers.
27:07Refueling was so routine that time spent gassing up became a much-needed quiet moment for the crews to reflect.
27:15And it was about that time that when we hit the tanker that I would think about the mission, because during the mission, everything is instinctive.
27:25You know, it's all calculated.
27:27You know what you're going to do.
27:27You know what you have to do.
27:28Wild Weasels hunted down and killed 89 SAM sites and prevented hundreds more from launching during the Rolling Thunder campaign over North Vietnam.
27:48Their success came with a high cost.
27:5242 American airmen missing, killed, or captured, and more than a couple of dozen aircraft downed.
27:59Among them were five of the first F-105s within a few months of their introduction.
28:05The mission was so dangerous, it was nearly impossible for Weasel crews to complete the 100 flights necessary to fulfill their tour and return home.
28:14The likelihood that they would be killed, captured, or wounded was so real that filling out dream sheets for their next tour was considered pointless.
28:24Still, there were men willing to carry out the Weasel mission.
28:27I don't feel that you can go into a job like this under pressures of feeling you're not going to survive.
28:35Because if you go into combat feeling you're not going to survive, you're going to die.
28:41You've got to go in basically feeling invincible.
28:44You've got to do it calculated.
28:46You don't take stupid risks.
28:48But you go in and know that you know what the hell you're doing, you're the best in your business, and you're going to survive.
28:55In an effort to control the number of losses, the Air Force ordered all 105s to carry at least one defensive missile and one electronic countermeasure pod that could jam enemy radars.
29:06The orders were not well received by the Weasels.
29:09They complained that this would limit the number of Shrikes they could carry.
29:15While the Weasels were eventually exempted from the order, they did have to comply with a different set of restrictions that were more of a political nature.
29:23It was very frustrating in some respects.
29:29For example, we couldn't go after sites that were under construction because politically we weren't allowed to kill Soviets who may have been down there putting, helping putting these sites together.
29:41This was very frustrating.
29:42Within a year and a half, the North Vietnamese had quadrupled the number of SAM sites.
29:49In each of those sites, there were several hundred missiles ready to fire at any moment.
29:54Soon, weasel crews came to recognize the tactics of certain enemy radar operators at particular sites.
30:02Some airmen even jousted with individual operators who repeatedly turned their radar on and off, as if teasing the weasels who were trying to pinpoint the well-camouflaged site.
30:14The sites definitely had personalities.
30:17They were mobile.
30:19You'd go up there one day and there was nobody home.
30:22The next day, there they were.
30:25They were very disciplined.
30:28And they were pretty effective as they learned.
30:31You've got to remember, they were learning the weapon just as well as we were, learning our own weapons.
30:36We were in a whole new era of warfare.
30:40As time went on, they would learn, one, not to keep the radars up so long to give us alert time.
30:45They would try to get blasts and pick us up and then pass information to other sites.
30:54Their tactic got better, and therefore we had to develop newer tactics.
30:59Perhaps the most deadly tactic employed by North Vietnamese SAM operators was a scenario known as popcorn or Dr. Pepper.
31:11Under this scheme, a weasel crew would identify a valid radar threat and begin their approach to strike, but would find that the radar had gone offline and that another site had come online nearby.
31:23The pilot would quickly adjust his azimuth to head for the new site, but as soon as he did, the second site would go down, and a third site would immediately come up, and then go down.
31:35Suddenly, all three sites would come up simultaneously and launch from different directions at the baffled crew.
31:41This vastly complicated the pilot's evasive maneuvers, and often resulted in deadly consequences for the weasels.
31:51The weasels developed a number of their own strategies for countering North Vietnamese radar tactics.
31:57One of the most effective was a modified version of an old bombing technique known as toss bombing.
32:03During this maneuver, weasel crews picked up as much speed as possible, pulled the nose up hard, and fired a shrike or two out in front of the strike force.
32:14We had to fire at them within 10 miles, otherwise the shrike would never reach there.
32:18So you'd dip the airplane's nose until you get the shrike needles that are in the front seat lined up.
32:24And then from that, you estimate the range and how far you have to get nose up to launch it so that you could kind of lob the shrike to hit the site.
32:37The shrikes often arched over and homed in on an unsuspecting operator at one of the many radar sites that were searching for the incoming strike force.
32:46Timing and a little luck were critical in this maneuver.
32:49If the radar operators suspected that a shrike had been fired, they would immediately go off the air, and the missile would just fall to the ground.
32:58This particular strategy had an unintended but beneficial side effect that became a favorite tactic for many weasel crews.
33:06Every time we dipped our nose, the SAMs went off the air because they knew they were going to get hit by the shrikes.
33:12So that was one of the tactics we developed, that we would periodically go in there if we thought a SAM was, as soon as the SAM came on, dip the nose, and he would shut off and the strike force would get in.
33:25I mean, the ultimate purpose was not to kill SAMs.
33:28The purpose was to get the strike force in there, drop their bombs, go after their targets, and get out safely.
33:35If we killed SAMs, that was fine. It was great. But if we got the strike force in and out, that was more important.
33:44While the shrike was an advanced weapon for its day, its limited speed and turning capability had a negative impact on the weasel's ability to combat the SAM threat.
33:54The crew could try to destroy the SAM's ability to maintain a lock on its target by destroying the radar site from which it was launched.
34:02But this would almost surely be a losing battle.
34:05There was one big rule that you had to remember, that the SAM SA-2 was faster and had a lot longer range than a shrike.
34:19So you couldn't try to out-shoot them.
34:21The weasel's capabilities were further hampered by the limited range of the shrike.
34:39North Vietnamese radar operators were keenly aware of this shortcoming and learned to capitalize on it by shutting down just before the weasels were in firing range.
34:49Once the radars were down, weasel crews had to resort to the difficult and dangerous job of searching for potential SAM threats visually.
34:58You look for different signs, you look for roads going into some place that doesn't make sense for a road to go in, you look for a build-up, you look for trucks or other kinds of buildings that don't look like they belong in a village.
35:13Or the hardest ones, of course, were the ones that were buried in those trees.
35:18We had trees down there, if I remember, 300 feet high.
35:21These were huge.
35:22And sometimes you wouldn't really see what you were looking for until you got down low enough to get hurt.
35:30The weasel's ability to actually destroy SAM installations took a gigantic leap forward in May of 1968 with the introduction of the AGM-78 standard anti-radiation missile.
35:43The standard was enormous for an air-launched missile.
35:46It was 15 feet long and weighed nearly 1,400 pounds, but it provided weasel crews with previously unheard-of long-range capability.
35:56Working in conjunction with one of the 105's radar receivers, the standard could lock onto and strike enemy radars at a range of up to 60 miles.
36:06For the weasel crews, learning to use the new weapon was easy.
36:10There wasn't any tactic involved other than being there.
36:15You had to tote those things up.
36:16We were carriers, we were trucks.
36:21We carried them up, got a lock on, fired it.
36:26And then got a lock on the next one, fired it, and turned around and went home.
36:30We were done.
36:31The missile did all the work.
36:32As a matter of fact, if we had overshot the target and they were still transmitting, it could turn around underneath of us and go back and hit them behind us.
36:45So the strike required you to get very close to the target, relatively close.
36:50And the standard, we were miles away.
36:56I mean, they couldn't hear us, we couldn't hear them.
36:59All we knew was that they were operating.
37:02The standard's incredible range virtually negated the North Vietnamese tactic of shutting down radar sites to prevent missiles from homing in on the signal.
37:21Also, the large warhead would decimate the radar and the entire missile site.
37:27Once again, the Americans had a tool to destroy the latest Soviet technology.
37:32The air war over Vietnam had gone quiet by late 1968.
37:44A shift in the weasel mission was on the horizon.
37:47Slowly, weasel units were pulled back and deactivated as President Richard Nixon handed over more and more of the war effort to U.S.-trained South Vietnamese crews.
37:57By the end of April 1971, only one weasel squadron remained in Thailand.
38:08During the bombing halt, the weasels provided escort to reconnaissance flights to monitor North Vietnamese troop activities.
38:15Frequently, weasels were sent out to support and protect RF-4 Phantoms on these missions.
38:31What the U.S. planes observed was an increase in the flow of traffic on the notorious Ho Chi Minh Trail.
38:43It seemed that the North Vietnamese were using the bombing halt to stock up.
38:49An endless convoy of trucks bearing food, weapons, and ammunition streamed southward.
38:54The supplies were stockpiled in Laos and South Vietnam to support future offensives.
39:00As the flow of men and supplies increased, so too did the number of anti-aircraft threats.
39:07Within 18 months, enemy anti-aircraft defenses on the trail alone more than quadrupled.
39:13And further south, numerous SAM and radar-controlled anti-aircraft installations were put in place.
39:21The reconnaissance missions proved to be extremely difficult.
39:25The weasel crews could see firsthand what was transpiring below.
39:30But the bombing halt prevented them from doing anything more than observe.
39:33From our perspective, it was frustrating because we knew the guys sitting on the ground in South Vietnam were going to get hammered
39:41because our government was allowing these guys to bring the supplies down.
39:47So in that respect, all these bombing halts and all the political machinations that went on were very frustrating.
39:52Had they turned us loose, and this has been said many times before,
39:56to go after the targets as we were able to go after them without the constraints, political or otherwise,
40:04we could have shortened the war by years.
40:10Once the bombing halt was lifted, weasels were sent in with AC-130 Spectre gunships
40:16to stop the flow of supplies down the trail.
40:19Anti-aircraft and SAM sites posed the greatest threat to the large, slow-flying AC-130s.
40:24The threat was particularly heavy along the northern reaches of the Ho Chi Minh Trail,
40:29near the Laotian border with North Vietnam.
40:31By the end of 1971, North Vietnamese defenses threatened Spectre crews at every turn.
40:37Their anti-aircraft guns and missile batteries were located along the gunships' most commonly flown routes.
40:42When the weasels escorted the gunships,
40:53Spectre crews were able to focus more on their delicate sensors
40:56and less on the threat of SAMs from below.
40:59Without weasel protection,
41:01it's hard to say how successful the gunships would have been
41:04in destroying the supplies pouring down the trail.
41:07The next big role for the wild weasels came after December 13, 1972,
41:20when the North Vietnamese government broke off all negotiations to end the war.
41:25President Nixon ordered an all-out bombing campaign against the North
41:29that came to be known as Linebacker 2.
41:32During the campaign,
41:35weasel crews were assigned perhaps the most high-stakes mission of the war.
41:39They escorted the military's largest bomber,
41:42the slow-moving B-52,
41:44to the most heavily defended targets in North Vietnam,
41:48Hanoi,
41:48and the Port of Haiphong.
41:51Once there,
41:52the number of SAM sites proved to be too dense
41:55for even the weasels to penetrate.
41:56On December 20,
42:00North Vietnamese air defense operators
42:02fired at least 220 SAMs at a flight of B-52s.
42:07Six were struck and went down in flames.
42:10Within two days,
42:12five more were down,
42:13killing some 120 crewmen.
42:18During subsequent raids,
42:20both the B-52s and their weasel escorts changed tactics.
42:24The B-52s began employing electronic countermeasures
42:29to jam SAM radars,
42:31while the weasels paired up with F-4s
42:33in hunter-killer team formations.
42:36Twice as many SAM sites were destroyed or suppressed,
42:40and no more B-52s were lost
42:42through the Christmas bombing halt.
42:44On December 26,
42:46President Nixon ordered the largest bombing raid
42:49of the entire war.
42:50The change in tactics seemed to work.
42:58The missiles that launched
42:59tended to miss their targets,
43:01apparently because fearful SAM operators
43:04immediately turned off their radars
43:06to avoid attracting wild weasels.
43:11Colonel David Brog escorted flights of B-52s
43:15during raids against the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
43:17They would go in flights of three,
43:20and our real concern,
43:23our primary concern,
43:24was to make sure that the SAMs
43:26wouldn't fire at the B-52s.
43:28But from a personal point of view,
43:30we were more concerned
43:31that we were out of the track
43:35of those B-52s,
43:38just in case they might have been off
43:39of their own track and drop area,
43:44because we figured anything worse
43:46than being hit by SAM coming up from the ground
43:50would be being hit by 104,
43:53500-pound bombs coming down from the top.
43:57The Weasels and B-52s
43:59continued their new tactics
44:01during three smaller raids on Hanoi.
44:04Two more bombers were lost,
44:06but SAM operators were reportedly
44:08still firing salvos at the force
44:10without the aid of radar.
44:17On December 29th,
44:19President Nixon ordered a bombing halt
44:21above the 20th parallel.
44:23Four days later,
44:25the North Vietnamese government
44:26returned to the Paris peace talks
44:28and resumed negotiations in earnest.
44:31In the end,
44:32the Weasels' suppression of the SAM sites
44:35played a role
44:36in the bombing campaign's success.
44:42As the war in Southeast Asia
44:44drew to a close,
44:45the next generation of Weasel aircraft,
44:47the F-4C,
44:48was making its debut.
44:50By then,
44:51the probability that a Weasel crew
44:53could survive until their 100th mission,
44:55and thus the end of their tour,
44:57had improved considerably.
44:59Nonetheless,
45:0148 Weasel crews
45:02were down throughout the war.
45:03This was the price paid
45:06for the hundreds of SAM sites
45:07that were destroyed
45:08and the thousands more
45:09that were forced off the air.
45:11But more importantly,
45:13it was the price paid
45:14for the hundreds of Strike Force pilots
45:16that were potentially saved.
45:19Ultimately,
45:20this relationship generated
45:21a strong sense of pride
45:23and camaraderie
45:24within the various Weasel squadrons
45:26and with the men
45:27and planes
45:28of other units
45:29they protected.
45:33We,
45:33as the 44th TAC fighter squadron
45:36at Kharat Air Base, Thailand,
45:38was the Weasel squadron
45:40for that wing.
45:41We felt very strongly
45:43that we were protecting
45:44the guys in the 34th
45:45and the 469th
45:47on the missions
45:48that they were flying.
45:49And I think they felt
45:50the same way about us.
45:51They said,
45:51hey,
45:51these guys are in there
45:52protecting us
45:53and doing the job.
45:56So,
45:57there was strong
45:58morale,
45:59esprit de corps.
46:00We had a lot of confidence
46:01in each other.
46:03The Wild Weasel mission
46:05remains an important component
46:06of U.S. air operations
46:08and will likely continue
46:09well into the future.
46:11For as long as there are
46:13manned aircraft
46:14flying offensive missions
46:15over ground-based defenses,
46:18there will always be a need
46:19for those daring enough to be
46:21first in,
46:23last out.
46:23The Wild Weasel
46:53The Wild Weasel