Royal Lao Air Force - History - The RLAF's Role Expanded

The RLAF's Role Expanded

By the time fighting broke out again in Laos, the RLAF had five T-28 pilots trained at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia to fly the T-28s that were supplied in July and August 1963 to Wattay Airfield outside Vientiane. The United States also supplied the RLAF with bombs and rockets, although temporarily withholding fuses as a means of control.

One of the "new" T-28s soon crashed in Vientiane. Another T-28 disappeared from inventory when Lieutenant Chert Saibory, who had defected from the Royal Thai Air Force to the RLAF, defected once more in September 1963. He flew his T-28 into North Vietnam, where he was imprisoned while it became the initial combat aircraft of the Vietnam People's Air Force. Despite this, on 26 October 1963 the U. S. State Department cabled Ambassador Leonard S. Unger with clearance to use the T-28s to intercept North Vietnamese supply flights to the Pathet Lao. Unger was the first of three ambassadors to control the American air assets supplied to the RLAF; the others were his successors, William H. Sullivan and G. McMurtrie Godley.

Operation Waterpump was set up in Thailand to train more Lao pilots in March 1964. It consisted of 38 Air Commandos and four T-28D trainers stationed at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base. Also in March 1964, Ambassador Unger lobbied his State Department for an expanded role for the RLAF. The RLAF flew its first T-28 strike missions directed at communists on the Plaine des Jarres on 17 May 1964. Unger released the embassy's ordnance inventory to the RLAF that same day. Operation Waterpump also forwarded its four T-28s to the RLAF. Two days later, ten surplus T-28s arrived from South Vietnam; four were retained by Waterpump so it could resume training operations while the other six were passed on to the RLAF. To bridge the pilot shortage until Waterpump graduated Lao pilots, the American Programs Evaluation Office covertly recruited five volunteer pilots from Air America, dubbing them the "A Team". They flew their first strike on 25 May 1964; two of the T-28s were damaged by antiaircraft fire while missing their target. Because of the possibility of political fallout if an American pilot should fall into enemy hands, PEO brought in Thai pilots from the RTAF's 223rd Squadron on six month tours of duty, in a classified operation known as Project Firefly. These recruited mercenaries were known as the "B Team", and began flying strike missions on 1 June 1964. To complete the team designations, Lao pilots were designated as the "C Team". The A and B Teams were under control of Ambassador Unger.

By June 1964, when the strategic road junction of Highways 7 and 13 was threatened by communist forces, the RLAF had 20 T-28s and 13 Lao pilots ready for action. Ten more Lao pilot cadets were nearing the end of their training, and were to be available on 9 August 1964. Ten Thai and six American pilots were also available for immediate duty with the RLAF. Four additional T-28s were available at Udorn. Fifteen additional T-28s were becoming available from the Vietnam Air Force, which was re-equipping with A-1 Skyraiders.

Also during June 1964, a flight of A Team T-28s bombed Kong Le's Neutralist headquarters at Khang Khay in a successful attempt to make him switch his alliance from the Pathet Lao to side with the Royalists. As a followup, the A Team also used RLAF T-28s to hit the Chinese Cultural Center on the Plaine des Jarres; the Center was reputedly a Chinese-staffed training camp for Lao communist troops.

During July 1964, American forward air control efforts to guide both RLAF and USAF air strikes began with Butterfly combat controllers mounted in Air America aircraft.

The threat posed by North Vietnamese antiaircraft fire escalated steadily in northern Laos. This led to the assignment of the more experienced B Team Thai pilots to missions in northern Laos, with the less experienced Lao pilots flying their strike missions into southern Laos. The RLAF was now operating from Pakse and Savannakhet, as well as Luang Prabang and Vientiane.