Phu Cat Stop-Over

Our RF-4C reconnaissance outfit in the Saigon area frequently sent aircraft in and out of the Phu Cat airbase. There we could count on good support services, including turn-around of our airplanes with fuel, oil and replenished camera film. There was a photo processing lab and photo interpreter staff and facility to process our film. Phu Cat was a large and well-equipped base. Rotating air national guard outfits from the States operated from there, as well as Army contingents with their C-7 Cariboo transports and some helicopters.

Some of our missions, launched from Tan Son Nhut, were scheduled for an intermediate stop-over at Phu Cat. About an hour and a half north of Saigon, Phu Cat made an ideal stopping place on the return from our flights up near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) or Khe Sanh and even Laos. Sometimes we landed there so that our pictures could be developed more expeditiously than returning way back down to Saigon. Army commanders on the ground often needed intelligence data in a hurry and Phu Cat processing helped.

I estimate that ten percent or more of the missions I flew from Tan Son Nhut, generally daytime flights, meant a stop-over at Phu Cat. Our time on the ground was usually brief, rarely even allowing a chance to grab a meal at the O. Club or cafeteria. We'd be met on landing by camera technicians and refueling crews, capable of getting us film-loaded and gassed up in under an hour. Then we'd take off on a second sortie, usually recovering back "home" at Tan Son Nhut. Two flights for the price of one, we'd say.

The ROK troops defending Phu Cat airbase were renowned for efficient, if not brutal, support. They had a reputation for not taking enemy prisoners, so the "bad guys" didn't mess with them very often. Atop many of the surrounding hills one could see from the air the ROK defenses, complexes of trenches, bunkers and armaments. There were few places of tactical advantage not occupied by the ROK forces, giving a solid ring of defenses around the airbase.

A mountainside north of Phu Cat featured a large scar down one long slope. It looked like a landslide or huge surface mining operation eating away at the hill. But it was something quite different. It was a scar resulting from target practice by 105MM howitzer artillery banging away repeatedly. Those ROK artillerymen must have been very proficient, based on the thousands of rounds that pelted that hillside.

I don't know why it was that we only rarely landed at Phu Cat at night. We were generally turned around and out of there before dark. Maybe it's because the enemy was active in the surrounding rural lowland areas and we'd not stand much chance of recovery if we went down out there after dark, in the midst of hostile Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops. I was told that the fellows stationed at Phu Cat, our guys, never ventured outside the base perimeter. It must have been confining.

Perhaps that confined existence and the rather complete isolation was the reason that Phu Cat was often frequented by traveling USO shows, including the ever-popular Bob Hope and troupe. Only occasional R&R opportunities got ground crews and others off the base during their year-long tours of duty. Flight crews were luckier, getting away and "outside" more often.