“The airplane was fast and acrobatic. It had decent short field takeoff and landing capabilities, as well.”
By William Reeder Jr.
AN UNUSUAL looking, little-known U.S. Army airplane made significant contributions to vital intelligence collection during the Vietnam War. The price paid in lives and aircraft lost was sometimes high, particularly in one special mission unit operating deep behind enemy lines in Laos and North Vietnam. However, the information gathered was crucial to battlefield planners and commanders in Vietnam, as well as government agencies and national decision makers in Washington, D.C.. The impressive record established in Southeast Asia continued as the aircraft performed its vital intelligence collection mission around the globe for many years after Vietnam. The airplane? The Grumman OV-1 Mohawk.
Origins
The OV-1 Mohawk began as an Army-Marine Corps joint service project in the 1950s. The two services sought to develop an observation/attack airplane capable of operating from aircraft carriers. The Defense Department awarded the development contract to Grumman Aircraft, known as the “Grumman Iron Works” for their decades of building warplanes for the U.S. Navy, airplanes that could take a beating in combat and still fly home. Regrettably, the Navy redirected the allocated Marine Corps funding to other initiatives, forcing the Marines to abandon the effort. The Army moved forward on its own.
Grumman designed a two-seat, twin-turboprop, airplane with underwing weapons pylons and the ability to accommodate a variety of camera and surveillance sensor systems. The airplane was fast and acrobatic. It had decent short field takeoff and landing capabilities, as well. The design also included Martin-Baker ejection seats for emergency egress if needed. The airplane was sturdy, based on the concept requirements for rough field and Navy carrier operations. The first prototype flew on April 14, 1959, and production began six months later.
Aircraft deliveries began in mid-1961. A detachment was activated in 1962 that later deployed to Vietnam. However, the Mohawk’s potential would not be fully appreciated until the Army completed a two-year test of emerging air-mobility concepts. The 11th Air Assault Division conducted the test at Fort Benning, Georgia, beginning in 1963. That’s where the Mohawk first really showed its stuff. The tests involved training exercises with ground forces, helicopters, and airplanes.
The 11th Air Assault Division experience produced the concepts the Army later embraced in bringing air mobile operations to the battlefield. The whole idea of helicopter warfare that came to the fore in Vietnam had its birth in the exercises run at Fort Benning, Georgia. The Mohawk played a significant role. The division boasted a Mohawk battalion of three companies for a total of 30 aircraft. They proved their worth in both reconnaissance and attack roles. The stage was set for combat operations.
Vietnam War
America had a long-running interest in Vietnam, dating to World War Two. After the French defeat and disengagement in 1954, the country was partitioned into communist North and nominally democratic South. The United States took up the torch against the communist campaign to overrun the South. The American advisory role grew over the following years. The Mohawk soon joined in. In March 1962, shortly after production began, the Army formed the 23rd Special Warfare Aviation Detachment (SWAD) at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty), North Carolina. The detachment deployed to Vietnam in September 1962 with six aircraft, each armed with 2.75-inch rockets and pod-mounted .50 caliber machine guns hung under their wings.
When North Vietnamese torpedo boats engaged two U.S. Navy destroyers in August 1964, Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, authorizing a significant escalation in the U.S. effort. President Lyndon B. Johnson immediately launched an intense air campaign and soon ordered what became an ever-increasing buildup of American ground forces. The U.S. Marine Corps went first, coming ashore on Red Beach, near DaNang, on March 8, 1965.
On July 3, 1965, the 11th Air Assault Division became the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). President Johnson ordered the 1st Cav to Vietnam on July 29. But its Mohawk battalion was gone. The division retained only a small number of OV-1s as a detachment. The other 11th Air Assault airplanes found homes in newly forming OV-1 units. Several would follow the 1st Cavalry to combat in Vietnam.
One of those units was the 20th Aerial Surveillance and Target Acquisition (ASTA) Detachment, call sign “Iron Spud”. The detachment formed at Fort Riley, Kansas on July 1, 1965, and deployed to Nha Trang, Vietnam on October 23. It later moved north to Phu Bai in early April 1966. The unit was given high risk, classified missions, flying reconnaissance and surveillance missions along the North Vietnamese coast and over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. The 20th ASTA went to Vietnam with six airplanes. In their first six months, they lost five Mohawks with seven crewmembers killed or missing in action.
The Army redesignated the 20th as the 131st Surveillance Airplane Company on June 1, 1966. They plussed the unit to 18 Mohawks and increased manning. By year’s end, enemy gunners downed 4 more Mohawks. Half the unit’s airplanes lost in one year with 13 pilots and observers killed or missing in action. Only 5 crew members were rescued.
There were eventually five Mohawk companies in Vietnam. South Vietnam was divided into four geographic corps tactical zones. A Mohawk company supported each corps region: the 245th at Marble Mountain in I Corps; 225th, Tuy Hoa, II Corps; 73rd, Vung Tao, III Corps; 244th, Can Tho, IV Corps. The 73rd had been created from the 23rd SWAD, the very first Mohawks in Vietnam. That left the 131st to fly the special classified missions, out of country, in North Vietnam and Laos. Just like the 20th ASTA, the 131st remained under the operational control of the highest headquarters in the land, Military Assistance Command – Vietnam, or MACV. The MACV intelligence directorate, the J2, assigned the unit missions. The 131st fed the intelligence collected to top military decision makers in Vietnam and senior national officials in Washington, D.C. The SPUDs stood apart from all other units because of the special missions flown and the number of airplanes and crews lost.
Like every Mohawk unit in Vietnam, the 131st had three types of aircraft: A, B, and C models. The A’s sported a suite of cameras. They flew daytime visual reconnaissance and photo intelligence missions. The B’s mounted a side-looking airborne radar system, or SLAR, capable of detecting moving targets at distances of more than 30 miles, both day and night. They looked different because of the long cylindrical radar mounted below the cockpit on the right side. Some called the appendage a “donkey dick.” The C model Mohawks flew at low altitudes in the night to capture the heat signatures of enemy activity on their infrared equipment; dangerous, stressful missions.
Unlike other Mohawk units in Vietnam, the 131st flew outside Vietnam, well behind enemy lines, into some of the most hostile threat environments in aviation history. Because of that threat, the unit’s A models were armed for self-defense on their daytime photo reconnaissance missions over Laos. Those visual recon birds operated as flights of two and carried dozens of rockets and pod-mounted .50 caliber machine guns. After a 1966 agreement with the Air Force, the Army removed the weapons systems from all its fixed-wing aircraft – all except the 131st SPUDs.
Because of their special missions, and in appreciation of their courage and sacrifice, General William Westmoreland, the MACV commander, approved the wear of black flight suits by SPUD aircrews, the only Army aviators so authorized in Vietnam. The 131st also received the Army’s Valorous Unit Award for “extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy of the United States.” I’ve written about my combat tour of duty with that extraordinary unit in my latest book, We Dared to Fly: Dangerous Secret Missions During the Vietnam War.
Later Years
After service in Vietnam, the 131st moved to Fort Hood, Texas (now Fort Cavazos), eventually becoming A Company, 15th Military Intelligence Battalion. The unit made its final combat deployment in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990-91. Along with other Mohawk companies in Europe and Korea, and National Guard companies in Georgia and Oregon, the SPUDs continued to serve until the Army ended Mohawk operations in 1996 and deactivated all its units. A proud era in Army aviation had passed. Over the decades that followed, the OV-1 continued in service with Argentinian Army Aviation, Israeli Defense Forces, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and NASA. No more. Only a few still fly in private hands. Some sit as interesting museum exhibits or displayed atop pedestals. But for those of us who flew them, they will always fill our hearts with pride and live on in our memories as the finest Army airplane ever built.
William Reader is the author of We Dared to Fly: Dangerous Secret Missions During the Vietnam War. A retired U.S. Army colonel, he is highly decorated with extensive combat experience: Silver Star for gallantry, Valorous Unit Award, two Distinguished Flying Crosses for heroism, three Purple Hearts for wounds received in combat. He flew armed OV-1 Mohawk surveillance airplanes on his first tour of duty in Vietnam and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters on his second. He was shot down on both tours. The second time, he was captured by the North Vietnamese Army and spent nearly a year as a prisoner of war. Later in his career, he flew the AH-64 Apache advanced attack helicopter. In 2014, he was inducted into the U.S. Army Aviation Hall of Fame. Reeder holds a Ph.D. in history and supports the education and training of NATO special operations forces. He is a frequent speaker for veterans and other military and civic organizations. He lives in Seabeck, Washington.
