Ed Rasimus wrote:

Other radars offered different tones.

Let us consider, then, the blissful ignorance of the O-2 FAC in SEA who
who was alerted to the presence of active SAM radar only because it's
search cycle caused interference with the FM and VHF radios. Kind of
reassuring, don't you imagine, in a M.02 Cessna? Fortunately, I never
found out if a tracking or lock-on condition could be identified in a
similar fashion, but there may be one or two Cessna-borne FACs here who did.

O-2s were lost to SAMs as well as guns, but the guys that get my vote
for biggest balls were the O-1 (Cessna Bird Dog -- a C-170/-195/-180
hybrid) FACs who worked areas in the North and in Laos against many
small guns and large guns and SAMs, early in the war before they were
finally replaced with the somewhat more effective twins (O-2 & OV-10).

And I certainly haven't forgotten the Ravens, who just kept on with the
job with whatever they had at hand.

The FAC memorial (Hurlburt AFB) lists the names of over 200 FACs KIA in SEA:
http://www.hurlburt.af.mil/basewide/...al/index.shtml

The FAC Memorial at the Air Force Museum, Dedication Fall of 2006:
http://www.romad.com/rss/5-31-2004.htm

The FAC Association:
http://www.fac-assoc.org/


--
Jack

"Cave ab homine unius libri"