THE RAVEN WHO TRADED A BIRD DOG FOR AN F-111 One pilot. Two aircraft. Two completely different worlds of Cold War aviation. Somewhere in the shadows of America’s Secret War in Laos, USAF pilot Lloyd E. Van Zee flew one of the most politically sensitive missions of the Vietnam War. He was a Raven Forward Air Controller, part of a small fraternity of American pilots operating under the classified Steve Canyon program. His aircraft? An unmarked Cessna O-1 Bird Dog. His uniform? Civilian clothes. His mission? Find the enemy, coordinate airstrikes, and support friendly forces in a country where American combat operations were officially denied. Flying low over Laos, Ravens worked alongside CIA supported forces, Royal Lao troops, and indigenous ground commanders. Armed with radios, marking rockets, and an intimate knowledge of the terrain, these pilots directed devastating American airpower from tiny observation aircraft. Only about 200 men served as Ravens. Twenty-two were killed. Van Zee was one of those who made it home. But his aviation career took an extraordinary turn. By 1974, Van Zee was flying the General Dynamics F-111E with the 55th Tactical Fighter Squadron at RAF Upper Heyford, England. The same man who had flown a slow, vulnerable Bird Dog over a clandestine battlefield was now operating a supersonic, terrain following strike aircraft designed to penetrate heavily defended Warsaw Pact airspace. From civilian clothes and smoke rockets over Laos to high-speed NATO strike operations over Europe. Two very different cockpits. Two very different wars being prepared for. And one largely forgotten American aviator whose career bridged them both. AIRCRAFT HISTORY JUNKY Like. Follow. Share. #AircraftHistoryJunky #RavenFAC #SecretWar #Laos #SteveCanyon #O1BirdDog #F111Aardvark #USAirForce #CIAHistory #CovertAviation #ColdWarAviation #ForwardAirController #MilitaryAviation #AviationHistory #RAFUpperHeyford

THE CAPTURED T-28 THAT HUNTED A COVERT C-123 Before North Vietnam’s MiGs became famous, one of its first successful interceptions came from a captured American-built T-28 Trojan. The aircraft, No. 963, had originally served with the Royal Lao Air Force before being flown into North Vietnam by a defecting pilot. Hanoi repaired it and turned it into an improvised night interceptor. On 15–16 February 1964, radar picked up an aircraft approaching from Laos. Ground controllers vectored 963 toward the target until pilot Nguyễn Văn Ba spotted a twin engine transport in the dark. It was a C-123 Provider. Ba closed in and fired two bursts from the T-28’s 12.7 mm guns. The C-123 caught fire and crashed near the border. The strange part: Vietnamese accounts say the Provider was carrying a commando or agent team into North Vietnam. That places this little known shootdown inside the much larger clandestine air war already underway, CIA-backed infiltration missions, covert C-123 operations, and the transition toward what became MACV-SOG. The exact C-123, crew, and operator are still unclear. But the basic story is wild enough: A captured American trainer, guided by North Vietnamese radar, shoots down another American-built aircraft apparently carrying a covert infiltration team. No MiGs. No missiles. Just a stolen T-28 hunting in the dark. AIRCRAFT HISTORY JUNKY #AircraftHistoryJunky #T28Trojan #C123Provider #CovertAviation #VietnamWar #SecretWar #MACVSOG #CIA #AviationHistory

RAVEN 25 — THE AIR FORCE PILOT WHO WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE The date beneath this photograph reads March 1973. The man is Captain Darrel D. Whitcomb. Behind him is an unmarked O-1 Bird Dog. There is no uniform, visible rank or American flag, because officially, Whitcomb was not fighting a war in Laos. A 1969 Air Force Academy graduate, Whitcomb had already flown the C-7 Caribou in Vietnam before returning as an OV-10 forward air controller known as Nail 25. Then he volunteered for the classified Steve Canyon Program and became Raven 25. The assignment meant surrendering his military identification, changing into civilian clothes and entering Laos under embassy cover. Operating from Long Tieng, Whitcomb supported General Vang Pao’s CIA-backed Hmong army, flying low over the Plain of Jars to locate enemy forces, mark targets and direct American, Lao and Hmong aircraft onto them. During an NVA attack on Skyline Ridge, friendly troops were caught in an ambush. Whitcomb repeatedly exposed his Bird Dog to enemy fire while directing strikes dangerously close to the men below. AK-47 rounds eventually tore through the aircraft’s oil system and killed the engine. He still managed to dead-stick the crippled O-1 back into Long Tieng. The mission earned him the Silver Star. Whitcomb was also photographed with Hmong T-28 pilot Touxiong Lee, whom he credited with saving his life during another mission, a reminder that the Ravens survived because Lao and Hmong airmen fought beside them. After Raven operations ended, Whitcomb returned to the OV-10 and continued flying over Cambodia. On August 15, 1973, he was given the honor of being the last aircraft in his four-ship formation to land as America’s combat-air campaign there ended. He later retired as an Air Force colonel and Delta international captain. But here he remains Raven 25: a young American pilot in civilian clothes, standing beside an aircraft without a flag, at the end of a war his country spent years pretending it was not fighting. #AircraftHistoryJunky #RavenFAC #Raven25 #DarrelWhitcomb #SecretWar #LongTieng #O1BirdDog #Project404 #AviationHistory

Butterflies Before the Ravens: The Forgotten First FACs of Laos Before the Ravens, there were the Butterflies. In 1966, USAF Combat Controllers like Capt. Robert A. “Bob” Farmer flew as airborne FACs in civilian Air America Pilatus PC-6 Porters. Operating under embassy cover in Vientiane before heading up-country to Long Tieng (LS-20A) in MR-II, they directed strikes for Vang Pao’s Hmong forces against Trail supplies, bridges, troop concentrations, and POL sites. Farmer deployed TDY from England AFB with Charlie Jones. Missions ran sunup to sundown, CAS, supply drops, troop insertions, and evening briefings with Vang Pao. Risks were constant: enemy ground fire once ripped through his Porter’s belly and control cables, missing him by inches. The tiny Butterfly program was remarkably effective but short-lived. When Gen. Momyer learned non-pilot (mostly enlisted) controllers were directing jets, it ended. It directly paved the way for the Steve Canyon Program, Palace Dog, and the Ravens. Farmer’s artifacts, embassy ID, battle damaged Porter photo, and unit shots from England AFB, are rare windows into those early covert days. Swipe for the visuals. Drop your Butterfly/Raven stories, Air America details, or requests below #CovertAviation #ButterflyFAC #RavensLaos #SecretWar #AirAmerica #LongTieng #GrayAirlift #Project404 #CCT #OSINT #AircraftHistoryJunky