The 606th Special Forces Squadron was composed of two sections, the Fairchild C-123 Provider section which was under the call sign of "Candlestick", and the U-10 Helio Courier section which was under the call signs of "Loudmouth" and "Litterbugs" (and "Clown" for Civil Action missions).

C-123s had been used in Vietnam since 1962 to drop flares for night interdiction missions, but their use declined after the introduction of the Douglas AC-47 Spooky in the country. The continued need for flare drop aircraft continued for operations over Laos, and in the spring of 1966, Pacific Air Forces activated the 606th Air Commando Squadron at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand and equipped it with UC-123Bs to continue this mission.^{[note 1][1]}

Although starting out as a flare support flight, the UC-123s had added night reconnaissance and forward air control, which became its primary missions by 1968. The squadron flew from four to nine night reconnaissance missions per night over the Steel Tiger and Barrel Roll areas of Laos, flying in shifts to provide coverage throughout the night. After a lack of success with the use of starlight scopes in T-28s, a locally manufactured mount was designed and mounted near the Provider's escape hatch, which enabled an observer to sweep the area below the plane for targets. "Candlestick" flare and reconnaissance planes then teamed up with "Zorro" T-28s or "Nimrod' Douglas A-26 Invaders strike aircraft as a hunter killer team.^[2]

By 1969, heavy antiaircraft fire proved a problem for the "Candlestick" aircraft, which had upgraded to the UC-123K. The unit improvised a defense using chaff, which was manually thrown out the floor hatch to confuse enemy radars. The "Candlestick" operation ended when the squadron was inactivated in June 1971.^[3]

North American T-28 Trojans, call sign "Zorro" also flew with the 606th. Twelve of them moved to Nakhon Phanom in June 1966 along with Douglas A-26 Invader "Nimrods".^[4] After being credited with 67 truck strikes during the week of 2 through 9 November 1966, a detachment of Douglas A-26 Invader "Nimrods" was attached to the 606th. In September 1967, this detachment plus the T-28 "Zorro" forward air controllers were spun off into the 609th Special Operations Squadron.^[5]

• Constituted as the 606th Air Commando Squadron, Composite and activated on 12 January 1966 (not organized)

Organized on 8 March 1966

• Redesignated 606th Special Operations Squadron on 1 August 1968

Inactivated on 15 June 1971

Assignments edit

• Pacific Air Forces, 12 January 1966 (not organized)
• Thirteenth Air Force, 8 March 1966 (attached to 2d Air Division)
• 634th Combat Support Group, 8 April 1966
• 56th Air Commando Wing (later 56th Special Operations Wing), 8 April 1967 - 15 June 1971

Stations edit

• Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, 8 March 1966 - 15 June 1971

Aircraft edit

• Fairchild UC-123B
• Fairchild UC-123K
• North American T-28 Trojan
• Helio U-10 Courier

Awards and campaigns edit

Notes edit

Citations edit

Bibliography edit

• Anthony, Maj Victor B. (March 1973). "The Air Force in Southeast Asia: Tactics and Techniques of Night Operations 1961-1970" (PDF). Office of Air Force History. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
• Halliday, John T. " Flying Through Midnight: A Pilot's Dramatic Story of His Secret Missions Over Laos During the Vietnam War", Scribner, published Nov 2005, ISBN 978-0743274883.
• AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits Archived 4 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine Department of the Air Force, Washington, DC, 15 June 1971
• AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits, Vol II Archived 4 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine Department of the Air Force, Washington, DC, 30 September 1976