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Ferrying a/c to Vietnam?


Bluehawk
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Have been wanting to ask this question for years, but kept forgetting...

 

The hundreds and hundreds of US military aircraft that saw service in various theaters and campaigns during the Vietnam War, got overseas somehow - presumably by flying there, mostly.

 

Some must have been based fairly nearby, Okinawa, Philippines, Japan etc etc etc. So, the hop was easy.

 

However, Army and Air Force fixed wing recip aircraft such as the C-7, C-123, C-47, C-119, O-1, T-29 etc etc etc that had been assigned stateside - slow flying, relatively short-range lowish altitude platforms - How in the heck did they all actually GET to Vietnam and back home, by what route(s) or transportation methods, which personnel did the ferrying?

 

:wacko:

 

 

 

 

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So, if many came aboard ships, does anyone have any links or images of those ships or shipments?

 

Having wrenched on a C-123B, and U-3A, and been around some T-29s and C-47s - it is a little difficult for me to get a picture in my head about disassembling the larger airplanes, transporting them to a port, lifting them onto cargo vessels at an ocean somewhere, then lifting them off again in Vietnam or somewhere close by, transporting them somehow to be reassembled, and so on.

 

I've tried to imagine, for example, flying a C-123 to Vietnam from stateside, California presumably... by what vectors one would navigate, since that aircraft has range of only about 1000 miles, and service ceiling of about 20,000 ft (with assisted oxygen).

 

Looks like, maybe, a route of Hawaii > Guam > Vietnam would be feasible?

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Patchcollector

The larger ones could make it by flying,using island hopping and also aerial refueling.

 

I've seen photos of small aircraft,mostly helicopters,that were shrink wrapped and ferried via ships.

 

Small aircraft were also ferried via larger cargo aircraft.

 

I found this interesting story about O-2's actually flying over to Nam:

 

https://thelexicans.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/how-to-get-an-o2-from-wichita-to-vietnam/

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http://nightrustics.org/Delivery.htm

 

This story about Cessna O-2 deliveries has been reprinted in a lot of places. C-47's and bigger were no problem. They were ferried over the Pacific in WWII and there were no unfriendly Japanese to worry about in the 1960's.

That is a great story, and quite believable. They were lucky they did not lose more of the O-2's.

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For sure, that Skymaster summary was really fascinating, and gave me the impression, by inference, that a/c got to VN any and every which way possible or convenient.

 

This, was really helpful from the article: "The route was Hawaii (Hickam), Midway, Wake Island, Guam (Anderson), Philippines (Clark) and Saigon (Tan Son Nhut.)"

 

 

That ^ route is doable in a C-123.

 

I'm going to do some deeper looking at the 4440th Aircraft Delivery Group and 1708 Ferrying Group Detachment today, too. What is starting to develop is a good list of WHICH aircraft got brought/taken to the theater in flight...

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"Many of the aircraft were delivered to RVN by CVE and T-CVE escort carriers being utilized as aircraft ferries."

 

That ^ is extremely informative! I saw, for example, how the a/c were lifted aboard with cranes, and how they were parked on deck.

 

Just great, all who have contributed to this thread, thank you.

 

Still coming up with some sort of clearer insight as to the 4440th and 1708th in terms of when and which airframes they flew to (and from?) VN, and now, of course, to see if they had involvement of some kind with the Navy.

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