RatPack Airlines was an Air Force gunship during the Vietnam War. Its crew was made up of a group of men that bonded together to became a very proficient team. Their motto became "When it hurts enough to where you want the very best, call the RatPack" Jack Roberts, a member of that crew and call sign MadRat, uses his outdoor skills learned from having lived on a cattle ranch in northwestern Nebraska to help his RatPack Airlines crewmates through survival school, getting accustomed to coping with the hardships of the primitive living conditions and coping with the everyday violent missions they would experience in Vietnam. Jack and his crewmates fly a variety of missions in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. These vary from defensive support missions for Agent Orange spray aircraft, to assisting in retrieving downed aircrews, to offensive missions taking out enemy targets, supply cashes, and command centers. On one mission they are shot down and crash-landed in a rice paddy in the Mekong Delta. The survivors must fight off the attacking enemy until Army Special Forces and Navy rescue can offer assistance. The RatPack's final mission is to destroy an enemy command center at An Son, North Vietnam. After completing the mission, Jack, his dog, and three crewmates must bail out of their damaged aircraft and evade the enemy while walking back 265 miles to South Vietnam. There are many hardships encountered during the five-week journey. Finding food and water was always a priority. Not all the RatPackers made it back.

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RatPack Airlines

The Low and Slow Airwar over Southeast Asia

By Ray McComber

Trafford Publishing

CHAPTER 1

Jack Roberts arrived at McChord Air Force Base, outside Seattle,Washington in the late evening of Friday, 19 Jan. It was a lotcolder than he was used to, only about 50 degrees, having justcome from southern Texas. It was starting to drizzle and he hustled toget into the passenger terminal from the Air Force bus that broughthim from SeaTac Airport. He was only wearing his summer khaki1505s. Coming from Texas and going to Vietnam, he saw no reasonto wear a warmer uniform. Once inside the terminal, he found a placewhere he could sit down, lay back, rest, and wait for his morningflight, Seaboard World Airways flight U-237. It was very crowded inthe passenger terminal with hundreds of military personnel, probablyall waiting for overseas flights. He assumed that most all were going toVietnam, as they were all very quiet and reserved. After a few minuteshe started to get nervous of what the days and months ahead wouldbe like. His thoughts went back to how the events of the past few dayscame about to putting him on his way to Vietnam. These thoughtsgave him some comic relief from the nervousness as he chuckled tohimself about the way events were handled back in Texas. His headhas been one of those that rolled and he was glad of it. It was the onlyway out of Texas and away from a colonel known as Psycho.

Jack had trained as a pilot before he had joined the Air Force.His uncle, a B-24 pilot during World War II, taught him how to flyhis twin-engine plane on his ranch in Nebraska. After joining the AirForce he was accepted in the pilot training program. He was threeweeks from graduation when on a training flight with his instructorpilot they were taxiing at Randolph AFB in Texas with the canopyof their T-38 in the up position when a mass of bees got into thecockpit. Jack got one of them under his visor and the bee stung himon the right eye. After many examinations by the medical staffs andflight surgeons, it was deemed that permanent damage occurred. Jack'svision in his right eye did not meet the minimums to continue pilottraining. Since Jack was in the top 5% of his pilot training class, he, hisInstructor Pilot and Commander lobbied that he be able to continue.They were denied, so they then lobbied for Jack to continue on intonavigation training. Jack was in the top 3% of his class in navigation.This was accepted and Jack went on to navigation training andgraduated. His vision was corrected with prescription glasses and whileflying he had a prescription visor that he wore. When he was flying,most aircraft commanders would let him ride right seat, co-pilot, andnavigate at the same time, they soon discovered he was tops in both.

Earlier that week on Wednesday the 17th, he was on duty at hisground duty station as the senior controller at the control tower inMcConnolly Air Force Base in Texas. His operations officer was aColonel Clinton, a person that he and those he worked with calledPsycho, not Col Psycho but just plain Psycho. He was one of themost incompetent adults Jack had ever met. Jack often wonderedhow this person got to be a full Colonel in the Air Force. It was amystery to Jack and to all who met Psycho. Jack not being a militarycareer minded person still did not comprehend the mindset of a lifer,career person.

Psycho was so self occupied in advancing himself and in tearingdown his peers, it was a standard joke that he was a paranoid. Atno time should one confront him or offer a differing opinion. Asdisagreeing with Psycho was an instant threat to one's military career.

Psycho was in the habit of listing the control tower OperationalProcedures, OPs, for each day on a `Read and Sign' sheet. Thecontrollers had to read and sign the sheet each day before they wenton duty. This was for Psycho's own protection in case anythinghappened. He could then point his stubby little finger at someone elseand say, `He knew the rules and did not follow them.' Jack had heardof many a career ruined by Psycho in his own blind and bewilderedclimb through a military career.

That morning's 'Read and Sign' sheet however had an error init that would change the lives of all involved. It seems that Psycho'sclerk, Ronnie, in making up the control tower operational procedureslists, put the DON'Ts in the DO column and the DOs in theDON'T column. This was pretty normal because Ronnie, known asRonnie-the-Rummy, spent most of his off duty time at the NCOClub drowning his sorrows and the memories of three ex-wives. Inthe drowning of his sorrows, he was also making many mistakes onthe job that Jack and the other controllers would cover up to protectRonnie. But this day Jack decided to stop covering and see what wouldhappen. If it were a quiet day nothing would happen. Jack read themout loud and said to his co-controllers, "I wonder if Psycho realizesthat his boy Ronnie-the-Rummy fucked up the OPs list again."

Jimmy, a junior controller, said, "I read the OPs list andimmediately saw Ronnie's screw up but signed anyway." Both Dannyand Joe, the other controllers on duty with Jack agreed that they alsosaw the mistake but went ahead and signed, as they knew what thecorrect procedures were anyway.

Jack replied with a sly smile, "I'm ready to get out of Texas andaway from Psycho and I'll do almost anything legal to do it."

"How are you going to go about that?" asked Jimmy.

Jack answered, "If anything big comes in, I am going to follow theOPs to the letter and not vary one bit. The only thing we can ask forwas some dignitary to come in and be ignored."

At about 0945 they got an inbound notification from the HoustonARTCC of a flight from Andrews Air Force Base, WashingtonDC. After receiving the notification, Jack checked the weather. Itwas unusually hot for southern Texas in January, sunny, 84 degrees,winds from the west at 6 mph, and humidity at a high 86 percent. Itpromised to become more extreme as the day continued. The forecastwas for a high of 92 degrees by mid afternoon. It was going to be avery uncomfortable day if you were outside for any amount of timeespecially if you were just coming in from Washington DC where itwas snowing and 15 degrees. The notification also stated that a SenatorHernandez from southern Texas was aboard, probably for a visit to hisconstituents. The ETA was 1315 and the aircraft call sign was Lima-62.Usually, the OPs list gave in the DOs column those instructions ofwhom all to call from the Protocol Office, the Operations Office, anddown to the Transit Alert Crew to inform them of a high rankinggovernment official's arrival. That day however, there were no suchinstructions in the DOs column. Senator Hernandez would not havean air-conditioned staff car waiting for him. He wouldn't even have anopen-air jeep, he would be walking. Jack gave a sly grin to the othersin the tower.

On a normal aircraft landing the Transient Alert Crew is notifiedso they can go out and lead the aircraft into the transient aircraftparking area and prepare to refuel the aircraft. This is all thathappened to Lima-62, the senator's aircraft. There was no parking inthe VIP area; there were no high-ranking officers to greet him, or anair-conditioned staff car for him. He exited the aircraft with his aidsand looked around wondering why no one was there to meet him. Jackand his crew of controllers watched the senator with binoculars to seewhat was happening. After about five minutes of standing and waiting,it was obvious that the senator was becoming very hot and upset thatthe usual protocol...

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