ARDF Historical Resume, 1968

Historical Resume
USAF Airborne Radio Direction Finding
Its Development and Use
April 1962 – 31 May 1968
 

This document represents one of the few USAFSS‐generated studies which has made its way into the public domain essentially as it was written. It is one of several background documents used in the writing of the 1968 project CHECO report, The EC47 in Southeast Asia, which is linked elsewhere on the site.

Although the original classification markings were never lined out, the document is now UNCLASSIFIED.

The narrative ends rather abruptly (chapters 3 and 4 are missing) but includes 40 or so pages of ARDF feedback data provided to the 6994th and/or the TEWS. The files linked below are scans of second or third generation photostatic copies in the archives of the USAF Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Many of the pages are of such poor quality that reading is difficult. Even under magnification a few words remain illegible.

  • Click HERE to view the narrative portion of the document as scanned.
  • Click HERE to view a transcript, produced in typescript font to preserve a sense of the orginal document's appearance.

Probably the most interesting and historically valuable portions of this short paper are feedback reports from supported ground units, dating from 1967-68, which were inserted towards the end of the narrative. Some pages are practically illegible, but others tell of specific actions taken by ground units in response to ARDF fixes taken by EC-47 crews. In some instances, crew members are named. In the feedback for March, 1968, for example, we find that

A fix obtained by the crew of Podonsky, Weggers, Hawkins, Veal, McDullough, O’Neill, Jordan, Valdez and Borselino that fell within the operation area of the VC 5th Light Infantry Division was hit with a B-52 strike, one day after their fix on the 25th. A FAC [forward air controller] conducted BDA [bomb damage assessment] after the strike and found all ordnance on target with 7 tunnels uncovered, 2 large trench complexes uncoverd and numerous fighting positions uncovered.

Click on the links below to view these feedback reports, scanned from hard copy made at AFHRA almost twenty years ago. (Note: These are PDF files ranging in size from 1 to approximagtely 2.5 kb and may be slow to load.)

#1 Feedback, May-July 1967, based on Army after action reports
#2 Two feedback reports, September & November 1967
#3 Feedback from December 1967 and January 1968 (Contains some crew names)
#4 After Action Report from Operation Shenandoah II (Poor legibility)
#5 Fragmented report from the 25th Infantry Division
#6 Feedback from January 1968 (Contains some crew names)
#7 Feedback from February 1968
#8 Feedback from March 1968 (Contains some crew names)
#9 More feedback from March 1968 (Contains some crew names)

Almost 50 years after the events, these reports may well represent the most detailed accounts still surviving of the impact made by the Electric Goon on the ground war in South Vietnam.