Lt. Col. John Halliday (USAFR, Ret.) Page 7

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Q. How were targets identified by your aircraft?

A. This once-top secret starlight scope that magnified moonlight a thousand times. Our scope navigator lay prone on an old mattress and peered out a three-foot-square hole in the cargo floor, using the scope to spot truck headlights.

Starlight scope

Q. What type of aircraft did you coordinate and work with while on station?

A. A C-130 command ship orbiting high overhead coordinated the air war. Their call sign in Flying Through Midnight is “Moonbeam.” When we’d spot a convoy, we radioed Moonbeam for fighters. Then a wide range of aircraft would show up: F-4s, A-4s, A-6s, A-1s…from all service branches.

Q. Describe both the AAA and the airborne threats Candlestick crew faced.

A. We dodged a thousand 37mm shells my first night out.

Three chapters tell about the night a MiG jumped us. We were outgunned, outperformed, and alone.

This Candlestick took a 57mm round in the vertical stabilizer. The crew thought they’d have to bail out over the Trail and become POWs, but though the tail section oil canned all the way back to NKP, the old Harley got them home.

The work was deadly. Getting rammed by a dive-bombing fighter ripping through our altitude was a constant threat. An RB-57 slammed right through one of our Candlesticks. Only the C-123 copilot survived.

Flak

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