THE AIRLIFT RESCUE AT KHAM DUC REVISITED By Sean M. Miskimins, AMM Curator


CRAZY BRAVE


An Airman stands sentry over a nearby parked C-130 Hercules during the Vietnam War. The C-130’s 133- by 98-foot frame made it a large target for NVA ground forces at Kham Duc. (Ryan Aeronautical photo)


Te camp at Kham Duc in what was then South Vietnam seemed a remote and safe place to many of the U.S. Air- men who served there during the first five years of its existence. Established in 1963 during the Vietnam War as a reconnaissance site for action near the


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Laotian border, which was a mere 10 miles away, Kham Duc included an airstrip that was frequently used by the USAF for reconnaissance flights as well as to stage and launch spe- cial forces missions. Te purpose of these insertions was to check the area


for Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) ground troops—in Laos as well as Vietnam. Kham Duc’s location offered those


stationed there earlier in the war a sense of relative calm, as it was an isolated position from the enemy. But


AMM SPOTLIGHT OUR HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE


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