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Description
| Manufacturer: | Curtiss | |
| Base model: | O-1 | |
| Designation: | O-1 | |
| Version: | G | |
| Nickname: | Falcon | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1924-1942 | |
| Basic role: | Observation | |
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Known serial numbers
Examples of this type may be found at
| Museum | City | State |
| United States Air Force Museum | Wright-Patterson | Ohio |
O-1G on display
United States Air Force Museum |
Recent comments by our visitors
| Pete Nickerson Tustin, CA | Greetings to Roger Bowers from Aloft 12.
I also flew with the 74th RAC. I was there in 71-72, as things were "winding down". Vividly remember flying mortar watch over Saigon more than a few times. Flew a few times down into the Delta and had a few beers with the Aussies. Flew a lot of missions up around the Parot's Beak. My first tour in RVN was in the infantry. My tour with the 74th RAC was a lot better than slogging through rice paddys and chopping through thick jungles. Could be just as deadly though. I count myself as lucky. 05/29/2008 @ 09:09 [ref: 21049] |
| Russ Black , MD | a note of interest to you Bird Doggers
God Bless you and thanks for your service: Pilot Missing From the Vietnam War is Identified The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is Maj. John L. Carroll, U.S. Air Force, of Decatur, Ga. He will be buried on Nov. 13 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. On Nov. 7, 1972, Carroll was flying a Forward Air Controller mission over Xiangkhoang Province, Laos, when his O-1G Bird Dog aircraft was hit by enemy ground fire and forced to land. Once on the ground, he radioed the Search-and-Rescue (SAR) helicopters on his intent to stay in the aircraft. Two SAR helicopters attempted a recovery, but intense enemy fire forced them to depart the area. A second pickup attempt was made later, but the pilot of that helicopter saw that Carroll had been fatally wounded. The recovery attempt was unsuccessful due to nearby enemy forces that opened fire on the helicopter. In 1993, a joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R) team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated the incident and surveyed the crash site. During the site survey, the team found small fragments of aircraft wreckage. Between 1996 and 2007, joint U.S./L.P.D.R./Socialist Republic of Vietnam teams, led by JPAC, conducted several interviews concerning the incident. One witness provided the team with identification media which belonged to Carroll. In another interview, a former People's Army of North Vietnam officer turned over some of Carroll's personal effects and told the team that local residents had buried Carroll. Another witness later led a team to the burial site. In 2007, a joint team excavated the burial site and found his remains. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC also used dental comparisons in the identification of the remains. For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/ or call (703) 699-1169. 11/06/2007 @ 09:55 [ref: 18424] |
| Russ Black , MD | a note of interest to you Bird Doggers
God Bless you and thanks for your service: Pilot Missing From the Vietnam War is Identified The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is Maj. John L. Carroll, U.S. Air Force, of Decatur, Ga. He will be buried on Nov. 13 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. On Nov. 7, 1972, Carroll was flying a Forward Air Controller mission over Xiangkhoang Province, Laos, when his O-1G Bird Dog aircraft was hit by enemy ground fire and forced to land. Once on the ground, he radioed the Search-and-Rescue (SAR) helicopters on his intent to stay in the aircraft. Two SAR helicopters attempted a recovery, but intense enemy fire forced them to depart the area. A second pickup attempt was made later, but the pilot of that helicopter saw that Carroll had been fatally wounded. The recovery attempt was unsuccessful due to nearby enemy forces that opened fire on the helicopter. In 1993, a joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R) team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated the incident and surveyed the crash site. During the site survey, the team found small fragments of aircraft wreckage. Between 1996 and 2007, joint U.S./L.P.D.R./Socialist Republic of Vietnam teams, led by JPAC, conducted several interviews concerning the incident. One witness provided the team with identification media which belonged to Carroll. In another interview, a former People's Army of North Vietnam officer turned over some of Carroll's personal effects and told the team that local residents had buried Carroll. Another witness later led a team to the burial site. In 2007, a joint team excavated the burial site and found his remains. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC also used dental comparisons in the identification of the remains. For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/ or call (703) 699-1169. 11/06/2007 @ 08:21 [ref: 18422] |
| Roger Bowers Melbourne, FL | Ralph McRae taught me to shoot 2.75's when I arrived in Vinh Long in March '69, assigned to the 199th RAC. Thanks, Ralph. After my tour in the delta, I did a second tour with 74th RAC at Phu Loi. I was shot down twice in 24 hours. The Bird Dog got me down in down safe and I was able to get away clean both times. Both aircraft were later recovered and flew again. I served as 3rd Plt Leader 199th RAC at Cao Lanh and later as 4th Plt Ldr and SIP 74th RAC. Accumulated about 2000 hrs, and lots of holes. Flew FTB-337G for Rhodesian AF in '76-'77. Falcons with US Coast Guard '78-'94. C-337's for AirScan 94-07 in Angola, Malaysia, Colombia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Guinea, Sierra Leone. Still flying in Iraq since '03. National Air & Space Museum has my 0-1 "Mobile Miss" with original colors and nose art. Army now lacks a comparable aircraft. I guess that's why they've got 60-year-old grandpa's like me flying 0-2's here in Iraq. 08/26/2007 @ 08:53 [ref: 17763] |
| John Michael DeMots Chicago/Oldsmar, FL | My callsign was Catkiller 42. I flew with the then Cpt Bordeaux during Lam Son 719 and before on the DMZ and the A Shau.
I was covering Cpt Richard J. Wright when he was hit up near the tri-borders with a 37MM AA. He was the first Catkiller to land at Khe Shan during the Laos invasion. As "Lefty" was on short final to the runway a jeep with a camra man in the back pulled out onto the runway in front of him. The jeep drove down the runway while Rich was landing. Since then I've had a special spot in my heart for reporters. The other most amazing thing was that I was never hit in the air. I can assure you that it was not from lack of trying. At the time I left I was the only one who had not been hit. After 719 we went back to flying the DMZ. Rich Gates caught about 40 VC comming out of the hills to the West of A4. He got two Cobras and a C&C ship who layed waste to the bad guys. As Rich made a low pass for a body count a 51 cal opened up on him from a ridge line to the East. I turned toward the 51 cal flying straight and level trying to give the gunner a better target to shot at. He never saw me because he was shooting down at Cpt Gates. I had a back seater with me and I hollered at him to give me a smoke. He bounced the smoke off my helmet and it landed in my lap. I grabbed the gernade, pulled the pin and tossed it out the plane window. I remember watching the gernade fall and thinking that SOB Newton lied to us. With an amazing amount of dumb luck the smoke landed right in front of the 51 cal blocking his view. Needless to say the bad guys quit shooting. I keyed the mike and asked anyone to hit my smoke. As the smoke drifted over to the next ridge line someone finally shot. Not the right ridge line. Since then I've given up attacking 51 cals with smoke gernades. 06/06/2007 @ 15:46 [ref: 16765] |
| MAJ HP Bordeaux USA SFSO (Abn/Avn) Piney Flates, TN | Graduated from US Army Avn Sch OFWAC67-9, Aug 1967, in rank/grade of CPT (O-3E).
Assigned, upon arrival in country (Aug 1967), to 2nd Flt Plt, 185th RAC (reconnaissance airplane company), Ban Me Thout Airfield, Central Highlands (II Corps War Zone Central); 223rd Avn Bn; 17th Avn Grp; 1st Avn Bde. Immediately, made responsible as Flt Sec Ldr of four Armed Reconnaissance O-1G Bird Dogs (with callsign "Pterodactyl 23"), dedicated to Cheo Reo [Hau Bon, its other name, the provincial capital of Phu Bon Province] and its airfield, in support of a MACV (military assistance command vietnam) Advisory Group co-located there with RVN (republic of vietnam) troop assets. Awarded The Distinguished Flying Cross "For Heroism While Participating in Aerial Flight" on 11 Apr 68, in support of a heliborne tactical operation conceived by the Cheo Reo MACV Advisory Group, involving the 155th AHC (Stagecoachers, out of Ban Me Thout), Australian Air Force Canberra Bombers, and RVN assault helicopter troop assets. Beginning Jun 68, a requirement for a Special Forces Qualified aviator to be the pilot OIC of a minimum of four Bird Dogs to be in dedicated support (OPCON/Attached) to CCC (command control central), MACVSOG (military assistance command vietnam studies and observation group), came down from MACV thru 1st Avn Bde chain of command that entailed my having to accept the mission as the Special Forces qualified pilot volunteer as well as three other volunteer pilots. This caused a restructuring of 2nd Flt Plt, generated by volunteer requirements, etc. I became the 2nd Flt Plt Cdr with four O-1Gs to be stationed at Cheo Reo Airfield as backups [these pilots also had volunteered, which could facilitate rotation] as well as the other four O-1Gs (with crew chiefs, etc.) to be stationed at Kontum Airfield. All of us were housed and assigned defensive perimeter positions at the CCC compound stronghold, MACVSOG, located nearby. Awarded The Air Medal with seven Silver Oak Leaf Clusters and one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, representing 37 Air Medals "For Meritorious Achievement While Participating in Aerial Flight," consummating my first tour [9.6 months of actual flying]. My second tour began Mar 71 in I Corps War Zone North. I was assigned as the 4th Flt Plt Cdr of eight O-1G Bird Dogs with callsign "Cat Killer 46," 220th RAC, Hue-Phu Bai Airfield, Thua Thien Province; 212th Avn Bn; 11th Avn Grp; 1st Avn Bde. My 4th Flt Plt was committed to provide four dedicated O-1G Bird Dogs to support Lam Son 719, the RVN incursion into Laos, from our being OPCON and based on the Khe Sanh Airfield. We were tasked to discover where the incoming bombardment upon Khe Sanh Airfield was coming from. We found the incoming was from T-54/T-55 tanks dug into the mountains and well camouflaged that were firing at us from distances greater than artillery could range. The clue was derived from our own artillery personnel at Khe Sanh Airfield doing reverse engineering/calculations of the impacting rounds on site that were not characteristic of artillery ammunition. Being an artillery officer in my own right, this made a lot of sense to me. Towards the end of Lam Son 719, I got myself involved with extremely well camouflaged T-55 enemy tanks that had NVA soldiers riding externally. We had been tasked to discern what had happened to a column of RVN vehicles that had failed to reach safety into Vietnam. We were flying very low in the gully adjacent to the column to ascertain what might have happened to this column that was about three kilometers long. I had slowed the O-1G with 19 degrees of flaps (maintaining right at 60 knots or so). As we continued our scrutiny, we observed a column of dust some distance away. I choose to continue our low level of flight to now see what this column approaching was about. Well, as we closed with the well camouflaged vehicles, it became apparent that they could not be our RVN allies. As I firewalled the throttle, leaving the flaps in place, I flipped the O-1G in a sharp right turn into the mountain side, the green tracers all went to our left side. They had assumed that I would go left to avoid crashing into the side of the high ground. I knew that I needed the flaps (19 degrees) to cause an air cushion at tree top level when I had flipped the Bird Dog back to the left, while avoiding craching into the trees. Pure flying instinct! This began a running battle, starting about 4:00 PM in the afternoon. I told my backseater that these were T-55 tanks laddened with troops. When we had initially seen the dust column, we speculated that that may be the RVN rear guard. We used fighter bombers and artillery to eradicate the situation. What we did not know was that they were going to attack the RVN rear guard that was conjested trying to create a way across a river back to safety some kilometers to our rear near the border, because all the bridges were knocked out. We landed at Dong Ha Airfield in fog and at night. Impact awarded The Silver Star "For Gallantry in Action" in a ceremony the second day after the action (date of action was 22 Mar 71). I was subsequently relegated to being the US Army O-1 Bird Dog Standardization Instructor Pilot in country and the S-5 Civil Affairs Officer in the 11th Avn Grp at Marble Mountain, Da Nang. I was medivaced back to the States after six months of this second tour. I was awarded another nine Air Medals during this second tour, accumulating a total of 46 Air Medals [13 months of actual combat flying]. Credited with a total of 1,512 Combat Flight Hours. I ended my military career as a Special Forces Special Operations (Abn/Avn) Instructor: Green Beret Master Parachutist (Jumpmaster) and Dual-rated Senior Aviator (Fixed-wing Standardization Instructor Pilot and Rotary-wing Scout, Assault, & Attack Air Cavalry Command Pilot). COMMERCIAL PILOT: AIRPLANE SINGLE & MULTIENGINE LAND; ROTORCRAFT-HELICOPTER; INSTRUMENT AIRPLANE AND HELICOPTER CERTIFICATE NUMBER 1871364 BPA/MAS(-) Conceptual and Preliminary Aircraft Designer of the Peregrine-Shark Armed Reconnaissance Airplane 11/23/2006 @ 22:41 [ref: 14833] |
| Dave Huzarewicz Severna Park,, MD | I also flew in this aircraft out of PhuBai in 1969-70 as part of our nightly "MortarWatch" program. Was with the 101st ABN as a Signal Officer operating out of DivArty at Camp Eagle. Glad to get the name of the 220th Recon Catkillers again-memory was clouded after all the years. Had long forgotten the name although I remember spending a lot of nights backseating it and flying the aircraft in a big figure 8 up towards Hue while my pilot wrote letters to home. I appreciate the glide characteristics of this aircraft and it saved my life. One night we took a stray large caliber round into the engine west of the airport and were able to dead stick it into the PhuBai runway due to the skills of the pilot. That's as close as I ever got to having to bail out of an aircraft. 11/17/2006 @ 10:44 [ref: 14763] |
| mcmillen, gene w, dale, ok 74851, OK | catkiller 36 may 1968-1969 tel: 1-405-279-2616 06/18/2005 @ 22:27 [ref: 10514] |
| Ralph McRae Leesville, LA | I flew the O-1G in the 199th RAC in RVN in 68 and 69 over 1300 hrs. One of the ones I flew had 14 2.75 rocket tubes and with 17# warheads and only me aboard weighed over 2800 lbs. I believe mine was the only one in country that had 14 rockets. I am sending a picture of #721 11/29/2004 @ 00:29 [ref: 8733] |
| Grayson Davis Houston, SK | I flew with the 220th Recon Airplane Company (O-1) Catkillers out of Phu Bai and Dong Ha, Vietnam. We also had models other than the G model. We flew the Ashau, Khe Sanh, Leatherneck Square and North Vietnam. We ran airstrikes, shot army and marine artillery and naval guns with the O-1s. They always brought us safely home. Maybe not much to look at but to those of us that flew her, she was a beauty. 05/14/2004 @ 20:29 [ref: 7408] |
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