Laos Photos

Well...I can now report that Streetcar 304

and Nail 69 made a return visit to the Streetcar

304 mission target area in Laos in late November

'08 and we returned safely this time but the trip

was not without a scary incident.

Once in the target area, we noted that a very

unfriendly Swiss funded "Laotian Bomb Demolition

Team" was still clearing the area of live "dud"

bombs and on our second day of three visits to the

area---as we were walking around looking for the

final rescue pick-up point---that team exploded a

500 pound bomb not too far from our location.

The explosion echoed around the valley just like

my memory of many other ones forty years ago....

And, that was a vivid reminder of the danger we

faced in trying to retrace my evasion trails.

Yes, the trip was quite an adventure....We saw many, many small to massive bomb craters and, to be

honest, it was a little scary to walk around the same area that I once evaded in because we feared that

we would step on a leftover CBU. But... we sucked it up and did so anyway. We walked over the same

trails that I had once evaded enemy troops along and we got to mingle with the local villagers who live in

the same area today---still very isolated from the rest of the world. And, sadly, most of the animals and

birds have been killed for food....

The best news....We found my A-7 crash site and actually dug up a few small pieces to bring home with

us. Most of the plane had been salvaged by others because the villagers use every piece they can find

in very innovative ways and I thought for sure that we would be blown up before we finally started to find

small pieces of the plane in the hole we were digging in. But, I retreived enough parts to satisfy me....

In the photo, I'm standing next to the oldest guy in the village about one mile fron the area where I evaded

and I'm still not sure what he thought of me since we couldn't communicate. But, I don't believe the kids in

the village had ever seen an American---the way they reacted. They appeared very tenative at first but

finally eased closer to me but I'm not sure that I would have been friendly to me either if I had been in

their shoes....

All in all though....A shit-hot adventure....

streetcar 304

Kenny (Streetcar 304)... talking to the vendors at a Laotian roadside lunch

stand on the way to the target area. The roasted bananas, over fire, looked good.

Our team encountered this "Bomb Demolition Team" in the process

of finding and detonating live bombs near the target area. That made me

wonder if I would survive my second time on the ground in Laos....See the large

metal detector in one guys hand? The team leader phoned the local police and

soon thereafter we were stopped by one. He did a passport check...told us to leave

the area... but that evening we were able to get his order rescended and we were

back in the same area again the next day.

A tree like the one 304 hid in during the second afternoon---just prior to the failed

rescue attempt before darkness.

The final rescue point is at the tree---mid-way up the ridge in the center of the

photo--- and on the flat spot of the ridge just to the left of the tall tree in the

foreground. A family now lives in the hooch on the left side of the photo.

Streetcar 304 standing in the middle of a rice paddy and the blue covered hootch

to the upper left is where the enemy base camp was located. If you recall, I was

across from it when I was hiding near the "monkey tree".

In the center is the possible "monkey tree" but of course it has grown some since

then. And, while I was hiding there, the rice would have been waist high---making

it look like an open field to me ---and the enemy squad was walking toward the tree

from our view point in this photo.

I'm standing on the site where we found my plane's wreckage and the guy is the

Laotian who farms that area now. We're not sure if he liked us....

I'm pointing across the Xe Banghian river at the spot where my target, a barge, was tied up to

the shoreline.

A pig---just like the one in the story....

My teammates on this wild adventure....l-r....Nail 69 (Pete Lappin).... our driver,

Mr. Hec....Pete Staaf (an Army Mohawk "Navigator" in Vietnam)....Kenny (Streetcar 304)....

Ryan Bendixen, (ex-Army grunt).... and, in front, Doc Johnson, (former Jolly Green PJ)

who also survived a shootdown. The Xe Banghian river bridge behind us is on Route 9 and

was destroyed in the war, then rebuilt. My target was three miles downstream....

This is the way it looked when I was hiding next to the monkey tree---looking across

the open field as the 10 man enemy squad approached on day two---and when the

leopard approached me.

This "dead" Jolly is inside a Laotian war memorial "Victory Park" in a town near Tchepone.

In the book, the Jollys always orbited at the high "Rooster Tail" mountain that I

am pointing toward. For you guys who flew there, this is the way Route 9 looks

today but it is full of potholes.

The village close to the target....Notice how they make use of left over bomb duds

as vegetable pots.

Just past the tall tree is what I believe to be my first escape path trail but I entered

it further down the trail where it is much denser on the sides as you see in the background.

Village kids near the target area....

Family which lives a hundred yards from where my plane crashed---thrashing rice

onto tarp.

Another view of the village close to the target.

The family which lives where the "base camp" was located in the story is trashing

rice before bagging the kernels that are on the tarp. Hard work....This site is just

down the hill from the rescue pick-up point.

"Fasten your seatbelt before reading..."

"THE RESCUE OF STREETCAR 304"---A Navy Pilot's Forty Hours on the Run in Laos by Kenny Wayne Fields