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thedrifter
02-06-05, 09:26 AM
February 07, 2005

The Lore of the Corps
For Vietnam-era pilot, A-4 was ‘greatest plane’

By Robert F. Dorr
Special to the Times


Former Capt. Bill Luplow considers himself especially lucky because he had the privilege of flying “the greatest plane in the Marine Corps.”
Luplow was the pilot of an A-4 Skyhawk light-attack aircraft in Vietnam during 1965 and 1966. He belonged to Marine Attack Squadron 311, or VMA-311, known as the “Tomcats,” at Chu Lai, South Vietnam.

The A-4, known as the A-4D before 1962, was a single-seat light-attack plane designed to carry an atomic bomb and operate from a carrier. By the time Luplow stepped into the cockpit, Marines were using the Skyhawk for a very different mission — close support of their own troops.

“They called the A-4 the ‘tinkertoy’ and the ‘scooter’ because it was so small,” Luplow said. “When you closed the cockpit, your shoulders were right up against the inside of the airplane. The beauty of it was, you could easily reach all the armament switches and just about everything you needed to use.”

The A-4 was armed with two 20mm Mark 12 cannons with 200 rounds per gun, and it carried about 4,000 pounds of bombs, rockets or napalm on air-to-ground missions.

“A typical target was enemy troops on the ground in a firefight with Marines,” Luplow said. “Or it might be trucks along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Or you might get word from intelligence that a certain spot was an enemy ammunition dump. We often worked with a forward air controller who guided us to the target, and we were often low enough to see the enemy very clearly.”

Skyhawk pilots faced a variety of threats. Because they flew at low levels where, as Luplow put it, “there was a lot of metal flying around,” almost any kind of Viet Cong or North Vietnamese weapon could damage or destroy a plane.

Though they seldom ventured into South Vietnam, North Vietnamese MiG fighters were always a possible threat, as were surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs.

“I never had a SAM shot at me,” Luplow said, “but I got a lot of small arms.”

On March 21, 1966, Luplow’s A-4 was suddenly and severely damaged when an enemy mortar round exploded near the aircraft.

“I lost hydraulics,” Luplow said. “I started to punch out when I thought, ‘Hey, I’m right in the middle of the North Vietnamese.’ I told the rest of my flight that I would try to get back to base. That’s when a UH-1E Huey chopper pilot called and said, ‘I’ve got you in sight.’ The Huey pilot helped me make it back to Chu Lai. Later, I learned that pilot was my instructor in primary training.”

Luplow, now 66, of Little Rock, Ark., joined the Marine Corps in 1962, became an aviator in 1964 and left the service in 1967 after his Vietnam combat tour. He remembers with pride that the A-4 Skyhawk had a reputation for being accurate and timely in supporting troops on the ground.

Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of numerous books on military and naval topics, including “Air Force One.” His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.


Ellie