To better support their mission of providing air support for the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, the Black Ponies were split into two detachments. Detachment Bravo was located on the Army Air Field near the coast town at Vung Tau. Bravo Det. supported operations in the northern and eastern portions of the Delta. These included operations along the Vam Co Tay and the Vam Co Dong Rivers - Operation Giant Slingshot - and the vital Long Tau Shipping Channel, transiting forty-five miles of the Rung Sat Special Zone, from the South China Sea to Saigon. The Rung Sat was a strategic area surrounding the Long Tau River, which connects Saigon to the South China Sea. The shipping channel into Saigon ran mazelike along this river, which made numerous tight turns, often doubling back on itself, as it snaked through the mangrove marshlands. Extracted from Kit Lavell's book 'The Flying Black Ponies'
Mark Spedding sent me a large group photo taken at Det. B sometime around August 1969. He wrote the names of those appearing in the photo on the back. A click on the picture below, will take you to the full sized version.
Jeff Vetter sent me a bunch of pictures as well, I ran them all through Paint Shop Pro one time to clean them up some and put them here. If you know anybody's name or can improve the captions, Send to Bob. Have fun :)
August 2015 - Winds & Seas ~ Bob | Photos by Mark Spedding and Jeff Vetter. | Template by TEMPLATED.CO