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The rescue of Bat 21 Bravo, the call sign for Iceal "Gene" Hambleton, from behind North Vietnamese lines was the "largest, longest, and most complex search-and-rescue" operation during the Vietnam War. On April 2, 1972, the Easter Offensive, the largest combined arms operation of the entire Vietnam War, was in its third day. An early morning flight of two United States Air Force EB-66 aircraft were led by Bat 20, piloted by Lt. Col. Robert Singletary. Hambleton was a navigator aboard Bat 21. The two aircraft were escorting a cell of three B-52s. Bat 21 was configured to gather signals intelligence including identifying North Vietnamese anti-aircraft radar installations to enable jamming. Bat 21 was destroyed by a SA-2 surface-to-air missile and Hambleton was the only survivor, parachuting behind the front lines into a battlefield filled with thousands of North Vietnamese Army soldiers. Hambleton had Top Secret access to Strategic Air Command operations and was an expert in surface-to-air missile countermeasures. The North Vietnamese Army may have possessed information about his presence in Vietnam and his capture would have meant a huge intelligence bonanza for the Soviet Union. Hambleton along with 1st Lt. Mark Clark, who was shot down during rescue operations, were finally recovered from behind the front lines on two different nights in daring, covert, night-time rescues carried out by U.S. Navy SEAL Thomas R. Norris and VNN commando Nguyen Van Kiet. Norris was awarded the Medal of Honor and Nguyen was recognized with the Navy Cross for their actions. Nguyen was the only South Vietnamese naval officer given that award during the war. The Air Force did not put limits on what it took to rescue a downed airman. The direct and indirect cost of rescuing Hambleton was enormous and became a watershed event in Air Force search and rescue. To prevent friendly fire incidents, the Americans imposed a standard no-fire zone within a radius of Hambleton and diverted aircraft to aid in his rescue. It is likely that South Vietnamese soldiers indirectly died as a result of their inability to obtain fire support.〔 Five additional aircraft were shot down during rescue attempts, directly resulting in the deaths of 11 airmen, the capture of two others, and another airman trying to evade capture. The added deaths, loss of aircraft, and length of the rescue operation led the USAF to change the way they planned and conducted search and rescue missions. As a result they developed new techniques and equipment to improve their ability to rescue downed airmen. == Operational background == At the time of Bat 21's mission, American combat forces had been vastly reduced in South Vietnam under President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization policy. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched the Nguyen Hue Offensive against the South Vietnamese Army and U.S. military on Friday, March 30, 1972. It was their largest attack of the war and was timed to take full advantage of the bad weather typical during monsoon season, offering low clouds and poor visibility. About 30,000 heavily equipped〔 NVA troops from the 304th and 308th Divisions and three separate infantry regiments of the B5 Front crossed the DMZ into I Corps zone across the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam. In the area between the Cam Lo Bridge and Dong Ha Bridge, the NVA were supported by two tank regiments of 150 Soviet T-54 and PT-76 tanks, 75 tracked anti-aircraft vehicles, an artillery regiment of 47 towed 130mm guns, and the largest concentration of anti-aircraft weaponry of the entire war,〔 including the advanced SA-2 surface-to-air missile. Their main line of advance was along the axis of the north-south national highway QL-1.〔 When General Creighton Abrams' headquarters in Saigon learned of large NVA movement south of the DMZ, a number of B-52s had been sent on "Arc Light" missions without escort, but were experiencing significantly increased SAM activity. The 42nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (42 TEWS) was tapped for assistance. The draw down of troops had left the unit shorthanded and Hambleton was the senior officer among a group of senior navigators.〔 Hambleton assigned himself as navigator on the older EB-66C which was configured to gather signals intelligence. The newer EB-66E was tasked with jamming surface-to-air missile (SAM) radar guidance systems so their missiles could not accurately target the aircraft. The EB-66's mission was to troll for missiles, let them lock on to their aircraft, and then execute a SAM break, a violent turn and dive designed to throw off the pursuing missile.〔 The SA-2 was the size of a telephone pole and carried a proximity fused warhead that was lethal within about , but their guidance systems failed at about 2 Gs, while the EB-66 could achieve 5 Gs in its avoidance maneuver. The crew had successfully pulled a SAM break more than 100 times. The presence of North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles south of the DMZ had been tracked by Hambleton but not everyone agreed they were present that far south.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rescue of Bat 21 Bravo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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