This Page Declassified IAW EO12958 DECLASSIFIED TON & REULEW TEAM speed ———— Ss s x» N Ss S S — 00£-/0/ DECLASSIFIED SES becioes THIS PAGE Declassified [AW £012958This Page Declassified IAW EO12958 DECLASSIFIED ounSIy OL NUMER THE AIR FORCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA uise IV GaV TIHAVL = % oO ooe -1a/ Bee) - L967 THE B-57G -- TROPIC MOON III 1967-1972 by Richard A. Pfou and William H. Greenhalgh, Jr OFFICE OF AIR FORCE HISTORY Headquarters USAF, 1978 DECLASSIFIED THIS PAGE Declassified IAW EO012958 goLgectThis Page Declassified IAW EO12958 UNCLASSIFIED FOREWORD (U) As in World War TE and the Korea police action, the enemy in Southeast Asia sought the protective concealment of darkness to move hi troops and supplies. Although U.S. tactical aircrews eut roads and destroyed moving vehicles during daylight hours, they were imefZective at night, Jungle vegetation and mountainous terrain amplified thear difficulties in fanding and attacking the trucks, watercraft, and troops that poured southward each naght through the maze of roads, footpaths, and streams that constituted the so-called Ho Ch Minh Trai in eastern Leos, Casting about for an aireraft capable of interdicting the infilevation flow at night, the Air Force Finally settled on a modified B-57 as the most suitable vehi- ele on whieh to mount and test new sensors and weapons in a night attack role. (W) Gonceived in 1967 as Project Tropic “foon TIT, the 3-576 was the Firee jet bouber specifically confzgured for self-contasned might attack sorties in Southeast Asia. within a relatively shore tame, the Aur Force modified, rested, and 21 ev the B-57G against hostile targecs. When the Air Force decided that the time had cone to withdraw the B-57Gs from South east Asia, Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jz., wrote to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force that "it seems to me appro- priate chat we record and evaluate our experiences with che B-57Ga fron concept formulation through redeployment to high2ight those lessons which would be valuable i developing and employing similar systems in the future." That task was assigned to the Director of UNCLASSIFIED THIS PAGE Declassified IAW EO012958