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Some History of the EC-47 Operations in SEA, 1966-1974
Hello, my name is James C. Wheeler, J.C. for short. I am a retired USAF MSgt with a tour in Vietnam, 1966/67 as a Flight Mechanic on the EC-47 Aircraft with the 361st Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadron. The specialized crew that made up what was referred to as the "Backenders", was made up of highly trained Enlisted members of the 6994th Security Squadron and its Detachments throughout Southeast Asia.
These aircraft flew unarmed reconnaissance missions over SEA, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, beginning in 1966 and contunued well into 1974. These missions were normally between 5 and 7 1/2 hours in length and were flown day and night with a crews to aircraft ratio of 2 to 1. Each and every mission was flown over hostile territory and were vulnerable from the takeoff through the landing.
Several aircraft were lost and some 34 crewmembers lost their lives because of enemy groundfire. Others lost their lives on the ground, due to enemy rocket and mortar attacks on the airbases.
These missions at the time, were highly classified with the front end crew, ie. the Pilot, Co-Pilot and Flight Mechanic, did not know all the details of the mission with only the Navigator privilaged to that information due to his job requirements.
For an indepth look at some of the workings of and some of the history of the aircraft and its crews, both TEWS, the 360th, 361st and 362nd and 6994th SS and all its Detachments, Det.1 Det.2 and Det.3, visit my other site, "The EC-47 History Site"
The Above and Much More on the EC-47 and TEWS can be found at Link below. Click on the GREEN.
