The Don Englebreston Collection

PACAF Form 20 FAC Mission Sheet Documenting May Combat Sorties, Including a Prairie Fire Emergency, Vietnam War

PACAF Form 20 FAC Mission Sheet Documenting May Combat Sorties, Including a Prairie Fire Emergency, Vietnam War

A page from a Forward Air Controller's personal mission log records the grinding rhythm of combat flying over Southeast Asia: bunker strikes, confirmed enemy locations, a search-and-rescue scramble, and a "Prairie Fire Emergency" — the code name for a call to save a MACV-SOG reconnaissance team in distress along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Documents like this one give a rare, first-person accounting of a FAC pilot's day-to-day wartime experience. Project: 218895