Phu Cat Air Base Security Forces
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Phu Cat Air Base Security Forces of the United States Air Force were Air Police and Security Police squadrons responsible for the air base ground defense of Phù Cát Air Base in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Phu Cat AB was the field test site for the six-month combat evaluation of the 1041st USAF Security Police Squadron (Test) from 16 January to 4 July 1967. The 1041st patrolled 26 miles of outer perimeter under Project Safe Side to evaluate the feasibility of developing a USAF Air Base Ground Defense (ABGD) force. Its experiences were a direct precursor to the development of the Security Force-concept in use today by the USAF.
Units primarily responsible for base security were the 37th Security Police Squadron between 1 August 1966 and 31 March 1970, and the 12th Security Police Squadron from 1 April 1970 to 17 November 1971, when its parent 12th Tactical Fighter Wing was inactivated. These squadrons were periodically augmented by sections of "combat security police" on temporary duty in SVN under the designation 821st Combat Security Police Squadron. After the drawdown of U.S. forces at Phù Cát AB in 1971, the base and its security were turned over to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force.
Operation Safe Side
On 1 August, Capt Robert M. Sullivan and 53 air policemen, including six sentry dog/handler teams, were transferred from the 366th Air Police Squadron at Phan Rang Air Base to be the cadre for the newly activated 37th Air Police Squadron at Qui Nhon. Their first assignment was to escort 63 engineers of the 554th and 555th Civil Engineer Squadrons to Phù Cát, and then to assume security of the base site. The RED HORSE contingent constructed a camp for the 819th CES (Heavy Repair), tasked to build the base but still training at Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas. A 55-man advance party from the 819th CES arrived directly from the United States on 6 August, followed by the entire squadron a month later, and began construction of all vertical structures on the base.
19 September 1966 marked activation of 37th Combat Support Group, slated to be a support component of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing. During construction, internal base security was provided by the severely understrength 37th APS, then having only 240 APs assigned and forced to augment its ranks with 100 non-security airmen from the 37th Combat Support Group and 162 from the 819th CES. The 1041st USAF Security Police Squadron (Test), an experimental light infantry-type air police unit, deployed to Phu Cat in the first half of 1967 to increase ground defense security under Operation Safe Side.[1]
250 men assigned to the 1041st SPS (Test) trained in patrolling and intelligence-gathering for 15 weeks (5 September to 16 December 1966) at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, under a 35-man cadre, 23 of whom trained at the US Army Ranger School but only four of whom were fully qualified as instructors. This necessitated on-the-job training at Phu Cat AB for the 226 who completed the initial course.
At Schofield Barracks the organizational structure of the 1041st was finalized, consisting of a squadron headquarters (an officer and 38 enlisted men) for administration and evaluation; and an observation and surveillance flight (an officer and 37 EM), a close combat flight (two officers and 78 EM), a weapons support flight (one officer and 31 EM), an operations section (one officer and 21 EM), and a scout dog section (15 enlisted men and nine dogs) as combat elements. Vehicles assigned the unit were 28 M151A1 Jeeps, seven M37 ¾ ton trucks, two M35 2½ ton cargo trucks, and three armored personnel carriers.
Its basic tactical units were 16 six-man fire teams, each equipped with an M60 machine gun and a grenade launcher. The squadron was proficient in all infantry weapons including mortars. It was equipped with three own weapons-mounted M113 armored personnel carriers (APC) for off-road mobility, supplemented by helicopters. A Tactical Security Support Equipment (TSSE) system consisting of buried seismic detectors and sensors called Multiple Conductor Intrusion Devices enhanced its capability of monitoring intrusions. Armory and headquarters personnel were trained in demolition.
During its 179-day tour at Phù Cát, the 1041st conducted 651 patrols, 155 ambushes, and destroyed more than 350 tunnels and fortifications without suffering any fatalities.[2] The Safe Side evaluation and findings report, along with a functional study conducted concurrently by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, recommended that the Air Force create ten combat security police squadrons, each with 21 officers and 538 enlisted men, organized into three security flights of 167 men per flight, and detailed a TO&E. USAF accepted the organizational model but created only three squadrons.
Threat response after July 1967
Affecting all units and personnel stationed at Phù Cát AB was the threat of communist mortar and rocket attacks. Until 1969 the base was relatively secure from stand-off and sapper attack because of the number of South Korean (ROK) and US Army units patrolling the area. Using the operations plan developed by the 1041st SP Squadron, the 37th Air Police Squadron, redesignated as a "Security Police" unit in June 1967, had its authorized strength brought up to 396 men to provide inside-the-perimeter base security, with approximately 80 of those assigned to law enforcement or administrative duties.
The 37th SPS (redesignated the 12th SPS on 1 April 1970) reorganized its three TO&E weapons system security flights into tailored units dubbed "Ranger," "Tiger," and "Cobra" Flights, with approximately two-thirds of the available manpower (240 men) assigned to the night duty Cobra Flight.[3][4] Cobra Flight scheduled overlapping night shifts to optimize coverage, supplemented by a non-standard patrol/mortar section ("Sniper-Ambush team") created within the flight. Initially trained by the 1041st during its phaseout, it also conducted patrols outside the air base perimeter and used armored vehicles for blocking forces and ammunition resupply.[5] As base units were either withdrawn or downsized, security patrols gradually decreased.
The base experienced three sapper attacks that penetrated its perimeter between 22 February 1969 and 4 April 1970, and thirteen stand-off rocket and mortar attacks between 17 June 1969 and 24 February 1971, resulting in sixteen damaged aircraft, two deaths, and 28 wounded. All of the sapper attacks were defeated by security forces, resulting in the deaths of six NVA sappers and the capture of one.[6] In the early morning of 12 February 1971 two security policemen of a 12th SPS security alert team were killed when a command-detonated explosive device manufactured from C-4 explosive destroyed their jeep as they were patrolling just outside the northern perimeter of the base.[7]
Between 9 September 1969 and 1 February 1972, a heavy weapons and small unit tactics school (initially, from 5 May 1969, the Seventh Air Force Mortar School) was operated at Phù Cát AB by the 821st Combat Security Police Squadron and later the 35th Security Police Squadron. On 17 November 1969, the law enforcement section of the 37th SPS opened the first Correctional Custodial Facility in the Seventh Air Force.[8]
