Operation Arc Light

Operation Arc Light was the 1965 deployment of B-52F Stratofortresses as conventional bombers from bases in the US to Guam to support ground combat operations in Vietnam.

By the middle of April 1966, all B-52Fs were redeployed back to their bases in the US and were replaced by the Big Belly modified B-52D.

Later in the Vietnam War, the B-52G joined the B-52D. By extension, Arc Light, and sometimes Arclight, is the code name and general term for the use of the B-52D/F/G Stratofortress as a close air support (CAS) platform to support ground tactical operations assisted by ground-control-radar detachments of the 1st Combat Evaluation Group (1CEVG) in Operation Combat Skyspot during the Vietnam War. At the same time, investigations of secret CIA activities in Laos revealed where B-52s were used to systematically bomb Laos and Cambodia. In fact, the United States dropped more ordnance on North Vietnamese Army-occupied eastern Laos than it did during World War II on Germany and Japan combined. To this day, large areas of Laos and Cambodia are still very dangerous because of unexploded ordnance.

In 1964, the U.S. Air Force began to train strategic bomber crews in the delivery of conventional munitions, flying the B-52F. Under Project Big Belly, all B-52Ds were modified so that they could carry nearly 30 tons of conventional bombs. B-52s were deployed to Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam, and U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield in Thailand. Arc Light operations were most often CAS bombing raids of enemy base camps, troops concentrations, and supply lines.

The first use of these heavy bombers in Southeast Asia occurred on June 18, 1965. Flying out of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, twenty-seven aircraft used 750 and 1,000 pound bombs to attack a Viet Cong stronghold. During this mission two B-52Fs were lost in a mid-air collision; another was unable to conduct air refueling. Missions were commonly flown in three-plane formations known as "cells" and were also employed when ground units in heavy combat requested fire support. Releasing their bombs from high in the stratosphere, the B-52s could neither be seen nor heard from the ground. B-52s were instrumental in nearly wiping out enemy concentrations besieging Khe Sanh in 1968 and An Loc and Kontum in 1972.

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