It was an unheralded mission, unfolding over nine long and dangerous years. Even by the standards of the Vietnam War, it was politically sensitive, and national political leaders tended to recoil from discussing it. At its cutting edge were old, unarmed aircraft making low and slow flights, straight into enemy fire.
That is the way it was for the men of Operation Ranch Hand, the Air Force’s long-running campaign to defoliate jungles and, in so doing, deprive the Communist forces of concealment cover and food supplies. Ranch Handers had the hot, smelly, and dangerous job of spraying chemical herbicides over large expanses with maximum enemy presence and minimum protection.
They flew their obsolescent UC-123s with abandon, hurling them at times into 60 degree banks at treetop level, taking hits on virtually every mission. Their success could be measured in the fact that they always were in high demand. In fact, Air Force officials never could provide enough crews and airplanes to satisfy the requests of US ground commanders.
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