C-123s had been used in
Vietnam since 1962 to drop flares for night
interdiction missions, but their use declined after the introduction of the
Douglas AC-47 Spooky in the country. The continued need for flare drop aircraft continued for operations over Laos, and in the spring of 1966,
Pacific Air Forces activated the
606th Air Commando Squadron at
Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand and equipped it with UC-123Bs to continue this mission. Although starting out as a flare support flight, the UC-123s had added night
reconnaissance and
forward air control, which became its primary missions by 1968. The squadron flew from four to nine night
reconnaissance missions per night over the
Steel Tiger and
Barrel Roll areas of Laos, flying in shifts to provide coverage throughout the night. After a lack of success with the use of
starlight scopes in T-28s, a locally manufactured mount was designed and mounted near the Provider's escape hatch, which enabled an observer to sweep the area below the plane for targets. "Candlestick" flare and reconnaissance planes then teamed up with "Zorro" T-28s or "Nimrod'
Douglas A-26 Invaders strike aircraft as a hunter killer team. By 1969, heavy
antiaircraft fire proved a problem for the "Candlestick" aircraft, which had upgraded to the UC-123K. The unit improvised a defense using
chaff, which was manually thrown out the floor hatch to confuse enemy
radars. The "Candlestick" operation ended when the squadron was inactivated in June 1971.
North American T-28 Trojans, call sign "Zorro" also flew with the 606th. Twelve of them moved to Nakhon Phanom in June 1966 along with
Douglas A-26 Invader "Nimrods". After being credited with 67 truck strikes during the week of 2 through 9 November 1966, a detachment of
Douglas A-26 Invader "Nimrods" was attached to the 606th. In September 1967, this detachment plus the T-28 "Zorro" forward air controllers were spun off into the
609th Special Operations Squadron. ==Lineage==