Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive

KC-135 -- Stratotanker -- flying gas station

Thesaurus

Watercolor painting

Museum Object Item Number: 1528museum7392

Note provided by donor:

This trail and village depiction is from a photo sent to the donor by Jim Michener, who had been a U.S. Army UH-1 pilot in Vietnam and lived in Laos for more than thirty years. The village is actually along the road between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, but in the painting it is meant to be a village in Khammouane Province. There is a guard post at the right-hand side and in the horizon a flight of fighters with a KC-135 tanker. The latter would have been along the border of Laos and Thailand, as all the main refueling orbits were within Thailand (never in Laos).
Item Creation Date: 1966
Collection: William Tilton Collection
Association: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood
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Added: 03 Apr 2025 [Updated: 03 Apr 2025]

Watercolor painting

Museum Object Item Number: 1528museum7393

Note provided by donor:

This painting shows an aerial refueling over a typical village of the Isan Region of Thailand and Laos, based on a photo taken by the donor. While the village probably is in Laos, KC-135 tankers were never permitted to enter Laos because of the risk of losing these valuable assets and their crews unnecessarily. The few that did were rare cases where a battle-damaged fighter did not have enough fuel to reach safe territory. Note that the dwellings are constructed on stilts in the Thai/Lao style, in contrast to Vietnamese rural homes that were built on the ground.
Item Creation Date: 1972
Collection: William Tilton Collection
Association: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood
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Added: 03 Apr 2025 [Updated: 03 Apr 2025]

Interview with William Tilton

Oral History Item Number: OH0004

[Number of Pages: 108]
(USAF) William Tilton served with the United States Air Force in Vietnam and Thailand from 1966 to 1967. He served as a Forward Air Controller with the 19th TASS at Bien Hoa and 23rd TASS in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, and as a KC-135 Tanker Crew Commander based out of Thailand.
Author(s): Stephen Maxner
Item Creation Date: 24 August 2000
Collection: William Tilton Collection
Association: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood
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Added: 12 Nov 2001 [Updated: 03 Feb 2008]

Forward Air Controller (FAC) Mission Audio Recording

Audio Item Number: 1528AU1583

[Number of Pages: 0]
The William Tilton Collection. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood Association. Forward Air Controller (FAC) Mission Audio Recording.
Item Creation Date: No Date
Collection: William Tilton Collection
Association: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood
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Added: 06 Mar 2005 [Updated: 19 Nov 2013]

Watercolor painting

Museum Object Item Number: 1528museum7391

Note provided by donor:

This depicts an airstrike on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Khammouane Province, Laos. The cockpit interior is based on a photo that I took in 1966 while a forward air controller in the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, based at Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. It illustrates our strike methods over Laos, using two FAC aircraft. The high FAC observes, contacts the control authority, and makes initial contact with strike aircraft, shown as orbiting the air strike. The low FAC locates targets, places a reference point mark by firing a rocket with white phosphorous warhead, and directs the strike aircraft. He then provides a bomb damage assessment to the departing fighters. The artist has shown the puff of white smoke, a truck on the road among craters from previous strikes, and the karst landscape that characterizes the mountains of Laos. The haze is typical of the springtime just prior to the rainy monsoon season, when mountain tribes are burning the slash in their dry rice mountain fields.
Item Creation Date: 1966
Collection: William Tilton Collection
Association: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood
(Click For More Item Information)
Added: 03 Apr 2025 [Updated: 03 Apr 2025]

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Thesaurus

Museum Object Item Number: 1528museum7392

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