I sometimes thought it was with both hands tied behind our backs, Alan. I think I've talked about this before on LuLa: When I was ops officer at Lion (call sign for the radar site at Ubon, Thailand) we'd handle flights of fighter-bombers in and out heading for targets in N. Vietnam. I'd frequently get ops orders with intelligence about SAM sites under construction in N. Vietnam. For some insane political reason we weren't allowed to hit those sites while they were under construction. Of course, once they were operational they could shoot down our aircraft. I'll never forget the poor bastard who was outbound with his F-105 that had been hit and was losing fuel. Our IFF (Identification, friend or foe -- google it) was out, so we couldn't identify him in the mass of aircraft heading west and steer him to Ubon. He made a landing attempt at Mukdahan, north of us on the Mekong, where the Brits were building a new airfield. When he saw the bulldozers on the runway he had to go around. He flamed out a minute later and had to bail out.
