[ARC5] Korean War HF Command Set

[Tim]

Hi Dave, Jeep et. al.  - Thanks,,....Here is the photo, taken during the
battle of the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, Nov-Dec 1950.  It does not
looked particularly staged to me.  Official USMC Photo...
http://www.n6cc.com/angrc-9-korea-tacp

The Marine with the mic was probably a pilot attached to one of the
supporting air squadrons - that type of assignment was very effective in
the infantry liaison role.

You're right, it could have been almost any aircraft involved. Especially
in late 1950 we were still building forces from WWII inventories.  So it is
possible that they were talking to a "command and control" aircraft via HF,
the C&C aircraft relaying to VHF/UHF equipped fighter bombers; almost any
combination is possible.  A TACP carrying a GRC-9 would not have been too
unusual since they also had naval gunfire assets available when operating
closer to the coast than Chosin.

I'll do some more digging to find out which Marine air squadrons were
supporting that battle - at least the aircraft type anyway.....But the
question remains - was HF used (or even possible) directly in Ground-Air
CAS missions, at least in that timeframe.  Even if via an intermediate FAC
aircraft...Lots to learn here

Thanks,,Tim




On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 8:34 PM, David Stinson <arc5 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Tim: While I have no firm documentation on what a USMC
> fighter bomber like a Corsair during Korea carried,
> it's very likely to have been carrying what it was at the end of WWII.
> Early in the Korean Conflict, the U.S. and U.N. forces used
> what they had left-over from WWII. There had not been a
> lot of spending for "new" military systems so soon after the largest
> conflict in history. At the end of WWII, a Corsair might have had:
> AN/ARC-5 HF, Range & VHF or AN/ARC-5 VHF with R-23 range or
> AN/ARC-1 with R-23 range or similar.
> AN/ARC-3 became available in large numbers later.
>
> If your USMC troop was talking on a GRC-9 to aircraft, it was likely a
> utility or transport like a C-47 or C-54, an observation, ferrying or
> liaison ship.  Many of these all still had HF primaries.
>
> As in WWII, so in Korea:
> There was no hard "we changed to VHF on this date."
> The two systems were concurrent in use (and still are today).
> The majority of aircraft that had HF, kept HF until it broke or the plane
> wore-out. If an aircraft had ART-13 installed, it probably stayed
> in that aircraft and in regular use well into the 1960s.
> New equipment generally went into new aircraft.
> Whole squadrons of combat aircraft might get new
> radios all at once, but aircraft actually in regular combat
> were only a fraction of the aircraft actually in use.
>
> I helped outfit "radio" jeeps
> for the "Mosquito" forward air observers vet group.
> They tried to have the same equipment in the jeeps as
> the aircraft to which they were talking.  Early jeeps had SCR-287 and
> SCR-522.
> Later in the conflict,  as newer equipment and newer aircraft arrived, the
> jeeps were outfitted with AN/ARC-8 and AN/ARC-3.
> Both HF and VHF remained in active service throughout the conflict.
>
> 73 OM DE Dave AB5S
>
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