Earlier this year, Quinn Ryan Mattingly made his way through Binh Phuoc Province. Eventually reaching Phuoc Long, he stumbled upon some interesting history, a downed US plane, slowly decomposing in the center of town.
There wasn't much information available about the plane, but after a little digging around, it’s likely that it was a casualty of the Battle of Phuoc Long.
On December 12, 1974, the NVA and Viet Cong launched their attack on Phuoc Long, a major step in their march to Saigon.
The battle lasted 2 weeks and was characterized by constant assaults, artillery barrages and air bombardment. With supplies and reinforcements cut off, even with the support of B52s, AC-119s and AC-130Es, AVRN forces were unable to fend off NVA assaults.On December 26, the battle ended in a decisive victory for the North.
Due to the heavy use of air power during the battle, the NVA had employed a large number of anti-aircraft guns to prevent resupply to the town’s ARVN defenders. It’s likely that the plane in these images was a victim of this battle.
All of the images in the slideshow below, other than the one looking out from the nose of the plane, were shot on medium format film.
If anyone has more information about this plane, let us know in the comments!
Downed US Plane in Binh Phuoc, Vietnam - Images by Quinn Ryan Mattingly
