Major John Hoskins Drops Last American Bomb on Cambodia
Article taken from The Progress, Clearfield, Pennsylvania,
August 15, 1973
Bombing Halt Ends Before Deadline
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Two U.s. Air Force F111's, glinting silver in the bright sunlight, roared low over Phnom Pneh at 10.45 a.m. today to signal the end of the American bombing of Cambodia.
The two swept-wing jets, on their way back to their bases in Thailand, were followed by an OV10 forward air control plane blowing a trail of blue and white smoke as a last gesture of farewell to nine years of American air attacks in Indochina.
The OV10 did a slow barrel roll, and the bombing halt was in effect 15 minutes before the deadline set by the U.S. Congress.
Crowds in the streets paused briefly to watch the planes, but the bustle of the Cambodian capital quickly returned to normal. The people appeared unperturbed by the historic moment and the increased prospect that their city would fall to the estimated 30,000 Communist-led insurgents of the Khmer Rouge around it.
Northwest of Phnom Penh at the village of Kap Srov, Capt. Eng Taung Hak watched one of the last American air strikes against an insurgent position a mile away. As the planes flew off, he shrugged and said: "Finis Bombardement."
The last group of three B52s dropped their 48 tons of bombs just before dawn. The last American bombs dropped on Cambodia were credited to Maj. John Hoskins, 37, oh Portsmouth, Ohio, flying an A7 fighter-bomber. He said he dropped his load at 1-:44 a.m. in a wooded area 40 miles northeast of Phnom Penh.
The Pentagon indicated more than 200 strikes -- the usual daily average in recent weeks -- were flown in the last 24 hours of the air war.
There were few bomb strikes around Phnom Peng Tuesday night but the air war accelerated at dawn. Fighter-bombers were over the city almost constantly, as they have been for several weeks, streaking toward battlefronts only seconds away.
Telegraph communications with the outside world were interrupted when the antenna at a radio station on the outskirts of the city was damaged by a bomb blast.
The recent U.S. bombin campaign got under way early last February in response to a Khmer Rouge offensive that pushed slowly but steadily toward Phnom Penh.
To carry on the bombing, the Cambodian air force has about 50 propeller-driven T28s, but the total bomb load of all of them barely equals that of one U.S. B52 heavy bomber. The Cambodians also have a handul of helicopter and fixed-wing gunships.
American pilots at their bases in Thailand telephoned their wives back home but held no special celebrations.
The Pentagon said earlier that most combat crews and planes would remain in Southeast Asia for a time, and the White House said again that the Nixon administration would do "everything within the law" to support the government of Cambodia. Pentagon sources said U.S. reconnaissance and cargo flights in Cambodia would continue.
The bombing halt which the U.S. Congress forced President Nixed to accept ended the longest aerial campaign in the history of warfare. The 7.4 million tons of bombs and other explosives dropped on North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia was three times the amount U.S. planes dropped in World War II and 10 times the amount in the Korean War..
The end of the bombin removed a protective shield that slowed but did not stop the advance on Phnom Penh of the Khmer Rouge , who control 80 percent of Cambodia. There was no indication yet whether the insurgents would make an all-out drive to take the city.
Col. Am Rong the chief spokesman for the Cambodian military command, expressed confidence that the army could defend Phnom Penh without the support of the U.S. bombin. But his confidence was not shared by foreign observers in the city.