| Date: 16 August 1963 |
| Aircraft type: B-26B Invader |
| Serial Number: 44-34681 |
| Military Unit: 1 ACS, 34 TG |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Bien Hoa |
| Name(s): |
| Capt John Howard McClean (KIA) |
| Capt Arthur Eugene Bedal (KIA) |
| VNAF observer name unknown (KIA) |
| On 1 June the 1st Air Commando Group at Hurlburt Field was redesignated as the 1st Air Commando Wing to form the nucleus of USAF special forces activity. On 8 July, with any pretext of being in South Vietnam simply in a training and advisory role long since gone, the Farm Gate detachment was officially redesignated as the 1st Air Commando Squadron and was attached to the 34th TG. It was now a regular USAF combat squadron and could go about its business in a more open manner than circumstances had previously allowed, however, its code name of Farm Gate still stuck with it for some years. At this time the squadron consisted of 6 C-47s, 4 U-10s, 13 T-28s and 13 B-26s. Capt McClean’s aircraft was lost when one of its wings broke off during a dive on a target in Quang Ngai province. Although enemy gunfire was reported during the mission it was thought that the wing might have failed through metal fatigue. The B-26s in use in Southeast Asia were originally built in 1944 and, although having been refurbished since then, they were now operating with heavy underwing loads from some very rough runways which imposed huge strain on the wing structure. The aircraft were also used as dive bombers, a role for which they were not designed nor were they stressed to take the G forces encountered when pulling out of the dive. After McClean’s crash and another B-26 accident in the USA on 11 February 1964 when a wing separated during an air power demonstration, severe limitations were imposed on the Farm Gate aircraft that would eventually halt their use in combat as soon as a replacement could be found. |
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