North American Aviation Tech Rep’s Taiwan Adventure – 1958

During the period 1955 through 1960, I was assigned to USAF Section, Military Advisory Assistance Group (MAAG) Taipei, in support of the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF). My assignment covered two Wings of F-86F Sabres at Hsinchu and Tao Yuan AFB. In April 1958, a serious concern was being experienced on the potential invasion of Taiwan by the Chinese communists as a result of the Kinmen/Matsu Island crisis which precipitated a Chinese communist buildup to invading Taiwan.

Col. W. Riggs, Hsinchu AFB Team Chief with USAF-MAAG, suggested using a “flechette” weapon against communist troops that were expected to be storming ashore during the invasion. Riggs recalled that the flechettes had seen limited use in the Korean War (thus the ready supply?). The flechette proposed for use were miniature, razor-sharp, bomb-shaped projectiles that were available in the USAF inventory. The concept was proposed to Gen. W. Dean, Commander USAFMAAG, who gave his authorization to proceed with design of a carrier to be used on the F-86F.

Sgt. David Reese, Sgt. W. Jones and I decided to use a 200-gallon fuel drop tank as the carrier/dispenser. It was modified to provide three compartments, each carrying approximately 2,500 flechettes. Three filler doors were installed at the tank top and three explosive bolt release doors were fitted to the tank bottom. Using existing five-inch high-velocity aerial rocket pigtail wiring in the aircraft underwing allowed the rocket intervolometer located on the pilot’s left hand console to be employed as the release mechanism for deployment.

The modifications took about two weeks to accomplish with most of the effort going into the explosive bolt and release . . .