Pappy Yoakum and Bird Dog 820
Captain Victor “Pappy” Yoakum was the senior man among 8 navigators deployed TDY from Vietnam to ride in the back seat of the 23rd TASS O-1s in early 1967. These navs flew month after month on some of the most dangerous missions flown by the 23rd TASS. Even though the O-1 had virtually no night navigational capabilities, the Navs’ role was to use the starlight scope to hunt down trucks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
