Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base 3.69

Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base is a Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) facility, the home of Wing 21 of the RTAF 2nd Air Division. The RTAF 211sq "Eagles" fly the Northrop F-5E/F "Tiger II" fighter aircraft from Ubon.It is in east-central Thailand, near the city of Ubon Ratchathani, in Ubon Ratchathani Province. It is approximately 488 km (303 miles) northeast of Bangkok. The Laotian border is about 60 kilometers (40 miles) directly east. The facility is also used as a civil airport.HistoryUbon Royal Thai Air Force Base was established in the 1950s as a RTAF base. Political considerations with regards to communist forces engaging in a civil war inside Laos and fears of the civil war spreading into Thailand led the Thai government to allow the United States to covertly use five Thai bases beginning in 1961 for the air defense of Thailand and to fly reconnaissance flights over Laos.Under Thailand's "gentleman's agreement" with the United States, Royal Thai Air Force Bases used by the USAF were considered Royal Thai Air Force bases and were commanded by Thai officers. Thai air police controlled access to the bases, along with USAF Security Police, who assisted them in base defense using sentry dogs, observation towers, and machine gun bunkers.Numbers of other USAF personnel were assigned as security police "augmentees" and placed on perimeter guard duty as alerts of possible enemy intrusions developed. One such attack occurred in early 1970 when North Vietnamese sappers penetrated the base perimeter. Six of them were killed, with no friendly casualties. Other than security police, augmentees, and combat aircrew members, base personnel were normally unarmed. Also, under the US-Thailand operations agreement, USAF military guarding Ubon were prohibited from "chambering" ammunition in their weapons unless fired upon by an enemy.