Laser Guided Bombs (LGB)>

Although they were very accurate weapons, the early LGBs had a very high dud rate. Pat McCullough (Nail 47) and I were flying together one day over the Plain de Jars (PDJ) (he was sandbagging with me) and we spotted a 130mm gun in a dirt revetment. This gun was either being prepared for movement or was being covered up when we found it, as the camouflage around it was not complete. We spotted it because the barrel was sticking out of the bushes. We called for some air but could only get one flight with dumb bombs (Mk-82s). They were pretty good, but all they accomplished was to knock off more of the camouflage and flatten some of the dirt revetment that was around the gun. We gave them credit for damaging the gun and then had to return to base (RTB). On our way home, we passed the coordinates for the gun to Cricket, the Airborne Command Control Communications (ABCCC) aircraft.

When Pat and I came back the next day (I was sandbagging with him this time), the gun was in the same place, but it had been camouflaged more thoroughly than the previous day and the revetment had been repaired. We figured that the bad guys wanted to keep it as they were working so hard for it. So, we checked with Cricket to see if anyone had struck it. No air had been directed against it and so we requested some and received a flight of F-4s with two Mk-84 LGBs.

We marked the gun and they dropped their first LGB while we circled overhead. I was actually looking at the gun through the binoculars when the bomb landed right next to it and dudded! I saw that the bomb had caused the gun to rock and showered it with dirt, it had landed that close but had not struck the gun! Pat cleared the fighters to drop their last bomb and it apparently hit the first bomb and both of them detonated as we were thrown around pretty good by the blast. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, we found the gun and observed that it had likewise been thrown around by the blast - it was moved again, but this time by 10-20 meters (apparently it had been tumbled as it was lying on its side). We gave the fighters credit for a damaged gun. However, we changed the status to destroyed the next day when we returned and found that the bad guys had given up on trying to repair it and it was lying where it had come to rest after we struck so very close to it with those LGBs. For all I know, it is probably still lying there!

A second story about LGBs.
LGBs were so unreliable that the minimum safe distance for using them around friendlies was 1,000 meters (that's right, a kilometer or klick!). This was principally because the guidance fins would sometimes lock and it was then anybody's guess as to where the thing might hit! LGBs are dropped in a 'basket' that allows the seeker to find and guide onto the target being lased - and the minimum altitude above the target from which they must be released to hit this basket can be as much as 10-14,000 feet above the ground! This was not a safety thing, it was to give the seeker sufficient time to 'wake up' after release, find the laser energy source on the ground, and then guide the bomb to the target.

I heard of a Nail that dropped a MK-84 LGB in a Troops-in-Contact (TIC) situation because that was all he had available. He observed the minimum safe distance on selecting and marking his target, but the thing dudded. When he asked the ground commander if he had seen where the bomb impacted, the reply he got was, "See it, Hell! We can touch it!" It had landed almost on top of the friendlies! I guess it was a good thing that they did have a high dud rate in this instance!