Qualla: Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base

Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base: Introduction

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ddalbiez, CC BY 3.0. The call sign was Channel 51. In pilot radio chatter over North Vietnam during the 1960s, those two words meant one thing: Ubon. The base sat in Ubon Ratchathani Province in Thailand's far northeast, about 60 kilometers from the Laos border — close enough to the war to matter enormously, far enough away that official Washington could keep the arrangement quiet. What happened here between 1965 and 1974 was, for years, one of the worst-kept secrets in Southeast Asia.

Image: Ddalbiez | CC BY 3.0

Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base: A Gentleman's Agreement

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit กองทัพอากาศไทย Royal Thai Air Force, Public domain. Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base was established in the 1950s, a modest installation at the edge of Thailand's Isaan plateau. It might have stayed that way — a regional airfield commanding broad flat rice country — had events across the Mekong not intervened. When communist forces ...

Image: กองทัพอากาศไทย Royal Thai Air Force | Public domain

Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base: The Wolfpack Arrives

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USAF, Public domain. On 8 December 1965, the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing — known as the Wolfpack — touched down at Ubon from George Air Force Base in California. They brought F-4 Phantoms and a mission: support Operation Rolling Thunder, the sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Within six ...

Image: USAF | Public domain

Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base: Allies from Across the Pacific

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Government of Thailand, CC BY 2.0. The Americans were not the only ones who made Ubon their wartime home. On 31 May 1962, the Royal Australian Air Force sent eight CAC Sabre fighters to the base, designating the detachment No. 79 Squadron. The Australians built their own facilities at what became known as RAAF Ubo...

Image: Government of Thailand | CC BY 2.0

Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base: Life on Alert

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Government of Thailand, CC BY 2.0. The air war was not Ubon's only drama. At 10:30 p.m. on 13 January 1970, a Thai villager reported seeing 16 armed Vietnamese moving toward the perimeter. The base went on full alert. Just after 2:00 a.m., a security policeman fired on a sapper who had breached the inner fence. Th...

Image: Government of Thailand | CC BY 2.0

Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base: What the Base Became

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Government of Thailand, CC BY 2.0. The last American units departed Ubon in September 1974. What the US Air Force left behind was a well-developed dual-use airfield that the Royal Thai Air Force built upon for the coming decades. Today the base is the home of Wing 21 of the RTAF's 2nd Air Division, and the 211 Squ...

Image: Government of Thailand | CC BY 2.0