31 January 1968 – On the first full day of the Tet Offensive, Major Joe Bulger (Flight Lead) and 1Lt “Fearless” Fred Abrams were asked to bomb their own base. In the early hours of the day, Vietcong forces had launched an attack on Bien Hoa AB. “The whole east end was hot,” Abrams said.
Colonel Bill Berkley is a leader in the area of enhancing the use of night-vision goggles. He was instrumental in the development of a helmet-mounted display for a simulation of the NVG image with special software to capture the NVG effects, which also produces fully correlated realistic out-the-window night scenes.
At the I/ITSEC Convention in 1999, “Colonel Berkley’s fly-by-night training team [at Aechelon Technology was} at the center of American efforts to meet operational training needs of aircrew using night vision devices, particularly NVGs. The team develops training manuals, conducts instructor training, and provides technical support for operational units. “The official courseware we produce is used by the USAF, US Navy and Marine Corps for initial training, and to a lesser extent by the army.
“A basic driver of everything we do is a very strong primary operational requirement to develop a capability for night warfighting,” he says. “Secondly there is a requirement for effective, affordable training for aircrews. Everyone involved recognized that the ability to fight at night is critical to success.”(1)