November 1969 - 30 September 1970 10th Fighter Squadron (Commando), 8 April 1966 - 17 April 1967 311th Attack Squadron, 15 November - 15 December 1969 602nd Air Commando Squadron, 21 November- 8 March 1966 604th Air Commando Squadron, 15 November 1967 - 1 March 1970 In addition AC-47 Spooky gunships of Flight D, 4th Air Commando Squadron were deployed to Bien Hoa. These would later be replaced by Flight C of the 14th Air Commando Squadron with 4 AC-47s. F-5 Skoshi Tiger evaluation In late October 1965, 12 F-5A Freedom Fighters belonging to the 4503rd Tactical Fighter Squadron arrived at Bien Hoa for combat evaluation under a program known as Skoshi Tiger. The planes mostly flew close air support missions near Bien Hoa flying 1500 sorties by the end of December and losing one aircraft to ground fire. On 1 January 1966 the squadron moved north to Da Nang Air Base. The squadron moved back to Bien Hoa in early February and then returned to Da Nang on 20 February performing operations over Laos and across the Vietnamese Demilitatrized Zone against targets in North Vietnam. The squadron returned to Bien Hoa on 8 March completing the evaluation program. The squadron remained in South Vietnam and in April it was redesignated the 10th Fighter Squadron, Commando. On 1 April the first Combat Skyspot Ground-directed bombing radar system was installed at the base. The rapid growth of units at Bien Hoa led to issues of overcrowding and electricity and water shortages which were only gradually addressed throughout 1966, while many units were undermanned for the increased demands placed on them. On 23 February 1967 the base was the loading port for 845 paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade when they performed the first combat parachute jump of the war in Operation Junction City. 604th Air Commando Squadron A-37A Combat Dragon Program On 17 July 1967 the 604th Air Commando Squadron flying the A-37A Dragonfly began arriving at the base to test the A-37 in combat over three months under a program named Combat Dragon. Testing began on 15 August flying 12 close air support sorties daily, increasing to 60 by 5 September. In late October, some of the planes moved to Pleiku Air Base to perform armed and visual reconnaissance missions and night interdiction flights in the Tiger Hound operational area over southeastern Laos. The tests ended successfully in mid-December with