(Paraphrased from Wikipedia)
The
Tonkin Gulf Incident:
The Tonkin Gulf Incidents took place in August,
1964. In the first incident. the USS Maddox
(DD-731) was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol
torpedo boats. Shots were fired by the patrol
boats and returned by the Maddox. Several North
Vietnamese were killed. There was only minimal
damage to the Maddox. In the second incident, the
USS Turner Joy (DD-951) thought they were also
attacked by patrol boats.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution:
On
August 7th, 1964, Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf
Resolution which authorized President Johnson to
take any measures he believed were necessary to
retaliate to promote the maintenance of
international peace in southeast Asia.
President Johnson ordered
the Department of Defense to begin air attacks
in the southern portion of North Vietnam and
began increasing US force levels in South
Vietnam. The Navy began sending aircraft
carriers north to a position called Yankee
Station to conduct carrier based bombing of
southern North Vietnam targets. The carrier
based aircraft usually provided close and direct
air support missions in South Vietnam before
moving north. As US troop levels increased in
the south, the Department of Defense concluded
that an increased capability to provide air
support in the south was needed. The Air Force
and US Marines increased air support
capabilities based in South Vietnam.
Operation Rolling Thunder
(1965-1968):
The gradual and
sustained air war over North
Vietnam called Operation
Rolling Thunder conducted from
March 2nd, 1965 through
November 2nd, 1968. Rolling
Thunder grew from a sequence
of single mission retaliatory
strikes (1965) into a massive
strategic air campaign (1967).
Rolling Thunder initially
concentrated on attacking
infiltration routes into the
South Vietnam from North
Vietnam. Targets were
designated on a weekly basis
by the nation's top military
leaders, the Joint Chiefs of
Staff (JCS), and approved by
the Secretary of Defense, the
State Department, and most
significantly, President
Johnson. The final
decision on targets were
authorized, the number of
sorties to be flown, and in
many cases even the tactics to
be employed by our pilots was
made at a weekly "Tuesday
Luncheon" in the White House.
This meeting was attended by
the President, the Secretary
of State (Dean Rusk), the
Secretary of Defense (Robert
MacNamara), Presidential
Assistant Walt Rostow, and the
Presidential Press Secretary
(first Bill Moyers, later
George Christian). The
significant point is no
professional military man, not
even the Chairman of the JCS
was present until late 1967.
(** This
paragraph was paraphrased
from Alpha Strike
Vietnam, pages 25
and 26.)
Dixie
Station:
In
1965, General William C. Westmorland, Commander
of US Ground Forces Vietnam, requested that an
aircraft carrier be provided by the Navy to
support combat operations in South Vietnam. In
response, the Navy decided to convert the USS
Intrepid CVS-11 (the "S" is for anti submarine
warfare) for this mission. The Intrepid
CV-11 would operate from a location called
Dixie Station off the coast of South
Vietnam. This Dixie Station carrier would
not require fighter aircraft as there was no
fighter threat in the south. The carrier would
not need airborne command and control so no
Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft would be
necessary. What was required was as much
air support for ground troops as possible. It
was decided that the Dixie Carrier deck load
would consist of two A4C squadrons and two A1
Skyraider (Spad) squadrons. The USS Intrepid
(CV-11) was assigned as the Dixie Station
Carrier and Carrier Air Wing Ten would be
reorganized to consist of the four attack
squadrons. There was a three plane helicopter
detachment (HC-2) assigned to the ship for
logistics and search and rescue missions.
Intrepid and it's air wing was tasked to begin
training for a June 1966 deployment to Dixie
Station.
(** This
paragraph was paraphrased from Alpha
Strike Vietnam, pages 94 and 95.)
Useful
References
So far, I have
found the following books very
useful sources to add to my
personal knowledge of Dixie
and Yankee Station during
Rolling Thunder in
1966.

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"Alpha
Strike Vietnam, The Nav'y Air War 1964
to 1973"
Jeffrey L. Levinson
It is a collection of chapters based
on interviews of twenty three attack
pilots who flew during the air war.
Chapter 11 is about the USS Intrepid's
two deployments (1966 and 1967) based
on the interview of LCDR Don Felt,
Intrepid's Strike Operations Officer.
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"On
Yankee Station", The Naval Air War over
Vietnam
Cdr. John B. Nichols, USN Ret. (F8C
Crusader pilot)
and Barrett Tillman (award winning naval
historian)
This book not only
relates the various phases of Rolling
Thunder (1965-1968) but also adds an
analysis of the how the political
decisions affected the prosecution of
the air war from the pilot's
perspective.
In addition, the appendices offer
valuable statistical information:
Appendix A- Vietnam Air War Chronology
Appendix B- Combat Sorties and
Aircraft Losses
Appendix C: Overall Air to Air Combat Results
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Peter Fay's well
researched book "Bloody Sixteeen"
details the performance of USS
Oriskany and CAG 16 team during three
Vietnam deployments; 1965, 1966, and
1967.
I will compare some aspects of the CAG
16 experience during the summer of
1966 with ours on board Intrepid.
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The four attack squadrons of
CAG 10's Dixie Station air wing
consisted of the following squadrons:
A4 Squadrons
Home Base
Spad Squadrons
Home
Base
VA-15
NAS Cecil Field in
Jacksonville
VA-176
NAS Jacksonville
VA-95
NAS Lemoore
California
VA-165
NAS Alameda
California
The squadrons were tasked to commence training
at their respective bases and be ready to
start work up training onboard Intrepid in
February, 1966 for deployment in April and to
commence combat air support flights from Dixie
Station in May. For the two west coast
squadrons that meant they would leave their
bases in February and not return until after
the deployment in November (10 months).
The 1966 VA-15 Squadron Officer
Roster

From the USS
Intrepid 1966 cruise book
Ltjg Gene Atkinson did not join the
squadron until after this picture was taken.
I guess Ltjg Dave Parsons missed being
included in the picture for some reason.
1965
The
Rebirth of VA-15
VA-15 had been a Spad
squadron in the 1950s but had been
disestablished. The Navy brought it back to life
as a proposed A6 squadron. It was in the process
of being established when the Dixie Station
concept resulted in it being reestablished as an
A4C squadron at NAS Cecil Field in Jacksonville,
Florida. Enlisted personnel were
redirected from Oceana to Cecil as were the
green cruise boxes from the days when it was a
500 squadron. The personnel and
cruise boxes began arriving in October 1965 but
there were only a few officers; Cdr Jack
Gracey the CO, LCDR Jerry Tuttle, and LT Morris
E. Sheppard, the Maintenance Control
Officer. What few people knew was that
Jerry Tuttle had been checking out prospective
pilot training records at the A4 Skyhawk
Replacement Training Squadron, VA-44.
Unlike normal squadrons that received new pilots
in dribs and drabs, VA-15 needed all its pilots
in a one month period. So, Jerry Tuttle began
hand selecting the JOs (Junior Officers) and
somehow got his pick of the litters. Ltjgs
Bo Smith, Miller Detrick, Dave Parsons, Dave
Thornhill, and P.C.Craig all reported for duty
in a group followed closely by Ltjgs Dave Culler
Bob Cole, Dick Nolte, Bob Hamel, and John
Newman. LCDR Jerry L. Terrell's orders
were changed from an A4E squadron to VA-15. His
two black heel marks can probably still be seen
going in the direction of Hangar 13 where VA-15
was reforming. Lts Moon Moreau and Dave
North (two experienced carrier pilots) and Lee
Cole from a VC squadron were also on their way.
LCDRs Pete Schoeffel, Bill Butler, and Moose
Moran and the XO, CDR Ike Jones completed the
squadron before the end of the month of
November. VA-15 had formed itself (two CDRs,
five LCDR, three Lts, and ten LTJGs (20 pilots)
in one month. There were 14 A4Cs on the ramp. We
flew more A4 hours in December that any other A4
squadron in the Navy. LCDR Tuttle was the
driving force behind this accomplishment.
Rules for
flying in VA-15: LCDR Tuttle was
instrumental in setting up the ground rules:
1. We
established divisions within the squadron and
flew many missions with the same flight leader
(CO, XO, LCDRs Schoeffel, Tuttle, Terrell),
section leaders (North, Moreau, Butler, Moran,
and Lee Cole and wingman (10 Ltjgs). I was
assigned to Possum Flight; LCDR Possum Terrell
and usually I and Dave Parsons were the wingmen.
We flew a lot of three plane flights with Pars
and me alternating as section leader or as a
three plane division with each of us in a
section leader position on either side of
Possum. LCDR Fred Hoerner, the CAG 10 Staff LSO,
often flew the section lead position when he was
available which he made sure was often.
2. There
would be "no rank in the air". That meant
that pilots would progress due their aviation
skills progress not their rank. This didn't mean
that much at the start but it became significant
later on.
3. We
would adhere to strict radio discipline. You
never pushed the mike button unless you knew
exactly what to say and then in as few words as
possible. We wingmen were expected not to say
anything because, by definition, wingmen had no
reason to say anything. Tuttle would say, "son,
all I want to hear out of you is Aye Aye Sir or
Mayday". In flight, you never questioned a
decision by your leader. It was Standard
Operating Procedure (SOP) that when a wingman
reached a pre briefed fuel state (bingo fuel),
it was OK to say or preferably hand signal "two
or four (our positions as wingmen)
"bingo". That was it, you never reminded
the leader again as to your decreasing fuel
state. He was the leader and he knew what
your fuel state was. Just "shut up and fly
wing". We used hand signals and various
movements of the aircraft such as wing rocks
etc. to communicate.
4.
Formation flights would demonstrate coordination
and professionalism at all times; canopies would
open and close at the same time, section taxi
formations would be perfectly spaced etc. etc.
Our goal was not to be "Blue Angels"; just a
very professional carrier attack squadron.
Jerry Tuttle liked to refer to
us as, "None Finer"
Working
for Jerry Tuttle:
Once both the CO and
XO were onboard and Pete Schoeffel was the
official Operations Officer, LCDR Tuttle was the
Maintenance Officer. I was the Aircraft Division
Officer. It was
a real learning experience working for him. His
best advice to me was "Instructions (written
regulations) were for mediocre naval officers".
He expected us to identify the problem,
determine a solution, and execute it, yesterday.
He was all about rapid response time; in the air
and on the ground! Miller Detrick
was the Line Division Officer and Dave Thornhill
was the Quality Assurance Officer. Lt
Morris E. Shephard (Shep) was the
Maintenance Control Officer and Bob Cheyene, a
mustang (ex enlisted) was the Avionics/Ordnance
Officer. Jerry Tuttle and Shep knew that
the highest possible aircraft readiness would be
required to accomplish our mission. It would be
the key to our success from the beginning.
I'd like to relate a story that is a
good example of what Jerry Tuttle expected
from his division officers.
One of the other
squadrons that shared Hangar 13 with us was
VA-66. They had their squadron patch on
their aircraft by using a decal. The problem was
that their decals did not adhere well to the
aircraft paint so they tore off in pieces. It
wasn't a pretty picture. Jerry Tuttle came to me
one day and told me that he wanted our squadron
decal on our airplanes but that he didn't want
them to come off. Basically, fix it. Well, I
knew nothing about the naval supply system and
it was doubtful that they would fund this
anyway. So, I researched the issue and found a
3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company)
office in Jacksonville. I knew that they
made scotch tape so I asked them whether they
had the capability to make decals that would
stay on our aircraft. Not only could they
arrange to have our decal silk screen painted on
their decal material, but they offered to train
our maintenance personnel how to use their new
bonding product to apply the decal to our
airplanes. Their bonding product worked by
making a molecular bond with the surface of the
aircraft. They guaranteed that it would never
come off. In fact, the problem was that
the only way we could get it off was to remove
it by grinding it off. They made the
decals and then their personnel came out to
teach our "metal smiths", Aviatiion Mechanics
Structiures (AMS) and our Corrosion Control Team
how to apply them. They also gave or
people hints on how to make it easier to remove
the decals if we wanted to paint the aircraft. I
don't know how we paid for the decals and
training; not my area of concern.
Our aircraft paint scheme was easy to accomplish
and I think it looked great; just the 3M VA-15
decal and a little bit of our blue color on the
tail cap. You can see what it
looked like on the aircraft below. It is our CAG
aircraft number 00 instead of 300. We called it
"Double Nuts".

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The image of the aircraft in the picture
was taken at Cubi Point in the
Philippines had flown quite a few combat
missions. The markings directly
behind the decal are groups of five
bombs. So, this aircraft's bomb clusters
indicates that it had flown 45 missions.
Also notice the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club
patch on the tail. We added the
Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club patch once we had
been on the line for a while on Dixie
Station.
The bomb mission markings and the Tonkin
Yacht Club patch were hand painted on
all our aircraft by a single airman in
my Aircraft Division. He loved
that job!
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Just before we
deployed, Cdr Gracey, Jerry Tuttle, and I were
"chewed out" by the Cecil Commanding Officer
because I had completely disregarded using the
proper supply ordering procedure. He and
the base supply officer pointed out that I had
initiated and executed a contract which I was
not authorized to do. Cdr Gracey did not give me
a hard time and Tuttle just grinned. I had
done exactly what he had intended me to do.
Our
MacDonnell Douglas Tech Rep:
CAG 10 had a MacDonnell Douglas Technical
Representative (Tech Rep) assigned to us and
VA-95 to consult with us on aircraft structural
repair issues during our work up and deployment.
His name was Glen Gray. An A4 expert, Glen was
extremely helpful especially when we had
challenging airframe repairs on Dixie
Station. He also advised us on MacDonell
Douglas ejection seat issues. Glen was
also an expert on the inflight refueling
"Buddy Store". The Buddy Store was a fuel tank
that had been modified with a refueling drogue
system. It had a propeller that the pilot could
start from the cockpit. The propeller powered
the electrical and hydraulic systems that made
it work. We had four of them and it took our
troops and Glen busy to keep them working
properly. Glen helped with both A4 squadrons.
But, he spent a lot of time in our ready room
and I worked with him personally a lot on
Aircraft Division issues.
Uniforms:
We basically had two uniforms. We usually
wore wash khakis (cotton short sleeved shirt.
cotton slacks, brown shoes and socks (aviators and
aviation chief petty officers wore brown shoes and
socks. Surface officers and chief petty
officers wore black shoes and socks) and a fore
and aft cap (piss cutter) or VA-15 ball cap.
When on the flight schedule, we would usually be
in a flight suit and piss cutter or squadron 15
ball cap. We tried to get issued the cool tan
cotton flight suits and ditch the orange ones.
Flying in
November:
I flew 17 flights in November in A4C
aircraft; formation flights, refueling practice,
some instrument practice approaches, and weapons
delivery flights at a variety of local targets.
The major target area was the Pinecastle Target
complex where you could drop live ordnance and
strafe with our 20mm guns. There were also several
small targets such as Lake George, Rodman, and a
few others which were pretty much restricted to MK
76 or MK 106 practice bombing.
The
Pinecastle Target Complex: Pinecastle is about
100 miles south of Cecil.
We
transitioned from our A4Cs to the older A4Bs
in December:
The powers above; Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)
or OP05 (Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for
Air) decided that the VA-15 and VA-95 did not need
A4Cs to accomplish the Dixie Station
mission. We could do just as well with the
older A4Bs. Since we were not going to fly at
night, we only needed the old all black main
Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI) in the A4B
rather that the newer white over black ADI in the
A4C. Also, because we were flying in a non SAM
(Surface to Air Missile) and non radar controlled
AAA (37/57/85mm) environment, we did not need the
electronic warfare avionics that were in the fleet
configured A4Cs. So, we lost our 14 A4Cs but
gained 16 A4Bs. At one time in early
December, we had almost 30 aircraft out there on
our ramp. You better believe if they were there,
Jerry Tuttle was going to fly them. As a result,
we flew more A4 flight hours than any other
squadron in December, 1965. Another factor
was that we were not flight hour limited (fuel
rationing).
December:
My big news in December was the
birth of my second daughter, Laura Kendall
Smith on December 1st at the Jacksonville
Naval Hospital. I did a bit better with
Laura. I took a few days off from
flying.
My first flight in December was on
December 6th. It was my first A4B flight. I flew
19 flights (27.8 hours) in December; three of them
in A4Cs (6th, 7th, and 8th). By the middle
of December, the A4Cs were gone. My last
flight in December was on the 23rd so I guess we
did take a bit of a break for Christmas and New
Years.
1966
Squadron
Life:
There was a world of difference between our social
life in VA-15 than in the training command or
VA-44. First, we expected to be together for
two cruises so we thought we could really
establish some good friendships. We did
manage to fit in some good times despite the fact
that we were extremely busy getting ready for
workups. Also, we had some non flying officers and
their wives who were an integral part of the
social life of the squadron.
First, was our squadron flight surgeon, Lt Dave
MacMillan. "Quack" as he was respectfully named,
mostly paid attention to his primary
responsibility; keeping the pilots in the proper
physical and mental condition to be effective
officers and pilots. But, Quack also paid
attention to the squadron medical needs of the
officers' wives and the enlisted men and their
wives and families. Quack actually made
house calls when needed. Bye the way, over 50
years later Dave Macmillan, a retired
neurosurgeon, is still called "Quack" at squadron
reunions!
Not second but next, was Lt Morris E. Sheppard.
Shep was everywhere. Although he spent many hours
in Maintenance Control and around the hangar deck
and flight line, he found time to mingle in the
ready room getting to know every officer and their
wives or girl friends when he could.
Next, the Avionics and Ordnance Officer, Bob
Cheyne also made an effort to find his way to the
ready room both ashore and onboard the ship.
He and his wife Pat regularly attended squadron
social functions. His widow Pat still attends our
regular squadron reunions over 50 years later.
It was a little different in the case of our
squadron Intelligence Officer, Lt John
Hawthorne. Although John was officially
assigned to the squadron, he spent most of his
time ashore at other offices associated with
intelligence matters. On aspect of being an
attack pilot in the 1960s was that we were part of
the nuclear deterrent program. John spent
most of his time working on target folder sources
and assisting each of us prepare our target
planning folders. This was a very highly
classified program at the time. I'll discuss it a
little more detail later.
Calls Made
and Returned:
According
to Naval tradition, an new officer back in 1965
was expected to "pay a call on his Commanding
Officer at his quarters as soon as possible after
reporting aboard his ship or squadron. It
was expected that the call would be brief; the new
officer should not hang around. Upon leaving, the
officer placed his calling card (one for the CO
and every member of the COs family) in a silver
plate or ceramic dish located at the front
door. After an appropriate amount of time,
the commanding officer would return the call
(rarely happens). Because we had twenty four
officers reporting in within about a six week
period, "Calls Made and Returned" was not
practical. So, Cdr. Gracey decided to have an
oyster roast party and consider it as "Calls Made"
. Some
left cards. Some did not. I did. I really
liked the idea and had a ceramic dish by my
front door when I was a squadron Commanding
Officer in 1978.
The Oyster Roast: The CO, Cdr.
Jack Gracey and his wife hosted our first
squadron party. (Calls Made)
XO CDR Ike
Jones; CO Cdr Jack Gracey
It was a great party. Not
pictured here are the Moreaus, Terrells and the
Tuttles. But, Im sure they were there.
John Hawthorne was able to attend this party. He
managed to get into three of the four pictures.
In future parties, we would find out how much
Barbara Tuttle liked to dance to Elvis and the
Beetles. Possum started his fame as The
Phantom Fannie Feeler". Back in those
days, we were not so uptight about such
things. Also not pictured here in his
bachelor days, is Dave Parsons.
Not to worry, here he is!
Flight
Operations in January, 1966
This is a picture of one of our new A4Bs in
January 1966 with the new paint job

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Note
the 2.75 " practice rocket pod on the
centerline station
Also note the Cecil field tower in the
background.
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We had to
turn it up even more in January because we were
scheduled to begin work up training on the
Intrepid in February. I flew 23 flights; 28.4
flight hours, 4.9 hours of night time, 48 FCLPs
( 26 of them at night). For the first three
weeks, we flew mostly weapons training flights
including 20mm strafing. The last week was
devoted to carrier landing practice at White
House Auxiliary Landing Field.

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VA-15
A4B echelon formation over
Jacksonville Beach
It was actually taken after the cruise
(note mission markings and Tonkin Gulf
Yacht Club patch). This must have been
taken just before we received our A4C
aircraft for the second Vietnam
deployment.
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Carrier
Airwing Ten had completed their move from NAS
Oceana to Cecil during December. The Air Wing
LSO (Landing Signal Officer), LCDR Fred Hoerner
flew mostly with us (Possum flight) during
January. He also conducted most of our VA-15
individual pilot debriefs.
I'm not sure how the VA-176 Spad drivers
stationed at NAS Jacksonville worked out their
carrier quals but CAG 10 LSOs had to be
involved. Also, I suspect that the VA-165
Spads at NAS Alameda and the VA-95 A4s at NAS
Lemoore either must have come east to get
in some FCLPs with the CAG 10 LSOs or the LSOs
went west to them.
Flight Operations in February,
1966

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USS Intrepid (CVS-11)
Workup Training
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USS
Intrepid Underway Workup Training One:
We flew out to the Intrepid on February 1st. The
Intrepid was probably located off the coast of
Jacksonville. We spent a little over three weeks
onboard. I flew 26 flights; 39.3 hours, 23
arrested landings (2 bolters). I left Intrepid
for a couple of days at Cecil for some reason
from the 14th to the 17th. It wasn't just for a
break because I flew two flights on the 14th and
flew back on 17th (two days home with Mary and
the girls). I'm sure that in the beginning, we
concentrated on learning the carrier/airwing
procedures for departures and landing order
etc. We didn't bag any traps (get
practice) because all my flights had only one
landing (except for the two bolters).
We did some night flying (not much) to practice
night departures, get a little night time, and
practice entering the holding pattern (Marshall)
and executing a carrier controlled night
approach. I logged 3.2 hours of night time; 3
night cat (catapult) shots (take off), three
night CCAs (Carrier Controlled Approach), and 3
night landings. We were going to be the day only
Dixie Station carrier off of Vietnam but we
still were going to transit the Atlantic and
operate in the Mediterranean Sea. We had
"real world" missions during the transit to and
while in the Med so had to be prepared for the
possibility that the missions might involve some
night flying.
We also
did as much weapons training as we could. I
suspect we did some MK 76 practice bombing
of the "spar. The Intrepid (or any surface ship)
could deploy a sled type device (AKA the spar)
from the stern and tow it with a steel cable
about 2000 feet aft of the ship. The airplanes
(usually a division) would set up a circular
pattern and make individual bombing runs
attempting to hit the "spar". This was
not very realistic training but it
was better than no practice if a land target is
not available. I know we did do some weapons
flights to most likely Pinecastle Target because
I expended some MK 80 series live bombs and shot
some 5" Zuni and 2.75" LAU 7 rockets which could
only have been used at Pinecastle.
We flew
back from the ship on February 23rd and took a
few days off from flying to give the maintenance
folks a chance to work on the jets.
Flight Operations in March, 1966
USS
Intrepid Underway Workup Training Two:
We flew out of Cecil for the first couple of
weeks or so. I flew 5 flights which were mostly
weapons flights. Two were MK 76 practice
bombing flights. But I got a chance to fire my
first two Bullpup missiles on the third
flight. The Bullpup was an air to ground
missile that you controlled via a wire from the
aircraft to the missile. Firing a Bullpup
was like playing a video game. We even had a
Bullpup simulator which was a video game.
We had one which we practiced with in Hangar 13
at Cecil and moved to the ready room on the
ship.
We flew out to Intrepid on March 18th for only a
short one week workup. The ship was
probably located off of VACAPES (the Virginia
coast) close to her homeport in Norfolk. I flew
8 flights during that period; 7 arrested
landings one of which was my 30th Intrepid
trap. We flew off the ship on March 23rd
for Cecil. I flew only 3 flights in March for
21.5 flight hours.

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Bo on #1 Catapult on Intrepid
during workups
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We had only one week
back at Cecil before we would leave on our
deployment! We would take advantage
of the break!
The Bahamas Trip
We basically shut
down the squadron for four days at the end of
March. All the enlisted men (troops) got
basket leave (took four days off without it
counting as leave) and all the officers that
could took a trip to the Jack Tar Hotel, West
End, Bahamas. It was for officers and
wives or girlfriends; no children. The no
children concept unfortunately prevented some
key people from attending such as the Terrells
and Tuttles. "Quack", Doc MacMillan,
arranged the whole thing including a chartered
prop plane, rooms, and meals for a
reasonable flat rate of something like $500
each. When you are going on your first
combat deployment, it was worth every penny.
The pictures sort of speak for
themselves. But, there are a couple of stories
that are worth telling.
The
first night at the hotel, some of us
were are the bar drinking Flaming
Hookers. A Flaming Hooker is a
small drink (an once or so) of very high
proof (180 or so, almost pure alcohol)
rum or other beverage imbibed from a
tall narrow after dinner drink glass
preferably with a flared edge. The key
ingredient is that you have to light it
and drink it down while its burning.
(Note: If you drink it right away before
the glass gets hot and avoid your lips
you're OK. Otherwise, you could be in
deep trouble. Well, while we were
having our Flaming Hooker party, a
middle aged woman unknown by us, came to
the bar and claimed to be the world
champion Flaming Hooker drinker. Well,
the aftermath of what followed was that
we almost set the bar on fire. The
woman turned out to be named
Flossy Segal. Her husband, Jake Segel,
was a Korean War Marine veteran. When
he found out that we were a bunch
of carrier pilots on our way to Vietnam,
he invited all to have dinner with him
and Flossy the next night. Our XO,
Ike Jones, thought it was a bad idea as
he questioned Jake's motives. We ignored
the XO and
had a fantastic time the next
night. Later after the Vietnam
deployment, Mary and I visited Jake and
Flossy in Richmond, Virginia where they
owned a furniture business.
On the day after the Flaming Hooker
event, most of us (males) decided to
play golf. The wives/girlfriends decided
to tag along and make value judgments
about our golf games. We had a special
set of rules of the game though.
Each golfer had to take a "swig"(large
gulp) of rum on the T box prior to driving and
again on the green after putting. By the fifth
hole, everyone was laughing. By the
eleventh hole, no one was walking
strait. There were several shots that
endangered the gathering of wives and a club
or two that ended up in trees; no problem
except the replacement cost of the club
appeared on the bill.
Vietnam
Bound
We flew all 16 airplanes to
the Intrepid on April 1st, 1966. I
had conflicting thoughts about
it. I was concerned about how
Mary, Heather, and Laura would handle our
separation for seven months. But, I
knew that they would spend a lot of time
in Duxbury with Mary's family. That was
comforting. But, at the same time, I
was excited about my first carrier cruise
and that it would involve actual close and
direct air missions in support of our
troops in a relatively safe AAA (Anti
Aircraft Artillery) environment. A light
attack pilot's dream come true.
Deckload
We had
two A4 squadrons (VA-15 and VA-95) with 16
A4Bs each (32 A4s). We also had two
A1 Skyraider (Spad) squadrons (VA-176 and
VA-165) with 10 Spads each (20 Spads) for
a total of 52 attack aircraft. We
also had a ship''s COD (Carrier Onboard
Delivery) aircraft which was used for
logistics including personnel transfer.
And last but not least, the ship had a
detachment of helos (HC-2) which were used
for logistics and search and rescue.
We had an HC-2 helo in the air near the
ship called the "Angel" whenever we were
flying.

The Spads
were normally spotted on the
aft flight deck.
|

The Skyhawks
were spotted on the port aft
angle of the flight deck and
along the foul line.
|
Carrier
Air Wing Ten Squadrons
We had two A4
squadrons (VA-15 and VA-95) with 16
A4Bs each (32 A4s). We had two
A1 Skyraider (Spad) squadrons
(VA-176 and VA-165) with 10 Spads
each (20 Spads) for a total of 52
attack aircraft. We also had a
ship''s COD (Carrier Onboard
Delivery) aircraft which was used
for logistics including personnel
transfer. Last but not least, the
ship had a detachment of helos
(HC-2) which were used for logistics
and search and rescue. We had
HC-2 helo in the air near the ship
called the "Angel" whenever we were
flying.

VA-165 Spads-200s
|

VA-15 A4B Skyhawks-300s
|

VA-176 Spads-400s
|

VA-95 A4B
Skyhawks-500s
|

Intrepid's COD
|

HC-2 Helo
|
Transit
from Norfolk to Naples, Italy
It took 18 days to transit the Atlantic
to the Straits of Gibraltar and then on to our
first port visit in Naples. I flew one
fight in the vicinity of the Azores Islands on
the 5th of April, and four flights in the
western Mediterranean enroute to Naples.
During or transit to Gibraltar, we were under
the operational control of Second Fleet based
in Norfolk. As soon as we passed through
the Straits of Gibraltar, we switched to the
operational control (OPCON) of Sixth Fleet in
Gaeta, Italy. Although there wasn't much
flying, there was quite a bit to do during the
transit.
Norfolk to the Straits of
Gibraltar: The Intrepid left Norfolk on April
4th, 1966

|
It's about 3,800 miles from Norfolk to
the Straits of Gibraltar. We did not
fly at all until we were close to the
Azores so we would have a bingo field
available if something went wrong.
But we kept ourselves occupied with
two activities:
1. It was a great opportunity for
those of us who thought we might want
to command a ship one day to stand
some underway bridge watches.
2. We had a lot of planning and
studying to do in connection with a
mission we would have when we were in
the eastern Med. This mission was in
connection with America's policy of
nuclear deterrence. I will discuss
this in some detail in a separate
section.
|
Before I get into a discussion of our
nuclear deterrence mission, I want to tell you
an exciting story. At least it was exciting to
me, even scary.
The Soviet Union liked to keep track of
American aircraft movements as much as
possible. One way they did this was by
overflying our carriers using their Tupelov
TU-95 Bear aircraft. The Bear had an amazing
range and could inflight refuel. They could
get to us from the Baltic Sea through the
Iceland UK Gap and then down to our track and
return. One day, we received
intelligence that a bear was enroute when
Intrepid was about 500 miles west of the
Azores. It was Navy policy that Soviet Bears
would not overfly one of our carriers without
being intercepted by a section of one of the
carriers fighter aircraft. There was
only one problem. We didn't have any fighters
and the highest altitude that an A4B could
reach was about 43,000 feet. The Bears
could fly well above that. There was no way
that we could reach them. However,
sometimes the Bears would come down to a low
altitude, even 1,000 feet to take pictures of
the carrier. Well, to shorten the story; VA-15
was tasked to be ready to launch to
intercept the Bear and then fly to the
Azores. The sea was exceptionally rough
and there was no way we would attempt to land.
I was assigned to fly with the XO, Cdr Jones
on the mission. We manned aircraft. He
was on the port catapult. I was on the
starboard. We actually started our
engines and were hooked up. I was
looking at waves breaking over the bow similar
to the picture. Thank God they scrubbed the
mission.

Tupelov
TU-95 Bear aircraft
|

The
square hole in the deck is where he
Number 1 elevator is located.
|
Our Nuclear Deterrent Mission:
In the 1966, the United States Navy had a
significantly larger nuclear deterrent
capability than we have today. Our
modern capability consists of fewer numbers of
nuclear weapons due to the Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks (SALT agreements with the
Russians). Another difference is that our
modern capability only involves strategic
weapons systems such as US Navy nuclear
ballistic submarines, long range strategic
bombers (B1/B2), and strategic surface to
surface ballistic missile systems.
In the 1960s, we had had a tactical nuclear
weapons capability. In Europe, the US
Army had artillery with a low yield nuclear
capability. In Europe at that time, the
Soviet Union had an overwhelming advantage in
terms of ground infantry and tank forces. If
they chose to attack West Germany and France
from East Germany and satellite countries such
as Poland, there was no way that NATO forces
could stop them with conventional weapons. The
US Army's tactical nuclear capability made it
unthinkable that the Soviets would attack with
their conventional forces. The USAF and the
Navy also had tactical nuclear capabilities.
The USAF F-105 Thunderchief was designed to
conduct low altitude high speed penetration of
Soviet military targets such as airfields with
tactical nuclear bombs. Our Navy aircraft
carriers carried tactical nuclear weapons
designed to be delivered by our their
embarked A4 carrier aircraft.
Aircraft carriers operating in the
northwestern Pacific and eastern Med were
assigned tactical military targets. When we
were back at Cecil our AI (Aircraft
Intelligence Officer), John Hawthorne
worked with the system to get our targets that
we would be tasked to attack if needed. Each
of us had a specific target . We worked
on constructing our navigation charts that we
would use, memorized the navigation route and
defensive environment etc. We flew practice
"profile missions at Cecil which involved high
altitude navigation descending into Florida
airspace, and a 500' AGL (Above Ground Level)
low level route to Pinecastle where we would
deliver a MK 76 or Mk 106 practice bomb. We
practiced various types of deliveries designed
to give the aircraft the greatest possible
separation from a nuclear detonation. We were
issued eye patches to put on one eye so that
if the flash of the detonation blinded on eye,
we had one remaining. We would of course have
moved our mirrors so that a flash behind us
wouldn't be reflected in our eyes. We did
flash blindness training to observe how long
to expect our vision to be regained after a
big flash. If you look at the paint scheme for
naval aircraft in the 1960s, you might notice
that the fuselage paint is a light gray which
provides fair camouflage in a cloudy sky. But,
all the flight control surfaces (ailerons,
elevator, and rudder) are white as the color
white reflects light most effectively reducing
heat. It was a serious mission and we were
trained to perform it. Thank God, we didn't
have to!!
The Azores to The Straits of
Gibraltar:
As soon as
we passed the through the Straits of Gibraltar
we switched to 6th Fleet operational control
(OPCON).
The Straits of Gibraltar to Naples,
Italy:

|
As
we passed by Gibraltar on the left, we
had Morocco on the right. Next, we had
Spain on the left and Algeria on the
right. We conducted three days of
flight ops from April 15th
through the 17th on our way to Naples.
|

|
We probably conducted our flight ops
in the Tyrrhenian Sea northwest of
Sicily and southeast of Sardinia
because it was closer to Naples.
I flew four flights, three practice
bombing flights and one practice
inflight refueling flight.
We entered the port of Naples on April
18th, 1966.
|
Inport Naples Italy, April 18th
and 19th, 1966
We were only in Naples for two days as we
had to transit the eastern Med and the Suez
Canal and then the Indian Ocean to get to Cubi
Point in the Philippines May 5th. So, we
only had a chance for a quick visit in Naples
this time. I remember though getting off the
officer's liberty boat at Fleet Landing and
walking up the main street in that part of
Naples. We went to a restaurant about
halfway up the hill and I had my first meal of
real Neapolitan food. We walked around a bit.
had a few drinks and that was about it.
I made about ten visits to Naples in my navy
career. I learned more about it with
each visit, played lots of tennis, and met
lots of local Neapolitans. I appreciated
it and enjoyed it more with every visit.

|

|
So, lets take a brief
tour of some of the great places to visit in
the Naples area. I never
visited Ischia, so I can't tell you much about it.
I had a few sailors get in trouble over there over
the years with motor scooter accidents. We had to
get them out of jail before the Sixth Fleet lawyer
showed up or they would miss ship's movement which
we didn't want. It was against Sixth Fleet
policy to rent motor scooters; too many accidents.
Well start with the Baia Bay/Pozzouli area west of
Naples and then move on to the Mergilina area.
After Merginlina, well look at the port and take a
ride out to NATO Heaqurters for the Southern
Command (AVSouth). Next well take a look at Pompei
and Mount Vesuvius before heading out to visit
Sorrento and the Amalfi coast. Our final stop will
be on the Isle of Capri.
On the left of the word Naples is Bahia Bay.
Bahia Bay features the old town of Pozzouli
which has an old Flavian Amphiteater ,ruins
from the first century AD and Sufatare (The
inspration for Dantes Inferno). On the other
side of the bay is Julius Caesars summer
palace, Roman baths and Nero's palace where he
fiddled while Rome burned. Further to the left
are the remains of the first Greek settlement
in Italy called Cumae (@450 BC). The Greek
settlement of Syracusa on the east coast of
Sicily is a bit older. Syracusa was chronicled
by the first known historian Thucydides.

Pozzouli is in the
foreground. On the other side of
Baia Bay are the baths and the ruins
of the palaces of Julius Caesar and
Nero. Between the two points of land
submerged under Baia Bay is a fully
intact road with the ruins of
buildings.
|

This is the Flavian
Amphiteater in Pozzouli.
Supposedly, it was large enough to
have mock ship battles in it.
|

You don't have to go
to Rome to see ruins
|

Sufatare
|

The Greek settlement
of Cumae-450 BC
|
This map
you excellent detail of the city of Naples

Mergilina:
The green area on the left is a park that
has excellent red clay public tennis courts.
The coastline along the park is called
Mergelina. Mergelina has apartments,
restaurants, hotels, and a marina. The Hotel
Vesuvio was my hotel of choice when I
visited Naples. The Castel d'Ovo (Egg
Castle) is on the right.

Mergilina is in the
foreground with its marina. The
Hotel Vesuvio is the second
building with the red roof. The
park is further up on the left;
green trees. A little futher on to
the right is the Egg Castle.
|

The Hotel Vesuvio was
my favorite place to stay when I was
in Naples. It was close to the
tennis courts and had a great bar. I
was told that the bar was sometimes
frequented by Russan KGB.
|

The Egg Castle
|
The
Port of Naples:

This is a
spectacular picture of the port of
Naples with Mount Vesuvius in the
background. If you were getting
off the white ship in the lower
left of the picture, you would be
at Fleet Landing. We would ride
the liberty boats to and from the
the carrier which would normally
anchor off to the right outside
the breakwater.
|

Naples is a
medieval city that covers a large
area. There are many plazas and
interesting places to visit
throughout the city.
|

Take an exciting
ride through Tunnel della Victoria
to get to AVSouth
|

AVSouth is the NATO
Headquarters Southern Command. It
had an excelent Officer's Club
|

This is Carney
Park. Located in the cadera of an
extinct volacno, it was a great
place to hold squaron or ship
athletic events and picnics.
|
Now let's
visit Pompeii:
There is a
lot to see in Pompeii and in the Herculaneum
fishing village on the coast. Be
prepared for some pretty graphic remains of
the dead and don't be surprised if you notice
that the Pompeii folks decorated their
roads and houses with some pretty pornographic
stuff .
On to the
Sorrento Peninsula:

It's a beautiful
drive along the coast from
Herculaneum and Sorrento
|

There are nice little
hotels, excellent restaurants and
great shopping in Sorrento. Get
yourself a fossil marble table top.
|
Then
drive across the peninsula and stay for a
few days on the most spectacularly beautiful
coastline in the Mediterranean.

Positano on the Amalfi coast
was one of my favorite places to spend
time in the Mediterranean
Our
final stop will be the Isle of Capri:

I'm afraid you will need a
boat or take a ferry to get to
Capri.
|

Capri has some nice
shops,restaurants, and places to
stay. But, for me, the action is
on the other side of the island
where there are a couple of
restaurants with great views and
of course the Grotto Azzurra
(The Blue Grotto)
|

You will some kind of a
boat, even a row boat, or a
canoe to get you to the Blue
Grotto.
|

You can enter the grotto
by a small boat or canoe
or swim in. There are lots of
schools of small silver fish
that swim in very large schools.
The light reflects off of them
as you swim through the school.
Its a fantastic experience.
|
I hope
you enjoyed your tour of the Naples area.
We were underway from Naples on April
20th, 1966
We didn't do any flying during our
transit to the Philippines because we had to
steam as fast as we could to get to there
on time.
Our route
would take us south southeast from Naples
through the Tyrrhenian Sea. The
volcanic island of Stromboli passed to our
starboard as we proceeded to the Straits of
Messina.

The volcanic island
of Stromboli
|

This how the
Straits of Messina looked during
going north to south;
The Italian town of Catania on the
left, Sicily and Mount Etna on the
right.
|
Our transit from the Straits of
Messina to Port Said at the entrance of the
Suez Canal
Our transit
to the Suez Canal took us from off the east
coast of Sicily through some of the deepest
waters of the Mediterrean Sea past Tunisia and
Egypt on the right and the Greek Islands,
Crete, and Turkey on the left to Port Said at
the entrance of the canal.
The Suez Canal
From
Port Said, we headed south with all
the other southbound ships to Great
Bitter Lake where we paused to let the
northbound ships pass us.
From Great Bitter Lake, we continued
south to Port Suez and the Gulf of
Suez. From the Gulf of Suez, we
continued southeast to the Red Sea.

|

|

Not much room for an
aircraft carrier!
|

Sightseeing in our
Tropical White uniforms.
The Sinai Desert on the left, Egypt
on the right
|

Dave North and Doc
MacMillan talking with an
Egyptian Air Force officer.
|
Squadron Picture Taken during our
transit of the Suez Canal

|
Hawthorne,
Nolte, Smith, North, Thornhill, Lee
Cole, Cdr. Jones, Parsons, Hamel,
Schoeffel, Cheyne, Newman, Bob Cole,
Craig, Culler, Shep
Butler, Detrick, Moose Moran, Possum
Terrell, Cdr. Jack Gracey, Jerry Tuttle,
Moon Moreau, Doc MacMillan
(Ltjg Gene Atkinson and our new Air
Intelligence Officer, Ltjg Dave Moyer
would not join the squadron until we
arrived in Cubi Point)
|
From the Red Sea to Subic
Bay/Cubi Point, Philippines
From the
Gulf of Suez to the Red Sea to the Gulf of
Yemen to the Arabian Sea to the Indian Ocean
to the Straits of Malacca.

|
If we had the time,
we could have crossed the Equator by
going south of the Maldives.
But, we were short for time, so we
probably went to the north of the
Maldives and south of Sri Lanka as a
more direct route to enter the
Straits of Malacca.
We would have to save the
opportunity for having a Crossing
the Equator ceremony complete with
King Neptune, shell backs and
pollywogs for another trip.
As it turned out, that never
happened for me in VA-15.
I had to wait until I was in VA-82
in1971 when we crossed the Equator
enroute to Rio de Janeiro.
|
Transit
the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia and
Sumatra, pass by Singapore, hang a left into
the South Cina Sea to the Philippines.
Intrepid made it on time I We flew
off to NAS Cubi Point on May 6th, 1966:
The
carrier pier at Cubi Point is perpendicular
to the runway on the left. The BOQ and the
famous Cubi O'Club are on the hill to the
right.

The BOQ at Cubi
wasn't spectacular but it was a
great place to rest after a night at
the nearby O'Club
|

The Cubi O'Club was
famous for it's plaques and Cubi
Specials. It was the Trader Jons of
the western Pacific
|

The Cubi O'Club was
such an important part of Navy
western Pacific (WESTPAC) tradition
that it has been recreated at the
Naval Air Museum in Pensacola
|

Bob Cole (Cozy) on
the left and Bob Cheyney (brown
jacket) were playing the slots when
the new pilot, Ltjg Gene Atkinson
(yellow party hat) joined us.
The dress code at the Cubi Club in
1966 was jacket or barronge.
|
New
Air Intelligence Officer (AI)

Ltjg Dave Moyer
|
I'm
not sure when Ensign Dave Moyer reported to
the squadron
and relieved the Lt John Hawthone as
our AI. John was in the squadron
picture taken while transiting the
Suez Canal, Dave was not. But Dave
was the AI before we made the Sasebo
in port visit in August.
Gene and I think that Dave may have
joined the squadron in Cubi at the
same time as Gene did.
Dave Moyer was an Ensign when he
reported to the squadron and made
Ltg later.
|
Olongapo City
When the Subic Bay Naval Station and
Cubi Point Naval Air Station were built, the
inhabitants living on the land had to be
relocated and the land leveled. Most
of the people that were moved were members
of the Negrito Tribe. They were relocated to
a jungle area on Cubi Point property.
More about the Negritos later.

As the bases were
developed and town built up.
The dividing line was the
Olongapo River. So, the town
became known as Olongapo.
Access to the town from the base
was via a bridge over the Olongapo
River.
The image to the left shows the
Naval Base Olongapo Gate.
|

After the main
gate, you walk across a bridge
over the Olongapo River. There are
usually numerous small boats with
teenagers wanting to drive for
coins.
|

|
 |
Once across the
bridge, you could either walk up the
main street (which was not paved
1966) or take a Jeepney to the bars
and restaurants.
The original Jeepneys were converted
US WW2 jeeps. This picture was taken
in the early 1970s with nice paved
streets and remanufactured Jeepneys.
|
The people of
Olongapo were mostly very poor
especially in the early days
(1960s). The average daily earnings
of most of the people was about
$3/day. The bar, restaurant, and
furniture company owners were much
better off. The furniture companies
in Olongapo produced outstanding
quality rattan and mahogany
furniture.
|

|
Jungle
Escape and Survival Training
(JEST)
|
Although all pilots and aircrew personnel
had been through SERE (Survival,Evasion,
Resistance, Escape) training back in the
states, all aircrew on their way to
flying over Vietnam completed Jungle
Escape and Survival training in Cubi Point
before flying combat missions. In 1966,
the training lasted two days and one
night. The administrative personnel were
navy and Marines. The jungle instructors
were Negrito Tribesmen. The Negritos
were from the mountain jungles and had
been resistance fighters against the
Japanese during WW2. After the war, some
members of the tribe relocated to the
jungles on the coast onthe land taken over
by the Navy for the construction of the
bases. The Negritos were survivors
and were enthusiastic and effective
instructors of techniques required to
survive in the jungle.

The first day was
dedicated to lectures followed by
hiking in the jungle with stops
along the way for practical
instruction.
|

One of the
techniques we learned was how to
prepare a protein rich meal from
the jungle except for a bit of
rice we carried with us.
|
This technique involved catching small
fish and any other animal material and
putting them along with some rice into a
section of green bamboo found along the
trail. Add some water and steam the rice
and bits of fish/insects etc. for awhile.
Then open the bamboo and use one of
the halves as a plate. Voila, a protein
rich meal.
We spent the night hiking for a short
while to learn that you cannot see very
far in the jungle at night. We would take
off our outer green shirt and hike with
just a white T shirt. In the jungle at
night, you can't see the guy in front of
you even for more than three feet or so
even with a white T shirt on. Lesson
learned; don't try to move at night in an
unfamiliar jungle. Stay put, and move
during the day.
We slept in the jungle clearing at night
sleeping on a platform made from jungle
materials (to stay above all those creepy
crawlies that move along the jungle floor
at night.
The next morning at daylight, we hiked out
of the jungle and had breakfast at the
mess hall.

The Negritos made excellent tools
for jungle survival such as
fishing hooks, arrows for their
crossbows, and knives.
|

The trademark
Negrito knife was this machete (pictured in the
JEST emblem).
The one in this image is mine;
made for me by a Negrito named
King. He actually made it
for me before our second cruise.
The blade is made from a old US
Army jeep spring (WW2 jeeps were
made mostly by Ford and used high
quality American steel)
The handle is made from white
water buffalo horn.
|

The Negritos also
made excellent, less practical,
but very popular Bowie knives like
this one of mine. It has a chromed
blade and a custom made mahogany
wood sheath with the JEST emblem.
|
Time for Getting Down to Business

left
to right: two pilots from another
squadron, me, Gene Atkinson
|
Gene
Atkinson (Wimpy) reported to VA-15 in
Cubi Point. After completing VA-44,
Wimpy flew commercial from
Jacksonville to Clark AFB just to the
north of Cubi. He took a bus to Cubi
and reported for duty. We had only
arrived a day or so before.
As the junior guy, Wimpy was assigned
as the CO's wingman. He flew one
flight at Cubi with the CO before
walking aboard Intrepid for a ride out
to Dixie Station.
His second flight with the squadron,
his first off Intrepid was a combat
flight with his new flight leader, Cdr
Gracey.
Instead of wearing orange flight
suits, we were issued the matching
olive drab cotton shirts and pants I
am wearing in the picture for our
missions over South Vietnam.
|
I flew two
flights in Cubi on
May 10th before flying onboard Intrepid on
Dixie Station on May 12th, 1966

|
In addition to flying my combat
missions, as the Aircraft Division
Officer I was destined to spend a
lot of time on the hangar deck.
|
Dixie Station Squadron Picture

|
Back
Row: Bob Hamel, Lee Cole, Billy Butler,
Pete Schoeffel, Miller Detrick, Dave
North, Dave Parsons,
Dixie Culler, P.C. Craig, me
Front Row: John Newman, Jerry Tuttle,
Possum Terrell, Dick Nolte, Bob Cole, Moon
Moreau, Ike Jones (XO),
Gene Atkinson, Dave Thornhill (Not
pictured-Jack Gracy-CO)
|
The
pilots were ready to go! |

|
The
aircraft were ready to go!
|

|
I
felt very confident that I was
ready to go into combat.
We had accomplished a very
aggressive training program.
I felt that Possum Flight was well
prepared for the task ahead!
|
Dixie Station- Our First Line Period- May 15th
- June 14th, 1966

Underway
supply of bombs, rockets, missiles,
and ammo from a replenishment ship
(AE) to an aircraft carrier.
|
Sometime
while Intrepid was in transit, the
decision was made by CTF77
(Commander Task Force Seventh Fleet)
that the dedicated Dixie Station
carrier did not require first rate
MK 80 series bombs
( MK81 250#, MK82 500#, MK83 1000#,
MK84 2000#) that Commander Naval Air
Force Atlantic Fleet (COMNAVAIRLANT)
had gone to great pains to load up
the Intrepid with the best quality
bombs.
As soon as Intrepid left Subic Bay,
she off loaded all those MK80 series
bombs to an AE (ammunition supply
ship) enroute to Dixie Station. They
were replaced with World War II
"fat" bombs. The old "fat bombs"
were very difficult to handle
onboard the ship. The ordnancemen
had no forklifts and many of the
bombs came without pallets and had
to be assembled on the hangar deck
and then rolled a around on the
hangar and flight decks.
** Paraphrased
from Alpha Strike Vietnam,
page
96. |

Fat
bombs positioned forward of the
island after an unrep ready to be
move to the hangar deck.
|
As it turned out,
although the "fat bombs" were
difficult to handle
Although the "fat bombs" were
difficult to handle onboard by
the "ordies" and lacked the
thermal protection of the MK
80 series bombs, they
turned out to be ideal for the
close air and direct air
support missions from Dixie
Station.
The 220 lb "ring frag bombs"
were excellent for the A4s
because the Skyhawk could
carry a lot of them and they
were effective against enemy
soldiers on the ground.
The 2000lb fat bombs were
ideal for the Spads because
they could carry a big punch.
|

|
Mk 82 bombs on the hangar deck
after an unrep
|
Types of Dixie Station Aircraft
Configurations and Weapons Loads:
The A4 internal fuel capacity was 5400#s of
fuel. It is capable of carrying three
drop tanks (fuel tanks; each with 2000#s of
fuel) for long range transits (no weapons).
Or, the A4 can carry two drop tanks (4000#s of
additional fuel) and a refueling store for
inflight refueling.
Or a centerline drop tank (2000#s of
additional fuel) and two Multiple Ejection
Racks (MERs) carrying 10 of the new MK
81 or MK 82 bombs or 10 to 12 of the old 220
ring frag fat bombs.
Or, LAU 10 5" rocket pods on TERs (two pods
per TER, four
rockets pod), or LAU 3
2.75# rocket pods (two pods per
TER with 19 rockets per pod)
Or, we could also carry napalm on the TERs.
Each A4 had an two internal 20mm guns
available on every mission.
We could also carry a MK 4 gun pod which had a
high rate of fire 20mm capability on each
parent wing station. But the gun pod was not
very reliable and required removal of the MER
or TER which proved impractical.

|
After
off loading all those Mk 80 series
bombs before the first line period, we
began stocking up on the Mk 81s (250
lb),
MK 82 (500 lb), MK 83 (1000 lb), and
even some MK 84 (2000 lb) boms because
we used up the old bombs quickly and
more MK 80 series bombs became
available.
Mk
80 series bombs temporarily
positioned in the "bomb farm" on the
starboard side of the island during
flight operations.
|

This was our standard
bomb load; a center line tank with
two TERs with 6 MK 82 500#
Or, we could replace the bombs with
four LAU 10s (16 5" rockets). Or
four cans of napalm
|

This is a standard
Spad bomb load
It could carry lots of bombs or
rockets had
four 50 cal guns on the wings and
could stay on station much longer
than our A4s
|
Our average mission lasted 1 hour and 45
minutes which was controlled by the cycle time
desired for the carrier deck (spot the deck
for launch, launch aircraft, recover the
previous cycle, respot the deck. The pilot
indicated a thumbs up or down following
landing which determined whether the plane was
spotted for ready for the next launch or in a
maintenance spot (hard down aircraft went to
the hanger deck). The plane captains, trouble
shooters, and ordnance men had about 45
minutes to make the plane ready for the next
launch cycle while the flight deck fuels guys
refueled the plane during the same time frame.
Our squadron would have four planes (one
division) on one cycle and eight planes (two
divisions) on the next cycle. This required
that 12 of our 16 aircraft had to be mission
ready. We often had one additional plane
configured as a tanker so we often had 13 of
16 ready. The other A4 squadron (VA-95) had a
similar tasking. So, the ship had 12 A4
mission aircraft and one tanker assigned to
each cycle.

|
Getting the aircraft ready for the
next launch. The ordies (red shirts)
have the get the bombs loaded. The
troubleshooters (green shirts) and the
plane captain (brown shirt) have to
get the plane ready for flight. The
purple shirts (flight deck refueling
crew) need to get the plane refueled.
All this in about a 45 minute period
before the plane director (yellow
shirt) can have a brown shirt remove
the chocks for taxi.
This picure also show to LOX
crew replenishing the plane's
liquid oxygen.
|

|
The respotting of aircraft after
landing is coordinated by the Air Boss
in PriFly and the Aircraft Handling
Officer in Flight Deck Control.
The Handler is responsible for
spotting the aircraft for the next
launch or getting down aircraft out of
the way either on the flight deck or
in the Hangar Deck below.
|

|
This
picture shows some of the various
colored shirt personnel getting the
plane ready behind the port catapult
(Cat 2).
The vertical barrier between the
aircraft protects the aircraft behind
the cat (a bomber) from the jet
exhaust of the plane on the cat (a
plane configured as a tanker).
|

|
The
movement of aircraft on the flight
deck during launch recovery of
aircraft is the responsibility of the
Air Boss who operates from Primary
Flight Control (PriFly) on the port
aft side of the island. He and
his staff in PriFly communicate with
the various flight deck directors and
officers on the flight deck and
the Landing Signal Officer (LSO) on
the LSO platform to ensure the safe
launch and recovery of aircraft.
|

|
This picure shows a standard mission
configured aircraft on Cat 2 with a
centerline drop tank and a TER on each
wing with MK 81s (250# bombs) or MK
82s (500# bombs).
|

|
This
picure shows the aircraft off the end
of the bow after being shot off Cat
2. As soon as the pilot is
comfortably airborne, he will make a
turn to clear his jet wash for the
next plane which will be launched off
Cat 1.
|

|
Once the flight joined up, we would
fly to our anticipated point in the
Mekong Delta where we were briefed to
meet up with a Forward Air Controller
(FAC). |

|
Coasting in to the Mekong Delta
through an A4B gunsight.
|

|
The
Mekong Delta produces most of the rice
crop consumed in South Vietnam.
The rice paddies made movement through
the terrain difficult for
conventionally equipped army units.
The Vietcong were comfortable in the
delta and controlled large portions of
the more inaccessible areas for most
of the war.
|

|
The division leader navigated to a
rendezvous point with
ordnance specified by
the "frag" . The
"frag" was published
by US command forces
in Saigon
The rendezvous point was
usually a bearing and range
off a TACAN or a significant
feature like the intersection
of two rivers or a karst
mountain (in the western
delta)
|

|
The FACs flew Piper Cubs which
we called Bird Dogs.
The FACs flew at a safe altitude above
the target which depended on whther
the target area was defended or
not. Most targets in the
southern part of South Vietnam were
only defended by small arms fire from
the Viet Cong (VC).
The top of the FACs wing was usually
painted red so the FAC could be
seen more easily by the division lead
who was normally flying at 8-10
thousand feet.
|

|
Once
the flight leader had the FAC in
sight, the FAC would fly to the target
area and mark the target with a flare
called a Willie Pete. The flare would
not only indicate the target but also
the surface wind direction.
The flight would set up a circular
bomb pattern to the left (jet pilots
like to turn left for some reason).
The flight leader would drop one bomb
and pull back up into the pattern. The
FAC would call a correction to the
next pilot would drop one bomb. This
would continue until the FAC
considered the target destroyed and if
the flight had more bombs, the FAC
would move to another target.
|

|
After
the mission, the flight would return
to the ship for recovery.
It
looks as if this A4 has engaged the
target wire (the 3 wire) on
centerline. The there four arresting
wires on modern aircraft
carriers. The Intrepid had five.
If you look over the canopy of the
landing A4, you can barely see the LSO
platform.
If you look over the LSO platform and
a little to the left, you can see the
wake of the Plane Guard destroyer
which is positioned to come to the
aide of an aircrew incase of a crash
during flight operations or a man
overboard during regular steaming.
|

|
At
the beginning, Dixie Station was about
75 miles off the coast of South
Vietnam southeast of Saigon.
Initially, most of our
missions were in the Mekong Delta
south of Saigon in support of US Army
and South Vietnamese ground forces
(ARVN) in the IV Corps area.
We were assigned missions that were
part of a general plan "frag"
coordinated primarily by US Staff
officers in Saigon.
Toward the end of the line period, we
began moving north flying some
missions in the III Corps north
of Saigon. |
My Large Scale
Combat Map of Flight Operations to the south of
Saigon in the Mekong Delta
Types of Missions and Tactics:
There were two kinds of missions in South
Vietnam (Dixie Station):
Direct Air Support Missions- Basically, all
the missions started out as Direct Air Support
missions (DAS). The frag order directed the
weapons load, a rendezvous position to meet
the FAC, the FACs call sign and check in UHF
radio frequency, and the time for check
in. The normal weapons load was bombs,
second 5" (LAU 10s) or 2.75 mm (LAU 7)
rockets, and last napalm. If there no
troops in contact assignment (close air
support) missions, the FAC would designate a
direct support target. Direct support targets
consisted of suspected VC base camps, VC
weapons caches, or transshipment points
(trails or small bridges). We generally
described them as bombing trees.
Occasionally, we would get secondary
explosions at the target indicating that we
had hit a weapons cache or base camp.
After the mission was complete, the FAC would
give us a BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment)
to report to the ships Air Intelligence
Center (AIC) following landing.
Direct Air Support Tactics- As
described previously, the FAC
would fly to the target area and mark the
target with a flare we called Willie Pete. The
flare would not only indicate the target but
also the surface wind direction. The flight
would set up a circular bomb pattern to the
left at about 10,000' with each aircraft in
the flight about 90 degrees from each
other. When each pilot indicated that
they had the target (Willie Pete) and the FAC
in sight, the flight leader would initiate a
30 degree angle bomb run, release one bomb at
about 4,500', and initiate a 3-4 G
pull-up back up into the pattern
(minimum altitude 3,000' above ground level or
AGL). The FAC would call a correction to the
next pilot would drop one bomb. This would
continue until the FAC considered the target
destroyed. For 'bombing trees' type targets,
we might begin dropping two bombs per run once
we were on target. We seldom encountered
any opposition for these type missions; at
least none we could see. Occasionally,
the FAC would report that he was taking fire
and directed us to bomb the source of the
ground fire. In this case, we knew that the
target was a 'real target and not just
'bombing trees'!
Close Air Support Missions and Tactics- About
30% of the time, the FAC would have a close
air support mission for us. Close air support
missions (CAS) involve friendly troops on the
ground in contact with Viet Cong (VC) troops.
Friendly troops included US Army and
Vietnamese Army (ARVN) forces. The US Marines
were located in the northern part of South
Vietnam. In CAS missions, the FAC would be in
radio contact with the friendly force
commander by radio (which we couldn't hear)
and receive a description of what he
needed. The friendly force would mark
their position, usually with red flares, and
describe the position of the VC forces.
If we were carrying bombs, we would fly a
similar pattern to DAS missions and drop one
bomb at a time until the FAC told us we were
on target. Then we would again drop a
couple or the remaining bombs onboard the
aircraft; whatever the FAC directed us to do.
Again we
seldom encountered any opposition for these
type missions; at least none we could
see. But on these CAS missions, the FAC
would often report that he was taking fire and
would move further away from the VC forces
(toward the friendlies) while still keeping
the target in sight. If the friendlies were US
Army forces, we would press our attacks lower
to increase our ability to see the target and
have better bombing accuracy releasing the
bomb at 3,000 ft AGL with a pull out altitude
about 1,500' AGL or even lower if the
friendlies were in danger of being over run by
the VC.
The CAS tactics were different if we were
carrying rockets or napalm. In this
case, we would lower our roll in altitude and
release the rockets or napalm from a 15 degree
angle or so. For rockets, we would fire the
rockets at 2,500' or so with a 1,000 ft AGL
pull-out for US Army forces; a bit higher for
the ARVN forces unless there was a US Army
advisor with the ARVN unit who requested us to
press out attacks. For napalm, we would
release even lower in order to hit the VC if
they were close to the friendlies. More
details of how our napalm tactics evolved as
we gained experience in just a minute.
Whether armed with bombs, rockets, or napalm,
we would straffe the target with 20mm cannon
if the troops were still in contact to keep
the pressure on until the next flight checked
in with the FAC. Our 20mm rounds were HEI
(High Explosive Incendiary) rounds with a
tracer round loaded every 20 rounds or so to
enable us to correct our fire on to the
target. CAS missions were exciting
missions. The BDA included estimated VC
weapons destroyed and number of VC KIA (killed
in action). These CAS missions usually
resulted in a great feeling that we had really
accomplished something important.
Advanced
Napalm Tactics:
We had reliability problems with our napalm
fuses. The fuses were white phosphorus
which were designed to ignite the napalm
mixture. But these fuses were unreliable as they
often shot away from the napalm rather than into
it so all we delivered was a bunch of JP 5 jet
fuel with some detergent mixed in which didn't
go off. So, we developed delivery tactics to
solve the problem. To make sure the napalm
went off, the wingman of the delivery aircraft
(a/c) would fly a combat spread position
position on the delivery a/c and strafe the
napalm when it hit. This meant a low pull
out for the strafing aircraft. But the results
were spectacular. When the strafing a/c
pulled off the target, he became the
section lead for the next run. This
tactics was a challenge to execute but was a lot
of fun to fly. We gave on heck of a great
air show for both the friendlies and the VC but
the VC had a much hotter time of it. We got very
good at it after a few flights! I think
our sister squadron, VA-95, adopted this tactic
once they learned about it.
Medals and Ribbons
Significant Missions (War
Stories):

VA-15 A4Bs enroute to the
target
|

|
Saving a Village
under VC Attack:
One of my most memorable missions of
the first line period was when Possum
flight was tasked to meet a FAC across
the Mekong Delta almost to the Gulf of
Thailand (AKA Gulf of Siam) southwest
of Can Tho.
When we got there. the FAC was talking
with someone on the ground inside a
small hamlet. The hamlet was under
attack by the VC from karst hills
outside of the village. The
villagers were running from the nearby
rice paddies and farms to get inside
of the gate of the hamlet. When the
villagers were inside, the gate was
locked and we were free to assume that
anyone outside the gate were bad guys.
We had the perfect weapons
configuration for the mission, TERs
with a combination of 500# Mk82 bombs
and LAU 10 5" rockets (8 rockets and
three bombs per aircraft).
The VC were firing mortar rounds from
the hills into the village. It was
easy for the FAC to mark the mortar
positions for us to bomb the positions
one bomb at a time and follow up
with very accurate 5" rockets.
We were able to engage and destroy
numerous mortar positions and strafe
any VC running from our attacks.
It was a very rewarding mission in
that we knew that our flight saved the
village from being overrun by the VC.
|
US Army APCs versus VC soldiers in "coolie
hats" at My Tho:

|
Another memorable mission of the
first line period was when Possum
flight was tasked to meet a FAC
south of Saigon somewhere near My
Tho. |
This was a very unusual CAS mission
because the positions of the opposing
forces were easy to identify. The US
Army troops were maneuvering around in
their APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers)
and the VC were positioned behind a berm
(a hill along the edge of a cultivated
area). The VC were wearing black pajamas.
This only happened early in the war when
the VC were using more traditional tactics
and still wore their traditional
Vietnamese attire. Unfortunately for the
VC, we were armed with napalm and
rockets. They were difficult to
engage from the ground behind the berm,
but they were sitting ducks lined up
behind the berm from our perspective. I
don't recall what the KIA call was in the
BDA but it was significant. This was a
very unusual mission in that we never saw
the VC in such an exposed position
again. We didn't get these kind of
opportunities very often.
Mud on the top of our
Wing:
This happened to both Dave
Parsons and me while flying on Possum's
wing. It usually occurred when one of us
had a radio failure after arriving in the
target area. The A4B had an ARC-27 radio
which wasn't very reliable. Our
Possum flight SOP (Standard Operating
Procedure) was if you lost your radio in
the target area, you would close on your
leader and make section runs rather that
individual runs. When the leader dropped a
bomb, the wingman did. If the leader fired
a rocket, the wingman did. Sometimes, when
we were working on a DAS mission for a
suspected VC weapons cache, we would get
some secondaries and pressed the attack.
The section deliveries worked well except
there was a little delay in the wingman's
pullup. If the pull up off the
target was over a water area, the aircraft
might fly through the muddy water thrown
up by bomb blast or even if the pull op
was close to the surface of the water, the
pressure wave of the plane might
displace some muddy surface water which
could end up on the top of the wing.
The
maintenance guys on the flight deck went
wild when one of us came back with muddy
wings!
Red Ceramic Roof Tile Stuck in the
Wing Slats:
This did not happen to me. This was John
Newman's (Smeds) claim to fame. First, the A4
wing had slats on the front of the wing which
would slide open to increase the camber of the
wing during landing. Although not designed to
do this, the pilot could snap the slats down
if in a high G turn to increase his rate of
turn or in a pull-up to decrease his altitude
loss. The former was usually done
intentionally. The pull up situation was
usually initiated by pulling a littler harder
to avoid hitting the ground. Smeds was
in a flight that was involved in attacking any
area in the vicinity of a small building
(hooch) with a reddish brown ceramic tile
roof. Somehow Smed's had to pop
the slats to make the pull-out. The pressure
wave of his aircraft caused the house to
disintegrate sending tile flying. Some of the
tile impacted his aircraft becoming stuck in
the slats when Smeds relaxed the G on the
aircraft. The FAC went wild! He screamed
that he had never seen a pilot destroy the
target by flying through it. The VALion
legend began. Of course the flight deck guys
were amazed. My Aircraft Division AMSs
((Aviation Structural Mechanics) were not as
excited as they had to remove the slats and
realign the slat tracks before the plane could
fly again.
Let's
Destroy the Target with Drop Tank:
Possum flight was on a mission to hit some
kind of a point target. I don't remember;
probably a vehicle of some type. First of
all, I want to point out that from 5,000
feet altitude a water buffalo and a jeep on
a narrow road or path look alike if neither
is moving. We bombed the heck out of a
single dead water buffalo on numerous
missions thinking it was a vehicle. On
this flight, we were dropping one bomb at a
time trying to hit a small target. The
flight expended all its bombs without
getting any results. Possum was
frustrated. He
decided to try to hit it by jettisoning his
centerline drop tank on the
target. The FAC reported that he had
never seen anyone attempt to hit a target
with a drop tank. The VALion legacy
continued.
Flight
Integrity:
My initial job
as a first tour combat pilot was as a
wingman. Our squadron policy was that we
would never loose section integrity. That
meant that it was the wingman's responsibility
to never loose his leader. Even more than that.
If the leader wanted you in parade position such
as in an echelon coming in to the break for a
landing, you were expected to be in perfect
position. If the lead wanted you in a
maneuvering combat cruise position, that meant
that you flew a few plane lenghts away with nose
to tail clearance so that the leader could
maneuver freely and you could stay with him.
After we
first tour pilots gained experience, we were
qualified to fly the section leader
position. The section leader flew about
3000' abeam of the leader so that he could clear
the leader's six o'clock position and watch for
ground fire or later up North, AAA, SAMs, or
MIGs coming from the opposite side. The leader
was responsible for navigation and to clear the
section leaders side ground fire and later on
for AAA, SAM, or MIGS.
The
Missions I flew during Our First Line
Period
My
descriptions of what types of missions and
where we flew them is as accurate as I can
recall. I used my flight log book as a source
of most of the information. Combat entries are
green in color. The flight code reveals
whether the mission was a combat flight or a
combat support flight. I have listed my
individual missions because this is meant to
be a journal record for my family. It
also gives the casual reader an impression of
what is was like for a junior carrier pilot to
be flying combat missions from Dixie Station
in South Vietnam or from Yankee Station off
the coast of North Vietnam.
You
will notice some patterns here. On
most days we flew two combat flights
each day. The flights usually lasted 1.7
or 1.8 hours which indicates that the
flight deck was operating in a regular
cycle pattern; which means that a group
of aircraft would launch and go on a
mission and come back to the ship and
land after the next group launched on
their missions. Each A4 squadron would
launch two divisions (8 aircraft) on one
cycle and one division (4 aircraft) on
the subsequent cycle. Each squadron had
16 aircraft so at least 12 would be
required to be available each day.
These missions were all flown in the
Mekong Delta area south of Saigon (IV
Corps) or north of Saigon in III Corps).
May 15th- 1.8 flight hours,
weapon load 4 ANM 81s (old "fat bombs")
and 150 rounds of 20 mm gun ammo
May 16th- 1.7, 4 MK 81s (new thermally
coated 250 lb bombs) and 200 mm
May 16th- 1.7-,4 ANM 81s and 150 rnds of
20mm (I had one wet plug which means I got
some fuel from the airborne tanker)
May 17th- I did not fly. Maybe I had the
Squadron Duty Officer (SDO) watch in the
Ready Room.
May 18th-1.7. No weapons listed as
expended. But I had some actual instrument
time so perhaps I landed with my 4 MK 81s
May 19th- 1.6, 2 Mk 81s and 2 Mk 82s (500
lb bombs) and 100 rnds of 20mm
May 19th- 1.6, 2 MK 82s and 2 Mk 81s and
150 rnds of 20mm. This was the kast cycle
of the day; I had 0.7 hrs of night time
and a night landing
May 20th- 1.7, 2 Lau 10 rocket pods (8 5"
rockets) and 150 rnds of 20 mm
May 21st- 2.0, non combat tanker flight
(carried an inflight refueling store and
extra drop tanks) in the vicinity of the
ship
May 21st- 1.5, 4 LAU 3 rocket pods (each
pod had 19 2.75 rockets) and 75 rnds of
20mm
May 22nd- 1.6, 4 LAU 3 rocket pods
May 23rd- 1.8, 2 MK 81s and 2 Mk 82s and
100 rnds of 20 mm
This was my 10th combat mission (20
points). A pilot was awarded 2 points
toward a strike flight Air Medal fo\pr
each combat flight over Vietnam.
So, I received my
First Strike Flight Air
Medal with Combat V for this
mission.

|
The Air
Medal can be awarded for exceptional
performance during a single flight or
for meritorious achievement in aerial
flight. If it awarded for a
combat mission or missions, it is worn
with a "V".
During the Vietnam era, in addition to
single flight awards, "Strike Flight
Air Medals" were awarded based on
points accumulated during combat
related missions. Aircrew received one
point for a combat support mission and
two points for a combat mission "over
the beach". A Strike Flight Air
Medal was awarded for each twenty
points achieved. |

|
The Air
Medal with Combat V ribbon
|
May 2th- 1.6, 4 Mk 81s and 150 rnds of
20mm
May 24th- 1.7, 2 Mk 81s and 2 Mk 82s and
150 rnds of 20mm
May 25th- 1.5, 1 Mk 82 and 50 rnds of
20mm. We must have brought bombs back;
apparently not much to shoot at or poor
weather
May 26th- 1.8, 3 LAU 10 Zuni rocker pods
(12 5" rockets)
May 27th- 1.5 non combat flight, all night
time, my second night carrier landing of
the cruise
May 28th- 1.7, M<y log book say some
kind of a strike, no ordnance listed
May 29th- 2.4, I flew an aircrfat to NAS
Cubi Ppoint for some reason
May 30th- 2.5, I flew back aboard from
Cubi
June 1st- 1.7, non combat proficiency
flight, 3 wet plugs (a wet plug is when
you use your inflight refueling probe to
get fuel from another aircraft)
June 1st- 1.9, another non combat
proficien0e flight 3 wet plugs
June 2nd- 1.8, another non combat flight
around the boat (Intrepid). Perhaps we had a
few days of bad weather.
Note: Navy pilots refer
to the carrier as "the boat" rather than
the more correct term of "the ship)
June 2nd- 1.8, 2 Mk 81s and 2 Mk 82s. The
weather must have improved allowing the
afternoon strikes to go
June 3rd-. 1.7, 2 MK 81s and 2 Mk 82s and
150 rnds of 20mm
June 3rd- 1.6, 3 LAU 10s, late afternoon
strike with 0.4 night time and third night
landing of the cruise
June 4th- 1.6, 2 Mk 82s and 2 MK 81s
June 5th- 1.7, 2 MK 77. The Mk 77 was one
of the types of napalm we used usually on
Close Air Support (CAS) missions
This was my 20th mission so I was awarded
my 2nd Strike Flight Air Medal (40 points)

June
5th- 1.7, 2 MK 82s and 2 Mk 81s
June 6th- 1.8, 2 LAU 10 pods (8 Zuni
5" rockets)
June 6th- 1.7, 2 Mk 83 bombs, The Mk
83 was a 1000 lb bomb. They are
carried on the parent racks instead of
a Tripple Ejection Rack (TER)
Mk 83s are usually
only used on an important target.
Unfortunately, I have no indication of
what it involved.
June 7th- I did not fly, I probobly
had the SDO watch again
June 8th- 1.3, 2 ANM 81s (old "fat"
bombs) and 2 MK 81s (new type bombs).
They must be short of bombs.0.1 night
time 4th night trap (pinky)
A "pinky" night
landing is when it is officially after
sunset but there is plenty of light.
We was probably flew a regular day VFR
patterrn
June 9th- 1.8, two more ANM 81s and 2
Mk 81s
June 9th- 1.5, 2 ANM 81s and 2 Mk 81s,
0.2 night time, my 5th night trap
(another pinky but flown from a CCA
(Carrier Controlled Approach)
June 10th- 1.8, 4 MK 81s
June 11th- 1.7, 4 MK 81s, 150 rnds of
20 mm. 0.4 night time, CCA, 6th night
trap
June 12th- 1.8, 4 MK 81s and 100 rnds
of 20 mm. This was also my 30th
mission
June
12th- 1.7, 4 Mk 81s. I logged my 100th
carrier landing (trap) on the Intrepid
on this flight.
I was awarded
my 3rd Strike Flight Air Medal for
this mission (60 points)
June 13th- 2.1, non
combat flight, 1 wet plug
June 13th- 1.6, non combat
flight, 1 wet plug
June 14th- 1.9, 4 MK 81s. This
was my final flight of the
first line period
Our First Line Period
Ended on June 14th (30 days)
 |
I logged my 100th
trap (landing) on Intrepid on
June12th.
It is traditional to have a
ceremonial cake for each 100 traps.
This cake was probably presented in
the ready room during the transit
from the first line period to
Yokosuka.
Left to right: P.C. Craig, me, Bob
Hamel, John Newman, LCDR Possum
Terrell, Lee Cole
Bottom Row: Dave Parsons, Dave
Thornhill
|

End of the Line Parties
Alcohol
was prohibited onboard navy ships in 1966
except in cases where a flight surgeon
determined that an alcoholoc drink was
appropriate for a pilot after experiencing
a "harowing experience". Flight surgeons
had a supply of small bottlles of whisky
for this purpose. It was detrmined at some
level that flying combat operations
qualified as a "harrowing experience". Or,
at least they ignored the regulation and
allowed "End of the Line Parties" for
squadrons as long they were held in the
squadron's ready room. On Intrepid,
security watches were posted on hangar
bays to ensure the safety of pilots (make
sure one didn't fall overboard) on the
trip from the ready room to the
staterooms.

Our first "End of the
Line Party" held in our ready room
was limited to champagne toasts
appropriate for squadrons of Air
Wing Ten, The "Champagne" air wing.
|
Our First Port Visit: Yokosuka, Japan- about
June 20th to June 30th

Yokosuka is on the Japanese island
of Honshu and is close to Tokyo
and Mount Fugi
|

Mount Fugi
(Connie
Detrick climbed to the top of Mt.
Fuji on July 15th)
|
While we were in Yokosuka, the wood
flight deck forward in the catapult area was
replaced with teak wood planks
because the A4 landing gear tore up
the old wood during catapult shots.

|
The Japanese workers
completed the job in one week;
incredible. |

|
Admiral (ADM) Roy
Johnson, Commander in Chief of the
Pacific Fleet (CICPACFLT) came to
town from Hawaii, and Vice Admiral
(VADM) John Hyland, Commander of the
Seventh Fleet (COMSEVENTHFLT)
(homeported in Ypkosuka) with
Captain Macri onboard Intrepid
in Yokosuka on June 25th.
They most likely discussed the
progress of the flight deck repairs
as well as Dixie Station
operations.
|

|
Cag Hayward was
relieved by Cdr Burrows on June 23rd
in Yokosuka.
|
CAG Hayward would go on after
commanding the Champagne Air Wing to be
as
the Commander of the 7th Fleet from 1975
to 1976 and CINCPACFLT from 1977 to 1978.
His next assignment would be as the Chief
of Naval Operations from 1978 to !982.

One of the first
places nearly everyone visited was
the Navy Exchange where we
purchased reelto reel tape
players, turn tables, speakers,
Seiko watches and cameras.
|

The Officer's Club
was also popular of course.
CAG Hayward hosted
a champagne reception here after
he was relieved by Commander
Burrows as the new CAG 10.
So, Dave Thornhill, VA-15's
dsignated CAG wingman had a
new leader for the next line
period.
|
Our First
USO Show- June 23rd

|
Johnny Grant's
Operation Starlift
|
Out in
Town
These are typical views of downtown
Yokosuka. The most popular places we visited
were restaurants and bars. Some of the
VALions visited a place called the Candy
Club. One of my favorites was the New
Dream Japan Bar which was on a street
similar to the one on the left.
We had
a squadron wardroom (officers) dinner
party in downtown Yokosuka at one of the
local restaurants. The room was similar to
the image on the left; low table and
tatami mats around a large rectangular
table. The walls featured rice paper and
wood sliding doors for not only entering
and leaving but also for the serving the
food which was typical japanese such a
tempura, rice, and beer. I think there
were a couple of rounds of saki in there
somewhere. Our servers were dressed in
traditional Geisha dress. They served our
food, poured our drinks and even
entertained us with traditional japanese
music during dinner. There were about four
or five servers for our group of about
twenty. Toward the end of the party,
(after we few drinks) we played strip
'rock paper scissors' with our Geisha
servers. The Geisha traditional dress (on
the right) consists of many layers. It
wasn't long before the Geishas' look
hadn't changed much but we were all
sitting g there in our "skivies". It was a
great time; nothing improper!
Dixie Station- Our Second
Line Period- July 4th - August 8th, 1966
We had two significant Events right
at the start of our Second Line Period:
Secretary of the Navy
Paul H. Nitze came onboard July 14th.

SECNAV
with
Capt. Macri on the bridge
|

SECNAV
having
dinner in the CPO Mess
|
Captain John Fair
relieved Captain Macri as the Commanding
Officer of the Intrepid on July 15th.

Ding
Ding Ding Ding; Intrepid
Departing
|

|
Our
Second USO Show- July 17th

|
Louis and the Seven Days
(night on the flight deck)
|
Our
Third USO Show- July 24th

|
The Four of Us
(on the crew's mess decks)
|
Our
Fourth USO Show- July 27th
An Entertainment Group from South
Vietnam
(performed at night on the flight deck)
Our
Fifth USO Show- August 1st

|
Stateside Capers
(at night on the flight deck)
|
Our
Sixth USO Show- August 6st

|
Wild Affair
(at night on the flight deck)
|
All
of these USO events occurred at night
after flight opperations including the
Entertainment Group from South Vietnam.
The picture appears to have been taken
in the daytime. But, I flew two combat
missions that day so the performance had
to be after flight
operations probably about 1930 (7:30pm)
or so!
Back to Business
I
flew 40 combat
missions and 5 tanker flights.
At the end of the line period, I had 72
combat missions and 7 strike/flight air
medals.

|
At
the beginning of the line period, we
resumed missions in the Mekong Delta
and in III Corps.
Our mission load was normally six MK
81 250# bombs or four MK 82 500#
bombs or a mixture of Mk 81s and
82s. But, we did carry four Lau 3
pods (4 runs with 19 rockets each
run), and MK 77 napalm on some
missions. I carried 2 MK 83
(1000# bombs) on four missions. I
also carried six Mk 81 snakeyes on
one mission. Snakeye bombs are
designed for low altitude low angle
delivery most likely in a close air
support situation.
We mostly flew Direct Air Support
missions to the northwest of Saigon
in an area called "Zone D". This
area used to be Michelin Rubber
Company property and was a prime
area for VC base camps.
It was likely that we had more Close
Air Support missions in the eastern
part of III Corps from Long Bin
toward the coast as that was here
the US Army was primarily operating.
Vong Tau is where the US Army had
their famous R&R beach facility
complete with surfing.
|
Pete
Schoeffel, our Operations Officer,
conducted a two mission evaluation to
determine whether it would be effective
for us to do some night sorties.
The A4B had an antiquated all black
Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI) which
was the pilot's primary instrument
to determine the aircraft attitude at
night and in instrument conditions.
It wasn't too difficult to fly on
instruments with this ADI but it made it
very challenging to do dive bombing using
the all black ADI. (Note: Of course that's
all the Navy carrier attack pilots
of WW2 and Korea had to work
with). The technique that Pete
evaluated was to deploy parachute flares
to illuminate the target and use a
circular pattern to roll in from for the
individual bomb runs. Dave
North flew the section lead (#3) on these
missions. The evaluation determined that
it would not be effective and would put
the pilots at a high risk. Pete
reported this to CAG Burrows and the night
mission idea was scrapped. On one of the
missions, Dave North landed his aircraft
with a hung flare which became
disconnected on landing and went down the
angle deck burning. Parachute flares pose
a very high risk as the flare consists of
burning potassium which burns at a very
high temperature and is nearly impossible
to put out.
Every
once in awhile after the last aircraft has
landed in a recovery, the Air Boss
will call out to the flight deck crew to
"Rig the barricade". The crew responds in a
clockwork like performance to see if they
can rig it properly in a faster time than
during the last drill. After the barricade
is rigged, the Air Boss will make a call
like "Great job, bravo zulu 1 minute and 57
seconds". Or perhaps, "Airman Jones,
what were you thinking of when you ....."

|

|
However,
occasionally, it is not a drill. LIke one
day when VA-176 402 could not not
lower his main landing gear. If
he had been able to get only one main
landing gear down, the Air Boss would have
directed him to ditch eject alongside of the
ship because it was too dangerous to try to
make a trap or to use the barricade.
But, in this case, with no gear at all, it
was safe to use the barricade. When using
the barricade, the pilot made a normal
carrier approach only instead of getting a
wire, the aircraft is brought to a stop with
the barricade. The only difference is that
you cannot wave off in close because being
snagged by the top of the barricade could be
disastrous.
But as the line period progressed, we
moved north flying missions in I Corps
and II Corps

|
This map shows the
infiltration supply routes into
South Vietnam from North
Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh
Trail (in red) and from Cambodia
(in Green).
Notice the concentration of
these infiltration routes from
just north of the DMZ and into I
Corps west of Da Nang and in to
II Corps north and west of
Pleiku.
As North Vietnam was
increasing it's troop strength
in South Vietnam and logistics
support along the Ho Chi Minh
Trail, President Johnson decided
to prosecute the war in Vietnam
more aggressively which resulted
in increases in US
troops. As US Army and
Marine Corps troops were
increased in the northern
portion of South Vietnam.
|

|
As the North Vietnamese
Army (NVN) threat increased,
Dixie Station moved north.
We flew missions in I Corps
in
support of US Army and
Marines who were in
contact with North
Vietnamese forces. (around
Da Nang, Hue, and Quang Tri).
These were exciting
missions. Each mission
resulted in a feeling that we
were making a difference, saving
US Army and Marine Corps lives
in battles with the North
Vietnamese.
We also flew some missions in II
Corps in support of the US Army
especially in the northern area
around Pleiku.
The Air
Force and Army flew most
of the missions in the
southern portion of II
Corps.
However, these missions
brought with them higher
threat from the NVN
ground forces. The
had infrared surface to
air missiles and
improved tactics.
Logistics
aircraft
flying into Da
Nang had to
use steep
approach paths
to limit their
exposure to
these weapons.
They had more heavy
machine guns that they
could direct at aircraft
attacking their
positions. And,
they were not only
better at setting up
ground ambushes than the
VC, but they also set up
ambushes for aircraft.
Helos approaching the
position of downed
pilots were shot down
while attempting
rescues.
|

|
Donnie
McCLoughlin Story
One
particularly
personal event
involved a friend I
had met in flight
training. Don
McCloughlin was a
Naval Academy
graduate Class of
'63. He was an
All American center
mid fielder for the
Annapolis Lacrosse
team. My
roommate in my
fraternity at
Cornell, Dick Gibson
was also an All
American mid fielder
on the Big Red
Lacrosse team.
Donnie was an A4
pilot from another
carrier who was shot
down on a mission
near Da Nang.
He was killed during
the ejection or
during his capture
by VC or NVN forces.
They positioned his
body a clear area
where it could be
discovered by
aircraft looking for
him after he was
shot down. When the
helo arrived
supported by A1 Spad
Rescap aircraft, the
VC/NVN opened up
with machine guns
downing the helo and
hitting a Spad or
two.
This changed the
ground rules for me.
One, I would kill
NVN/VC forces
whenever given the
opportunity. And
two, I knew we had
to be very careful
in Rescap situations
because we knew the
VC/NVN were looking
to bag more helos
and Rescap aircraft.
A practice Lacrosse
fied atg the Naval
Academy is now names
after Donnie.
Lance Corporal Randy Finn
Story
Another
story that occurred
during this time
involved a Close Air
support mission in
was on to support
Marines in contact
at the Khe Sanh base
west of Da Nang. The
NVN were trying to
isolate the base and
then over run it.
The Marine C-130
logistics aircraft
were getting the job
done but were taking
a lot of casualties.
The NVN would probe
the base defenses
and then pull
back. There
were constant
intense fire
fights. Our
mission took place
during one of these
fire fights. We took
a lot of fire from
the NVN
forces. But,
we delivered
effective support
for the
Marines. It
was an exciting
mission>
A couple of years
later when I was on
Air Force Exchange
orders as an F-105
instructor pilot, I
had a visit from my
cousin, Randy Finn,
an ex-Marine
During a discussion
about his time in
Vietnam, we
discovered that
Randy was a 105
machine gunner at
Khe Sanh on the date
of that mission.
My flight log entries
for July and Early
August (through August
4th)
July 4th- 2.0, non
combat flight around
Intrepid
July 6th- 1.8,
another non combat
flight
July 8th- 1.8, 2 MK
83 (1,000 lb bombs)
July 8th- 1.5, 2 ANM
81 "fat bombs" and 2
Mk 82s, 0.3 night
time, 8th night trap
July 9th- 2.2,3 LAU
3 rocket pods. 0.1
actual inst time, 1
CCA. I suspect there
was bad weather at
the ship on return
July 9th- 1.8, 4 ANM
81 fat bombs
July 10th- 2.1. non
combat flight around
Intrepid
July 10th- 1.9, a
second non combat
flight around the
ship, 1 wet plug
July 11th- 1.7, 2 MK
77 napalm
July 12th- 1.9, 3 MK
81s, 0.5 actual inst
time, 1 CCA, bad
weather at the ship
on return
July 13th- 1.7, 2 MK
83 1000 lb bombs
July 14th- 1.7, 4 MK
81s, This was my
40th combat mission
July 15th- 1.9, 4 MK
81s, 1 wet plug.
I was awarded my 4th
Strike Flight Air
Medal (80 points)

July
16th- I did not
fly July 16th.
SDO watch?
July 17th- 1.3,
no weapons
logged, 0.1
night time, 9th
night trap
(pinkie)
July 18th- 1.8,
no weapons
logged, 1.1
actual
instrument time.
Probably landed
with 4 MK 81s
due to bad
weather at the
target and ship.
July 19th- 1.8,
2 Mk 81s and 2
Mk 82s
July 20th- 1.7,
2 MK 77 napalm
July 20th- 1.8,
no weapons load
logged
July 21st- 1.7,
2 MK 81s and 2
Mk 82s
July 21st- 1.8,
6 MK 81 Snakeyes

|
Snakeyes
are any MK 80
series bombs
(81s, 82, or
83s) that have
tail fins that
open up on
release. They
are an
excellent
weapon for
Close Air
Support as
pictured here
|
July
22nd- 1.7, non
combat flight
around the
ship, 1 wet
plug
July 22nd-
1.8, another
non combat
flight around
the ship, 2
wet plugs
July 23rd-
1.6, 4 MK 81s,
0.5 night
time, 1 CCA,
10th night
trap (not a
pinkie)
July 24th-
1.7, 4 MK
81s,
50th combat
mission
July 25th-
1.7, 6 Mk 81s
July 26th-
1.7, 4 LAU 3
2.75" rocket
pods (19
rockets per
pod)
I was awarded
my 5th Strike
Flight Air
Medal for this
flight (100
points)

July
26th- 1.7, 3
MK 82s, 0.8
actual
instrument
time, 0.5
night time,
bad weather
11th night
trap
July 27th-
1.7, 3 MK 83s,
0.5 actual
instrument
time, 0.6
night time,
more bad
weather, 12th
night trap
July 27th-
1.7, 4 MK 82s,
0.4 hours of
actual
instrument
time
It is so hot
and humid in
the Gulf of
Tonkin in July
that the
Captain tried
to stay close
to
thunderstorms
so that he
could duck in
to them
betweeen the
recovery of
aircraft and
the next
launch while
the flight
deck was being
prepared for
the next
launch.
This was
refreshing for
the flight
deck guys and
kept the ship
a little
cooler.
Sometimes, he
didn't get
clear of the
clouds soon
enough
resulting in
the launch and
recovery being
in instrument
conditions.
July 28th- I
did not fly on
the 28th. SDO?
July
29th-
1.8, 2 MK 83s,
0.2 hours of
actual
instruments, 1
CCA, bdf
weather during
the recovery
July 29th-
1.6, 2 MK 77
napalm, 0.5
actual
instruments,
0.5 night
time, 12th
night trap
July 30th-
1.7, 4 MK 82s,
0.1 actual
instruments, 1
CCA, more
thunderstorms
in the Gulf of
Tonkin for the
recovery
July 30th-
1.7, 4 LAU 3
2.75 rocket
pods (19
rockets per
pod)
July 31st-
1.8, 6 MK 81s.
This was my
60th combat
mission.
A
few of the
missions are
only 1 point
missions so
the Strike
Flight points
do not line up
with the
number of
missions.
July
31st- 1.8, 4
MK 82s.
August 1st-
1.6, 2 Mk 81s
and 2 MK 82s.
I was awarded
my 6th Strike
Flight Air
Medal as of
this flight
because I had
accumulated
120 points
(62nd combat
mission).
August
1st- 1.7, non
combat flight
August 2nd-
1.8, 3 MK 81s,
0.3 hours of
actual
instruments
Sometimes poor
weather
overland or
the lack of a
suitable
target
resulted in
our bringing
back a partial
load of bombs
August 2nd-
1.7, 2 MK 81s
August 3rd-
1.7, 4 MK 81s
August 4th-
1.7, 4 MK 81s
August 4th-
1.7, 2 Mk 77
napalm
August
4th was our last Day
on Dixie Station
Things
changed big time August
5th. During
the night of August 4th,
the Intrepid moved north
and we began flying Rolling
Thunder missions
from Yankee
Station!
A decision had
been made in Washington that we
needed more sorties in North Vietnam
from Yankee Station. The Air Force
and Army had increased the number of
aircraft in South Vietnam. So, the
decision was made that the Intrepid
would move to Yankee Station and
Participate in Operation Rolling
Thunder.
Rolling
Thunder was the name for Air Force and
Navy air operations over North Vietnam
from 1965 through early 1968.
The strategic plan (or lack of it)
came from a weekly lunch on Tuesday of
each week which were attended by
President Johnson, his Secretary of
Defense, Robert MacNamara, and various
aids and staffers. No military
officers from the Department of
Defense or Joint Chiefs of Staff were
permitted to attend these
meetings. The types of targets,
and Rules of Engagement were
determined at these meetings. Major
specific targets were put on a list.
These targets became known as Alpha
list targets or eventually Alpha
Strikes. Johnson and MacNamara were
very concerned that the Russians or
Chinese would enter the war if we went
too far. So they established a 30 mile
no fly zone along the Chinese border,
no bomb (safe) zones around Hanoi and
Haiphong and prohibited hitting any
Russian or Chinese ships in port even
if they were unloading war supplies.
They didn't allow bombing of airfield
or SAM sites under construction
because of the chance that Russian or
Chinese advisors might be there. Some
of these restrictions proved to be
very dangerous for USAF and Navy
aircraft.
1. USAF F-105 pilots flying from
northwest of Hanoi along Thud Ridge
could be attacked by MIGs which could
find a safe haven just a few miles to
the north in the 30 Chinese border
buffer zone.
2. MIG airfields such as Kep and Phuc
Yen near Hanoi could not be attacked
for fear of Russian advisor casualties
who were training the North Vietnamese
pilots. F4 Phantoms and F-05 Thud
pilots often flew over these airfields
with MIGs on the ground. But, they
could not attack the base or aircraft
on the ground. The MIGs were fair game
only when they were off the ground.
3. SAM sites under construction could
not be attacked because of the fear
that Russian advisors who were there
monitoring the construction and
training the North Vietnamese missile
crews might be killed if the sites
were attacked. USAF and Navy pilots
often flew over these sites as they
were being completed and observed SA 2
Guideline missiles at the sites but
could not attack them.

SAM
site under construction
|
Some of these
pilots were shot down by the sites
they could have eliminated if they
had been authorized to attack these
sites. Apparently, Russian and
Chinese lives were more important
than American pilot lives in the
minds of President Johnson and
Robert MacNamara.
Non military targets; schools,
churches, hospitals, and dikes
dividing rice paddies were off limits.
Pilots had to adjust their dive bomb
direction so that no school, church,
or hospital was long or short of the
target. Of course the North Vietnamese
became aware of these limitations, so
positioned AAA and SAM sites close to
hospitals, churches, and schools.
We
joined the fray during Rolling
Thunder 51 (July 9th to November
11th). Road reconnaissance
missions were permitted everywhere
in the North except in the Hanoi
and Haiphong safe zones. The
primary targets were trucks on the
roads, small bridges, and boats on
the rivers. Again, if you spotted
a SAM site under construction, you
were expected to report it but not
attack it. Major railroad and
highway bridges were limited to
the ones on the Alpha list. Major
industrial targets in the
northeastern portion of North
Vietnam, and specific POL
(Petroleum Storage Facilities)
were added to the Alpha list just
prior to our arrival.
Our A4B's were not
equipped to fly in the high threat AAA,
SAM, and MIG environment of North
Vietnam. The A4B primary flight
indicator (ADI) was the old black over
black type which made bombing at night
ineffective. We had no electronic
equipment to detect the search and fire
control radars associated with some 57
mm and all 85 mm AAA guns or SA-2
Surface to Air Missile batteries. We had
only the capability to detect when an
SA-2 SAM was airborne and we were the
target.
We had no fighter aircraft, electronic
warfare support aircraft, or airborne
early warning and control aircraft in our
airwing. So, we had to rely on these
support services from other carriers or
were relegated to targets close to the
coast.

|
Yankee Station normally
consisted of three aircraft
carriers, a cruiser which was
the air defense control ship
(PIRAZ) for the Tonkin Gulf and
various other destroyers and
frigates (AKA "small boys"). |

|
Combat chart of North
Vietnam showing the no fly zones
including the no fly circles
around Hanoi and Haiphong.
|
Operation
Rolling Thunder

|
This map shows the Rolling
Thunder Route Packages assigned
to the Navy and Air Force during
Operation Rolling Thunder.
The Air Force was responsible
for bombing operations in Route
Package 1 in the southern
portion of North Vietnam and
Route Packages 5 (west of Hanoi)
and Route Package 6A north of
Hanoi to the Chinese
border. The Air Force flew
F- 105 and F-4D aircraft from
Thailand for these missions.
The Navy was responsible for
Route Packages 2,3, 4, 5, and
6B. The aircraft carriers
from Yankee Station flew these
missions.
Hanoi missions were flown by
both Air Force and Navy aircraft
in large coordinated
strikes.
|
We arrived on Yankee Station
during Rolling Thunder 51. The
two primary major target
categories during this time
were the entire POL (oil)
system and and major
industries. Road
reconnaissance flights were
authorized all over North
Vietnam except in the
restricted zones around
Haiphong and Hanoi.
There were only two "Cardinal
Rules" involved with flying in the high threat
AAA environment of North Vietnam in 1966.
1. Never fly below 3,500' AGL!- Below that, you can be hit by
the massive amount of small arms fire up
to 50 cal (14.5 mm).
That being said, many
air wing anti SAM tactics in 1966 involved
avoiding the SAM by getting below 3.000'
thought to be the lowest altitude that a
SAM
could be effective. Result; They didn't
get hit by a SAM but they were hit by low
caliber AAA, a much bigger threat than the
SAMs!
2. Never make a second attack run on the
same target!- If they
didn't get you on the first run, they
probably will on the second!
But due to our
restricted
deck load (no
fighters)
inexperience
up north, we
flew all our
missions in
August were
road
reconnaissance
(road Recce)
missions in
Route Package
2 south of
Vinh.
I flew four
combat
missions and
one combat
support
mission
(Tanker) from
August 5th
through August
8th.
It turned out
to be a nice
warm up for
the next line
period which
would be
mostly
missions over
North Vietnam.

|
We were only on Yankee
Station for a few days in
August.
|
Note: I
discovered during the
research process of writing
this journal that you could
differentiate missions in
South Vietnam from missions
over South Vietnam by the
flight code entered in the
log book. South
missions used the code
1S12. North missions
used the code T12.
Combat support missions
(Tankers- 1 point for Strike
Flight Air Medals) used the
Code 1M1.
August
5th- 1.6, 6 MK
81s
August 6th-
1.9, combat
tanker mission
(1 point), 3
dry plugs
(check out the
off going
tanker)
August 7th-
1.7, 5 MK 81s.
70 combat
missions
August 8th-
1.7, 3 Mk 82s
August 8th-
1,6- 3 MK 82s
We
Lost One Pilot On the First
Deployment: (It was a non-combat
loss)
LCDR Moose Moran was a Spad pilot prior to
flying with us. He did his jet transition in
VA-44 and then came to the squadron.
On August 7th, 1966 he lost control of his
aircraft during his approach turn about
halfway from the 180 position to rolling on
final. The aircraft is closest to a
stall during that turn. He crashed behind
the ship in the wake. Neither he or any part
of the aircraft were recovered.
LCDR Moose Moran- RIP
May you have
fair winds and following seas!
Life
on Dixie Station was quite a bit
different than it became on Yankee
Station. We normally flew two missions a
day. The DAS and CAS missions were fun
to fly and there wasn't much of a threat
to be shot down We flew daylight only.
Flight deck operations usually were over
before sunset. So, we junior
officers could meet on the flight deck
after the 1700 junior officer sitting in
the Second Deck Officers Mess and then
go to the ready room for ytherevening
movie when the "heavies" finished their
sitting in the officer's mess.

The CO and XO lived in single
staterooms. LCDRs usually lived
in a two man stateroom. Lts and
the more senior LTjgs usually
lived in a four man stateroom.
The more junior JOs lived
in the JO Bunkroom (8 officers).
|

The day started
early as the first launch was
about daylight. If you were on the
flight schedule and were in flight
gear, you ate in the "dirty shirt"
informal mess on the 03 level. If
you were able to be in you khakis
and lived on the 2nd deck like I
did and you ate in the Officers
Mess on the 2nd Deck.
(This picture is actually a
Royal Navy Officers Mess)
|
The
Officers Mess on the 2nd Deck of the
Intrepid was actually less formal than the
Royal Navy mess pictured here. We got our
food from the chow line. We had
personalized sterling silver napkin rings
that were kept in a rack. After getting
our food, we would select a place to sit
that was appropriate for our rank. We had
white linen table cloths, official US Navy
ceramic plates and, cups etc. and
sterling silverware, salt and pepper
shakers, and coffee pots.
During the day, we would play bridge in
the mess when we could. Poker was normally
played in staterooms. There was an area in
the Mess that had comfortable chairs for
reading and Cribbage and Ace Duce boards
(similar to Backgammon). Ace Duce
and Cribbage have been traditional games
in Navies for centuries. We also had Ace
Duce and Cribbage boards in the ready
room. It was very popular.
In the evening, there were two sittings
for dinner; 1700 (5:00pm) for LTjgs and
below) and 1830 (6:30pm) for the Heavies
(LCDRs and CDRs). Unless you were still in
flight gear, most of us JOs ate in
the 2nd Deck Mess as a group.

Typical Ready Room
|

Maintenance Division
Officer workspace
|
Our home away from home was
our squadron ready room. Our flight gear
was hanging on racks at the back of the
ready room. We had a peg board with
our squadron coffee cups by rocket numbers
(CO and XO on the top and on down
descending according to seniority).
 |

|
We had a coffee pot on at all times and a
cooler spray type machine that had
lemonade or something similar. There
were plexiglass boards with the flight
schedule and our trap (landing grades)
"tote boards" for all to see. The flight
leaders would conduct their flight
briefings from a podium in the front of
the room with the other members of the
flight in the seats in the front row. LSO
debriefs were conducted in the front of
the ready room unless there was a briefing
in progress in which case they would
conduct the debrief in the back of the
room. Pilots not involved in the briefing
sat quietly in the rear seats being
careful not to disturb the brief.
Otherwise, the ready room was our
lounge. Ground Officers would come
by as often as possible. Morris E Shepherd
(Shep) the Maintenance Control
Officer and Bob Cheyne (Avionics/Weapons)
stopped by when they could. Dave
"Quack" MacMillan, our squadron Flight
Surgeon, was in the ready room a lot
ensuring we were fit for duty.
The
Squadron Duty Officer (SDO):
The Squadron Duty Officer (SDO) had a desk
in the front of the room where he had a
phone and a "bitch box" to use to
communicate with our squadron Maintenance
Control and other ready rooms. The SDO had
an ASDO (Assistant Squadron Duty Officer),
who was a petty officer and assisted the
SDO. Running out of coffee or cold
drinks was an unforgivable sin for the
SDO/ASDO! We rotated the SDO duty
among the JO pilots. So, we had the "duty"
about every ten days. We did not fly on
those days and stood the duty from before
the first pre flight briefing of the day
(about 0400 (4:00am) through the movie in
the evening, about 2200 (10:00pm). A Petty
Officer manned the ready room duty desk at
night.

Bob Hamel SDO
|
In addition to the SDO watch, there were
two other watches which were associated
with underway aircraft carrier flight
operations; the CATCC (Carrier Air Traffic
Control Center) and PriFly (Primary Flight
Control) watches. The CATCC watch is
only manned during night or actual IFR
(Instrument Flight Rules) conditions when
the aircraft are arriving at the carrier
and landing using a Carrier Controlled
Approach. As we didn't fly at night, this
watch was rarely required. But the PriFly
watch was. The PriFly watch required
that there be one pilot for each aircraft
type available with appropriate emergency
procedures references present in PriFly in
case the Air Boss needed information when
an aircraft of that type was being
recovered with an emergency condition.

CATCC
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PriFly
|

Air Boss in PriFly
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Those
of us who were interested in standing ship
watches such as OOD, (Officer of the Deck)
AOOD (Assistant Officer of the Deck), or
EOOW (Engineering Officer of the Watch)
were unable to do so as we were too busy
while on the line. But, we could do
so during transits to and from liberty
ports if we desired to do so.
Operations
and Administrative Officers had
offices on the 03 level (same level as
the ready room). Maintenance Division
Officers spent time in their shops and
observing maintenance activity on the
flight and hangar decks. As the
Aircraft Division Officer, I spent
time in the Power Plants, Hydraulics,
Structural Repair, Ejection Seat and
A/C shops on the hangar deck and with
the parachute riggers in their shop on
the 02 level. I made time to
observe engine and engine fuel control
changes, structural repairs and
scheduled maintenance. Not that I
didn''t trust the First Class and
Chief Petty Officers who ran their
shops but I wanted to learn and to
show interest. One thing about being a
carrier pilot, you had the respect of
the sailors unless you screwed it up
in some way. They appreciated
our interest and we got to know them
and their problems.
Working
with the "troops" was a very rewarding
experience for me!
Flight
Organization:
One of the important
factors in our combat success (combat
effectiveness with low loss rate) was
the fact that we established a fixed
flight organization during our work-up
training and maintained it through the
early line periods. This meant that we
got to know the good and not so good
tendencies of our flight members and
we were able to establish work arounds
of weak points and take advantage of
strong points. As a result, we
steadily improved our flying skills
and flight integrity during our early
Dixie Station operations where the the
environment was reasonably low
threat. We got better and better
with each line period. By the
time we started flying in higher
threat environments, our exceptional
flight integrity was a major
contributor to our low loss
rate. As we became more experienced,
the division organization became more
flexible. We still maintained
our section integrity most of the
time.
The
"Blue Shoes" and the "JO Mafia":
When
we unpacked the green cruise boxes
from a previous era of VA-15 (Spads),
we discovered a plaque with a pair of
golf shoes painted green attached to
the plaque with a plate that stated
that this award is given to the
officer who had stomped on it the most
during the previous month. So, the
legend of the Blue Shoes was born.
Blue Shoes vice green shoes
because we promptly painted the golf
shoes blue, our squadron colors as the
300 series squadron in Airwing Ten.
I don't remember us doing much about
awarding the Blue Shoes during work
ups as we were working on working
primarily on developing our ability to
fly as a squadron and hadn't
established much of an identity
yet. But, if we had, Ike Jones
would have been a perfect selection of
the award during our
Atlantic/Med/Suez/Indian Ocean transit
for trying to unsuccessfully squash
the dinner proposal of Jake and Flossi
Segal for dinner at the Jack Tar Hotel
in the Bahamas prior to
deployment.
But as we got to know each other
better and situations occurred either
during an eventful mission or some
liberty event, awarding the Blue Shoes
became necessary. As time
progressed, our group of JOs who
entered the squadron together as a
group realized that we had political
power as far as the Blue Shoes are
concerned.
After
the
first line period, there were only
eight pilots senior to our JO group;
The CO, XO, Pete Schoeffel, Jerry
Tuttle, Possum Terrell, Moon Moreau,
Dave North, and Lee Cole. LCDR Butler
(Bolter) had been transferred to
Saigon (see note 1). We had eleven JOs
in our group (Detrick, Thornhill,
Parsons, P.C. Craig, Smith, Bob
Cole, Dixie Culler, Nolte, Hamel,
Newman, and Gene Atkinson. So,
if we JOs wanted a particular heavy
(senior officer) to get the Blue Shoes
and we voted as a block (the term
mafia came later), all we needed to do
was to convince Dave North, Lee Cole
or one of the ground officers to join
us in the vote
and it was a slam dunk. We could
control the process!
JOs on the Flight Deck
after JO dinner:
JO
evening chow on the 2nd deck was over
about 1800. On most days, the bow of
the flight deck was clear of aircraft
following the final recovery of the
day. So, we JOs would meet on the
flight deck during the senior officer
dinner and meet in the ready room
afterwards for the evening movie.
These
meetings a chance to relax and joke
around with our peers after most of us
flying two combat missions that day.
It also provided us an opportunity to
hold strategy sessions on what senior
officer should get the Blue Shoes and
to formulate a plan on how to get the
votes required to make it
happen. We would also discuss
how to conduct the nomination and if a
skit were appropriate to make plans
for that.
The Blue Shoes were awarded during a
ceremony in the ready room usually
after leaving the line either to or
from a liberty port. The procedure was
that after nominations were given
(often using a skit of some kind)
followed by a vote. Each
wardroom officer had one vote in
deciding who would have the honor of
receiving the Blue Shoes.

Blue Shoes
nomination skit
LT. Dave North, Dave
Parsons, Dixie Culler, Dave
Thornhill, LCDR Bill Butler
(Bolter)
|
There were four non pilot wardroom
officers; Shep Shephard
(Maintenance Control), Doc MacMillan
(Quack) (Flight
Surgeon),
Bob Cheyne (Ordnance Officer). and Ensign Dave Moyer (AI).
Quack and Bob Cheyne spent lots of
time in the ready room and were
enthusiastic participants,
occasionally siding with the JOs on
Blue Shoes votes. Shep was present a
lot and was very gregarious but
watched the goings on with a reserved
smile most of the time. He rarely took
sides in a Blue Shoes
deliberations. Dave Moyer was in
the ready room when he could be and
was a JO block regular for the Blue
Shoes as he should be as the junior
man and only Ensign in the squadron.
You can see that in the picture above,
Dave North and Bolter (before he left
for Saigon) joined the JO block and
participated in the nomination skit.

Shep
Shephard-VALion shipmate
Maintenance Control Officer-
None Finer
|
Notes:
1. The Navy discovered that LCDR Bill
Butler (Bolter) had worked in OPNAV
(The Office of Naval Operations) in
Washington and had classified
knowledge about what we knew about the
SA-2 Guideline Surface to Air Missile
System in North Vietnam. They did not
want him to fly combat missions in the
event that if were shot down and
captured, it would be a national
security risk. So they sent him to
Saigon with work with MACV (Military
Assistance Command Vietnam). So Bolter
was sent from "out of the frying pan"
and into the fire". Go figure!
2. Doc MacMillan was also temporarily
assigned to the airwing when underway
on deployment. However, he made
it a point of being in the ready room
often as an active participant.

|
During preflight of an
aircraft one day, Jerry Tuttle
cut his head on a TER
rack. He asked Doc
MacMillan to stitch him up on
the spot so that he could go
on the flight.
A few weeks later, Doc let us
JOs remove the stitches one at
a time in the ready room prior
to the movie.
I got the honors for one of
the stitches (Note the pipe) |

Left to
right: Bob Cole, Gene
Atkinson, Possum, me
|
We normally had a movie
starting about 1930 (7:30pm)
This picture was apparently
taken just before the movie
was about to start. (Note
movie screen down)
|
Two
of my Favorite Personal Photos Onboard
Intrepid

Me with my friend and
fellow Possum flight member,
Dave Parsons
Note the tan flight suits and
shiny brown flight boots.
|

Me with Pete Schoeffel
Note the nomex flight suit.
|
Our Second Port Visit Period:
Sasebo Japan (About August 12th- and
August 25th)
Hong Kong (August 27th-August 30th)
(Miller Detrick flew to Hong Kong to meet
Connie August 13th and met the ship when it
came in to Hong Kong August 27th for four
days)

Sasebo is one of the pink
dots on the far left (west) on
the Island of Kyushu. Nagasaki
is south of Sasbo. Imari (not
identified) is northeast, and
Beppu is to the east.
|

The Island of Kyushu is
very hilly with lots of islands.
The center of the island
consists of active volcanoes
with numerous hot springs
such as at the resort area of
Beppu.
|
Fleet
Activities Sasebo has an excellent ship
repair facility including a dry dock.
Intrepid had some work done on one of
her four massive screws either on this
port visit or during our Sasebo visit
next cruise.

The Officer's Club at
Sasebo has especially good food.
|

The Navy Exchange (NEX)
|
The
Navy Exchange has an excellent selection
of Imari china. The town of Imari is
located on Kyshu just to the north of
Sasebo.
Imari

Porcelain china bridge at
Imari
|

Imari Gold hand painted
dinner plate
|

Imari Gold Vase
|
I didn't buy any
Imari china on this cruise or the
next.
But when I had my two year tour of
duty in Japan (my last active duty
assignment), my wife (second wife
Cathy) and I purchased
eight place sittings of Imari Gold
china (center picture) and
numerous other Imari pieces
including the Imari Gold Vase
pictured on the right)
Beaches
and Fishing near Sasebo

|

|
The beaches
were crowded near
Sasebo in August
|
Most
fishing was accomplished
using large nets
|
Beppu

There are lots of hot
springs at Bepppu
|

Go local and try at hot
lava sand soak at Beppu
|
Nagasaki
Take
the train from Sasebo to Nagasaki. It's
a beautiful ride.
Of
course there are lots of tours and
museums documenting the damage,
death, and horific injuries
suffered at Nagasaki.

Ground Zero at
Nagasaki (From Google)
|

Nagasaki today
|
Gene
Atkinson, Dave Moyer, and I took the
train from Sasebo to Nagasaki and
visited the various museums and
landmarks there.

|
This is my photo of "ground
zero" at Nagasaki taken on our
trip.
|
The Japanese had preserved places
where you could actually still see the
shadows in the concrete made where
bodies had been burned by the blast.
As horrific as this loss of life in one
explosion was and the after effects of
radiation poisoning with those who
survived, it is important to understand
that there would have been a much larger
loss of Japanese lives and unacceptable
loss of American lives had the Emperor
not decided to surrender and ground
attack on Japan be required.
After visiting Nagasaki, we took the
train back toward Sasebo. But, we
stopped at a resort hotel in
the mountains of the Nishosongi
Peninsula.

I don't remember the name of the resort
hotel. But, it was Japanese, not
western. We had a very nice spacious
room with low tables and tatami
mats. Our beds consisted of thick
embroidered mats that were rolled up when
not in use. We ate our meals in the
restaurant at western style table I
think. Dave Moyer was a big guy,
about 6' 3" and about 220 lbs. He
would have had a difficult time sitting
cross legged at a typical Japanese low
table. I don't recall anything about the
food. I suspect we had tempura or
something similar.
What I do remember very clearly was our
session in the hot spring pool and
shower! The resort had an indoor hot
spring pool which was divided by a
translucent barrier between the male and
female portions of the pool. There
were locker room and showers for each side
of the pool. The procedure was that the
hotel guest went to the locker room, put
his or her closes in a locker and then
went in the hot spring pool naked.
Imagine this about 10 Japanese guys in the
male side of the pool with us with the
indistinct images of an equal number of
naked women on the other side of the pool
divider. Even stranger is what
occurred in the shower room after we got
out of the hot spring pool. Dave
Moyer's physique looked similar to
Michelangelo's "David" in Florence. Dave
was tall, well muscled, had a narrow
waist, and had long muscular legs.
Most of the Japanese guys in the shower
starred at him checking out all of his
physical features.
After getting dressed in the locker room,
we returned to our room where I had
arranged for individual massages.
When we opened the door to our room we
were greeted by three attractive young
Japanese girls. Each girl had a message
mat that she rolled out. So there
they were three girls with three mats in a
row. I told Gene and Dave to strip
naked and pick mat and lie down on it. As
our skivvies came off, the girls
shaded their eyes with a one of their
hands and giggled. They quickly put
a towel over our privates with their free
hand.
It was a great trip! I knew Gene pretty
well before the trip. But, it was a great
opportunity to get acquainted with Dave
Moyer as he spent most of his time onboard
the ship in CVIC.
Hong
Kong (August 27th-August 30th)
Hong Kong in 1966 was
under British Control.
The UK controlled Victoria
Island and Kowloon on the
mainland of China. Where
the map is labelled Hong Kong
south of the Chinese border
was known then as the New
Territories.
|
This picture is from the 1966
Intrepid cruise book.
Intrepid is anchored between
Victoria Island and Kowloon.
|
I
took these pictures

|

|
It was kind of hazy from
Victoria Peak
|
Intrepid from the Star
Ferry heading toward Kowloon
|
USS Intrepid inport Hong Kong
(note the 11 on the island).
This picture was taken from
Kowloon toward Victoria
Island. Intrepid's liberty boats
went from the ship to fleet
landing on Victoria Island.
|
Victoria island was more
modern than Kowloon and had
nice restaurants and hotels.
If you wanted to go to
Kowloon, you had to take the
famous Hong Kong ferry from
Victoria to Kowloon.
|
Kowloon had
great Chinese restaurants
and lots of entertainment.
It was also known for its
famous tailors.
Most of us had
suits and monogrammed shirts
made there.
|
This one of Kowloon's
famous fishing villages. Not
only did they dry the fish on
the flat areas shown above but
also strung from the rigging
of the boats.
|
This one of of Hong
Kong's famous red sailed
junks.
Note the Hong Kong ferry in
the background
|
Young boys would come out
to the ship to dive for
whatever sailors would through
in the water from the ship.
|
Our Third Line Period-
September 1st - September 23rd, 1966-
Yankee Station

|
We flew most of our combat
missions during our Third Line
Period in Route package 2 (from
Ha Tinh to north of Vinh)
and in Route Packages 3 and
4 (from south of Thanh Hoa
to north of Nam Dinh) reasonably
close to the coast.
|
Because of our lack of
electronic warfare (EW)
equipment, most of our combat
missions were road
reconnaissance (recce) flights
that were designed to avoid high
threat AAA or SAM
defenses. As we gained
experience, we began flying
division level strikes against
targets in medium level threat
environments. At some
point, we flew strikes in the
AAA/SAM environment at Vinh and
in larger strikes against the
Thanh Hoa bridge. Because of our
lack of EW equipment we had to
keep our enroute altidudes low
so that we could dive toward the
ground if attacked by a
SAM. That wasn't a problem
for road recces which were flown
at about 4,000 feet. But,
for division strikes against
targets defended by 37/57 mm
AAA, we used an enroute altitude
about 12,000 feet made us
vulnerable to 37/57 mm barrage
fire in the well defended major
target areas. We were most
vulnerable to SAMs and radar
controlled AAA enroute to the
target and then everything
during our bomb run.
However, we we not the
only airwing that was using low altitude
tactics during the summer of 1966. CAG 16
onboard the USS Oriskany (CVA-34)
USS Oriskany/CAG 16 deckload

|
Airwing
Sixteen consisted of the following
aircraft:
Two A4E squadrons: VA-163 and
VA-164 (VA- 164 A4E pictured here)
One A3B Heavy Attack squadron: VAH-4
One Spad squadron: VA-152
Two Crusader fighter squadrons:
VF-111 (F8Cs) and F-162 (F8Es)
Note: F8C were
fighters only, F8E had a bombing
capability
|

|
Peter Fay's well researched
book "Bloody Sixteeen" details the
performance of USS Oriskany and CAG 16
team during three Vietnam deployments;
1965, 1966, and 1967.
I will compare some aspects of the CAG
16 experience during the summer of
1966 with ours onboard Intrepid.
CAG 16 had more combat experienced
pilots than we had. They came to
Yankee Station in 1966 after a few
weeks of warmup in South Vietnam.
We were new to the game. But, we had
two line periods on Dixie Station to
develop our bombing and
flight integrity skills.
|
Even though the CAG 16
aircraft were configured with
the APR- 25 and APR-27
electronic warfare (EW)
equipment, they chose to fly
at low to medium altitudes.
They didn't have much
confidence that their EW
systems would protect them
against the SAMs so wanted to
be able to execute an anti SAM
maneuver to get to low
altitude as soon as possible.
Of course this meant that they
would be flying in the
37/57/85mm AAA envelopes when
enroutre to a well defended
target, at the target roll in
point and bombing run, and
during their egress from the
target to the coast. Because
the Oriskany was a complete
air wing with experience, thy
were assigned most of the high
risk targets during this
period.
During our two line
periods when we were on
station with the
Oriskany (September 1st
through October 19th), CAG 16
did not loose an aircraft or
pilot due to ground fire but
had 22 aircraft damaged from
combat; 16A4Es damaged by
ground fire (mostly on road
recces missions), one F8C from
VF-111 damaged by gun fire
from a MIG 17, and 5 Spads
damaged by ground fire.
None of these aircraft was
damaged by a SAM missile. One
of the Spads was hit by 14.5
automatic machine gun fire
(low altitude) during a Thanh
Hoa bridge strike. Most of
this damage can be attributed
to the low to medium altitude
tactics used by CAG-16.
Note:
In 1966, we
thought that
the lowest
effective
range of the
SA-2 was
3,000' AGL
(above ground
level). So,
our objective
when avoiding
a SAM was to
get below
3,000' as soon
as
possible.
However, study
of a captured
SA2 Guideline
missile system
revealed that
the effective
minimum range
of the SA 2
was 1,000 to
1,500
feet.
This meant
that anti SAM
maneuvers
should be
executed at
medium to high
altitude by
turning in to
the SAM not by
heading for
low altitude
where small
caliber (50
cal) machine
gun fire could
be lethal. We
were not aware
of this during
our 1966
deployment but
would change
our tactics
for the 1967
deployment.
The Oriskany
and CAG 16
continued to
use lower
altitude
tactic which
would prove to
be costly in
more planes
damaged by
ground fire
and lost
pilots and
aircraft.
("Bloody
Sixteen",
Peter Fey,
page 183)
The third line period lasted only about
23 days. But, it was a busy and
challenging time as we learned to
operate in the high threat environment
of North Vietnam. I flew 25 combat
missions during that line period (97
total) (9 strike/flight Air Medals). All
of my missions had the 1T1 or 1T2 flight
codes (north Vietnam) except for two 1
point green entries for combat support
(tanker) missions.
These
are details of some
of the missions I
flew.
Vinh
Close Call

|
On
one of my early road recce missions, I
was flying in a section with Miller
Detrick. I recall that we were
flying west of Vinh in perfectly clear
weather at about 8,000
feet. Miller was flying my wing
in a combat cruise position about
1,000 feet away from me. Without
any warning, my aircraft was
completely enveloped in gray to dark
gray AAA (flak) bursts. This had
to be very accurate radar controlled
AAA, either 57mm or 85mm. We had
no EW equipment, so we had no warning
that I was being tracked.
From Miller's prospective, my aircraft
disappeared in numerous puffs of well
aimed AAA. We had not experienced very
much flak so far in Route Package 2
road recces so we weren't experienced
in determining the difference between
the dark gray 57mm from the black 85
mm. This well aimed fire
probably came from Vinh.
From my perspective, I lost control of
my aircraft as it flipped inverted and
tumbled out of control. The aircraft
recovered itself and it flew out nose
down and I regained control.
Miller checked my aircraft for damage
or any leaking red hydraulic fluid or
fuel but found no problems. We
returned to the ship and made a normal
recovery. When the maintenance guys
checked my aircraft back on deck, they
found no holes. Amazing. I guess
the AAA bursts temporarily disturbed
the air around my plane so it went out
of control for a second or two.
Someone was looking out for me on this
mission! Perhaps God was flying with
us!
We learned that it was wise to give Vinh
a wide berth. Vinh had a very good
SAM and AAA defense system. Vinh
became known as a location where you
didn't get much warning before a SAM
launch or very accurate aimed AAA.
It seems that they used acquisition
raiders which were hard to detect before
using fire control radars to take a
shot. I was very lucky to have survived
that day.
Thanh
Hoa Road Recce
As
we got a few
missions under
our belt, we
began flying
missions in
Route Packages
3 and 4 from
Thanh Hoa to
Nam Dinh.
We confined
our missions
at first to
road recces
along Routes
10 and the
coast as we
had no fighter
cover.

|
On
one such mission, I was flying with
Possum Terrell as the lead with Dave
Parsons and I both flying section
positions on either side.
We
started our recce a few miles south of
Nam Dinh being careful to avoid AAA
positioned there. The flight
proceeded southwest along Route
10 to Ninh Binh. Dave's and my
job on both sides was to look out for
MIGS (unlikely) and watch for any AAA
fire and Surface to Air missile
launches fire (more likely) while
watching the road for prospective
targets if we had a chance. Possum's
job was navigating and looking out for
potential targets such as trucks and small bridges;
anything we could destroy or inhibit
their ability to move stuff south.
Dave and I flew a figure eight pattern
so that Possum could watch us in his
mirrors. We did not see any AAA
as we progressed south. I
assume we found something worth
dropping bombs on but we had bombs
left when we began taking fire from
ahead from the area of a large bridge.
Possum turned hard left toward the
coast to avoid the fire.
Apparently, we overflew Ninh Binh but
didn't realize it and continued
southwest along Route 10 toward Thanh
Hoa. I think we continued our
left turn back toward Ninh Binh to
find something worth bombing before
returning to the ship. I
I'm sure that the AIs (Air
Intelligence officers) found it
amusing that we had just flown a road
reece to the Thanh Hoa bridge.
The Thanh Hoa bridge was one of the
most infamous targets of the
war. About a hundred aircraft we
were lost in the Thanh Hoa area until
the bridge was finally destroyed in
1972.
Thanh
Hoa Bridge
Strikes

|
The Thanh Hoa bridge was
the "hottest" target in Route
Package 4 but it was close
enough to the coast that we were
considered capable of handling
it. |
The chance of MIGs coming
down to Thanh Hoa was
slight. And, even though
there were lots of SAM and
radar controlled AAA (57 and
85mm) in the area, we only had
a short time enroute to the
target and our egress from the
target at 550 kts or so would
be quick. Our biggest
threat was diving through the
37/57 mm non radar controlled
barrage fire in the target
area itself.
These were the biggest
strike of our third line
period. We had BARCAP
(Barrier Combat Air
Patrol)flown by F4s from
another carrier, Iron
Hand (Anti-SAM) support from
another carrier, EW support
from another carrier, and
photo recon BDA from another
carrier.
However, Intrepid had the
best RESCAP capability at
Yankee Station with our two A1
Spad squadrons (Oriskany had
one Spad squadron,
VA-152). The Spads had a
great forward firing weapons
capability with their rockets
and guns but were too slow to
participate in a strike in a
high threat area like Thanh
Hoa.
All we could provide was Flak
suppressors and bombers. Flak
suppressors were normally
loaded with four Zuni rocket
pods and sometimes with VT
fused bombs. Their job
was to fire at AAA sites that
were firing from the ground.
They were not hard to find. In
1966, the North Vietnamese
were still using classically
circular AAA site with the
radar in the middle. And,
there were lots of flashes on
the ground from 37/57 guns.
Our main mission was to put as
many bombs on the bridge as we
could. So our job was to
get to the bridge, get in our
bomb run, make a good run and
put our bombs on target. Our
squadron tactics required that
we maintain section integrity.
So, we wingmen stayed close
(combat cruise) to our leaders
right up to the roll in
position. Then our job was to
make as good a bomb run as
possible putting our bombs on
target. Our job off the target
was to join on our leader fly
to a combat spread and fly
through his mirrors so that he
could know that we were with
him during the egress to the
coast. The flight leaders were
supposed to give us about 1%
of power to work with and then
make a gradual turn in our
direction on egress so that we
could catch up.
Note: Shep (Maintenance
Control officer) and I
(Aircraft/Power Plants
Division Officer) helped the
wingmen by ensuring that the
aircraft flown by the wingmen
had a little more power at
100% than the flight leader
aircraft. So, when in the
hreat of the strike, if the
leaders forgot to give the 1%,
the wingman had enough power
to catch up. If the
flight leader know this, they
didn't complan. After all,
Jerry Tuttle wa the
Maintenance Officer and he and
Shep probably thought this
plan up!
My
flight log entries for the
Third Line Period
(September 1st through
September 23rd)
September
1st- 1.8, combat
support tanker
mission (1M1), 1.0
actual instruments,
1 CCA( this mission
gave me 140 points)
So, I received my
7th Strike Flight
Air Medal at this
point.
September
2nd- I did not
fly September
2nd. SDO
September 3rd-
1.9, combat
support tanker
mission
(1M1)0.5
actual
instruments,
0.8 night
time, 1 CCA,
13th night
trap
Great start so
far up north
for me! Three
days on Yankee
Station and
all I have to
show for it is
two tanker
hops (flights)
and the SDO.
The
combat Support
Tanker was an
Important
Mission on
Yankee Station
Fuel
was critical
on every
mission.
In order to be
effective on
these
missions,
pilots had to
use as much as
they could on
the mission
but still have
enough to
return to the
ship and land
safely.
If a pilot
returned too
low on fuel,
he had to get
to "the duty
tanker" and
get fuel
expeditiously.
However, we
JOs had with
flying these
"duty tanker"
tanker
flights. The
"decision
makers" wanted
us to take as
much fuel as
possible on
these flights.
The squadron
had gigantic
fuel tanks
(capacilty of
3000 pounds of
fuel) that
could be
carried on the
centerline
station
available for
these
missions. The
problem was
that if we
used this tank
on the
centerline
stations and a
full load of
fuel in the
inflight
refueling
store (Buddy
Store) (2000
pounds) and
the normal
2000 pound
fuel tank on
the other
wing, we would
be right at
the maximum
gross take off
weight for the
catapult (cat)
shot. At this
gross gross
weight, the
pilot had to
raise the nose
of the A4 to
exactly the
correct number
of degrees
above the
horizon to
make a
successful cat
shot. Too much
nose attitude,
you went in
the water; too
little you're
in the
drink.
The only
chance you
had, if you
began to loose
altitude
(settle) of
the cat was to
eject or to
jettison the
Buddy Store
and the wing
fuel tank.
After a pilot
or two did the
jettison
thing, the
"decision
makers"
reduced the
amount of fuel
in the main
tank to give
us a better
margin for
error off the
catapult.
If we had
ejected, it
might not have
as much impact
as jettisoning
a Buddy
Store.
Buddy Stores
were a
critical item
and we didn't
have many
available.

|
Douglas
Buddy Store on
centerline of
an A4 Skyhawk
|
September 4th-
1.7, 6 MK 81s,
(My 75th
combat mission
of the cruise)
September 5th-
1.3, combat
support tanker
mission (code
1M1- 1 point),
3 wet plugs
September 5th-
1.1, 2 LAU 10
pods (four 5"
rockets each)
Note:
the 1.3 and
1.1 flight
times indicate
that the ship
was not
operating in
the regular
cyclic deck
ops. We
were probably
flying
division
strike
packages to an
important
target;
perhaps the
Thanh Hoa
bridge.
September 6th-
0.9, 4 LAU 10;
Flak
suppressor
mission to the
Thanh Hoa
bridge?
September 6th-
1.6, 4 MK 82s,
back to cyclic
ops in the
afternoon.
This is a road
recce bomb
load
September 7th-
Stand down. We
did not fly.
WE had a USO
show on the
flight deck on
September 7th

|
Our USO show
consisted of a
group of Miss
America
contestants
who performed
on the flight
deck and on
the enlisted
mess decks
|
September
8th- I did not
fly. SDO (two
days wihtout
flying was
very very
unusual
September 9th-
1.8, 4 Mk 82s,
road recce.
This was my
80th mission.
September 9th-
1.6, 4 Mk 82s,
road recce
September
10th- 1.7,
combat support
tanker, (1M1
code-1 point),
3 wet plugs
September
10th- 1.7, 6
Mk 81s
Note:
September 9th
and 10th were
cyclic ops
days. Many of
us flew two
missions a day
September 11th
and 12th were
flex deck
short cycle
days; launch a
strike
package,
recover the
strike package
and respot the
deck for
another
strike package
September
11th- 1.0, 7
Mk 82s and 1
Mk 81. This
bomb load
could only be
accomplished
by removing
the centerline
fuel tank and
configuring
the aircraft
with three
TERs. The only
fuel available
would be the
5400 #s of
main fuel.
This was a
flex deck
large strike
of some kind.
September
12th- 1.1, 7
MK 82s ans 1
Mk 81. This
was another
flex deck
strike
package. I
accumulated
160 points
with this
mission.
I was awarded
my 8th Strike
Flight Air
Medal with
this mission.

September
13th- 1.7, 6
Mk81s. This
was a 3T2
flight purpose
code. .
But, I
don't know
what the 3T
indicates. Perhaps
a night north
mission.
I logged 0.6
actual
instrument
time and 0.9
night time
with my 14th
night trap of
the cruise.
September
14th- 1.5, 4
MK 82s
September
15th- 1.7,
another combat
tanker mission
September
16th- 1.7, 6
Mk 81s
September
17th- I did
not fly. SDO
September
18th- 1.7, 4
Mk 82s,
classic road
recce bomb
load my 90th
mission
September
18th- 1.7, 4
Mk 82s, my
second road
recce flight
of the day
Note: I was
leading the
section road
recce flight
at this point
September
19th- 1.7, 4
MK 82s
September
20th- 1.5, My
log book says
two MK 4 gun
pods. The gun
pod was an
excellent road
recce weapon
for shooting
at trucks

|
MK
4 gun pod |