Air Wing Sixteen IRON HAND v. Hanoi/Phuc Yen, 24-25 October 1967
The President of the United States . . . CITATION . . . serving with Fighter Squadron One Hundred Eleven embarked in USS ORISKANY . . . series of strikes in and around Hanoi . . . participating in the first strike on Phuc Yen airfield as the fighter escort for the Iron Hand missile suppression team. Maneuvering ahead and above the main strike group, he (LCDR Schaffert) and his teammate (LCDR Denny Weichman, VA-164) prepared for a counter-missile attack on the electronically active sites surrounding the Hanoi complex. Through the clouds and haze, LCDR Schaffert observed the first two surface-to-air missiles, rising toward his section. Realizing the critical juncture of his teammate’s delivery evolution, he expertly directed the vulnerable Shrike pilot to complete his delivery then instantaneously break and dive to avoid the deadly missile bursts. Following this evasive maneuver, the superb team once more positioned to fire at adjacent missile sites, only again to be taken under fierce enemy attack. Rejecting the ominous multiple crossfire of missiles, the pair succeeded in launching counterattacking Shrike and observed them to guide directly on the firing site . . . continued to guide and direct his leader while they threaded their way through the curtain of heavy anti-aircraft gun fire, allowing the A-4E pilot to concentrate on the instrument process of his Shrike delivery. . . . Schaffert assumed the lead of the team and remained in the area well after the strike force had retired to provide fighter protection from possible enemy air assault. On 25 October . . . this superlative team again supported the main strike force by delivering accurate missile suppression weapons . . . Schaffert was once more credited with saving his teammate by guiding him through smothering walls of flak and surface-to-air missile bursts. Following the suppression at Phuc Yen, the Iron Hand element attacked parked aircraft and storage areas at the Hoa Lac airfield adjacent to the departure route. Accurate bombing and strafing by the pair resulted in many destructive hits at the facility. Schaffert’s seasoned judgment and precise timing was responsible on at least two occasions for saving his A-4E teammate from certain damage or destruction. . . . faced with the adversity of devastating enemy defenses . . . a deciding factor in the Shrike delivery and completion of the missile suppression missions. . . . in keeping with the highest traditions . . . For the President, /s/ John J. Hyland, Admiral, U.S. Navy, CINCPACFLT
Note: LCDR Weichman’s A-4E was hit by 85MM fire on 24 October, but he stayed in the fight! As I recall, they later counted 53 holes in his aircraft. He started the air war over Vietnam in 1962 with the South Vietnamese Air Force and finished with 625 missions, as one of the most decorated Naval Aviators to survive the conflict. I featured our 25 October strafing attack on a major SAM site near Phuc Yen in my trilogy Loyalty, Betrayal, and Other Contact Sports – Charlie, and compared it to Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade. “Cannons to right of them, cannons to left of them, cannons to front of them, volley’d and thunder’d; into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell . . . “ No Air Wing Sixteen aircraft were hit by a SAM during those first two strikes on Phuc Yen!
V/R Brown Beak aka Dick Schaffert