Good Morning: Day ELEVEN of our long look back to Operation Rolling Thunder… Fifty years ago…
11 MARCH 1966 (NYT)…ON THE HOMEFRONT … Friday’s page one right column, where the editor places the story he thinks is most important, was the headline: “Saigon Unseats General Viewed as a Rival to Ky.” Ten of the eleven Generals on the National Leadership Committee voted to purge General Nguyen Chanh Thi, the governing leader in I Corps. The committee “…considered and accepted General Thi’s application for vacation.” General Cao Ky put a force of tanks, troops and Skyraiders on alert. These became known as “Ky’s coup preventers.” In Washington the State Department released a 52-page statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee entitled: “The Legality of United States Participation in the Defense of Vietnam” to rebut the charges of Senator Wayne Morse the previous week that the war was not legal… The President, Congressional leadership and labor leaders met and agreed on a new minimum wage: a raise from $1.25 to $1.60 in two steps over 24 months…Also on page 1 several column inches devoted to the A Shau Valley battle and aftermath. The U.S. troops were forced to abandon the post on the Laotian border west of Danang after a 365-hour siege and a final hand to hand fight. The post and small airstrip had been manned by 20 special forces advisors and 375 “highland mercenaries.” The attack by 2000 NVN regulars resulted in heavy losses with less than 100 survivors in the camp. Two of the eighteen helicopters participating in the extraction of survivors were downed. Four U.S. personnel were listed as MIA. This is the battle where Major Bernie Fisher landed his A1 to rescue his downed wingman. Fisher’s aircraft sustained 19 bullet holes in the course of his two strafing attacks and the pick-up of his wingman. The aircraft would return to flight and eventually end up on display at the USAF Aerospace Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB… Way back on page 12, under the headline,” U.S. Deaths in Vietnam War up Sharply,” was the Pentagon weekly report of KIA. In the first week of March 1966, 156 Americans were KIA to bring the total since the start of the war in 1961 to 2,491. Wounded in action in the first week of March totaled 454 to bring the war total to 12,028.
11 MARCH 1966…ROLLING THUNDER…. It was a “no news is good news day” at Yankee station and at the Air Force and Marine bases in Thailand and South Vietnam. One Spad driver on Kitty Hawk had a bad day but came up smiling – his aircraft spit out a bridle on launch and he went over the side. Swim call for one. A short day gives me an opportunity to flash back to the Navy Carrier operations at Yankee station in December 1965.
A December at Yankee Station…. On station: CTF-77 including carriers Bon Homme Richard, Hancock, Ticonderoga, Kitty Hawk, and Enterprise. There is nothing easy about carrier duty. Like grumpy old Ben Johnson, who couldn’t figure out what to write one day, so he chose to write the English dictionary, said after a VIP cruise on a three-master way back when: “Going to sea in a ship is like going to prison with a chance of drowning…” And to be away from home during a holiday season, especially Christmas, makes the duty doubly painful. To be on a ship in Harm’s way, a long way from home, for all of a holiday season, in the middle of a six month cruise, and participating every day in intense kill or be killed combat, takes a special breed of warrior. They are called Tailhookers. December 1965 at Yankee Station provides a sample of the price paid by these warriors in the service to their country.
30 Nov : LTJG STEPHEN GOULD RICHARDSON of VF-53 was killed while landing on USS Ticonderoga when his F-8E spit out the arresting cable and the aircraft went over the side of the flight deck taking LTJG RICHARDSON to a watery death. (Hobson also included the following as part of this entry: ” In addition, debris from the F-8 swept across the LSO platform fatally injuring the VF-53 LSO, LT RICHARD W. HASTINGS.” Humble Host suggests otherwise: LT HASTINGS was killed on 14 April 1966 while standing on the LSO platform on Ticonderoga when ENSIGN G.W. RIESE OF VF-51 hit the ramp on a night approach. ENS RIESE ejected and was rescued. LT HASTINGS was mortally injured by flying debris and died on 14 May 1966 while hospitalized on USS REPOSE. Humbls Host is beholden to Geoffrey Bowman, Belfast, Ireland for righting the record… Edit made 4 Feb 2019)…
1 Dec: LTJG JOHN VERN McCORMICK of VA-144 flying and A-4C from Ticonderoga to strike one of the bridges in the Red River Valley at Hai Duong was hit by 57mm in his dive attack and died in the wreckage of his aircraft near the bridge. Killed in Action. This was the first combat loss for Tico after 86 days on the line (Hobson).
2 Dec: LCDR GERALD RAY ROBERTS, VA-196, was killed flying a A-1H from Bon Homme Richard on an armed recce mission south of Vinh. Intense enemy ground fire struck the aircraft on a third attack on the same target. LCDR ROBERTS remains were recovered at the site and identified in 1994. This would be the last of Bonnie Dick’s 17 aircraft losses in a cruise that included 136 days “on the line.”
2 Dec: LTJG T.J. POTTER and LTJG C.W. SCHMITT of VF-92 ejected and were rescued while flying Close Air Support for ground forces 55 miles South of Saigon. An early bomb detonation shortly after release caused the damage that led to the ejection and rescue. Enterprise was just reporting to the theater to relieve Bon Homme Richard and was operating at Dixie Station en route to Yankee Station.
2 Dec: CDR CARL BENJAMIN AUSTIN, Co of VF-114, and his RIO LTJG JACOB DRUMMOND LOGAN were Killed in Action in their F-4B from USS Kitty Hawk while on a flak suppression mission near Cape mu Ron. The aircraft flew into a mountain in multiple overcast weather. Neither CDR AUSTIN’s or LTJG LOGAN’s remains have been found despite definite location of the crash site. They rest in peace.
2 Dec: USS Enterprise lost an F-4B from VF-96 due to bad weather, a pitching deck, and the failure of a refueling store to function in a last ditch effort to save the F-4 from fuel starvation. The crew ejected and were rescued close aboard the carrier. Non-combat loss. Just another day at sea.
15 Dec: USS Enterprise (still at Dixie) lost an RA-5C from RVAH-7 on a low level photo misionin the delta due to engine failure. The crew of two ejected and were rescued. On 12 December the Enterprisse recorded 165 sorties in one day.
17 Dec: USS Kitty Hawk lost an A-4C from VA-113 piloted by LT DAVID WALLACE. The aircraft hit the ramp of the carrier and LT WALLACE was killed. During the deployment that included 131 days “on the line,” Kitty Hawk lost 25 aircraft.
20 Dec: USS Kitty Hawk lost an RA-5C from RVAH-5 and LCDR GUY DAVID JOHNSON and LTJG LEE EDWARD NORDAHL. The aircraft was downed by anti-aircraft fire while executing a BDA run following an Alpha Strike on the Uong Bi thermal power plant. As is the case with unescorted photo missions, there are usually no witnesses to the crash. LCDR JOHNSON’S remains were handed over to the U.S. in March 1977. Quoting from Chris Hobson’s mammoth history of “Vietnam Air Losses: United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps Fixed Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973.”: Post war evidence indicates that LEE NORDAHL was captured, but probably died of wounds soon thereafter.” ??????? No remains?
21 Dec: USS Kitty Hawk lost an A-6A from VA-85 piloted by CDR BILLIE JACK CARTWRIGHT and B/N LT EDWARD FRANK GOLD, were both Killed in Action while conducting a coordinated night low level attack on a bridge near Thanh Hoa. SAMs were seen in the area. CDR CARTWRIGHT was the Commanding Officer of VA-85, which lost a total of 7 A6s on the deployment. Remains???
22 Dec: A major coordinated, multiple air wing JCS Alpha strike by carriers Enterprise, Ticonderoga and Kitty Hawk targeted and destroyed the Uong Bi TPP. More than 100 strike aircraft participated. Three aircraft were lost. LT JOHN DOUGLAS PRUDHOMME, piloting an A-4C from VA76 and Enterprise, was Killed in Action while executing a low level Mk-82 Snake-eye laydown attack. He was hit in his approach and flew into the ground. LTJG WENDELL REED ALCORN, piloting an A-4C from VA-36 and Enterprise, was shot down executing a similar attack. He was hit in the cockpit with small arms fire. A fire in his oxygen system required his ejection. He was captured and was a POW until released on 12 February 1973. Later he would command a squadron and Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada. The third aircraft lost in the Uong Bi strike was an RA-5C from RVAH-3 and Kitty Hawk. Pilot LCDR MAX DIRANO LUKENBACH and LTJG GLEN HENRY DAIGLE were flying in between layers of heavy clouds, observed exploding AAA before being hit. DAIGLE, who would eject and survive as a POW, believes that LCDR LUKENBACH was incapacitated and died in the crash.
23 Dec: USS Enterprise lost an A-4C from VA-94 piloted by LTJG WILLIAM LEONARD SHANKEL, who was hit while in an attack on a bridge at Hai Duong on the Red River. He was captured near the target and would shortly be joined as a POW with LTJG ALCORN and LTJG DAIGLE and the three would be released on 12 February 1973.
On Christmas Eve the President announced a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam hoping to encourage the North Vietnamese to agree to negotiate an end to hostilities on both sides of the DMZ. This was the first of many American pauses in the bombing to elicit a counter response from the North. Needless to say, nothing came of this first bombing pause and 38 days later on January 31 Rolling Thunder operations resumed. However, this first pause did provide a timely respite for the CTF-77 Carrier Striking Forces at Yankee Station. It had not been an easy month of making history.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, or maybe a “Falcon 109” was more appropriate. Readers, I have shown no mercy in reconstructing December 1965 on the carriers at Yankee Station. We are reading history, they were making history; history that deserves to be pulled from books, like the Hobson masterpiece, at least once every fifty years. Remembering Rolling Thunder requires remembering. Thanks for sticking with me and pausing to contemplate the incredible sacrifice of those “on the line,” wherever our country wants to draw a line. “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom” (Jefferson), and carriers and Navy Task Forces “on the line” were, and remain, effective and vigilant guardians of those freedoms Americans enjoy.
Lest we forget….. Bear Taylor