WHEN NAVAL AVIATION ROARED…TALES OF THE BRAVE AND BOLD
COMMEMORATING THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE VIETNAM WAR (1961-1973) and honoring the heroic efforts of the Naval Aviators, Naval Flight Officers, and aircrewmen, who penetrated the most dangerous air defenses in the world to destroy military targets in the North Vietnam homeland in Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)…
GOOD MORNING. Faithful Scribe has another story of guts and glory to share. WHEN NAVAL AVIATION ROARED. Tale #23. The VA-94 “Mighty Shrikes” Versus the Phu Ly Railroad Yards on 1 June 1967…
Light Attack Squadron NINETY-FOUR and Attack Carrier Air Wing FIVE embarked in USS HANCOCK (CVA-19) departed North Island on 5 January 1967 and returned on 22 July 1967 after completing four periods of combat and 102 days “on the line.” The Air Wing lost nine aircraft in combat and seven in operational accidents. Nine aviators were left behind, but five returned in 1973 with the repatriation of our POWs.
ON THE MORNING OF 1 JUNE 1967, LCDR Ken JURGENSEN of VA-94 planned, briefed and led a twenty-two plane coordinated attack on the Phu Ly, North Vietnam railyard located 27 miles south of Hanoi. This strategic target was a transportation choke point at the intersection of two major rivers and two highways. The railyard was a principal staging area located on the railway linking Hanoi and Nam Dinh, which is the only railline linking Hanoi with Thanh Hoa and points to the south. The target consisted of more than 100 boxcars on four rail sidings.
DEFENSES. The railyard and rolling stock was defended by four active 37mm, two 57mm and one 87mm anti-aircraft batteries and four automatic weapon sites. The target and route to and from the JCS target site was also within the lethal envelope of five surface-to-air missile sites, two of which had been active the day before the Hancock strike on Phu Ly on 1 June. North Vietnamese MiGs were five minutes away at airfields to the north and northeast of the target and were active over Hanoi.
THE STRIKE. LCDR JURGENSEN utilized a strike force of fourteen A-4s (Cs and Es) bombers, each armed with six MK-82s, and eight F-8 Crusaders armed with rockets and CBU-24s as Flak Suppressors and MiG CAP for this strike. The strike was executed as planned and briefed by LCDR JURGENSEN.
The strike group rendezvoused over the ship and navigated in good weather to the coastin point 20 miles southeast of the target. The formation continued northwest to a point five miles southeast of Phu Ly, where the formation split into two groups. LCDR JURGENSEN led his 7 A4s and 4 F8s to the northeast of Phu Ly while his second group altered course to the south of the railyard. The F-8 flak suppressors broke on call of the flight leader to attack the several enemy flak sites that had already engaged the strike group with both barrage and tracking antiaircrtaft fire of all sizes. Both bomber divisions followed the momentary suppression of the flak to attack their prebriefed railyard sidings and rolling stock as briefed. The attack was made almost simultaneously from two directions. This tactic was effective in dividing the enemy defensive fire at the risk of a midair collision by attacking aircraft as they crossed the railyard and recovered from their respective dive bombing attacks. The tactic was successful on this strike with all aircraft delivering their ordnance on target and successfully clearing the heavily defended area with no battle damage to the 22 participating aircraft. All aircraft retired from the target area to the southeast for a routine return to the carrier. MiGs were airborne during the attack but remained north of Hanoi. SAM activity was limited to intermittent radar activation. No SAMs were launched at the JURGENSEN strike group on this strike.
Bomb damage was recorded as twenty boxcars destroyed, ten damaged, and several major cuts to both siding and main line tracks. Three support buildings were damaged or destroyed and left burning. No secondary explosions were noted.
BITS OF RIBBON. LCDR JURGENSEN, who planned, briefed and led the highly successful strike was awarded his second Distinuguished Flying Cross. COMMANDER Robert Ernest FERGUSON, Commander, Attack Carrier Air Wing FIVE, was awarded a “Silver Star in lieu of the Sixteenth Air Medal for his heroic achievement as Strike Coordinater and leader of the F-8 fighters on the mission. Ooohrah…
(Faithful Scribe’s source for this tale of distinguished flying is personal notes from awards records held by CINCPACFLT until 1985 at the Navy Annex in Suitland, Maryland. Where are those eight cartons of records now?…anybody’s guess. Copies of a few hundred of the several thousands of these detailed documents have been preserved and are held in my cave in Ogden. Perhaps another thousand are archived in the Rear Admiral Jeremy Taylor collection at the Texas Tech Vietnam Archive in Lubbock, Texas.)
(Webmaster note: Evidently the eight boxes of invaluable documents Bear references were destroyed by our government)
NEXT POST: Tales of the Brave and Bold #24 USS INTREPID’s CVW-10 goes to Haiphong on 5 October 1967 to blow up the Ken Bai ferry landing…
LEST WE FORGET…. Bear