Dan 
Phil ’Toro’ Colson was an F-8 Crusader pilot of VF-111 Fighting Checkmates aboard USS Hanock (CVA-19) during the 1972 WESTPAC cruise. He assembled this outstanding scrapbook of photos and memories from the air wing’s first line period 10 February-8 March 1972. This was the calm before the storm, for on the subsequent line period North Vietnam launched the Easter Offensive (30 March), with Navy and Air Force combat aircraft returning to the skies over North Vietnam after a four-year absence. The operations that would follow, Linebacker I and Linebacker II, would see the end of the Vietnam War for America, and set the stage for the Fall of Saigon three years later.
You can view Phil’s scrapbook by clicking on this link.
-Webmaster Dan
