To All,
Good Tuesday Morning April 16. This has a long read about the Spring of 72 over North Vietnam. I know a lot of you were there on the six aircraft carriers running around in the gulf with me. 52years later it is good to see so many of you still kicking.
Regards,
Skip
HAGD
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/
This day in Naval and Marine Corps History
April 16
1942 USS Tambor (SS 198) sinks the Japanese stores ship Kitami Maru 50 miles southeast of Kavieng, New Ireland.
1944 USS Gandy (DE 764) intentionally rams German submarine U 550 off Nantucket Shoals in Atlantic Ocean. USS Joyce (DE 317) and USS Peterson (DE 152) join Gandy and deploy depth charges and gunfire to sink the submarine.
1944 USS Wisconsin (BB 64) is commissioned and joins the Pacific Fleet, providing gunfire support for the Battle for Iwo Jima and the Okinawa Campaign.
1945 After three days of US naval and aerial bombardment and Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) beach reconnaissance during the Okinawa Campaign, the 77th Army Division lands on Ie Shima. Kamikaza attacks take their toll on Navy ships, sinking USS Pringle (DD-477) and damaging 10 other ships.
1947 Congress passes Army-Navy Nurses Act, giving Navy Nurse Corps members commissioned rank.
1959 Helicopters from USS Edisto (AGB-2) begin rescue operations in Montevideo, Uruguay. By April 26, they carry 277 flood victims to safety.
2011 USNS William McLean (T-AKE 12), is christened and launched at San Diego, Calif.
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This day in World History
April 16
69 Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Otho commits suicide.
556 Pelagius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
1065 The Norman Robert Guiscard takes Bari, ending five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy.
1705 Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton.
1746 Prince Charles is defeated at the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle fought in Britain.
1818 The U.S. Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.
1854 San Salvador is destroyed by an earthquake.
1862 Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves a conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.
1862 Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia.
1917 Vladimir Lenin returns to Russia to start the Bolshevik Revolution.
1922 Annie Oakley shoots 100 clay targets in a row, setting a woman's record.
1942 The Island of Malta is awarded the George Cross in recognition for heroism under constant German air attack. It was the first such award given to any part of the British Commonwealth.
1945 The destroyer USS Laffey survives horrific damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa, earning the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die."
1945 American troops enter Nuremberg, Germany.
1947 A lens which provides zoom effects is demonstrated in New York City.
1968 The Pentagon announces the "Vietnamization" of the war.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 15 April 2024, continuing through Sunday, 21 April 2024…Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 14 April 1969… An ally concludes we failed in our war because we lacked "Unity of Command"…
Thanks to Micro
To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro put together. You click on the url below and can read what happened each day to the aircraft and its crew. ……Skip
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "Tuesday 16 April
16 https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2190
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip
Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend . The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
AUGUST 15, 2022
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Here is the link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/
52 years ago
All the H-Grams available it the Director's Corner
From The List archives
Thanks to Admiral Cox
This new H-Gram is the center piece of Today's List
Another piece of Naval History Thanks to Admiral Cox
Subject: H-Gram 070R – The Easter Offensive – Vietnam 1972 Part 1
From: Director of Naval History
To: Senior Navy Leadership
This H-gram covers the massive North Vietnamese "Easter Offensive" into South Vietnam commencing at the end of March 1972, during which aircraft from six USN aircraft carriers along with naval gunfire support played a critical role in beating back the attack and preventing the collapse of the South Vietnamese government. It also covers the initiation of Operation Pocket Money, the extensive USN aerial mining campaign to shut down Haiphong and North Vietnamese ports from Soviet and Chinese supply. It also covers the initiation of an extensive bombing campaign of North Vietnam, Operation Linebacker, which had been suspended since the end of Operation Rolling Thunder in 1968. The first day of Linebacker resulted in the largest air-to-air battle of the war, and the first U.S. aces of the war.
Overview
50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War
On Good Friday, 30 March 1972, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched a major conventional attack across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into South Vietnam. Within the next two weeks, two more NVA offensive thrusts materialized from Cambodia into South Vietnam; one threatening the capital of Saigon and the other into the Central Highlands threatening to cut South Vietnam in two. The NVA offensive would ultimately involve about 140,000 men and 600 tanks and armored vehicles, along with greatly improved mobile air defense capability such as new shoulder-fired SAMs.
The North Vietnamese planned and prepared for the offensive while they were ostensibly negotiating at the Paris "peace talks," succeeding in surreptitiously transporting extensive quantities of ammunition, fuel and other supply along the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos, despite intensive USAF and USN bombing, and into Cambodia. By this time, virtually all U.S. ground combat capability had been withdrawn from Vietnam, along with most in-country USAF and USMC aircraft, leaving U.S. carrier aircraft as the primary combat force.
Despite atrocious monsoon weather conditions (which was no coincidence) the two U.S. carriers at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin, HANCOCK (CVA-19) and CORAL SEA (CVA-43) immediately responded with strikes against the first NVA thrust across the DMZ toward the provincial capital of Quang Tri. USN surface ships also responded immediately, slowing the NVA advance down the coast. Within a week, KITTY HAWK (CVA-63) and CONSTELLATION (CVA-64) arrived at Yankee Station, and as the weather began to slowly improve, the four carriers inflicted ever-greater casualties on the NVA.
As the gravity of the second and third NVA thrusts became apparent, HANCOCK and CONSTELLATION were shifted to "Dixie Station" off South Vietnam to shorten the time-of-flight to the beleaguered provincial capitals of An Loc (65 miles from Saigon) and Kontum (in the Central Highlands.) Despite U.S. air attacks, Quang Tri in the north fell, but further NVA advance toward Hue City was slowed and then halted. In desperate battles around An Loc and Kontum, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops barely hung on to the two cities, which would definitely have fallen without carrier air strikes and B-52 "Arc Light" missions, some flown from Thailand and many all the way from Guam.
As the situation in South Vietnam continued to deteriorate, carrier MIDWAY (CVA-41) arrived in mid-April and SARATOGA (CV-60,) deploying on 72 hours notice from Norfolk, arrived in mid-May. The force of six carriers was the greatest concentration of carrier air power since WWII, matched only by Desert Storm in 1991.
Note: from Skip…..I was on the USS Midway during most of this. On a beautiful Friday on7 April 1972 My friend Paul Ringwood and I headed out to Midway to get carrier qualled and bag some traps. As I headed toward San Clemente I dialed in the ships TACAN and to my surprise the needle turned right and pointed north. So I headed north and soon saw the ship making a long wake and checked in. They said ready deck on arrival and as we started down they turned into the wind and we came into the brake and I was thinking that we were really going to grab a bunch of traps as there were no other planes in the pattern or checking in. I got aboard and they started taxiing me to the front but stopped me and turned me into the island chained me down. I thought they were going to get me some gas and I tried to tell them that I had plenty. Then I noticed that Paul was being shut down next to me and the ship was making a hard turn and heading north again. We soon found out that we were going into port and leaving Monday morning very early and headed straight to Vietnam. By the way early Monday Morning CNO himself came aboard and after a short speech he said something about if you can't take a joke you should not have signed up. He left and we left and the horses were not spared all the way across and we did not even stop at Pearl Harbor. When we arrived In the PI I think the average traps per pilot was less than one so we had to do some CQ. Our cruise lasted until March 2 1973
In early April, Navy SEAL Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris would earn the Medal of Honor for multiple harrowing infiltrations behind NVA lines to successfully rescue two downed USAF airmen as part of the largest, most complex, and costly combat search and rescue mission of the war (five aircraft would be lost, 16 damaged, and 11 men killed and two captured in the effort that began with the shootdown of USAF EB-66 "Bat 21" by an SA-2 SAM moved into South Vietnamese territory.)
Responding to the scale and audacity of the NVA offensive, President Nixon quickly authorized a major expansion of bombing in North Vietnam, and unlike Rolling Thunder gave on-scene commanders wide latitude in targets and tactics. Since the end of Rolling Thunder, U.S. aircraft had only been authorized to conduct pinprick "Protective Reaction" strikes in the southern pan-handle of North Vietnam in response to SAM/AAA firing on U.S. reconnaissance aircraft and on aircraft going into Laos to bomb the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The expanded bombing campaign was designated Operation Freedom Trail and allowed bombing into the outskirts of Hanoi and Haiphong. In the first several months, until the USAF could get more aircraft into Thailand, carrier aircraft conducted 60% of the strikes into North Vietnam (as well as similar number against NVA in South Vietnam.)
Freedom Trail also authorized naval gunfire missions on targets in North Vietnam as far north as the approaches to Haiphong. In response, on 19 April, the North Vietnamese launched a ship-attack mission with specially trained pilots and configured MiG-17 fighters. One MiG-17 achieved near-misses with light damage on the Seventh Fleet flagship, USS OKLAHOMA CITY (CLG-5.) The second MiG scored a direct hit on the after 5-inch gun turret of USS HIGBEE (DD-806,) fortunately the turret had been evacuated due to a hangfire so no one was killed. Damage was serious and excellent damage control saved the ship; within a couple months the destroyed turret would be replaced in Japan and HIGBEE returned to the gunline. With few exceptions, USN shelling in North Vietnam was restricted to night operations after this attack.
In early May, in response to the continued fierce fighting around An Loc and Kontum, and the massacre of thousands of South Vietnamese refugees south of Quang Tri ("the Road of Horror,") President Nixon authorized an even greater expansion of the target set, with the primary goal of choking off support for the NVA offensive at the source. For the first time in the war, the Navy was authorized to conduct an offensive aerial mining campaign, something that Navy leaders had been advocating in vain since 1965 in order to stop the previously unimpeded massive supply of war material by sea from the Soviet Union and Communist China. The mining operation was designated Operation Pocket Money, and the overall operation designated Operation Linebacker (later known as Linebacker 1.)
Following a final at-sea planning conference for Pocket Money, the Commander of SEVENTH Fleet Cruisers and Destroyers, RADM Rembrandt Robinson, was killed along with two of his staff when his helicopter crashed in the water off his flagship USS PROVIDENCE (CLG-6.) Robinson was the only USN flag officer to die in the Vietnam War Zone.
On the morning of 9 May, three USMC A-6's and six USN A-7's off CORAL SEA executed the first aerial mining of Haiphong Harbor timed to the minute to coincide with a prime time TV address to the nation by President Nixon announcing the mining and expanded bombing campaign. No aircraft were lost. The mines were set to activate after 72 hours to allow "neutral" ships (which were almost all Communist bloc) to exit the harbor; only one British and four Soviet ships did so. Pocket Money would continue for the duration of the war, with over 11,000 mines laid in North Vietnamese waters.
The first minelaying mission was supported by naval gunfire on North Vietnamese coastal SAM and AAA sites in the approaches to Haiphong by four destroyers. During the mission, guided-missile cruiser USS CHICAGO (CG-11) downed a North Vietnamese MiG fighter with a long-range Talos surface-to-air missile. The night after the mission, an even larger shore bombardment near Haiphong occurred led by the newly-arrived heavy cruiser USS NEWPORT NEWS (CA-148,) along with OKLAHOMA CITY (CLG-5,) PROVIDENCE (CLG-6,) and three destroyers.
The first strikes of the Linebacker campaign took place on 10 May and included the epic strike on the Hai Duong railroad yard by CONSTELLATION/CVW-9 aircraft. The railroad yard was devastated, but the strike was jumped by two-dozen or more MiG fighters, resulting in the largest air-to-air battle of the war, including some of the most amazing escapes by A-7 and A-6 aircraft. One F-4 was downed by AAA. Six MiGs were shot down during the engagement, during which an F-4 flown by LT Randall "Duke" Cunningham and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) LTJG William "Irish" Driscoll downed their third, fourth and fifth MiG (making them the first American "aces" of the war) before they were shot down by an SA-2 SAM while egressing.
For the rest of May and June 1972, USN aircraft from six carriers and gunfire from over two dozen surface combatants pummeled North Vietnamese troops and installations the length of North and South Vietnam, inflicting thousands of NVA casualties in the South and destroying numerous previously "off-limits" targets in the North. The mining operation had immediate effect, as the NVA in South Vietnam began to conserve air defense ammunition and missiles. Although the NVA would hold Quang Tri until September, the offensives at An Loc and Kontum culminated by mid-June and ARVN troops began to push the NVA back, thanks to U.S. air power (and significant ARVN courage.)
Linebacker 1 would continue into the fall and Pocket Money until the peace accords were signed in early 1973. The rest of the considerable USN action in 1972 will be covered in a future H-gram. The actions of USN aircraft and surface ships in defeating the NVA offensive arguably represent one of the U.S. Navy's finest hours since World War II. More detail on more amazing actions can be found in attachment H070.1. My suggestion would be to take a few minutes to honor our Vietnam Navy Veterans who performed with such skill and courage (when the rest of the country mostly didn't care) by taking some time to read what they did.
Very respectfully,
Sam
Samuel J. Cox (SES)
RADM, USN (Ret)
Director of Naval History
Curator for the Navy
Director Naval History and Heritage Command
H070.1 Vietnam War Easter Offensive, Part 1
Sam Cox, Director of Naval History, 5 April 2022
Despite the appalling result of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Operation Lam Son 79 offensive into Laos in February 1971 (see H-gram 059,) the Nixon Administration strategy of "Vietnamization" and draw-down of U.S. forces continued at a precipitous pace. As far as a vocal segment of much of the American population was concerned, the U.S. could not get out of Vietnam fast enough. As U.S. troop strength in Vietnam dropped from 475,200 at the end of 1969 to 334,600 at the end of 1970 and 156,000 at the end of 1971, U.S. deaths dropped accordingly, from 11,780 to 6,173 to 2,414 in 1971 (the peak was 1968 with 16,899 U.S. deaths.) Of the U.S. troops in Vietnam at the end of 1971, only about 10,000 were ground combat troops and the rest were advisors and support, and even that number was on a glide slope to go below 30,000 by mid-1972.
As U.S. forces in Vietnam drew down, debate raged within the upper reaches of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) military and government about what to do next (while their negotiators played rope-a-dope at the Paris Peace Talks.) One faction favored a continuation of Chinese-style low intensity guerilla war in South Vietnam. This faction had been ascendant for years, but the disastrous losses suffered by the Communist Viet Cong in South Vietnam during the failed 1968 "Tet" Offensive didn't leave much for the North to work with. (Although Tet was viewed as a psychological and political victory for the Communists, it was a severe military defeat.)
Another North Vietnamese faction increasingly advocated that the time would soon be right for a major conventional invasion of the South. In the ARVN Lom Son 719 offensive into Laos (intended to cut the North Vietnamese "Ho Chi Minh Trail" supply route to the South,) the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) inflicted a decisive and embarrassing defeat on the U.S.-trained and equipped ARVN force, throwing them right back out of Laos in a pell-mell retreat (and shooting down over 100 U.S. helicopters while they were at it.) Buoyed by this victory, reduction in U.S. forces, anti-war opposition in the U.S., and miscalculating that in an election year the Nixon administration would not respond aggressively to an offensive, the North Vietnamese spent most of 1971 preparing for an offensive. Despite nearly constant U.S. air attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Vietnamese would move tens of thousands of men, hundreds of tanks, and huge stocks of supplies into position to attack by early 1972.
Another major factor in the North Vietnamese decision to commit to a conventional offensive was that although U.S. combat capability in Vietnam was weakening by the day, large quantities of Soviet and Communist Chinese arms and other war material were flowing into North Vietnam, mostly by sea through the port of Haiphong on the Gulf of Tonkin.
Although the mainstay of the Vietnamese People's Air Force's (VPAF) four fighter regiments was still the elderly (but highly maneuverable) MiG-17 Fresco (one 37mm and two 23mm canons,) increasing numbers of newer model MiG-21 Fishbeds with AA-2 Atoll infrared air-to-air missiles were joining the force. North Vietnamese air defenses were being upgraded with more SA-2 Guideline missiles and launchers, newer and better networked radars and ground-control intercept (GCI) capability, as well as more and larger caliber radar-directed anti-aircraft artillery (AAA.) The ground forces were being equipped with hundreds of T-54 tanks, PT-76 light amphibious tanks and armored personnel carriers, and 130mm artillery. Air defense of the ground forces was dramatically upgraded with the introduction of SA-7 Grail shoulder-fired infrared seeking surface-to-air missiles, as well as the ZSU-57-2 tracked mobile radar-directed AAA guns (these would present a highly lethal threat to helicopters and South Vietnamese A-1 Skyraiders, but posed a severe danger to jets as well.)
U.S. Navy leaders, whose advice on how to conduct the war had generally been ignored by U.S. political leaders, were concerned that the unimpeded import of war material into North Vietnam by sea could result in no good. Key Navy leaders at the time included;
- ADM Thomas Moorer, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
- ADM Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., Chief of Naval Operations
- ADM John S. McCain, Jr., Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command (his son a POW in North Vietnam)
- ADM Bernard A. Clarey, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet
- VADM William P. Mack, Commander U.S. SEVENTH Fleet
- RADM Robert S. Salzer, Commander Naval Forces Vietnam/Chief Naval Advisory Group.
By 1972, the entire sizable U.S. Navy "Brown Water" riverine forces had been turned over to the South Vietnamese Navy, which was also taking increasing responsibility for Operation Market Time off the coast, interdicting North Vietnamese attempts to infiltrate supplies to Communists inside South Vietnam by sea. U.S. Navy ships and reconnaissance aircraft still continued this mission albeit with fewer assets committed. The South Vietnamese Navy would actually acquit itself quite well over the last years of the Republic of Vietnam.
Of note (because I was a Naval Intelligence Officer,) the SEVENTH Fleet Detachment CHARLIE at Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon had been downsized to about eight personnel, but still charged with coordinating the air campaign with the co-located USAF 7th Air Force Commander. The Intelligence Officer for the Det was frocked-Lieutenant Jake Jacoby, future Director of Naval Intelligence and three-star Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
1972
11 January - First Navy SAM shot at North Vietnamese aircraft since 1968.
Destroyer Leader USS FOX (DLG-33, later CG-33) fired two RIM-2 Terrier surface-to-air missiles at a North Vietnamese MiG-21 Fishbed fighter that was flying near the North Vietnamese airfield at Vinh (near the coast about halfway between the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) and the Hanoi/Haiphong area.) Both missiles missed. This was the first such shot since nuclear guided-missile cruiser USS LONG BEACH (CGN-9) shot down her second North Vietnamese MiG fighter with a RIM-8 Talos surface-to-air missile in June 1968 at a range of 59 miles (LONG BEACH shot down her first North Vietnamese fighter, a MiG-21, also near Vinh, on 23 May 1968, the first North Vietnamese aircraft downed by shipboard surface-to-air missile.)
18 January – USS ENTERPRISE returns briefly to Gulf of Tonkin.
Nuclear Attack Carrier USS ENTERPRISE (CVAN-65) joined attack carrier USS CONSTELLATION (CVA-64) on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin as part of Task Force SEVEN SEVEN (TF 77,) after returning from a month-long foray into the Indian Ocean in response to the December 1971 India-Pakistan War that resulted in the independence of East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh. Having been on deployment since June 1971, ENTERPRISE shortly commenced her return transit to home port. ENTERPRISE was commanded by Captain (later Rear Admiral) Ernest "Gene" Tissot, Jr. who flew 50 combat missions in Korea and 250 in Vietnam, earning two Silver Stars, Legion of Merit with Combat "V" and five Distinguished Flying Crosses, among other combat awards.
(The 1971 India-Pakistan War included some of the most intense naval action since WWII. It included a surprise attack on the Pakistani port of Karachi on the night of 4/5 December 1971 by Indian OSA missile boats that sank a Pakistani destroyer and a minesweeper and badly damaged another destroyer. In turn, on 9 December, the Pakistani submarine HANGOR sank the Indian frigate KHUKRI, the first ship sunk by a submarine since WWII. The Pakistani Air Force then bombed and badly damaged one of their own destroyers. Aircraft from the Indian carrier VIKRANT attacked numerous targets in East Pakistan, and then Pakistani submarine GHAZI sank off the Indian naval base at Vishakhapatnam on the Bay of Bengal due to an explosion of unknown cause.)
19 January - First Navy MiG kill since 1970.
While escorting an RA-5 Vigilante photo-reconnaissance mission over Quang Lang Airfield south of Hanoi, an F-4J Phantom II of VF-96 off CONSTELLATION sighted a section of two North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighters. The F-4J, flown by Lieutenant Randall H. "Duke" Cunningham and his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Lieutenant (junior grade) William P. "Irish" Driscoll, maneuvered undetected behind the MiGs. Cunningham declined the recommendation of Driscoll to fire an AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided missile, opting to close in behind the lead MiG for an AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared-guided missile shot. At the last moment, the MiG pilot detected the incoming Sidewinder and maneuvered to avoid it. Both MiGs made a run for it, and in a winding pursuit, Cunningham blew the tail off a MiG with his second Sidewinder shot. This was the first MiG downed by Navy aircraft since 28 March 1970, and the 36th confirmed MiG and the tenth MiG-21 downed by Navy aircraft during the war. It would also be the first of five kills by the Cunningham/Driscoll duo that would make them the first U.S. "aces" of the war.
29 January to 5 February – Talos ARM shots at North Vietnamese radars
During this period, Navy surface forces executed a plan initiated by Chairman of the Joint Chief's of Staff, Admiral Thomas Moorer, to attempt to set up a SAM trap for North Vietnamese MiGs, which continued to harass U.S. reconnaissance missions. The North Vietnamese declined to take the bait. However, on 3 February, guided-missile cruiser USS CHICAGO (CG-11) fired a long-range RIM-8H anti-radiation (ARM) variant Talos SAM at a North Vietnamese radar site near Thanh Hoa, while USS OKLAHOMA CITY (CLG-5,) did the same at a radar site near Vinh. The missile from CHICAGO missed, while OKLAHOMA CITY hit a radar van, credited as the first successful combat surface-to-surface guided missile shot in U.S. Navy history. Although no MiGs were downed, these shots and another three from CHICAGO succeeded in forcing North Vietnamese Ground Controlled Intercept (GCI) radar sites to stand down for several days.
(OKLAHOMA CITY was commanded by CAPT John J. Tice and was serving as the SEVENTH Fleet Flagship for VADM William P. Mack. CHICAGO was commanded by Captain Thomas W. McNamara, later RADM.)
31 January – The phony lull
The comparative lull in fighting in South Vietnam continued throughout January. Navy aircraft only flew eight tactical sorties in South Vietnam and only several protective reaction strikes in North Vietnam.
21 February – Nixon visit to China
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon commenced the first visit of a U.S. President to the People's Republic of China (PRC,) meeting with Chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung (now Mao Zedong, under newer transliteration.) President Dwight D. Eisenhower had previously visited Nationalist China (Taiwan) in June 1960,) the only previous presidential visit to China. The visit had major global geopolitical repercussions, including driving a wedge between North Vietnam's two biggest supporters and suppliers of weapons, China and the Soviet Union. North Vietnam, which was taken by surprise by the visit, was deeply suspicious of Chinese motives, concerned that China was about to sell them out. Relations never really recovered (and in 1979 China and Vietnam went to war with each other, both sides claiming victory but the Vietnamese giving the Chinese a serious bloody nose.) Soviet support for North Vietnam continued unabated, almost all of which still coming by sea to the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong.
21 February – Red Crown
Among the unheralded heroes of the war were U.S. Navy radarmen and air controllers on board U.S. cruisers in the Gulf of Tonkin who provided radar warning and vectors for numerous successful intercepts of North Vietnamese fighters. On the night of 21 February, Radarman First Class Bill Bunch, on guided-missile destroyer leader USS STERETT (DLG-31, later CG-31,) vectored two USAF F-4D Phantom II fighter-bombers toward a North Vietnamese MiG over Laos. Bunch then detected a contact behind the F-4's and realized the North Vietnamese were trying to set up a trap with the first MiG as bait. Warned and then vectored by Bunch, the F-4's turned the tables on the trailing MiG and shot it down with an AIM-7E Sparrow AAM. This was the first MiG kill by USAF aircraft directed by a USN controller, and the first successful USAF night intercept of the war. On her next line period, STERETT assisted in the downing of two MiG fighters on 30 March.
Over the years, much has been written trying to explain why the USN had a much better kill-ratio versus North Vietnamese aircraft during the war than the USAF. Significant credit was rightly given to the Navy's institution of TOPGUN, but the advantage provided by geography (much shorter flight from carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin than from USAF bases in Thailand) as well as a key advantage provided by USN shipboard air controllers, made a big difference as well. A number of USAF fighters were shot down on bombing missions. In actuality, in an apple-to-apples comparison of pure fighter vs. fighter engagements, the USAF kill-ratio was about the same as USN.
29 February – Three USN carriers on Yankee Station (two on, one off.)
During February, the number of carrier tactical sorties into South Vietnam increased to 733 amongst increasing signs of an imminent major North Vietnamese offensive, erroneously estimated to commence with the Vietnamese Tet Holiday (as happened in 1968.) During the month, three U.S. carriers operated at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin, maintaining a rotation to keep two on station at all times. CONSTELLATION (CVA-64,) commanded by Captain J. D. "Jake" Ward, had commenced deployment 1 October 1971 with Carrier Air Wing NINE (CVW-9) embarked, while CORAL SEA (CVA-43,) commanded by CAPT William H. "Bill" Harris (later RADM,) had deployed 12 November 1971 with CVW-15 embarked. CORAL SEA and CONSTELLATION were both on their sixth Vietnam combat cruise. The newest arrival, replacing ENTERPRISE, was HANCOCK (CVA-19,) commanded by CAPT Albert J. "Jack" Monger (later RADM,) deploying on 7 January 1972 with CVW-21 embarked.
HANCOCK's air wing was still flying A-4F Skyhawks and F-8J Crusaders, while CONSTELLATION was flying F-4J Phantom, A-7E Corsair II, and A-6A Intruder aircraft. CORAL SEA was the same as CONSTELLATION except for older model F-4B and the A-6 squadron was USMC. Each carrier also had a mix of detachments of photo-reconnaissance, airborne early warning, and tanker aircraft, as well as helicopters.
6 March – MiG-17 shoot-down
Another air-to-air engagement occurred when an F-4B of VF-51 off CORAL SEA, flown by Foster "Tooter" Teague and RIO Ralph Howell was escorting an RA-5 Vigilante photo reconnaissance mission over Quang Lang Airfield when the radarman on "Red Crown" (The PIRAZ cruiser in the Gulf of Tonkin) reported North Vietnamese MiG's. Teague sighted and engaged one with a Sparrow radar-guided missile that appeared to hit and then had to break off to engage another MiG, firing a Sidewinder too close to arm. The second MiG escaped and destruction of the first could not be confirmed (and was denied by the North Vietnamese after the war.) Two F-4B's of VF-111 off CORAL SEA attempted to engage the escaping MiG's and the jet flown by LT Gary L. Weigand and RIO LTJG William C. Freckelton, downed one of them (a MiG-17) with a Sidwinder up the tailpipe only 150 feet above the deck.
(PIRAZ is an acronym for Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone. The PIRAZ station was first established in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1966. A cruiser (call sign Red Crown) with a capable anti-air warfare capability, would remain on the PIRAZ station with the mission to track enemy aircraft to providing warning to strikes, vectors for fighter intercept, assistance to search and rescue (SAR) efforts, and ensuring no enemy "leakers" mixed in with returning USN aircraft.)
10 March – "Protective Reaction" strikes.
The last major U.S. Army ground combat element, the 101st Airborne Division, departed Vietnam.
Increased enemy SAM activity in the "panhandle" of North Vietnam resulted in a significant increase in the number of Protective Reaction bombing missions. Between 5 January and 10 March, USAF and USN aircraft flew 90 such missions in North Vietnam (compared to 108 in all of 1971.) The Commanding General of the 7th Air Force, General John D. Lavelle took a very liberal view of the Rules of Engagement (ROE) for such strikes, reasoning (correctly) that the North Vietnamese SAM, GCI and radar sites were all part of a network, and that if any of them fired a missile or demonstrated hostile radar emissions than any of them could be struck. This resulted in General Lavelle being recalled to Washington on 26 March, accused of conducting 28 unauthorized strikes (out of 25,000 sorties,) causing a media uproar, Congressional investigation and him having to "resign for health reasons," loosing two stars in the process. Many years later, declassified material showed that Lavelle had been authorized by President Nixon to do what he did, and the USAF has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to have his four stars posthumously restored.
The Navy's approach to the problem of increasing North Vietnamese SAM activity was different than the USAF but more dangerous. USN aircraft would deliberately "troll" for SAM launches, and when the North Vietnamese took the bait, would then have justification for a Protective Reaction strike against the offending site.
16 March – HA(L)-3 disestablished
The last helicopter gunships of Helicopter Attack Squadron (Light) THREE (HA(L)-3) "Seawolves" retrograded to the U.S. on 6 March and the squadron was officially disestablished on 16 March. Operating from converted landing ship tanks (LST's,) the Seawolves were one of the most combat-decorated units in U.S. Navy history. Since being formed in April 1967 as an all-volunteer unit to provide critical close air support to U.S. Navy and Army riverine operations, the Seawolves had earned six Presidential Unit Citations and two Meritorious Unit Commendations. In 120,000 combat sorties, Seawolf personnel had been awarded five Navy Crosses, 31 Silver Stars, two Legion of Merit (with Combat "V,") 219 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 101 Bronze Stars, 156 Purple Hearts and hundreds of lesser combat awards (including 16,000 Air Medals.) The cost was 44 Seawolves killed in action.
23 March – Paris Peace Talks suspended
After months of North Vietnamese intransigence at the Paris Peace Talks (characterized by interminable wrangling over the shape of the table,) the U.S. delegation finally got fed up and suspended the talks due to lack of progress. As it turned out, the North Vietnamese were just stalling as they prepared for their major conventional invasion of South Vietnam.
30 March – False alarm?
With the failure of any North Vietnamese offensive to materialize during the Tet holiday, Navy strike missions in support of South Vietnamese forces decreased to 113 in the month of March. Significant intelligence of an impending offensive was then dismissed by many as a false alarm, with U.S. media and politicians accusing U.S. Intelligence of crying wolf. The lull, however, was completely phony, as the North Vietnamese completed massive logistical preparations for an attack, despite the U.S. air attacks along the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" through Laos. A degree of complacency set in after the non-offensive and the U.S. Ambassador, Ellsworth Bunker, and Commander of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (COMUSMACV,) General Creighton W. Abrams, chose this time to be out of the country.
The Nguyen Hue offensive commenced
At noon on Good Friday, 30 March, 30,000 troops and 100 tanks of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) 308th Division and two Independent Regiments attacked across the Demilitarized Zone (a line the North Vietnamese had insisted was inviolate through months of negotiations) into South Vietnam's northernmost province, Quang Tri. At the same time the NVA 304th Division attacked from Laos into the western flank of the Army of the Republic of (South) Vietnam (ARVN,) blowing right through Khe Sanh. The combined attacks took the ARVN 3rd Division by surprise. The massive assault was accompanied by numerous T-54 tanks and lighter PT-76 amphibious tanks, as well as heavy organic air defense capability.
The NVA force quickly overran and destroyed the ARVN fire support bases along the DMZ, leaving the ARVN forces in Quang Tri with no organic artillery support. The offensive, dubbed the "Easter Offensive by U.S. press, was timed to coincide with heavy monsoon rain conditions, severely degrading U.S. and South Vietnamese airstrike capability.
The U.S. Navy immediately responded with naval gunfire support (NGFS) from surface combatants offshore, severely impacting NVA ability to use the coast road but could do little against NVA movements further inland. Aided by a USAF OV-10A Bronco with a U.S. Marine observer (that would subsequently be shot down,) the first U.S. ships in action were the ships of Task Unit 70.8.9, BUCHANAN (DDG-14,) JOSEPH STRAUSS (DDG-16) WADDELL (DDG-24,) and HAMNER (DD-718.) The U.S. ships received 58 rounds of shore battery fire, but suffered no damage, as they pounded North Vietnamese troop movements day and night.
At the time of the NVA attack, carriers HANCOCK and CORAL SEA were on station in the Gulf of Tonkin conducting "Steel Tiger" air strikes across the southern panhandle of North Vietnam into NVA supply lines through Laos. In response to the North Vietnamese attack, President Nixon ordered the execution of Tactical Air Command Operation Plan 100 "Constant Guard" to provide air support to the remaining U.S. advisory and support personnel in South Vietnam, but these strikes were severely hampered in the first week by the monsoon conditions.
1 April – VAL-4 Black Ponies withdrawn from Vietnam
Despite the North Vietnamese offensive some aspects of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam were already too far along to halt. The last U.S. Navy combat force in Vietnam left the country on 1 April. Light Attack Squadron FOUR (VAL-4,) the "Black Ponies," had been established in January 1969 flying OV-10 Bronco twin-engine light bomber/observation aircraft borrowed from the U.S. Marine Corps. The U.S. Navy's only land-based attack squadron commenced operations in Vietnam in March 1969, providing close-air support to U.S. riverine and Mekong Delta operations, as well as supporting SEAL operations, flying 21,000 combat sorties and dropping 11,000 tons of ordnance.
VAL-4 was credited with killing 4,487 enemy and destroying 3,288 structures, 2,119 bunkers and 1,036 sampans, and one steel-hull trawler at a cost of seven aircraft lost, six pilots and one observer killed in action and eight pilots, one observer and one enlisted wounded in action. VAL-4 was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation, two Navy Unit Commendations and one Meritorious Unit Commendation. Commander Robert D. Porter was the last Commanding Officer.
2 April – NVA reaches outskirts of Quang Tri
After all ARVN firebases in Quang Tri had been overrun, and following a short halt to regroup, NVA units reached to within 1.5 kilometers of the city of Quang Tri, the provincial capital.
3 April – CONSTELLATION and KITTY HAWK ordered to Gulf of Tonkin
On orders from Commander-in-Chief U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr, the carriers CONSTELLATION (yanked out of a port call) and KITTY HAWK (CVA-63) were ordered to the Gulf of Tonkin. KITTY HAWK, under the command of CAPT Owen H. "Obie" Oberg (later RADM) had deployed from home port on 11 February 1972, with Carrier Air Wing ELEVEN (CVW-11) embarked.
4 April – Operation Freedom Trail
President Nixon granted authority to U.S. forces to bomb (or shell) targets in North Vietnam up to the 18th Parallel (i.e., 60 miles north of the DMZ.) This was quickly expanded to the 19th Parallel with "special strikes" with specific authorization even further north, designated Operation Freedom Trail. Many of the post 1968 (post Rolling Thunder) restrictions were gradually lifted. By the end of April, unlimited strikes were authorized as far north as 20 degrees 25 minutes North (just south of Hanoi/Haiphong) with special strikes authorized further north, with approval.
6 April – More Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS)
More USN surface ships joined in the NGFS effort, including striking targets north and south of the DMZ. South of the DMZ, WADDELL was joined by LOCKWOOD (DE-1064,) LLOYD THOMAS (DD-764) and EVERETT F. LARSON (DD-830.) With the prevailing monsoon conditions degrading air support, and the loss of the ARVN firebases, gunfire from these ships was the only artillery support the ARVN had, but the weather also made airborne spotting difficult as well. North Vietnamese artillery returned fire. WADDELL received extensive counter-fire that littered her decks with shrapnel but resulted in no direct hits or serious damage; a surface burst five feet off the starboard bow caused superficial damage to the ASROC launcher and AN/SPS-40B radar. During three weeks in April, WADDELL fired over 7,000 rounds of 5-inch ammunition, and by 21 April had to go to Da Nang Harbor to be re-gunned by repair ship USS HECTOR (AR-7.) WADDELL's experience was typical of the ships on the gunline.
USN ships north of the DMZ participated in Operation Freedom Trail, shelling North Vietnamese coastal targets as far north as the 20th Parallel (just south of Hanoi/Haiphong.) Ships engaged to the north included BUCHANAN, HAMNER and JOSEPH STRAUSS joined by RICHARD B. ANDERSON (DD-786.) CHICAGO (CG-11) joined in and fired a Talos ARM missile at a radar site for a probable kill. Much of this shelling occurred at night, and return fire was very common, occasionally dangerously close. By May, 15-20 surface ships would be on the gunline up and down the coasts of North and South Vietnam. (The peak of shelling occurred in June, with 117,000 5-inch rounds expended that month.)
7 April – Four carriers on station.
CONSTELLATION joined KITTY HAWK, CORAL SEA and HANCOCK at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. By the end of the first week in April, Navy carrier aircraft had flown 680 sorties, despite the atrocious weather, in support of beleaguered ARVN forces, mostly in the vicinity of Quang Tri City, which was almost completely encircled. However events to the south soon resulted in CONSTELLATION and HANCOCK being sent south to "Dixie Station" off South Vietnam as the rest of the North Vietnamese offensive became apparent.
After several feints along the border of Cambodia and South Vietnam (that began on 2 April,) the NVA launched another attack on 5 April, overrunning several border towns. It quickly became apparent that this was the main effort in the south. The massive three-division attack from Cambodia into Binh Long Province, quickly besieged the provincial capital, An Loc, located only 65 miles northwest of Saigon along a main road. At points during the resulting brutal battle NVA forces approached within 40 miles of the capital, although An Loc continued to hold at great cost.
With the introduction of SA-7 Grail infrared missiles and mobile radar directed anti-aircraft artillery (courtesy of the Soviet Union,) South Vietnamese helicopters and A-1 Skyraiders took extensive losses. USAF airborne forward air controllers (FAC) were overhead 24-hours a day, directing B-52 "Arc Light" raids (eventually about one every 55 minutes) that were coming not just from bases in Thailand, but also all the way from Guam. The B-52 raids had impressive shock value, but tactical aircraft played a key role as well, particularly the carrier aircraft off CONSTELLATION, especially the A-7E's with a gun and very accurate pin-point bombing. NVA armor, initially an advantage, became increasingly a liability in the face of air power, especially as the weather improved later in the month. In one particularly pitched battle near An Loc, nine out of ten NVA tanks were destroyed. Nevertheless, the battle for An Loc would go on for weeks.
8 April – SARATOGA Med Cruise, never mind.
Atlantic Fleet carrier SARATOGA (CV-60) was preparing for a Mediterranean deployment, when she received orders to deploy to Vietnam instead. Commanded by Captain (later VADM) James R. "Sandy" Sanderson, SARATOGA deployed on 72-hours notice and would arrive on station in the Gulf of Tonkin on 11 May, with CVW-3 embarked. (With the ongoing retirement of the ASW carriers, carrier air wing composition on the attack carriers was being changed to incorporate more ASW aircraft, intended to make the carriers more multi-mission capable. Although the new S-3 Viking carrier ASW aircraft wasn't ready yet (would first deploy in 1974,) SARATOGA deployed with extra ASW helicopters and was the first to have her designation changed from attack carrier (CVA) to carrier (CV.)
10-13 April - Medal of Honor for Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris, U.S. Navy SEAL
During this period, Navy SEAL Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris, USNR, was engaged in the largest, longest and most complex search and rescue operation of the Vietnam War, for which he would be awarded the Medal of Honor, which he received in March 1976. His citation reads as follows;
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a SEAL Advisor with the Strategic Technical Directorate Assistance Team, Headquarters, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. During the period 10 to 13 April 1972, Lieutenant Norris completed an unprecedented ground rescue of two downed pilots deep within heavily controlled enemy territory in Quang Tri Province. Lieutenant Norris, on the night of 10 April, led a five-man patrol through 2,000 meters of heavily-controlled enemy territory, located one of the downed pilots at daybreak, and returned to the Forward Operating Base (FOB.) On 11 April, after a devastating mortar and rocket attack on the small FOB, Lieutenant Norris led a three-man team on two unsuccessful rescue attempts for the second pilot. On the afternoon of the 12th, a Forward Air Controller located the pilot and notified Lieutenant Norris. Dressed in fishermen disguises and using a sampan, Lieutenant Norris and one Vietnamese traveled throughout the night and found the injured pilot at dawn. Covering the pilot with bamboo and vegetation, they began the return journey, successfully evading a North Vietnamese patrol. Approaching the FOB, they came under heavy machine gun fire. Lieutenant Norris called in an air strike which provided suppression fire and a smoke screen, allowing the rescue party to reach the FOB. By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, undaunted courage, and selfless dedication in the face of extreme danger, Lieutenant Norris enhanced the finest traditions of the United States Naval Service."
The citation doesn't even begin to capture what really happened. On 2 April, a flight of two U.S. Air Force EB-66's was escorting three B-52 bombers when one of the EB-66's (an EB-66C configured for signals intelligence collection,) call-sign Bat-21, was shot down by two North Vietnamese SA-2 surface-to-air missiles; in a surprise, the SA-2 launchers had actually been moved south of the DMZ for the first time. Only one wounded crewman survived; the pilot and other aircrewmen were killed when the second SA-2 hit the plane before they could get out.
Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton, USAF (Bat 21 Bravo,) who survived the ejection, parachuted right in the middle of 30,000 North Vietnamese troops crossing the DMZ accompanied by the densest concentration of anti-aircraft weapons ever observed south of the DMZ including the first appearance of ZSU-57-2 self-propelled radar-guided dual 57mm guns and SA-7 Grail shoulder-fired infrared-seeking missiles. With his top secret access to Strategic Air Command sensitive information and detailed knowledge of intelligence collection and SAM-counter measures, his capture would have been an intelligence prize for the Soviet Union.
Over the next days, the SAR effort for Hambleton resulted in the loss of five additional aircraft, eleven deaths and the capture of two others due to intense North Vietnamese ground anti-aircraft fire, which also seriously damaged 16 other aircraft (one of those captured, African-American Marine Lieutenant Larry F. Potts, reportedly died in a North Vietnamese prison but remains unaccounted for.) On 6 April alone, over 80 SAMs were fired at rescue and supporting aircraft; it was estimated that Hambleton and at least two other downed airmen were surrounded by five or six NVA battalions. Finally, on 8 April, the Commander of U.S. Forces in Vietnam, General Creighton Abrams, ordered a halt to airborne SAR efforts due to the losses.
USMC Colonel (and future Commandant of the Marine Corps) Al Gray recommended a covert ground rescue operation. Lieutenant Norris, who had barely made it through initial SEAL training, was one of only three SEAL officers and nine enlisted remaining in Vietnam, and was awaiting orders to leave the country having concluded his "last" mission in the Mekong Delta. Norris was dispatched from Saigon to participate in a rescue mission led by Lieutenant Colonel Andy Anderson, Commander of the Joint Personnel Recovery Center. Anderson's first effort came under intense NVA fire that wounded him, all South Vietnamese officers and troops, and killed one South Vietnamese commando, leaving only Norris and five South Vietnamese Sea Commando frogmen to attempt the mission.
In an unbelievably harrowing solo infiltration (Anderson and the five commandos provide overwatch,) Norris succeeded in bringing out First Lieutenant Mark Clark (grandson of the famous WWII general) who had been co-pilot of an OV-10A Bronco shot down during an earlier attempt to rescue Hambleton (the other pilot was captured.) After Clark was exfiltrated, NVA mortar and artillery fire on the outpost killed two of the five remaining commandos.
Norris went back in for Hambleton with the three surviving commandos, two of whom balked while deep in enemy territory, although Norris convinced them that survival depended on the group staying together. After this failed attempt, Norris tried again, going north by sampan disguised as fishermen with the one commando he thought he could trust, Vietnamese Navy Petty Officer Nguyen Van Kiet. In yet another harrowing infiltration, Norris found the wounded and severely weakened Hambleton, and with Petty Officer Kiet, hid Hambleton under branches in the boat and made it past NVA patrols, who fired on the boat multiple times. Norris was getting ready to go behind NVA lines yet another time, when that downed pilot was surrounded and killed by NVA troops.
Norris was recommended for the Medal of Honor but initially declined to fill out the required paper work, but strongly supported Kiet for a Navy Cross. Norris would be severely wounded in a SEAL mission on 31 October 1972, during which SEAL Engineman Second Class Michael E. Thornton saved Norris' life, and would also be awarded a Medal of Honor (the last of 14 awarded (by date of action) to Navy personnel during the war.) Thornton actually received his Medal of Honor first, in October 1973 (Norris spent over three years in the hospital.) In addition to the Medal of Honor, Norris was ultimately awarded the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars with Combat "V," Purple Heart, Navy Commendation with Combat "V," Presidential Unit Citation and numerous unit and campaign awards. Vietnamese Petty Officer Ngueyn Van Kiet was awarded a Navy Cross, the only member of the South Vietnamese Navy to be so honored.
The 1988 Hollywood movie "Bat*21" depicts this event, starring Gene Hackman as Hambleton. However, at the time, Norris's actions were still classified, so he is not depicted in the movie. During the Vietnam War, 3,883 personnel were rescued as a result of SAR efforts at a cost of 45 aircraft and 71 lives. The Bat 21 action resulted in numerous lessons learned and significant changes to Combat Search and Rescue equipment, procedures and doctrine.
12 April – NVA attack into Central Highlands
The third major thrust of the NVA offensive commenced with a major attack from Cambodia into the central highlands of South Vietnam with the initial primary objective to take Kontum City, then reach the coast and cut South Vietnam in two. After initial success, the NVA held up for three weeks, which gave the ARVN time to regroup and hold Kontum, and more time for U.S. air power to pound the NVA. Aircraft from HANCOCK, which had moved south to Dixie Station, concentrated on hitting NVA forces around Kontum, while CONSTELLATION aircraft concentrated on An Loc, although aircraft from both carriers attacked targets in both places. KITTY HAWK and CORAL SEA concentrated on the Quang Tri area and targets in North Vietnam proper as part of Operation Freedom Trail.
13 April – B-52 strikes in North Vietnam
Three KITTY HAWK A-6A Intruders of VA-52 struck two North Vietnamese SAM sites as a diversion for a strike by 18 B-52 bombers on Bai Thuong Airfield, a forward staging base for MiG fighters located about 60 miles southwest of Hanoi. Twelve SAM's were fired at Navy aircraft but all were avoided. This was the largest and closest strike to Hanoi since the end of Rolling Thunder in 1968. This airfield would be attacked multiple times by bombers and carrier aircraft over the next several months.
14 April – Navy surface strikes move northward
The Joint Chiefs of Staff authorized SEVENTH Fleet forces to strike targets further to the north in North Vietnam. JOSEPH STRAUSS fired on two SAM sites ashore near Vinh, with destroyers HIGBEE (DD-806) and BAUSELL (DD-845) conducting suppressive fire. Nine destroyers were conducting gunfire missions north of the DMZ by this time under Task Unit 77.1, joined on occasion by the SEVENTH Fleet flagship, OKLAHOMA CITY. These ships fired 11,679 rounds at numerous SAM/AAA sites, radar installations, coastal artillery positions, bridges, road junctions and other targets.
16 April – Operation Freedom Porch Bravo
With authorization from the Secretary of Defense on 14 April, U.S. B-52 bombers struck a petroleum storage facility near Haiphong in a one day operation designated Freedom Porch Bravo. CORAL SEA, KITTY HAWK, and CONSTELLATION aircraft flew 57 sorties in support of the bombing mission. The North Vietnamese fired over 100 SAMs at U.S. aircraft. Concurrently, OKLAHOMA CITY and four destroyers fired 600 rounds into the Do Son Peninsula, just outside the entrance to Haiphong Harbor, the first surface gunfire attack that close to Haiphong during the war. Enemy counter-battery fire was ineffective. The strikes near Hanoi and Haiphong caused an outcry in U.S. press and political circles accusing the Nixon administration of "widening the war" instead of ending it.
Meanwhile in the south, with adverse weather still a major factor, U.S. Navy aircraft flew 191 strike sorties in the second week of April, most to the north and west of Quang Tri before the full scope of the offensive thrusts at An Loc and Kontum became apparent. With attacks on three fronts, the NVA had committed the equivalent of 15 divisions (about 140,000 men) along with 600 tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Also on 16 April, during the ongoing battle for An Loc, NVA artillery hit an ARVN ammunition dump near the city, blowing up over 8,000 artillery rounds in a massive explosion. However, by this time ARVN forces in An Loc were receiving as many as 1,000 incoming NVA artillery rounds every day and only had one artillery piece left that hadn't been destroyed, thus forcing almost complete reliance on air strikes to beat back repeated NVA assaults, which were resulting in thousands of NVA casualties and dozens of destroyed tanks.
19 April – Air attack on USS HIGBEE – The Battle of Dong Hoi
The OKLAHOMA CITY (DLG-5,) STERETT (DLG-31,) LLOYD THOMAS (DD-674,) and HIGBEE (DD-806) were firing on coastal targets around Don Hoi, North Vietnam when they were attacked and bombed by two North Vietnamese MiG-17's. At 1700, STERETT radar detected three hostile contacts inbound. Two MiG-17's subordinate to the 923rd Fighter Regiment of the Vietnamese People's Air Force (VPAF,) each armed with two 550-pound bombs, commenced an attack on OKLAHOMA CITY and HIGBEE. Given the short distance from the beach there was almost no time to react. The first MiG-17 overshot OKLAHOMA CITY on his first pass, circled around and dropped both bombs on a second pass that both missed and did only minor damage to her stern.
The second MiG-17 scored a direct bomb hit on HIGBEE's after 5-inch gun turret. Luckily, the 12-man gun crew had just evacuated the mount due to a hangfire with the round stuck in the barrel, so no one was killed and only four were wounded, although the turret was destroyed. (Of note, during LLOYD THOMAS's 1970 deployment, while firing on coastal targets about 11 September, her forward 5-inch gun turret suffered an in-bore explosion that demolished the turret, killing three crewmen and wounding ten others.)
Witnesses to the MiG attack on HIGBEE adamantly stated one of the MiG-17's was downed by a Terrier missile from STERETT and another probably downed. Conversely, Vietnamese accounts seem very detailed and clear that both jets recovered safely, although one overshot the runway and ended up in an arrester barrier with little damage – without digging up STERETT's original after action report I'm not going to solve this discrepancy. (In some accounts this is described as the first air attack on a U.S. ship since World WWII. This is incorrect as heavy cruiser USS ROCHESTER (CA-124) was lightly damaged in an attack by two North Korean aircraft off Inchon, South Korea in September 1952. USS LIBERTY (AGTR-5) was badly damaged in an attack by four Israeli jets in June 1968, and there is significant evidence that Swift Boat (PCF-19) was sunk by a North Vietnamese helicopter in June 1968 (see H-grams 054 (ROCHESTER,) 007 (LIBERTY,) and 019 (PCF-19, for more detail.)
Some accounts state a North Vietnamese Styx anti-ship missile was fired at the U.S. ships from shore and was shot down, but this is not confirmed in official documentation either; if true this was the first such attack and probably the only one. The U.S. ships did move to a safer distance offshore, at which point STERETT detected two high-speed surface contacts shadowing the force on a parallel course, assessed to be North Vietnamese P-6 torpedo boats. As darkness fell, STERETT engaged the two suspected torpedo boats with her 5-inch gun and sank them. The radar picture was described to be very confused at the time, and there appears to be no post-war confirmation of any lost North Vietnamese torpedo boats on this date.
North Vietnamese training for an anti-ship mission commenced in 1971, and ten pilots of the 923rd fighter regiment were trained with the assistance of a Cuban advisor. The aircraft had also been specially converted to carry bombs for the mission. The aircraft had deployed from Kep airfield in the north of North Vietnam the previous day, via Vinh Airfield before arriving at Gat Airfield, where the specially trained and selected crew took custody of the MiGs
In a separate incident on the same day as the air attack on HIGBEE, BUCHANAN (DDG-14,) GEORGE K. MACKENZIE (DD-836,) and HAMNER (DD-718) were shelling bridges near Vinh, North Vietnam, when two motor patrol boats (assessed to be Shanghai-class) were observed approaching from behind an island. MACKENZIE opened fire on the boats, forcing them to reverse course. A few minutes later, BUCHANAN received incoming fire from a 122mm shore battery. An airbust above BUCHANAN holed the ship, killing one Sailor and wounded six others.
The U.S. Navy quickly responded to the attacks on the ships with airstrikes on Vinh Airfield. Once the heavily camouflaged Khe Gat Airfield, where the MiG ship-strikes launched from, was located two days later it was pounded by a 33-carrier plane strike, reportedly destroying one MiG and damaging another on the ground. As a result of the North Vietnamese attacks, the U.S. Navy ceased close-in daylight operations off the coast of North Vietnam, but continued extensive nighttime shelling.
With a shattered turret and impaired steering and propulsion, the damage to HIGBEE was pretty severe, but CDR Ronald R. Zuilkoski and his crew were able to gain control of the flooding. HIGBEE made her way to Subic Bay for initial repairs in the floating drydock AFDM-6 and then to Japan where her turret was replaced. HIGBEE then returned to the gunline. Of note, HIGBEE was named after Lenah S. Higbee who became Chief Nurse in 1909 and the second Superintendent of the Nurse Corps in 1911; she was the first living nurse to be awarded the Navy Cross, for her actions during the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic – three other nurses had previously been awarded posthumously.
25 April – Blunting NVA attacks at An Loc and Kontum.
As weather conditions improved, U.S. carrier aircraft increased attacks against NVA forces that had invaded South Vietnam. A-4F Skyhawks from VA-55, VA-164, and VF-211 off HANCOCK pounded NVA positions around Kontum and Pleiku in the Central Highlands. The situation on the ground was so dire that even the F-8J Crusaders of VF-24 and VF-211 were pressed into service in a ground attack role, each carrying a 2,000-pound bomb under each wing, aimed with manual gunsight. The Crusader's four 20mm cannons were put to good use as well. At the same time VA-165 A-6A Intruders and A-7E Corsair II light attack bombers of VA-146 and VA-147 off CONSTELLATION inflicted severe casualties on NVA forces besieging An Loc and attempting to advance toward Saigon by road.
27 April – F-4B downed in air-to-air engagement
An F-4B Phantom II of VF-51 off CORAL SEA flown by Lieutenant Al Molinare and RIO LCDR James B. Souder was shot down deep in North Vietnamese territory by an AA-2 Atoll infrared-seeking air-to-air missile from a MiG-21. Both Molinare and Souder survived the ejection and spent the rest of the war in the "Hanoi Hilton."
As RICHARD B. ANDERSON (DD-786) was shelling positions in North Vietnam, four ocean-going junks closed to within 8,000 yards and opened fire. ANDERSON returned fire, sinking three of the junks and badly damaging the fourth.
28 April - NVA noose tightens on Quang Tri
Despite 13,000 air attacks since the start of the North Vietnamese offensive which had held 40,000 NVA troops and 50 tanks just outside Quang Tri, the defense of the city was becoming untenable, and the NVA was about to close the last avenue of escape.
30 April – Five carriers on station
Carrier USS MIDWAY (CVA-41,) with CVW-5 embarked, deployed on 10 April 1972 and reached the Gulf of Tonkin on 30 April, bringing the number of U.S. carriers on station to five. MIDWAY was commanded by CAPT William L. Harris, Jr. (later RADM.)
30 April – Better weather (and more carriers) = more airstrikes.
By the end of April, USN carrier aircraft had flown 4,833 strike sorties over South Vietnam and 1,250 in North Vietnam. The Navy average per day had increased from 240 to over 300 for a monthly average of 270 per day. The U.S. Marine Corps contributed 537 strike sorties as Marine aircraft returned to Da Nang in South Vietnam.
1 May – Fall of Quang Tri City.
Although U.S. airpower inflicted many NVA casualties around Quang Tri and had complicated NVA logistics by destroying every bridge between the DMZ and the My Chanh River, the remaing ARVN forces commenced a withdrawal to the south toward Hue City. The withdrawal would turn into chaos as 20,000 civilian refugees were mixed in with retreating military on the only road out. NVA on both sides of the road fired indiscriminately into the crowds resulting in what would be known as "the Road of Horror;" the South Vietnamese government reported that 5,000 mostly civilians were killed (the NVA said "only" 2,000.) Supported by strikes from USN F-4's, a USAF task force of Jolly Green Giant helicopters (HH-3E) extracted 132 personnel including Vietnamese and 80 U.S. advisors, just before the fall of Quang Tri. The loss of a provincial capital was a major blow to the prestige and credibility of the South Vietnamese government.
6 May – MiG-17 Fresco and two MiG-21 Fishbeds downed.
As U.S. airstrikes into North Vietnam intensified and approached closer to Hanoi and Haiphong than ever before, North Vietnamese air and SAM/AAA opposition intensified as well. At 1410, an F-4B of VF-51 off CORAL SEA flown by LCDR Jerry "Devil" Houston and RIO LT Kevin Moore shot down a MiG-17 over Bai Thuong Airfield with an AIM-9 Sidewinder.
Later in the day at 1825 two F-4J's of VF-114 off KITTY HAWK engaged two MiG-21 fighters while covering another strike on Bai Thuong Airfield. One F-4J was flown by LCDR Kenneth W. "Viper" Pettigrew and RIO LTJG Michael J. McCabe. McCabe detected an incoming radar contact at 25 miles. When Pettigrew gained visual, the contact turned out to be a tight box formation of four MiG-21's. Pettigrew's wingman was LT Robert G. Hughes and RIO LTJG Adolph J. Cruz. Hughes had the best position on the MiGs so Pettigrew directed Hughes to engage first. Hughes turned into the MiGs; his first Sidewinder shot was out-of-envelope yet still guided and knocked a MiG out of formation which then hit the ground. Hughes then fired two more Sidewinders at the lead MiG but the missiles went ballistic and missed. By this time, Pettigrew was alongside and both wound up firing a Sidewinder at the same MiG. Hugh's last sidewinder took a chunk off the MiG's tail while Pettigrew's sidewinder flew up the MiG's tailpipe and blew the jet apart. Hughes/Cruz were given credit for the first MiG-21 and Pettigrew/McCabe for the second.
8 May – Second MiG kill for Cunningham/Driscoll
Two F-4J's of VF-96 off CONSTELLATION were conducting a sweep ahead of a carrier strike package heading for a truck staging area near Son Tay. LT Randall "Duke" Cunningham and RIO LTJG William "Irish" Driscoll were in the lead with wing aircraft piloted by Brian Grant. As the F-4J's neared the target, the "Red Crown" cruiser in the Gulf of Tonkin warned of a flight of MiGs coming from the direction of Yen Bai Airfield but then lost radar contact. After making a couple turns trying to sight the MiGs in the haze, Red Crown regained radar contact and reported "bandits" closing from behind at 20 miles. The next transmission from Red Crown was garbled.
All of a sudden a MiG-17 dove out of the clouds and hit Grant's jet with gunfire. When Grant increased speed and began to pull away, the MiG fired an Atoll. Warned by Cunningham, Grant narrowly avoided the missile with a high-g turn, but the MiG was still on Grant's tail. Grant sighted two more MiGs coming head on, but Cunningham remained focused on taking the MiG off Grant's tail. Cunningham's first Sidewinder was a miss but it caused the MiG to break off and attempt to flee whereupon Cunningham hit the MiG-17 with a second Sidewinder causing the MiG to crash. By this time the other two MiGs were on Cunnigham's six o-clock, but a series of high-g diving turns shook them off and the MiGs "bugged out." This was the second kill for the Cunningham/Driscoll duo.
8 May – President Nixon orders mining and bombing escalation
With the fall of Quang Tri and the increasingly desperate situation around An Loc and Kontum, as well as being incensed by the duplicity of the North Vietnamese at the now-suspended Paris "Peace Talks," President Nixon ordered a major escalation of the bombing effort in North Vietnam. Nixon stated "the bastards have never been bombed like they're going to be bombed this time." Nixon also ordered the mining of North Vietnamese ports and rivers, something Navy leaders had been strongly advocating for years to cut off the unimpeded supply of Soviet war material.
In anticipation of Nixon's decision, Chairman of the JCS ADM Thomas Moorer on 4 May ordered CNO ADM Zumwalt to ready the long-standing mining plan for execution. The mining effort would be code-named Operation Pocket Money, and the combined bombing and mining effort would be termed Operation Linebacker (replacing Operation Freedom Trail.) Linebacker would be a sustained bombing campaign against military installations, storage facilities and transportation networks (many targets which had previously been off-limits) with the intent to choke off supplies to the NVA offensive in the south, as well as to inflict enough painful damage to force the North Vietnamese to resume negotiations in good faith.
President Nixon's decision was quite bold in that it was an election year and anti-war sentiment in the U.S. was reaching an all time high. Such action also risked disrupting the planned summit between Nixon and General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Leonid Brezhnev scheduled for 22-30 May in Moscow (it went ahead as planned and included signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I,) and the U.S.-Soviet Incidents at Sea Agreement, and led to a period of lessoned tensions known as Détente.) Nevertheless, the South Vietnamese Army was on the verge of collapse, putting at risk the entire "Vietnamization" Program, morale in South Vietnam was at an all-time low as many thousands of refugees fled the NVA advance. The situation was so dire that Nixon arguably had no choice but to take risk to alter the downward spiral.
Navy leaders had advocated for mining North Vietnamese ports, especially Haiphong, since before the war. ADM Ulysses S. Grant Sharp (CINCPACFLT 1963-64 and CINCPAC 1964-1968) had pushed tirelessly and after retirement had even gone public. After WWII, ADM Moorer had been involved in a study of the effectiveness of Allied mining of Japanese-occupied Haiphong in 1943-1944 (it had been very effective) and therefore had a keen personal interest and advocacy.
Nevertheless, the Navy's recommendation to mine Haiphong and other North Vietnamese ports was repeatedly refused by the Johnson Administration and early Nixon Administration out of fear it would lead to conflict with Communist China or the Soviet Union or both. In the meantime, Soviet ships brought in the tanks, surface-to-air missiles, fighter aircraft and tons of other military equipment that would kill many American servicemen. Although much Chinese military aid came overland across the border (through areas that had been off limits to bombing) much of it came by sea into Haiphong as well. It was the apparent downturn in relations between the PRC and Soviet Union in 1969-1970 (previously viewed as a monolithic Communist bloc) that led some senior civilian leaders in the U.S. government to believe that more aggressive action could be taken without necessarily resulting in widening the war.
The execution of Pocket Money was timed to coincide with a 2100 Eastern Standard Time prime time TV speech by President Nixon announcing the mining and expanded bombing campaign, which necessitated a daylight operation.
8 May – Death of RADM Rembrandt Robinson
In preparation for the execution of Operation Pocket Money, Rear Admiral Rembrandt C. Robinson (Commander Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Eleven/SEVENTH Fleet Cruisers and Destroyers) and three of his staff flew by helicopter from his flagship USS PROVIDENCE (CLG-6) to CORAL SEA to confer with RADM Damon Cooper, Commander Attack Carrier Striking Force, SEVENTH Fleet (TF-77) in the Gulf of Tonkin. Robinson was a rising superstar, having been selected for early promotion three times. He served in combat at Okinawa aboard LST-485, and again during the Korean War aboard USS ENGLISH (DD-696,) where he was awarded his first Bronze Star with Combat "V." He received his second Bronze Star with Combat "V" while in command of Destroyer Squadron THREE ONE (DESRON 31) for Vietnam War operations. He had previously served as a liaison between Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ADM Thomas Moorer and the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger. During that tour he was extensively involved in updating plans for mining Haiphong Harbor that had first been developed in 1965.
Upon conclusion of the coordination conference, Robinson's helicopter was making a final approach on PROVIDENCE when it suffered an apparent power failure and toppled over the side into the water, went inverted and sank. The crew and Robinson's aviation officer survived, but Chief of Staff CAPT Edmund Taylor, Jr. and Operations Officer CDR John M. Leaver, Jr. were never found. Robinson's body was recovered. His cremated remains were subsequently buried at sea from destroyer ORLECK (DD-886.) Robinson was the only Navy flag officer to die in the Vietnam War combat zone.
9 May – Operation Pocket Money Execution
CVW-15 on CORAL SEA was designated to execute the first Pocket Money strike. The commander of CVW-15, CDR Roger E. "Blinky" Sheets, would lead the strike. (Sheets had taken command when the previous CAG, CDR Thomas E. Dunlop, was downed by a SAM and killed on 6 April 1972.) Air Wing Mine Warfare Officer, LCDR Harvey Eikel played a key role in planning. The minelaying mission would be conducted by three A-6A Intruders of Marine VMA(AW)-224, each with four 1,000-pound Mk. 52-2 magnetic bottom mines, and six A-7E Corsair II's of VA-22 and VA-94, each with four Mk. 36 Destructor (DST) acoustic bottom mines. (The Mk. 36 DST was a Mk. 82 500-pound general-purpose bomb converted to a mine with a Mk. 75 Modification Kit, which included a magnetic influence firing mechanism.)(Some accounts state that all nine aircraft carried Mk. 52-2 mines – happy to hear from anyone who knows for sure.)
During planning for the minelaying operation it was determined that the weight of the Mk-52-2 mines would both slow the A-6's considerably and preclude the use of auxiliary fuel tanks. There weren't enough nose caps (only six) for all the mines, which would further increase drag. As a result CORAL SEA would need to approach to within 100 NM of the coast for launch.
To protect CORAL SEA, the CHICAGO (CG-11,) STERETT (DLG-31,) and LONG BEACH (CGN-9) took station within 40 miles of Haiphong between CORAL SEA's launch position and the coast. At the planning conference the night before, it was agreed that the cruisers would shoot down anything flying higher than 500-feet. A separate surface action group would shell North Vietnamese anti-aircraft sites on the Do Son Peninsula 6 NM west of the entrance to Haiphong Harbor. This bombardment force consisted of BERKELEY (DDG-15,) MYLES C. FOX (DD-829,) RICHARD S. EDWARDS (DD-950) and BUCHANAN (DDG-14.)
An EC-121M Constellation (electronic intelligence collection variant) launched in the early morning from Da Nang Air Base to support the minelaying mission. KITTY HAWK launched 17 strike sorties against a railroad siding at Namh Dinh as a diversion, although weather at the target necessitated diversion to alternate targets at Thanh at 0840 and Phu Qui at 0845. The surface action group, led by CAPT Robert Pace in place of RADM Robinson, commenced shelling the Do Son Peninsula.
At 0840 on 9 May, an EKA-3B Skywarrior (tanker/electronic countermeasures) of VAQ-135 Detachment 3 and the three A-6A's and six A-7E's launched from CORAL SEA. The EKA-3B orbited in support while the rest of the aircraft headed for Haiphong, led by CDR Sheets.
At 0849 CHICAGO radar detected three MiGs launching from Phuc Yen Airfield. CHICAGO fired two RIM-8 Talos long-range surface-to-air missiles, downing one MiG at a range of 48 miles, causing the others to turn away. (A different account says CHICAGO detected two MiGs in a holding pattern and shot one down with two Talos.) CHICAGO was on her fifth Vietnam War deployment and had actually commenced a return transit home to San Diego when she was recalled to the Gulf of Tonkin on 3 April due to the North Vietnamese offensive. Commanded by CAPT Thomas P. McNamara, CHICAGO returned to PIRAZ/Red Crown duty. Between her return to the Gulf of Tonkin and late May, air intercept controllers on CHICAGO would be credited with assisting in the shoot down of 14 MiGs by USN and USAF fighters.
Bombardier/navigator Capt. William R. Carr, USMC in the lead A-6 with CDR Sheetz (if you're the CAG you get to fly Marine aircraft too) had the critical role of determining the correct azimuth and time of release. At 0859, the first of 12 Mk. 52-2 mines went into the inner channel of Haiphong Harbor, which was only 1,000 feet wide. At the same time, the six A-7E Corsair II light attack aircraft, led by CDR Leonard E. Guiliani, laid 24 Mk. 36 DST mines in the outer channel. All mines were in by 0901. The mines had all been set to "positive arm" (with 72 hour delay.) Only three of the 36 mines would fail to arm. One A-7E failed to drop on the first pass, circled around and dropped the mine on a second pass. Although heavy anti-aircraft fire and heavy losses were anticipated, the raid appeared to have caught the North Vietnamese by surprise and no aircraft were lost. Despite shelling from USN ships, the Do Son SAM site got off three missiles, but none hit.
Upon radio transmission from CDR Sheets that the mines were in the water, RADM Howard Greer (Commander Carrier Division THREE) sent a flash message to the White House. President Nixon was already speaking live to the nation on TV as the mines were being laid and he wound up initially speaking very slowly until he received assurance the aircraft were off target. In his speech, Nixon announced that ships in Haiphong had three days hours to get out.
All mines were set for a 72-hour arming delay to allow for merchant ships in Haiphong to exit. There were 37 neutral vessels in Haiphong ("neutral" technically included 16 Soviet, five Chinese, three Polish, two Cuban, and one East German Communist bloc ships.) but only one British and four Soviet ships took advantage of the delay and got out; the rest were trapped for over 300 days until the "peace accords" were finally signed in early 1973. (The U.S. used an offer to clear the mines as an inducement for the North Vietnamese to reach an agreement.) The mines were actually set to deactivate in 180 days, and therefore had to be reseeded as the negotiations would drag on.
The initial minelaying strike was only the first of many. The same day, A-6's from three carriers would sow mines at six other lesser ports both north and south of Haiphong, and some of these strikes encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire, although only one aircraft would be lost on any mining mission and that was later in 1972. Pocket money would continue until the last mission on 16 January 1973 by an A-6 Intruder of VA-35 off USS AMERICA (CVA-66.) During the course of the campaign, 108 Mk. 52-2 and at least 11,603 Mk. 36 Destructor (DST) mines would be sown in 1,149 sorties from ten aircraft carriers in Haiphong and virtually every port, bay, estuary, navigable river and ferry crossing in North Vietnam. The mining halted all exports from North Vietnam and dramatically reduced imports of all kinds, particularly weapons. The North Vietnamese tried to compensate by bringing in more material via rail from China, but with many of the previous bombing restrictions lifted, this created additional lucrative targets for U.S. aircraft. North Vietnamese coastal shipping was also drastically reduced.
Of interest, on 4 August 1972, dozens of mines spontaneously exploded. It was assessed this was caused by a coronal mass ejection on the Sun that triggered a geomagnetic storm and resulting magnetic radiation triggered the mines. This theory was confirmed in 2017 by scientific researchers.
CDR Sheets would retire as a captain in 1982 with 285 combat missions in Korea and Vietnam, with two Legion of Merits with Combat "V," nine Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Bronze Stars and other combat awards. Sheets ended his after action report thus, "The overall reaction of the aircrews involved in the mining was one of pride, elation, and the gnawing feeling we had somehow missed our TOT by seven years." (TOT – time on target)
10 May – Operation Custom Tailor
A cruiser-destroyer force conducted another raid on Haiphong to enable the ongoing aerial mine effort by suppressing anti-aircraft batteries ashore. Task Unit 77.1.2 was led by heavy cruiser NEWPORT NEWS (CA-148,) guided-missile cruisers PROVIDENCE (CLG-6,) and OKLAHOMA CITY (CLG-5,) along with guided-missile destroyer BUCHANAN (DDG-14) and destroyers HANSON (DD-832) and MYLES C. FOX (DD-829.) NEWPORT NEWS had just arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin after departing Norfolk on 13 April.
At 0200 10 May, the Officer-in-Tactical Command (OTC,) Captain Walter F. ZARTMAN, CO of NEWPORT NEWS, ordered the formation into line abreast with HANSON on the left, then PROVIDENCE, NEWPORT NEWS, OKLAHOMA CITY and BUCHANAN. MYLES C. FOX was ordered to take station to the northeast to block any North Vietnamese patrol boat activity. At 0345, the five cruisers and destroyers in line abreast turned into a line ahead formation parallel to Cat Ba Island, on which the airfield and other military installations were the primary target. At 0347, the U.S. ships opened fire. NEWPORT NEWS fired 77 8-inch rounds and 40 5-inch rounds into Cat Ba along with hundreds of 6-inch and 5-inch rounds from the two CLGs and the DDG.
HANSON concentrated on suppressing initially vigorous shore battery fire from the Do Son Peninsula, so the other ships could concentrate on Cat Ba. At one point HANSON actually entered the outer Haiphong Harbor (steering clear of mined areas) making her the last U.S. ship to do so during the war. Commanded by CDR Ian McEwan Watson, HANSON was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation for her actions.
When enemy shore batteries opened up on TU 77.1.2 they proved to be inaccurate in the darkness. After 30 minutes the U.S. force departed, and extensive fire from enemy 152mm (6-inch) artillery rained down inaccurately. None of the U.S. ships were hit during the operation.
In the first two days after the commencement of Operation Linebacker, USN warships shelled multiple targets along the entire length of Vietnam, at night in North Vietnam and whenever needed in the South. The arrival of NEWPORT NEWS with her 8-inch guns proved particularly useful. By 19 May, U.S. surface ships fired 41,689 rounds into North Vietnam and 83,529 against NVA targets in South Vietnam. Since the beginning of the Easter Offensive, about 60 U.S. surface ships operated along the coasts, usually in groups of three destroyers or a cruiser and two destroyers. Those in the North made an average of three strikes per night at supply line chokepoints and other military targets.
10 May – Execution of Operation Linebacker
Operation Linebacker (later known as Linebacker 1) had four major objectives;
- Isolate North Vietnam from overland supply from China by destroying bridges and rolling stock between Hanoi and a buffer zone near the Chinese border
- Destroy marshaling yards and primary storage areas, particularly petroleum
- Destroy transshipment points
- Eliminate or severely degrade the air defense system.
By choking off the source of supplies, the overarching objective was to starve the North Vietnamese forces in the South of material and munitions needed to continue the offensive. A big difference between the Johnson Administration during Rolling Thunder and the Nixon Administration during Freedom Trail and Linebacker was that the Nixon Administration left operational planning to on-scene commanders and greatly loosened target restrictions, or in other words, far less micro-management from Washington.
Operation Linebacker commenced on 10 May, with 414 sorties (294 by USN and 120 by USAF) resulting in the largest air-to-air battle of the entire war. Multiple targets were struck, including the Paul Doumer bridge, Yen Vien railroad switching yards, Hai Duong railroad switching yards, and Haiphong petroleum storage yards. Although the Vietnam People's Air Force's approximately 200 MiG interceptors preferred to avoid direct engagements with U.S. fighters (preferring instead to ambush isolated attack aircraft,) attacks on targets so close to Hanoi and Haiphong forced them to rise to the occasion (sorry.) Eleven North Vietnamese MiGs (four MiG-21 and seven Mig-17) were shot down in aerial combat, eight by USN fighters. Two USAF F-4's were lost in air-to-air combat. The North Vietnamese fired over 100 SAMs, downing two U.S. Navy F-4's.
The first target was the massive cantilever Paul Doumer (Long Bien) Bridge on the northern outskirts of Hanoi, at the time, the only bridge over the Red River connecting Hanoi and Haiphong. It had been bombed in 1967 and one span dropped but had been repaired. It was damaged by a joint USN/USAF strike on 10 May. It would have to be attacked again in August 1972 using Walleye TV-guided bombs. Another bridge attacked was at Hai Duong, over a tributary of the Red River about halfway between Hanoi and Haiphong. There is a very famous photograph of a VA-195 "Dambusters" A-7E off KITTY HAWK flown by Mike A. "Baby" Ruth coming off the target with bombs bursting on the bridge below.
Another target in the morning was the Haiphong petroleum products storage area, struck by CONSTELLATION/CVW-9 aircraft. An F-4J of VF-92 flown by LT Curt Dose (a recent TOPGUN graduate) and RIO LCDR James McDevitt was flying wing for a section of fighters protecting the strike. Alerted to enemy fighters launching from Kep Airfield north of Hanoi, the flight maneuvered to close proximity of the airfield at very low altitude to engage the enemy flight. In the fight that followed, Dose downed a Mig-21MF with two AIM-9 Sidewinders; one exploded just below the aircraft and the second went up the tailpipe of the MiG and exploded, downing the aircraft and killing the pilot. Dose then fired a Sidewinder at a second MiG-21 that barely missed. Dose's fourth Sidewinder hung on the rail. Dose's section lead fired three Sidewinders at the same MiG, without a hit. (this MiG-21 was flown by a Dang Ngoc Ngu, a North Vietnamese ace with seven kills.) The MiG-21's were so recently delivered they still had Soviet markings. Dose then had to make it through a hail of AAA fire at low altitude. Dose was awarded a Silver Star (McDevitt probably was too, but I can't find it.)
The afternoon strike by CONSTELLATION/CVW-9 aircraft on the heavily defended Hai Duong railroad yard was an epic in the history of U.S. Naval Aviation. The 35-plane strike was planned and led by the Commander of Carrier Air Wing NINE (CVW-9) CDR Lowell F. "Gus" Eggert (call sign "Honeybee"), who would be awarded a Navy Cross for the action while flying an A-7E Corsair II. On Eggert's wing was LT Charles W. "Willy" Moore, Jr. of VA-146 (the "Busybees") on his second Vietnam combat tour; (Willy would later lead Strike Fighter Squadron 131 in a strike on Libya in 1986 and command U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/FIFTH Fleet from 1998 to 2002 during Operations Infinite Reach, Desert Fox and Enduring Freedom – I was his N2 for most of it.)(Note, the voice calls of the Hai Duong strike were actually recorded, and a transcription is on the internet.)
The strike launched from CONSTELLATION at 1130 (from "Dixie Station".) The strike package of A-6A and A-7E aircraft also included seven F-4J fighters of VA-96, each armed with 2,000-pounds of ordnance for flak suppression. (For two straight years, VF-96 had been awarded the Clifton Trophy as the most outstanding fighter squadron in the Navy.) As no AAA was readily apparent on the inbound run (often a harbinger of MiG activity) the VF-96 F-4 flak suppressors dropped their bombs on a warehouse area adjacent to the target. As the strike package was rolling in on the target, somewhere between 16 and 24 MiGs (depending on account) were closing in (about 36 were launched but not all engaged.) The F-4's climbed to meet the threat.
As the attack aircraft were coming off a very successful strike on the target, with numerous direct hits on key railroad infrastructure by 30,000-pounds of bombs, the entire railroad yard was observed to be ablaze. MiGs began to roll in on the attack aircraft, which were at acute disadvantage. Because of a shortage of Sidewinders, the A-7E's didn't have any, and many of their M-61 20mm rotary canons weren't working. The A-6's had neither missiles nor guns. A number of the attack aircraft soon had MiGs on their tail. An A-7E (Busybee-5, CDR Fred Baldwin) made repeated "dry" firing passes to get a MiG-17 off the tail of Busybee-6 (LT Allen Junker) who didn't have a working canon either. By radical maneuver, the two A-7E's thwarted the attacks of a veteran North Vietnamese pilot.
The F-4's had to get in with the attack jets in order to clean MiGs off tails, resulting in the biggest dogfight of the Vietnam War. An F-4 flown by LT Steven C. Shoemaker and RIO LTJG Keith V. Crenshaw downed a MiG-17 with a Sidewinder. Another F-4, flown by LT Michael J. "Matt" Connelly and RIO LT Thomas J. J. Blonski, downed two MiG-17s with Sidewinders. Connelly and Blonski would each be awarded a Navy Cross for the fight against overwhelming odds.
Another VF-96 F-4J in the fight was flown by LT Randall "Duke" Cunningham and RIO LTJG William "Irish" Driscoll, with two air-to-air kills already to their credit. As in the previous engagements, LT Brian Grant was Cunningham's wingman. Cunningham had begun the day with a "Dear John" letter from his wife asking for a divorce and was not scheduled to fly, but CAG Eggert assigned him to fly the flak suppression mission at the last moment.
As Cunningham came off the target, Driscoll reported many enemy aircraft coming up from behind. Two MiG-17s got behind Cunningham and his wingman, with Cunningham in front by 1,000 yards. The MiGs missed with gunfire and Cunningham broke hard and the MiGs overshot, the lead MiG below and the lead MiG's wingman above. The MiG wingman made a mistake trying to climb, exposing his underside for a brief moment. Cunningham fired a Sidewinder up the MiG wingman's tailpipe and the aircraft exploded. Another MiG-17 then got on Cunningham's tail. Cunningham tried to drag the MiG in front of Grant so that Grant would have a shot, but by then Grant had two MiGs on his tail. At that point both Cunningham and Grant went into afterburner and escaped the MiGs.
At a higher altitude, Cunningham could see down below about eight MiG-17's in a defensive wheel formation (this was a standard Vietnamese tactic, MiGs following each other in a circle so that getting behind a MiG would immediately result in another MiG behind the attacking aircraft.) Cunningham and Grant were looking to attack the wheel formation from above, when the XO of VA-96, Dwight Timm, flew by with two MiGs on his tail and another under his belly. Cunningham told Timm to break hard to starboard, so he could take a shot at the MiG underneath Timm. Not realizing there was a MiG below him, Timm was slow to comply out of concern for the MiGs behind him. By this time Driscoll was calling out four MiG's behind and two others coming head on. Finally Timm broke hard to starboard, Cunningham fired a Sidewinder causing the MiG to explode. All aircraft then went to afterburner and escaped the MiGs.
The air melee was winding down as all the jets on both sides were starting to run low on fuel. To that point, one F-4 (Silver Kite 212 of VF-92, CDR Harry Blackburn (XO) and RIO LT Steve Rudluff) had been downed by 57mm or 85mm AAA. Both men ejected, with good chutes and were seen to land about 100 a few hundred yards apart. Rudluff was released as a POW in 1973. Blackburn was not released and the Vietnamese initially denied any knowledge of him. However, in 1986 the Vietnamese returned remains they had "discovered" that were then positively identified as Blackburn. The exact time, place and cause of his death remain unknown.
As Cunningham was coming south from Hai Duong heading back to CONSTELLATION he encountered a camouflaged MiG-17 nearly head-on. The MiG aggressively opened with a forward firing pass. Cunningham went vertical up to 12,000 feet and as he pulled over the top at 6g's, expecting to see the MiG below heading away, Cunningham was shocked to see the MiG had matched the climb and they were canopy to canopy about 400-feet apart. There is some reporting that the MiG pilot was North Vietnam's leading ace with 13 claimed kills to his credit.* Regardless, what followed was an epic 1 v. 1 duel between two really great pilots, with advantage constantly shifting back and forth. Both aircraft were probably reaching critically low fuel state (Cunningham definitely was) but the Vietnamese pilot blinked first and made a fatal run for it. Cunningham fired another Sidewinder that destroyed the MiG just after Cunningham fired his fourth (and last) Sidewinder. The MiG crashed with no chute observed. (*North Vietnam's leading ace was Nguyen Van Coc, with nine kills, no longer flying in combat after 1968, and still alive. It was VPAF practice to paint red stars on the tail for "kills" by the plane, regardless of who flew it. MiG-17 No. 3030 had about 13 kills and was the one shot down by Cunningham on 10 May.)
After downing their third MiG of the day and fifth overall, the duo of Cunningham and Driscoll were the first U.S. aces of the war from any service (the USAF wouldn't get their first ace until August 1972.) By this time, there was serious doubt whether Cunningham had enough fuel to make it back to the CONSTELLATION. He was flying through an area with a concentration of SAMs. His radar warning gear picked up nothing, but just then a VQ-1 EP-3 called out a SAM warning. Cunningham saw the SAM, which had possibly been launched optically, too late to do much about it and the SAM exploded about 500 feet above him, severely damaging the aircraft.
With his hydraulics crippled, Cunningham gradually lost control of the aircraft as he nursed it to the coast. Finally, as the plane gyrated out of control and caught fire, Cunningham and Driscoll were forced to eject. Luckily they came down in the water and were picked up after only 15-minutes by a Marine helicopter from OKINAWA (LPH-3.) The North Vietnamese fired SA-2 SAMs at rescue aircraft but missed high.
Cunningham and Driscoll were each awarded a Navy Cross and a Purple Heart for this engagement, to go with two Silver Stars awarded to both for the previous kills on 19 January and 8 May. Both Cunningham and Driscoll retired from the Navy at the rank of commander. Sadly, Cunningham's second career as a Republican Congressman didn't end so well.
The strike and air battle by CVW-9 wasn't the only action that afternoon. At about 1400, an F-4B of VF-51 off CORAL SEA flown by LT Kenneth L. "Ragin Cajun" Cannon and RIO LT Roy A. "Bud" Morris downed a MiG-17 with a Sidewinder.
Of 11 MiGs downed on 10 May, USN aircraft accounted for eight, and of those, seven were by CVW-9, six of those by VF-96, and three of those by Cunningham/Driscoll.
After the first day of Operation Linebacker, large strikes occurred regularly but most raids consisted of armed reconnaissance flights, seeking out and destroying elements of North Vietnamese air defense and logistics capability within three main areas near Hanoi and Haiphong. Many such targets had previously been off-limits during Rolling Thunder. In the initial months, USN aircraft flew 60% of strike sorties in North Vietnam and 25% of those were at night, giving the North Vietnamese no respite.
13 May – Amphibious Operations
The SEVENTH Fleet Amphibious Force, Amphibious Ready Group (ARG,) centered on amphibious assault ship USS OKINAWA (LPH-3) landed South Vietnamese Marines in a raid miles behind NVA lines in Quang Tri Province. The OKINAWA ARG conducted additional raids with South Vietnamese Marines on 24 May and then a landing on 29 June. Landing ship dock USS ALAMO (LSD-33) would emplace a five section causeway on the coast east of Quang Tri to facilitate logistic support by South Vietnamese LCU's and LCM's to ARVN forces that with the aid of U.S. air support stopped the NVA advance on Hue City and began to push the NVA back.
11 May – An Loc holds.
The NVA commenced what would be their last major push on An Loc. After firing about 8,000 rounds of artillery onto the city, the shelling ceased at 0430, as the attack commenced from all sides by 5,000 NVA troops and 40 tanks. However, U.S. and South Vietnam tactical aircraft and helicopter gun ships quickly pounced. B-52's then pounded NVA positions about once every hour. NVA casualties were extremely heavy and the attack stalled. Foul weather prevented tactical air strikes on the night of 12-13 May, which prompted the NVA to make one last attempt. This was thwarted by a USAF 15,000-pound bomb and fuel-air explosives.
Although NVA shelling of An Loc remained heavy, the NVA shifted their effort to the ARVN relief column battling its way up the highway from Saigon. Here, aircraft from the recently arrived carrier SARATOGA (CVA-60) and recently-arrived Marine A-4's of Marine Air Group 12 at Bien Hoa Airfield would play a key role in blunting this NVA thrust. SARATOGA arrived off Vietnam on 17 May, making six U.S. carriers engaged in turning back the Easter Offensive. The Marine squadrons VMA-211 and 311 arrived at Bien Hoa on the same day.
By 16 May, the NVA offensive at An Loc had reached its culminating point, although it would take until 12 June before the ARVN could drive last NVA troops out of the city. NVA activity would continue around An Loc for months, but the worst of the threat was over, and the route to Saigon secured, thanks to U.S. air power, and the courage of stubborn ARVN defenders of An Loc.
18 May – Two MiG-19's downed
New target sets were approved for Linebacker strikes in North Vietnam, to include power plants, shipyards and a Haiphong cement plant. Of 200 USN sorties into North Vietnam on 18 May, 60 were in the Haiphong region, including a strike on the Uong Bi power plant near Haiphong.
At 1730, two MiG-19's were downed by two F-4B's of VF-161 off MIDWAY. One F-4B flown by LT Henry A. "Bart" Bartholomy and RIO LT Oran R. Brown downed a MiG with an AIM-9 sidewinder. The other F-4B, flown by LT Patrick E. Arwood and RIO James M. "Mike" Bell used a newer variant AIM-9G sidewinder for the kill.
23 May – Two MiGs downed by single F-4B
Guided-missile destroyer leader USS BIDDLE (DLG-34) had just arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin on 15 May and relieved STERETT (DLG-31) on the northern search and rescue (SAR) station. At about 1745 on 23 May, controllers on BIDDLE vectored two F-4B's of VA-161 off MIDWAY toward enemy MiGs. The F-4's were supporting a strike on the Haiphong petroleum products storage. The lead F-4B was flown by LCDR Ronald E. "Mugs" McKeown and RIO LT John C. "Jack" Ensch. The two F-4's wound up overhead Kep Airfield, one of the largest MiG bases in North Vietnam.
As the two F-4's turned to pursue two MiG-19's, they were unpleasantly surprised to discover six more MiG-17's in the air. A MiG-17 got on McKeown's tail, and in an effort to regain advantage, McKeown stalled his jet which then went into an end-over-end tumble (not a NATOPS approved maneuver;) this did however cause the MiG to overshoot. McKeown fired a Sidewinder but the MiG broke hard at the last instant and the missile missed. McKeown then engaged a different MiG-17 that passed in front of him; this time the shot was perfect and blew off the MiG's tail. McKeown then immediately turned to engage a MiG that had gotten on his wingman's tail and shot it down with another Sidewinder.
McKeown and Ensch were each awarded a Navy Cross for the engagement. Ensch would be shot down in August 1972 and was held as a Prisoner of War until released in March 1973.
The same day, an A-7B of VA-93 off MIDWAY flown by CDR Charles E. Barnett was shot down. Barnett was killed. His remains were returned in 1988. The North Vietnamese claimed it was an air-to-air kill, but U.S. records indicate a SAM hit. Barnett had previously survived being downed by a SAM in 1966 while flying an A-4 of VA-195.
24 May – Continuous night ops.
TF-77 aircraft commenced constant night operations over Vietnam, weather permitting, relying on the A-6A (and more capable A-6B on KITTY HAWK) and A-7E aircraft. At times, night sorties would account for 30% of the total.
26 May – Ineffective shore battery fire.
During a bombardment of the Ha Trung petroleum storage area by USN surface ships, North Vietnamese shore batteries fired 175 rounds of artillery at the ships with no effect. Throughout the campaign, shore battery fire was common, but hits were not.
31 May – Statistics.
USN aircraft flew 3,949 attack sorties into North Vietnam in May compared to 1,250 in April. USN attack sorties into South Vietnam dropped from 4,833 in April to 3,290 in May. This was compensated by an increase in Marine sorties in the South from 543 in April to 1,502 in May with the arrival of more Marine aircraft in-country. USN aircraft struck 2,416 targets in North Vietnam in May, up from 719 in April. Target categories included railroads (16%,) roads and trucks (14%,) storage areas (13%,) and bridges (10%.) USN aircraft shot down 16 North Vietnamese jets in May including 11 MiG-17 Fresco, two MiG-19 Farmer and three MiG-21 Fishbed fighters. USN lost six aircraft in May, two F-4 Phantom II and two A-7 Corsair II to AAA and SA-2 surface-to-air missiles. One F-8 Crusader and one RA-5 Vigilante were lost to unknown cause, but none believed due to enemy fighters.
8 June – Kontum holds.
With the critical aid of U.S. airpower and after two months of brutal fighting, ARVN forces held at Kontum City in the Central Highlands and had begun to push the NVA back toward Cambodia.
11 June – Mad Dog downs a MiG, and Tooter makes up for one that got away.
In the early morning, two F-4B Phantom II's of VF-51 off CORAL SEA launched to provide protection for a strike on Nam Dinh (southeast of Hanoi, midway to the coast) to take station just west of Nam Dinh, midway between Hanoi and Thanh Hoa. The lead aircraft was flown by VF-51 Squadon Commander CDR Foster "Tooter" Teague and RIO LT Ralph Howell. Flying wing was LT Winston W. "Mad Dog" Copeland and RIO LT Donald "Puppy" Bouchoux.
Upon arrival at the assigned station, Red Crown gave a vector to the northeast, which Copeland did not hear as his radio was not working (nor was his radar.) Nevertheless, Copeland stayed with the skipper in combat spread, then sighted four MiG-17's above. The lead MiG dove on Foster for a firing pass, but Copeland cleaned the MiG off his skipper's tail with a Sidewinder. The MiG blew up and crashed with no ejection. In the meantime Foster went after the lead MiG's wingman, downing the jet with three Sidewinders.
Copeland had an opportunity to catch the other two MiGs as they fled, but with no radio, and the skipper's jet temporarily out of sight, he opted not chase the MiGs until he sighted his skipper, which was just enough time for the MiGs to escape. On the return flight, Copeland's left engine caught fire, intense enough to weld a Sparrow missile to the fuselage. Copeland and Bouchoux opted not to eject over North Vietnam and nursed the smoking jet back to a successful trap, after all the other aircraft had recovered.
All four pilots and RIOs were each awarded a Silver Star for the engagement. (Of note, Rear Admiral Copeland commanded the THEODORE ROOSEVELT Battle Group through over 3,400 strike sorties in Kosovo/Serbia and another 40 in Iraq, with no loss of aircraft, on a single deployment in 1999. I was Mad Dog's N2.)
By mid-June, the Joint Chiefs of staff requested to strike 44 targets that were still off limits and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird approved 28 of them.
17 June - Watergate
In a little noticed event at the time, five "burglars" were arrested at the Watergate hotel/apartment/office complex in Washington DC breaking in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters to emplace wiretaps (this was actually the second break in, the first was undetected on 28 May.) This would ultimately lead to the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Nixon in 1974, after he had been re-elected in November 1972.
21 June – MiG-21 downed during hair-raising dogfight.
Two F-4J's off SARATOGA ingressed over North Vietnam ahead of a strike. The lead F-4J was flown by VF-31 Executive Officer CDR Samuel C. Flynn and RIO LT William H. John. The two F-4J's narrowly avoided incoming SAMs before being vectored by LONG BEACH toward MiGs approaching from the north. Although cleared to fire radar-guided Sparrow missiles before visual contact, the MiGs were higher than expected and were not picked up by the F-4J radar.
The MiGs commenced an attack from a position of advantage above. In the dogfight that followed, Flynn tried to fire a Sparrow, but the missile malfunctioned. By this time one of the Mig-21s was on Flynn's wingman's tail about to fire an AA-2 Atoll missile. The wingman avoided two Atolls and Flynn tried to get in position for a Sidewinder shot that would be sure to hit the MiG and not his wingman. Flynn's first Sidewinder missed. The MiG fired a third Atoll at the wingman, which missed. Finally Flynn got a good angle and fired two Sidwinders; the first missed but the second went right up the MiG's tailpipe. The MiG went into a flat spin and the pilot ejected. CDR Flynn and LT John were each awarded a Silver Star. This was the first MiG downed by an Atlantic Fleet carrier during the war.
30 June
Navy aircraft flew 2,021 strike sorties against NVA targets in South Vietnam during June and 3,844 strike sorties against Linebacker targets in North Vietnam. Armed reconnaissance attacks continued to predominate, focused on road and water transport and logistics storage targets.
By the end of June, the worst of the NVA threat to Saigon via An Loc had passed, although fighting continued in the vicinity. The same was true at Kontum in the Central Highlands. However, once the NVA had taken Quang Tri City in the north it would take until September and much bitter fighting for the ARVN to evict them. Throughout it all, Naval Aviation and Naval Gunfire Support would be critical enablers of ARVN success.
End of Part I. Look for Part II around June which will include;
- Continuation of LINEBACKER I
- Mine strike and near loss of USS WARRINGTON (DD-843)
- Jane Fonda's most unforgettable role
- MiG bombing attack on USS BIDDLE (DLG-34)
- First MiG kill by Navy Sparrow missile
- Operation Lions Den – Surface action in Haiphong Harbor with C7F embarked
- USS NEWPORT NEWS (CA-148) turret explosion
- Quang Tri recaptured
- "Snuffy" Smith takes down the stubborn Thanh Hoa bridge.
- Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho reach a deal.
- Linebacker I halted
- South Vietnam President Thieu says "no way" (in Vietnamese) to the deal
- Engineman 3/C SEAL Michael Thornton Medal of Honor
- President Nixon re-elected
- Paris Peace Talks collapse (again)
- Operation Linebacker II commences – most costly aerial combat of the war
- North Vietnamese Cry Uncle – for now.
H-Grams (navy.mil)
Previous H-grams on Vietnam
H-gram 008/H-008-6 FORRESTAL Fire
H-gram 009/H-009-3 US Navy Operations in Vietnam to 1967
H-gram 010/H-010-7 LT Fitzgerald and LT Capodanno
H-gram 017/H-017-1 Tet Offensive and H-017-2 Rolling Thunder
H-gram 019/H-019-1 PCF-19 and H-019-2 LTJG Lassen
H-gram 022 End of Rolling Thunder
H-gram 025/H025-2 ENTERPRISE Fire
H-gram 028/H-028-1 US Navy Valor in Vietnam
H-gram 031 FRANK E. EVANS Collision and Loss
H-gram 041/H041-5 Loss of SS BADGER STATE
H-gram 043/H043-2 USN POWs in Vietnam
H-gram 059/H-059-2 Vietnam 1971
H-gram 069 Vietnam War Veterans Day
(Sources include; NHHC Dictionary of American Fighting Ships.
"Nixon's Trident - Naval Power in Southeast Asia 1968-1972" by John Darrel Sherwood: NHHC, 2009. "By Sea Air and Land - an Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia" by Edward J. Marolda: Naval Historical Center,1994. "The Naval Air War in Vietnam" by Peter B. Mersky and Norman Polmar: Nautical & Aviation Publishing Co. of America,1986. "Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience" by John Sherwood: Simon and Schuster, 2001. "Smoking MiGs" by RADM Winston W. Copeland, USN (Ret.) in "Proceedings," Sep. 2021.)
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This Day in U S Military History…….April 16
1945 – Just four days after President Franklin Roosevelt passed away–the federal government tacked another year on to the term of one of Roosevelt's key pieces of wartime legislation, the Lend-Lease Act. The Lend-Lease bill was originally enacted in 1941, when the U.S. was wavering between entering World War II and remaining neutral. Roosevelt, however, was increasingly committed to the fight against fascism; he was also under growing pressure from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to cease the practice of selling, rather than lending or outright giving, war materials to England. The Lend-Lease legislation remedied this situation, as America now served as "the great arsenal of democracy," providing Great Britain with money and military machinery; in return, England could make repayments either "in kind or property, or any other direct or indirect benefit which the President deems satisfactory." As the war progressed, the U.S. expanded the Lend Lease system to include China and Russia. All told, the U.S. funneled $50.6 billion worth of Lend-Lease aid to the Allies during the war, the majority of which went to Britain and the USSR.
1972 – From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apollo 16, the fifth of six U.S. lunar landing missions, is successfully launched on its 238,000-mile journey to the moon. On April 20, astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke descended to the lunar surface from Apollo 16, which remained in orbit around the moon with a third astronaut, Thomas K. Mattingly, in command. Young and Duke remained on the moon for nearly three days, and spent more than 20 hours exploring the surface of Earth's only satellite. The two astronauts used the Lunar Rover vehicle to collect more than 200 pounds of rock before returning to Apollo 16 on April 23. Four days later, the three astronauts returned to Earth, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
1972 – In an effort to help blunt the ongoing North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong after a four-year lull. In the first use of B-52s against both Hanoi and Haiphong, and the first attacks against both cities since November 1968, 18 B-52s and about 100 U.S. Navy and Air Force fighter-bombers struck supply dumps near Haiphong's harbor. Sixty fighter-bombers hit petroleum storage facilities near Hanoi, with another wave of planes striking later in the afternoon. White House spokesmen announced that the United States would bomb military targets anywhere in Vietnam in order to help the South Vietnamese defend against the communist onslaught. These actions were part of the U.S. response to the North Vietnamese offensive, which had begun on March 30. The North Vietnamese had launched a massive invasion designed to strike the knockout blow that would win the war for the communists. The attack was called the Nguyen Hue Offensive by the North Vietnamese, but was also more commonly known to Americans as the "Easter Offensive." The attacking force of North Vietnamese included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north, were Kontum in the Central Highlands, and An Loc farther to the south. The fighting, which continued into the fall, was some of the most desperate of the war as the South Vietnamese fought for their very survival. They prevailed against the invaders with the help of U.S. advisors and massive American airpower.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
TIBBETS, ANDREW W.
Rank and organization: Private, Company I, 3d lowa Cavalry. Place and date: At Columbus, Ga., 16 April 1865. Entered service at: Appanoose County, lowa. Birth: Clark County, Ind. Date of issue: 17 June 1865. Citation: Capture of flag and bearer, Austin's Battery (C.S.A.).
YOUNG, HORATIO N.
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 19 July 1845, Calaise, Maine. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Lehigh, Charleston Harbor, 16 November 1863, during the hazardous task of freeing the Lehigh, which had grounded, and was under heavy enemy fire from Fort Moultrie. After several previous attempts had been made, Young succeeded in passing in a small boat from the Lehigh to the Nahant with a line bent on a hawser. This courageous action while under severe enemy fire enabled the Lehigh to be freed from her helpless position.
BUSH, RICHARD EARL
Rank and organization: Corporal, U .S. Marine Corps Reserve, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 6th Marine Division. Place and date: Mount Yaetake on Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 16 April 1945. Entered service at: Kentucky. Born: 23 December 1923, Glasgow, Ky. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a squad leader serving with the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 6th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces, during the final assault against Mount Yaetake on Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 16 April 1945. Rallying his men forward with indomitable determination, Cpl. Bush boldly defied the slashing fury of concentrated Japanese artillery fire pouring down from the gun-studded mountain fortress to lead his squad up the face of the rocky precipice, sweep over the ridge, and drive the defending troops from their deeply entrenched position. With his unit, the first to break through to the inner defense of Mount Yaetake, he fought relentlessly in the forefront of the action until seriously wounded and evacuated with others under protecting rocks. Although prostrate under medical treatment when a Japanese hand grenade landed in the midst of the group, Cpl. Bush, alert and courageous in extremity as in battle, unhesitatingly pulled the deadly missile to himself and absorbed the shattering violence of the exploding charge in his body, thereby saving his fellow marines from severe injury or death despite the certain peril to his own life. By his valiant leadership and aggressive tactics in the face of savage opposition, Cpl. Bush contributed materially to the success of the sustained drive toward the conquest of this fiercely defended outpost of the Japanese Empire. His constant concern for the welfare of his men, his resolute spirit of self-sacrifice, and his unwavering devotion to duty throughout the bitter conflict enhance and sustain the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
DEWEY, DUANE E.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Company E, 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Near Panmunjon, Korea, 16 April 1952. Entered service at: Muskegon, Mich. Born: 16 November 1931, Grand Rapids, Mich. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a gunner in a machine gun platoon of Company E, in action against enemy aggressor forces. When an enemy grenade landed close to his position while he and his assistant gunner were receiving medical attention for their wounds during a fierce night attack by numerically superior hostile forces, Cpl. Dewey, although suffering intense pain, immediately pulled the corpsman to the ground and, shouting a warning to the other marines around him. bravely smothered the deadly missile with his body, personally absorbing the full force of the explosion to save his comrades from possible injury or death. His indomitable courage, outstanding initiative, and valiant efforts in behalf of others in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon Cpl. Dewey and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
*INGALLS, GEORGE ALAN
Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 2d Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Place and date: Near Duc Pho, Republic of Vietnam, 16 April 1967. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Born: 9 March 1946, Hanford, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sp4c. Ingalls, a member of Company A, accompanied his squad on a night ambush mission. Shortly after the ambush was established, an enemy soldier entered the killing zone and was shot when he tried to evade capture. Other enemy soldiers were expected to enter the area, and the ambush was maintained in the same location. Two quiet hours passed without incident, then suddenly a hand grenade was thrown from the nearby dense undergrowth into the center of the squad's position. The grenade did not explode, but shortly thereafter a second grenade landed directly between Sp4c. Ingalls and a nearby comrade. Although he could have jumped to a safe position, Sp4c. Ingalls, in a spontaneous act of great courage, threw himself on the grenade and absorbed its full blast. The explosion mortally wounded Sp4c. Ingalls, but his heroic action saved the lives of the remaining members of his squad. His gallantry and selfless devotion to his comrades are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon Sp4c. Ingalls, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
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This is from years ago the story behind the daily history of the USAF. When I first found the piece it was all run together from the first word to the last and took quite a while to break it down by each day but it was worth the time…skip
Yesterday while searching for some Air Force History like the Naval History I include in the daily List I came across this site and used it for the first time below I am now trying to contact him Skip
Note; I did eventually contact him and found out that nobody has continued his fine work. Sad that all that work is stopped around 2007
HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENLACKLAND AFB, TEXAS 23 February 2009
In 1981, as an Air Force enlisted historian, I worked for the Research Division of the Air Force Historical Research Agency (then Albert F. Simpson Historical Center) at Maxwell AFB, Al. For the next two years, I answered inquiries and conducted the Historian's Development Course. While there I discovered a real "nugget," A Chronology of American Aerospace Events from 1903-1974, gathering dust on an obscure shelf. I knew the draft document would be a handy reference for all enlisted field historians. In 1983, I took a copy of this chronology with me on my next assignment with the 39th Tactical Group in Turkey. The chronology proved to be an invaluable source in promoting Air Force history. It allowed me to prepare "Today in Aerospace History" slides for weekly staff meetings and write a weekly "Aerospace Highlights" column for the base newspaper. But at that time, the chronology was arranged by year and date, and it took considerable time to find events by specific dates. In 1985, I moved to the Ballistic Missile Office at Norton AFB, California, to write about the Peacekeeper and Small ICBM programs. The introduction of computers allowed me to convert the original chronology into a "By Date" product. I knew that the chronology was not an all inclusive listing, so I began to integrate events from other works—like the Development of Strategic Air Command, 1946-1986, The SAC Missile Chronology, and The Military Airlift Command Historical Handbook, 1941-1986—into an electronic product. This incorporation process has grown to include 32 different chronologies. I also began indexing all entries and began to add events selectively in categories of firsts, lasts, and other significant accomplishments. I kept adding to my aerospace chronology over the years. During my first civilian assignment as the historian for Eighth Air Force at Barksdale AFB, I started a third section for organizational and personnel events. E-mail allowed me to send daily history notes, which brought further attention to the chronology and Air Force History Program. This e-mail endeavor then led commanders to request daily highlights for their speeches and special presentations. Since my assignment to the Office of History in 2004, I have loaded my chronology on the Air Force History Office portal page to make it accessible to Air Force Historians and Air Force personnel in general.
My chronology is now being used by the National Museum of the Air Force to present Today in Air and Space History to its many visitors and by several Air Force schools and ROTC programs to make their students aware of Air Force history. My chronology will remain a work in progress, as I continue
AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS
FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
16 April
1912: First US licensed woman pilot, Harriet Quimby, flew the English Channel. (24)
1915: Lt Patrick N. L. Bellinger successfully catapulted the AB-2 Flying Boat from a barge at Pensacola.
(24)
1916: The Lafayette Escadrille, a group of American pilots fighting with the French, established. (4)
1923: Through 17 April, Lts John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly flew a Fokker T-2 Transport to
FAI records at Dayton. They stayed aloft for 36 hours 4 minutes and flew 2,516.58 miles. (9)
1926: The Department of Agriculture purchased its first cotton-dusting plane. (24)
1935: Through 17 April, the Pan American Clipper flew from Alameda, Calif., to Honolulu in 18
hours 37 minutes in the first test flight for Pan American Airways' transpacific commercial air
service. (24)
1946: The US Army launched a V-2 rocket, the first in the US, at White Sands Proving Ground. (21)
1949: The YF-94 Starfire first flew.
BERLIN AIRLIFT'S BIGGEST DAY. Military aircraft delivered a record 12,940 tons of
supplies to Berlin in 1,398 flights within 24 hours. (4) (24)
1951: SAC redesignated its RB-50Bs by missions: RB-50Es were used for photoreconnaissance, Fs for photomapping, and Gs for electronic reconnaissance. (1)
KOREAN WAR. Through 20 April, FEAF Bomber Command averaged 10 B-29 sorties a day
against Pyongyang, Kangdong, Yonpo, and other North Korean airfields. (28)
A Snark research test vehicle completed its first sled launch at Holloman AFB. (6)
1956: Lockheed unveiled its F-104A Starfighter at Palmdale. General Otto P. Weyland observed, "This is much more than just another fighter, it is a significant and tremendous step forward in our progress in supersonic flight."
1959: A RAF crew launched its first Thor successfully from Vandenberg AFB. (6)
1969: The first Minuteman II operational test launch from Vandenberg AFB was unsuccessful. (6)
1972: Apollo XVI carried John W. Young, Charles M. Duke, Jr., and Thomas K. Mattingly II from the Kennedy Space Center on the fifth lunar landing mission. The lunar module "Orion" touched down in the moon's Descartes region on 20 April, lifted off on 24 April, rejoined the "Casper" command module, and landed in the Pacific on 27 April after an 11-day, 2-hour mission.
1973: USAF B-52s resumed bombing against North Vietnamese positions in Laos following reports that communist forces overran a town in the Plaine des Jarres. (16) (26)
1980: The Douglas Aircraft Company revealed the KC-10 Advanced Tanker/Cargo aircraft for the first time at its Long Beach facility. (12)
1997: The Test Pilot School's NT-33A in-flight simulator, the USAF's last T-33, flew to the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, for permanent display. (3)
2004: MACKAY TROPHY. Near Kharbut, Iraq, in near-zero visibility, two USAF HH-60G helicopterswere dispatched to rescue a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter that had crashed in a sandstorm. The brown-out conditions left the rescue crews' infrared and night vision goggles ineffective, making navigation extremely difficult and the rescue attempt much more dangerous. In executing the rescue mission, the crews also had to navigate through multiple surface-to-air missile attacks. In the end all five Army crash survivors were located, rescued and evacuated out of the combat zone unharmed. For that action, the crews earned the trophy. The rescue crews, from the 41 RS and 38 RS at Moody AFB, Ga., were: Capts. Bryan Creel and Robert Wrinkle, Aircraft commanders; Maj. Joseph Galletti and Capt. Greg Rockwood, Co-pilots; TSgts Michael Preston and SSgt Patrick Ledbetter, Flight engineers; MSgt Paul Silver and TSgt Thomas Ringheimer, Aerial gunners; and TSgt Matt Leigh and SSgts Vincent J. Eckert, John Griffin and Michael Rubio and SrA Edward Ha, Pararescuemen. (Pentagon Press Release No. 011205, Airmen to Receive Mackay Trophy for Heroics, 2 Dec 05)
2005: The first U-2S upgraded through the Reconnaissance Avionics Maintainability Program
(RAMP) returned to the 9 RW at Beale AFB. The RAMP upgrade replaced the original cockpit with new equipment including three 6-by-8 inch multifunction displays, an up-front control and display unit, and an independent secondary flight display system. Lockheed-Martin received the contract to modify the entire fleet of 31 U-2S aircraft and 4 U-2 trainers by 2007. (ACC
News Release, "First Upgraded U-2 Arrives at Beale AFB," 29 April 2005)
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