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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06167 to 363-06172.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06167 to 363-06172
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Title
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Article about USS Ranger's aerial bombing campaign
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Description
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Original title: "fleet", Keever's title: "USS Ranger Pilot Bombing North Vietnam: 'If You Worry About Death, You Go Bats, So Not Many of Us Think About It", Article about USS Ranger's aerial bombing campaign, from interviews with the pilots and admirals on the ship, for the New York Herald Tribune
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Transcript
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deepe
floot-1
april 14, 1965
ABOARD USS RANGER, SEVENTH FLEET, SOUTH CHINA SEA--"It's the
grea test show on earth,"
SELF. Conting
moditated Rear Admiral
HENRY
Miller
"It's fantastic. It
aboard this 4000-man at floating airbase.
looks impossible, but we do it 365 days and nights a year."
USS
Even the commander of the Ranger's sister shipgam aircraft carrier,
Coral Soa, Rear Admiral EDWARD
Outlaw was impressed.
"People spend millions to watch baseball and football games,"
Outlaw explained, fingoring his own green baseball cap. "But this
is the most o professional game in the world-right on an aircraft
carrier. I've been getting a kick out of it for thirty years."
(More)
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deepe
fleet 2
april 14, 1965
The U. S. Navy planes from the admirals"
two aircraft carriers
ha ve since February carried the full load of responsibility for the
American sea portion of the airstrikes against North Viet Nam.
(Note to Editor: I'll cable you Friday, when the piece has arrived
in New York, the official statistics on the number of targets hit by the
U. Navy planes, numer number of planes lost, pilots lost etc.
This is s
being compiled now.)
The two admirals perched in the spot-less air-conditioned bridge-
which the swabbies called "vulture's row row"--and joked with each other,
Both lean and younger looking than their early 10 50's, the had been newy
buddies since their naval pilot days in the Pacific in World War II.
("I kept calling 'BLACK PER PANTER, where are you'," Admiral Miller
joked, "But Outlaw was never around when I needed him.")
Both wore brown leather battle jackets and green baseball caps.
gundos Embroidered in gold om the back of Admiral Miller's
was his favorite expression, "ev "Jehovah !"
(More)
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deepe
fleet-3
While the admirals joked, their eyes were glued on the
"fantastic game" being played below the "vulture's row." With
precise, coordinated town actions, five "football teams"
of enlisted men performed their roles. There were the redshirts-
bevies of enlisted men wearing red sweatshirts and red stocking caps
(to prevent their hair being caught in the intricate neohe machinery)-
whose one function wasto load the ordinance, bombs (which they carted
through messhallst ma ny decks below) and the fueld fuel. ("They look
like kids, but they are really professional," Admiral Millor explained.
"They're going all the time.)
There were the blueshirts--commonly called "plane-pushers." They
moved the planes from one deck, placed it on an gk open-air elevator,
which raised it to another deal and pushed it into position. "They just
push planes all day, that's all," one pilot expla ined.) There were the
green-shirts the mechanios and maintenance mon, who scrubbed, washed,
pa mpered each aircraft. There were the yellow-shirts-the directors of
air traffic and the brown-shirts who were the plane captains in charge
of each individual airplane.
(More)
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deepe
fleet-4
april 14, 1965
Then the "fantastic game" began. As the Blue-shirts pushed the
planes into position, other team members latched a giant steel
vatapult to a small hook on ea o oach plane. Automatically a
mammoth steel plate arose from the flight deck, to divert the
BACK-BIAST.
1200-degree heat & gonerated from the plane's jet burners.
("If it weren't for that steel plate, the heat would melt this entire
bridge," one pilot explained.)
Then, suddenly, the off ste giant steel steam catapults
snapped--operating "one the principle of a giant slingshot," onepi
pilot explained,jettison one plane in off the carrier deck and
into the air. Thirty seconds later, a second, then a third and then
a fourth raced down the flight deck and above the South of China Sea.
dEPARTED
They parted in flights of four, which the pilots called
"covies of birds."
Then another four aircraft whelled wheeled into position and the
game was rep re-played, over and over again countlessly. Tremm
Off the deck flew the swept-wing, twin-engine A3B Skywarrior, a $2-million
Je Bom Bee
capable of carrying conventional-or nuclear-weapons. Then were
launched the F-4B Phantom-which the pilots labelled "The Monster."
The
Phantom-the prize of the U. S. Navy aircraft-flied flies at double-the-
speed of sound. It olims at blin climb climbs at 18,000 feet a minute;
has a combat radius of 650 miless consistently carries the Sidewinder e
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deepe
fleet-5
When landing upon the flight deck, the giant steel catapults,
as though by magic, caught the tiny hook of the planes, traveling
at more than 160 miles per hours, and jerked them to a halting stop
within 200 feet.
Many decks below-even the sors sailors couldn't count the number
of decks--was the home and the workshop of the 4,000-man Titi floating
The ship is equipped with an air-conditioning capabity
There is a communications network
community.
to service two Empire State Buildings.
The ship
consisting of 2,300 telephones for daily conversations.
carries its own distilling plant, giving the crow an independent source
of water delivering more than 100,000 gallons an hour.
There are more than
800 miles of cables, wires and pipes, winding through a 16 labyrinth of
passageways and compartments, carrying electricity, water and steam.
There are soda fountains, recreation rooms, a hobby shop, library,
guynasium, shoe repair shop and a tatorsh a tailor shop. (The husky
Negro tailor explained, "We are the sailor's wives when it comes
to sewing om buttons. We can get the uniforms out overnight-but the
INFORM
admirals are fixed in a couple of hours.")
The crew is fed at a daily cost of a $1.08 a man; hot meals
are available 22 hours of the day. About 10 tons of food are consumed
ea ch day. (The biggest problem on this ship is too much good food, "
pilot explained. "But I walk it off. To go from my room, the to messs hall
to the flight deck is about one mile. Unfor
one
Unfortunately, we don't
he touched.
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deepe
fleet--6
Following lunch, the pilots departed for the ready rooms-one for
HARGERS'
each of the six aircraft squadrons and three detchments, totalling
80 plaine airplaines, 1250 enlisted men and 200 officers. The
air-conditioned ready rooms appeared to be miniature movie theatres-
Three
with rows of green upholstered chairs for the pilots on alert.
separate television sets hung in the front of the room, showing the
landing and ta king off of aircraft on the flight deck far above them,
others telegraphing the weather report throughout the South China Sea
area. Day or night, some of the squadrons are on twenty-four hour
alor alerts two pilots are a always sitting in their planes for
USS RANGER is
instantaneous take-off in case the ships the attacked.
"Of course,
"This is a great operation," onepilot explained in the "ready room. "
we lose men sometimes. Like the Skyraider pilot we lost
yesterday. My room-mate had hax eaten breakfast with him before the
air-raid on North Viet Nam. And it's tough on the squadron that he was
a momber of--sometimes the pilots have known each other for years.
"But if you worry about death, you go bats. So not many of us
think about it. "
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Date
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1965, Apr. 14
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Ranger (Screw steamer); United States. Navy; Jet planes; Bombing, Aerial--Vietnam; Aircraft carriers
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Location
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Seven Fleet, South China Sea
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Coordinates
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15.4881; 114.4048
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B187, F4
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
