Article about U.S. pilots shot down in North Vietnam

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-07718 to 363-07728.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-07718 to 363-07728

Title

Article about U.S. pilots shot down in North Vietnam

Description

Keever's title: "Downed U.S. Pilot bombing North Vietnam rescued amid duel with shoreline gunners", article about U.S. pilots bombing North Vietnam and the experiences of pilots who were shot down, for the New York Herald Tribune

AI Usage Disclosure

Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.

Transcript

(MORGAN GANDY) ABOARD USS KITTY HAWK (UPIS) They treetopped back through the black clouds of North Vietnam today and, said one pilot, “America can no longer turn back. It’s either victory or defeat.” Through [deletion: orga] orangeballs of anti-aircraft artillery and fiery ground mortars, the American planes raced [deletion: in] towards their military targets at double the speed of sound. And, some, too, did notrptnot turn back. At least one Navy jet was shotdown--but American rescue crews in bomb-laden fighter aircraft held an hour-long hit-and-run duel with North Vietnamese shoreline gunners. The gunners mostly lost; the American A-1 Skyhawk pilot was recovered in good condition. Still the pilots returned cursing their luck and the [XXXX indicating deletion] weather. (More Malloy--BD) first add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x good condition x x x. At 8:30, through the semi-sunshine, the [deletion: beinn] beginning of the [XXXX indicating deletion] missions ended the [deletion: thirty seven-day stand “stand-x] “stand-down” in the American airwar in North Vietnam. “For thirty seven days we watched the bombing pause and we thought it was good,” one jetpilot reported, “and then we watched the news get blacker and blacker when Hanoi [XXXX indicating deletion] didn’t want peace. We knew we would have to again [deletion: io] go on the missions we’d rather notrptnot go on.” And, so, too for America. (More Malloy--BD) second add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x for America. x x x Throughout the day, the giant steam catapults launched plane after plane from the four-acre deck of this [deletion: giant] attack aircraft carrier--the flagship of [deletion: the] Seventh Fleet’s striking force--[deletion: lo steaming in the] cruising twenty five miles north of the [deletion: seventh] seventeenth parallel at the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin. One destroyer, the USS Moore, protected the northern flank of the giant floating airbase while another, the USS Hubbard, lapped along to the east. Aye sister ship, the attack aircraft carrier the USS Ranger, [deletion: wans] was conducting similar airstrikes against North Vietnam from another location. [deletion: (More Malloy--BD)] “The Cat Company”--catapult men in green sweatshirts--calculated deep within the bowels of the ship the necessary steam pressure needed for the [XXXX indicating deletion] thick steel catapults’ [insertion: cables] to lash off [deletion: the decks] the myriads of jet and conventional aircraft… the droopynosed, double-the-speed-of-sound FFF444 Phantom, the banana-shaped A6A Intruder all-weather attack bomber with “computerized bombing” equipment….the needle-nosed RA5C repeat RA5C twin jet reconnaissance aircraft…the faithful A1 Skyraider of Korean War vintage, so old the pilots called them “Spads…the delicate E2A repeat E2A Hawk[deletion:eye], called the “Super Fudd” which is a flying radar station. Throughout the day, bevies of planes swamre swarmed in the skies as aircraft were launched to North Vietnam every hour--and others awaited their turn to land in a screeching, hissing roar on the flightdeck. [insertion: (More Malloy--BD)] third add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x for from another location. x x x The order of President Lyndon BBB Johnson [XXXX indicating deletion] to resume bombing of North Vietnam was received on the USS Kitty Hawk in the evening of Sunday, January thirty. By eleven pppmmm, the American pilots were called to their [XXXX indicating deletion] “ready rooms” for briefings; by two ayem in the chilly damp darkness the special reconnaissance aircraft packed with multi-million dollar radar, electronic hardware “and exotic black boxes” were launched as a prelude to to the lethal aistrikes from this [deletion: carrier] floating city carrying [deletion: conventional two conventional] two [deletion: Terrier] terrier missile launcher batteries capable of [deletion: launching] hurling supersonic surface to air missiles. The strike aircraft also carry air-to-air missiles with conventional warheads--and “we neither confirm nor deny that we [deletion: are carrying] possess nuclear striking capabilities,” an official source explained. (More Malloy--BD) fourth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x source explained. x x x In one of the six air-conditioned ready rooms--the briefing lounges--Commander Royce Williams, 40, commander of the supersonic Phantom jetsquadrom--described the first mission over North Vietnam that left the Kitty Hawk at 8:30 ayem. He crouched on the floor and fingered his orange baseball cap with golden letters: The Fighting One Fourteen--Honorary Aardvark. “This hat is a gift from the other squadron--this briefing room [deletion: is because I’m now in] is Aardvardk Heaven,” he explained. “We were assigned sectors for the bombing raids--and we shared some of these sectors with the Air Force and planes from other ships. [deletion: We] My squadron had an assigned area--to find lucrative targets. I don’t know if we should say it--but we couldn’t find the targets. We went over the targets but because of the weather we weren’t successful…so we took our alternate target.” The closed-circuit television in the [deletion: froon] front of the room showed more aircraft taking off for North Vietnam; other pilots filed their de-briefing forms and sipped coffee as he talked [deletion: .] in “Aardvardk Heaven.” (More Malloy--BD) fifth add--morgan gandy--saigon xxxaardvardk heaven x x x. “We were notified last night that the bombing raid would be commenced. This came as [XXXX indicating deletion] aye surprise and [XXXX indicating deletion] was held secret,” he explained. “There was norptno information before that. I got up at five ayem ayem--one thing we all need is sleep--had a quick breakfast of my usual eggs and started [insertion: at 5:30] preparing for the flight eye was to lead [deletion: at 9:30]. I had to collect my flight gear from the other squadron rooms and I had to dash around to do that and then we finished the [deletion: break] briefing and went to the aircraft. The weather over the target was terrible, with very low clouds. This was the absolute minimum and we [deletion: flet] flew in at fivehundred feet above the ground. Our mission was armed reconnaissance on roads and railroads, but we couldn’t do that so we took [deletion: out alternati] our alternate target. But the alternate target--a bridge--wasn’t there. It was a pontoon bridge. They expected we were coming in and they put it somewhere else,” he moaned. “We encountered aye normal amount of groundfire--I suppose, although this was my first flight into North Vietnam. But it’s what I expected--I was in combat in Korea.” (More Malloy--BD) sixth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x xin Korea x x x. He described the groundfire as medium anti-aircraft artillery and automatic weapons. “I wouldn’t describe these flights as routine,” he continued. “They all depend on the area and the amount of enemy opposition--and the other consideration is the weather. If we have to go low, we are within the danger of their guns. (More Malloy--BD) seventh add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x their gung guns x x x. Four decks [deletion: above,] below, the whomping [deletion: bomb] boom of landing jets [XXXX indicating deletion] [deletion: defeane defen] was followed by [deletion: the] aye hissing, screaming jolt as the cabled catapults jerked the planes to a [deletion: halt.] jerking halt within several hundred yards. The sound [XXXX indicating deletion] was deafening. Commander MMM. CCC. Cook, --called “the chief Arab--and commander of VA115, known as “The Arabs,” described his rescue operation to save the downed pilot of the U.S. Navy AAA444 Crusader. “Our mission was to fly rescue alert from 0830 to 1300,” he began. “I took my picnic lunch with me--a sandwich, apple and juice--and it was a picnic alright. We stayed off the coast (of North Vietnam) with the [deletion: ampi] amphibuous aircraft, in case there was a rescue to be made over water, and I’d vector him in for the pickup of the [deletion: pilots] downed pilots. But, in this case, I had just finished my picnic and we had a report that Garfish 407 (the [deletion: downed] Crusader) was down and the [XXXX indicating deletion] pilot was definitely in the water. He was [deletion: throug] throwing flares in the water--about [deletion: eight mil] eighty miles north of here--and other aircraft from the USS Ranger were flying cover above him. (More Malloy--BD) eighth add--morgan gandy--saigon above him. x x x Two of us proceeded ahead with the amphibious aircraft to the vicinity of the downed pilot and his wingman was circling above him and three A1 Skyhawks were also circling above him, The [deletion: amb] amphibious aircraft made a quick run to pick him up and as he came around to make a landing we received groundfire from the shore. It was large exploding shells from the water, [insertion: landing] about three hundred yards from the aircraft that was picking up the pilot. My wingman and I suppressed the groundfire with our rockets,” Cook continued, flinging off his orange “Arab”-insigniaed cap. “The three A1’s still had ammo on them, even though they had been on a strike mission and they joined us over the area east of Dong Hoi. The Communist gun positions are all over the world. They had gun positions along the beach.” None of the pilots who flew the missions wanted their home addresses to be published because “our wives are getting threatening phone calls at home from the anti-Vietnam people.” The pilots held the Vietniks in mild [deletion: com] contempt. (More--Malloy--BD) ninth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x mild contempt x x x. The heart of the [deletion: attac] air attack capabilities of the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet revolves around Task Force 77 and the two aircraft carriers, the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Ranger. (The third carrier--the unique nuclear-powered USS Enterprise is currently in Hong Kong). Task Force 77, consists of more than thirty ships, consisting of defensive missile frigates, cruisers, carriers carrying surface to air missiles and [XXXX indicating deletion] destroyers. The task force posture [deletion: is] covers a circle roughly several hundred miles in diameter from the [XXXX indicating deletion] South China Sea bordering the northern provinces of [XXXX indicating deletion] South Vietnam [deletion: in] on northwards towards and into the [deletion: inf] renowned Gulf of Tonkin, near the Chinese Communist island of Hainan. The defense includes three [XXXX indicating deletion] vast fluid lines--the aircraft carriers and their protecting destroyers, “the [deletion: radar pickets] forward radar picket destroyers, called Tomcats because they scope around by themselves all night up in the Gulf of Tonkin” and then a line of several missile ships. [deletion: The] Included in the defensive positioning are general purpose anti-submarine fleet destroyers and aircraft (no enemy submarines have been sighted in the South China Sea). “Our destroyers are just [XXXX indicating deletion] general purpose tin cans with radar sets on them,” one sailor flipped blasely. (More Malloy--BD) tenth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x flipped blasely x x x. Airborne [deletion: alerts] patrols on aye twenty four hour aye day basis of flying electronic ears and eyes provide another shield of the [deletion: defensive] layout of the Task Force; the incoming intelligence material is [insertion: automatically] funneled into [deletion: systematic] computers so that answers to specific questions can be [deletion: answered] obtained within a millionth of a second. “But, none of this helps to find the individual bands of guerrillas filing through the jungle,” one sailor explained. (Endit--Malloy--BD)

Date

1966

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; United States. Air Force; Bombardment; Airmen; Air pilots, Military; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Search and rescue operations; Bombing, Aerial

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B188, F3

Format

dispatches

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Collector

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English