ALPHA Strike (Part 2): Snako and Boris doing “Bidness” on same strike near Hanoi

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Ed

Continuing excerpts from Not on My Watch, by Dave ‘Snako’ Kelly

The following are some of my more memorable Alpha Strikes of the 1972-73 cruise.

Remembered Sky Note: On 22 July 1972, Schoolboy launched a major 30 plus plane Alpha Strike to the Ca Chau buried petroleum facility just across the Red River from Hanoi. CDR Neil Harvey, Commanding Officer of the VA-56 Champs was the strike leader.  Myself and Smokey Tolbert were his wingmen. Given the buried and hidden nature of the target, each pilot was given an aim point so as to cover the whole of the suspected area. Post flight Smokey told me that as third plane down, he observed my bombs as second attacker to be the ones that started the initial explosions. As it turns out, Snako and I were both on this strike. Continuing from Not On My Watch is his story of his first A-6 division lead. Our memories coincide pretty closely but as in all combat, each participant sees/recalls things differently. What is certain was the effect. As can be seen in the picture and as noted by Dave below, this strike created a huge cloud, visible even from Midway’s location at sea, giving  the hard working flight deck crew a view of what there efforts were supporting in the war.

My 1st Division (Alpha) Lead: Continue reading →

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Smokey- For love of the game

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Ed

This post was originally done for Memorial Day 2012. It includes a link to  the eulogy to Smokey, read into the Congressional Record by another of  my VA-56 pals, and another of Smokey’s great friends, Max Carey. I have brought it over from the blog on Project White Horse 084640 as part of Remembered Sky in honor of Smokey Tolbert, my great friend and fellow Champ during the Midway/CAG 5 1972 war cruise.

Smokey was shot down over North Vietnam on November 6, 1972.

Those of us who came home will never forget those who did not. Continue reading →

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Schoolboy: Essence of Winning and Losing (6/6)

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Ed

Just a little bit of repeat by way of summary to make sure a point or two gets highlighted:

Twilight Launch by Jim Horsely, VA-115 pilot 

On the “day after” – morning of 25 October – USS Midway launched strikes into North Vietnam. For a warship, survival on your “own terms” means carrying out your mission, in this case sending combat sorties over the North. Continue reading →

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Schoolboy – stories from the night of 24 October 1972 (2-5/6)

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Ed

The stories of the A-6 accident on 24 October 1972 were originally posted on the Project White Horse FORUM beginning with Naval Aviation 100 Years – Part 1: A Bad Night for Schoolboy – A Self-designing, High Reliability Organization. These stories are being transfered to Remembered Sky with certain modifications. The specific High Reliability Organization link has been separated from the stories and presented independently as a Remembered Sky tabbed page above –The Carrier –  in three parts.

Here then are the stories from that night: Continue reading →

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Stories of the Carrier – A Bad Night for Schoolboy (1/6)

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Ed

To this day I can’t watch – actually hear – the scene in A Christmas Carol where Marley is about to appear to Ebinezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve without recalling that night. The junior officers of Attack Squadron 56 (VA-56) lived in two bunk rooms under the flight deck arresting gear. During flight operations the sounds of Air Wing Five’s jets dropping on to the deck, the run out of the arresting wires and the scraping reset of the cables was so routine you just hardly noticed after six months of day and night combat sorties over North Vietnam. But this was different – the nerve grinding screech was obviously something dragging across the deck that was big and out-of-place.  Something was obviously very wrong.

 Today, now one hundred and one years after the first naval aviator to-be checked in to begin flight training at North Island, across the San Diego Harbor resides the USS Midway (CV-41), her operational service done, she is at peace. But it was not always that way. Continue reading →

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ALPHA Strike (Part 1)

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Ed

On May 10th, three and a half years after Lyndon Johnson called a halt to the Rolling Thunder campaign, Richard Nixon authorized the full-scale resumption of bombing operations against North Vietnam.  the new operation was called Linebacker and the rules of engagement were different. 

Excerpts from Chapters 30-33

Not on My Watch, by Dave ‘Snako’ Kelly

The U.S. had halted bombing of the North Vietnam in 1968.  In early 1972, when the decision had been made that we wanted to end the damn war, air power was selected as the weapon of choice. (RS note: As discussed in a previous post, USS Midway and Carrier AirWing Five left Alameda California on 10 April 1072 and commenced combat operations on the 29th On 10 May, Midway proceeded to Yankee station and began operations against North Vietnam.)

Once MIDWAY moved to North Yankee Station in the middle of the first line period flight ops remained in North Vietnam until the war ended in the North.  It wasn’t until our last line period in 1973 that we returned to the low-threat environment south of the DMZ. Continue reading →

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Not On My Watch

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Ed

by Dave ‘Snako’ Kelly

Prologue

This is a memoir of my personal experiences in Naval (carrier) Aviation and my short but intense involvement in the Air War over Vietnam. Admittedly my perspective is somewhat limited. My tours were at the end of the war with North Vietnam, and I was near the bottom of the Navy’s chain-of-command. I was, however, at the ‘pointy end of the spear’ as part of a medium attack squadron during two deployments of the aircraft carrier, USS MIDWAY from 1971 to 1973.

(The second cruise) When the war abruptly heated up in early ’72, we were hustled back to the Tonkin Gulf a month ahead of schedule. And that was the start of an 11-month odyssey, where we were extended and extended and… extended returning home in March of 1973, after we had brought the war in the North to an end.

This second cruise was the ‘real thing’. We took the fight back to the North Vietnamese for the first time in four years. Eventually our tactical air power was given the opportunity to end the war. The general lack of knowledge in our country of this period of history is what motivated me to write this memoir. Continue reading →

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The “War and Remembrance” Thread

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Ed

This is a quick follow on description of plans for the “war and remembrance” thread that began with  Air War Vietnam: Remembrance at 40 Years – All Days Come From One Day and continued with Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue: Part #1 – Sandy Superb, and Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue:  Part # 2 – Wolf FAC. It’s main purpose is as a lead-in and an intro to upcoming excerpts from Dave Snako Kelly’s book, Not On My Watch.

As  Midway departed earlier than expected in April ’72, Dave would begin his second war cruise, eventually accumulating over 200 combat missions in the A-6 Intruder. While all fighter and attack aircraft flew multiple types of strike/bombing missions – both large strikes called “Alpha Strikes” and small armed reconnaissance missions in two plane sections – the Intruders flew without question the toughest, most dangerous missions of the war – night low level single plane strikes deep into North Vietnam. Later in my career, I accumulated over 600 hours in the A-6.  It’s a great airplane, fun to fly, especially low and fast down some river gorge, but I didn’t want their mission then and I wouldn’t want it now. Snako’s stories of the VA-115 A-rabs are great reads … coming now. Continue reading →

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Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines: Heroes & Relics

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Ed

Believe that some good thing is possible, find the principle that makes it so, put the principle into practice, there you have it –  Freedom              Richard Bach

As related in the previous two posts, Remembered Sky certainly flows from my own personal experiences with aviation, but its future depends heavily upon the people either in or related to those stories to expand the storyline on the basis and through their own perception, and then on relating their further adventures.

In a sense the site is a series of branches and sequels, but it requires firm grounding in the history of all the men, machines, organizations, and action that made the adventures possible. To that end, I have begun a Blogroll of other aviation sites and links to tales of various magnificent men/women and their certainly magnificent airships. Expect updates periodically and recommendations most welcome.

In addition, Tabs have been added for more robust items – series, videos, photographs. I never tire of watching the Dreamers video, and so I confess, some of this is as much for my own pleasure as for the reader. Paradise is a personal thing, you know.  Enjoy.

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Story Telling

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Ed

Richard Bach -“Paradise is a personal thing.”

Once taken on, flying runs deeply and permanently in one’s blood, and I find that since I can’t “do” anymore, I need to remember and to “tell” and have some fun doing it. I’ve been working on this notion since before opening the Project White Horse website and  thinking about the possibility of a book. Also as you know I have occasionally posted pieces on the FORUM, particularly in light of Memorial Day, Veterans Day, 4th of July, and then throughout 2011 – Naval Aviation’s 100 year anniversary. There were also posts  in regard to the work done at the University of California, Berkeley on High Reliability Organizations (HRO) that investigated day-day operations on an aircraft carrier as the most noteworthy HRO example.  The 24 Oct Midway accident stories were part of this PWH effort.

While Project White Horse 084640 continues, I find I can no longer resist delving into my own remembered sky events and the people who have so influenced my life and indeed, make up such a huge portion of those I consider true friends.  As the site will explain, some of those friends I’ve never met, others I know only through their writing about their personal skies and adventures.

As I noted in the e-mail announcement, the final part of the previous post Remember Sky: Gift of Wings- the “People” quote by Michael Norman is a central thread for the story telling planned on the site.

Comrades gather because they long to be with the men who once acted their best, men who suffered and sacrificed, who were stripped raw, right down to their humanity.

Continue reading →

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