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Christmas ’72 Stories: (4) Snako’s Two Night LB II Hat Trick
One of the motivators for Remembered Sky is that the writing about USS Midway and her airwing/squadrons is piecemeal. Some histories and stories barely mention Midway and some have completely left her out, particularly related to Linebacker II. This despite the fact that Midway/Airwing Five set the record for most number of days “on the line” in the Vietnam war and were one of only four carriers in the whole war to be awarded the unit equivallent of a Navy Cross – the Presidential Unit Citation. Kelly Note: Interestingly, history hasn’t recorded MIDWAY’s participation in the Linebacker II. Some official [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (2) Night time in the Red River Valley
Linebacker II from 18-29 December 1972 is commonly understood as the B-52 strikes over Hanoi that brought the NVN back to the negotiating table in Paris, leading to the end of the war, a treaty- The Paris Peace Accords – and the return of America’s Prisoners of War. Given that the aim of LB II was not a military one, but rather was a political campaign that used physical damage to send a message, it is not surprising that the highly visible /high press interest missions of the first use of B-52s night after night at such scale in the [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (1) The “Ornaments” from Ghosts of Christmas Past
With this post I begin a multi-story process centered on Linebacker II and Christmas 1972 as part of Remembered Sky’s overall reflection on the 40th anniversary of the end of that war and USS Midway/Carrier Air Wing Five’s war cruise in the Vietnam War. Midway/CAG 5 was the most experienced carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin as President Nixon determined to bring the war with full force of air power to Hanoi in December 1972 as peace negotiations broke down. Scheduled for Christmas R&R in Singapore, Midway remained on station flying Linebacker II operations until the morning of December 20th. Bob Hope [...]
ALPHA Strike (Part 3): Snako’s MiG Kill
My MIG Kill at Kien An Airfield Continuing excerpts from Not on My Watch, by Dave ‘Snako’ Kelly Despite the official story, I did ‘kill’ a MIG. (And I have photographic evidence to back it up!) There is, however, some background information that predicates this story. There has always been strife between the Attack and Fighter communities within Naval Aviation. The fighter pilots have their inflated self-image, as ‘cold-blooded, steely-eyed killers’. They feel their purpose in life is to kill MIGs, and anything that prevents them from fulfilling that destiny is a ‘senseless activity’. Unfortunately in the real world periodically [...]
ALPHA Strike (Part 2): Snako and Boris doing “Bidness” on same strike near Hanoi
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. [...]
Smokey- For love of the game
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. […]
Schoolboy: Essence of Winning and Losing (6/6)
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. […]
Schoolboy – stories from the night of 24 October 1972 (2-5/6)
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: […]
Stories of the Carrier – A Bad Night for Schoolboy (1/6)
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 [...]
ALPHA Strike (Part 1)
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, [...]
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Christmas ’72 Stories: (4) Snako’s Two Night LB II Hat Trick
One of the motivators for Remembered Sky is that the writing about USS Midway and her airwing/squadrons is piecemeal. Some histories and stories barely mention Midway and some have completely left her out, particularly related to Linebacker II. This despite the fact that Midway/Airwing Five set the record for most number of days “on the line” in the Vietnam war and were one of only four carriers in the whole war to be awarded the unit equivallent of a Navy Cross – the Presidential Unit Citation. Kelly Note: Interestingly, history hasn’t recorded MIDWAY’s participation in the Linebacker II. Some official [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (2) Night time in the Red River Valley
Linebacker II from 18-29 December 1972 is commonly understood as the B-52 strikes over Hanoi that brought the NVN back to the negotiating table in Paris, leading to the end of the war, a treaty- The Paris Peace Accords – and the return of America’s Prisoners of War. Given that the aim of LB II was not a military one, but rather was a political campaign that used physical damage to send a message, it is not surprising that the highly visible /high press interest missions of the first use of B-52s night after night at such scale in the [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (1) The “Ornaments” from Ghosts of Christmas Past
With this post I begin a multi-story process centered on Linebacker II and Christmas 1972 as part of Remembered Sky’s overall reflection on the 40th anniversary of the end of that war and USS Midway/Carrier Air Wing Five’s war cruise in the Vietnam War. Midway/CAG 5 was the most experienced carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin as President Nixon determined to bring the war with full force of air power to Hanoi in December 1972 as peace negotiations broke down. Scheduled for Christmas R&R in Singapore, Midway remained on station flying Linebacker II operations until the morning of December 20th. Bob Hope [...]
ALPHA Strike (Part 3): Snako’s MiG Kill
My MIG Kill at Kien An Airfield Continuing excerpts from Not on My Watch, by Dave ‘Snako’ Kelly Despite the official story, I did ‘kill’ a MIG. (And I have photographic evidence to back it up!) There is, however, some background information that predicates this story. There has always been strife between the Attack and Fighter communities within Naval Aviation. The fighter pilots have their inflated self-image, as ‘cold-blooded, steely-eyed killers’. They feel their purpose in life is to kill MIGs, and anything that prevents them from fulfilling that destiny is a ‘senseless activity’. Unfortunately in the real world periodically [...]
ALPHA Strike (Part 2): Snako and Boris doing “Bidness” on same strike near Hanoi
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. [...]
Smokey- For love of the game
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. […]
Schoolboy: Essence of Winning and Losing (6/6)
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. […]
Schoolboy – stories from the night of 24 October 1972 (2-5/6)
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: […]
Stories of the Carrier – A Bad Night for Schoolboy (1/6)
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 [...]
ALPHA Strike (Part 1)
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, [...]