Operation Homecoming Part 1: The POWs Come Home

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Ed

The American Prisoners of War in Viet Nam began their first flight from Hanoi to freedom 40 years ago 12 February 1973. The last flight was 29 March 1973.

I watched the students and their teacher’s faces closely as Jim began his talk on the Vietnam War to the Rio Mesa High School American History class.  I had been the set-up man, talking about the war and being a Naval Aviator. The class was polite, they knew my son as a classmate sitting towards the back, but they were afterall teenagers, and they had all seen TopGun. Jim quickly described getting shot down in his A-7. And then he started talking about the “ropes.” …

From Mike McGrath’s drawings in Prisoner of War: Six Years in Hanoi, available from the Naval Institute Press.

Eyes widdened, they sat up very straight, very quiet, very intent, even the teacher was caught somewhat off guard. Captain Jim Hickerson had been a Prisoner of War for over 5  years of hell. This was history in a way those kids had never come close to considering.  This was not Goose and Maverick, this was not Hollywood history, this was a whole different kind of thing… Continue reading →

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Christmas ’72 Stories, Epilogue: Linebacker II and the POWs – Prelude to Coming Home

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Ed

Note this post includes two videos, the first discussing B-52 tactics and the second finishing with comments from our POWs during the days of the Christmas operations.

On the third night of LB II three B-52s were shot down on the first raid. Seventh Air Force Headquarters Headquarters in Saigon and SAC Headquarters in Omaha went into shock. As a result they recalled the six B-52Gs targeted for Hanoi on the second raid, with the result that the North Vietnamese had done something that the Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans had never been able to to achieve – they had made an American bombing raid abort for fear of losses (Michelle, The Eleven Days of Christmas).

On the third wave, two more G’s were lost with nine of twelve cremembers lost.  When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Moorer was briefed on the third night losses of the B-52’s, he picked up the phone and called the SAC Command post – “they’re setting their God-damned watches by the timing of your bombing runs!”

Brigadier General Glenn Sullivan at U-Tapao had had enough with the SAC/Omaha imposed “same  way, same time, single file bomber streams that were costing lives and aircraft. At 0930 the next morning, General Sullivan Sent a U-Tapao developed set of recommended new tactics directly (copy only to Eighth Air Force in Guam) to  General J.C. Meyer, Commander of SAC. Things changed, but Sullivan’s action came at the cost of his career- one more assignment, not promoted and retired.

The videoes above and below plus the website Triumph and Tragedy at 30,000 Feet are the products of General Sullivan’s son, G. Ray Sullivan, Jr. Well worth the time.

“It Was the Chance to Explore Further”

Editor’s note: About eight minutes into the video, the POWs begin discussing those nights of Christmas Continue reading →

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Gifts & Reflection – No Better Title: “These Good Men”

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Ed

by John ‘Shylock’ Koch

I still cherish the time I spent with the air wing.  As I look back on it we were warriors and comrades all rolled up together.  When one of us called for help, we all came, and we owe our lives to each other.  If I got a call from any one of you, even now, that we had a strike to hell, I know Snake and I would be there with our 28 Mk 82’s strapped to our ass ready to deliver the payload,  for we are Naval Aviators !

Warrior yes, Warlike no.  Scratch that dedicated exterior and you will find the biggest softy in the world.  He always has time to help.  His capacity for lending a hand to less fortunate is probably the only thing that exceeds his bent for a good time.  Check him closely and you’ll more than likely find a tear in his eye at his son’s Little League baseball game or when he is holding his daughter when she says “I love you Daddy”, or when his granddaughter calls “Papa, Papa”.

No rocket will replace him.  No American can do without him.  You may not appreciate him but you can’t ignore him.  You can heap abuse upon him and call him names, but the next time you need him, he’ll be there.  And though he may not understand why, he will keep his dedication, his courage, and his desire to serve; after all, he is a Naval Aviator.

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Christmas ’72 Stories: (Final) Gifts, a Tree, and a Turkey with all the Trimmings

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Ed

As the story has been told – as I noted previously- the end of the war in Vietnam is considered the result of the Christmas bombing operations of Linebacker II, and so the convention of telling this story. I’ll end the “Christmas Stories” series discussing what I choose to refer to as the gifts of Christmas 1972 – memories beyond price. Continue reading →

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Forty Years Ago Tonight … Morning of 24 January onboard USS Midway inbound to Subic Bay after our eighth Line Period

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Ed

http://youtu.be/yKgEl46TZLc

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Christmas ’72 Stories: (8) “A-rab Beeper, come up voice.”

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Ed

Professional history of war mostly addresses major battles, the dates, the generals, the admirals, tactics and technology, and then analysis of results, all  for obvious reasons. But significant detail is invariably lost particularly when one event leads to a most significant occurrence -the end to the conflict.  Almost without exception, this thread – the ending of Linebacker II with the agreement by the North Vietnamese to return to the negotiations in Paris on 2 January 1973, leading to President Nixon’s announcement on the 23rd and formal end of the Vietnam war on 27 January, and finally the return of our POWs – constitutes the concluding remarks of the written histories of the war in Vietnam.

(Indeed the almost universal connection with the Christmas bombings and the war’s end is why I continue to provide posts under “Christmas Stories.”)

Yet, air operations in Southeast Asia continued until 15 August 1973. Twenty-eight more airmen would be killed and 26 aircraft lost, the last not until June. The previous post, “A Gentlemen’s Gentleman,” told the story of one loss, that of VA-56 pilot John Lindahl.  Below Dave Kelly picks up his story from Not on My Watch as USS Midway departs Singapore after Christmas R&R on the way back to the Gulf of Tonkin with the story of  another of those post-Linebacker II losses – the shoot-down of VA-115 aircrew Mike McCormick and Arlo Clark.

Continuing excerpts from Not on My Watch (Chapter 42) by Dave ‘Snako’ Kelly

Continue reading →

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Christmas ’72 Stories: (7) A Gentlemen’s Gentleman

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Ed

Linebacker II was halted on 29 December 1972.  The North Vietnamese agreed to come back to the negotiations in Paris.

Having enjoyed Christmas, Midway left Singapore and celebrated New Years Eve at sea on the way back to the Gulf of Tonkin to continue combat missions into both North and South Vietnam.  Missions were restricted above the 20th Parallel – no flights into Route Pac 6, the Red River Valley, Hanoi or Haiphong.  Still it was wartime footing and operations off of a carrier are always problematic. Within days of recommencing we were to learn that lesson twice more.

On a clear day mission 6 January 1973, Lt.  John Lindahl of the Champs was catapulted off Schoolboy for another combat mission. Barely clearing the bow, something went wrong and he ejected- apparently safely right beside the ship. The SAR helo was on top of him in 45 seconds with a swimmer in the water. John sank before the swimmer could grab his parachute. Flotation gear didn’t work… who knows??? It’s not supposed to happen that way. Learning how to deal with the water begins almost Day 1 in Flight School, so as to make reaction almost second nature.  Based on all our survival training multiple times in the pool and  in San Diego Bay including being hoisted into a helo, John should have set a record for shortest time from pulling the handle to being back in the ready room telling his story… but he was gone… absurdly gone.

Great high school athlete, Naval Academy graduate, superb husband and father … we lost one of the best and nicest guys on the ship – epitome  of “Fly Navy, the BEST Always Have”

… truly a Gentleman’s Gentleman.

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Christmas ’72 Stories: (6) “We had been there too long!”

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Ed

As I write this post, it is fast approaching 0659 30 December 2012 in Hanoi – 40 years exactly from the end to Linebacker II. President Nixon’s decision – the Linebacker II campaign – in the face of world wide denunciation and in opposition to many in his own cabinet has left NVN militarily “Winchester” – without the SAMs. Indeed Snako noted in Not on My Watch that  in his memoirs published in 2007, General Giap, the highly respected leader of the NVA and victor at Dien Bien Phu, included the following quote:

“What we still don’t understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes.  If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender!  . . . . . . . . “We knew it, and we thought you knew it.  But we were elated to notice your media was helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields.  We were ready to surrender. You had won!”

But they were coming back to the Paris peace negotiations and on the night of 23 January 1973 the President will announce the final aspects of the accords to be signed 27 January. Still combat missions will continue and losses are yet to come.  But a huge issue for all of us as we head back for our eighth line period …. the POWs are coming home.

Continue reading →

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Christmas ’72 Stories: (5) What did we know? When did we know it?

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Ed

Bob ‘Hippo’ Hipps (334 Tactical Fighter Squadron): The night of Dec 17, 1972 our F-4E squadron (the 334TFS had deployed from Seymour Johnson, AFB, NC — which is the only Air Force base named after a Naval Aviator) stood down and we were all in the club asking, “WTFO?” Then, one of our maintenance officers came in and told us we were getting wall-to-wall ALE-38 chaff dispensers loaded on our jets. Since laying chaff corridors in RP-VI had been our primary mission in the previous Linebacker fun and games, this was our first clue that the following day was not going to be just another day at the office. The general consensus at the time among our aircrews was, “Oh shit, here we go again.” The next morning we attended a mass briefing by the 4TFW wing king. Kind of resembled one of those briefings you see in the old WWII “12 O’Clock High” movie. Shortly into the briefing, he said, “And there will be no SAR for the first three days of the operation.” You could have heard a pin drop…..

Bill ‘Bear’ Pickavance (VA-93 USS Midway): As I recall, on the 18th  we were on a stand-down day going between noon to midnight and midnight to noon. I was in CVIC with Fast Eddie Contreras (VA-93 AI) behind the curtains updating my nuc target folder. Without “knocking” in walked Skipper Terrell who said he and I were flying that night and that was all he could say. He said he would brief me on the mission later. Well off we went as Iron Hand into Indian country and like most of you we saw a shit load of SAMs, fired a bunch of Shrikes and sadly watched several BUFFs go down!

The two quotes highlight a significant difference between flying the Air Force war out of multiple bases in Thailand and the Navy execution from the carriers.

Continue reading →

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Christmas ’72 Stories: (4) MiG-CAP & Roman Candles

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Ed

Perspective from John Chesire – VF-151 Switchboxes – flying MiG-CAP around Haiphong.

Of my nearly two years combat flying in SEA (Southeast Asia), the most spectacular and memorable sight occurred on December 20, the third and worst night of the of the historic Linebacker II Christmas Raids, designed to end the war.

Although we (F-4’s) never flew ‘planned’ night MiG-CAP “feet dry” overland, some of us were now tasked for this major strike to do so. My RO “TA” and I set up our CAP station in the vicinity of Haiphong, and hopefully on the outer ranges of their SAM sites. Fortunately, we took no serious enemy fire that night due to our range, but especially because of the North Vietnamese concentration on the higher value B-52s targets, rather than us in an F-4. Also, there were no MiG’s in our immediate vicinity, so we could somewhat ‘relax’ and just watch in total amazement. Continue reading →

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