War and Remembrance
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, [...]
Not On My Watch
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 [...]
The “War and Remembrance” Thread
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 [...]
Story Telling
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 [...]
Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue: Part # 2 – Wolf FAC
Introductory note: Before we tell Hippo’s story and complete the telling of the rescue of a downed Air Force Wild Weasel crew well inside North Vietnam in November 1972, I think it necessary to provide a short comment on how I anticipate Remembered Sky to playout over time. The next post will provide more on the framework and goals and types of things the reader can expect, but for now let me just say that the intent is not to be a vehicle for me to tell my own stories, nor is it to be just a re-telling or link [...]
Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue: Part #1 – Sandy Superb
Few missions are more dangerous than rescue of a downed aircrew behind enemy lines. Needless to say, a slow moving helicopter is an easy target. The aircrew location must be exact, few search planes escaped damage, suppressing enemy fire critical. Losses could escalate immediately, yet no matter the threat, no effort is left undone, if there’s even the slightest change of getting one of our own out before they can be captured. Many of the most heroic events of the Vietnam war were rescue missions. These were the Sandy missions and in 1972 included the Air Force A-7D Corsair II and the [...]
Air War Vietnam: Remembrance at 40 Years – All Days Come From One Day
Note: This article was originally posted April 10, 2012 on the Project White Horse Blog On April 10, 1972, Midway steamed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, bound on a 7800 mile voyage to the Vietnam War Zone. This in itself was not uncommon. What made this cruise different from proceeding ones in the ship’s history was the fact that Midway was deploying over seven weeks in advance of the scheduled departure date with less than one week’s notice, with a vastly abbreviated training period, and with the additional handicap of a short, three day load out. Shouldering [...]
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War and Remembrance
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, [...]
Not On My Watch
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 [...]
The “War and Remembrance” Thread
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 [...]
Story Telling
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 [...]
Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue: Part # 2 – Wolf FAC
Introductory note: Before we tell Hippo’s story and complete the telling of the rescue of a downed Air Force Wild Weasel crew well inside North Vietnam in November 1972, I think it necessary to provide a short comment on how I anticipate Remembered Sky to playout over time. The next post will provide more on the framework and goals and types of things the reader can expect, but for now let me just say that the intent is not to be a vehicle for me to tell my own stories, nor is it to be just a re-telling or link [...]
Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue: Part #1 – Sandy Superb
Few missions are more dangerous than rescue of a downed aircrew behind enemy lines. Needless to say, a slow moving helicopter is an easy target. The aircrew location must be exact, few search planes escaped damage, suppressing enemy fire critical. Losses could escalate immediately, yet no matter the threat, no effort is left undone, if there’s even the slightest change of getting one of our own out before they can be captured. Many of the most heroic events of the Vietnam war were rescue missions. These were the Sandy missions and in 1972 included the Air Force A-7D Corsair II and the [...]
Air War Vietnam: Remembrance at 40 Years – All Days Come From One Day
Note: This article was originally posted April 10, 2012 on the Project White Horse Blog On April 10, 1972, Midway steamed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, bound on a 7800 mile voyage to the Vietnam War Zone. This in itself was not uncommon. What made this cruise different from proceeding ones in the ship’s history was the fact that Midway was deploying over seven weeks in advance of the scheduled departure date with less than one week’s notice, with a vastly abbreviated training period, and with the additional handicap of a short, three day load out. Shouldering [...]