RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat

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• The s on of a w artime B·24 navigator , ROBERT R ' B OOM' POWELL grew up on Lon g Island , New York. He h ims e lf saw c om bat i n the A-4 an d the RA-5C Vi gilant e over Vietnam, an d rema ined a frontli n e p ilot into t he 1970 s. Po w ell 's fi na l flying post in the Navy w a s as an a d versary pilot with a s qu ad r on b a sed at NA$ Oc e ana. Follow ing retiremen t w it h the rank of com man der, Powell has fl own both busine s s j ets and com mercial a i r liners. He h a s h ad numerous artic les p u b l ished i n aviation magazine s, and his first b o ok was a b iography of Must ang ace Ben Drew , Be n Drew - the Katzenjammer Ace. Po w e ll lives with h is wife and two large poodl e s i n Virgin ia B ea ch, Vir g in ia.

J IM LAURIER is a n ative of New England , gr o w ing up i n New Hampshire an d M a s s ac hus e tts. He has b e en d r awing since he cou ld hold a pencil, and throughout h i s life he h a s w orked i n m any m ediums, c rea t i ng a rtwork on a variety of SUbjec ts. J im prefers to paint with oils o n linen or c an vas, an d also u s e s a c om p uter to c reate digital illu strations o f aircra ft and armoured f ighting vehicle s. He c om b ines h is love of history with h i s flying experienc e s to c reate some of the m o st real ist ic an d historic ally acc u rate a viat ion p aintings seen toda y. •

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OSPREY

COMBAT AIRCRAFT· 51

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RA-5C VIGILANTE UNITS IN COMBAT

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SERIES ED ITOR : TONY HOLME S

OSPREY

COMBAT

AIRCRAFT • 51

-----.....! ROBERT R'BOOM' POWELL

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Front cover On 1 March 1971 , It Cd r Barry Gast rock a nd It Emy Conrad , crewing a n RA·5C Vigilante of RVAH -6, took a rema rkable phot ograph by accident w hile perfo rm ing a reconnais s ance mis sion over No rth Vietnam from USS Kitty Haw k (CVA-63). Their planned rout e cros s ed over itself so as to a llow t he crew to get co m prehensive ph otogra ph ic coverage of t he Song Ca Rive r. This a rea was well ins id e th e S AM envelopes a ro und t he city of Vi nh. Head ing south, th e Vigila nte appea red back over t he rive r juncture at Hung Nghia les s t han four mi nutes after crossing th e s a m e village in a westerly di rectio n. AAA had been s pora dic on t he jet's first pass over the a rea, a nd there had been no mi s sile wa rnings w hen Lt Conrad s a w a fl ash in his viewfinder, heard a 'w hum pf' a nd was thrown aga inst his seat -st ra ps. The coast was not far away, a nd the crew s oo n went 'fee t wet' a nd s ubseq ue nt ly ca rried o ut a routine landing back a boa rd Kitty Hawk. A s ho rt w hile later in the s hip's intellig ence ce nt re, a photointerpreter cranked the s ix inch-wide film from one ma s sive s pool to an other acros s the light-table and st o pped in s urprise. Perfectly framed by the Vigilante' s vertical camera w as an SA -2 s urface-a ir-m iss ile (S AM) st ill under boost. The cre w was called in t o see the near miss. Since there was no t errain visible in the fram e, th ey assumed the S AM pas sed beside t he RA-5C as Lt Cdr Gastrock banked hard t o head for home . Knowing the foc al length of th e ca mera a nd the s ize of an SA-2, the photog ra m meters com put ed that t he m is s ile had pas s ed just 104 ft away from the Vigilante's belly. No one knows w hy it did not detonate (Co ver artwork b y M ark Postlethw aite)

First publ ished in G reat Britain in 2004 by O sprey Pu blishi ng l sr Floo r Elms CO LI n, C hapel W
© 20 04 O sprey Publi shing Lim ited All rights reserved . Apart from an y fair deal ing for rhe pu rpose of private st udy. research. criticism or review , as permitted u nder the Copyright, D esign and Patents Act 1988, no part of thi s publicatio n may be reproduced . sto red in a retrieval system , or rransmirrcd in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemica'!' mecha nical. optical, photocopying. recording o r otherwise wirhour p rio r written perm ission. All enq ui ries sho uld be add ressed to t he publishe r.

ISB N 1 84176 7492 Ed ited bv• T onv • H olmes Page design by Tony T ruscott Cover Artwork by Mark Po stlethwaite Aircraft Profiles by Jim Lau rier Scale D rawings by Mark Styling I ndex by Alan Thatcher Originatio n by Grasmere Dighallmaging, Leed s, U K Printed in C hi na t hrough Bookb uild crs E DIT O R'S NOTE

T o m ake t his best-selling series as authoritat ive as possi ble, the Ed itor wo uld be interested in heating fro m
CONTENTS PREFACE - BDA RUN 6 CHAPTER ONE

LINEAGE 7 CHAPTER TWO

COMBAT DEVELOPMENT 16 CHAPTER THREE

HOT TIMES 23 CHAPTER FOUR

FROM HIGHWAY PATROL TO PROTECTIVE REACTION 42 CHAPTER FIVE •

LINEBACKER FINALE 68 CHAPTER SIX

OTHER PLACES, OTHER MISSIONS 75 APPENDICES 83 COLOUR PLATES COMMENTARY 91 INDEX 95

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he d ust, d irt and debris from 100 Mk 82 500-1b bombs was still sett ling back to the ground as the Vigilante began its photo run. T he pilot had bot h afterburners blazi ng, and he lowered the nose of his aircraft to pick up more speed. In the back cockpit. the Reconnaissance Arrack Navigato r (RAN) checked

that the fi lm co u nters were run n ing d own, the im age-motion bars were track ing and the inert ial navigation

rcadours were correct, all wh ile warch ing the ALQ scope for any signs of SA M radar lock-ons and missile launches. Th e Vigilante was doing 6 50 mph as t he wings sna pped level over the primary target. Inside the planned turn , the Phanto m II escort was in full afterburner trying (0 keep up. T he Vietnamese gu nners who had not been injured in rhe attack had reloaded t heir weapons as fast as they could, and they began to shoot as the RA· 5C came ove r the target. The smaller guns tracked the fast moving aircraft wh ile an 87 rnm sire put up a barrage of explod ing shells where they hoped the V igilante wo uld be. T he pilot [in ked left to throw off t he track of t he gunne rs, avoid the shell bursts and get closer to one of t he SAM sites which had been attacked. Tracers streaked the air, the ALQ screen was a mass of pul si ng golden strobes and mi ssile lock warnings warb led in the en..-w's earphones. T he RAN co nt inued to monitor t he reconnaissance an d navigation systems as the aeroplan e swerved and bou nced . T he Rad ar Intercept O ffi cer (RIO) in t he escorti ng Phantom II called out gunfi re when he saw it. After long, breathl ess min utes. the f W O aeroplanes cleared the target area. T he RAN moved a cursor ha ndle. punched a bu tto n and raid his pilot to ' Follow steering' . O n the pilot's inst ru ment panel a need le swu ng towards the southeast, and nu mbers showing the d istance to their aircraft carrie r spun up. T hey were still 40 miles fro m the safety of the Tonkin G ulf, and remain ed in afterburner unti l off the coast, and having reported ' Feet W et' to the carrier. Such was a typical BOA (Bom b Damage Assess ment) mission fl own by RVAH squad rons duri ng the whole of the air war in Vietnam . • • The vast majority of 1{A· 5C fl ights were eithe r BDA or ro ute reconn aissance. Th e Vigilante had (he most sophisticated suite of reconnaissance sys tems of any aircraft fl ying at the time. It also had the highest loss rate of any carrier-based aircraft d urin g the war in South-East As ia. T he V igilante crews used (Q taun t the attack and fi ghter pilots; 'We have to get back from our mi ssions ro be successful. O nce you hot-shots have d ropped your bo mbs, you're done. Fu rthermore, it is our pha ros that a re firm evidence that a target has been destroyed so you don't have to go back. O ur cameras don't lie.' ' U narmed and Unafraid' was (he cynical motto of the Vigilante pho to-reco nnaissan ce crews wh o Hew into t he wo rld's most heavily defende d airspace.

Robert R ' Boom' Powell Virginia Beach, V irginia

Jul y 2004

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he Nort h Ame rican Aviation (NAA) RA ~ 5 C Vigilante had its origins in the US Navy's heavy attack aircrafr programme. Early aro m ic bom bs weighed t ho usands o f po un ds. and requi red a large

aeropla ne ro drop them. Th is was not a problem for the land-based US

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Air Force, wh ich operated from bases that boasted lon g conc rete runways, b ut gett ing an A-bo m b o ff a shi p was a di fferent matter en tirely. First, the N avy toyed with the idea of using Pl V Ncp tunes laun ched off carriers wit h supplemental rockets. Although the N eptun e had tremendous ra nge, it was a slow, reciprocati ng engine aeroplane and much roo large to recover o n board ship. Fu rthermore, with any mo re than rwo P2Vs o n deck, no other fl ying was possible. The concept was tested . but was never anythin g more th an a sto p-gap measure. N ext, NAA designed and bu ilt the AJ Savage to meet the requirements for an atomi c bo mb-carrying aeroplan e capable of fl yin g off an d then recovering back aboard a carrier at sea. T he Savage was th e worl d 's first heavy, multi-engined carrier aircraft. H owever, it was pm....ered by two reciprocating engines a nd was slow, even with a supplemen tal jet engine fi tted in the fuselage. Eventually, the Savage became a tanker for the new practice of aerial refuelling, and saw fun her service for a few more years. Douglas Aircraft came up with a winner in the A3D Skywarrio r. Soon known as the 'W hale', it was effective at delivering heavy bomb loads, conventi onal or nuclear - in the early days an engine pod wo uld occasiona lly rip off du ring the pull-up in ro a lofr man oeuvre, resulting in th e bo mb land ing way sha n of the inten ded target, ;1I1d an unexpected and rapid roll. The Skywarrior was fas t - the fas test Navy aeroplane built without an afterburner - but it was subso nic. Supersonic was the requirement of the ti me, so NAA developed the M ach 2 Vigilante. After the N avy deleted th e aircraft stra tegic nucl ear mission , which also affected the A-S, the A-3 was put into roles such as a ded icat ed airrefuelling tanker an d an electronics warfare platform , which gave it a

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The North Am erican AJ Savage bomber ha d two re ciprocating e ngines and a jet in the t ail. Savages w ere operationa l during the Navy' s cha nge ove r from the all-blu e t o grey and w hite paint s che m e (BackstaJn

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service life longer than its Vigilanre replacem ent as a dedicated bo mber. T he '\'V'hale' remains the o nly challenger [Q the Vigilanre for the ririe of the largest aircraft to rout inely o perate o ff a ca rrier. If the co n test is mad e t he largest and fastest, then the Vigilante wins. T he Skvwarrio r could launch at a heavier weight (its (fa p weight was the sam e), and had a wider wingspan, (t he Vigilante was slightly lo nger), but the A-5 was faster, whether measuring approach or top speed . Design ed as a high-Hyi ng, highspeed strategic nucl ear bom ber, the A-5 rnav have in troduced mo re new • tech nological features than any othe r airc raft in history, including: • variable engine-th roat inlets with profile a nd area adjustme nts for fl ight at h igh M ach num bers. • li gh tweight , high strength win g skins manufact ured by milli ng a single piece of alumin um- lithium all oy. • ducted en gin e bleed -air blown over fl ight surfaces For im proved lift and co nt rol at low airspeeds. • maj or st ruct ures and frames were built our of T itan ium . • first variable inlet using ho rizontal ram p geomet ry. • a fully retractable refuell ing probe in the fo rward fuselage. • the fi rst prod uction fl y-by-wire conr rol sys tem. • a single-piece, bird-p roof, Mach 2 capable windscreen ma de of stretched acryli c. • gold-plating in the engi ne bays ro rcflecr hear. • fi rst mo nopulse radar with terrain avoidance featu res. • first operational heads-up display (H U D) . • fi rst \X!eapons- Navigation System with inerti al auto-navigat ion coupled to radar and television (ASB- 12) . • airborne digital co mpute r fo r weapon and navigation co m putations(VERD AN ). • fully integrated auto pilot/air data system. T he Vigilanrc also had no co nventional fli ght co ntrols. T he A-5 di d not have ailero ns, elevarors or a rudder. Spo ilers provided roll co ntrol and acted as speed b rakes. T he hori zontal tail surfaces were solid slabs. T ogether, they con trolled pitch , and were adjusted separately for roll t rim . T he vertical tail was also one piece, rather than a hinged rud der. Each of t hese gave the RA-5C some handli ng quirks. Li ke all jets the Vigilante had a yaw augm entation system. W hen you taxi ed beh ind another Vigilante, the vertica l slab would move in respo nse to the rudder pedals, wh ich were used for nose wh eel steering wh ile the 'Yaw Aug' responded [Q spur ious inputs by shaking and sh im mying the taillike a dog trying to get d ry! Land ing Signal O ffi cers (L50s), wh ile waving the Vigilante o n board th e carrier, co uld sec every tiny movement of the horizo ntal slab because

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The Douglas A3D S kywarrior w as the Vigilante's pred ece s sor in carrier-based heavy attac k sq u ad ro ns . The black a nd white c hecke d band that gave VAH-l1 it s n ickname 'Check ertails' an d the o ld squadro n insignia are visib le on both jets seen in t h is photo graph (Backstaffl

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it was so big. A we ll fl ow n Vigilante pass had the nose steady o n speed while the slabs fl utt ered and

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twitched fro m the pilot's small, constant stick inp uts. Neither of th ese was ap parent in

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the cockp it while fl ying, b ur using th e spoilers ro roll certainly was. Rather than the centre o f t he roll axis being th rou gh the p ilo t's be lly,

as it is on m ost aeroplanes, it fe lt like it was out on the h igh wing. Jam the co ntrol stick to the side, and o ne seemed to d ro p as the roll started. T he fi rs t flight of an A3J (as the aircraft was in it ially des ignated) took p lace in A ugust 1958. While st ill in the development stage ,

Vigilanres set several speed and altitude records. O ne such fl ight took place in Decem ber 1960, when an A3j set an al ti tude/load record by carry ing a 1OOO-kg (24 0 0 ~ lb) payload on a zoom-profile fl igh t that p eaked ar 9 1.45 1 [r. Im p rovem en ts (especially in its fuel capacity) were made with the adven t o f the A3]-2/A5B in the earl y 1960s. O n ly two A5 Bs w ere delivered to the Navy before two eve nts com plicated identificat ion of the Vigilante. First, NAA merged with the Rockwell Corporation to beco m e North A merican Rockwell (NAR). Secon d, the Department o f D efen se redesignated all aircraft to a un ified system. T he A3J became the A~5 . In June 196 1, the first Vigi lantes went to VAH-3 at N AS San ford, Florid a, to trai n crews and m aintenance personnel. ' H eavy Three' had been t he RAG (Replacement Air Group traini ng u nit) for the A3 D, so th e trans ition was a natura l - all A-3 training was subsequently p erfo rm ed by •

VAH- 123 at NAS Whi d bey Island, in Washington state. The m en in the back cockp its of th e A-5s were BN s (Bom bardier-Nav igators), and m an y were en listed men until, in 1962, the Navy decreed that there would be no more enlisted BNs, and m any former ch ief" and pen y o fficers rap id ly became ensigns. As A3J- 1s were delivered from N AR in Col um bus , Oh io , two

This photograph was released by NAA w he n it w as touting the A-5's co nve nt io na l w e a po ns capabilities following problems w it h the jet' s co m plex nuclear bomb delivery syst e m . Th is particular aircraft is probably a rare A-58 . Whi le a full s e ries of o rd na nce t ests were conducted, during w hich the Vigilante proved itself to be a st a ble a nd effect ive w e a pons platform , th e A-5 never s ho t a rocket o r d rop ped a bomb in anger (EBA L) VAH -3 flew t wo A3Js marked w it h flambo yant orange trim, th ese jets being used for experim ental w o rk at th e Naval Weapons Facility. This publicity photog raph with local beauty pageant contestants was taken in 1962 in Sanfo rd, Florida (Backstalf}

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mo re sq ua drons transirioned from rhe A3 D VAH- l 'Smoki ng Tigers' an d VA H -7 ' Peacemakers' . T he latter un it became the first sq uad ron to deploy wi th the V igila nte w hen it took a d ozen A3Js on board USS Enterprise (CVAN~ 6 5) for the shi p and aircraft's fi rst exten ded time at sea in ea rly Augus t 19 62 . T he carrier's plan ned stay in the M ed iterran ean w as cut short, h owever, w hen t he Cuba n M issile

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Crisis arose in October 1962. VA H7 len the carrier and was placed on , standby Status at NAS Sanford, bur the u nit d id not fly an y missio ns diet edv related to Cuba. CYAN 6 5's M ed iterranean d eployment fi nally resum ed in early February 1963, and lasted for seven months. In August 1963 VAH - I wen t (0 sea in USS Independence (CVA-62) with 12 A-SA (the redesignatio n now in effec t) superso nic bo mbers. VAH-7 deployed again on Enterprise in February 1964 , and it had been in the M ed iterranean for fi ve mo nt hs when the carrier was joi ned by the cruiser USS Long Beach (CG N-9) and the destroyer USS Bainbridge (D LGN-25) ro form a nuclear-powered (ask fo rce for an around-theworld cru ise. O peration Sea Orbit ended in O ctober 1964 .

RECONNAISSANCE BIRD After m uch high-level political wrangling and bitter inter-service argumems , the US Navy gave up its aircraft del ivery strategic nu clear bombardmen t role in 1963. The Vigilante suddenly had no mission. \X'ork on the reconnaissance version of the aircraft, designated the RA-5C . had begun wh ile VAH-7 and VAH-l were on the on ly

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We aring full -pres sure s uits for high a lt it ude flight , thre e A3J c rews of VAH ·7 w a lk t o their jets across th e flight d eck of the brand new nucle ar-po wered aircr aft carrier USS Enterprise (eVAN -65 ). The suits w ere not popular as they were difficult t o don and uncomfortable a nywhe re besides s itting in the cockpit . They did ke ep you alive if cockpit pressurisation failed above 50,000 ft . ho wever IBackstalft

l ett An unpainted RA·5C used to train the type' s first batch of flight crews flies o ve r the North American plant in Columbus, Ohio, where it was built in 1963. Dave Turner wrote of th e s ix weeks of training, 'We took th e a ircraft from the Navy rep at the fact ory before they were painted, a nd before Pax River fl ew or had th em fo r ca rrier trial s . We called th e paint job "S hit Brin dle Brown '" I Turnen

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Right Photographers Mates using a win ch to load a ca m e ra m odule into Sensor Station 4, which could hou se a variety of camera configurations

Early RA·5C crew men (bot h a ir a nd g ro und ) pos e at NAA' s Colum b us plant . Th e y a re, sta ndi ng, from left to right, Lt(jg ) D A Turn er, Lt J M Morg an . PHC M B Mas s ie, Lt Cdrs C J Vou ng blade a nd J W Ollson, Lts N Prud en , C B Moore a nd G L CoHe e and Lt Cd r C E Thompson. Kne eling (fro m le ft t o right) a re ADJ (jet m e chs l T E Phillips , R E S prag ue, W W Hamilt on, J L Patters on a nd C J Be aulieu . The NAS Sanford bas e newspaper t he Sa ndfly publis hed t he fo llowing a rt icle a bout th es e men on 8 No vember 1963; ' During t he m ont hs of Au gust a nd September, s e le ct e d fli ght c rews from He a vy Attack S q uad ro ns Three a nd Five und e rwe nt extensive tra ining in th e Navy's ne w est re conn ais san ce attack a ircra ft, the RA-5C. Their t rain ing program me was co nd ucted at t he NAA plant at Co lum bus, Oh io, a nd ke pt the crews busy for five -and-a -half full weeks. The tra ining e m p hasised th e reconna issance aspect s of the new syste m , a nd eac h c rew lo gged s o me 30 hours w hile w ringing out the multiple syste ms of the a irc raft . All fli ght crew s were init iat e d into NAA' s exclusi ve "Sod Dcdqer" club w he n they logged night time flying at low level utilising the Terrain Avoidan ce S yst e m. The two VAH·3 crews will form the nucleu s for the re connai s s ance training within HATWING ONE' s training s q ua d ro n, a nd th e t w o VAH -5 cre ws a re th e first t o receive training pri or t o their • ' s q uadron receiving the RA-5C in th e very ne ar future ' ( Turnen

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deploymen ts of the A 3J/A -5A. The C uban M issile Crisis gave added impetus to the devel opment of the reconnaissance version. T he A-5B was converted into a reconn aissance machine through the addition of a belly 'canoe' containi ng in terchangeable sensors and side- looking rada r. The RA-5C pro totype was first flown in J une 1962, and a to tal of 43 new airframes were bui lt. All 18 su rviving Bcmodels, as well as 43 A-models, were conve rted (() !{A· 5C specificatio n by NA R in its C olum bus, Ohio, facto ry.T he first com pleted jet wen t ro VAH -3, whi ch began tra ining the reco nn aissance missio n, as well as co nt in uing tra in ing fo r the attack role. The RA· 5C was the airborne po rtion of a total reconnaissance sys tem, with the Integrated Operat ional Intell igence Center (IGI C) being the ground or ship-based part. T he earli est aerial photography was don e with bulky came ras takin g indi vid ual images on heavy plates. Later, automatic cameras wo k a series ofphotograp hs on rolls of fil m . An apparent three-d imensional effect was achieved by viewing overlapping images through a stereo lens, and this provided a major improvement in I pb oro interpretation . Altho ugh time an d altitude were im printed on each fram e, working Out where the picture was tak en still depended on the pilot's navigation log and a missi on trace from the slow-fi ring forward oblique camera. W he n the photo-aircraft returned , the film was developed one roll at a time and studied o n a light table. The RA-5CIl0I C system was a vast im p rovement. T he key element was the V igilante's ASB-12 Inertial N aviga tion System (INS), which pri nted a small data-matrix block in the corner of each photo frame, and

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at regular intervals on the co n tin uo us side-looking radar (S LH.) and infra-red (lR) imagery. T his bloc k showed the aircraft posi tion , as well as tim e and altitude. T he machi ne wh ich developed th e film was originally classified conf iden tial, bur similar mach ines can today be found in every local On e H our Photo shop. T he rapid ly processed film was then mounted on a viewing machine, which read the d ata-ma tri x block and correlated to geographic locatio ns while giving stereo im ages and side by si de com parison with oth er cameras, IR maps or SLR imagery. T he ta pe on wh ich the Passive Electronic Cou nter M easures (P EC M) recorded its radar locating information was read on the same viewer. Each RVAH squadro n had four Air Intelligen ce O ffi cers (AIO), on e of whom was a PECM spec ialist, a phoro officer and several Pho to Interpreters (P Is), Photo Technicians (PT s} and Photo Mate (PM) ratings assigned to work with the mass of da ta.

THE 'ELEPHANT'

The ot he r w ay t o get a Vig ila nt e aboard ship - an A3J is hoi sted o n

to the lowered deck-edge elevator of an unidentified carrier. Both wings and tail are folded in o rder t o

squeeze the big jet into the hangar bay (EBA L)

T he Vigilan te soon earned the sobriquet of the Elep hant. T he length of t he nose and the way it stuc k fa r om in front of the nose-wheel was pan of t he image, bur more tha n that was the sound its G en eral Elecrric ] 79-G E10 turbojet engines buried deep in the long, sq uare intakes made wh en taxiing and on lan ding approach . Some wit described th e pulsing, loud moan as the matin g call of a fem ale elephant. The na me stuck, and two or more A-5s moving on th e fli gh t deck preparing to catapult was called the 'dance of the elephants' . Over the years, ' Elep hant' was used less and less for th e aircraft, and with its official name, Vigilante, not being the easiest word to say, this was usually shortened to 'Vige' or 'Vigi' . 'Vigc' has one syllable and rhymes with ridge, while 'Vigi' is spoken with rwo syllables. Because of its size, recon naissan ce was also usu ally abbreviated ro 'recce' or 'recon' .

THE MEN IN BACK

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T he RANs who rode in the back coc kpit of the Vigilante were a special breed. Earning designation as a qualifi ed Reco nnaissan ce Attack N avigator required in telligence, perseverance, dexterity, multiple skills and excellent aeronautical ada ptation. Only the best made it. F-4 Phantom lIs had their RIGs, A-6 Intruders their bombardiernavigators (BNs) and th e 'Qcbirds ' (EA-3, EA-G, EA-I ) their electronic counter-cou nte rmeasures officers. Vigilantes had RANs. All were mission specialised terms with in the larger category of Naval Flight O ffi cer, (N I'O) . Like pilots, t hey

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went t h ro ugh a standard syll ab us ill basic tram lng, w ith a d egree o f spec ialisatio n in advanced t raining. Final assignm ent was given with a

nod to individual preference, but dependent o n class stand ing. At one time. newly desi gnated NFOs o n th eir way to reco nna issance were sent to a 'good deal' photography sc hool in Pensacola. Florida. Here, they were provided with cameras and unlim ited rolls of film and sent out {O find subjects and ho ne t heir skills. The yo ung women o n th e sandy G ulf beaches were a favo u rite target!

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T he ' Reece RA G' was a demand ing comb ination of fl ying and gro und school. First fl ights were made in a T A-3 B 'W hale' fin ed with ex tra scats a nd radar sco pes in what had been the aircraft's bo mb-bay. T he ex-bo m ber's weapo ns/ navigation sys tem was rhe ASH-I, which was a predecessor of the ASB- 12 carried in th e A-5. Usua lly, NFOs and pilots were paired up fo r the ent ire syllabus. and if the co m positio n of the class allowed . new N FO s were m arch ed with experienced pi lots. and vice versa. Some of the best tact ical crews in the fleet had sta rted in RVAH -3 together. U nlike attack or fi ghter aircraft train ing, whe re crews learned to fl y in sectio ns with o ther jets, most RA- 5C m issio ns were flown alone. There was an immedi ate debrief after the traini ng mi ssio n, but the fi nal grades

The A3J initially had two w ing stat ions. but NAA st re ngt hened t he w ing struct ure on t he A3J·2/A· 5B model so that four sto res st ruts could be installed to carry w ea pons or fuel t a nks. In the frontline, these st at ions were most trequennv used to ca rry a s mall pod that dispensed 5· lb practice bom bs , or as the a ttac hme nt point fo r the ca meras' fl asher pod . Th e huge 400·gall on dro p tanks seen in this pho tograph were int e nded t o give the Vigilante more range in its strategic role. Even t he RVAH sq uad rons w e re requi red t o carry them for co nt inge ncy operations. Beca use of the ta nks' weight a nd d rag, less than a quarter of t he fuel the y hou sed added to t he jet's range, t he rest being burned w hile carrying t he t anks them s elves. Thes e stores were never carried operat ionally {EBALI

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Tech nic ia ns work on the computer t ha t was at the heart of t he IOIC

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A view of the pilot's instrument pan el while the RA-5C cr uis es o ver V ietnam at 19.000 ft. Once the Head s-Up-Di splay was rem o ved (it

sat w here the s tee l bar is), the Vigilante offered the pilot the most unobstructed view of any aeroplane then in Navy se rv ic e. In a prominent

position at the top ce nt re is the G·meter. The a ircraft required an overst ress inspectio n at 4 Gs, w hich all pilots tried t o a void . New pilo t s going through the RAG would be a sked what the knob (t o the left in the picture ) with ' Pu s h for Release' on it was for , and dared to try it in flight . The ans wer was nothing at a ll, as these a ctivated the jet's nucle ar b la st s h ie ld s, w hich had been remo ved follow ing the V igi lant e's aba ndo nment o f the bomber mi ssi on (Po we ffJ

W h en it cam e t o maintaining the jet 's myriad syst ems, g roundcrew s cou ld gain intimate access to the V ig i lant e's inner working s, as this photograph clear ly s ho ws. The nose radome w ent up e lect rica ll y and the rad ar antenna, processing unit and ' b all', w hich h oused the in ertialse ns i ng un it, sw u n g d o wn o n a shelf

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were determ ined the next day after the fi lm had bee n processed and reviewed - it is di ffi cult ro argue with a photo . f inal syllabus fl ights were (0 t he ship fo r carrier land ings. Most of th e init ial cad re when the Vigilante was new came from A-3s . and even A) Savages. where the)' had been BN s. The broader category in th ose days was NA G fo r Nava l Aviation Offi cer or Observer - the observer role traces its lin eage back to the Royal Flyin g Co rps in W orld \Var l. Many BN s were enlis ted men who came into the cockpi t by first being mechan ics or tcchn icians. Colin Pem bert on is a good examp le. H e enlisted in the Navy and becam e an AM H (Aviatio n M echanic. H ydraulics), and as a 2nd C lass Pet ry Officer was a BN in Savages. ' Perri' deployed with VC-7 (later redesignated VAH-7, the n RVAH -7) for what became an ll -mon rh sojo urn in th e W estern Pacific because of th e Q uemoy-Matsu C risis. Back in Sanford . he rransirio ncd to A3 Ds. and became an inst ructo r in adva nced weap o n s del ive ry. Pe m bert o n beca m e a C h ief Petty Offi cer and v..'as in th e first class for the A3J Vigilante at VA H -3 . In 196 2 he rep ort ed to VA H - I a n d we n t to sea o n Independence. Alt ho ugh th e jet was not yet cert ified for it, he was with pilot Lr Cdr J im Bell fo r th e fi rst eve r Vigilan te ba rri cade engage me nt. Months later, back in Sanfo rd, they had a com plete hydra ulic failure and had to eject. T he rocket-ri de made Pemberto n o ne of the vcry few en listed m en to h ave ejected. Th e)' we re also th e fir st c rew to surv ive a n ejection from a Vigilante. Soon after came the decree 'N o enlisted BNs', and so those who were eligible appl ied for the Lim ited Du ty Officer program m e (LD O ). Pem berto n . and a good percentage of t he other 11 8 enlisted BIN s become LDO/ NFO s. Surviving rwo combat crui ses in RA-5Cs, he retired as a li eutenant com m ande r afte r 30 years in the Navy. BN co ntinued to be the te rm fo r the men in the back of th e A3) (later th e A-SA). W he n the nussro n changed with th e arri val of the RA-5C , an R for reco nna issa nce was added, and even afrer the att ack role was abandoned , the A remained , hence RAN . The RAN was at the heart of the reconnaissance missio n. Hi s job was

run the AS B-12 inertial navigation system (IN S) which integrated a radar and televis ion (the television scanner lens was in the small glass blister o n the bo tto m of the Vigilante's nose) for updating the na vigation and target detection. All the pilot had in the fro m cockpit was a steering bar an d distance read- our. The most frequent command from the back seat was , ' f ollow steering'. Ad ditionally, the RAN had the con trols for a suite of sophisticated cameras. No matter how mu ch the Vigilante was manoeuvring, during a photo run, he had to monito r film usage, exposure settings and, most to

im portantly, the Image Motion Compensation (fM C). T he optical viewfinder had an open in g in the belly of the jet, and through a series of lens, it gav(; the RAN a loo k at the ground superimposed with moving lines ofl ighr. H is job was to adjust the lines to match the aircraft's speed over the gro un d. Add the co ntrols for an IR mapping un it, SLR and various EC M s, plus normal crew coordination, and his duties kept the RAN busier than a bartender at last call.

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T he back cockpit had only two small windows mounted high up _ lefto vers fro m the Vigilante's origins as a nuclear bom ber. There were interior panels that slid over them to shut out all light. Pilots used to accuse the HA N s of not being able to see anyth ing, and the navigator would retort that he could see mo re, not less. The radar reached Out 200 miles, the TV as far as air clarity would permit, and he could see t he grou nd beneath the jet from the forward horizo n to past the vertical. Could the pilot see what was directly below, or look at the landing gear? The television sys tem did have a peculiarity - the farther from straight ahead the lens was pointed , the fa rther it was tilted. On a run usi ng the obliq ue (pointed ro the side) cameras, the nr would be pointed to one side to check dista nce from the target and the apparenr horizon would be at 45 degrees. W hen checking that the landing gear was 'down' by looking aft, the wheels wo uld be sticking ' up '! Because of where the TV lens was located, the RAN saw the meatball at the shi p lower than the pilot. \X!hen only sl igh rly Iow a n glidepath, the backsearer would be loo king at a red, flashi ng ball. Rema ini ng quiet took steady nerves. LSO s claimed that the method some RA-5C pilots used to land was to have the RAN look in the viewfinder and call, 'Water, water, steel', so they wou ld kn ow when to make a p lay for the deck T he fi rst fleet squadron to receive the RA-5C was RVAH -5, its change in designatio n arriving almost si multaneous ly with the fi rst of the modified V igila ntes. After training and work-ups, RVAH -5 deployed in USS Ranger (eVA-G I) to the Paci fic on 5 August 19G4. J ust days late r No rth Vietnamese torpedo-boats attacked US Navy shi ps. Rangersped to the Tonkin G ulf, and the combat caree r of the RA-5C Vigilante began.

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The cent re co nso le of the RAN's cockpit . The round screen w ith th e ho od displayed eith er ra dar o r television im agery, w hile the small square unit at the t op of the co nsole w as the optical viewfind er, w it h the navigation readouts in betwe e n. Flight instruments w e re above the hooded display, and the amber radar hom ing and warning (RHAW) s co pe was in the middle of the hinged w o rk table (Co n ra d)

The s m a ll locking tabs are out w hile the radome is rai sed, e x posing th e radar antenna. The s t a inles s ste el probe was an a irs pe e d sensor as well as the 'shock-wave s plitte r' for s upe rs o nic flight (Sm i t h )

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he first 18 months of the co nflict in South-east Asia were difficult for RVAH -S, the reconnaissance commun ity in genera l and US Navy carrier aviation. A war {hat had been a smouldering, intern al struggle was now drawing the U n ited States in d eeper and deeper as it moved into a new phase. Anion in Sou th Vietnam conti nued much as befo re, bur over No rth Vietnam, Ame rica n warp lanes began a cam paign [Q w in a war using air power alo ne. T he first RA-5C squa d ron to deploy to the co nfl ict, RVAH -S entered comba t with a jet and a co mplicated reco nnaissa nce system tha t were bo th b rand new. The Navy had instituted a p rogramme of co n tracto r support for the I1C\\ ' co mplex aircraft types then co ming into the fl eet, and the A~ 6 Intruder. F-4 Phanto m II and RA-5C Vigilante all had teams from the ma nufactu rers assist ing and advising the sailors in maintaining what were no longer 'aeroplanes', bur 'weapons sys tems' . Besides havi ng a new aeroplane, the reco nn aissance com munity. un der rhe supervision ofCom mander of Reconnaissance W ing One (C RAW - I, which controlled all RA-5C units when asho re), had [Q learn how ro

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With the Golden Gate bridge in the ba ck ground, Ranger departs San Francisco on 5 Augu st 1964 en route t o Ha w aii a nd the South China Sea. All three of t he Vigilantes visibl e in this photograph w e re from the batch of A-SBs converted to RA-SC stand ard . Co nfined to o pe rat io ns over So ut h Vietnam o n this c rui se, RVAH·S was kept busy provid ing p hoto intelligence t o a llow th e Navy to plan future attack routes (Mers kyl

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systems to suppleme nt tra d itional photography. such as SLR and the sophisticated, and fragile, PEC M . Air reconnaissance tactics fro m p revious wars also had to be re-examined and evaluated agai nst the current situatio n. O n the ca rr iers goi ng to war, the co m manders h ad to ad jus t to the latest threat and the latest rules. So me tactics were proved sou n d, others ineffective to fatal. Air wing commande rs, captains of the sh ips and embarked ad mira ls and their staffs all had to find o ur wha t worked best in the fi rst months of the air war in Vietnam . D espite co nt rad ictory and pol itically driven directives fro m Washi ngton . able officers go t t he job do ne. Mos t N avy squadrons were mated to an air wing that em barked o n a particular carrier again and again. T his system provided continu ity and an experienced team from year to year. T he RVAH squad rons of C RAW- l were deployed d ifferently, however. Since they were all at a si ngle shore base, there was no West Coasr-E..ast Coast di vision like fighter and arrack sq uadrons had . T he sa me Vigilante sq uadron being assigned to the same air wing and ship for two deployments in a row was ra re. W hat was lost in fam iliarity was com pensated by a fresh look and a different way of doing business. C R A W~ 1 an d turn-over briefs between RVAH s departing and arriving in the war zone provided a continuity of matters pecul iar to the Vigilante com m unity. At the start of the RA-SC 's first deployment, there was an official reluctance to send the expensive ($ 14 mi lli on apiece in 19GOs mo ney) and advan ced technology (aeroplane, avionics a nd reconnaissa nce systems) Vigilante into high risk areas, so it was restricted to nights over South Vietnam and Laos. CV\V-9 o n USS & nger (C VA-GI) had a detachment of RF-S C rusaders on boa rd as ' insurance' for the unproven Vigilantes . Restri ct ions were lifted in early 1965, allowing RVAH -5 ' Savage Sons' to fly th e first RA-SC missions over N ort h Vietnam . C ooperation between the' Light Photo' and 'H eavy Reece' uni ts was excellent, with photographersma tes and related in telligence ratings sharing watches and wo rk in the new IO IC . USS Ranger and CVW-9 had cu t short their train ing in the H awaiian area because of the To nkin G ulf

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An S l R image of the coa st of North Vietnam . The dark stripe on the right was directly under the RA·5C. The print was made from a s ectio n of a co ntinuous roll of film . Photo interpreters added the arrows and notes t o t he negative (WBlCs were 'Wat e r Borne logistics Craft' ) (Conrad)

RVAH ·5 Vigila nte BuNo 151 622 fli es into the barricad e aboard Co nstella t i o n be ca us e of damage to its landin g ge a r o r tai lhook. The barricad e is made of vertical, thick, nylon st ra ps. The upper and lo w e r horizo nt al steel cable s pull away from the stanchions and are faste ned to an arresting gear engine to drag the aeroplane t o a sto p IEBA LI

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incident and arrived o n-the-line in mid -Sep tember. T he first loss of an RA-5C in Vie rnam , and the fi rst aircra ft loss fo r !?,mger, came on 9 December 1964. Lt Cdr Donald Beard and Lr(j g) Bria n C ro nin were killed when BuNo 149306 (the first Vigilante p rod uced as an RA-SC and not a co nversio n) crashed during a reconnaissance run in So ut h Vietnam . T he exact cause was never determined , alt hough Lr J im ' Pirate' Piron e (then a junior p ilot in RVAH -S, he later commanded RVA H-1 2, and finished with more time in the Vigilante tha n a ny other pilot ) was lowered by helicopter sling into the jun gl e to in vestigate. In Apri l 1965 RVAH -5 tu rned over what they had learned w RVAH- I , which had arrived in the T onkin G ulf aboard Independence for the Atlantic Fleet carrier's o nly time in combat. O peration Rolling Thunder, launched on 2 M arch 1965, was in tended to force North Vietn am to capitulate thro ugh air stri kes of increasing intensity. W hat targets could be hit and which areas were off limi ts was determi ned in W ashi ngton , and not by local co m manders. T he specific targets that would require a major effort were on the A-lis t. A is Alpha in the phonetic alphabet , so attack m ission s using most of the aero planes in an air wing became known as Alpha strikes. For the reco nnaissance squad rons fl ying RF-8s and RA-5C s, pre- and post-Alp ha strike BOA photography became a major mission. Duri ng cycl ic operatio ns, route (roads, [rails, waterways, railroad s) reconnaissance was the equivalent of arrack aircraft doing armed reconnaissance. T echn ically, such so rties into the N orth were called Blue Trees (C uban missions over lan d had been Blue M oons). In add itio n, the RA-5C used SLR to make and update radar maps of Vietnam . T he new A-6A Intruders used these to plan their night and all -weather attac ks. Each RVAH squad ron also had one or rwo aircraft P ECM capable, an d they would run tracks along the bord ers of N orrh Vietnam to locate enemy search and fi re cont rol radars.

This RVAH-1 Vig ila nte is a t tension o n Independence' s ca t ap ult , its crew wa it ing for t he c atapu lt office r (leftl to touch the deck as the fin a l la unch s ig na l. Getting t he RA-5C co rrect ly pos it ioned over t he ca tapult p rio r t o launching requ ired s ubt le t y and s kill from both the p ilot a nd the de c k d irector. Vi gilantes w e re frequ ently t he last ai rcraft la unche d be cau se the y had plenty of fue l. This photograph was probably ta ken d uring t raining in ea rly 1965, as th e re is a pylo n on t he w ing and the fli ght de ck crew men are d ressed fo r co ld weat her, not the t ropical Gulf of Tonkin. The c rest o n the nos e of AG 603 is unide ntifi ed ( EBA L) A technician re moves a fi lm caniste r from a KA-S1' S3 series ca mera in o ne of t he Vigi lante 's camera stations. Severa l m ajor ca mera man ufa ctu re rs s upplied e q uip ment of this t ype for the Vigilante (M ers h y)

A new RA-5C cost $ 16 million in rou nd, 1968 dollars. T he oblique camera sighr cost two cents. Until the jet's fi nal years in the fleet, t here was no m ech anical means for the pilot to check t hat the road, river or coast he was photograph ing was centred. Instead, he ha d to carry a grease pe ncil. If the install ed cameras were m o unted at 37.5 degrees, en route to the ta rget area he wo uld roll (0 37.5 deg rees(!) on the attitude gyro and draw a line on the can opy along the horizon. T his line would then tell t he pilot wheth er the jet was too close or to o far fo r optimum coverage. HA N s wo uld m onitor the di stance fo r offset ru ns by slewi ng the TV camera 45 degrees to the side. Since imagery was clearer if the aeroplane was steady and wings level when the cameras fired, a good Vigi lante pilot would time his jinking manoeuvres to come between exposures. The oblique cameras had a sm all green ligh t on the pilo t's glare shield that flashed whe n the cameras fi red. T he RAN 's ride during an offset oblique ru n was an exercise in sensory overload . In front of his face we re two large round viewers. In one, the gro und below, distorted by th e lens, was m oving past with yellow lines supe rimposed - these had to be watche d to ensure t he lM C was working. T he o ther had a T V image of the ta rget ro ute, in hues of blue, moving pa st, bu t slanted at 4 5 degrees from level. T hro ugh the windows o n either si de, t he real horizon was glim psed as the jet ban ked from side to side. T he rolli ng di als of the IN S spun out posicion over the ground, and th e RH AW gear was twinkling orange strobes of threat radars and making beeping noises. And th is was all going o n wh ile the pilot was yanking and ban kin g between pu lses of the little green light. O ne of the cameras th at co uld be carried was the IS-inch focal-length panoramic. T he m illion-dollar I S-inch pan was hugely soph isticated. It used a spinning prism to s\veep from horizon to horizon, and could register a tennis ball from 20,000 ft. It also used fi lm at a prodigious rate. Each exposure was five inches wide and 44 inches lo ng. There was a smaller versio n of the pa noramic camera wi th a three-inch focal length. T he panorami c cameras we re badly under-uti lised, as they could have go tten coverage from safe di stances. T asking from higher com mands, especially the USAF, de ma nde d old-fash ioned runs low over the target. T he usual camera configurati on for 'route rcccc' was a rri-fan. The RA-5C had o ne camera aimed forward which ran fo r the entire mission. Its firing rare was slow and its photograph y used to recreate the route of fl igh t. T he o ther t hree cameras were a vertical, which shot straight down, and two o blique cameras aimed off to either side. Their angles co uld be set at 19.75,37.5 or 52 degrees, de pending o n lens focal lengths. This resulted in overlapping, fan-shaped coverage of the ground below. At the end of a fli ght , if weather and time of day perm itted, the Vigilante wo uld take pho tographs during a steady, level pass overhead the ship. T he pho tography spec ia lists wo uld use known objects and markings o n the carrier dec k to calibrate the cameras. Independence's rom e to wa r rook ship and air wing fro m Norfolk, Virginia, aro und Africa, across the Ind ian O cean and into the Tonkin Gul f in J uly 1965 . Th e vessel's air wing, CVW~7, boasted the fi rst A-G Intr uder unit in the fleet (VA-75) and RVAH - l , on lv , the second RA-5C squadron to see combat. By no w the m issio n emp hasis was changing, as less than ha lf the Vigilante fl ight crews we re bom ber q ualified .

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T he deployment did not begin well. with three A-6s being lost due to fa ulty bomb fusing in the fi rst month. The maps used to programme the Int ruder's IN S were also discovered to be erro neous, so the RA-5Cs were given the task of photo-map ping North Vietnam to update the system. RVAH - l lost irs com mand ing officer on 20 Jul y. Retu rn ing from a reconn aissance mission over North Vietnam , the crew successfullv , landed back aboard ship. o nly to d iscover that the arresting gear had been set incorrectly and the wire broke. RA-5C BuNo 15 16 19 ran off the deck and into the water. T here was no time to eject, and the pilot . Cd r Valent in Matula, and RAN , Lr C arl Gro nqu ist, were killed on impact. Because of the ai rcraft's size and weight . arresting gear and catapults worked at maximum lim its when operating with the Vigilante, and incorrect se tti ngs remained a problem throughout the jet's caree r. Joh n Smittle was an ensign RAN in RVAH - l on this cruise (after anot her deployment as a RAN , Smittle went th rough pilot training, deployed in Skyhawks and was then a 'Vigi' pilot in RVAH -6), and he remembers fl ying into Ta n Son N hur air base, in South Vietnam , with the squadron XO ro co nfe r at the USAF reconnaissance cent re - the Air Force were operat ing RF-l 0 1 Voodoos. USAF centralised cont rol of intelligence assets would beco me a sore Spot for th e Na vy, as the cen tre's information was usually o ut of date, while on-the-spot intelligence from Vigilantes and IO IC was not co nsidered 'official'. Blue Tree became the designation for reconnaissance m issio ns int o North Vietnam, a nd a new target was added to the Vigilante's list. SA·2 'G uideline' SAM sites had been un der co nstruct ion, a nd in J uly, 196 5 they began launching m issiles against US aircraft. f ilm from the RA-5C 's array of cameras was scru tinised fo r th e d istinctive six-sided SAM sites, while the PEC M located ' Fan Song' guidance radars electronically. The first Vigilante to be shot down in Vietnam , on 16 October 1965, had been search ing for 5A-2 sites when, near Hon Gay, doing G50 knots, BuNo 15 16 15 was h it in the tail by either AAA o r a SAM . After the fl ight cont rols failed the crew, pilot Lr Cdr James Bell and RAN Lr Cdr ' D uffy' H un a n ejec ted and landed near one of the small islands ofT the coast. T hey bot h climbed into their su rvival rafts, but were picked up by fisherme n in sampans and captu red. After repatriation in 1973, Bell to ld of being tied to the sampan's mast , which struck h im as ironic as the night before he had watched the 1946 movie Two YraN Biforr the Mast'. T he next day. th ree F-4 Phanto m lIs from Independencev....ere lost on an Alpha strike against the Thai Nguyen bridge north of H anoi. T he RA-5C

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RVAH ·7 RA-5C BuNo 151629 has its tanks t opped off by a buddy st o reequi pped A-4C of VA-76 durin g CVW-9's com bat deployment aboard Enterpris e i n 1965-66 (M ers k y)

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covering the at rack return ed [Q the carrier unharmed. RVAH -l had taken six aircraft o n th e deploym ent, and their losses we re not replaced. T he sq uad ro n had used flasher pods at nigh t, but gave these lip d ue to sign ifi cant MA. RVAH · l also used both three- and eigh teen-inch pan o ram ic cameras [Q get so me stand-off d istance as the No rt h Vietnamese air defences grew stro nger. Enterprise had been hom e-ported in Norfolk, Virgin ia, across the J ames River from New port N ews Shipb uild ing C orpo ratio n, whe re the first nuclear- powered carrier had been built. In anticipat ion of the gro wing co nfl ict in So uth-e ast As ia, the vessel was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, and it wou ld he based in Alameda, Ca liforn ia. T he carrier cha nged ports via t he war zone , and it did not reach Alameda for nin e mo nths. Fo r the ship's crew , and the m en of C VW-9 , wh ich included RVAH -7, t his meant a long voyage east aro und Africa, across t he Indian O cean and thro ug h the St raits of M alacca to the naval air statio n at C ubi Point , in the Ph il ippines. T im e in pan was sho rt, and when supplies and am m un itio n had bee n loaded , Enterprise headed fo r the T o nkin G ulf, and the newly designated spo t in the ocea n called Yankee Station. T he •Peacemakers' were fa m iliar with Enterprise. havi ng made the fi rst • Vigilante deployment aboard the vessel as VAH -7 flyingA3Js - that 196 2 cru ise to the M editerranean was also th e first for C VAN -6 S and for the F4 H Phantom II. After an interruption of six mont hs for t he C uban Missile C risis, VAH -7 went back o n board once the carrier retu rned to the M ed iterranean , and t hen part icipated in the aro und-t he-wo rld nuclear-powered dem on strat io n voyage. Upo n return ing to NAS Sanford after Operat ion Sea Orbit, the un it rransiri on ed to the RA-SC and was redes ignated RVAH -7 . On Yan kee Station, Enterprise and Independence steam ed side by side for a turno ver of special eq uipment . unexpended ord na nce and, m ost importantly, lessons learned. RVAH -I passed o n its hard-won

knowl edge to IW AH -7.

LANDING ON THE SHIP T he following descriptio n ofl anding o n an aircraft carrier provides a look at wha t Vigilante pilots fa ced at the end of every missio n; ' Usually, the V igilanre fli es into the break alo ne - and fast. Downwind , lower th e flaps to a full 50 degrees, lower the gear and have the RAN check by TV wha t t he indi cato r is saying. T he heavy. A-frame tailhook is

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Ltlig ) Dave Sharp (left) and It Cdr J ack Tuttle (rig ht) of RVAH-7 a re escorted up Enterprise's flight deck by a fli ght s urgeon o n 27 September 1964. Anot her aeropl ane flying in format ion with this crew had reported seeing hydrau lic fluid leaking from A-SA BuNo 147863. Tuttle dro pped the ram air turb ine for e m e rge ncy po w er, but wit h the fluid go ne, he m o ved the stick o nly t w ice and the cont rol s fro ze. The crew ejected m oments lat er. Enterprise had s e nt up a format io n of 40 aircraft t o perfo rm a fl y-pa st for t he pe o p le of Re cife, in Brazil, on the carrie r's way home from the Ope rat ion Sea Orbit around-thew orld cru ise. Se en here mom ents aft e r being flo w n back t o CVAN-65, pi lot and RAN are st ill w e a ring the ir Mk 3C fl otation gear, w it h the bright yellow bladders inflated. In 1968 the Na vy c ha ng ed t o lPA t ype eq uip m e nt , w hic h a dded a ' ho rs e colla r' float to keep the s u rvivo r's he ad upright. In 1978 Cdr Dave Sharp was the co m m a nd ing officer of RVA H-7 on the sq uad ro n' s penu lt imate dep loyment (S harp)

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lowered by a lever o n t he right side of the cockpit, As the fla ps come down . so do the leading edge sla ts , and the cockp it air cond itioning curs our as eng ine bleed air is diverted over the wing. As the airspeed slows toward 155 knots, the angle-of-ar rack indexer o n the glare shield lights up. Engage th e auro-rhrot tlcs with a switch. C hec k auto- thro ttle operatio n by pull ing back o n the stic k - the th rot tles move fo rward . Push th e st ick and the th rottles move back. There may have been lots offucl our fl ying around. but at a max trap weight of 50 .000 Ibs there's o nly enough for four "looks at the deck", Not a rime [Q scrc.' \v-up with the entire ship watchi ng and wa iting for yo u to trap. 'Across the wake, pick lip the meatball. \"'i ogs level when on the lan ding cent reline. Start th e landin g scan )'o u first lea rned in Pen sacola m eatball , line-up , angle-of-at tack: m eatball , line-up , an gle-of-arrack. In the Vigilante, yo u fly t he ba ll with small , t iny, tweaks of th e st ick to keep it dead centre. G entle touches with fi ngers and thumb . An exact descriptio n bo rders on th e sexual. The auto-t hro ttles keep th e speed co rrect, t heir jer~y .m ovements reassuring. Nevert heless, yo ur left hand rests o n th e throt tles all the rime .. . just in case. Line-up has to be solved early. A turn to line- up an RA-5C means th e spo ilers come up and their drag will pull the nose down if no t ant icipa ted. 'C lose-in, your sca n changes as angle-of-attack becomes less im portant, then the lin e-up drops o ut. Fo r the last seco nds, it is all meatball , meatball , meatball. T ouchd own has to be in a perfect attitude o r there is th e ri sk of a shattered nose wheel o r t he tailhoo k slam m ing up in to the fuselage. O n a good t rap at V igilante approach speeds, yo u arc thrown forward hard against yo ur st raps (woe betide those who fo rger to lock th eir harness), and yo u have to stru ggle to bri ng the throttles to id le, raise th e flaps, press th e bur ton o n the st ick for nose wh eel steering, swi tch hands to raise the tailhook, switch hands to advance the power, swi tch ha nds aga in to fold the wi ngs and taxi out of th e landing area. 'T axying th e jet was unique because th e nose wheel was eight feet behind th e pilot . Ir took som e gcn ing used to even in norm al turns, and o n the ship there were situatio ns that required th e nose wheel to be run up to the edge of th e deck with the pilot watching th e di rector over his sho ulder and the RAN looking at water in the viewfi nder. T o the reliefofcrews. th is will eventually be fo rbidden at night, and d iscouraged in daylight .'

-

A ' m a rkingle ss ' RVAH-1 Vigilante is seen just s e conds befo re la unching from Ind ep end ence in 1965. The holdba ck a nd brid le a re t ight, th e flaps a re fUlly d ow n, horizo nta l ' s la bs ' at t he correct a ng le a nd fully o pened a ft e rb urners b rig hten the tw ilight. A quirk of th e RA-5C w as t he cockpit ai r-co nditioni ng cut o ut w hen the flap s were low ered d ue t o a ll t he e ngine bleed-air being diverted to the le adin g e dge boundary-layer cont rol ducts ( Wo o d u l)

s: m

'" he basic pattern for the naval air campaign in the Vietn am W ar was set in March 1965 with the starr of Rolling Thunder missions - Blur Trees for reconnai ssance aero planes. 1966 . 1967 and part of 1968 saw th e targets cha nge with rhe whim s and politi cal percept ions of theJohnson ad ministration. The North Vi etnamese defences varied as new eq uipment arrived. and the oppo rtunity to regroup and rearm came with each pause in the bombing. The paucrn for the carriers in the T onkin G ulf was set with sched ule designations as Red, \Vh ite or Bl ue. W hen there were three carriers available, as was usually the case, o ne ship would fly from Midnight to Noo n (Red) , another from 0600 ro 1800 hrs (\X!h ire) and the th ird from Noo n to M idn ight (Blue). This gave each air wing/ship team a 12-hour flying per iod . wh ile provid ing double coverage during daylight hours. Cyclic ops were the no rm , with aircraft launch ing and reco ver ing every one-and-a-hal f hours. \'(fhen Alph a strikes were called for, all aircraft wo uld be launched an d recovered after the strike,' before eithe r launching another Alpha or resu ming a cyclic pattern. T here were exceptio ns an d variatio ns [0 t his pattern because of the need to reple nish food , fuel and ordnance every six or seven days, the size of the carrier and compositio n of the embarked air wing and carriers leaving the line for R&R in po n or returni ng home. For the RVAH squadrons, daylight m issions were ' rome recccs' alo ng designated stretches of roads, trails, railways, waterways , or pre- and poststrike pho tograph y for the Alpha strikes. At nigh t, init ial attempt s :H ph otography wit h flasher pods proved un suitable - nor because the imagery was bad, but because the pulses of bright light from th e three • mi llion candle-power strobes made the Vigilante an easy target for the a nt i-aircraft gun ners. As the num ber of guns in the COUntry increased, night flasher missions became high ly hazardous. Fortunately the installatio n of the IR mapping senso r (designa ted AAS-2 1) from 1968 onwards made it unnecessary to use flashers to detect the heavy traffi c moving southwards in th e darkn ess. The IR sensor had the added advantage ofbeing abl e to detect targets that photography could not. The AAS-21 recorded temperature different ial, and could 'see through ' vegetation that had been CUt and put over trucks and sto rage as camouflage. The IR was ru n on all missions, being suppleme ntal in the day and the primary sensor at night. Also at night, crews would fl y PECM and SLR missions, usually in co mbinatio n. Although these systems would be run during day flight s, they both depended on steady, wings-level fl ying for best results. SLR was installed in all RA-5Cs, the rear two-thirds of the belly canoe housing anten nas, power supplies and recorders for the system . In add ition to providing intelligen ce - boats, shi ps and trains showed lip especially well - SLR gave the Intruder and, later, Corsair II crews a current radar picture to use in their planning for attacks in bad weath er or at nigh t.

T

23

PEC M (ANI ALQ- 16 I) was a spec ial installat io n that wenr into what would have been the weapo ns bay of the A3J bo mber. In t he RA-5C , the PEC h1 replaced one of the fuel cans. Each RVAH squad ron had o ne or two aircraft PECM-co nfigured , and an Air Intelligence (AI) officer specialising in PECM assigned. A close look at a Vigila nte shows square antenna pan els scattered along the fuselage sides. H owever. since the panels are painted t he same as the rest of the aircraft, they are not usually noticeable. Add itional antennas are in th e win g leading edges - apparent as dielectric material in the stainless steel. All Vigilantes had the ante nnas, so the PECM 'can' could be installed as need ed. The IN S, backed up by the RAN s log, provided an accurate position of the RA-5C to the PEC M . Upon return ing to the shi p. the magnet ic tapes were taken to a mach ine in th e IO IC , wh ere they were read . an d the location of radar an d electron ic emitters like tracking and fi re control radars were automa tically printed on a map The PEC M also recorded the pu lse-repeti tion frequen cy, band w idt h and ot her parameters tha t enabled the Als to determine exactly what type and model radar it was. T he two primary P ECM [racks were north an d south along the borders of No rth Vietnam - the Black T rack over Laos and the Blue T rack over the Gulf of Ton kin .

1965 ENDS

24

The en d of 1965 saw th ree RVAH sq uadrons o n-the-line - th e ' Bats' of RVAH- 13 aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) and the ' Peacemakers' of RVAH -7 on Enterprise, both having arrived in O ctober, and the ' H ooters' of RVAH -9 on Ranger, wh ich join ed the line in December. T hat same month RVAH · 1 headed back home aboard Independence. RVAH -9 had previously deployed to the M ed iterranean aboard USS Saratoga (CVA-60) for its fi rs t time out with the RA-5C ill 1964-6 5, RVAH - 13 was newly transitioned from the A-3 Skywarrior, and RVAH ·7 had com pleted three previous cru ises with Enterprise equipped with A3J- I /A-5As. T he latter unit was back aboa rd CVAN-65 once again , but th is tirrie with the RA-5C . Enterprise began by operating down south from Dixie Station (a usual practice, as it gave newly-arrived air wings a cha nce to adjust to combat fl ying and the pace of operatio ns), and on 15 D ecem ber 1965 it lost RA-5C Bu No 151633 in an area N avy jets rarely flew over - t he fa r west coas t of South Vietnam. The search was for 'W iblicks' (Water Borne Logistics C raft, WBLC, was the fancy, offi cial desi gnation for boats, barges, sam pans, etc.) am id the coastal swam ps. Pilo t Lr J K Suto r and RAN Lt(jg) G B D resser were fl ying at 3 500 ft over the bay ofV inh Cay Duong when they felt a thu mp and th eir coc kpits filled with smoke. T he pilot killed the electric fli ght system an d fough t the cont rols until . ten miles over the Gulf of Siam. the crew were fo rced to eject. The nearest rescuer was a US Army U H- I B H ucy helicopter, which was vecto red to the crash site. A sam pan was approach ing t he su rvivors, and because its identi ty and intentions were unclear, the Huey pilot had the Navy aircraft holding overhead fire a burst of20 m m canno n in front of the vessel to warn it off. As there was no hoist on th e U H - 1B, the pilo t skillfully hovered with his landing skid on th e water. First Sutor and then Dresser climbed into the helicopter and were flown to safe ty.

W hen they were returned (0 the sh ip several days later, C d r Ken Enney, C O of R VAH ~ 7 , gave them a chewing-out. It was bad eno ugh. he said, that they we re sent out to look for such insignificant targets, but to lose an expensive and so phist icated aeroplane while wa nd ering aro und 'sightseeing' was intole rabl e. Sure r ejected again in O ctober from BuN o 149 2S8 while En terp rise was back o perating off the Califo rn ia coast. Altho ugh the RA-5C had a so phisticated navigat io n system , pi lo ts always had a m ap with co urse lines for th e reco nnaissance route drawn on it as a visual back-up in case of ASB-12 failures. A junior RAN in RVA H -7 who new with th e C O made up his skipper's m aps for hi m . As tr ips o ver No rth Vietnam becam e ro uti ne, th e ens ign RAN would sim ply add anot her set of lines and head ings, rather than re-drawing the en rire chart with AAA and SAM envelopes. During a po rt visit in Japan , he bought a scr of 24 colo ured pen cils. Back on the line, he used a di fferent colo ur for each m issio n, unti l after the tent h he w id his C O (0 'fo llow the mauve line to day'. The co m mander cru m pled the well-worn map. threw it over the side and demanded a fresh o ne!

In late 196 5, LI(jg) Dave Sharp (later CO of RVAH ·7) was in the back of a ' Peacem akers' Vigilante heading north fro m Dixie Station, a nd about tu rn into Vietn am, when the RA-SC did nor turn the d irectio n Sharp call cd for and the p ilot , Lr C d r Jerry C hapdelaine, wo uld not answer his increasingly frantic calls o ver the interco m . Sharp co rrectly guessed that his pilot was hyp oxic fro m a n oxygen system mal fun ction; 'T hat's when I started call ing him every name I co uld thi nk of, along with "dive, di ve, dive". T hen, when he did push over, I tho ught we wouldn 't pull o ut. My call becam e "pull-o ut, pull-out, pull-o ur, yo u SO B". \Vhen he finally d id , we kept going slower and slower, so I started yelli ng, "power, power, power! " By this time we we re at SOOO ft or so, and Jerry was beginnin g to so und no rmal. Ap parently , when he attached his mask on clim b-o ur it was not tigh t eno ugh. Wh en he starred losing co nscio usness, he slum ped fo rward and forced hi s mask o n enough to keep hi m at a sem i-co nsc io us state. H e later to ld me that all he co uld remember was hea ring me call him vario us foul names, and he JUSt to

RVAH·13 RA-5C BuNo 151627 wa it s its tu rn to be lau nche d off catapult o ne a bo a rd Kitt y Hawk in t he Gulf of Ton kin in ea rly 1966. This a irc ra ft s urv ived t he ca rn age of the ' Bats' fi rst co m ba t d eployment, o nly to fall victim to AAA during the unit's s eco nd c ruis e on 9 March 1967. Sq uadro n CO, Cd r Cha rles Putnam, was lost, but RAN, Ltljg ) Frank Pr end ergast, dramaticall y s e ized his freedom a ft e r bri efly being captured (Mersky)

25

26

wanted to catch me and kill me. I told him that I'd had a few si milar rhoughrs abour him myself.' T he ' Bats' of RVA H- 13 had a rough stan o n Kitty Hawk s fi rst combat deploymen t. T he Uong Bi thermal power plant north of H aiph on g had been th e target for mu ltiple air wing attacks on 20 D ecem ber 1965, and (WO Vigila ntes, with 1=-4 esco rts, were assigned to get BDA photographs. The esco rts and th e other Vigilante lost sigh t and radio co ntact with ' Flint River 604 ' (BuN o 15 1624 ) at abo ut the time the jet vvas due over the ta rget a rea. The coast near H a n Ga i was searched without finding a ny wreckage o r sign of l.t Cd r Guy Johnson or Lt(jg) Lee N ordahl. '1\ \'0 days later, ' Flint River 603 ' (HuN o 15 1632) was after pre-strike photography of th e railway bridge at H ai Duong for the next day's strike. Flying at 3000 fr between clo ud layers. RAN Ltfjg) G lenn Daigle saw bursting AAA and heard th e Vigila nte hit several times. The RA-SC went into gyrations, and because the pi lot was nor a nswe ring over t he intercom, D aigle had to assu me his pi lot, Lt C d r Max Lukcn bach , had been h it and was unconscio us, or wo rse. T here was an explosio n an d D aigle ejected - he does no t remem ber pulling t he fa ce-cu rtain o r alternate ejectio n handles. H e was a PoW unt il released in February 1973. A hard-earned lesson was to never Ilv above a cloud laver if there was th e • • slightest cha nce of SAMs. The pri mary tactic to avoid the SA-2 was a d iving, roll ing turn to ward the m iss ile. Being above clo uds red uced the time available to spot and evade the SAM . M any crews forgot or igno red th is rule to their di smay. It Cdr AI W attay an d Lt Jim ' Bon es' M organ (a former enlisted B N ) o f D ays after th ese losses, President Jo hnson, at Secretary of D efense RVAH-1 3 caught t his im age of a ~lcNa mara 's urging. declared a 37- day bombing halt o ver th e start of the ka rst hill while o n a m is s ion to the new year. Pilo ts reported that at night the H o Chi Minh T rail loo ked like MiG base at Kep, deep in No rt h the New Jersey T urn pi ke durin g rush hour. T he No rth Vietnamese did Vietnam . Th e legend translates as ' Vict or iou sly Stri ke the En croachin g not begin negotiatio ns as futilel y hoped , but used the tim e to build up American Bandits' , The hill 's val u e their air defences to a formi dable level. was not o nly for pro paga nda. as the Lt Jerry Coffee had flown RF-8s over C uba during the missile crisis in ba re a re as o n the t op a re he a vy AAA e m placements ( Wattay) 1962. and in srrucred in the Vigilante RAG before joi ning RVA H - 13. On • 3 February 1966, days after th e bombi ng ha ir had ended, he was on a ' road rccce' between Vinh and 4~ T han h H oa wh en he was hit by AAA durin g a seco nd pass over the sa me sectio n of highway. Another hard-earned lesson for any aircraft in a hostile area was no m ultiple ru ns over the sa me target. Lt Coffee headed fo r the wa ter, but less than a mile offshore his 'Vigi' (BuN o 15 162 5) broke aparr and he and Lt(jg) Ro bert H anso n ejected. Coffee was hauled aboard a fishin g boat and spent t he next seven years as a PoW. H e had seen his RA N land in the water, bur Lrfjg) H anso n was never heard fro m agai n. The Nort h Vietnamese later said that

H anso n had d ied from hi s wounds and was buried on th e beach. Aft er repat riat ion in 1973 . Coffee did th e illustrations for C o r Howa rd Rutledge's book on th e Po W experience. In the Presence of 'Mine Enemies. D espi te losses. RVA H·1 3 was instrum ental in o ne of th e most effective strikes of th e early war. The Alpha target list system had recently bee n put into effect. While mos t str ikes were specifie d by W ashingron , local co m ma nders were allowed (0 choose so me targets, bur th ey had to get permissio n. Capt M arrin 0 ' Red' Ca rmod y was captain of Kitty Hawk. and a n early suppo ne r of t he RA-SC . In Apri l. when a ' Bat' Vigilante came back fro m a coastal reconnaissance run with pho tographs of a new, large, coa l load ing com plex near [he port of C am Pha, he saw an opportu nity to hun th e enemy's wa r effort. The st rike became a perfect exa m ple of how the on-the-spot intelligence ca pability of th e IOI C has always been used. T iming was everything. In collusio n wi th Carrier T ask Force 77 C h iefof-staff Ca pt 'J ig Dog' Ramage. a sq uad ron ma te of C armody's fro m W orld W ar 2. Kitty Hawk launched a pre-dawn strike of eight bombedup f -4s and six A-os, each with 0000 lbs of ordnance. plus support aircraft. C apt Ca rmody sent rhc message that ' unless otherw ise di rected', they we re go ing to bomb the coal facility at a tim e of day whe n he knew the respo nse in Washingto n wo uld be slo w. T he sh ip's co m mun icatio n offi cer was also carefully b riefed to take his time delivering th e rep ly when it ca me. The st rike group had pull ed off the ta rget and the RVA H -1 3 RA-SC had go ne in for RDA when th e cease and desist message arrived .. . too late. Ranger had been operating o n Dixie Station fo r just 24 hou rs when, o n 16 January 1966 , RVAH -9 Vigilante Bu N o 14931 2 crashed after wh at should have been a ro utine touch-and-go lan ding on the ship . T he starboard engine exploded whe n full rhror dc was applied and [he aeroplane crashed in to the sea wi th the loss of l.r C dr C harles Schoo nover and Ens H al H ollingsworth . It would be the o nly RA· SC t he ' H oo ters' would lose in two com bat deployments. • BuN o 1493 12 had co m pleted a reconnaissa nce fli ght over So uth Vietnam before return ing to & nger, and th e fateful touch-and-go. A frustrati on with suc h incidents was th e fac t that it will never be know if the aeroplane crashed beca use it had been hi t by unseen and unfelt sm all arms fire that o nly too k effect later in the fl ight.

The U S Navy' s primary reconn ai ssance sou rces fl y t o gether d u ring a m issio n f rom Ranger in 1965, w h en the RA-5C was un pro ven and the RF-B was em b ar k ed as a form of 'insu ranc e'. After this d ep loyment. t he RF-Bs o p erat ed fr om the sm aller decks and t he Vigilantes f rom t he ' su p er carriers' which h ad IOI Cs. This RA -5C (BuNo 149312) went o ut aga in the next year on Rang er with RVAH-9, and o n the secon d day onlin e it crashed after w h at sho u ld h ave b een a routin e t ou ch-and -go landin g o n t h e sh i p. The cre w wa s lo st wit h t h e a eroplan e. It w ould be the on ly RA-5C that RV A H-9 wou ld lo se in two co m b at d ep lo yments IEBA L)

27

Th e win g of an A -4 Skyhaw k loaded

w it h two 19-shot 2 .75-in foldin g fin rocket pods frame s an RVAH -6

Vigilante o n the deck of Ranger in the h e ctic da ys of late 1966. Th e portion of the canoe hou sing the Sl R is swu ng down a nd the number fo ur senso r station is e mpty, awa it ing the in st all a t io n of a modu le with lo aded camera s (EBA L)

The si x flight cr ews of RVAH·6 em b ar ked on Constelfation in 1966. The RANs are kneeling and th e paired pilots are stan d i ng behind

them . Typical of the RVAH s q u ad ro n s of the tim e , there are two com m ander- (CO and XO) and four

lieutenant comm ander-rank pilots , w h ile there is o ne lieuten ant com m and er RAN, four lieutenants

a nd o ne lieutenant (junio r q ra del. Tho se m entioned elsewhere in this book are, RANs , third from left, Lt

28

Cd r Georg e Schne id er la fo rmer e nlisted BN), fourth fro m left , Lt Doug Cook lw ho later commanded a n EA-6B s q ua d ro n) a nd fa r right , Lt Wa yn e 'Tiny' Mulholland (who flew two combat cruises w it hout a sc rat ch, but was killed in 1975 in the Mediterranean with RVAH·11 in a landing accident). Amongst th e pilots , standing s e co nd from left is Lt Cdr Harry Klein (w ho la t e r co m m a nded RVAH-5), third from left is the CO, Cdr Ed Peeks (later CRAW11, far right, It Cdr l arry DeBoxtel (w ho next became the 'Re ece RAG' LSD), and s eco nd from right, Lt Cdr Bob Dean (w ho wo uld go t o WestPac again as XO of RVAH·12, and event ua lly be the last Commander of CRAW-l I I Wefls )

' H ooter' fl ight crews became frustra ted wh en , after do ing all the planning for the first reconnaissance fli gh ts into H an oi and H aiphong in coo rdination with USAF strikes, they were o rdered to (Urn over their plans to RVA H -6 when the latter arrived in-theatre as part of CVW15 aboard USS Constellation (C VA64 ) in Jun e 1966. Th e ' Fleurs' got to fly the m issions instead . Lr Bob ' Bull' D avis (his nickname was earned by h itting the bulls-eye 13 times as a bombardier-navigator with VAH -6 when it flew A-3 Skywarriors) had ma de the transitio n to t he RA-5C with the squad ron. H e stated ; ' I don't remem ber that the "Hooters'" fli gh t planning was used verbatim bv , li S whe n we arrived. I am certa in we used the inrel on SAlvI and AAA sites th at they had gathe red , bur we laid Out our own targets and roures. Tu rnovers like that were important. At the end of our stay we passed on a lot to "Reece Seven ".' The fi rst CO of the ' Fleurs' as RVAH -G was C d r C R 'Screaming Charlie' Smi th, who claimed 'T racers won 't hurr you. They just bounce off. H e later co m manded RVAH -3 . At th is stage of the Vietnam W ar the US Navy was conce rned about increasing M iG activity, and it decided to t ry a USAF-inspired camouflage sche me that would ma ke its aero planes more d iffi cult for h igh fl ying ene my fi ghtcrs to detect. All types of aircraft were painted , includ ing those of RVAH -G, - 11, - 12 an d - 13. Jets were camoufl aged in shades of green and brown on the uppersurfaccs. t he patt ern s and colours varying depend ing on wh ere the repaint ing was don e. RVAH -G had its

os:

m

'"

== . aero planes resp raycd at th e O verh aul and Repair fa cil ity at N AS North Island , in San Diego, befo re embarking o n Constellation. T he green Vigilantes undertook the usual wo rk-ups in H awaii an d du ring the trip to Japan and Subic Bay, in the Ph ilip pines. After the first T onkin G ulfl ine period , and the air wing's loss of an 1-= -4 Phan tom II , an A-6 Int ruder and four A-4 Skyhawks - all to ground fi re - the water-based camou fl age paint was removed by sailors with solvent-soa ked rags. RVAH -6 aeroplanes remained the standard gull-grey and white from then on. D espite the bad ex periences of the Constellation squadro ns, the camouflage idea was tried again later, wit h the same results. D ick Wells went to sea three times with early RA ~ 5 C squad rons as a tech nical representative for North American; 'All RVAH -6 aeroplanes were over- painted at No rth Island prior to the cruise. They had ex pected more air intercepts, and after the fi rst line period the camouflage \....as removed. T he finish was very rough - it had almost a sandy fcel -, and it reduced the maximum air speed by 20 knots or more. O ne thing th e paint was good for was over-G inspectio ns. Any loose fas tener or loose panels would clearly show up d ue to the coloured paint being rubbed away. If I remembe r correctly, o nly the CO had prior co mbat experience from Ko rea, and everyo ne else had to acqui re the "jinking" expert ise. We co uld sure see where the spoiler/deflecto r had co ntacted the edges, as the)' would close whi le the wings were still bending. The sta r and bar insignia, side number and BuNo on the vertical fi n were also applied much smaller that normal on the camouflaged jets. I was told that this was done ( 0 distort distance ind ications for att acking V ietna mese M iG pilots.' Lr ' Bull' Davis was crewed with Lr 'G igi' Grener for the ' Fleurs" fi rst co mbat deployment with the Vigilante. D uring a mission to get the results of an air wing str ike on the D on g Son petroleu m sto rage site nea r H aiphong, the)' had a fl igh t cont rol malfunction and the RA-5C began to lose height. W hile G retter handled the jet, D avis kept the cameras runn ing properly. D esp ite SAM ncar-misses and

RVAH-6 Vigilante Bu No 149313, freshly painted in a temporary camouflag e of g ree n a nd dark-g re e n in 1966 at NAS No rt h Island . The da rk paint mad e the a irc raft m ore visible to AAA g unne rs, so the ide a was d ropped . Althou gh no RA -SCs re m ai ned painted this w ay fo r very lon g, t he 'Ca m i-Vig is' have received a d is pro po rtio nat e a m o unt of cove ra ge in book s and m a ga zin es th e w o rld over (EBA LI

The re a re two pos s ible e xpl anations as t o w hy this ca m o ufla ged Vigi lante fe atures fu ll co lour u nit m ark ings for RVAH-11 - a unit that , officially at le ast, did not participate in the tactical paint trials of e a rly 1966. It w as e it her a not her atte mpt at applying the s cheme t o a fl e et jet , or it was a n RA-SC transf erred in from RVAH~13 . w hich ha d painted it s je t s in a sim ila r pattern of greens a nd brown. Either way. le aving th e black a nd white c hecke rboard o n th e t ail was a t odds wit h t rying t o m ake the jet incon s picu ou s (M ersky)

29

On e of RVAH-13's ca m ou fl ag ed RA-5Cs cruises over Vietnamese

jungle in the early s p rin g of 1966. When viewed fro m above, the threet one tactical paint sch e m e wa s ve ry eff ective . but the gre atest dang er faci ng these aircraft was fr om AAA and SAMs. not fr om M iGs. Indeed .

camouflag ed a ircraft were m ore conspicuous w hen viewed from t he

ground . Co nve rsely, they becam e virtu ally invisible on the deck during night o perat io ns (Mersk yl

•

•

In 1966, RVAH-S's It Cd r Art Skelly and It Joe Shevlin had a unique thrill upon launching from ConstelJation

30

when, a s they shot off the bow, the pil ot h eard a lo ud boom and lo o ke d in his mirror in time t o s e e the re ar ca nopy sailin g pa st t h e tail. The Air Bo s s o n eVA-54 thought that Shevlin had e je ct ed, a n d he sen t the plane -guard h elicopter o ver t o search for him. De spite the w in d nois e , a n d a fte r a n a lm o st comical exch ange on the intercom , the crew figured out t hat th ey were each o ka y, a n d the Vig ila nte flyab le . S kelly slow e d the jet d own, dumped fu el to get to land ing w e ig ht . came around and la nde d . A p hotog rapher o n t he l S Q platfo rm t o o k this picture of the 't o p le s s Vigi ' . The y w e re fly ing ca mou fla ged RA·5C BuNo 149313 Nl 702 (Skellyl

intensified flak because of their dan gerously low altitude, they made it (0 ' feet wet' safely, and with photographic intel ligence that went beyo nd the intended coverage - a typ ical m issi on for the V igilante. Squadronmarcs Lt C dr An Skelly and his RAN , Lt(jg) Joe Shevlin, survived one of th e st rangest events of th e Vigilante's career. In 1980, then Capt Skelly wrote; 'T he Vigilante had the dub ious d istinction ofph otograph ing ta rgets before and after the strike gro up bombed it. T he Vietnamese were always waiting for the BDA pass after the last attack aircraft pulled off the target. 'Of the 260 combat fl ights I flew in the Vigilante, the most unusual had to be with RVAH ·6 in j uly 1966 aboard Constellation. O ne dark, overcast Sund ay morn ing, we photograp hed an oil sto rage area th at had been hit t he previous night by A-6s. O n our way out of the target area over downtown H aiphong, we attracted some severe AAA, automatic weapons fi re and SAMs. T racers were crisscrossing over the canopy and the F-4 escort was going crazy calling out flak. I decided that we had had enough, so I pulled up into a nearby thundersto rm to get away from the heaviest flak I had ever seen. ' It di d n't work. Not only d id we im media tely enco unter rain, hail and ligh ming, bur the t racers were streaking arou nd us an d the re were bright fl ashes from ligh tn ing and explod ing shells. 1 could n't tell whet her the turbulence was violent beca use of near misses o r the sto rm! The attitude gyro didn't look qu ite right , but that was the least of my wo rries then . W e soon popped out of the Storm cell and I realised the gyro was correct - not o nly were we upside down , but the F-4 was right there in position , also inverted!

'J oe recognised that the nose had fall en through. and was telling me ro S± . .. ' ---

" Do yo u t hi nk. Comra de.

In t he th ick of the a ction again in July 1966, Lt Cdr Ske lly a nd Lt Shevlin incurred the w rat h of Haiphong Harbour's AAA and SAM during a cha lle ngi ng BOA ' phot o recce' m is s ion. The pilot pulled up into a thunderstorm in an effort t o evade the enemy' s a ttenti o n, and turb ulence prom ptly flipped th e Vigilante upside down. When t hey emerged inverted from t he storm cloud, their F-4 Pha ntom II escort was st ill on their wing - a lso upside do wn . The rest of RVAH-6 t hreatened to mount a camera o n the t op of Skelly' s helmet for a ny s uch future manoeuvres . The s t o ry was soon all over t he s hip, and talented jet m e c ha nic AOJ3 Mac milla n d rew t his cartoo n, w hich was widely circulated (Sk ell y)

pull out. I rolled level and pulled

hard because the water was awfully close. Joe said that the radar altimeter had gonc to zero before we st arted to clim b. • 'T here was a large merchant ship ~_. in from of us - ir turned our to be Chin ese - and as we flew past. our esco rt Phantom II called t hat a machine gun on the stern was firing down at us. 'Once back o n the ship, I had main tenance check t he "Vigi" for overst ress and battle damage. Despite so me of the heaviest flak J had ever seen , there wasn't a single hol e in rhe aerop lane! 'T he guys in the read y roo m t hre atene d to mount a Brownie camera o n ro p of m y hard hat for futu re manoeuvres.' A fortnighr later. th is same crew ..vas again over Haiphong when three large flashes of AM exploded th at HanOI wilt believe it?" f ro m an or,gm~1 ar.wmg by MCMillan in front of their nose. Lr(jg) Shevlin losr h is radar and navigation sysrem, but go r the photographs. Back onboard Constellation, a series of shrapnel holes were d isco vered from o ne side of rhc fuselage to rhe o ther. just inch es in fro m of Lr Cdr Skelly's feet.

;: m

'"

On 19 August 1966. RVA H -6's Lt Cd r Jim Thompson and his RAN. Lr(jg) G Parten, were on a road reconnaissance no rt hwest ofVinh when

AAA opened up and their Vigilante (Bu No 149309) suddenly rolled. W ith o nly partial con t rol, T hom pso n headed fo r the coast. T he Phanto m II escort reported a fire in the jet's wheel-well area. and rhat sections of the left wing we re breaking off. W he n the nose pitched o ver. both crewm en ejected ar ext rem ely high speed . Thompson later said that rime co m press io n th en kicked in. and when his eyes peered o ver th e top of the windsh ield into the slipstream . he wanted to reverse-vecto r back inro the cockpit! H is rid e was particularly violent, and he was badly bru ised wi t h his fligh t suit in tatrers. The pilot landed in a m arshy area close ro th e sho re, and despite suffering fro m a dis loca ted shou lder, he avoide d capture by sraying underwater in the reeds and breathi ng t hro ugh a plast ic ru be he kcpr in h is soc k. A sea rching Vietn amese sold ier stepped o n his leg bur he must have though t rhar ir was a log. fo r he moved off. At nightfall Tho mpson swam and drifted wi th th e tide until he was far eno ugh out to sea ro be picked up by a heli co pter. Lr(jg) Parten was rescued by a Navy ship. Thompson and Par ten were so m e of the fc-..v successful survivors of a superso nic ejectio n. Although the Nonh Am erican H S- I eject ion seat

31

was design ed for em ployment above M ach I , the design assumed that the occupant would be weari ng

a full p ressure-su it for protect io n, and that arm restraints wou ld be in stalled. The eject ion seat had bars that came down on to p of the crewman 's fee t, pads that rose lip under and panels alongside th e knees to rest rain h is legs an d a cord fasten ed near both w rists that wo u ld

pull tight and keep the arms from flail ing. The arm restraint proved awkward (Q wear, however, and n was soo n di scarded in the fleet. T he origin al seat was good (Q a speed as slow as 100 kno ts, and th is was later improved to a zero-zero capability with th e advent of the HS-I A seat in rhe RA ~ 5 C . A face

32

curtain with a hefty metal ha nd le was considered t he primary means of ejecti ng. T he altern ate met hod was to turn and pu ll eithe r of the tWO handles near the crewman's knees. 22 O ctober 1966 was a bad day fo r CVW- 15 aboard CVA-G4. Firstly, an F-4B Ph anto m II of V F ~ 16 1 was shot down north of T hanh H oa. T he next launch from Constellation incl uded RVA H ~6 Vigilante BuN o 150830 and ano th er Phantom II for a rou te reconnaissance fl ight between H anoi and H ai D uo ng. T he esco rting F-4 was hit by ground fire and began a (U rn back to t he nea rest coas t. As the RA-5C turned to follow, its pilo t, Lr Cd r T hom as Kolstad, called a SAM laun ch . T he crew of the F-4 B lost sight of the 'Vigi' . T he fate of the RA-5C and its crew, Kolstad and I.t (jg) W ill iam Kicnert , rema ined a m ystery unr il a V ietna mese report was released wh ich stated that the aircraft had been sho t down bv an SA-2 and th e crew had • ejected at very low alri rude and been killed . O ne week later Constellation headed east, and it was home bv • C h ristm as. 1966 ended with o nly two RVAH sq uad rons on the line RVAH-7 on Enterprise an d RVAH13 on Kitty Hawk. Both were un usual fo r havin g stayed wi th the same ship for consecutive deploym eri ts. Indeed , th is would happen o nly once mo re during the war.

A p ilot demonstrates how t he Vigilante's HS-1 ejection s e a t w o uld a ppea r as it rode up the rails - the knee risers a re up, the foot restra ints a re down and the crew m a n's arms pulled in tight. He is wearing a B F Goodrich Mk IV fullpres sure suit (EBA L) In a curio us e vent w hile undertaking a tra ining mi s sion, p ilots Lt Cdrs AI Wattay and Bob Kuhlk e found them selve s going in opposite directions one night. The re sult w as thi s photograph , taken by the light from an underwing fla sh er pod . The powerful st ro be light s t o pped m otion, e ven though the ai rc ra ft had a relative s peed of over 600 mph . The lights on the wi ngt ips s ho w a s a st rea k. The fla sher pod, fitted with th ree s t ro be lights, wa s insta lled on the le ft wing . They could be carried on either wing, and were powered by a wind-driven genera t o r a t the back end of the pod (Watta y)

Enterprise 's first

combat loss durin g its seco nd cru ise was RA-5C

BuNo 151 623 of RVAH -7. which

s:

was lost on 12 February 1967. T he Vigilan te and its escort were fl ying at 500 ft and 560 knots 30 m iles nort heast of T hanh H oa when th ey ran inro a heavy barrage of AAA a nd the RA-5C was hit in the righ t wi ng. The jet JUSt m ade it to t he coast near the mouth of the Red River, where

m

'"

Cdr C H ' Pinky' Jarvis and Lt(j g) P M Artlip ejected at high speed and were battered by the wind stream. An im mediate, large-scale search _..-._------_ ... __. and rescue (SAR) effo rt began to u ST I'h:)TO ~U"l ,"'6/~1 ( An ElI _L L protect and save t he pilot and RAN . An E-2A H awkeye coordinated th e actio ns of fo ur F-4 B Phanto m Il s, four A-I H Skyraidcrs, rwo SH-3 ' Big Mother' helico pters and a USAF H U- I GAlbatross amp hibious aircraft, as well a N avy destroyer. Durin g the rescue, a No rth Vietnamese patrol boat sped along the coast in an attemp t to capture th e downed aircrew. O ne of the Pha nt o m li s fi red a Sparrow air-to-air missile at the enemy boat, wh ich turned and fled , probably damaged. T he pilot was rescued by the Albatross and the RAN hoisted into a helicopter. n~I ~(5)

On 9 March 1967. RVAH - U RAN Lt(jg) Frank Prendergast became the o nly Am erican aviato r to escape after being captured in No rt h Vietnam. His sto ry was alm ost too incred ible to be true. Prendergast had go ne throu gh the RAG with Lr Cdr AI Wanay, and they co ntin ued as a tact ical crew in RVAH - 13. H owever, Lr J im ' Bo nes' M organ (a form er enlisted BN , and amo ng the most deco rated LDOs in the N avy) ha d go ne home on emergency leave so the ' Bats" commanding officer, Cd r C ha rles Putnam , needed a RAN . That afternoo n he chose Lt(jg) Prendergast to acco mpa ny him o n a coasta l reco nnaissance m issio n. N ormally flown between 3000 and 5000 ft, with a rwo- to th reemi le displ acement offs ho re, C d r Put nam violated ha rd- lear ned rules abo ut altitudes and cloud layers in a desire to get th e tasked coverage. Ncar Long Chau, 30 m iles no rt hwest ofThanh H oa, C d r Putnam dove ' Flint River 60 S' (BuN o 151 6 27) down to 3 50 ft less t ha n a q uarter-mile off th e beach to start their run up t he coastline. H it by small-arms fire from the gro und, th e Vigilant e burst in to flam es and became unco ntrollable. Putnam init iated ejectio n for both crewmem bers. \Vhile it is most likely that the CO did not ej ect successfully, he was offi cially listed as missing in acti on based on a repo rt fro m th e esco rt aircraft that a N avy pi lot m ay have been seen ru nn ing fro m ar med sold iers . Prendergast landed in waist-deep water just offsho re. H e released his pa rachute, in fla ted the brigh t yellow life-preserver around his waist and fi red all the tracer bu llets fro m his 0.38-cal p istol into th e air. A dozen sold iers waded our to him , and since their guns were pointed in his direction , Prendergast raised hi s hands in surrender. O ne sold ier saw his N avy issue revolver and too k it. Th ey began a slow, sloshy ma rch toward

The infa m o us bridge at Th anh Hoa . This photog raph was t a ke n o n the last day of operations - 14 May - fo r RVAH -1 3 during t he 1967 de plo yment o n Kitty Hawk. Note the photo data block on the low er left corner of the print (Wattay) Lt(jg) Frank Prendergast prepares t o m an -up for a mi s sion from Kitt y Hawk. He hid a s m a ll pistol w it hin hi s s urviva l vest, which is s een here behind his oxyge n mask. This photogra ph w as taken weeks before the mission on w hich ' Flint River 60S' (Bu No 151627) w as s ho t do wn nea r Long Chau, northw est of Thanh Hoa . Prendergast managed t o escape from militiamen w ho were in the water w it h him by shooting o ne of them w ith the previou sly co nce a led pi stol (Watta y)

33

34

the shore. with Prendergast making the walk even slower by limping and acting dazed as to direction. ' ,-,= First, the escorting VF-2 13 ' Black Li ons' Phantom II made passes, and even fired Sparrow ai r-to-air missi les at the beach. When (WO prowli ng A- I Skyr aidcrs fro m USS Ticonderoga (CVA- 14) began strafi ng with their 20 mm cannon , most of the • sold iers fled to rhe beach , leaving on ly their leader and one other with Prend ergast. Each time the ae roplanes came over, th e North Vietnamese sold ier ar med wirh a n AK-47 assault rifle would d uck u nder wa te r o ur o f fea r o f being hi t, Pren de rgast saw the SH-3 rescue hel icop ter fro m H S-8 approachi ng and decided it was then o r never. Th e n ext t im e t he so ld ie r du ck ed , Prendergast pull ed out a small 0 .2 5-ca l automatic pistol he kept in his flight suit and aim ed at his g ua rd. Th e g ua rd point ed Pre nde rga st ' s own re vo lver at h im a n d pu lled t h e t r igg e r. Prendergast had co u nted co rrectly - the revolver had been emptied shooti ng tracers. T here was a click as the ha m mer fell o n an em pty cham ber. Prendergast shot him between the eyes with the small automatic. When the second so ldier ca me up from beneath the wat er, Prend ergast hit him on the head , th rew his AK-47 assault rifle in th e water and headed fo r a nearb y sand ba r. T he Vietnam ese so ld ier picked up his gun and bega n to sho o t. O n the sand bar, Prend ergast bough t m ore t ime by stop ping and raising his hands. As the helico pter came closer. he wheeled aro u nd , fi red th e pisto l and ran. T he S H~ 3 swoo ped broadside and the door gunner blasted the ene my so ld ier with a heavy hI-G ] machine gun . Prendergast jumped in and was flown hack to Kitty Ha wk. The N avy did not let him fl y any more mi ssions. 19 May was H o C hi M inh 's birthday, and in 19G7 it became the wo rst single day for aircraft ca rriers on Yan kee Station when six aircraft and ten aircrcw were lost o ver N ort h Vietnam. T he m issio ns flow n that d ay saw nava l aircraft attacki ng targets in H anoi fo r the first time. Because of previo us bombing restrictions, the defenders had had time to rin g the capital with myr iad AM and SAM sites. Inspired by H o C hi Minh 's birthday. the defenders downed two F-8s (and an A-4 th e day before) fro m US S Bon Hom me Richard (CVA-3 I), which was an &sex class carr ier that did not operate RA~ 5Cs, an F-4 and an A-6 (and an A-4 the d ay befo re) from Enterprise, with RVAH -7 o n board , and anot her Phanto m II and a V igilante fro m Kitty H awk. Assigned [0 RVA H-13 , the RA-5C (Bu No 15082G) from C VA-G3 was o n a mi ssio n to get BD A following t he ar rack o n the Van Dicn mili tary veh icle and SA.M su p port d epot near H ano i, where the F-4 and A-G from CVAN-G5 had been shot d own that morning. The jet was hit o n its initial turn o ver H ano i at 3500 ft and 70 0 knots. and it co n t inued northwest in flames for ten m iles before Lr C d r James G riffin and Lr jack W aiters ejected. Both m en were cap tured and d ied in ca ptivity.

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A s e ctio n (whic h includes Thanh Hoa ) of the cha rt us ed by It Cd r AI Watta y and ltlig ) Frank Prend ergast o n s ix mis si on s (n ote the different colo urs when the routes a re close to each o t he r) during RVAH -13' s de plo yment o n Kitty Haw k during 1966-67. AI Watta y w as Fra nk Prenderga st ' s us ual pilo t , but he w as not with him t he day he was s ho t do wn. Wattay's notes o n th e c ha rt 's s ym bols include larg e circles a nd partial c ircles in black lines fo r kn own SAM threat areas , a nd as sociated rad ar cove ra ge. Bla ck dot s wit hin the circles describe launchin g s it es, w hile dou ble g reen circles w it h s ta rs denote heavY, lo ng ran ge AAA battery s it es (maxim um a lt it ude of 37,000 ft ). Gre en a nd re d circles denote heavy a nd m edium ra nge AAA ba tteries, w hile s olit a ry red circles m ark o ut m edium range AAA o nly. 'AE3' a nd 'AF2' were t a ctical pa cka ge areas. Co lo ured lines denote individual m is s ion profiles w it h he a di ngs a nd course lines . Fina lly, the blue circl e w it h t he dot was the point where Fra nk w as s ho t down (Wattayl

An indi cation of the overall aggressiveness of CVW-I I ab oard CVA-63, and the intensity of its early Rolling Thunder mi ssions, was provided by the sta tistic that RVAH - 13 lost more V igilantes in two deployments than any other RVAH squad ron during the ent ire war. Lr Cd rs Ray Vehorn and D ick Daum wcrc the onlv , airme n from th e unit to survive both cruises. Constellation return ed for I( S th ird co mbat tour in May 1967, with RVA H-1 2 replacing RVA H -6 in C VW- 14. Th e 'Spca rtips' of RVAH -1 2 were a new squadro n t hat had com pleted a M edi terran ean cruise with new RA-5Cs aboard Saratoga in 1966. Vigilantes were not the on ly ones at risk duri ng reconna issan ce missions. Assigned to get coverage of the main H an oi-H aiphon g highway on 29 J un e 1967 , the 'Spearri p' RA-5C 's escorr was hit by ground fi re. D espite batt le-da mage, VF-1 42 F-4 B Phantom II ' D akota 201' (BuN o 150439) nude it all the way back to Constellation before its hydrauli c fluid leaked away, the controls froze a nd the crew ejected.

•

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BuNo 156632 of RVAH·3 fo rm ates w it h one of the TA-4s assig ne d to the ' Re ece RAG' for pilot t ra inin g, along w it h TA·3s . This p ho tograph was taken o ver the Gulf of Me xico near the 'Vig i' community' s last home at NA$ Key West, in Florid a. This Vigilante is no w o n di s play at Sanford Airport IEBA L)

One of RVAH· 11's Vigilantes is barged off Forrestalfollo wing the devastating fire of 29 July 1967 wh ich destroyed t hree RA·5Cs IEBALI

Weary sailors look on as RA·5C BuNo 149284 is pu shed over th e s ide by Forrestel's 'Tilly' de c k c ra ne in the wake of th e fire (Mers ky)

35

w w

a:

'".... '"....w 0-

-c

'" u

-< ISI72~-·· -

_ ,.",. t_ .' -804

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Commanding RVAH -1 2 was Cdr Par O 'C ara, who revised reconnaissance tactics and was infl uentia l in the Vigilante co m m unity. After a tour o n the C RAW- I staff, he became the CO of th e RAG , where he di rected the traini ng of all reconnaissance crews. While in command of the Vigilante RAG , and later as Co m ReconW ingO ne (the to p ma n in the Vigi com munity), O 'Gara began a crusade to abolish the term 'heavy' left over from A-3 Skywarrior days - e.g. VAH - IO was called ' H eavy T en '. At m eetings, O'Cara wo uld go to the board, scrawl RVAH in large letters and cross off th e A and H as obsolete. Vigilante veterans identify when they joined the com m uni ty by whether they say ' H eavy' or ' Reece' Three. A m onth later RVAH - I I , wh ich had recently rransirio ncd fro m A ~3 Skywarrio rs. arrived in the T o nkin G ulf aboard the Atlant ic Fleet car rier USS Porrestal (e VA-5 9) . After o nly fi ve days of operations, traged y struck when a Z uni roc ket fi red from an F-4 struck the fuel tank of a Skyhawk \vhich blew up , setting off a series ofexplosio ns and fi res which ultimately killed 134 m en and com pletely destroyed 21 aircraft . Three of these were RVAH -l 1's RA-5Cs BuN GS 148932, 149284 an d 14930 5. After temporary repairs in th e Philip pines, Forrestal sailed back to Norfolk in Septem ber. T he disaster threw sched ules out of wh ack. Since th e squadron was read y for co m bat. th e RA-5C s were replaced and RVAH -II was back on the li ne by early D ecember, th is time with CVW- 11 aboard Kitty Hawk. Fro m the time 'o f th e Forrestal fire at th e end of J uly unt il RVAH -G arrived in- theatre aboard Ranger in early Novem ber, the Navy's reco nna issance assets in the T o nkin G ulf co m prised small dcrachrnenrs of RF-8 C rusaders o n CoralSea, Oriskany and Intrepid. and th e Vigilantes of RVAH- 12 o n Constellation, The 'Spean ips' lost rwo jets and their crews in August. O n the l Srh, BuN o 15 1634 was hit by AAA while doing 72 0 knots o n a m ission near Lang Son , in the extrem e nort heast I -. • of Non h Vietnam . T he Vigilante was enveloped in flam e and th e tail • sectio n came apan. Bo th crewmen • were capt ured as soo n as they to uched down in the ir parachutes. Lr Cd r Leo H yatt and Lt(jg) Wayne • Goode-mo re. who we re o n their 33rd mission. were fi nally released, together, in 1973.

.

36

RVAH-12's RA-5C BuNo 151727 wa s photographed just weeks prior t o embarking in Constellation in April 1967 a n d h eading off t o wa r for the first t ime. Having su rvived two combat tours w it h the unit. this

aircraft wa s st ricke n at Rota. Spain. in late January 1972 pos sibly after a heavy landing a boa rd Independence (Mers k y)

The en d re sult o f Vigilante

re connais sance. This photograph s ho w s a North Vietnames e S AM s it e w hich was highlighted by the photo -interpreter w ho found it o n the negative film after it w a s processed . Positive prints s uch as thi s were made for bri efing flight

c re ws and battle st a ffs I Watta y) 5

•

•

Four days larer Vigilan te Bu No 149302 crashed inro rhe sea wh ile on a coastal reconnaissance mi ssion, killing squad ron Executive Officer C d r Laurent Dion and his RAN , Lr(j g) C harles H orn . There were insuffi cienr facrs to determin e the exact cause, but the crash may have been ano ther case of unno ticed small arm s fi re while on a mission. August 1967 co uld have been named 'M onth of the SAM' , for 16 Navy aircraft were shot down , six of them by missiles. Pilot repofts showed 249 SA-2 launches d uring t he month, including 80 on 21 August. And the defences kept building. By late 1967, H an oi was defended by 15 SAM sites, 560 AAA pieces of all calibres and M iG fi ghters at the nearby airfiel ds ofG ia Lam and Ph uc Yen. T he vital POft city of H aiphon g was si milarly well protected. T his was the welco me RVAH -6, - 11 and - I faced when t hey began their second com bat to urs. T he first Corsair lls to see comba t deployed aboard Ranger wit h RVAH -6 in 1967, and like the Intruders that first went to sea with RVAH -I on Independence, they needed the Vigilante's SLR imagery ro plan their strikes. RAN Lr]ohn Calhoun and Cd r C C Smith, the com manding officer of RVAH -6 , flew 7 5 missions together over North Vietnam. O ne of their most sign ificant took place on 1G December 1967, wh en t heir photographs revealed the exact location of the infamous ' H ano i H ilto n' prison cam p in downtow n H an oi. Carol C Sm ith later became an ad miral, and he held one of the to p aviator jobs in the N avy as Com mande r Naval Air Forces Atlantic (C NAL).

SUPERMEN By th is rime t he Vigilante had established a fearsome reputation among pilots. Indeed , there were cases of offi cers turni ng down orders to an RVAH squadron out of fear of the aeropla ne. T he reputation was no t completely undeserved, bur came mostly from its early days in fleet service. The wing tra iling- and lead ing-edge flaps were at 40 degrees for landing, and the trailing-edge flaps were the only section of the wing with Boundary Layer Co ntrol (BLC) . This meant higher approach speeds with poor pitch response, and resulted in broken nose gears, flattened ma inmount tyres and the occasio nal catastrophic ramp strike. Starting with t he A-5 B, th e tra iling fla p area was increased , leadingand t railing-edge fl aps went to a 50-deg ree extension and the BLC moved to the lead ing-edge fla ps (d roops). T he accident rate d ropped, but if either of the two critical bul kheads cracked, what would have been a hard land ing in another aeroplane turned into a major accident (C lass A) because of the time an d effort required to repair the dam age. T he

556 bulkhead had (he main landing gear and forwa rd engine mounts attached to it - the 556 was d uly reinfo rced. The 742 bulkhead, mounting the horizontal slabs, vert ical stabiliser and rear engine mou nts, posed more of a problem .

A Vigilante ' in the groo ve ', w it h ho ok d own an d fl aps full y extended . Note the amount of b lack smoke com ing f rom the J79 engines (t h e Phantom II suff ered from the sam e problem ], The smoke went away once afterburner (A B) was selected , so ' V igi' crews always flew in AB w hen over the beach w hether th e speed w as n eed ed or n ot . Even with th e RA-5C in minimum afterburner. escorting F·4s had t rouble keeping up wit h th e jet (EBALI

37

Psychology also played a parr as well. From the author's perso nal experience, when the answer to the q uestio n of wha t aero plane he flew evoked th e response 'O h wow, aren't Vigilantes awfu lly difficult to fly. espec ially land ing on the sh ip?'. a nat ural reactio n was [0 sta nd a little straighter and say, 'Yes, bur I can hack it'! Th us, the unspoken implication was that the pilot was some son of superman. The aurhor flew the RA-5C for seven years, and for pa rt of th is tim e he was the RVAH -3 LS O. H is views on land ing the Vigilante arc as

•

.•J i

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.;

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follows;

38

' Land ing any aeroplane on a ship is a challenge - doub ly so ;H n ight. Yet, despite its fearso me reputa tion, rhc RA-5C did well day and night. M any RVAH squadro ns and ind ividual Vigilance pilots won air wing landing competitions. T raining was the key. Nor o nly for the pilots, bur the L505. Waving the "heavies" - A-55 and A-3s - was a special skill. 1.505 fro m t hose co m m uni ties had no tro uble wi th each o thers jets, but the L505 fro m un its eq uipped with "little" aero pla nes were intim idated , and did not always appreciate the effec ts of mass and inert ia. ' I always fclt the hardest th ing to do in a "Vigi" was not land on the boat , but get in positio n for the catapult shot. The RA-SC used a b rid le attached to tWO hooks under the intakes to launch, rath er than the current nose-launch bar. T his m eant the nose wheel had to go up and o ver the catapult shuttle, bur not too far. T he shutt le was shaped like a turtle she ll wit h the end chopped off, and it was slippery with an amalgam ofjet fuel, conde nsed stea m and salt spray. From t he deck, th e Vigilante had to be turned precisely o n the cen tre of th e cat track. Because of the length of th e fuselage, there was li ttle d ista nce to correct the line- up. At the shut tle, the to leran ces became even closer. If no t aligned with the exact centre of the hump , t he nose gear wo uld slip off the edge and cut t he tyre. You would add power to get over the hump, fed the wheel • d ro p, and if you did not sto p within rwo inches, yo u would crack the hold-back fitt ing in the rail. 'A goo d taxi directo r wo uld mod ify th e standard signals an d add lots of bod y english . H e wou ld vary the speed and dis tance of his waving

An unident ified Vigilante closes o n th e flight de ck under the watchful gaze of the LS Os , w ho are in rad io co nta ct wit h th e pilot. A plane g uard UH-2 hovers in t he backgro und IMersky)

An RVAH -l RA-5C co m m e nces it s cata pult s ho t from bo w cat o ne aboard Ran ger in 1970. Most ' Vigi' pi lots fou nd that co rrectly position ing th e jet over th e cata pult s huttle for laun ch wa s more difficult than landin g back a boa rd th e s hip (Mers k yJ

hands. His body would lean and tw ist, shoulders dip and head nod with subtle signals to the pila r. H e could have beco me a ballet dancer or professiona l m ime with th e skills needed to lau nch an RA-SC. '

,

'"....o .... s: m

'"

1968

A lone o n th e deck of Kitty Hawk, t his RVA H·6 Vigilan t e give s an impressio n of the overa ll size of t he jet. A larg e aerop la ne t o be o n an aircraft ca rrier, it s t ret ch e d 76 .5 ft from it s slender nose probe to the tip of the tail. Its wingspan wa s s o m e 56 ft. To save s pace, NAA had the Vigi la nte fo ld o n four sides - t he w i ng tip s fo ld ed up (as shown). t he ra dome fold ed up a nd took the pitot-static probe w it h it, a nd the top of the vertica l tai l cou ld fold to one sid e . Follo w ing its retirement in the lat e 19705, this aeroplane (BuNo 156632) was all se t t o become a target at China l a ke until it was re s cue d , restored a nd eventua lly p ut on display at Sanford a irport, in Flo rid a (EBA LI

•

•

KA·3 8 BuNo 138959 of VA H·4 Det 63 passes fu el t o an RA -5C of RVAH-11 after the latter h ad com p leted a photo-reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam in January 1968 (M er sk y)

The nature of the air war over North Vietnam changed with a flip of the calendar. W eather was a facto r as the Northeast Monsoon swept in , ma king visual bo mbing impossible for most of the first three months of 1968. T he Int rud ers, using thei r all-weather navigatio n and attack systems - and radar imagery from the Vigilante's SLR - flew single aircraft strikes into North Vietnam no matter what the time ofday, or the weat her. Four of the solitary Intruders were lost in 90 days. O n 23 January, the Ame rican surveillance ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2) was sur roun ded by North Korean patrol boats and forced to sur render. Enterprise with RVAH - l embarked, was in Sasebo, japan, at the time, and it im med iately set sai l int o the Sea of j apan . Rilngerand RVAH -6 left Ya nkee Station o n 27 j an uary and arrived o ff the Korean coast on I February. A num ber of ' pho to recce' missions were flown while both carriers sailed in Korean waters for a month. The sa le 'big dec k' carrier in the T onkin G ulf at this time was Kitty Hawk, whose RVAH -Il and the rest of CVW- I I spent a reco rd 61 days on the lin e. Soo n after leaving Korean waters, RVAH-6 becam e the first squadron to get the new AAS-2 1 IR mapping system fi n ed into its jets. RA-5C s were flown (() NAF Atsugi for instal lation of the new equ ipme nt, which would eventually be seen in all Vigila ntes. T he IR map per was a majo r improvement in the jet's night capability, for no longer wo uld the hazardous flashers be th e only way to obtain imagery. T he system used liquid nitrogen to cool sensing crystals which detected temperature differences. T he AAS-21 co uld show dead vegeta tion used as camo uflage, derccr the ho t engines of veh icles in the night and even show patterns of warmt h where vehicles or aerop lanes had been parked . In an amusing inc idem , early ru ns with (he AAS-21 over the H o Chi M inh T rail showed hot SpotS that 10 and PIs could not figure OU( . T he hot spots turned ou r [Q be fresh elephant droppings. Back in Alban y, G eorgia. wh ile the sys tem was still classifie d as secret, an unmarked Beech 18 a rrived at the naval air station and was kirred out

- ---39

40

with the AAS-21 syste m. It duly flew a series of night flights, fuelling speculatio n on base as [Q what it was up to. T he 'tw in' Beech was being operat ed by the US Alcohol and Firearms Bureau in an effo rt to locate il licit whiskey still s in the hill s of northern Georgia. Later, the 'Vigis' themselves would fly these ' revenoo-er' searches. Fro m Ya nkee Station, RVAH -6 performed a series of runs at twiligh t, and an altitu de of just 1500 fr . so uth ro no rt h along the coast o f No rth Viernarn from the dcrnilirarised zone to Haiphong. Using SLR, the jets were looking for 'Styx' ami-ship missiles and patrol boats prior [Q th e battleship USS Missouri ( B B~63) entering coastal waters and shelling the T hanh H oa bridge. RVAH -6 CO C d r C C Sm it h made the first ru n, and XO C d r Ivan Lewis the next. T hey were bo th shot at by heavy 8 5 m ill anti-aircraft gu ns. Lr C d r H erm Muell er and hi s RAN , Lr G uthrie , fl ew the th ird mi ssio n in an exact repeat o f the first two. Abeam Viuh. Mueller avo ided a pair of 5A.Ms. A third ca me at him while he was steeply banked and low. and kn owing that 5A-2s always ca me in twos, he pushed forward o n the st ick and the fourth missile barely went over th e Vigilante. fl ak was heavy all th rough h is manoeuvring. Shake n, he aborted t he remainder of the ru n and headed back to Ranger. T he Bo b H ope usa tro u pe with so ngs tress Barbara M cl-Jai r was o n board for a show that n ight , and when she heard o f the hazardo us near m iss, the singe r ven tured down to the LSO platform and La rry D elioxrel handed her the rad io. When Mueller called. "Field G oal 603", Vigilante, Ball', M cNair replied, 'C'mo n home, baby. \'({e're wai ting for yo u '! Lt C d r D eb oxtel was assign ed the fourth try. ' Box' had chose n 'T iny' Mul holland as his RAN when they were in training, ' Because he was a great big guy , and wo uld be useful if we ever jumped o m '. M ulho ll and said there was no way he was go ing if they repeated the previous fl igh t path , so they p ret ended to be a Sh rike mi ssile-carrying A-4 loo king for SAM radars. They stayed high and flew in fi gure-eights just off H aip hong H arbour. T he fi re-control rada rs would lock-on when they headed away and sh ut down wh en they headed in. After several pauerns, Mulholland turned off the jet's IF F t ransponder and Deboxrel pm the RA-5 C into a su perso nic dive down to 150 0 ft, headed so u th . T hey got the coverage and the Vigilan te was no t fired at. O ne week after the Pueblo cap ture, the T et O ffensive began . The N avy carriers remaining in t he G ulf sh ifted to operatio ns in So uth Vietnam in su pport of th e Army and Marines. T h is d isco uraging show of st rengt h by the Nort h Vietn amese and Viet Co ng moved Presid ent Johnson to try new initiatives to end the war. O n 31 Ma rch he d eclared an end to attacks north o f the 19th parallel. T h is m eant T hanh H oa and the infamous ' Iro n T riangle' - Nam D inh- Hai p hong- Hano i - was off-limi ts. T he d ay was

An IR im a ge of the port most fre quent ly used by Na vy a irc ra ft ca rrie rs d uring the Vietna m Wa r. To t he right of t he photograph is th e na val base at S ubic Bay a nd across th e river, th e city of Olongapo . NAS Cubi Po int. w it h its sing le ru nw a y a nd ca rrie r pier, is across the bay from the naval ba se. The s lig ht d istortion pres ent in this image co m es from the line -s ca n that the AAS-21 us ed t o re g iste r tem perat ure d ifferent ials (EBALj

/

-

•

•

I April in Vietnam , an d many thought the message was an Ap ril Fool 's jo ke. T he reaction of fli ght crews was mixed. On th e o ne hand, rhey were no longer expos ing themselves to the heaviest air defen ces in history. but thev also knew that the Nort h Vietnamese would use the break - as thev• • had don e on earl ier, shorter bombing pauses - ro re-equip and rearm . They co rrectly fel t that if rhey co uld have kept up th e pressure of 1967. t he com m unis t leaders in H an oi wou ld have q uit. Peace talks in Paris began in May with q ui bbles abo ut t he shape of th e rable(! ), and then proceeded to d rag on with mo re tri vial argu ments. Navy aircraft fl ew m issions into the narrow panhandle o f Norrh Vietnam and increasingly into Laos and Cam bod ia in an anem pt to Sto p rhe flow of enemy su pplies into So uth Vietnam . Vinh . and the area surro unding th e city, remained hor as th e Nonh Vietnamese shifted defences fro m th e ' Iro n Triangle'. CVW-9 C O C d r Paul Peck aboard Enterprise used th e intelligence RVA H - I brought back to go od effect. IR imagery had picked up a great deal of t ruck traffic aro und the old ca thed ral in Vinh. T his was susp iciou s, and a 'Smo king T iger' RA ~ 5 C made a surp rise, fast , low photo pass at dawn . T he processed fil m showed a m issile transpo rter backed li p to the nave, load ing SA~2 s into the cathed ral. CAG Peck g rabbed the pho tograph while it was still wet and ran with it ro th e adm iral. During t he ensuing m ini-alpha strike, the first bo mb caused a seco ndary explosion that went up to 8000 ft. Flam ing, falling deb ris ign ited nearby buildings, which also exploded . O n 5 May, 'C o manche T rail 102' (Bu N o 149278) of RVAH -I was pho to graphing Route 1A fro m 6500 ft near H a T inh when, as the esco rt described it, 'T he "Vigi" hurst into a huge fireball about tw ice the size of th e aircraft and sna p-rolled when th e starboard wi ng ca me off . Lrs G il es Norringto n an d Lr Di ck T angem an somehow managed to eject, although they were injured in the process and soon captured . T hey had crewed together since co nverting o nto t he RA-5 C in 1965, and had flow n 22 com bat m issio ns. Bo th men were released in M arch 1973. C d r C harl ie Jam es, th e exec ut ive office r of RVAH · l 1. was a veteran of the Korean \'(f ar, where he had fl own AD Skyraiders with VA-55. On 18 M ay. james was flying 'G len Rock 606' (Bu N o 149283) northwest of Vinh , close to the western border of th e panhandle. when t he jet was hi t by a 57 m m burst - even 10,000 ft was not h igh eno ugh to avoid large r calibre AAA. T he jet burst into fl am es and broke up, forcing James and h is RAN , Lr C dr Vincent M onroe, to eject. T wo rescue beepers were heard and SAR aircraft headed for t he area, bur t here was too m uch AAA to co nrin ue the rescue attemp t. Rad io H ano i repo n ed the capture of the crew, and alt houg h James was released in 1973 , Monroe died in captivity. After losing eight aircraft in co m bat and anoth er seven in accidents during its 125 days o n- the-li ne, Kitty Hawk finished its th ird war cruise in Ju ne and returned ho me. Berween the March partial hair and the full suspensio n in November. the Navy lost seven A-4s, ten A-7s, eight F-4 s, six A·6s and rwo RA- 5C s to enemy action. In Novem ber, all of N orth V ietnam was declared free fro m attack. T he air war had entered a new phase. The days of the m assive Alp ha stri kes were o ver. Recon naissan ce m issions o ver the Nort h wo uld co ntin ue, however.

41

fier t he U nited Scates decreed a bom bi ng halt, the crews fl ying off the carriers spent so much time over the H o C hi M inh T rail in Laos that they mockingly call ed themselves the ' Laotian H ighway Patrol'. T hey even wo re an em b roi dered shoulder patch modelled after a

real police badge. \X'hile the air war was 110£ the brawl of 1967. the AM threat was always {here. T he enemy was capable of surprises. and airmen could not let themselves become co m p lacent. For the attack un its the

emphasis changed from strikes to close air sup po rt and the Commando Hunt interdic tion campaign. Destroying supplies moving sou rh was d iffi cu lt, and ro ures req uired freq uent reconnaissance. T he image of the H o C hi Minh T rai l as some sort of highway is incorrect. V cry little was paved, the T rail being a series of parallel dirt roads, jungle trails and footpath s which were interconnected . W hen one section was blocked , traffic sh un ted to another. Sropping the flow was an impossi ble task, but the US Navy and Ai r Force tried . Whi le the reconnaissance squadrons were a parr of the ' Laotian Highway Pat rol' , they also co nti n ued to fl y over N orth Vietnam with good reason.

ARF

42

T he air- refuelling probe on a Vigilan ce retracted to streamline the aeroplane fo r high speed . W hen the switch was flipped , doors popped open and an obscenely red, bent pipe with a grey tip came o ut of the left side of the nose. W ind across the probe, and its doors, made a racket. For most missions over Vietnam, the Vigilante carried suffic iem internal fuel - twice as much as its usual escort, the F-4 . Also, for comba t, rhc Phan tom II had AIM -9 Sidewind er missiles on pylons below the wings, a huge fuel ta nk hung un (he belly and AIM -7

An extended a ir refuelling probe . The open doors made so much noise in the air s t rea m t hat it cou ld be heard in the co ckp it ( WooduJ)

Sparrow missiles protruding from the fuselage. Although the rwo jets had

•

•

the same ) 79 engines. the RA-5C cou ld outrun its fi ghter esco rt because th e jet ca rried no exte rnal stores, and was 'clean ' aerodynam ically. Vigilante pilots did practise refu elling for the tim es ARF (Airborne ReFuelling) wo uld be IH:ccssary. A favouri te pastim e was ro do {\.YO 'dry plugs' , retract the probe. pull alo ngside the tanker to show you were d ear, then li ght the burners and pu ll away in a swooping barrel-roll wh ile your escort was lazing alo ngside the ran ker, co nserving every bit o f fu el. Aer ial refuelling in a Vigilante was di ffi cult. T he pitch ing moment arm was long, and an up or down correction resulted in t he probe twisting in an arc. Just befo re co ntact, airfl ow o ver (he nose shoved the basket off [Q the side. T he secret was to aim halfway out at the drogue's ' ten o'clock '. KA-3 '\\!hales' and KA-6s were the fa vourites for ARF. Their d roguebaskets were larger than those on the 0 -404 buddy sto re, and they had lots of fuel 'give away' . Bomber A-6s and the small A-4 Skyhawk became tem po rary tankers by hanging a self- co ntained buddy store on the cent rel ine pylo n , but their baskets were small and t hey did not have much 'give' . T he use of A-7s as ta nkers mad c Akf more awkward for 'Vigis' and C rusaders, which had fu el probes on the left. Since th e Corsair II had no cent reline station, the Phanto m [Is and ot her A-7s with probes on the right side d ictated the buddy sto re be hung on the left . T his meant the RA-5C had [0 fi ght the tu rbu lence fro m the tanker's jet exhaust. 'Join the Navy and See the \Vodd ' was the recruit ing slogan and the N orfolk , Virginia , based aircraft carrier USS A merica (CVA-66) delivered. On the first of its three deploymen ts [0 Vietnam , the sh ip with and its air wing went around the wo rld. In 1968, the ' Bats' of RVAH-13 got ro visi t Ri o de Jan eiro and cross the South Atlan tic and Indian Oceans (a visi t to South Africa was cancelled for poli tical reaso ns) on the way to its third co mbat deploymen t. T he air war was sti ll hot - bombing restrict ion an d the full pause were months away - when RVAH - 13 arrived o n the line, but it d id not lose a single RA-5C, com pared to the fi ve lost in 1966 an d 1967. T he unit had the dubious distinction oflosing more jets in com bat than any other RVA H squad ron. At the end of the cruise. the decision was made [0 fly all the RVAH -1 3 RA-5Cs home. rath er tha n wait while C VA-66 sailed halfway round the world. KA-3Bs were the tankers for the long fl ight. l.r Cd r Bob ' Kid ' Kuhlke had a hydraulic fa ilure on Joh nsto n Island ; 'Johnsto n Island is in the mi ddle of nowhere, and they sure di dn't have a lot of facilities to fi x a bro ken "Vigi". T he local engineers jury-rigged a wobb le pump to re-do my hyd rau lic sys tem . I think t hey were happy abo ut a change of routine. T he pump was a real con traption, but it worked. I caught up with the u nit in H awaii. \\!ho le tri p rook a week.' Constellation now had RVAH -5 on boa rd, and the ca rrier arrived in WestPac in time [0 adjust to the new operational restrictions. Up [Q January 1969. all reconnaissance flights over North V ietnam had been coded U E Blue Tree missions , but they were rarely differentiated from the overall Rolling Thunder bomb ing cam paign . T h is changed after the bom bin g halt was declared. From 1 N ovem ber 1968. reco nnaissance fl ights became the main reason for send ing jets into No rth Vietnam. A 'Savage Son' RA-5C was the fi rst N avy recon naissance aircraft lost on a Blue Tree mission after the halt.

-<

o

43

The flight crew s of RVAH-S pose for a cru ise book sho t . The v ariety of

h ats is typical. Bush h ats , Marine fatigue ca ps, baseball ca ps a nd even reg u la t ion uniform h ats t ook turns

in the fashion parad e. Ele ven crew m e m be rs for a d eplo yed RVAH un it w as t ypical, m a king up five c rews and one ext ra . Cre w st reng t h w as matched t o the number of aero pla nes assigned, a nd logically g re w s m a lle r as the RVAHs s hru nk in s ize from six to five to four Vigilantes (Po w elfJ

O n 25 Novem ber 1968, radarguided anti-aircraft guns tracked 'O ld Kentucky 113' (BuNo 149293) rwo miles no rthwest of Vi nh as th e pilot. Cd r Ernest Stamm, jinked wildly at 550 knots in an anempt to throw off the gu n ners' aim. H is ma noeu vring was

to no avail. T he jet was h it and exploded into four parts. The esco rt ing Phanto m ll s had heard th e to nes of a 'Fan So ng' SAM radar on th eir ALQ gear, so it was uncertain whether flak or an 5A-2 had destroyed the RA-SC. T wo parachut es were seen, but neither Cd r Stamm or RAN , Lt(jg) Richard T hurn, survived. •

•

TORA,TORA,TORA

44

On 6 January 1969. Enterprise left Alameda . Califo rn ia. with CV\V/-9 and RVAH-6 on board. As usual for Pacific Fleet ca rriers. the ship and air wing would train around the H awaiian Islands unti l th e culminating O pera tional Read iness Inspect io n (O RI). after which it wou ld depart for the war zone. T he fi rst mo rn ing Out of Pearl H arbor. hot exhaust from a jet-starter cooked off a m issile and sta rted a con flagratio n on the fligh t deck. The fire and explosions killed 27 men and destroyed 15 aeroplanes. T he reaso n relatively few sailors were killed was tha t all ha nd s were standing by at General Quarters (G Q) stations as part of the traini ng exercise. At GQ. ship's co m part m ents arc isolated , fi refighting and damage co ntrol parties are m an ned and their eq uipment is ready. Besides the dest ructi on from actual explosions and fi re. m any aeroplanes were badly affected by the salr wa ter used to figh t th e fire. So me had to have holes punched in t hem to d rain t he water o ut. All were washed down with fresh water as soon as possible. O ne RVAH -6 jet was damaged by sh rapnel . but it was repaired and flew agai n within four days. Iro nically, this jet (BuN o 150842) would be sho t down two months later.

An RVAH-5 Vigilante launches off the bow ca t a pult of Constellation in 1968 in the Tonkin Gulf. On 25 November that s a m e year this a irc raft. BuNo 149293. w as s hot do wn by radar-guid ed AAA two m iles northw est of Vinh . The jet e xplode d int o four parts . a nd ne ither the pilot, Cdr Ernes t Sta mm , o r RA N. ltlig) Rich ard Thurn, s urvived (EBA L)

r

Those ai rcraft that were either

"'IVC-.» -

repairable or undamaged were craned o nto ba rges and taken to

NAS Barbers Point. on Oahu. Air wing

trauun g resumed wh ile C VAN ~65 was being repaired in

.~

Pearl H arbor, altho ugh the son ic sched ule was relaxed , with fl ying on ly from Monday through to Friday. The ' Fleurs' of RVA H-6 mapped the ent ire Hawaiian Island chain. and used their un ique IR sensors to loca re a steam leak in down {Ow n H on olulu. A nnounccmcnr s were made o n rad io and televisio n ro inform the public abo lit what the low-fl ying Vigilantes were up to. Sharing the airfield at [he: time were: the repli ca Aichi 'Vals' and Mitsubishi Zeros (made- up from AT-6 T exans and Vu lree BT- 13 trainers in the best H ollywood tradition) used during the filming of the motion picture Torn. Torn. Tora, which retold [he story of th e 1941 attack on Pearl H arbor. The ' Fleurs", with their photographic capab ility, rook ma ny stills of the mock j apanese aeroplanes. After six weeks ashore, five days co mpleting the OR I and the voyage across the Pacific, RVAH -Gwas back in the: Tonki n G ulf on 3 1 Ma rch . O n [he first launch of the first day back on the line, a Vigilante had mechanical problems and did not laun ch. RA-5C BuNo 150 84 2 on the next launch, piloted by C d r Dan \Vhite, the squad ron maintenance officer, with RAN Lr Ramey Ca rpenter, catapulted off but did not retu rn. ' Field Goal 601' and its Phantom II escort were fl ying northeast of Nakhon Phano rn , in Laos, and the RA -5C was in a steep turn at 5000 ft and 4 20 knots when it burst into fla mes and fell apart - the large cent re section went into a flat spin. T here were no ejections. Th e escort d id not see any gunfi re before the Vigilante exploded, but it was fi red on im mediately afterwards. T he remains of the crew were recovered and identified in 1997. Since there were offic ial doubts that the jet was a com bat loss, a detailed accident investigation was co nducted. Lt C dr Larry D eboxrel had JUSt become the new Safe ty Offi cer for RVAH ·6; 'T hc skip pe r ra n u s t hroug h a c rash drill , all t he repo n s a nd pape rwork, on the way back from H awaii . When W h ite wen t down ,

RVAH-6' s BuNo 151617 was photographed d uring Enterp rise 's 1969 WestPac. A d eck crewmem ber gives the pilot a thum bs up. w hile

ot he rs stand by the main w heels with c hoc ks in case of brak e failure. The chocks wo uld hopefully hold

the aero pla ne st ill long e nough for deck crews t o s e cure the RA·5C with tie-down chains. This was a st a nd a rd pract ice on all aircraft carriers. BuNo 151617 s urvived frontline service t o be stricken at NAS Key West in No vember 1976

--<

o

-u

"o

--< co --<

m

-c; m

"m :t>

co --< o Z

( Wells)

One of the first nin e p ro duct io n A3J-1 s to le a ve NAA in la t e 1959, this a ircraft initia lly s pent time wit h t he Nava l Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River conducting ECM trials . Co nverted into a n RA·5C, it eve nt ua lly served w it h RVAH -6 in the late 1960s . Se en here flyin g ove r San Fra ncisco during CVW·9 workups , it deplo ye d w it h Enterprise o n WestPac in early J anuary 1969. Stricken fro m Navy s ervice in 1975 and placed on display at NAS La kehurst in 1982, the aircraft was des troyed some years later when it was in tran sit from l a keh urst to its ne w home at t he Victo ry Air Mus eum in New J ersey IMersky)

45

all I had

'"0

:>

a: w

>-

0-

"'"

u

do was change names

a nd n umbers o n the rep ons. \Y/e came lip wi th so me specu lat ion o n t h e ca use - fuel t a n k exp lo sio n, overst ress - b ut I' m co nvinced it

~

'"or

to

was AAA. T hey w ere o n a seco nd

run over the target'. T he deployment was dis rupted

•

aga in whe n t h e N o r t h Ko r ea n s sh o t d own an u n ar m ed US N avy

Ee - 12 l su rveillance aircraft o n 15 April 1969 , and RVAH -6 was sent to the Sea of Japan for a second crisis. RVAH -9 aboard Ranger (the ca rr ie r t h e ' P leu rs' h ad b ee n on

du r in g t h e Pueblo c ri s is) joi n ed

The CO of RVAH ·6, Cd r Ed Feeks cong rat ulates It Cdr AI Best (o n the ladde r) after the unit's final flight of th e 1969 WestPac deployment on Enterprise as part of CVW-9. On 16 June 1969, BuNo 15084 1 (se e n here) fl ew three mis sions a nd pas sed 2000 hours flight t im e since its accept a nce by t he Navy - the firs t Vigilante t o d o s o. The black-edged rectangle fo rward of the la dde r w as w here the m ai nte na nce c hief w rote the airc raft 's weig ht fo r the catapu lt crew to com put e t he ir s e ttings ( Wefls) •

46

•

t h em . Th e ' H o o t ers' h ad b een successfully operat ing off Vietnam since the end of November. W hen the cris is over the downin g of the Ee - 12 l subsided Ranger headed home. transferri ng one o f its Vigilantes to RVAH -6 [Q replace the jet lost over Laos . In the To nkin G ul f, meanw hile, RVAH - I I and C YA-63 again played a lone ha nd , being extend ed at sea. W h ile rhe period ofTKo rea began bad ly d ue ro main tenance p roblems, RVAH -6 recovered and ga thered valuable intelligence, before return ing to Vietnam fo r a short seco nd, and last line, period. Six Vigilantes were assigned to t he un it, b u r rhe ship allowed o nly four [0 be on board , and one of these had ro be str uck d own in t he hanga r d eck. T h is was an ea rly indi cation o f the size reduction RVAH un its wou ld suffer in ch c fut ure. T here were two reaso ns w hy fiv e, then four and , towards the end , only th ree RA-5C s were assigned to a sq uad ro n. T he size o f the aero plane (7 6 ft long and a 53·ft wingspan) mad e the Vigilante u npopular on carrier fli gh r d ecks, w he re space was at a p remium . Ad d itionally, m any types o f m aintenan ce req uired rhat the in ternal fuel cans be removed . Because the latter were designed as pan of rhe A-5 weapo ns delivery syste m, they were m ou nted o n rails so that they co uld slid e out w hen released (t he mechanics had a .cree per' o n wheels they co uld rol l back and forth wh ile work ing) . Although easy to d o o n land , such a syste m was impractical o n a ship. w here the jet had to have its tai l, plus the length o f the can and space to wo rk , o ver the deck. Since mos t carrier-based aircra ft are parked wi th their aft end s sticking o ut over the water an d (he ir main w heels at t he edge o f the d eck, removing the cans fro m a Vigilante took over a large piece o f fl igh t d eck real estate. The seco nd reaso n was a lack of RA-5C s. e RAW - I co ns ta ntly had to swap aeroplanes am o ng the sq uad ro ns in an effo rt to balance d eploym en t needs, m aintenan ce and overhaul req uiremen ts. Since t he jet had proven itself a valuable asset as the war in Sou th-cast Asia expanded , NAA buil t 36 new RA· 5C s at irs C o lu m bus plan r. Even these were no t eno ugh to meet all the requirements, and every 'Vig i' lost in co m bat, or otherw ise. mad e the situa tio n mo re diffi cult .

Enterprise returned (Q Yankee Station, It Cdr D eb oxtel After

had a misadven ture. H e recalls; 'T he sh ip left, and 'T iny" (I t W ayne Mu lho lland ) and I stayed in Cu bi to fl y o ne of our jets, which was having its engines cha nged. We went to the a -club on top ofthe h ill and played bingo after di nner. D arned , if we did n' t win a boule of C h ivas Regal - a gallon bottle! \Vhen the aeroplane was read y, we wrapped up the Scotch really well (Q take back to the ship. Illegal or not, no way we were leavi ng it beh ind. 'O n the way, "T iny's" navigation system "d umped" and then our T ACAN fa iled. Solid und ercast below us. We started having oxygen problems, so I d ropped through a hole in the cloud deck. We were over H ain an Island! O ver the radio, I heard a broken call abou t M iG s laun ching. I looked and could see the silver shapes lifting off. I [limed fas t, lit the bu rners, pushed over and got to 1.3 mach on the way sout h. A coup le of Navy f -4s from Enterprise passed us going the oth er way. ' f ortunately, other than a good scare , nothi ng came ofit - unlike some of the other poor guys that fl ew over that C h inese island by mista ke. And, yes, the C h ivas tasted grea t.' Life in the Vigil ante squad rons did not always run smoothly. Uni ts are, after all, not just aeroplanes, but people roo . RVAH -7 had fi nished a de ployment to the M ed iterranean (losing BuN o 147854 along the way) and"was on its rum -a rou nd cycle at NAS Alban y when the XO tried to loop a Vigilam c -.« diffi cult manoeuvre, which required plenty o f al tit ude and a supersonic emry speed. T he Vigilante (Bulc o 149287) departed controlled fl ight a nd the crew ejected. The errant execut ive officer was swiftly replaced . Normally, a new Executive O fficer wo uld be foun d , but at [he same time the co m ma nd ing officer quit fl ying, citing severe personal problems. T he unit also had other problems, and deployment on Constellation was less than two months away. Lr C dr Art Skelly (of the inverted over H aiphong adven tu re] became the senior officer. Cd r Bob Do naldson had recently retur ned from Wes/Pac, where he had been the CO of RVAH - 13 for the cr uise on America. H e had a reputat ion as a good leader, and the reco nnaissance wing commodore (C RAW- I) drafted him to take over and straighten out RVAH -7 . As a co nd ition, C d r D onald son wok along II Cd r D an Rowley, who had been in A3Js, a nd was [hen a RA N instructo r in RVAH-3. T heir adven tu re began when all their gear coul d no r be ta ken to San D iego in time. O nce underway, and he had had a chance to lea rn who was do ing what , Do naldson d uly replaced the Ma intenance Officer and [he XO.

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So m et imes the Vigila nt e 's unique linear ba y fuel ca ns would come loos e durin g a catapult s hot , land o n the flight deck a nd exp lode w ith s pe ctacula r results. In this s e q ue nce, a ll three tanks (a nd t he 885 US g a llo ns of fuel they conta ined ) we re lost from the RVAH -1 2 jet fl o wn by Cd r J ohn Huber when launchin g from Indep endence o n 4 Sept em ber 1969. Thre e ca ns a re visib le in th e lower photo. The Vig ilante usuall y rem ained flyable in t he wake of s uch a n incident (EBA L)

47

It Cdr Dan Rowley (Ieftl and It Cd r Art Skelly s e rv ed together in RVAH-7 in 1969·70 aboard

Constellation. They had known each o t h e r prior to joining the unit, and would remain f riends lo ng after leavin g it. Art Skelly h ad t he u nusual career pattern of f lying

helicopters and anti-submari ne warfare a ircra ft before instruct ing in jets and finessing orders {his wife was a bridesmaid at the assignment o fficer' s wedding !} t o A-3s. He was in VAH-6 at NAS Whidbey a long

w it h Bob Davis. J im Tho m pson. a nd Gary Getter. Skelly stayed in ' S ix' fer its transition to RA-5Cs . a nd made the 1966 cruise on Constellatio n. wh ere he flew • • inve rte d over Haiphong, got s hot up and had his RAN lose his canopy. He inst ructed in t he ' Reece RAG' befo re

the t our w ith RVAH ·7. Another assignment to RVA H·3 follo w ed , before Skelly became RVAH-7's XO and CO during Kitty Hawk's 11· m onth deployment in 1972. Dan Rowley was one of the o riginal Vigilante BNs to deploy in A3J s wit h VAH-7 on Enterprise. He t ra nsitloned with the ' Pe a ce m a ke rs' to the RA· 5C. a nd s t a ye d w ith them for the 1966 WestPac deployment. Pulled from instructing in the RAG. he went t o RVAH·7 a ga in. After that Rowley graduated from the Navy Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, a nd spent s e ve ra l years d oing test work before becom ing t he XO a nd CO of RVAH·6 IRowley)

48

In RVAH -7 at this time was a senior RAN , Lt ' P 1'. who rubbed ma ny peo ple the wrong way. The Premier of South Vietn am, the fl amboyan t N guyen C ao Ky, was com ing to C VA-64 on an offi cial visit, an d Lr ' P l' was proposed to be a [Our esco rt. Lt(jg) Billy Beaver protested that ' P I ' would not present the co rrect image of naval avia tion , an d Cd r Donaldson agreed, so Beaver got to show C ao Ky the Vigilante instead . La te in the cruise, Cd r D onaldson left [0 become the C O of RVAH -3. A ycar after t hat, his replacement tri ed to take-off fro m NAS Albany in a V igilante with the flaps lip and he ejected when the aeroplane would not lift off properly. T he crash crew reached into the canopy-less cockpit [0 shut down th e engines. The Vigilante flew again , but the pilot d id nOL RVAH -7 wen r t hrough another sh uffle of com manders.

NEW DECADE For RVAH -7, 1 Jan uary 1970 meant a tragic, non-com bat loss. T rad itionally, the co m ma nde r of a Navy air win g flew all of the aircraft assigned, although by the Vietnam era, CAG was checked OUt in only rwo

types from [he ship. Cd r Randell K Billi ngs. commander ofCVW- 14. had asked [0 fl y a Vigila nte wh ile rhe ship was in port at C ubi Point for the holidays. Lr ' P l' was to be his backsearer. Lt (j g) Beaver again though t ' I' l' an inappropriate cho ice, and he com plained to the C O. H e was allowed to take t he fli ght with CAG instead . \X'hat went wrong will never be known . but the Vigilante (BuN o 148928) wcnr in to a steep d ive with t he engines at high th rust. Beaver tried frantically to ralk to the pilot , and when there was no response, he ejecred (t he RA-5C did. no r have a system where the RAN could ejccr [he pilot, but rhe pilot could eject the RAN ). Unfortunately, they were go ing faster tha n M ach I . Beaver's lower co nnection to his seat-pa n was fo und unfasten ed - he had probably released ir while trying to re-scar the com m unication lead s. T he high speed ejection with a loose seat- pa n b roke Billy Beaver's neck, to re apan the parachute canopy, and he was killed. T he jet made such a deep hole t ha t CA G 's body was not recovered. Alth ou gh Lr Cdr Rowley was part icula rly upset because Beaver had been a sruden r of his going th rough the RAG , it was Lr ' P l' wh o was chosen to escort the body hom e becau se ' he could be spared from com bat operat ions' . Lr ' P l' decided since he was on the selectio n list for lieutenant com ma nder, but had nor yet been offi cially promoted, he would wear th e insigni a of [he higher rank on t he t rip. O n the helico pter fli ght hack to CVA-64 , he was seen pulling the gold oa k leaves off his collar and purring t he silver bars back. If war can ever be said to be routine, the remainde r of 1969 and all of 1970 were, at least fo r N avy airmen. Richard Nixon was the new

American president, the first US troop reduct ions in South Vietnam had taken place an d the peace talks in Paris dragged on . There was a brief flurry of strikes into Nort h Vietnam in May 1970. but almost all ot her fli ghts were over South Vietn am , Laos or C ambodia.

RVAH - I l , -7, -5 and - 12 came and

A 'Che cke rt a il' RA-5C traps on Kitty Hawk in 1969. A s t a ble m at e (with the sq uad ro n emblem on its s ide) a nd two VF-213 F·4Bs are cha ine d down o n deck behind the re covering Vigilant e. The ' Bla c k lions ' of VF-213 un dertook a ll six of its Vietnam co m bat d eployments in Kitty Hawk with CVW-11, during which time it escorted Vigilantes from RVAH -6 10ne cruise ], RVAH-7 (o ne) RVAH-11 (two) and RVAH·13 Itwoli EBALI

A ' Sava ge Sons' Vigila nte is motioned onto Ranger's catapult. The t a xi d irecto r has his hands ra ised, a nd stea m from a pre viou s launch is rising off the cat tra ck . later tran sferred t o RVAH·7, this ai rcraft IBuNo 149287) was lost when the sq uad ro n XO attempted a loop a t NAS Alban y in 1969 ( EBA L)

went. taking their turns running reconnaissance over the trail in Laos, gather ing electron ic data on PEC M tracks and going north on rare Blue Tree missions. Because of the demands of the war in Vietnam , in 196 8 36 new Vigilantes were authorised. NAR (the re had been a corporate buy-our) added the latest avionics. put in higher t hrust J7 9-GE- IO engines and im proved the airfram e by red esigning the intakes and adding a fi llet to t he leadi ng edge of the wing where it joined the fuselage. The result was much better handling at approach speeds. By all the designat ion rules. these jets sho uld have been RA-5Ds. H owever, the politics of procurem ent and budget being wh at they are, the new batch remained RA-5C s. Wi thin t he com m un ity, the new Vigilante's were referred to as ' 156 series' after their Navy bureau nu mbers. Th e last 156 Vigilantes ( 140 were new or rebuilt RA-5Cs) were deli vered in August 1970. and later that year RVAH -I and -6 becam e the first squad rons to take the new jets to WestPac. In 1969 there was to be a London-New York Mail Race. The goal was to get a letter from a city pos t offi ce in centra l London to a downtown post office in Man hattan. Th ere were numerous classes, which included com merc ial passenger and light aeroplanes. A V igilante was prepared to win the unl imited prize. C RAW- I Capt G W Kim mons and l.r Cdr Dave Tu rner went to C olum bus to pick up a new 156 series Vigilante. Its reco nnaissance canoe had not yet insta lled. an d the jet's] 79-GE-l 0 tu rbojets were ' race-tuned' . Its paint had also been carefully applied. NAR engi nee rs said the usual mach rwo speed rest rict ion was Navy conservat ism, an d the aeroplane was capable of highe r speeds. On a practice run for the race at Albany. the Vigilante went to 2.5 mach, and the pilot, Lr Cd r Robert ' Beef Renner, said he felt that th e jet could go even fasrer. Dave Turner was a fi nalist for the racing RAN ; 'We planned the race to the last ounce of gas, fract ions of a minute. A series of KA-3 tan kers over the Atlantic (text continues on pagr 63)

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8 RA.5C BuNo 151634/NK 125 of RVAH·1 2/ CVW-14 USS Constellation August 1967

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Capt G W Kimmons (pilot) was comma nder of Reconnaissance Attack Wi ng One when he travelled to the NAA factory in Co lumbu s, Ohio, to pick up th is new " 56 series' Vigilante that wa s intended for the 1969 london-New York Air Mail Race. Sat behind Kimmon s i s RAN It Cd r Dave Turn er, who wa s one of the initia l cad re that had trained at the Co lum bus factory on the first RA·5Cs. Th e atomic bomb fla sh slid ing pa nels t hat would cov er t he RAN's windows are clearly vi sible, as is the pull-out hood for t he fro nt cano py . The w indow pane ls were used t hroug hout t he Vigi lante's career to help RANs read the radar scope, but the pilot's hood had little va lue for reconnai ssance, so the rounded plastic pieces and the overhead rail w er e rem oved (Turnerl

An exceed ingly smooth and clean RA·5C (devoid of all markings bar the national insignia), with the canoe not installed and ' race tuned' j79·G E·10 engines fitted. Higher Navy aut ho rit y decided, unfortunately, not t o enter the ra ce. as this V igilante surely would have been the winner instead of the Royal A ir Force Harrier GR 1 which t ook the prize ( Turn erl

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"--< was arra nged. We'd carry four drop tanks, but would jettison them in the Irish Sea soo n after rake-off. One of our major problems was how to get into the city while wearing the full-pressure suits we had to wear because of the altitudes we were going [0 fl y at . T he n the Navy bureaucracy put a thumbs down on the idea. Very disappoint ing.' The unlimited category was won by an RAF H arrier ' jum p jet', which had th e abil ity to land at downtown helicopter pads. The new ' 156 series' aeroplanes suffered a setback on 27 September 1970. ' Beef Renner had served as the RAG LSO for several years, and was fi nally back in a fleet squadron . RVAH - I was runni ng routine CarQ uals off Californ ia in preparat io n for deployment on Ranger, Renner flying BuN o 156629 to wha t at fi rst seemed to be a normal arrested landi ng. H alfway th rough the ru n-out, one of the (\VO attach ment points on the A-frame railhook broke an d the 50, OOO-lb jet lurched to one side. The stra in snapped the other at tach ment point an d the Vigilante went off the deck, too fast ro SlOp, [00 slow to fl y. T he crew pulled the ejection hand les, but they were low, slow an d going down fast. Lr C d r Ren ner and his RAN , l.r Max Joseph, both died when they hit the sea. All the Vigilantes, bot h old and new, were immedi ately restr icted from sh ipboard operations in the wake of the crash. Extensive in vestigation soon discovered that the bearing where the hook fram e att ached [0 the fusel age did not have any provi sion for lubrication, resulting in the bearings bein g stress- fractu red. A procedure for lubricat ing the bearings was developed, and the RA· 5C was cleared to go back to sea,

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T he new Vigilantes taken on deploym ent by RVAH -I o n Ranger and RVAH -G on Kitty Hawk had the shiny factory paint sche me with a wavy dem arcation line and letrering in pale blue. They slipped into the rou tine as 1970 became 197 1.

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BLACI{ TRACI{ Ni ght PEC M missions dur ing the ' Highway Patrol' period were typically quiet sa n ies - boring enough that the 'Vigi' pilots would let the autopilot fl y the jet so that they co uld in turn help the RAN write down navigatio nal fi xes from T ACAN stations. All the way north along the border, the ALQ wo uld be qu iet, with only an occasional beep from search radars. T hen, at the end of the route near the M u G ia Pass, as the RA-5C started to turn around, the warn ing gear woul d co me alive with pulsing strobes on the threat d isplay and undulating warb les in the head pho nes - every indication of tracking AAA and imminent SAM launches. T he crew's pulse would shoot up as they prepared to evade missiles or fla k. T hen it wo uld all sudde nly stop just as the win gs levelled afte r 180 degrees of turn . T he enemy kn ew that the information gathered by the PECM was not especially accurate when the aircraft was turning. One night on the Black T rack over Laos, a crew from RVAH -6 had exciteme nt of another kind . Air Force B-52s were effec tively, if ineffi ciently, carpet-bombing No rth Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong sto rage and troop areas in South Vietnam , C ambodia and Laos. Each bomber dro pped 84 500- and 24 750-1b bombs, and the B-525 flew in cells of three. A total of 324 bombs with a co mbined weight of 90 tons from JUSt one cell created utter devastation in mile-wide swathes. Ca ptured soldie rs reported that B-52 attacks terrified th em. These massive bomb drops were called Arc Light, and as a precauti on before bombs away, announce me nts were made over the rad io on guard channel wh ich all friendly aircraft monito red. The aut hor was flying blissfully along when guard chann el blared, 'Arc Light, Arc U ght, coord inates north 1722, cast l OGOS, Arc l.ight, A rc Light '. H e paid little attention , asA rc Light warn ings came frequently. Mo ments later, his backscater. Lr Cdr ' Bull' Davis , an no un ced on the int ercom, 'We' re there!' Powell looked up over his shoulde r, and there were the black silho uettes of six B-52s. H e lit the afte rburne rs, rolled, pulled and d ived fas t to get Out of the way. Safely away, they looked back to see ex plosion after explosion rippling th rou gh the jungle - so dose together [hey formed a solid carpet of flame and fire.

TROLLING AT QUAN LANG

64

O ne of the most remarkable photographs ever taken by a Vigilante happened accidentally on 1 March 197 1. ' Held Goal G02 ' was assigned a reconnaissance route that crossed over itself in order to get the tasked

The two largest a e ro pla nes to routinely operate from aircraft carrie rs s it along side e ach other du ring Enterprise 's 1969 combat cruise . The A-3 a nd the A-5 both had folding tails . as w ell as the m ore usual folding w ings. Both land ed weig hing 50,000 Ibs , a nd both s t a rt e d their fle et careers as nucle ar bom bers, before finding other rol es {EBA LI

A m e asure of the diffi culties and restrictions pla ced o n reconna issance m is s ions ove r North Vietn am by politicians in Was hi ng ton is po rtrayed in this cruise pat ch m ade up by RVAH-6 in 1971 (Con rad)

cove rage of the Song Ca and a small er river. T he entire route was eas ily inside th e SAM envelopes " around Vin h. At Vigilante speeds, Lr Cd r Barry Casrrock and Lr Emerson Co nrad were back over the river juncture at Hung Nghia , head ing south , less tha n four m inutes after crossing the same vil0/]3 lage westbound. AAA had only been sporadi c, and there had been no missi le warnings wh en Co nrad saw a flas h in his viewfinder an d yell ed, ' Pull up!' G astrock ya nked hard . They heard a whumpf and were th rown against the seat·straps. Speedi ng toward the coast, they watched and listen ed for possible da ma ge to their Vigilante. T here was none. At 600 kno ts, it did no t take long to reach th e waters of the T onkin G ulf, an d the jet soon went feet wet and headed back to Kilty Hawk for a routine recovery. In the IO IC , a phoro-in rerprerer cranked th e fi ve inch-wide fi lm from one massive spool to anothe-r across the lighted area of the viewing table and sto pped . H e called others to look. Soon tha t segme nt was cut out and positive image prints made. Perfectly fram ed in the vert ical camera was an SA-2 mi ssil e still under boost. The crew was called ro see th e near miss. As best they could figure out, since there was no terrai n vis ible in the frame , the SAM passed under th e RA-5C at the las t target as Gastrock had banked hard for home. Knowing the focal length of the camera, and the size of a SA-2 warhead , phcrograrnmete rs co m puted that the missile had passed 104 ft from the jet's belly. No o ne knows why it d id not detonate. The freq uent bombing of cho ke points along the trail created ten -mile wide areas of devastation that were as desolate and crater-poc ked as t he surface of the moon. The mou ntain p:lsses of Mu C ia, Na pe and Ban Karai had to be seen to be believed. T he Air Force, M arines and Navy would attack them all day and into the night, but in the morning, when the Vigilantes brought back fresh photographs, the craters would be fi lled in, there were mu ltiple d ikes and roadways and fresh tyre tracks . Since the jungle-covered ridges around the passes were called mounta ins, and they had sreep slopes, a jacket patch was made with crossed snow skis, a mou ntain silhouette and the legend, Ski M u Gill, 100

BeautifULTrails. In M arch 197 1, ' Protective Reaction' strikes were allowed . Stri pped of political niceties, 'Protect ive Reaction' was jusrifi cario n for attacks in N orth Vietnam . If a reconnaissance mission was shor at, US forces were allowed (Q ' react' to 'protect' rhe unarmed aircraft. The RVAH squad rons ca lled it ' trolling for flak and SAM s, with ourselves as bait' . Blue Tree m issions had shown an airfield und er constr uction at Q ua n Lang, on the Song Ca River, less th an 20 miles from Vinh. Lr Cdr Casrrock and l.r Con rad of RV AH -G were to plan and lead a Blue Tree. The number of suppo rting aircraft from CVW- I I wo uld have made a

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Framed under the w ing of a CVW-2 A-7B Co rsair II e q uipped with an AGM-45 Sh rike a nti-radiation mi s sil e, a n RVAH-5 Vigi lante is cata pult e d from th e deck of Ranger in late 1969. A plane guard SH·3A Sea King from HC-' Det j ca n just be se e n in the di stance (Merskyl

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Th is a m a zing photog raph was t aken by the forward -firing o bliq ue came ra during a mi ssion over North Vietn am . The forward obl ique ran all t he t ime w hen over land. Its rate of firing was s low, a nd the pictures t a ken could later be used to re construct the route of fli ght in t he eve nt of an a ut o matic navigation fa ilure . Th e s m a ll bl ac k clou ds are AAA bursts a t '3.000 ft. When explodi ng that fa r in front of the RA-SC. t he flak was probably barra ge fire, which sa w gunners attempting t o fill th e s ky w it h c hunks of s hra pne l that t he Vigilant e would t hen fl y into at high s peed I Wattay)

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decent size Alpha strike. Like so man y Blue Tree missions. condi tio ns had ro be exactly right , and they briefed the elabo rate mission , on ly to be cancelled, rescheduled again for another brief and another scrub and another brief and cancel. They had briefed Q uan Lang so man y tim es, the basi cs were video-taped . W hen someone new was assigned to fly with th em , he was told to watch the rape. At last , on 22 April, after the airfield was complete and a pair of MiG s

were parked there, 'Field Goal G02' and th e support ing players were actu ally launched. PEC 1\.1 and earlier reconna issance had repo n ed 29 radars, includi ng seven ofthe deadly fire-control ' Fan Songs', located there. T he ' Dynamic D uo' o f G astrock and C o nrad had flown ove r the sit e a m onth befo re,

when they unintentio nally photographed a SAM in their vertical camera. Fully loaded with ordnan ce, the A-6s, F-4s and A-7s of CVW- 11 were waiting off the coast as the Vigilante made a high speed, low pass down the cent re of the new ru m\,ay, th en pulled up and came back in the opposite direction. The bait was roo m uch ro resist, and the Vietnamese gunners opened up and the SAM radars went active. T he arrack aircraft ' reacted' and rolled in to 'protect' the Vigilante. When they left, and the smoke cleared, both MiGs and most of th e SAM and AAA sites had been destroyed , along with a jet sta rte r unit , a fi re truck and a road grade r. Nor all work done by Vigilantes was serious. C arriers would make a cru ise book for their deployment , ill ustrated w ith pictures of the crew and shi pboa rd act ivities. During work-ups, the RA· 5C would have colour film loaded in oblique cameras set at a shallow angle, and word wo uld go out to all the units that if a 'Vigi' jo ined on you that day, tighten your form ation and smile. T he S14 million dollar Kodak rook great photos. W ith two or three carriers operat ing in the To nkin G ulf at anyone time, mistakes were made. One cl ear da y, a nu gget A-7 pilot from the 'big deck' carrier Kitty Hawk landed by mistake on the much smaller 27C class USS Hancock (CYA- 19). An alert Vigilante crew heard the rad io conversation andheaded for the ca rrier with came ras firing. By the tim e the embarrassed pilot return ed ro CVA-63, 12 x 16-inch glossy prints of a lone A-7 parked ami d the ai rcraft of Hancock 's air wing were in all th e ready roo ms, o n the captain's and adm iral's bridge and CAG 's office.

GETTING IN Never a problem on board ship or at home base, the special boa rding ladders (the black-painted indexes on the cockpit edges at the canopy

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The legen da ry photo graph o f the SA -2 mis s ile that pa s s ed ju st 104 ft belo w ' Fie ld Goa l 602 '. The m o st likel y theory as to wh y the S AM did n ot exp lode is that th e mi s s ile h ad n ot re a ched it s a rmi ng time whe n it s hot past the w ild ly jinkin g RA·5C (Con rad)

Th is new ' 156 s eries' RA-5C was d e livered t o RVAH -6 in time t o p a rticipate in the unit ' s 1970-71 WestPac a b o ard Kitt y Hawk (Me rs k y)

seam showed where ro hang the lad-

der) rhe Vigilante (and the A-4 Skyh awk} required were usually not availabl e when th e aircraft had to divert into Da Nang or other air bases in Vietnam o r T hailand . T he proced ure for gcrring int o rhe RA-5C was elaborate, and requ ired physi cal dexterity. Before shutting down the engines, and losing hydrau lic pressure. rhe pilot had to rem em ber to trim as far nose down as possib le. T h is pur the trailing edge of the big horizontal srahiliser

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Then , when the crew came back to the aerop lane. they would open both cano pies with switches o n the side of the nose, walk back ro the tail and , wit h skill worthy of an acrobat, jum p, pull and rum t hem selves onro the stabiliscr. T h is {ask was diffi cu lt eno ug h wi rho ur th e to rso harness, life preserve r, survival vest. hard hat, map bag and C vsuir gett ing in the way. On ce up , it was easy to stand, take a sha n step onto the relat ively fl at fuselage and wa lk forward (Q t he RAN 's cano py, grasping the edge for stability while inch ing forward o n the na rrow sill o n th e cockpit edge. The RAN co uld then ste p into his cock pit. The poor pilot had still to grasp the edge of th e back cockp it wit h one hand , reach forward to h is own ca no py with the o ther and take a giam st ride to get his left foot on h is cano py sill, pause spreadeagled nine feet ofT th e gro und. and hop-shift hi s weight forward- not m uch fun on a wi ndy, rainy ni ght. Enterprise, with the 'Savage So ns' o f R VA H ~ 5 o n hoard, relieved bot h Kitty Hawk and Ranger. In O ctobe r 1971, RVAH -5 Vigilante BLi No 156634 fl ew into the water whi le on a training fli ght, kill ing the sq uad ro n C O, C d r L R ' Bud' Everett, and RAN , l.r C d r Paul Sto kes. T his was the fi rst RA- 5C loss in WestPacsince M arch 1969 Fo r three m o nths Enterprise was the o nly 'b ig deck' in th e Tonki n G ulf unti l Constellation, with RVA H -1 1 'C heckerta ils' em barked, arrived for the transition to an entirely new phase of t he air wa r. T he attacks o n th e Ho C hi M in h trail dest royed tho usands of trucks and tons of su pplies, but for every truck destroyed and every to n of supplies burned , two, th ree or four mo re wou ld co me into H aipho ng fro m Soviet Bloc ships and start down th e trail. The US Navy lost 130 aircraft and their crews durin g th e bombing halt, which lasted from November 1968 to early, 1972, and th e start of Linebacker operations. In the same period , so me 100 ' Pro tect ive Reaction ' strikes were fl own ofT aircraft carriers into No rt h Vietnam.

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A BOA photograph of the a irfield a t Quan Lang, taken bV Lt Cdr Gastrock and Lt Conrad afte r the ' pro t e ctive re a ction ' Blue Tree a tta cks bV CVW·11 ai rc raft fro m Kitty Hawk on 22 April 1971 ( Co n rad)

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n M arch 1972, the No n h Vietnamese ar my launched a major offensive across the D M Z . T he South Viernamese needed extensive American assistance to hold their groun d, and with the Paris peace talks obviously going nowhere, President Ni xon ordered a large scale air cam paign against the North. O peratio n Linebacker began on 9 May when Navy A-6s and A-7s dropped m ines across the entrances to H aiph on g H arbour, as well as the harbours of Cam Pha, Han Gay, Vi nh and T hanh H oa. T he mines' act ivat io n was delayed so fo reign ships could leave. The Vi gilante's role in this operat ion was ove rhea d imagery to accurately plot the mines' placem ent. RVAH -7 aboard Kilty Hawk and RVA H - l on Saratoga (that carrier's o nly t rip ro Vietnam ) had arrived on station as scheduled, and they would overlap with RVAH -l l on CVA-G4 until the 'C heckerrails' departed fo llowing eight months in WestPac. America, with RVAH-6 assigned, was within weeks of deploying to the M editerran ean from its homeport of Norfolk, Virgini a. When th e decision to initiate Linebacker was reached, all personnel were recalled and CYW-8 embarked in a hurry. A merica sailed with in days, heading for the tip of Africa, the Indian Ocean and its th ird spell o n Ya nkee Station . By the autumn, and with th e arrival of Enterprise (RVAH- 13) and Ranger (RVAH -5), five of the US Navy's biggest and best carriers were in position to cur off all supplies corn ing into North V ietnam from abroad , and destroy military stoc kpiles and targets already in the co unt ry. Every worthw hile targ e't in the N orth wo uld he attacked. Vigilantes continued to fl y missions into h igh threat areas, cond ucting dangerous ROA sorties. T hree-and-a-half years of restricted bombi ng had given the No rth Vietnam ese time to significan tly improve their defences. T here were more guns, more SAl\1s and more M iGs (mostly dangerous, superson ic M iG-21 s), and no sho rtage of experienced gunners, missile operators and pilots tra ined to use them. The stage was set for a fi erce battle.

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This lat e -build RA·SC participated in RVAH-S's fifth , and last, combat de plo ym e nt t o Viet na m , w hich com m e nced on 16 November 1972. The un it had seen a cti on from Rang er's fli g ht de c k on thre e of these c ruises . BuNo 156632 was put on display at Sanford airport in May 2003 (Mersky)

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A '156 se ries' Vigila nte of RVAH·3 rides port bow cat t w o d uring Carrier Oua lifications (CO) aboard USS Cora l Sea ICVA-431. Although the Mid w ayclass carrie r was deem ed to be too s m a ll to o pera te RA·5Cs on a permanent basi s , t he vessel w as fine for COs. The initial qualification was for t en d ay a nd s ix nig ht la ndings. This was incr e as ed for pi lots going o ut to deplo ye d sq uad rons. There was no actua l require m ent fo r RANs t o be 'CarOualed', but in ke eping w it h the c rew conce pt , the y went along for the ride during the long practice landin g s es s io ns ashore, and then stayed w it h th e pilot for tra ps o n t he s hip. A good RA N co uld steady a nervo us pi lot . Experienced RAG instructors 'Ca rOua le d' w ith nu gget pilots IEBA Ll

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Photographed in J une 1971 , RA-5C SuNo 156613 wears t he GJ ta il code of the ' re cce RAG' (M ersk y)

RVAH-3 SuNo 156630 powers a way from the flight dec k, eac h J79 in full a fterburne r putting o ut 18,000 Ibs of t hru st . This a eropla ne was lat er tran sferred to RVAH·l , a nd it was last when the crew ejected near NAS Albany on 1 March 1972. One Vigila nte pi lot 's description of a catapult s hot was as follo w s ; 'The catapult fires . The weig ht of your chest for ces o ut a grunt . You s t rai n yo ur neck trying t o pull yo ur he a d off t he res t - if yo u s ucceed you will ha ve to eject , as something has gone w rong . Some 70,000 Ibs of aeroplane is accelerati ng to 170 mph . As t he " Vigi" c lears th e deck, 3000 Ibs of hydraulic pressure in t he nose gear e xt e nds the o le o s t rut ha rd e noug h to vibrate the nos e a nd m ake the instrument panel blur bare ly noticed in the da y, but providi ng m oments of confused terror at nig ht . You can no w lean forward , reach with yo ur left hand and raise t he land ing gea r le ver, pulling the thro ttles back fro m afte rburner t o m il it ary pow e r' IEBA L)

From the beginning of the Vigilante program me, all pilots senr to RVAH units already had fleet experience in ot he r aeroplane types prior to fl ying the RA-5C . RANs, however, were a mo re norm al mix of ex perienced aircrewmen and graduates fres h out ofTrain ing C om man d . In 1969 this changed, with the fi rst newly-winged pilots arriving in rhe Vigilante training squad ron, RVAH -3 . T hese ' N uggets' were not only a select group , they also received ext ra trainin g before reporti ng to the fleet. D espite init ial qualms, the nugget programme p roved very successful. Graduates included Ji m Flahe rty, who later led F- 14-eq uipped VF-2 11 and became com mander of all Atlanti c Fleet Fighter Squadrons, Rob W eber (a second generation ' H ooter', his fa the r having flown AJ Savages in VC-9), who co m manded A-6 squad ron VA-35 and was later captain of (he aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy (CV-67), and Joe D yer, who

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became a three-star admiral after directing the N ay)' T est C enter at Patuxent River.

For some of th e 'Vigi' n uggets their fi rst mi ssio ns wo uld be over

North Vietnam during Linebacker. O ne such individual was Lrfjg) Paul Habel (a q uasi-nugget. he had spent a year insrrucring in the same training un it that he had grad uated fro m) , who recalled his first m issio n

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with RVAH -l l; 'It was to Mu G ia Pass, way lip the back side of North Vietnam one of the upper starts of the Ho C hi Minh T rail. So down we go from 15,000 Ft! I' m thin king "Into the valley of da rkness ro d e the 6 00" , Bur it was blue skies and really p rett y scenery - looked like the Smokey Mou ntains. All I kn ew was that I wanted to go as fast as that "Vigi" would carry me. I put my left foor lip o n the th rottles to push them beyo nd max burner - put a permanent bend in the th rottle levers. Well, nor literally, but that's what I was th in king. ' Now remember o ur " H eavy T h ree" trai ni ng - "yo u have to ge t a visua l recce fo r the d eb rief ' - even tho ug h we had 4 0 0 cameras running, pointing in every di rection. So I no ted the valley floo r- it had ten mi llion pock-marks. Light brown bomb crate rs - everyt hing else was lush ju ngle green. This was the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and US forces had dropped 200 bill io n Mk 80 series bombs on it. I'd have bet the iro n content there was greate r than in the M asabi Range in M in nesota. T here was no fl ak - o r I d id n't see any - or t he gunners weren't calibrated for the Vigi's speed, o r so I had been bri efed - t his was my first co mba t hop - and our "defe nsive" eyes, rhe fi ghter esco rt, d idn 't call any. By co m ba t standards it was, after th e fact, a mi lk run .' RVA H -1 3 's t r(jg) Russ Ca m pbell went to Vinh on his firs t co m bat fli gh t. H e had the volume o n his ALQ warn ing syste m set so high , a nd so many f ire-control radars emitted, that he d id nor hear any rad io calls while over the beach . Back on Enterprise, w hen he learned th is, C am pbell worried that he may have missed so me verbal warn ings. Erni e Ch ristensen, a former BlueA ngeb d emonstrat ion pilot wh o had been his esco rt in a Phantom II , said, ' D o n' t worry, kid , they could n't have hit yo u, you were all ove r the sky'. D urin g his fi rst tr ip near heavily d efend ed H aiphon g, RVA H ~ G ' s Lt(j g) W es R utl ed ge had the esco rt ing F-4 pilo t ca ll, "Field Goal" flight , cease burner so I can keep up'. Rutledge rapidly repl ied , ' N o-no, not now'. On 7 M ay 197 2, two days before Linebacker officially began , Cdr Ron l'olfer and Lt(jg) Joe Kernan were in the first Vigilante to be lost due to ene my act ion since March 19 69. Cdr Po lfer had comp leted two tou rs and 20 0 m issio ns as a Phantom II pilo t, before becom ing the XO o f RVAH -7 on Kitty Hawk. T heir m issio n was BDA o n a t ruck park alongside th e D rago n's Jaw Bridge near Thanh H oa. Flying at 600 knots and 4 500 fr, they were hit by heavy AM and ejected from their flamin g RA-5C (BuNo 15 1618). Both men were cap tured and released with the

RVAH·11 Vigila ntes pe rform s o me c lose form ation wo rk w it h F-4Js fro m VF-92 . Flyin g off Constellation o n 10 Ma y 1972, VF· 92 a nd VF·96 s ho t down s e ve n MiGs between them . The le ad RA·5 C in this s hot , Ru No 156609, lo st it s fue l cans d uring a ca t s hot fro m e VA-64 o n 21 Ma y 1973 a nd the RVAH·12 crew had t o eje ct afte r losing cont rol of the jet. The s e co nd Vi gilant e in th e formation, Ru No 15661 0, was s t ricke n in Rot a, Spain, o n 3 1 Oct o be r 1978 pres uma bly a ft e r a he avy landing . It w as deployed w it h RVAH-1 2 aboa rd Sa ratoga at th e t ime, the unit co nd uct ing th e Vig ila nt e 's very la st Medit e rran e an c ruise (EBAL)

last group of PoWs eight months later. Cdr Polfer resu med his career as the CO of RVAH-6. and Joe Kernan later became Mayor of South Bend Ind iana, and then the Lieutenant Governor of l ndiana. June 1972 saw a massive pullout of US troops from South Viet nam. In the North , the air war continued hot and heavy. Fl ying with the 'S moking T igers' of RVAH -I from Saratoga , the tactical crew of LCDR C huck Smith and Lt(jg) Larry Ku nz became the pen ult imate Vigilante A view of the notorious Thanh Hoa to be lost in South-cast Asia. O n an earlier mission over North Vietnam , bridge being bombed . During their Smith had looked down at his IN S readouts o nly to see the steering bar debriefs , attack pilots w o uld pegged to the side and distance at over 200 miles, instead of the next normally s a y that th e target w as rarger. " Kooner'", he asked on the interco m, 'where am I?' Kurtz' reply obscured in s moke a nd d ust . And the smoke and dust was the re ason became a classic. 'Well, yo u' re eight feet in from of me, going faster than w hy Vigilante pilots had to wait ten hell . . . and I'm working on the rest' . t o fifteen minutes befo re goi ng in t o The sailors in the maintenance department added the nicknames th ey carry out post-strike photog ra phy had for this colourful pilot/RAN combinat ion below their normal names I Wattayl on the side ofHuNo 15661 6. Smith became ' Srnilin' Jack', after the old co mic book hero pilot, and Kunz, ' BD T'. H e claimed it was taken from the sq uadron's insi gnia, and stood for ' Big D ead ly T iger' , bur in reality it It Cdr Chuck Smith had both his stood for ' Big Dum b T exan '. name and his nickn am e - ' S m ilin' Jack', after the old co m ic book hero T heir next adventure was not a happy one. O n 7 J une, during a - applied beneath the forward reconnaissance of the ancho rages in th e island s where foreign merchant cockpit of BuN o 156616. He and his ships moored to offload their cargo into li gh ters for tra nsfer into RAN, It(jg llarry Kunz, nicknamed H ai phong, their RA -5C was skewered by a SAM. C oming in at 200 ft and ' BOT' were serving with RVAH-1 on Saratoga at the time. On 7 J une high speed over the To nkin Gu lf, Smi th had just popped up to 3000 ft for 1972, their 'Vigi' w as literall y -rhe photo run when the ALQ gear warned of a missile launch . Evasive s kew e re d by a SAM a nd the y w ere manoeuvres left and right were to no avail, and the SA-2 went into and forced to e ject over Ha iphong Harbour (Sm i t h ) through the fuselage. The missile did not explode or, as Smith states, ' I would not be here telling the story. ' T he starboard eng ine lost power immediately. Smith turned for deep water, and as he lit the afterbu rner on the other engine it also fla med out. Elect rical power went and the fli ght controls froze. T he crew ejected a half-m ile southeast of the city and land ed 200 hund red yards apart in (he water between th e \.l \\1\ \ \\ \ " .~ '!.\l\l\\ islands. Their F-4 escort (fl own by a Slll\.1J. H t l USA F pilot on exchange d uty) reported (hem down, and the A-7 E Co rsair II ResCA P from VA-37 • G/fOSS 1fT ' Bulls' began bomb ing and strafi ng the shore gunners. T wo SH -3 Sea

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Kin gs of H e -? (call-signs ' Big Mother 66' and '67') arrived and snatched Smi th fro m th e wa ter. The SH-3's mini-gun was fi ring inches fro m his face as he hung in the hoist. A para- rescue swim mer leaped ro assi st K u n z , b u t h e jum p ed fro m too gr e a t a h ei g h t a n d co lla psed a lun g 0 11 im pact with th e wat er. Ku n z swa m o ver a nd hel ped h is ' rescuer' into the sling, before he roo was hoisted aboard.

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The gunfi re from bot h sides d id not stop until the SH-3s left the area 50 mi nures after the eject io ns. RVAH-11 's RA-5C BuNo 156605 departs Co nstella t ion's bow ca t o ne

on 25 April 1972. The unit, a lo ng w it h the re st of CVW.g. w a s participat ing in Operation Fr eedom Train at the tim e, w hich w as in turn r epla ced b y Linebacker 1o n 9 M ay (M er sky)

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T he following day when Ku nz learned a not her RA N in the squad ron had turned in his wings, he angrily sa id to Smith , ' H ey, wasn't it you and me t hat got shot down?' By O ctober th e air war against t he Nort h was won. Mun itions were nor gcn ing inro the country. M iG s had been down ed in record n umbers (eight o n 10 May alo ne), and the survivors were doing little fl ying because of a lack of fuel. Pilots going over H aiphong and H anoi repo rted virtually no oppos ition - the enemy was Out of am m unition an d out ofSM 1s. But then the politicians and d iplomats took over. Ln one ofthose moves fightin g men cannot understand , President N ixon o rdered a bombing halt to show th e N orth Vietna mese negotiators in Paris 'good fa ith '. As with previous halts, the No rth Vietnamese pretended to honour the settlement , while all t he while restock ing and rearmi ng. T he int ransigence of the leaders in H an oi forced the US ro resum e the bom bing - and resume it with a vengeance. B-52s att acked military targets throughout the coumry. includi ng some inside the H anoi an d H aiphong city limi ts. T he II days of the 'C hristmas Ca m paign' were the fiercest period of air fighting in histo ry. Fifteen of the giant, eightcngined bombers were down ed by SAM s. but by the new year any wo rthwhi le target had been destroyed . T he weathe r rwo days befo re C hristmas was poor, and a stri ke group from America d iverted to the south wh ile the RVAH -6 Vigilante an d its escortin g F-4J fro m VM FA-333 went north along the coas tal islands on its seco ndary missi on . I ZA ~ 5 C BuN o 156623, call-sign ' Ficldgoal 603 ' , was flown by un it C O , Cd r Jim Thom pson, with RAN Lr Em y Co nrad. VM FA-333 'T riple T rey' was the on ly Phanto m ll -equipped US M ar ine C orps squad ron to dep loy to Vietnam aboa rd a carrier, and ' Fieldgoal 603 's' esco rt was 'Sham roc k 2 10' flown by un it C O Lr Col Jo hn K Cochran and his RIO M aj H S Ca rr. H eading east at 2900 ft and 48 0 knots near the island of Danh D o La. Cd r T hompson saw the Phantom II take a direct hit from an 85 mm AM shell. T he F-4 p itched straight down as the crew ejected , and at that speed and alt itude, both men were in the water in seconds . Coc hran and Carr were alive, although badly battered by the ejection. T he gun ners on shore imm ediately open ed fi re on the survivors, so the Vigilante began maki ng low passes in an effort to draw the gunners'

atren rio n away from the men in the water. As Conrad descri bed it; 'O n so me passes I co u ld sec the face o f th e gu n ne r on th e quad 23 mm as he was trying (0 track us. W e were so close and m oving so fa st that the gu n was ab o ut 45 d egrees beh ind h is eyes. C o ntact was at tem p ted o n guard channel w ith the d owned crew. No voice was h eard, but we did h ear an emergency beeper. I kept tell ing them (0 swim so uth , and that help was co m ing. T he fl ak, large and small was heavy. I co u ld also see sm all arms firin g along th e beach.' H earing all the ch at ter on guard, a C o rsair II from VA-86 abo ard Saratoga arri ved . Alt ho ugh the jet was rigged as a tanker, and t he p ilot had on ly his ca n no n, he made strafi ng run s o n the beach where the small arm s fi re was comin g from . Anoth er A-7 wit h a load o f Rockeye bombs was vecto red in , and the pilot checked in with ' Fieldgo al 603' , who was the o n -scene SA R co m mander. As theA-7 silenced th e heaviest gu n with its d evastating cl uster bombs, rescue h elico pter ' Big Mother 63 ' checked in . Its pilo t said, 'I've no co m ms with the su rvivo rs, and I'm not permitted to go in without talking (0 them ' . • C dr T hom pso n h ad barely escaped cap ture after his ejectio n in 19 66 , and he knew how d esperate Cochran and Ca rr wo uld be. 'You get in an d p ick th em u p righ t now or I'll drag my rail hook thro ugh you r roto r b lad es and see if •\ 'O U have co m ms when •yo u're in th e wa ter with them ' . The ' Big Mother' SH -3 went in and picked u p both su rvivo rs, although it go t five bullet holes in it for its trouble, incl udi ng one th rough the m ain roto r from the st ill active 3 7 m m gun on rhe w csr pe ninsula. T h e rwo Marin es were taken toA ma jca sickbay, and the V igilante crew wen t d ow n to see them. As C o nrad later said ; 'It was a wild d ebrief, as the "T rip T rey" guys were d oped up and there was liberal use o f m ed icinal b ra ndy all aro und . The bad p art was m y wife h eard m ost of the details w it h in 24 hours, an d was very upset because I had been w riting ho me telling h er noth ing much was hap pen ing!' On 28 D ecem ber 1972 , Enterprise was o n the Noon to M id night sched u le. The RVAH -1 3 tactical crew of Lr C dr AI Agnew, pi lo t, and Lr Mike H aifley. RAN , ha d flown on th e first lau nch o f the day, and hours later they laun ch ed o n a secon d missio n in RA- 5C Bu No 1566 33 . Al Agnew had come into Vigilantes having p revio usly fl ow n p ropellerdriven S-2 AS\V aircraft , and he had co m p leted a M ed iterranean cru ise

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The Co m mandi ng Office r of RVAH-6, Cdr Jim Thompson (left , w ith t he handlebar m ou stache ) a nd It Em y Co nra d (co m ple t e with a full be ard) pose in front of a 'Fleur' Vigilante on America in 1972 . Behind t he Vigilante is a VMFA-333 F-4J . Th is crew would be ins t rument a l in s a ving a 'Trip Trey' crew t hat ha d be en their es cort. The hotter the war, the laxer the enforcement of regulation s - Co nrad o nly wore the skun k-s kin hat t o and from t he aeropla ne, a nd the rule -b usting (fo r fli ght crews) bea rd was ba re ly t olerated. The flight gea r of the period included G-suits (Co nrad had e xt ra bullets s e w n onto his) a nd the lPA flotation d e vice w hic h has lo bes about the waist and nec k. Ea rl ier experie nces wit h do wned ai rmen result ed in t w o multi-ch annel e merge ncy ra dios being ke pt in th e s urviva l vest pockets , a s na p D-ring for hoisting a nd a fl ashing strobelight w o rn o n the s ho ulde r (Con rad)

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Th is photog raph of t he cras h site of

'S ha m rock 210' was taken by th e forw ard oblique camera f itted in

'Fie ld g o a l 603 ' w hile t he pi lot wa s acting as the o n-sce ne SA R coordinator. Smoke from a larg e ca lib re g u n is visib le o n the s ma ll peninsula . Th e t wo Marine aviators w ho eject ed w ere pick ed up by a Navy h elico pt er (Co nrad)

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with H aifley in RVAH - 13. After a rum -around period at NAS Albany, the ' Bats deployed with CVA N -G 5 on thei r fou rth combat cru ise. Th e RHAW gear was eerily silent as they accelerated away from the strike gro u p and went feet d ry. Together with their F-4J escort from V F- 143, they were headed fo r a p re-strike recon nai ssance o f a target near H ano i. As th ey fl ew over the roads and railway lines leading inro the city, M iG calls from the Big Look airborne early wa rn ing aircraft came fast and furi ous. ' Band its, bandits. Red , blue, Bullseye and all q uadrants. Bandi ts' . ' Flint River603' fi nished its ph o to run and headed for (he T onkin G ulf in bu rner. T he pilot of the F ~4 esco rt rad ioed in a co nversatio na l tone, " Pli nc Zero Three", yo u better tu rn righ t' . As Agnew tells it; '1 was already keyed-up. M iG calls were blaring and agg ressive fi ghter guys were heading our way. I broke hard into a 90-degree tu rn at 700 kno ts: There was a lo ud explosion and the Vigi tu mbled. I di dn ' t know there were that many negative G s in the whole wo rl d . I was pressed against the st raps and my helm et was against the cano py. I somehow managed to reach one of the alremare ejectio n hand les o n the side of my seat. T im e wa rped - fi rst, the canopy seemed (Q rake forever (Q come off, and the next thi ng I knew, I was hanging in the parachute. I was surprised that the cano py was white and bright orange.' Ano th er F-4 crew had seen two sm o ke trails fro m 'Atoll' m issiles fired by a M iG-21 , and watched the RA-5C crash. T here was on ly o ne ejecti o n. M ike H aifley was killed in eithe r the jet's explosio n o r the crash. 'It was windless day, so I d id n't dri ft in the ch ute. A grou p of peasants working in a rice paddy had to move aside to let me land . T hey str ipped me down to m y H ang T en T -shi rt and red undersho rts I'd gotten for C h rist mas a few days previo us. T he)' swiped my bran d new Seiko wa tch and t hen th is Vietnam ese pulls Out a big machete. T hat scared me wo rse (han anyt hing. But all he d id with it was cur my n ight boors off. ' Agnew spent time in both (he H anoi Hilto n and th e cam p called the 'Z oo'. In the latt er he m et G erry Coffee who , in Feb ruary 1966 , had becam e the first RVAH - 13 pilot to be captured . Al Agnew was released o n 29 M arch 1973 . Iro nically, he was home befo re his sq uad ron returned from deployment. 'All t hings co nsidered, it wasn't worth it'. ' Flint 603' was the on ly Vigilante downed by a M iG , and the last RA ~ 5 C to be lost d uring the war. T his was th e 90 th (acco rd ing to official US so urces), and last, American aircraft sho t down by a MiG d uring the war. This was also the last of 26 Vigilantes to be lost in So uth-east Asia. T he effectiveness of Linebacker If m ust be judged against the facr that peace nego tiatio ns resumed in Paris on 8 January 1973 which led to the signing ofa cease-fi re agreement 19 days later, and the release of US PoW s in the weeks th at followed .

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he carrier task forces of the US N avy are the most fl exible and adaptab le response to crises anywhere in the world. Attack and fi ghter aircraft may be the power beh ind rhe threat, but u nt il th e shoot ing starts, all they can do is train and standby. Reconnaissan ce is always the first mission lau nched . What the sensors bring back determi ne what the next act ion will be. It is worth not ing that the fi rst loss o f a US Navy aeroplane in Vietn am was a photo-C rusader doing reco nnaissance. Some of the missions flown by the Vigilante outside the South-east Asia theat re of operatio ns are the subject of this chapter. T hese are reconnaissance missio ns t hat may now be talked abo ut - t here a re ma ny more which may never be declassified. Wh ile not 'co mbat' in the strictest sense, they were hazardous, with the possibility ofoppos ition very real.

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1962 - To Cuba .. . Almost The RA-5C 's fi rst op po rrun iry to go into harm's way came before the aircraft had even been accepted by the Navy. On 13 O ctober 1962, high fl yin g USAF U -2 aeroplanes photographed ballistic mi ssile sites und er construction in C uba. Ahhough the event was kept quiet , (\\10 weeks later one of the high-flying aircraft was shot down , Late that same da y, Joh n Posness, then Vigilante Program me M anager at NAA received a call from the Pentagon at his home. The q uestion asked was, 'C ould the two prototype RA-5C 's have the test instrumentation removed and be reco nfigured with advanced electro nic countermeasu res, along with the basic cameras?' H e replied, yes, and was stun ned when h is high- ranking caller told him they wou ld have to deploy in 24 hours. Fosness immediately began calling his people. H owever, it was a Saturday even ing, and man y of the engineers and tech nicians were not at hom e, bur scattered around Colu m bus, O h io. H e remembers talking to ma ny babysi rrers. and luckily reach ing tw o groups at parties. By midn ight, over 100 had been assem bled and given their formidable task. T he aeroplanes were ready on time. T he pair of Vigilantes may not have looked the best - 'cosmetics' like paint, had a low priority - but they were operational, with came ras and SLR ready to ex tend t he surveilla nce of C uba and the surroundi ng seas. Plus th ey had the correct [ CM eq uipment to defeat the newest Soviet radars. Although held in readiness for (\\,0 weeks, the prototype RA-5C s were not used. As the cr isis eased, Fosness co nvi nced the Navy that such th ings as accura te fuel co nsum ption figures for the new model would be good to have, and the two Vigilantes had their insrrume nration re-installed and resumed developmen t rests. T his rush job would not be the Vigilante's last involvement with C uba.

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fiJJYSoda To thi s day, the US Navy has been reluctant to disc uss the missions flown around the perimeter of C uba. Vigilante crewmembers rememb er performin g fl ights called Jiffi Soda, bur arc unsure of when they began or when the last one wok place. These missions were classified , and nor open ly talked about. T he entry in the fligh t log book was 'routi ne tra ining' , and there are no open records. It was 'co mbat' of a different sort. They launched fro m home base and were back in time for d in ner with the fami ly. From NAS Sanford and NAS Albany, the Vigilante would stop in NAS Key West for fuel if needed . Once they were moved ro the latrer station, C uba was visible soon afte r take-off. The missions were short enough that an extra fuelling was no longer required. A Jiffy Soda fli ght would see the jet fly right around C uba, with its PECM gathering radar signatures and locations and SLR recordi ng a current image of the coastline and several miles inland , while a 36-inch focal length came ra mou nted in the obliq ue statio n - or sometimes the IS-inch pan oram ic came ra - rook high resolution photos to correlate with the IR and SLR. Theoretically, the RA-5C remained in international waters, but several m issions were intercepted and trailed by MiGs, and lock-u ps by Soviet made fire-co ntrol rad ars were not uncom mo n.

1967 - Liberty Attack D uring the Arab-Israeli Six Day W ar in J une 1967, US carriers deployed to the M edi terran ean - includ ing one en route to Vietna m - stood by on alert awaiting developments. In June, at a time when the US governme nt was trying ro keep a neu tral position between Israel and Egypt. USS Liberty (AG T R· 5), a state-of-the an intelligence gathering ship, was in in ternation al waters off the Gaza Scrip. Word came co America that Liberty had been attacked by unidentified jets and ships. Lr Cdr Ron Pollard was a pilot in RVAH -5; 'America launched an ar med armada to go out to Uberty. I fl ew the Vigilante with the group. I can still picture the setti ng. T he sea was a comp lete glassy calm. Liberty was listing slightly, with man y holes in all pan s of the ship. Paint smoke was driftin g out of it. After circling for a while, we were ordered back to the ship. Some 34 sailors were killed and 17 1 injured . T he survivors were under orders to never tell the facts of the attack. My film was unloaded and never seen by anyone on the ship. ' N one of us co uld believe it whe n Israel declared it was a mistake. T he facts released in the last few years tell of a deliberate and bruta l air arrack, and how (US President) J ohnson covered it up for pol itical reasons.'

1968 - Capt ure of the Pueblo

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Less than one year later, another intelligence ship brought the carriers into act ion. In January 1968, USS Pueblo (AG ER-2) was fired upon, boarded and captu red by the North Korean Navy. Ranger and RVA H -6 had co mpleted their second line period on YankeeStation when they were ordered to head north. Enterprise, with RVAH -l o n boa rd, was in Sascbo, Japan , at the beginning of their deployment. Lr Cd r Larry Deboxtel was the junior pilot in RVAH ·6 , and had been sent to C ubi to pick up an aeroplane and fl y it back to Yankee Station. Wh ile he and his RAN were in C ub i. Ranger sailed for Korea. and t hey

were to ld to go to NAS Atsugi, in Japa n. W hen they stopped in Kadena. Okinawa. it was already cold. Since their anti-exposure sui ts were on th e ship. th ey d rew fl ight jacke ts and th ermal underwear fro m the USAF supply depot (De boxtel wore the Air Fo rce style fl ight jacket with th e orange liner for years afterwards). T he legendary SR-? l was then o pera ting from Kadena AFB. The visiting Vigilante drew its usual oohs and aahs. O ne Air Force offi cer asked Deboxtel what the aeroplan e did. 'Box' look ed around to sec who was near and whispered, ' It 's t he replacem ent for that', pointing toward the SR-? l. T he legend of the Vigilante grew. Both RVAH sq uad ro ns flew extensively off the No rth Korean coast while th e rest of th e air wing remain ed clear, stand ing by in suppo rt. The ' Fleurs' tried Out their new IR scanne rs over So ut h Korea during nigh t fli ghts. After a month th e situatio n had quieted down , altho ugh Pueblo and its crew rema ined in the hands of the No rth Koreans. Enterprise and Ranger headed fo r the Tonkin Gul f

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1969 - EC-121 Down

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Th e North Korean s sho t down an EC-121 surveillance aircraft on 15 April 1969, and in a repeat of its 1968 experience, RVAH -6 was again pulled off the line to go to Ko rea. At least this tim e it was not in the dead of winter. RVAH -9 , aboard Ranger (t he aircraft ca rrier the ' Fleurs' had been o n the previous time off Ko rea) joined th em. T he ' H oo ters' had been successfully o pe rating off Vietna m since the end o f N ovember. Flight o peratio ns we re also a repeat of the Pueblo incident. T he Vig ilantes flew su rveillance runs otT the coast and th e air wi ng rema ined read y to go into co m ba t, but the d iplo mats held sway. When the crisis was co nsidered over, RVAH -9 was at the end of its tim e in WestPac and headed home. After the Enterprise fire and the d iversion to Ko rea, RVAH -Gha d only two sho rt line periods before ir was ri me to head home too. T he sq uad ron was red uced in size back at NAS Alba ny, and it worked in suppo rt of RVAH -3 until gett ing th e first fi ve of t he new ' 156 series' Vigilantes and beginn ing wo rk-u ps to go to sea again.

1971 - Mt Soufriere T he th reat for RVAH -6 Vigilantes in late 197 1 was not from weapons of war, but N ature hersel f. JUSt before C hristmas, the squadron duty officer (SO O) was amazed to get a call fro m C RAW- l over no rm al telepho ne lin es asking how many ' up' IR sets (AAS-2 1 was still classi fied) th e un it had for 'a m ission down south' . Wh en the SDO remi nded the staffer they were talking on an unsecured line, he laughed and said 'O h. nothing like rhar (C uba). There's a volcano about to eru pt in the Caribbean.' T he next morn ing a ' Fleur' Vigilante rook off for NAS Roosevelt Roads, in Puerto Rico, he r refuelled , and flew the fi rst special mission over M r So ufriere. o n Sr Vincent Island. On return to ' Roosy Roads', the film was quickly unloaded and processed for t he high priori ty m issio n. Project Volcano was underway. Anoth er RA-5C followed the next day, and fo r (he next three weeks fl ight crews rotated through, and a detachment of maint en ance personn el rook care of two RA-5Cs. A h ighly rated scient ist from the US Coast and G eodet ic Survey was o n hand to analyse (he da ta they brought back.

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A tholoida l plug of hot lava t he size ofa foo tball field was rising thro ugh the crater lake in the mounta in , whic h had been qu iescent for 100 years. The lake had turned from a benign blue to an ugly, boiling pea-green . T wice a day a Vigilante wo uld launch and fly down to the volcano. T he old crater was irregularly shaped, with one edge much high er than the other. A t ropical cloud usuall y sat over t he high rid ge. The tactic the crews wo rked Ollt was to fl v low over the C aribbean and accele rate in afterburner ro just under M ach o ne , fl y lip th e 3000 fr m ou ntain slope 100 ft over the lush greenery. push forward o n the stick and go zero-C ro level fli ght. Whi le th e RA N mo nirored cameras and JR. the pilot stared at a wall ofsolid rock co m ing at his nose at 300 knots. W hen the RA N called 'N adir!', the pilot pulled up at 4 G s and went o n instrum ents into th e clo ud . Once clear, they came arou nd fo r ano ther run , until after fo ur to six such runs low fuel fo rced them to go back to 'Roosy Roads' . If the volcano began eru pting and spewing rocks or lava, the damage ,...o uld have as bad as AAA o r SAM. Alrhough th e lava plug rose at bett er than eight inches a day at the srart, it slowed. and after three weeks t he project was called off. As the fl ight crews said . ' lf So ufriere had erupted . we'd all be famo us ... but it di d n't' .

1972 - SNAREs and 'Bears'

The National Museum o f Nava l Aviation's RA -5C Bu No 156624

interce pts a S oviet Tupolev Tu -95 ' Bear ' o ver the Pacific Ocean . In 1971 , RVAH ·12 was given t w o specia l installat ions ca lled SNARE

for the p u rp o s e of interce pts of la s e r equip p ed S o viet a i!cra ft o pe rat ing in the far n orth Atla nt ic ( Po w el l)

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Long range bom bers of the Soviet Unio n regularly arrem pred to locate and fl yover US aircraft carriers throughout the Cold War. Fighters would be launched ro inrercepr and th en fl y alongside th e snoopers to block their view of the carrier task force. \'(then the F-4 came in to use, the back-seater was given a hand-held cam era ro take pictures. T he results d id not provide eno ug h detail [Q analyse antenna s, panels, weapo ns and o ther ite ms of interest on the big T upolevs and Ilyushins. so the RA· 5C s wen t alo ng ro usc their senso rs and high. resolution came ras, with the PECM brin ging back usable data as well. IR was attem pted , but fl ying directly overhead was roo risky in the confro ntational arena o f fly-overs and in tercepts. In 197 1, the use of airbo rne lasers had in creased [Q the point where two Vigilantes of RVAH -1 2 (BuNos 148933 and 15 1727) were fi ned with a rt iculated, IR spectrum sensors. Known as SNARE, the classified eq uipment was mounted in a ten inch tall tu rret that was hyd raulically powered and aimed by the RAN through a viewfinder. The system had its own electronics, and reco rded da ta o n 16 chan nel tape. RVA H - 12 was chosen ro employ the sys tem because the sq uad ron was sched uled to em bar k in Independence, wh ich was in tu rn headed fo r a m ajor N ATO exercise in the fa r Nort h Atlantic, close ro t he Arctic C ircle. The goal of SNARE was ro collect data about laser emi tters and o th er related sys tems from t he specially eq ui pped

Soviet 'Badger', 'Bear' and ' Bison ' ai rcraft flying from airfields in the M urmansk area seeking out the Independence Bartle Group. O n completion of th e cold weather operations, RVAH 12 was happy to spend the remaining mon ths of its deployment in the M editerranean .

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1973 - Yom Kippur War After his 1967 M editerranea n depl oyment, which included th e Si x Day War, Ron Pollard stayed In RVAH-5 and went to Vietn am on Constellation. Following a tour instructing in the 'Reece RAG ', he found himsel f involved in another Arab-Israeli war in October 1973, this time as CO oFRVA H -14 fl ying From USS Independence; ' I was sent on a PECM fligh t covering the coast of Israel and the belligerent countries to the east. W e were so intrigued with the excellent hits (on the RH AW indicators) we were getting, I stayed on track a little too long and realised I was not going to make my Charlie (landing) time. I had plenty of gas, so I wenr in to max afterburn er to the delight of the air controllers on the ship, who computed my speed off the radar. As r approached the "Indy", r noted th e recovery was over, but the ship was still into the wind. I was cl eared straight-in and I kept thin king, "I'd better not bolter". I didn't. 'The PECM data showed the Israeli H awk batteries moving on the counter-offensive. T hat fl ight was the first indication th at the Israeli Army had commenced their famous, and successful, counterattack. The attack guys didn't get to do an yth ing, but we recce types sur e stayed bus y. Th e Yom Kippur War was foll owed by the OPEC oil em bargo, and tensio ns in the eastern Med stayed high. '

-1974 - Cyp rus In 1974, the Forrestal had the perfect sched ule For a Mediterranean cruise - periods of good fly ing, punctuated by visits to the best ports in Europe. Th e idyll ended after four months wh en Turkey sent uoops into Cyprus to bolster the Turkish portion of the divided island nation. War with Greece was imminent. Forrestal was in pon in N aples, Italy, with other ships of its task I gro up when the recall came. The ships made an emergency sortie, leaving thousands of sailors and officers behind. It was a major operation to get them back to their ships, now patrolling off of Cyprus. Allowing C\I\V~7 to fly normally was considered too sensitive, but NATO and United Nati ons

An RVAH-14 RA-5C, com p let e w it h a flasher pod, flie s ove r NAS Alban y and the Flint River in 1968. RVAH-14 made three consecut ive cr u ises on USS J ohn F Kennedy (CV A -67) t o the M editerranean, f oll owed b y a fourth , and la st, o ne on Indepen d ence. RVAH-14 was the la st Vigilante sq u ad ro n t o b e commi ssioned an d first disestablished. Ron Poll ard was w it h the ' Eagle Eye s' du r in g both the Six Day and Yom Ki pp u r A rab Israeli w ars . Albany's lo ng run w ay had an alert pad from it s d ays as Turner AFB. B-52s and KC-1 35s continued t o use the ale rt area w h ile Albany was a n av al ai r st at ion. This photo graph was u sed on t h e cover of th e Albany, Georgia, t el eph one directory (EBA L)

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Cd r Ron Pollard poses w ith his nam ed RA-5C prior t o read ing his unit, RVAH·1 4, o n its fina l d eployment in June 1973 (M er sk yl

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com manders needed to know the exren r of the T urkish build-up. and the Greek response. C onsequently, t hree times a day, Forratal would launch three aircraft to search th e surround ing seas. First off th e catapult was the E· 2 H awkeye, with irs im me nse rada r and capability (0 search hund reds of miles of ocean. Next was an A-7 tanker (the A-6s were tem porarily grou nded), followed by the 'star of th e show', a Vigilance from RVAH -6. No rmally the RA-5C wo uld d o irs own search. b u r there was so much shipping in rhar pan of the M ed iterranean that it was more efficient for the E-2 to vector the aircraft from ship to ship. T he Vigilante would to poff irs fuel, d rop to 200 ft and fly from vessel {O vessel, adjusting irs fl yby heading for opt imu m ligh t and came ra angles. Between the systems on the H awkeye and the Vigilante, accurate positions, courses and speeds were plotted for the surface contacts. T wo to rwo-and-a-half hours later , the aircraft would land. T wenty min utes after that, pho tographs wit h enough detail to determine ships' names and identify cargo came out of the la iC an d into the han ds of the com mande rs. After more than a week of this sched ule, the rest of the air wing was permitt ed to fl y - albeit in an ever restricted amount of airspace. A month after the emergency sort ie Forrestal returned to Naples fo r a few days and then went back to Cyprus, all hopes of sunny beaches and sightseeing forgotten . After anothe r mont h at sea, the cris is had quietened down and RVAH-6 rode across the Atlan tic and flew off into NAS Key West.

1975 - Saigon evacuation 197 5 was a grim year for the U nited States. The Vier M inh were victo rious in Vietnam , the Khm er Rouge had taken over Ca mbod ia and the Parher Lao had risen to power in Laos. T he do minoes had fall en. T he Cambodia ns had hij acked the freighter SS Mayaguez and ru n it ashore on a coastal island. T he rescue of its crew was nearl y a disaster, bur the N avy was not called in. Saigon itsel f, soon to be renamed H o C hi M inh Ci ty, fell in Ap ril. T he only Vigilante sq uad ron in the area was RVAH - 12 on Enterprise. Reconnaissance' was not required as the ship loaded evacuees on board. American involvemen t in Vietnam was over.

1979 - The End

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O n 27 September 1964 , Lt(jgl Dave Sharp ejected from RVAH -7 A-5A BuN o 147863 while deployed on Enterprise. O n 28 Septem ber 1979, 15 years an d a day later, C d r To m M yers, C O of RVAH -7, read the orders d isestab lishing the ' Peacemakers'. T he last of ten Vigilante squadrons was no more. D ave Sha rp had p receded M yers as C O of the u nit. Sha rp's career was typical of many who began in the Vigilante, and became stalwarts of the reconnaissance co m m un ity. That he was in the fi rst Vigilante unit, and almost its last co m mander, . was approp riate.

Th is photograph of Forrestal's flight de ck w as taken durin g the Cyprus Crisis of 1974. Thre e RVAH-6 Vigila ntes s it side-by-side im m e diat e ly aft of the carrie r' s is la nd s upe rst ruct ure. AA 603 has its refuelling pro be extended w hile its p ilot runs t hro ug h his preflight checks. In t he ba ckground is a n u nmanned A-6 a nd t w o A·7s that a re a lso preparing t o la unc h - the latter m a y be a ct ing as t ankers fo r t he RA·5C (EBA LI

An RA-5C is la u nc he d from a wa ist ca t a pult. The t e levi sion s ca n ne r ben e ath the nos e is re adily visib le from this a ng le . S traig ht ba ck from it is a s m a ll blade-a ntenna, a nd ne xt t o th at the o peni ng fo r th e optical viewfinde r (EBA L)

Sharp began as a BN in A3 Ds in Sanford, an d was selected to be in the first class to train in Vigilantes in VA H-3. H e was assigned to VAH -? and

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went around the world on Enterprise. The jet that he and Lt Cdr T uttle

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ejected from was the Z'irh V igilante built. Cdr Ken En ney (later CO of the RAG and CRAW-I ) talked junior officer Sharp into remaining in the Navy, and he deployed with RVA H·7 ro WestPac in 1966. He attended Navy post-graduate school, before underraki ng a thi rd cruise in RVAH -7. Return ing to the Vigilante com munity, now in Albany, Sharp joined RVAH ·12 and made another cru ise to WestPac. as well as o ne to the Med iterranean. A joint tou r at the Com m and Cen rer in O maha and a sessio n at the Naval War College preceded selection for com mand of an RVAH squad ron. He was the XU/CO fo r RVAH -l's penu ltimate cruise. Dave Sha rp tu rned RVAH -7 o ver to C dr To m M yers, who had briefl y been CO of RVAH-9; ' D u ring th e pan y after the ' H oo ters" cha nge of command, I received two messages as skipper of my first command. Th e fi rst was an official directi ve 1O di sestablish RVAH -9 in three months. T he seco nd message was fro m the Enlisted Party, telling m e th ey needed more beer. I'm nor sure that the tim ing of the officia l message co uld have been any wo rse. ' So th ree months later Barry Gastrock, CO ofRVAH -5, and I closed our sq uad rons down in a joint cerem ony. After almos t a year on CRAW-I Sraff I assumed com mand ofRVAH-7. ' Being th e skippe r oft he last sq uad ron was a wonderful experience, and I wou ld n't have had it any other way. Everyone that loved th e "Vigi" wanted to be in that last sq uad ron, and wanted to make that last cruise. RVAH - I left behind a fully up aircraft at Subic for lIS to ro b pans off of during o ur deploym ent. It is the o ne that is still o n a platform in front of the old admi n buildi ng on the hill. 'Then go ing to Singapore fo r a pa n call, Ranger collide d wi th an oil tanker during the nigh t t ransit. 50 we went back to Su bic, fi lled the bow with co ncre te and because of the damage, Ranger co uld nor get eno ugh speed to launch Vigilantes in low wind condi tions and we off-loaded the entire sq uad ron at Cubi Point. It was a beautiful way to end the life of the fastest , m ost beautiful aircraft that ever graced the skies of this world . We flew anywhere we wa nted , any alt itude we wanted , as fast as we wanted, taking movies and pictures of each other. I had a crew where morale was so high yo u co uld walk on it. 'The last da y, we moved back aboa rd, the Ronger sailed and the jers all flew out and landed. I tr ied to get everyone a "last" so mething'. l.r C d r Paul H abel (a nugget in RVAH - II d uring Linebacker) and Lt Larry Pa rr had the last trap , in Bu N o 1566 15, and, as H abel jokes, that after o ne last bol ter! Cdr M yers and Lt Cdr M cM anamon we re o n th e last catapult shot, in Bu No 156608, for the fl y-o ff ro San Diego on 2 1 September 1979. T he th ree Vigila ntes joined up an d m ade a spectacular low pass, d um ping in burner past Ranger, the fi rst carrier to de ploy wit h th e RA-SC. Bob Dean had repo ned co RVAH -3 in 1966, and had made deployments in RVAH-6 on Ranger and Enterprise in 1967 and 1968. H e was the XO of RVA H -12 for A mericaS- second dep loym en t to Vietnam in 1970, and C O of RVAH -1 2 o n Independence to th e M ed iterranean. A rour in th e Pentagon was as an Actio n Officer in the Joint Reconnaissance

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The last jets of AVAH·7, w hic h w as in turn the fleet 's last Vigi lante sq ua d ro n. The black nos es were unique to the unit, and some cla im ed they w ere appli ed as a s ig n of mourn ing. NH 611 (Bu No 156615J t akes cred it for perform ing the last s hipboa rd land ing by a Vigilante w hen Lt Cdr Paul Habel a nd Lt Larry Parr trapped a board Ranger o n 17 August 1979

'Vigis ' that are no more. Photog ra phed a t the Davi s·Monthan AFB ' bo ne ya rd' in 1973, th es e older m odel Vig il a ntes ha d been re place d in t he fleet by ne w '156 s e ries' a irc ra ft . From the front t o the re ar, the sq ua d ro ns re present e d in th is phot ograph a re RVAH-1 2, -3, -13 a nd -7, as well a s two pla in t a ils . All the s e w e re shown as 'st ricke n', l.e., scra pped, in Ma y 1978 (EBA L)

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Center. Ca pt Dean became the last co mmodore afC RAW - I . The last Vigila nre fl igh t was on 20 November 1979 from NAS Kev• West to NAS Memphis. BuNo 156608 made the fl ight with its landi ng gear down because there was no t ime to repair the hydraulics. Capt E O \ViIl iams had been in the second deployable RVAH unit, commanded RVA H ~ 1 4 and the RAG , was next-to-last CO of C RAW-l and was stati oned in M em phis. H e delayed his Navy retirement until rhe last Vigilante arrived. Ca pt D ean was another of the originals who sustained the excellence of the recce com m unity and had the unhap py task of offi cially endi ng the Vigilante programme at an em pty NAS Key West on 7 January 1980.

AFTER THE END What ha ppen ed to Navy airborne recce wh en the RA-5C was retired ? The single-seat RF-8 Crusader sold iered on for a few more years, and a Marine Co rps RF-4 B Phantom II detach me nt made its first carrier deployment. H owever, the ma jor effort fell to the F-14 Tomcat. Much effort went into developing a pod that could be carried o n the jet's weapons rack, and rema in steady enough for high resolutio n photography. O ne figh ter u nit in each air wing wo uld have three TARPS (T acrical Airbo rne Recon naissance Pod System) for the ad d itional role of reco nnaissance. Despite the best efforts of personnel from former RVAH units, T ARPS was never as effec tive as the RA-5C. Reco n naissance was a second ary mission, and it was treated as such . A new Shared Recon naissan ce Pod (SH ARP) is now entering service with the FIA-1 8F. T imes are still changing an d techn ology cons tantly im proving. Satellites that provide real-time IR, ultra-violet, radar or plain old visual imagery are in usc. Unmanned aerial vehicles now go into high-threat areas wirhour risking human operators. The suite of sensors available to battle com mande rs is at a level unheard of when the RA·5C Vigilante represented the latest in reconnaissan ce. The RA-5C may prove to be the best reconnaissance aircraft ever built desp ite t he high -tech vehicles coming into use. There is nothing com parable to well-tra ined, highl y-mo tivated, professio nal and courageous pilots and RAN s making decisions on the spot to collect the information needed by battlefield com mande rs.

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APPENDICES APPENDIX A

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APPENDIXC

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US NAVY AIRCRAFT DESIGNATIONS

US NAVY SQUADRONS

The aircraft oesqneucos used in this book are the old, traditional US Navy system and the post-1962 unified system, as appropriate. Aeroplanes In the transition period are indicated in old/unified style. 8.9. A3J-2/A-SB. Traditional designations ccmpiseo a letter for the primary mission, a number showing how many of the type the company had made (1 was not shown) and a letter indicating the manufacturer. Dash numbers indicated model variants. while various prefix and suffix letters denoted specialised missions under thegenera l category. North American Aviation's letter was J IN was the Navy's own aircraft factory). so the first attack aircra ft thecompanybu ilt wasthe AJ Savage. There was a turbo-prop version of the Savage descr eted AU so consequently the Vigilantebegan lifeas the A3J. Similarly, and logically, D was Douglas' letter, and its Skyraider was the AD, A turbo-prop version (the Skvsharkl was developed, and it became the A2D. Douglas' third attack aircraft was the A3D Skywarrior. Thus, in 1962, there were two A3s (this supposedly so confused then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara tha t he insisted on the unified system), The Skywarrior remained the A-3 and the Vigilante became the A-5(note the hyphens).

US Navy squadrons With fixed·wing aircraft are designated V (H is for rotarvwing and Z was for Iighter·than·air blimps and zeppelins). With the second letter indicating the squadron's primary mission, followed by a number. Many squadrons that flew Vigilantes trace their lineage to ne VC (C for Composite. multi-role] squadrons flying AJ Savages. With the advent of the AJO/A-3 Skvwamnr in the attack role, and because of the size of theaeroplaneandits weapon, the squadrons became VAH(A for Attack, H for Heavy) Initially the Vigilante maintained the attack role as well as its new reconnaissance miSSIOn, and thesquadrons were reoesinnatec RVAH

APPENDIXB VIGILANTE DESIGNATIONS: YA3J - Vigilanteprototype Twobuilt (lor somere ason therewasnot a XA3JJ. First flight 31August 1958. A3J· lIA-5A - Bomber on ly,Issued to squadrons VAH·1, ·3 and ·7. Production ended in 1963. A3J·VA·58 - Raised fuselage for increased fuel capacity, altered engine intake ducts for higher thrust modified wingstructure to install four pylons for -weapons or fueltanksand modified Bt Ctoblow fromleading edge ofwing for improved slow speed handling Only two delivered to the Navy (YAH·3). with the others on the production line being modified into RA-SCs. RA-5C- A·5B convertect toa reconnaissance platform through the addilion of a belly 'canoe' con taining interchangeable sensors and side-looking radar. A total of 43 new RA-SCs were built, and all 18 Brrodets. plus 43 A·models, were converted to this standard 10 the NARColumbus, Ohio, factory. Powered by J79·GE·8 engines. '156 seri es' (RA·50 1- Because of the escalation of the war in Vietnam, 36 new Vigilantes were authorised in 1968, Powered by higher thrust J79·G E· l0 engines,theaircraft boastedan improvedairframewithredesigned intakes and a stra ke to the leading edge of the wing from the intake duct. The aircraft should have been designated RA-5Ds, but the politics of procurement and budget being what they are, the new airframes remained RA·5Cs To differentiate between old and new aircra ft, the fina l Vigilantes were referred toas '156 serie s' after their Navy bureaunumbers Strakes, but not '156' - Airframe Change 328 allowed the J79·GE· 10 to be installed. The modification was done during aircraft rework after 1974on some pre·'l56 series' RA·5Cs at the Jacksonville Overhaul Facility. RVAH·7 end-s operated BuNos 146702, 149298, 149299 and 150831. There may have been

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APPENDIXD HOMES OF THE RECCE COMMUNITY The official command structure of the Vigilante community was nine deployable lIeet squadrons (RVAH·1, ·5, ·6.•t, ·9, ·11, ·12, ·13 and ·1 4} and three training organisalions- RVAH·3 was the replacement training sqcaorco for pilots. RANs and maintenance men, the Naval Air Maintenance Training Detachment (NAMTraDetltaught specifics of mechanical, hydraulic, electric and electronic systems, and NIPSTraFac [Naval Intelligence Processing System Training Facility)supported RAG training missions and fleet squadrons whileashore, and taught the intelligence officers and photo specialists. These were all under the command of CommanderReconnaissance AttackWing One ICRAW-1), Although the Vigilan tesquadrons, and their supporting units, were organised in a typical military chain of command, the term 'community' was appropriate At the height of RVAH manning In 1968, there were, at any given time, around75 pilots10 theworldcapableand current Inlanding an RA·5Con aship. There was a sl ightly larger number of RANs. Not a large group, especially when compared with the Phantom II fighter force, which had almost 700 current pilots and a like number of RIOs. An RVAH squadron had all the jobs every other Navy Unit had. but only hall theofficers to perform them Additionally. the A·4,A·6. F·8 and F-4squadrons weredivided between the East and West Coasts. The Vigilantes were alwavs at a Single base. Rotating between sea duty in one of the nine squadrons and shore duty, instructing in the RAG or on the CRAW·l sta ff. and then back to sea duty in the Vigilante made for a familiarity which carried over into the familiesof the men aswell. It was a small world wnere reputation was important. Word of crashes and mishaps spread fast. Personal support from friends. neighbours and squadron mates was atwevs near. The Vigilante community evolved out oftheheavy attack community which had started life in Sanford, Florida, The basehad been a Navy training station during World War 2, firstly for fighters and later for the PV Ventura medium bomber. Sanford wasclosed at the end of the war. In thelate 195Os, and with the start of the Navy's Heavy Attack pro gramme, NAS Sanlord was recommissioned The first VAH squadrons operated P2V Neptune and AJ Savage aircraft there as part 01HatWing 1, The VAH squadrons trensitioned to the A30jA·3 Skywarrior and called NAS Sanford their home base while deploying on aircraft earners. The first A3J/A·5 Vigilantesarrived for replacement training squadron VAH·3 in June. 1961. Soon after, replacement squadrons were reorganised, With VAH· 123 at NASWhidbey Island. Washington. doing allthe Skvwamcr trainingand VAH·3 becoming thesingle site for Vigilantes, The adventofthe RA·5(; induced aspate ofredesiqneuoos to recognise the reconnaissance mission. VAH·3 remained the RAG, but became RVAH-3 in

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July 1964 The controlling commodore changed to Reconnaissance Anack Wing One tCRAW-l), and as each squadron transitioned to the RA-SC. their designation went IromVAHtoRVAH. The USAF was closing Turner AFB in Albany, Georqia - Gary Powers. the U-2pilot shot downover the Soviet Union, had been recruited whileassigned to Turner AFB Richard Russell of Georg ia was the new head of the Senate Arm ed ServicesComm ittee. and hewas not about to let his stal eloseamajor base, andhe convincedtheNavy tomove CRAW- ! and all theRVAHsquadrons to Albany RVAH-3 made the move inMav 1968. RVAH- Il. -13. -6 and -1were deployed from Sanford. and they duly returned to what wasnow NASAlbany, The move initially resulted in family separations. toarcallcsses on home sales and general havoc. That the base was inland did not particularly affect operations as the squadrons had to fly to either coast to wort with their assigned aircraft earners anyway. Step by step, Albany became an etticient andcomfortablebasefor the 'Vigi' community,life in the small ci ty was good, One pilot's wife described it as, Warm, wacky and wonderful. A surpnsirqlv intel lectual andfriendlytown. Thewholecommunityarrived inagroup and we made our own fun as we got to know our civilian neighbours'. Then Senator Russell died. The new chairman of the Armed Services Committee cut adeal, and since the Navy no longer had ships, submarines or aviation squadrons in Key Wesl. another move for the Vigilantecommunity was decreed. Some families moved six months in advance to be sure of gening a house on base, as places to live in the small vacation city were expensive and hard to find, RVAH·3 otficiallv shifted to Kevwestin January 1973. Agai n, deployed squadrons left fromone baseandcameback monthslater toanother,Forthe officers andsailors, life as a'Conch'Iaresident of the Florida Keys)couldnot havebeenmoreof achange fromthegrey steel. noise andbustle of shipboard life, NASKeyWest (the airfieldis actuauv on Boca Ehica] remained thehome of lhe Vigilantes until the last squadrons were disestablished in late1979,

APPENDIXE

BuNo 151 629(NAA 35)wascondemnedtotheDave-Monrhen'boneyard', but was spared to go on display in the museum within the grounds of the Pueblo Memorial Airport in Colorado, It is presently on display in RVAH-3 martings. BuNo 156621 INAA1001was onglnatly on display at NAS Pensacola, but it was moved tome Intrepid Air-Space Museumfloating ontheEast River in New YorkCity, Alsopainted in RVAH·3markings, BuNo 156621 sharesspace on the flight deck of USS InrrepidlCVS-11) with other aeroplanesthat never actually operated fromthe veterancarrier when it was in fleet service, BuNo 156612 (NAA 91 )participated in RVAH·12's last deployment. and then flew in thelast days of the'Reece RAG'. It IS on display at the mam gate of the Vigilante's final base at NAS Key West. Florida, still in the orange lightning bolt markings of RVAH-3. Two RA-5C pilots and two RANs who live in the Florida Keys have their names painted beneath thecockpits- Art Skelly, John Smittle, Randy McDonaldand Mike Benkester. BuN o 156632 INAA111) was one of the many Vigi lantes taken to the Naval WeaponsCenter (NWC) at China l ake, inCalifornia, for useas atarget andfor weaponstesting. However, beforeit could be shot at. theaircraft wastru cked to Sanford, Florida, whereit wasrestoredandout on displayat Sanford Airport in May 2003. The airport is the former NAS Sanford, where the Vigilante community had its start. The aircraft wears thecolours of RVAH-3, which was based at Sanford from 1963 to 1968.

SURVIVING VIGILANTES

BuN o 156638 lNAA11711s another RA-SC saved from the NWCChina l ake firing ranges, Still marked in the red, white and blue of its last squadron, RVAH-1 2, BuNo 15663B is on display at NASFallon, Nevada.

BuNo 156624 (NAA103f waspart of a 'matched set' whennew, and assigned to RVAH-6. BuNos 156623, 24, 25, 26ano 27 were NH601, 602, 603, 604 ano 605 respectively during the 1970-71 deployment on Kitty Hawk. BuNo 156624 remained with RVAH-6 for the 1972 America cruise, before going to RVAH-5 and returning to RVAH'-6 for the Beer's' Iinal deployment. BuNo 156624 is 00 display at the National Museumof Naval Aviationat NASPensacola, Florida, in the 1978markings of RVAH-{i.

BuNo 156627 1NAA106)made at least twodeployments In RVAH·6followrng its delivery to the unit from the North American factory. RVAH·1 , on its last cruise, left theperfectly serviceable Vigilante at Cubi Point, in the Philippines, for RVAH-7 to fly before it also went home. Towed to 'the top of the hill', the aircraft remains intheopen, but after theUS Navy left the base in 1991, a local art school was fumed loose and BuNo 156627 bears an overall psychedelic swirl of bright paint!

BuNo 156608 !NAA67) wasthefirst of the'supplemental buy' Vigilantes and, appropriately, the last operational RA-5C, It served with RVAH·5 and the 'Becce RAG', before garnering a string of 'lasts' with RVAH-7 - the last catapolt shot in the last squadron on the last deployment. The jet's last flight was to NASMemphis, Tennessee, where it is 00 display marked up in its final paint schemewith RVAH-7.

BuNo 146698(NAA7/C691wasflownintotheNaval Air Engineering Center at l akehurst. New Jersey, to be used for testing catapults and arresting gear, Once out of date, it was abandoned in a field until In 1982 the Aviation Boatswarnmate School restored the Vigilante sufficiently to display it on the main road through the base. The Navy gave several aeroplanes to the new Air VlCtOlY Museum in MillVille, New Jersey in the early 1990s. When asked what the current status of the Vigilante was, the museum'scura tor wrote, 'I'm sorry to tell you that the RA-5C, BuNo 146698, was destroyed in transit from l akehurst to the Air Victory Museum.It had started an uncontrollable gyra tion under theCH-47 transport helicopter and had tobecut loose, The aircraft was atotal loss, I wish that westill had the "vqi". but alas it is 1'l0 more.'

BuNo 146697 (NAA 61 is theonly surviving A3J, and oneof two Vigilantes on display at NASPatuxent River, Maryland, BuNo 156643 (NAA122) was the last Vigila nte built, and isan exhibit at the Patuxent RiverNava l Air Test and EvaluationMuseum.It served inRVAH·9 and -12, and performed Automatic Carri er Landing System(AClSI cetncation on aircraft earners for the Naval Air Test Center. The VigIlante wears the paint scheme of the NATCFlight Test Division inthe mid 19705.

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was formed to give the public a closer look at examples of the thousands of aircraft in storage or awaiting disposal at MASDC. BuNo 149289 has been preserved in the colours of RVAH·3, as indeed are most other Vigilantes on displaytoday. Since all Vigilante crew members and rna intainers went through the 'Becce RAG', RVAH-I s orange stripes are a way to avoid showing favouritismI

BuN o149289(NAA 49!C53 )isanA-5Aconversion. The Vigilante is justoneof a number of military aircraft saved fromdestruction because of the proximity of thePima AirMuseumin Tucson, Arizona,totheMilitary Aircraft Storage and Disposal Center (MASDC) at nearby Davis-Monthan AFB. The Pima museum

BuNo 151 727 lNAA 42)and BuNo 156610 INAA B9) are listedashaving been stricken at Rota, in Spain. Although there were rumours that one of them was on display, their status isundetermined. BuNo 156622 (NAAI01I, BuNo 156625 (NAAI04). BuNo 156628 (NAAI07). and BuNo 156635 (NAA115) are listed as in storage, vice stricken, at DavisMonthan AFB, so they may yet have a chance to become museum pieces sometime in the future,

APPENDIXF

RVAH-7dales back to Ve-7. established in Ca lifornia In 1950. VAH-7 moved with its AJ Savagesto Sanford. where it flew A3Ds before becoming the first Vigilante squadron The 'Peacemakers' werealso the last Vigilante squadron. The badge using thecocked six-quns and halo ofseven stars came into use when the squadron received thefirst fleet Vigilantes.

RVAH SQUADRONS

RVAH-l began in November 1965 as VAH·l, having prevmusfv been the first SQuadron 10 fly A·J Skywarriors. When an inter-squadron design contest produced no winner for a new unit emblem, several junior officer BNs were sent to a cartoonists convention in Jacksonville and came back with the emblem of the grinning tiger blowing anuclear cloud. Call-sign: 'Comanche Trail' Nickname: 'Smoking Tigers' RVAH-J began as VAH-3 inJacksonville in 1956, and deployed to theMediterranean, before moving to Sanford and becoming the replacement training squadron. RVAH-3 flew more types of airrratt than any other RAG, Besides adozen Vigilantes, there werefour TA-3B Skywarriors. with the bomb-bays set up with extra seats and radar scopes fOf training BN/RANs, four TA·4J Skyhawks to chase RA-SC flights andkeep pilots proficien t and a single old C-117D Skvtraia that wasgainfully employed as a utility transport, The unit's distinctivecrest was the result of an intersquadron design contest Call-sign: 'Drake' Nicknames: 'Reece RAG', Dragons'

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RVAH-5 traced itshistory toVC-5in 1948, when the squadron flew P2VNeptunesas bombers, before it becamethefirst squadron to opera te AJ Savages. Looking for aname, the crew scame up with 'The Savage Sonsof Sanford' - a pun on the aircraft. and where theywerebased. The name and number remained through AJD Skjwarnors as VAH-5and RA-5C Vigilantes as RVAH-S, although after moving to NASAlbany the 'of Sanford' was dropped, The origin of the 'Mushmouth' cartoon of acannibal as an emblem andnickname remains somewhat obscure. Display of the 'Mcsbmouth' came and went with the tides of political correctness. Call-sign: 'Old Kentucky' Nicknames: 'Mushmouths', 'SavageSons' RVAH -6 was formed with amix of P2V Neptunes and AJ Savages in 1950 as VC-6. The heraldic symbol lor thesixth Vigilanteunit isthe Fleur11elis The trident symbolises sea power and the Omega represents theultimate. Being called the Fleers' was acceptable, but calling RVAH--6 the 'Flowers of the Fleet' when near serving members of the squadron was risky! Call-sign: 'Fieldgoal' Nickname: 'Fleers' Motto: Celeritas cumAccurate(Speed with Accuracy!

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Call-sign: 'Flare' Nickname: 'Peacemakers' RVAH -9 was established as VC-9. and It flew both TBM Avengers left over from World War 2and P'lV Neprunes. When equipped with the AJ Savage, VCNAH-9 conducted some of the earliest air refuellings. The Owl emblemisavariation on an earlier one which had a Hooter Owl withabomb burst behind it Cali-SIgn: 'Hooter' Nickname: 'Hooters' RVAH-l1 also began asaVC squadron With PlVs and AJs. As VAH·11, it completed six deployments with A3D Sk-,warriors, before trensitinninq to the RA-SC. Theoriginal emblem had acheckered flood covering theglobe. and the A3Ds weredecorated withcheck-patterned bands, leading to thenickname Eheckertails'. Theemblem was changed withassumption of the reconnaissance mission. Call-sign: 'Glen Rock' Nickname: 'Checkertaifs'

.... VAH - "

,

RVAH-12 was thefirst squadron to bespecifically establishedasanRVAHwithRA-5Cs. The Roman XII is framed bya spear at supersonic speed, Eall-siqa: 'Soeertip' Nickname: 'Tips' Motto:We Point theWay. RYAH-1 3 wasestablishedWith A-3s in Sanford in 1961. Likeother Navy squadrons, VAH·13 looked to alcohol for inspiration for its squadron emblem {the boar's head lor the VF-l1 'Red Rippers' is from a Gordon'sgin bottle, VA-212's rampant lion was fromtowerorau beer andVA-37's blue bull from a popular malt bevera qel Heavy Attack Squadron Thirteen chose the spread-winced bat which graced bottles of Bacardi rum (the rumour was that the company sent the unit a case of its product every Christmas! Theemblemremained unchanged when A-3 Skywarriors were exchanged tor RA-SC Vigilantes in 1964, Call-sign: 'Flint River' Nickname: 'Bats' RYAH-14 was the other squadron established as an RVAH.lt was also the shortest lived of the Vigilante squadrons, being established inFebruary 1968 and stood down May 1974 alter completing four deployments. RVAH-14 was the only frontline Vigilante unit not to see action in Vietnam. Its emblem wasdesigned by Roy Crane, the crea tor of the BUll Sawyer comic strip, Call-sign: 'Eagle Eye'

85

APPENDIXG

w '" u

"z

VIGILANTE LOSS LIST (IN CHRONOLOGICAL OROER)

w

c,

c,

-c

VRjMO/DAY

NAANUMBER

ACTION/LOCATION

1451 58 146700 147855

2 9

Ejection Columbus, OH

Hopkins

II Cdr Grimes

148927

29 3 116

EjectionPafu xent RIVer, MD Ejection NASWF, Albuquerque. NM Stricken Sanford. FL Ejection Columbus, OH

BuNo

UNIT

CREW

Development[Test 591613 6113/17 61/8/29

62/11/27 63/1 (9 73/7/23

146694

156637

17

Gugenbiller. Lt Biehl Burdick Lt Cdr Hauck

EjectionPatuxent River. MD

Fleet Stricken USS Franklin 0 Roosevelt

28/C78

EjectionTokyo. Japan Stricken USS Enterprise Stricken USS Independence

147862 148926 149282

42

149290

50

148930

64/ 11/ 14

149308 151821 1493lli

32 68 27

64/12123 64/12/9 641515 6419/20 64/9/27 64/9/3

64/9/8 65/7/20 65/10/16 65/10/16 65/10/17 65/12/15 65/ 12/ 16 65/ 12/20 65/ 12/22 66/1/16

66/213

6615/21 66/8/1 9

66/1016 66/10/23 67/2/12

671319 6715/19 67/6/1 4

67{l!2SJ 67{l/29 67{l/29 67/8/13

6718117 67/10/3 67/ 12/6

6615/5 68!S/14

6815/18 681919 58/ 10/25 58/ 11/25 69/2/1 9 69/3/31

86

24

62/1/9 6211 1/27 63/2/20 63/9/19 63/9/5

6916/19 691919

148931

66

150828 147863 15161 6 149292 15181 9

33 6 25 27 52 25

150836

14

151615

21 13 5 39 30 38

150835 150827 151 633 151624 151632 14931 2 151625 149285 149309 •

72

31 45/C45

69

149288 150830 151623 151627 150826 149314

8 29 33 4

148932

34/C49

149284 149305 151 634 149302 t 49315 151728 149278 147854 149283 149280 151526 149293 151 631

44/C51

48/C65

74

65 40 62 75 43

38!C54 16/C84 43/C50 40/C45

32 53/C62

150842

37 20

149287

471 C59

150833

11

Ejection Sanford. FL Ejection Sanford. Fl EjectionSanford, fl Combat IOSS1 USS Ranger EjectionUSS Enterprise EjectionUSS Saratoga EjectionUSS Enterprise Ejection in Sanford. Fl Ejection in Sanford. Fl Lost at sea USS Independence EjectionUSS America Combat loss USS Independence EjectionUSS America Ejection Sanford. H Combat loss USS Enterprise Combat lossUSS KittyHawk Combat lossUSS KittyHawk Strick en USS Ranger Combat loss USS Kitty Hawt. EjectionUSS America Combat loss USS Constellation EjectionUSS Enterprise Combat loss USS ConstellatiOn Combat loss USS Enterprise Combat loss USS KittyHawk Combat loss USS KittyHawk Ejection Sanford. Fl Stricken USS fOfTesta/l/1ight deck lire) Stricken USS Forrestal(flight deck lire) Stricken USS Forresra/(flight deck fire) Combat loss USS ConstellatiOn lost at sea. combat?USS Constellation Ejection Sanford. Fl Ejection Miami. Fl Combat loss USS Enterprise Ejeclion USS Independence Combat loss USS KittyHawk l ost at sea USS Ranger StrickenUSS Forresral Combat lossUSS Constellation Ejection USS John FKennedy Combat loss USS Enterprise Ejection Albany, GA Ejection USS John FKennedy

RVAH·J RVAH-6

Cdr Gear II Cdr Cempbell.Lt Cook

AYAH-?

Lt Kruse, Lt(jg)Cottle Lt Cdr Conrey, Lt Garret I t Cdr lovelace. ADJ-1Kelsey I t Cdr Smith. ADJC Caroivers Cdr Nolta. Ltljgl Stokes It Cdr Beard. lt(jgl Cronin It Cdr Chapdelaine. Af t Stnnger Lt Cdr Wiltiams.lt Haisten I t Cdr Tuttle.It(jg) Sha rp It Cdr Bell, AMHC Pemberton It Cdr Moore. ltljg) Haney Cdr Matula. It Granquist I t Cdr Pippen, l Ujg)Otis It Cdr Bell. Lt Cdr Hunon It Pirrone. Ens McClure Cdr McLain. It Morgan It Sutor. ltli91Dresser It Cdr Jobnson. tt Cdr Nordahl It Cdr tukenbach. t t Cdr Daigel It Cdr Schoonover. Ens Hollingsworth I t Coffee. Ltljg) Hanson It Cdr Meyer, l tljgl WaggOller It Cdr Thompson l tljgl Parten It Sutor, lt(jgl Carrothers It Cdr Kolstad.It(jg) xtennet Cdr Jarvis.ltljg)Artzlip Cdr Putnam, I t{jg) Prendergast Cdr Griffen.lt Walters It Cdr Butler. Ens Smith

AVAH-' RVAH-3 RVAH·9 RVAH-13 RVAH·5 RVAH-7 RVAH-l RVAH·7 RVAH-l RVAH-3 RVAH· \ RVAH-5 RVAH-1 AYAH·5 RVAH-3 RVAH-7 RVAH·13 RVAH-13 RVAH-9 RVAH·13 RVAH·S AYAH-6 RVAH-7 RVAH-6 RVAH-7 RVAH-\3 RVAH·13 RVAH-3 AYAH-11 RVAH·l l RVAH·1 1 RVAH-12 RVAH-12 RVAH·3 RVAH-3 RVAH-l RVAH·7 RVAH-l1 RVAH·3 RVAH· 12 RVAH-5 RVAH·1 4 RVAH-6 RVAH-7 RVAH-14

It Cdr Hyatt. lt(jg) Soooermote Cdr Dixon. ltljg) Hom I t Cdr Scruggs I t Cdr Sledge. ltlig)l owte Lt Norrington. l t Tangeman Cdr Pritscher, Ltljgl Feldhaus Cdr James. lt Cdr Monroe It Cdr Woolf, I t(jgl Kirby Cdr Stamm. I t(jgl Thurn It Cdr Bright. Ltljgl Ellis Cdr White, lt Carpenter Cdr Barnes. LUjgl Hornick It Cdr Reed. l t Marechal

70/1/1

1489211 150025

30/C78

EjectionClark AFB. Philippines RVAH-7 Cdr Billings(CAG 14), Ltljgl Beaver EjectionUSSForrestal RVAH-13 70/1n3 3 Cdr Bames,LtliglWolfe 149316 EjectionUSSFoffestal RVAH-13 Lt Jenkins. I t Standridge 7012/2 76 151620 26 EjectionAlbany, GA RVAH-12 Cdr Huber 70/315 156611 Lost at sea USSIndependence RVAH-11 Lt Cdr Karr, It Cdr Pullinger 9lJ 151817 23 EjectionUSS John FKennedy RVAH-1 4 Cdr Williams, It Feeback 70/8/6 l OB Ejection USS Ranger RVAH-1 It Cdr Renner, Lt Joseph 70/9/27 156629 71 /10/17 156634 113 Lost at sea USS Enterprise RVAH-5 Cdr Everett. Lt Cdr Stokes 156630 109 EjectionAlbany, GA RVAH-1 Lt Pigeon, Lt Bixler 72/3/1 147850 EjectionAlbany, GA RVAH-12 Cdr Bolte, Ltljgl Hawken 721515 12/C58 Combat loss USS Kitty Hawk. 15161 8 24 RVAH-7 Cdr Polter, Ltljgl Kernan 721an 15661 6 95 Combat loss USSSaratoga RVAH- l It Cdr Smith. u Kunz 721an 112 Combat loss USS Enterprise RVAH- 13 Lt Cdr Agnew. Lt Haifley 72112/28 156633 156609 68 Ejection USS Constellation RVAH-12 It Cdr Fowler, Ltljgl Dipadova 73/5m Ejection at sea KeyWest. Fl RVAH-3 Lt Carson, Lt Cdr Comstock 149296 58/cn 74/3/5 1566 14 Ejection USS Forrestal RVAH-6 I t Rutledge, lt(jgl Parr 74/7/11 93 74/8/13 151630 EjectionNaples, Fl RVAH-3 Lt Cdr McKay, Lt Stevens 36 156623 Lost at sea USSSaratoga RVAH-ll Cdr Hogan. Lt Cdr Mullholland 751212 02 EjectionAlbany, GA It Cdr Wall, Lt Cdr Criswell 156619 98 RVAH-3 78/1/12 Stricken on shipor NASother thanJacksonville or KeyWest usually means metme aircraft was unrepairableasthe result of anaccident

tenm

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'"

Display 73/13/1

146697 146698 149289 151629 156612 156624 156621 156627

6

122

79/8/1

156643 156638

7918/1

156632

79/11/20

156606

111 67

75am 7815/' 78/ 5/4 78/6/19 78/10/11 78/11/21

7913nB 79/6/15

7/C69 49/C53

35 91 103 100 106 117

Stricken, gate guard NASPatuxent River, MD StrickenLakehurst. writtenoff in helicopter drop Davis-Monthan to Pima Museum, AZ Devis-Montheo to Pueblo. CO, museum Static displayat NASKeyWest. FL Staticdisplay at National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, FL FromPensacolatoUSSIn rrepidmuseum, NY Stricken Cubi Point, Philippines Static displaY at NASPatuxent River. MD NWCChina Laketo NASFallon. NV NWCChina LaketoSanford. FL Staticdisplayat NASMemphis. TN

NAS Disposal ' 65/1/6 69/10/30 71/12/13 72/1/26

•rm/26 72/1/26 73/12/12

75/1 13 75/5/9 75/7/t 76/6/8

76/6/8 76/6/8 76fl/31 76/11/18 76/11/18

148924 149303 147858

26 63

150837 150841

15 19 42

151727 146695 149300 148929 151622 147853 147856 150823 149276

15002'

20/C64

41/C87 8lJ 31/C71

28 15/C85 18/C86

1 36/C52

2 96

78/10/31 79/1/13

156617 147860 149299 149301 156635 156626 15661 0 156620

7913(1

150831

9

81/1/11

147851

13

7715/27 n/9nO 78/2/1 6 78/2/7

78/6/19

22/C82 59/C75

81

"'105 89 99

StrickenSanford Stricken? StrickenAlbany, GA Stricken Key West. FL Stricken Jacksonville. Fl Stricken Rota, Spain Stricken Key West,FL Stricken Jacksonville. FL Stricken Jacksonville. FL Stricken Key West. FL Stricken Jacksonvi lle, Fl StrickenJacksonville, Fl Stricken Jacksonville. Fl Stricken Key West, FL Stricken Key West. Fl Stricken Key West. Fl Stricken Key West. FL StrickenKey West. FL StrickenKey West, FL StrickenRota, Spain StrickenKey West. FL Stricken Rota. Spain Stricken North Island. CA Stricken Jacksonville. Fl Stricken Patuxent River,Maryland

"BuNosnot listedabovestricken at MASDCDevls-Monthen AFB. AZ

87

•

All drawings on this page are of • RA-5C Vigilante, and are to 1/10Bth scale, as are the drawings on the following pages

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COLOUR PLATES

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RA-5C BuN o 149312/NG 104 of RVAH -5/CVW-9. USS Ranger, December 1964 A s th e f irst squ adro n to de p loy w ith the RA-5C, the 'Sav ag e So ns of Sanford ' had th e d ifficu lt task of workin g w ith a new aero plan e and going into com bat at th e same tim e. Th e wavy grey-w h ite

RA-5C BuNo 151632/NH 603 of RVAH-1 3/CVW-ll . USS Kitty Hawk, December 1965 Th e ' Bats' of RVAH -1 3 kept th e Orie ntal -style tail co des d urin g al l th eir d eploym ents. Th e unit wou ld lo se more Vig ilantes i n co mbat t han any othe r RVA H squadro n. In 1966-67, RVAH·1 3 lost t h ree jet s, inc ludi ng BuNo 151632. On 22 December 1965, ' Flint Riv er 603' was on a pre-strike photogra p hy m issi on to Hai Du ong when RAN, Lt(jg) Glen n Daigle, felt th e Vigi lante take a hit and he could not talk to his pilot, Lt Cdr Max Lukenbach - Daigle had to assume that the latter was eithe r un conscious o r dead . Seconds later there was an exp losion, an d the RA N was ejected f ro m his cock pi t. Daigle does not rem ember pu llin g th e face-curtain o r t he alternate eject io n handl es. He became a PoW, and w as rel eased in Februa ry 1973.


dem a rcation , pa le blu e NAVY t itl ing a nd sma ll bu reau num be r mar k t his as a Vigila nte that was del ivered fresh fro m the facto ry to RVAH -5. BuNo1493 12 was subsequently t ransfe rred to RVAH-9 and returned to WestPacaboard Rangerin December 1965. On 16 January 1966, during what should have been a routi ne carri er landing at the end of a reconn aissa nce mission. the jet's sta rboa rd engine ex ploded and th e Vigilante crashed into the sea, w ith the loss of Lt Cdr Cha rles Schoonove r and Ens Hal Holl in gsw orth .

m

2 RA-5C BuNo 151615/AG 601 of RVAH -l /CVW-7. USS In d ependence, 1965 Independence m ad e on ly one depl oym ent to Wes tPac. An Atla ntic Fleet carrie r, it was scheduled fo r a cruise in the Mediterranean when the situat ion in Vietnam worsened and the vessel was diverted to the To nkin Gulf . The first ca rrie r to o pe rate A-6s, and with RA -5Cs em ba rked on only th e type 's seco nd dep lo ym ent, In dependence 's co mp le ment of factory 'tech reps' pract ically outn u m be red t he sh ip's co mpa ny ! RVA H· 1 carried the u niqu e shade of fact ory b lue over to t he nose mod ex and CVW-7 A G co des on its jets. Th e Vigilante is dep ict ed in artwo rk carry ing a fl ash er pod un der its po rt wi ng. BuN o 151 61 5 was the fi rst RA -5C to be officia lly categorised as shot do wn in •Vietnam when , on 16 October 1965, it was hit i n the tail either by sh rapnel from an exploding SA-2 or AAA while looking for SAM sites near Hon Gay. The flight contro ls failed and Lt Cdr James Bell, pilot, and Lt Cdr 'Duffy' Hu tto n, RA N, ejected . They we re soo n picked up by loca l fis hermen and becam e PaW s.

3 RA-5C BuN o 151633/NG 102 of RVAH-7/CVW-9. USS Enterprise, December 1965 VAH·7 was t he first Vigi lan te sq uadron, an d it had deployed on Enterp r ise w ith A3Js in 1962-63. Th e u nit made the t ransition to the RA-5C and stayed with CVAN·65 o n its next c ruise. By now the jet's factory blue ma rkings have gone, and the demarcation li ne has st raightened out during the t he cou rse o f routine maintenance. BuNo 151633 was lost ove r t he far w est coast of Sout h Vietna m o n 16 December 1965. Pi lo t, Lt J K Sutor, and RAN , Lt (jg) G B Dresser, eject ed and we re rescu ed by a US A rmy UH -1B Hu ey helicopter, w hi ch hovered wit h its land i ng -skid on t he wate r in orde r to p ic k t hem u p.

5 RA-5C BuNo 148933/NK 904 of RVAH-9/CVW-14. USS Ranger, 1966 The black tail code on the da rk green tail band made it difficult to read the air wing identifier on ' Hoo ter' Vigilantes. The RA -5C had retractable, red rotati ng beaco ns on the top and bottom of the fuselage. Req uired for norma l flyi ng, th ey were turn ed o ff/retrac ted in a ho sti le area. BuNo 148933 was modifi ed to ca rry th e SNA RE special lR sensor t u rre t while assig ne d to RVA H-12 i n 1972.

6 RA -5C BuNo 149309/NL 703 of RVAH -6/CVW-15. USS Constellation, 19 August 1966 For t hei r f irst RA -5C cruise, th e ' Fleurs' added the speed-slash with fleur-de-lis that the squa dron had carried on its A3D Skywarriors with when they were VAH-6. On 19 August 1966, BuNo 149309 was hit by AAA during a road reconnaissance mission northwest of Vinh , the jet i mmedia tely roll i ng inve rted, out o f co nt ro l. Lt Cdr J im Tho mpson and hi s RAN , Lt (jg ) G Parten , eject ed w hil e st il l f lying at superso nic speed . Both men w ere rescu ed f rom t he sea .

7 RA-5C BuNo 151727/NH 606 of RVAH-13 /CVW- ll . USS Kitty Ha wk, late 1966 One of seve ral camoufla ge schemes attempted when MiGs seemed to be t he primary threat, the Vigilantes, and other fast jet types in CVW-11 , we re repa inted after grou nd fi re proved more hazard o us. Th e camoufla ge shows the PE CM ante nnas as d ark pan el s on t he side of th e nose. There we re m ore alo ng th e fuselage, in the w ing s and o n th e tai l. By m ea su ring th e ti m e an elect ro nic signal to ok to arrive at t he anten nas, the ang le co u ld be d et ermined t o pl ot radar em itte rs. BuN o 151727 w as stricken in Ro ta, Spai n, in 1972.

91

w '" '-' Q

Z W

00-

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8 RA-5C Bu N o 151634INK 125 of RVAH-12/CVW-14, U SS Constellation, A ugu st 1967 On 13 August 1967, Lt Cd r Leo Hy att and Lt(jg ) Wayne Goodermote were o n their 33rd miss io n together when BuNo 151634 was hit by AAA wh ile doing 720 knots . Al though t he Vigi lante was immediately enve lope d in fl am e a nd t he

tai l sect io n soo n ca m e apa rt , both crewm e n

12

successfu ll y eject ed a nd w ere ca pt u red as soo n as they to uch ed dow n in th eir para chutes. They were eventua lly released in 1973.

RA-5C BuNo 149278 /NG 102 of RVAH-l /CVW-9, USS Enterpris e, M ay 1968 The sm all letter ' E' carried ju st forward of th e 'Sm o kin' Ti g er' em ble m o n th is RA -5C denotes th e winn ing o f a Batt le Effi ciency aw ard by RVAH-1. BuN o 149 278, flying with the call-siqn 'Co m anche Tra i l 102', was o n a photo run at 6500 ft near Ha Tinh o n 5 May 1968 w hen, as the cr ew of its F-4 fighter esco rt described it, 'The " Viqi" burst i nto a huge f ireba l l about twice t he size of t he airc raft and snap- ro lled when the sta rboa rd w ing cam e off' . Lts Gi les Norrington a nd Dick T ange man some how m anaged to eject, bu t were in ju red in t he p rocess and q u ickly captu red. Both me n w ere re lea sed in M arch 1973.

9 RA-5C Bu N o 149283/AA 606 of RVAH-ll /CVW-17, U SS Forrestal, 29 July 1967 As a suppl em ent to West Coast aircraft carriers , At lanti c Fleet carriers would a lso go to WestPac. Forrestal with RVAH-l 1 on board . had been operating in the To nki n Gu lf for j ust fi v e d ays whe n a disas trous f ire broke o ut on t he flig ht de ck o n 29 Ju ly 1967 and co m p lete ly dest royed 21 ai rcraft fro m CVW- 17, in cludin g RA-5Cs BuN o s 148932,1 49284 an d 149305. Despite t hese lo sses, t he sq uadron remai ned com bat ready , and rep lacem e nt ae ropla nes we re brou g ht in and RVAH-l l returned to co m bat aboard Kitty Hawk in N ovember o f that same y ear. Undamag ed BuN o 149283 o pe rated with t he unit from both CVA-60 and CVA·63 during 1967. Its checkerbo ard pattern on the tail harked back to VAH-l l 's days flying the A-3 'Whale' .

10 RA-5C BuN o 1492971NE 701 of RVAH -6/CVW-2, USS Ranger, ea rly 1968 In compari so n wi t h t he RVAH -6 jet see n i n profi le six, t his aircraft is d ev o id o f a no se slas h and th e nu mber of tteor-ae-ne on the tai l stripe has rise n by one to six. The co m m and ing o ffice r o f RVA H-6, Cd r C C Smith, and Lt J o hn Calhoun, made a sig ni ficant discovery during a reconnaissance mission in th is jet when the ir photograph s revealed the exact location o f the infam ou s ' Hano i Hilt o n' prison cam p in d owntown Hanoi. The ae roplan es of RVAH-6 went f ro m t he heat of Yankee Station to t he f reez ing co ld of Ko rea in w inte r whe n t he Pueblo was ca pt u red in J anu ary 1968. The m aintenance facility at NAS At sug i, in J apan , i nst al led the fi rst AAS-21 IR m a pp in g equi pment in ' Fleu rs' RA -5Cs soo n after CVA-61 hea ded back south to the To nkin Gulf in mid March 1968.

11

92

w ere fl y i ng 'Glen Rock 606' at 10,000 ft when the jet wa s hit by a large cali b re AAA sh el l northwest of Vin h o n 18 M ay 1968. Both men successf u lly ejected , but there was t o o mu ch a nti-aircraft fire in th e area to attempt a rescue . James su rviv ed almost fi ve years o f imprison ment but Monroe d id not.

RA-5C Bu No 149283/N H 606 of RVAH-l l /CVW-ll . USS Kitty Haw k, 18 M ay 1968 A lso the subject o f profi le ni ne, Bu N o 149283 retains the 'Ch eckertail' marking o n its tail as wo rn w hen part o f CVW·17, b ut its inta ke du ct warn ing area has now bee n painted sol id red . CVW-l 1' s trad it iona l NH ta il cod e ha s also rep laced CVW 17' s AA. The execut ive office r of RVAH-l l , Cd r Charl ie J am es, and RAN , Lt Cd r Vincent M onro e,

13 RA -5C BuNo 149293/NK 113 of RVAH-5/CVW-1 4, USS Constellation, N ovember 1968 Back for a second co m bat c ru ise after two trips t o th e Mediterran ean , RVAH-5 had the IR AAS-21 mapper installed in its jets (th e flat bu lge on th e bottom of the canoe with the rotating beacon lig ht - wh en activated, a p rotect ive panel wou ld slide o pen to expose t he system's super-cooled se nsing ele me nts ). 'O ld Kentucky 113' (Bu No 149293 ) was t he f irst N avy reco n nai ssan ce airc ra ft t o be lost fo ll owing th e in stig ation of t he 31 Octobe r 1968 bom b ing halt . On 25 N ov em ber , rad ar -g u id ed AAA t racked the wi ld ly j in king RA-5C no rthw est of Vinh and ev entual ly caused it to explode into fo ur parts. Neith er c rew m ember su rviv ed.

14 RA -5C Bu N o 150842ING 604 of RVAH -6/CVW-9, USS Enterpris e. 31 M ar ch 1969 Bu N o 150842 wa s d amaged d uring the Enterprise fi re off of Haw aii on 14 Janua ry 1969. On t he vessel's first d ay back o n t he lin e, on 31 M arch , Cdr Dan Wh ite , with RA N, Lt Ram ey Ca rpe nte r, we re f lyi ng northeast o f Nak hon Pha nom, in Laos, w he n ' Field Goal 604' (BuNo 150842 ) burst i nto fl am es and fe ll apart . Th ere were no ejections. RVAH -6 went north to Ko rea ag ain on th is d eployment wh en a US Na vy EC-121 su rveill a nce aircraft w as sh ot d own in April 1969.

15 RA -5C BuNo 148928/ N K 602 of RVAH -7/CVW-1 4, USS Constellation, 1 J anuary 1970 Cdr Rand ell Bill ing s, CO of CVW-14, bo rrowed Bu No 148928 w hi le t he ai r w in g was asho re at NAS Cu b i Poi nt, in t he Ph ilip p in es, o n New Year's Day 1970. His RAN fo r the f light w as Lt(jg ) Bill y Beaver of RVAH -7. Somethi ng went w ro ng d u ri ng

, I

th e co u rse o f th e so rtie and th e Vigi la nte we nt into a su pe rso nic div e. Wh en Lt (jg l Beav er co u ld not ge t a respon se from the pi lot he eject ed . Howev er, th e RAN 's neck was b roken when he aba ndoned th e jet at hi gh sp eed and he was ki lled . CAG Bill i ngs we nt down w ith t he aerop lane.

16

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I

RA·5C BuN o 149307/NE 601 of RVAH·5/CVW·2, USS Rang er, 1970 Peering o v er th e red arrow on the vertica l ta il of th is m achine a crypt ic cartoon charact er kn own as th e ' M ush m outh' . Associated w ith VC-, VA H- and RVA H-5, the ' M ush m o ut h' period ica lly decorated Sav ages, 'W hales' and Vi gi lantes between bouts of offici o us disa pp roval. T he sq uad ron's official callsig n w as 'Ol d Kentucky ' and legiti m ate n ickna m e 'Sav age Son s' .

17 RA·5C BuNo 156626/NH 604 of RVAH·6/CVW·ll, USS Kitty Haw k, 1971 Th e names stencilled ben eath the ca no pies of th is Vig ila nte read LCDR GASTROCK and LT CONRA D, to w h ich had bee n ad ded DYNAMIC DUO, CAPED CRUSADER and BOY W ONDER! On 22 Ap ri l 1971, Gast ro ck and Con rad flew BuNo 156626 ' Fiel d Goal 604' o n the Blue Tree m ission to t he airfield at Quan Lang . Und er t he ru les of ' Protective Reacti on', after th e Vigilante w as sh ot at, th e strike aircraft of CVW-11 roll ed in and de stroy ed two M iGs, gun sites and v ario us su p po rt equ ipme nt . The wavy d emarcation line and pale b lu e NAVY t itling rev eal s that this airc raft was supp lied to RVA H-6 straig ht fro m NA R j ust prio r to th e u ni t departi ng on cruise i n early Nov em ber 1970.

18 RA·5C BuNo 156622/NE 602 of RVAH· lICVW·2, USS Ranger, 1970 • Along w ith RVAH -6, th e 'Sm oki n' Ti g ers' of RVAH-1 had the honour of taking th e first newlybuilt ' 156 series' RA-5Cs to sea o n their respectiv e co m bat deployme nts, wh ich commen ced i n t he au tu m n of 1970. Exte rnal ly, t he new Vigilantes boasted an ad dit io na l st rake w hich ran from t he w ing leadin g edge to t he top of t he intake d ucts. Th e engi nes we re also u pg rad ed to J 79· GE-10s. Ju st 36 ' 156 se ries' jets w ere bui lt for th e Na vy, an d t hese all ow ed a number o f olde r Vig il antes to be retired.

20 RA ·5C Bu No 156634/N K 602 of RVAH·5/CVW·14, USS Enterprise, October 1971 On 17 Oct ober 197 1, BuN o 156634 becam e th e first RA -5C to be lost in WestPacs ince March 1969 whe n it flew into t he wate r w hi le on a routine trai n in g f lig ht. The 'Savage So ns' comma nding offi cer, Cdr L R ' Bu d' Ev erett, and RA N, Lt Cdr Pau l Stok es, w ere both kill ed .

l>

-a

-e

m

z

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21 RA·5C Bu No 149314/GJ 201 of RVAH -3, NAS Sanford, June 1967 RVA H-3 was called the ' Reece RA G' after it began train ing crews fo r the RA -5C. Its assigned Vig ila ntes w ent to sea on ly on Ca rrie r Qualifi catio n d eta chm en ts . RVAH -3 w o u ld have up to 14 RA-5Cs on strengt h, plus fo ur TA-3s and fo ur TA·4s, all of whi ch had orange-st riped tail s. Th is aircr aft was lost in a fatal crash (o ne c rew ma n survived) on 14 Jun e 1967 near th e RAG 's Sanford home.

22 RA·5C BuNo 156614/NG 604 of RVAH· l l1CVW·9, USS Constellation, 1971 /72 Some of RVA H-11 's ju n ior o ff icers tho ught t hat the add itio n of sha rk's teet h to t he i ntake warn ing triangles w ould be 'co o l', and they convinced th e CO to giv e it a try . How ev er, du e to t he increased ope rational tempo in the lead up to the Linebacker cam paig n o f May 1972, the idea w as dro pped afte r only th is aero pl ane was painted . BuNo 156614 later w ent to RVA H·6 on Fo rrestal, and w as lo st in t he M ed iterranean fo llo w ing an u nsuccessfu l night catapult shot on 11 July 1974.

23 RA-5C BuNo 151618/NH 604 of RVAH·71CVW·ll , USS Kitty Hawk, M ay 1972 RVAH -7 ca rri ed out another m ajor change to its ta il markin g s pri or to em barking o n th e marat hon nin e-m onth-lonq 1972 co m ba t crui se i n CVA-63. Crews names we re carried i n th e bl ack rect angles beneath th e can op ies, and the wh ite E d en oted the u n it's att ain m ent of th at yea r's batt le efficiency award. Sq ua dro n XO Cd r Ro n Polfer and Lt(jgl J oe Kernan were shot down by AAA i n BuNo 151618 nea r th e infam ous Thanh Hoa Bridge on 7 M ay 1972. After ej ecti ng from a bl azing ' Flare 04', bo th m en w ere capt u red and re lea sed with th e last group o f PoWs th e foll owing yea r.

19

24

RA·5C BuNo 149276/AB 602 of RVAH·14/CVW·l , USS John F Kennedy, 1970 Known as t he 'Eag le Ey es', RVA H-14 m ade th ree consecutive cruises o n 'Big J ohn ' to th e M ed iterranean between 1969 and 1972, after whi ch it co m pleted its fourth , and last depl oyment. ab oard In dependence as part of CVW-7. On the latte r cruise, the squadro n wa s o n the scene to m on itor th e Yom Kippur War, which erupted between Israel and its A rab neigh bou rs in October 1973. BuN o 149276 w as stric ken at NA S Key West on 31 July 1976.

RA·5C BuN o 156616/AC 601 of RVAH-l / CVW·3, USS Saratoga, May 1972 Sara toga was another East Coa st carrier which went to WestPa conly once , wh ile RVAH -1 wa s on its fourth trip t here. Sail o rs in maintenance added nickn ames to the normal LCDR CHUCK SMITH and LTlJG) LARRY KUNZ o n the side o f BuN o 15661 6. Sm ith became SMILlN' JA CK and Kunz. 'BOT'. Depend ing on who was asked , ' BOT' st ood for ' Big Dead ly Tiger' or ' Big Dumb Tex an ' . Smith and Ku nz we re hit by a SA M wh ile fl y in g in this

93

w '" u

Vigilante on 7 June 1972 . Ej ecti ng over Haip ho ng Har bo u r, t heir he licopter rescu e t oo k 50 minutes, du ri ng w hic h t ime both me n ca me und er co ns ta nt fire fro m g u ns on the sho re.

25 RA·5C BuNo 156623 /AJ 603 of RVAH·6/CVW·8, USS America, December 1972 On 23 Decembe r 1972. BuN o 156623 (ca ll-sig n 'Fie ld goa l 603' ) w as o n a w eath er alte rn at e m issi on alo ng th e coasta l isla nd s off Nort h Viet nam w hen it s escort , F-4J Bu No 153885 (' Sham roc k 210' ) of Marine sq u adro n VM FA-333 was shot down by 85 mm AAA. The CO o f RVAH -G, Cd r J im Tho m pso n, with his RA N, Lt Em y Co nrad, sta y ed ove rh ead th e downed crew , d rawin g off t he enemy g u n ne rs unt i l SAR hel ico pters co u ld ext ricate t he M arine s.

30 RA·5C BuNo 149299/ GM 601 of RVAH ·9, NAS Key West, 1976 All RVA H squadrons had a G-prefixed two-letter co de for use when not assig ned to an air w ing. The 'Hoo ters' m ad e a stylis ed owl out of thei r GM . BuNo 149299 w as o ne of t he ori gina l batch of RA-5Cs brought u p to ' 156 series' standard wh en it we nt t h rou gh ov erhau l. The aeroplane was finally stricken at NAS Key West on 20 September 1977.

COLOUR SECTION

26

1

RA·5C BuNo 156633/ N K 603 of RVAH·1 3/CVW·14, USS Enterprise, 28 December 1972 Th is aircr aft was the last Vig ila nte to be lo st du ri ng t he Vietnam W ar, and t he on ly o ne to be shot down in aerial comba t. Lt Cd r A I Agn ew , p ilot, and Lt M ike Haifl ey, RAN. were on t heir second mission of th e day in NK 603, head ing east fro m Han oi , whe n M iG th reat wa rni ngs fl oo d ed th e Guard fr eq uen cy. Thei r F-4 esco rt advised th em to break ju st as ' Ato ll' mi ssiles f ired by a M iG-21 h it t he Vig ilante. HaifJey was kil led eit he r in th e init ial missile impact or t he crash w h ich follo w ed, bu t Ag new ejected and becam e a PoW .

An unidentified RA-5C wit h a cam era si lhouette and hash-m arks indica ting reco nnaissance m ission s th at it had fl ow n. The w i ndscreen ext erio r has bee n m ended w ith a red p last ic co m pou nd. The rai l in the centre o f the canopy was for the anti-blast light sh ield, although the shie ld itself was not installed ( EBA L)

In t hi s no se-o n view, t he effect of no sew heel stee ri ng on th e ve rtical tai l is ap parent . The yaw aug mentation system woul d be trying to adj ust, and would cau se the tail to shimmy (Pow ell)

27

3

RA·5C BuNo 156621/NE 614 of RVAH·5 /CVW·2, USS Ranger, 28 Decemb er 1972 This ai rc raft featu red c rew nam es w it hi n red rectangles aft of the coc kp it t ran sparenci es, these being the same colour as t he arrow on t he tail and the ai r wi ng code: BuN o 156621 su rv ived the har ried days of Linebacker /I and is no w o n disp lay on t he fli g ht d eck of Intre pid i n New Yo rk City .

An RVA H-1 RA -5C on In dependen ce in 1965. Th e hardest p art of ge tt ing o n th e catap ul t - g ett ing th e no sewh eel ove r th e shu ttle an d o n th e centreli ne has been done. The holdback is slack behind th e tail and the launch b ridle ove r the shuttle is being held i n pl ace on th e ho ok s un de r th e eng ines. The sig nal t he Cat Officer in th e y ell ow shi rt is givi ng is for t he p i lot to release h is b rakes, and fo r t he catap ult operato r to take tensio n - ap ply eno ugh steam pressu re to keep the bridle an d hold back taut. All pe rsonnel will clea r away as t he pilot goes to full power, and then into m axi m u m afte rburne r. befo re sign alling wi th a salute th at he is ready to laun ch (Wo o du/)

28 RA·5C BuN o 149317/NG 601 of RVAH ·12/CVW·9, USS A merica. 1970 Al thou gh an East Coast ca rrie r, A m erica m ade th ree co m bat d ep loy m ents - o nce t rav ell ing co mpletely aroun d th e w o rld to reach t he wa r lone. and th e o ther two t imes halfway and back ag ain . Its assigned air wing in 1970 was Pacific Fleet-b ased CVW-9.

29

94

with a white band and red stars and 603 had a w h ite n ose wi th a red ba nd and wh ite sta rs.

RA·5C BuNo 156628/NK 601 of RVAH·1 2/CVW·14, USS Enterprise. 1975 Enterp rise, with RVAH -1 2 embarked, was stand ing by during t he evacuation and fall of Saigon in April 1975. With th e end of host ilit ies, sq uad ron paint schemes b ecam e brig hter. Now down to th re e RA-5Cs pe r f ront li ne u nit , th e 'S peartlps' p ai nt ed each nose di fferently - 60 1 h ad a red no se w it h a wh ite ban d and bl u e stars, 602 had a blue no se

2

4 Preparing an RVAH· 1 Vigila nte fo r a mission on Independence in 1965. The techn ician is wo rking in the RA N' s cock pit. The ca ble ru n fro m th e deck i nto the pane l behi nd the ' Smo ki n' Tiger' crest is pro vidin g t he jet w ith elect rica l p ow er so t hat its cockp it disp lay s can be run up. The cab le going into the nose is fro m the SINS (Sh ip' s Inert ial Navigation System ), and it is updating the ASB12's present posit io n with g reat accuracy. The cab les w ill not be removed unt il after th e eng ines are sta rted and the Vig ilante is relying o n its ow n po wer. Th ree fu el cans in 't rain' sit on t he d eck be hind t he ' Vigi s' ( Woodul)

5 A brand new '156 series' prepa res to be launched fro m eVA-63 's w aist cat o ne in 1970. RVAH -6 fl ew five aer op lan es w ith co nsecutive BuN o s on this cru ise - 156623 (show n he re ) to 156627 . Th e cat o ffice r at the right of t he photo is giving the p ilot his fin al lau nch signa ls. ' Yo u drop you r heels to the fl oor, bu t leave you r toes on t he ru d ders. Your teft hand pushes the throttles to the detent for full mil itary p ower. Wh ile the J79 eng ines spool-up, yo u lo ok over to the cata pu lt office r. He is wavi ng h is hand w ith two f ing ers up ove r hi s head. Ey es back in th e coc kp it t o th e en gine gaug es - RPM, te m pera tu res , pre ssu res ar e all goo d. Th e cat officer is fli cking h is han d fro m fist to finge rs open to fist. Time for afterburner. Push the throttles past the detent as fa r forward as they go. Fast now, look at one tiny gauge wi th two need les - afterbu rne r nozzle position s. Th ey both swing aro u nd sy m m et rical ly. To o mu ch t im e i n burn er wil l da m ag e t he sea w at er -cool ed blast d efl ectors o nly feet behin d t he ex hausts ' (Po w e1ll

6 This Vigilante, with NAA factory-applied wavy colou r dema rca tion , was p hotographed on Ranger i n 1964 d u ri ng t he RA-5C's first ever deploym ent. A fla sher pod is m ou nt ed ben eat h th e airc raft's rig ht w in g (Wells)

7 An overhead view of a ' 156 series' RA-5C in flight. Wing t railing ed ges we re pa inted white as per the Navy po licy of u sin g this colour to adorn any fli ght contro l surfaces th at fac ed a n uclear bomb bla st left be hi nd by the esca p ing aer oplan e, On Vigi la ntes fresh from th e NAA factory, t he dema rcatio n line on u ppersurfaces was wavy this was also the case along the fuselage sides. The sta in less steel all oy leading ed ge droops were •

left unpainted becau se the hot bleed air w ould have ch arred the fini sh (EBA L)

»

-e

-c

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Z

8

o

An RVAH-14 'Vigi' m o m ents afte r lau nch , befo re t he pil ot has rai sed t he la nding gear o r the fla ps. To ma rk its last d epl oy m ent, RVAH -14 added a stylised eagle to the no ses of its Vigilantes (Harris)

"rn


9 Th e CAG F-4J of V F-92 escorts an RVAH -1 1 Vigi la nt e on a t rain in g fl ig ht d urin g w ork-ups pri or to t he ep ic CVW-9 1971 -72 crui se aboa rd Constella tion. RA -5C BuN o 156614 later went to RVAH -6, and in Ju ly 1974, d u ri ng a M ed iterranean deployment on Fo rres tal, it suffered a cata st ro p hic eng ine failure on a night catapult shot and crashed into t he sea . Bot h c rewmen were rescued (EBA LI

10 Tw o RVAH -6 jets form at e for the ca mera duri ng the u nit's f ina l cruise in 1978. The lead Vi gil ante is BuN o 156624, which wound up in the Pensacola museum in t he markings shown he re (EBA L)

11 A VA-6 5 KA-6D refuel s an RVAH -5 Vigila nte, w hil e an F·4J from VF-96 w aits its turn . RA-5C BuN o 15662 1 av oid ed th e scra p y ard and the bombing range to ta ke its pl ace on t he flight deck of Intrepid, moored i n New York City ( EBA L)

12 Tw o A ·7 s an d a KA-6 from th e Patuxent Riv er Test Center joi n u p w it h an RVAH -9 RA-5C to co nduct a fly -past overhead Fo rres ta/. Fol lowing t he demise o f BuN o 156637 in a crash at Pat ux ent River in J uly 1973, the Test Cente r wou ld borrow jets from fleet sq uad ron s whenever the need arose (EBA L)

•

INDEX Refe rences 10 musnauoos are shown in bold Colour Secnounenatons are prefixed 'cs.'. with page and caption locators in tlradets Atp!w.lICdr AI 73-74. Sol An Inte lligence IAl) officers 12, 24 Amenca, USS (CVA·561 43.68, Sol Art llp, Ltljg)P M 33 Bainbridge. USS (D LG N-251 10 8eard.lt Cdr Dona ld 18 Beaulieu. AOJ CJ 11 Beaver, It{jg l Illily 48,92-93 Bell. Lt Cdr James 'Jim' 14,20,9\ ses, Lt Cdr AI 46 8j1 hngs, Cdr RandeliK 48,92,93 Boeing B-52: 64. 72 Bombardier-Navigators (BNs) 9. 14 Bon Homme Richard, USS (CVA·31 1 34

Calhou n, It John 37, 92 cameras 11·12,\5, 18. 20,76 campbell, ltljg l Russ 70 carmodV, Capt Martin D·Red" 27 Carpenter, Lt Ramey 45, 92 Caff. Maj HS 72. 13

catapult cttcers 18, cs 3, 4 {50, 95) Chapdela ine, Lt Cdr Jerry 25-25 charts 25, 34 Christensen, Ernie 70 toc'ven It Col John K 72. 73 Coffee, LtGerryl 11 26.27, 74 Conrad, Lt Emerson ·Em.... 4, 65, 66, 67, n-73. 13, 93. 94 Cooslellalion. USS (CVA-541 28. 30,32.35.36. 43.67.

Everett, Cdr LR·Bud· 67,93 Peeks. Cdr Ed 28, 46 Flaherty. Jim 69 flak. AM 65 flotatlOll gear. Mk 3C 21 fotresrai, USS \CVA·591 35 36. 79, BO. BO, 92 recess. John 15

12

Cook. u Doug 28 Coral Sea. USS (CVA·43) 36. 69 Cron in, ltlml Brian t8 Cuban Missile Crisis 9-10. 1t. 75-76 Cyprus 79--00 Da,gle, Ltljg)Gleoo 26,91 Davis, Lt Bob 'Bull' 18.2'3-:11.64 Dean. u Cdr Bob 28 81 -82 DeBoxtel. LI Cdl lany 28 40. 4s-46. 47, 76-77 Dion, Cdllaurent 37 Donaldson, Cdr Bob 47,48 Dougl as A-3:64 Douglas A3 DSkywa rrior 7-8. 8 Douglas KA-3B 39 Dresser. Lt(jg! G B 24-25, 91 Oyef, Joe 69--70

Enney. Cdr Ken 25,81 Enterprise, USS (CVAN -65\ 9--10, 10 21. 24, 32-33. 39, 44. 64, 67,68

Gastrcck It Cdr Barry 4. 65. 66, 67, 81, 93 Goodenrote. ltljg lWayne 36, 92 Gretter. It 'Gigi' 29·30 Griffin. lt Cdr James 34 Grorcuet. It Carl 20 Grumman A-6 lnUUder 39, BO A-SA 18.19 E·2 Hawkf!'y1! III f·l4Tomcat 82 KA.o;KA-&J cs.ll, 12162, 951 Habel. Ltljg) Itater It Cdr) Paul 70,81. B2 Harnev. Lt Mik e 73-74, 94 Hamilt on. ADJ W W 11 HarKXXK. USS (CVA-191 66 Hanson,ltljg) Robert 26-27 Ho CI'II Minh Trail 26,39. 42.67,70 Holl ingsworth, Ens Hal 27, 9\ Hom. L1\JgIChalles 37 Huber,CdIJohn 47

95

x

w

Q

Z

Hulton, It Cdr 'Du ffy" 20,91

Hyatt, It Cdr leo 36. 92 IndependeIl:e.USSU::VMi21 10. 18, 18.1!U 2. 41.C$ J. 4 160. 951. 78. 91 Integrated Dperatlonal lntelligence Center (lDtC) 11 , 24,

65 James, Cdr Charlie 41 .92 Jarvis. Cdr CH 'Pinky' 33

Johnson.lt Cdr Guy Z6

Joboscn. President lyndon 25.40. 76

Joseph. u Max 63

Keman, t tljgl Joe 7G-71,93 Kienert. LUjg)Wilham 32 Kimmons. Capt GW 49. 63 Kmy Hawt, USS ICVA-631 24, 25, 27, ~ , 49

cs. s (61 , 95),

68 Kleintt Cdr Harry 28

Kolstad, Lt Cdr Thomas 32 KlIilke.lt Cdr Bob "Kid" 32. 43 I(l.IIl,llljgllarry "BOT" 11 , 71-72, gJ--g4 Landmg Signals Officers (LSOs) 8--9. 15, 38, 38---39 landings on carr iers 21- 22. 37, 38-3 9 Liberty. USS (AGTR·5) 76

l.odheed Ee-T2l : 46. 77. 92 lockheed m Neptune 7 london- New YorkMa il Race 49, 63. 63 Lang Beach. USSICGN-91 10 l.ukenbach, Lt Cdr Max 26.91

Massle,PHCMB 11

Matu la. Cdr Va lenlln 20 May8fjvel. 55 8J McDo@ell Douglas

A-4CSkyhal'lk 20 F..4 Phantom II 42--43 F-48 35. 49 F-4J cs. s (61 , 951. cs 11 (62,951. 10, tt. 13. 14 TA·4 as McNair, Barba ra 40 missions see also coeretoos Alpha lB. 23. 27 Aft Light 64 Blue Tree 2t!. 23. 43. 65-66 Commando Hvnt 42 Jiffy Soda 76 'Protect ive Reaction' 65·66, 67, 93 MiS$/)lJ{l~ USS (8B--63) 40 P.b1roe,l1CdrV,ocent 41. 92 MooIe, 11 CB 11 MOfgan, ltJim M 'Bones' 11,26, 33 Mt Soufri ere 77-7 8 Mueller. lt Cdr Herm -40 ' Mulholland, ll Wayne 'TIny' 28, 40. 47 "'vers, Cdr Tom 00,81

ia

96

NAS Albany 19 NAS Cubi Point 40 Naval Aviation Officers/Observe rs (NAOs) 14 Nava l FI9'rt Officers lNFOsl 12-14 NiJCI'I, President Richard 48-49,68. 72 Nordahl, l t(jg)lee 2fi No noqtco.Lt Giles 41, 92 North America n AJ Savage 7, 7 NOl1h American Aviation, Columbus plant. Ohio 10, 11 North American Rockwell A3J1A· 5A VigI lante 8, 9 9, 10-11, 12 12. 13 21. 84 A·58 9. 9. I I RA·SC Vigi lanle 10, 10, 11. 37,cs l , 2(60. 95), 64 board ing 66--67 camouflage scheme 28-29, 29, 30, pi 7l52, 911, cs 6 (61 ,951 centre console. RAN's 15 ejection seer. HS-l /·\A 31-32, 32 flasher pods 21 , 23, 32, cs 6 (61, 95), 19 fuel cans, intern al 46, 41 Inertial Navigation System (I NS). ASB-12: 11-12, 14--15,24 inslrumetlt panel 14 mapping $'(Stem, AAS·21 IR 23. JS-4(J, 40 77,92 nose raceme 14, 15 Sensor Station 4 11 sensors, SNAREIRspectrum 78, 78- 79,91 'lS65efies' 49. cs 7(61. 95). 63,63, 69 93 AA 603, 80

AG503: 18 BuNo 146698/ NG101' 45, B4 BuNo 148928/N K602 48, pi 15l54, 92~931 BuNoI489331N K904 pl 5 l51.91 ) BuNo 1492161AB 602 pi 19 (56, 931 BuNo 149278/NG102 41. pi 12 (51 92) BuNo 149283/AA '" NH 506: 41, pl 9 (52, 92), pi l l 153,921 BuNo 149284 35. 36 BuNo 149287 22, 47.49 BuNo 149293/NK 113 44 44, pi 13l54. 921 BuNo 149297iNE701, 28, pi 10 (53. 92) BuNo 149299IG M601 pi 30 {59, 94) BuNo 149307/NE601 pU 6 (55.593) BuNo 1493091NL 703, 31. pl 6 (51. 911 BuNo 149312/NG HI4 21, 27, pl l (50. 911 BuNo 149313/Nl102 29 30 BuNo 149314/GJ 201 pi 21 156, 93) BuNo 149317/NG601 pi 28 159, 941 BuNo l50841 : 46 EklNo 150842,1NG 604 44.45. pi 14 154.921 EklNo 15161 WAG 601 : 20. pl 2 150, 91/ BuNo 151611 45 BuNo 1516181NH604 pi 23 l51, 93) BuNo 151622: 11 BuNo 151 627: 25, 33 BuNo 151 629 20. 84 BuNo 151632/NH603 26. pi 4 151.91) BuNo 151633JNG 102. 24, pl 3 150. 91 ) Bu No 151634/NK125: 36, P/ 8l52, 92) BuNo 151727/NH 606 36, pl.7 l52, 91 l BuNo 156605: 12 BoNo 156608: Bl. 82, 84 EklNo 156609 & 156610: 10 BuNo 156613 69 BuNo 1566141NG 604 pi 22 (57. 93), cs 9 161, 951 BuNo t 56615/N H61 1, 81,82 BuNo 156016/AC601 pi 24 157, 93-94 ), 11, 71 BoNo 156621/ NE 61 4 pi 21158, 941, cs 11 162, 951. 84 BuNo 156622/NE 602 pi 181.55. 931 BuN
mera Cdr Pat 36 nason II Cdr J W 11 oper~tions

see alsomissiOllS

linebacker 68

Rolling Thunder 1B, 23, J5 Se4 Orbtt 10, 21

Pa rr, Lt L~ rry 81, 82 Parten, tl(jg)G 31,91 Passive uecncoc Counter MeasUfes lPECMI 12. 17. 18. 20.23,24. 64. 76. 19, 91 Patterson. AOJ J t 11 Peck, Cdr Paul 41 Pemberton. Lt Cd r Col in 14 Phi llips, AOJ T( 11 Prete rnterpeters (Plsl 12. 36. 65 PhomTechnoiciafls IPTsI12, 13. 18 FmlO9"aptlers MaleslPMs) l l12 Pirone.Lt Jim 'Pirate' lB r r. u 48 Pclfer, Cd r Ron 70·71.93 PonardLt Cdr Ron 16. 19 7!1 Prendefgastlltig)frank 25 33, 33·34,34 Pruden.lt N 11 Pueblo, USS IAGER-2) 39,76-77 Putnam, Cdr Cha rles 25, 33 Quan lang 65, 66, 61, 93 r~dal.Side·lool "ng

(StAI 12. 11. 17. lB. 13. 76 Ranger, USSlCVA-61l 15, 16, 11, 17-1B. 24, 28, 38. 39, 46, 49. cs.6(61, 951. 65, 6B. 76, 81 Reconnaissance Attock Navigators (RANs) 12- 15, 18 refuelling. air1Xlme lARF/ 39 41. 41. 42--43 Remer.ll Cdr Robert 'Beef 49, 63

Aowl ey, u Cdr Dan 47, 48. 4B Rutledge, ltljg)Wes 70 Saigon 80 SAM sees 36 37 5andfly(base newspaper] 11

Saratoga, USS (CVA-GOI 24,68 Scnr eioer.Lr Cdr George 28

Schocrove. u Cdr Charles 27, 91 Sharp.ltl)gl tlater Cdr) Dave 21 25-26, BD..~11 Shevlin.ll Joe 30 l)...31.31 Skelly, Lt Cdr Art 30, 30-31 . 31. 47. 48 Smith, Cd r (later Adm) Carol A'Scream ing Charlie' 28, 37, 40, 92 Smun.It Cdr Dud; 'Smilin' Jack' 71. 71- 72. 93·94 Smillie. Ens John 20 Sp-ague. AOJ RE 11 Stamm, Cdr Ernest 44, 44 Stokes, tt Cdr Paut 67, 93 suits, fu ll-pr essure 10, 32 Sutor.It J I( 24-25.91

take-ctts. cat~pu lt CS 5 (61. 95). 69 Tangeman,lt Dick 41, 92 Thanh Hoa btidge 33,71 Thompson, ltCdr CE 11 Thompson.lt Cdr Jim 31. 72. 73, 13. 91. 94 Thurn. ttl/9) Rid\ard 44. 44 Tupolev TII·95 'aee- 78 Turner, ll(/91 [later u Cdrl Dave A 10. 11. 49, 63 63 Tutt le, Lt Cdr Jack 21. 81 Uni ted Slates Navy CRAW·1 (Commander 01Reconnaissance Wing One) 16.1 7,46.49,77 AYAH· 1 'Smoking Tigers' 18. 18. 21 , 22, 38, pl 2 (SO, 91l, pi 12 153, 921, pl.18 (55, 93), pi 24 157, 93·941. cs 3, 4 (50, 95), 11 AYAH·3 'Dragons' 13, 35, pl 21 (56. 931. 69 82 AYAH·5 'Savage Sons' 15. 16. 16, 11. 17, 44. 49 pi t ISO. 911. pi 13154. 921, pi 16 (55. 93), pi 20 (56, 931pi 21 (58, 94), cs 11 162, 951. 67, 68 RVAH·6'Fleurs' 28, 44--45, 46, 76, 77 aircraft 4, 28. 29, 30. 39,4 5, 66, pl 6151, 91). ouu 153, 921. pi 14 (54, 921. pi,17l55. 93), pi 25 158. 941cs 5 161, 951. cs.t 0 (62. 95). 80 cuee patch 64 flightcrews 28 RVAH·7 'Peacemakers' 20, 21, 24, 47-48, pi 31 50, 9ll. pl 15 (54, 92- 931. pll3 (57. 93), &l, 81, 82 AYAH·9 'Hooters" 24. 46. pl 5 151. 911. pl 30 (59, 94), e .u (62. 95), 71. at RVAH·l\ 'Checkertails' 29 35, 36.39.49, pi 9 152. 921. pi l l (53, 92), pi 22 (57, 93]. cs 9 161. 95]. ro, 12 RVA H·12 'Speartips' 35, 36.36, 41, pl8152, 921, pi 28, 29 159, !MI. 18 78, 82 AYAH·13 'Bats' 24, 26.27, 30,35.43, pl 4\51, 911. pI ~52 . 91). pi 26 158, 941, 74, 82 AYAH·1 4 pl 19(56. snes 8 161, 951. 19 VA-65 cs 11 (62. 95) VA·76 20 VAH·l 'Smoking Tigers' 9 VAH·3 9. 9, 11 , 11 VAH--4 Det 63. 39 VAH-1·Peacemakers' g..10, 10. 21 VAH·l1 . 8 VAH·13 25 VAH·123: 9 Vf·92 cs 9 (61. 95). 10 Vf-96 cs 11 162. 95) VF-213 'Black lions' 49 VM FA·333: 72. 13 Vought A·7 Conan II 37, cs 12162, 951. 73, 80 VoughtA·78 65 VoughtRF.aCrusadef 17, 21,82

waners. u Jack 34 wattev, u Cdr Af 26, 32, 33, 34 weapons 4,9 ,28 65, 65,66 see alsof l ~ k, AAA:. SAM

sues Webef. Rob 69 Wells. Dick 29 Whit e, Cdr Oan 45--45. 92 wunens. Ca pt E0 82

Yom Ki ~r War 79 Youngblade, u CdrCJ 11

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I

Related titles & companion series from Osprey 184176+1OX AEU 010 359m FIGHTER GROUP

AIRC RAFT O F THE ACES (ACE) Experte nccs a nd a chie vements o f ' a ce' fighter pilots

18<11765376 .lIEU 011 303rd80M8ARDMENTGROUF' 1841765Jll'1 A.EU 012 jAGDGE.SD-fWA[)£R 17"MRJt(),

185S1244H ACE 001 MUSTANGACESQFTHEEIGHTHAJRFORCE

18<11760089 Al:U 013 LLfTWAfft so-v.o-rrGRUl'PfN

18<;<;124482 ACE 002 Br 109 ACES Of NORTH AfRICA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN

18<11767859 AEU 014 49th FIGfTERGRCllK'

laSS)2~

ACE 003 WLOCATACESOFWOfllDWAA2

1855325012 ACE 004 18SSU 5756 ACE IJ(b IBSSl h l87 ,o,a 006 I 8SS 32 ~l 7 ACE 007 18SS12H l6 ACt 008 18553259'50 ACI OCB 18SSn591>9 ACt 010

I
18snH873 ACE 011

B(

IBSSH l>1n

10901{ ACES 1939-'11

1855325292 ACE 0 1) jAPANE$€ ARMY AJRFORa ACES 193 1--"'l 5 Ol~

185';326 37X CO'1002 8-21> MAA.ALOER lNTS OF lK' EIGHTH AND 18 55326892 CO'1OO3 HELl.DIVER 1JI'ITS Of WORlD WAf( 2

NTH Ml. FORCES

1855326906 CO'1OO4 MOSQUITO IIOMBEF\IFIGI-ITER-EIOM6ERWITS 19042..... 5 18 5532723(, CO'1OO5 8lEl'I-f'lM SQUADl'IONS OF WORlD WAf( 2

s.e CRUSAD£R WITS OF THE VlETNAM WAA P~I

BLACK1NlOOWUNITSOf WORlD WAR 2

18553273 17 COM 009 MO$Ql!ITO FIGHTEIVFIGHTER-60M&R UN ITS Of WORLD WAR 2

185<;32635) ACE 0 16 SPlTfIRE MAflX V ACES 19 4 1-45

18,531732, COM 0 10 sen DAUN TLESS UN ITS O F W ORlD W AR 1 18,,3278 13 COM 0 11 8-14 LIBERATO R UNITS OF TH E PACIFIC WA R

185, 316 34$ ACE 0 17 GERMAN JET ACES O f W ORlD WAR 2 18'> 53:15977 ACE 0 18 HURRICANE ACES 1939 40

18, 532782 1 CO M 0 12 Rf·8 CRUSADrR UN ITS OVER CU BA AND VIETNAM

18553:1698 1 A CE 0 19 P-38 LIGH TN ING ACES O F THE ETO/MTD

18, , 3289 17 COM 0 13 MO SQUITO PHOTO·RECONNAISSANCE UN ITS Of W ORLD WAR 2 18,,328925 COM O l ~ HAliFAX SQUADRO NS OF W ORLD WAR 2

1855 326965 ACE 020 GERMAN NIGHT m3i·tTE R ACES 0, WORLD WAR 2 1855,27260 ACE 021 POLISH ACES Of' WORLD WAA 2

1855329018 COM 015 B-24 LIBeRATOR UN ITS OF THE EIGHTH AIR FORCE

1655327279 ACE 022 IMPERIALjAPANESI: NAVY ACES 1937--"'l5 18553276,x ACE 023 fiNNISH ACES OF WORlD WAR 2 02~

1855 326 3(,1 CO'1 001 ......... l:IRS)J 87 51UKAG£SOM'.o.D£R 1937--"'l1

1855327244 COM 007 1855327252 COM C08

P-38 LIGHTNlNG ACES Of TI-E PAO FIC AN D ClJj

1855326329 ACE OIS SQYlETACESOfWORlDWAR)

1655327295 ACE

History, technology a nd crews of military aircraft

18 55327228 COM 006 .........KERS '" 87 STUKAGESCHWADfR OF NORTH AfRICA AND THE MEDlTfRf\ANEAN

ACE 012 SPITRREHAAl(VlACES 1939--'41

1855326337 AeE

COMBAT AIRCRAFT (COM)

P-"I 7 THJNDERflOlT ACES OF THEEIGHTH AIR FORCE

1655327536 ACE 025 l'-'f::5SERSoCHI"ITT B( 1 to ZERSrC/RiR ACES Of' WOIU.D WAA 2 1655327905 ACE 026 MUSTANG AND THUNOERBOl T ACES Of THO PACIFIC AND CBI

1855329026 COM 016 TBFiTBM Avt;NGER UNITS OF WORLD WAR 2 18417W1'JX COM 01 7 )J 88 KAMl'fGfSCHWADfR ON THE VVE5TERN fRONT 18417W218 COM 0 18 B- 17 ft YlNG FORTRESS UNITS OF THE EIGHTH AIR roses (pART I) 18<11760242 CCN 0 19 SUNDERlANDSQUADRONSOfWORtOWAf(2

18ssuml ACE 027 TYPHOON AND TEMPI'ST ACES Of WORLD WAA 2

18<11760250 CCN 020 TOO DEVASTATOR UNITS OF THE us NAVY 18'l1 7608 11 CCN 02 1 8-14 LIBERATOR lA'JITS Of THE FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE

18SS32898'4 ACE 028 FRENCHACESOf'WORLDWAA2

184 176082)( CO'1 022 r1TSUll/SH1 TYPE 1 IIJIQ(() 'BETTY" UNTS Of WORtO WAA 2

1855329050 ACE 029 BfI09fIGl!
18417 62'H(, COM 013 AJV.8.ISAAWAIRWAASI'H7-82 18-41 762903 COM 02~ CON'UCT IN THE 8ALJ(.ANS 1991-2000

18553l'9069 ACE 030 P-"I 7 TH.N.:lEfl8Ol.T.-.aS Of THE ~ AND FIFTEENTH AIR FORCES 1655 3l'90n

ACE 031 VII AQ-iTER COf1I'-W'<) AT W AA - l ONG RfACH

18'41 76161 1 COM 025 1"\oG. 17 AND Mo(>. 19 UNTS Of ne VETNAI'1 WAA

16553 2'9603 ACE 032 AI..llATROSACESOfWOflU)WAR 1 18S5 329611 ACE 033

1&'I176163X COM 0 21> us NAVY F-"I PHANTOM I MIG Q.tfRS 1965-70 1&'11 7619'>4 COM 027 AIR WAA IN THE GUF 199 1

~TACESOfWORLDWAR l

18-41 760781 ACE 034 ITA.UAN ACES Of WORLD WAA 2

18417629 38 COM 0 28 AIR WAA IN THE FAl.1Q.Al'VS 1982

18-4 176Q79X ACE 03S P-40 WAF\HAWK ACES Of THE CBI

16<11 7616 3(, COM 02'9 MG-21 UNTSOFTHEVlETNAMWAA 1841761/>1'4 COM 030 us NAVY F_4 PHANTOM I H.G Q.tfRS 19 72-73

18417~

ACE 036 P-39AJP.ACOBPAACESOFWORl.DWAR2

1841760846 ACE 037 Bf 109 ACES Of THE RUSSIAN FRONT

1841763 13(, CO'1031

1841760838 ACE 038 TOMAHAWt:: AND KlTTYHAWKAGS Of THE fIAF AND CClMHON'MAl.TH

18~1762849

1841762229 ACE 039 SPAD\IIIACESOf' WORLQWAA I

16~1762657

184171>224, ACE 041 AMERICAN VOLUNTEER GROUP COLOURS & MARKING S 184171>3751> ACE 04 2 AMfRICANACES Of' WORLD W AR I

o-n

19~2-~3

CO'1032 B-25 r1TQ-ElL WITS OF THE MfO

COM 033 8·29 SUPERfORTRESS UNITS OF WORlD WAA 2 1841 763837 COMOH PV \lENTURNHARPOON WITS OF WOF\LO WAR 2

1841762237 ACE 040 FOKrER Dr I ACES OF WOflLD WAA I

184171>288 1 ACE

lANCASTfR SQUADRONS

P_40WARHAWKACES Of THEM TO

184 1764337 COM 035 LANCASTER SQUADRONS 19+4 _45 1 8 4 1 7 64 3 ~, COM 036 8-17 FLYING FORTRESS UNITS OF THE EIGHTH AIR FORa

(PART 2)

1841766585 COM 037 IAANIAN F_ 4 PHANTOM II UNITS IN COMSA T

184171>289X ACE 044 GlO STER GLADIATO R ACES 1841763772 ACE 045 BRITISH AND EMPIRE ACES OF WORL D WAR I

1B4 17M 805 COM 0 38 80 17 FLYING f O RTRf SS UNITS OF THE MTO 1841 7648 17 COM 039 B- 17 FLYING FORTRESS UNITS OF THE PACIFIC WA R

184171>37/>4 ACE 046 AUSTRO-HUNGARJAN ACES Of W ORLD W AR I

1841 7M8 13 COM 040

184 171>31W ACE 04 7 SPADXIVXli ACES Of WORlD WAR I 1841 71>31 79 ACE 048 IX)lPHIN AND SNlPE ACES Of' woao WAR I

184 1766062 COM 041 U$ ARMY AH_I COBRA UNITS INVlETNAM 1 8 41 7 665 ~ 2 COM 042 B-29 $lJf'£RfORTF\ESS WITS Of THE KOREAN WAR

184 17(,<1 35 3 ACE 049 CROATlANACESOfWORLDWAA2

184 1766070 COMO'13 B-52STP.,ATOFORTF\ESSUNITSINCOMSAT 1955-73

1 84 1 7~ 36~

1 8~1 7665 50

ACE oso HUNGA.RlANACESOfWOl\l.DWAA2

PBJ MI TCHELL UNITS OF THE PACIFIC W AR

COM Q404 ARA8 MIG· 19 & MlG-21 UNITS IN COMBAT

18-4 1765 341 ACE 052 soPW'ITHCAI"ElACESOfWORl.DWAR I

18'l1 766569 COM 045 lMF F-"I PHANTOM . MIG I(llERS 196.S-611 184 1700 1~ COM 046 us NAVY HORNET UNTS Of OPERATION IIlAQ FRifDO\l (PART O"'E)

184 1765 333 ACE 053 F()I(I(fRD\IIIACESOfWORLOWAR 1{pARTI )

184170022 COM047 F

184 17(,<1 37X ACE OSI

'OOW'N TO EAATI-f STRAFING ACES Of THE EIGHTH AIR FORCE

I~

EAGlElNTS

OfOPERATJOl".llWJlf~

1841 7653SX ACE QSo4 Rl.JMMllANACESOfWORl.DWAA2 1841765 368 ACE OSS P-1QWAP,HAWKACESOfTHEPACFIC

FRONTLINE COLOUR (FLC)

184176tH17 ACE 0S6 coo & LAVOO«JN ACES Of WQRU)WAA 2

Colour pbotograpns of hi storic m ilita ry aircraft

1841766HXl ACE OS7 H.JAAJC..ANEACES I'H I --"'l5 1841766526 ACE OSB SLOVAJ:lAJ'l AND ElU.GAAlAN ACES Of WORLDWAA 2 1841766534 .-.a OS9 ISRAEUMRAGE • AND NE<,HfR ACES 184176 7840 ACE 06 1 'TVVELVETOONE 'VflGHTER COMMANDACfSOFTHEPAQAC 184176 7298 ACE 063 FOKKERD\III ACES OF WOR.lDWAR I {pART 2)

AVIAT IO N ELI T E UN ITS (A EU)

nc 00 1 F·51 !"'I.hTANG U'oITS OVER K()RUI, 18 5';32'9298 H C 002 F.8f., SABRE flGHTER-fIOMfI£R LNTS OVER ll;()RUI,

18'l1760226 FLC 003 F-M T1-1lII'VERjET UNITS OVER K()RUI,

1841 71>7832 .-.a 060 ISRAEU H PHANTOM . ACES 1841 76 728X ACE 062 SQFWITHTRlPlANEACESOFWORlOWAR I

1 ~3291 7'"

18'l1 760803 H C 004 B-26IN\1ADERUNITSOVERKOREA 18'1176 22.53 H C 005 F·80SHOOTINGSTARUNTSOVER KQREA 18'l 1762873 FLC 006 F-B6 SABRES OF THE ~tI'I FIGHTER INTERaPlOR WING

PRODUCTION LINE TO FRONTLI NE (PFL)

Combat h istories of ftg h tcr o r homher uni ts

Production h isto ries of hi storic mi litary aircraft

I 8~ 1760463 AEU 00 1 jAGDGE$(HWAD£R 2 WCHTHOFEN'

1855328 14) PfL 002 6Q(INGB·I7FLYINGFO RTRfSS 18, , 31N 9 X Pf L 003 LOC KHEED P-38 LIGHTNING

184 176047 1 AEU 002

ssu, FIGHTER GROUP

184 176 1605 NU 003 No9 1 'NIGEI\IA SQ N 1841 762628 AfU IXl4 LENTOIAMJE 24 1 8~1 761 61 3

1 B41 7 W 2 J ~

P FL 004 CONSOLIDATED B-24 11 BERATOR

184 1764388 P F L OOS FOC KE·W ULffw 190

AEU 00 5 B-29 HtJNTERSOF THf JAN

18417628M AEU 006 jAGDGf.50-fWADER 54 "G!l.rJNHERZ' 18<11763152 AEU 007

J5~lhfIGHTERGROI.R

184 1763829 AEU 008 352nd FIGHTER GROI.R 1&11 7(,<1 3% AEU 0CI9

No~31'IQfTINGCOCKS'SQN

For fur ther d e tail s o n th ese an d o th er O sp re y milita ry h isto ry ser ies p lea se go t o www .o spre ypuhlishing .c om or con ta ct u s - see b elow

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$

I O S P R EY

COMBAT

AIRCRAFT

• 51 1

$

M-5C VIGILllNTE UNITS IN COMBllT

Developed from the AS nuclear bomber, the RASC Vigila nte w as the largest and fa stest aeroplane to ever o perate from the deck of an aircraft carrier. The operatio na l debut of the 'Vig i' co incided w ith the build-up of the Vietna m War. Due to its extremely dangerous, and vital, reconna issance role, th e jet susta ined the hig hest loss ra tio of a ny A merica n a ircraft in that conflict. Throu gh o ut the war, there wa s always a 'Vig i' sq uad ro n o n the line provid ing co mma nders with the latest intelligence. A Mach 2

aero plan e orig inally designed as a bomber, the RASC could outrun the F-4 Phantom lis that were its escorts 'over the beach ' into enemy territory. The a ircraft's exploits over Vietnam are chronicled by com bat veteran ' Boom' Powell , who al so provides on overview of the RAS e' s peacetime operations fro m 19 7 3 until the type was retired in 19 7 9 . M issions flown during thi s pe riod included geological surveys, volcano investig ation, Cold War missions and cla ndestine flights around Cuba .

OSPREY COMBAT AIRCRAFT SERIES • Comprehensive histories of figh ting o ircro ft ond the ir crews , highli gh ting th eir vita l role in the development of warfare in th e 20th century • A uniq ue sou rce of informati on , researched by recogni sed experts a nd bro ugh t to life by first ha nd a ccoun ts from the co mba t vetera ns the mselves • Concise , au tho ri ta tive text is su p ported by at lea st 30 o rig ina l colou r artwarks, specia lly co mmiss ioned scale d rawing s, a nd the be st arc hival p hoto g ra p hy from aro und the w o rld

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