Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #258… “…IN THE HISTORY OF NAVAL AVIATION.”…said a fighter pilot of the Intruder crews… oohrah…
15 NOVEMBER 1966… HOME TOWN HEADLINES from the New York Times on a mostly sunny and cool Tuesday on Wall Street…
Page 1: “Gemini 12 Nearing Splashdown Today southeast of Miami.”… Page 1: “Catholic Bishops Say U.S. Coerces Poor Over Births…charge pressure is brought through welfare projects…Johnson Administration pressuring poor to practice birth control.”… Page 1: “Further Upheaval in China…foreseen in power battle.”… Page 1: “Doubts Over Raid Stirred In Israel…need for action conceded in choice of Jordan as target is questionable.” … Page 1: “Clay Retains Title On Knockout in third…Cleveland Williams over powered and downed four times.”… Page 1: “Prince Charles, 18, Reaching Majority, is given new duties…the ‘Heir Apparent’ has come of age.”…Page 1: “Navy Captain Convicted of Unofficer-like Conduct…Kuntze guilty at General Court Martial and given reprimand and reduction of 100 numbers on the promotion list…will retire the end of 1966.”… Page 1: “Irish-Americans Organize To Assist Visa Seekers… that are barred by immigration law as unskilled workers.” (that’s interesting) …
15 November 1966…The President’s Daily Brief… CIA (TS sanitized)… North Vietnam: Still Classified after 50 years…South Vietnam: General Van Loc, commander of the II Corps area in the Vietnamese Highlands, is reported in a Saigon hospital. The rumors have it he will not be going back to his headquarters. Ky does want to cut some of the powerful corps commanders down to size but he thinks highly of Loc. He may be planning to use Loc as a replacement for the (redacted) IV Corps commander, General Dan Van Quang… Communist China: (redacted)…civil air traffic is northwest China was grounded for several hours today. This may have been caused by bad weather, (rest redacted)… Soviet Union: The Russians are very much interested in the Pan American jetliner which crashed in East Germany killing the three man crew. (redacted) US officials are still trying to get permission to go the crash, but we expect the Soviets to be rather uncooperative. They will unquestionably see this as the time to retaliate for the treatment that they received last April when one of their fighters crashed in the British sector of Berlin… Israel-Jordan: the situation is moving from bad to worse. Ambassador Burns in Amman says that pressure is building for Jordan not to wait for another attack, but to attack Israel now. The first demonstration–a nasty one–protesting the government’s inaction took place near the scene of the Israeli incident today. The Ambassador feels that Husayn may come to believe he must vindicate his leadership by striking at Israel in order to save himself. So far the King has stood firm against attacking Israel now, but says he will certainly be forced to do so if Israel strikes again. He also says he expects the US to provide him arms to restrain Israel.
15 NOVEMBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (16 Nov reporting 15 Nov ops)…Page 1: “Air War”… “The fifth consecutive day of bad weather limited air missions against North Vietnam. On Monday there were 58, about a third of the usual number. A Hanoi broadcast, unconfirmed here (Saigon), said 6 jets had been shot down” … “Two United States destroyers, backed by planes, silenced North Vietnamese shore batteries about 75 miles north of the border. It was the third announced Navy shelling of the North….”… “Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson)…There were no fixed wing aircraft lost over southeast Asia on 15 November 1966….oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #258… “Gangway Fighter Pilot” was the greeting hanging over the door to Old Hangar #14 at Cecil field back in 1959 when all of Carrier Air Wing TEN’s attack and fighter squadrons were all in one hangar. The aura of VF hung a little heavy on the Light Attackers flying A-4s out of the north side of the hangar with the VF F-8U and F-4D squadrons housed on the south side. All that changed for me when I got to Yankee Station. Then it was “Gangway Intruder Crews,” and it remains ever thus for me. And perhaps for at least one of those cocky fighter pilots of yore, as well. Captain Billy Phillips was one of the most colorful, competent and controversial Air Wing Commanders of the war, and I would fly his wing anywhere, anytime. That’s easy for me to say, I only had to do it when I was “teaching” him to fly the A-4 Skyhawk when I was a hardcore instructor in VA-125 at Lemoore in 1965-66 and Billy Philips was passing through as a P-CAG. What fun we had, but that is another story.
Today, I bring forth from 1968 what Captain Billy Phillips had to say about Intruder warriors in an interview published in the Grumman periodical, “Horizons”(Volume 8, Number 1, pages 29-31). With the highest respect and admiration for both Captain Phillips and every Intruder pilot and bombardier/navigator whoever climbed into that double smart, double ugly, amazing airplane, I quote Billy Phillips, 1968:
“Even after more than 900 carrier landings, I have a certain amount of fear or apprehension. Everyone does. But most of us have control over it. The more we do it, the more control we have. We never lose the control or the apprehension.
“But I don’t know what I would have done as a young j.g. or ensign flying a complicated airplane like a McDonnell Douglas Phantom or a Grumman A-6 Intruder over Hanoi at low altitude. A systems run in an A-6, for example, takes the highest kind of courage and certainly a great deal of skill. The teamwork between the pilot and bombardier/navigator must be one of utmost precision. And it takes very strong men, after having gone through all that stuff around the target, to come back and land in undesirable weather aboard the ship.
“The following is an example of what I, and many others, (including your Humble Host) consider the most demanding flying ever undertaken routinely in the history of Naval Aviation. An A-6 strike mission was planned against railroad yards near Hanoi, flown by a commander and his bombardier/navigator, a lieutenant.
“After launch, a routine systems check indicated a problem with the attack and navigation capability of the aircraft which were quickly corrected by the bombardier/navigator in the run to the coast. Coast-in was executed in mountainous terrain traversed at low altitude for about 50 miles until the pilot encountered an unexpected layer with tops at 1,000 feet and bottoms at 200-3oo feet. The pilot descended below the fog and flew a combination of instruments and ground contact with continuous navigation and steering being supplied by the navigator through the A-6A system.
“Up to this time enemy detection had been successfully denied. During the approach to the target, the first 37-mm antiaircraft fire was encountered. Near the target, a slight climb was initiated to the planned altitude for the weapon delivery.
“Radar lock-on subsequently occurred and at five miles AAA commenced and quickly increased in amount to intense barrage and tracking fire. Anticipating surface-to-air missile activity, the pilot continued to climb, which put the aircraft just above the fog bank in a position to visually acquire and evade any approaching missiles.
“At two miles, the first missile appeared and commenced tracking the aircraft. Deciding the attack could be completed before the missile intercepted the aircraft, the crew pressed on. Immediately after weapons release, the pilot broke hard left into the oncoming missile which exploded about 500 feet directly in front of the aircraft. The pilot made another high-G turn and commenced a rapid descent to again acquire an extremely low altitude in hopes of evading enemy radar. But in this area the fog went right to the ground. The pilot climbed back above the fog bank and visually acquired two more missiles which passed approximately 1000 feet away.
“The pilot again returned to a low altitude egress when more 37mm, 57mm and 87mm flak was encountered until he reached the coastline and peacefully returned to the ship.
“Even after such a grueling experience, when the aviator’s adrenaline must be pumping 1200-psi, a demanding job still lies ahead when he tries to get back aboard the carrier.
“Navy doctors measured blood pressure, pulse, respiration, perspiration and other physiological responses of pilots on actual combat hops off the Constellation and Bonny Dick (Bon Homme Richard). The pilots were wired for sound with electrodes that fed into tape recorders.
“The doctors found that actual combat produced nowhere near the tension as waiting in the cockpit to be catapulted off the ship at night, or making a night or bad-weather arrested landing. A night or bad weather cat shot or landing can shoot a pilot’s pulse rate as high as 180, against a combat peak of 120….
“It takes a special kind of man to go in and face the enemy, inflict damage in a very professional manner, exit, and without succumbing to the normal tendency to unwind a bit–peer through the rain on an armor thick windscreen, sight the carrier in the darkness and low visibility–and consistently put these sophisticated airplanes back on deck.
“I am absolutely amazed by their precision, their eagerness and their dedication.” End quote. Thanks, CAG……………….
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Humble Host adds: “Gangway Intruder Crews, and all you other Air Pirates and Red River Valley Rats who came back to Yankee Station and logged OKs on dark or moving decks a couple hundred times. However, in the foul weather of November and December 1966 it was the Intruder crews who carried the war into the enemy heartland. “The highest kind of courage,” as CAG Phillips called it…
Lest we forget… Bear -30-
