Bear Taylor 
COMMEMORATING THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE VIETNAM WAR (1961-1973)… and honoring the intrepid Naval Aviators, Naval Flight Officers and air crews that carried the war to the heartland of North Vietnam in the years of Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)…
GOOD MORNING. I have another Yankee Air Pirate tale to tell. WHEN NAVAL AVIATION ROARED… Episode 3…
USS INTREPID (CVS-11) and Carrier Air Wing TEN strike the Phong Dinh highway and railroad bridge complex three miles north of Thanh Hoa on 8 November 1967…
USS INTREPID and CVW-10 were on the second of three combat cruises made to the Gulf of Tonkin from their homeports of Norfolk, Oceana and Cecil Field/Jacksonville. (That is 3 more combat cruises than another Atlantic Fleet carrier, USS John F. Kennedy, made. Humble Host awaits an explanation). The carrier, newly designated a CVS ASW carrier, departed Norfolk on 11 May 1967 and returned on 30 December 1967. Carrier Air Wing TEN lost twelve aircraft in combat and two in operational accidents. Three aviators were captured after being downed over North Vietnam: LCDR EDWARD H. MARTIN, VA-34; LCDR PETER V. SCHOEFFEL, VA-15; and LT WILSON D. KEY, VA-34. All three POWs returned to the U.S. in March 1973. LT PHILLIP CHARLES CRAIG, VA-15, was killed-in-action on 4 July 1967 while striking the railroad yard of Hai Duong. He had flown more than 200 strike missions. His remains were returned to the United States in 1986 and positively identified in 1987. He is memorialized at Arlington National Cemetery. Leave a remembrance at VVMF, WALL OF FACES…
INTREPID and CVW-10 began their fourth and final line period of the deployment on 1 November. When they completed the period and set sail for home port on 9 December the ship and wing had completed 103 days in combat. As a “small deck,” sans A-6 Intruders, the main battery was represented by three light attack A-4 squadrons: VA-34, VA-15 and VSF-3. As a consequence the Air Wing flew mostly day strikes, armed reconnaissance and photo reconnaissance on the 6AM to 6PM schedule. This is the story of one of those middle-of-the-day Alpha Strikes into North Vietnam… The gunners were ready and waiting…
THE MISSION. On 8 November 1967 USS INTREPID and Attack Carrier Air Wing TEN were fragged to strike the two bridges at Phuong Dinh as part of a concentrated effort to interdict road and rail traffic between Hanoi and Thanh Hoa. The following is clipped from the Project CHECO Report: Rolling Thunder, January 1967-November 1968 of 1 October 1969…
“The fear of USSR/ChiCom reaction had precluded a direct attack on the port (of Haiphong). Thus it became necessary to devise peripheral interdiction methods to deny the enemy the full benefits of the port. The enemy moved record tonnages through the Haiphong-Hanoi-Thanh Hoa complex in 1967. He had exceeded the normal capacity of the port for as many as five consecutive months. He used alternate off-loading means to bypass the limited dock facilities, and he supplemented the available warehousing by storing large amounts of material within the city of Haiphong (also off-limits– by ROE– to bombing). Given these expedients, it became apparent that the primary factor limiting port through-put was the system for moving supplies out of the port area to their destinations…. All goods to be moved to the south by rail were sent from Haiphong to Hanoi then south to Thanh Hoa, Vinh and then through Dong Hoi to the DMZ. Two minor highways emanated from Haiphong: Highway 5 to Hanoi and Highway 10, south to Thai-Binh. From Thai-Binh, the primary southward movement followed Highway 10 to the intersection with Highway 1A, the major north/south highway between Hanoi and the DMZ….”
The INTREPID/CVW-10 Rolling Thunder assignment was both the RR/Highway 1A roadway bridge at Phuong Dinh and a bypass road bridge close by. The location was immediately north of the Thanh Hoa “Dragon’s Jaw” bridge and it was estimated that destruction of these two smaller bridges would impose the same interuption of enemy logistic movement as dropping a span of the “Dragon’s Jaw.”… (But not nearly the same level of satisfaction)…
THE ENEMY DEFENSES. The two bridges were protected by the same Integrated Air Defense System defending the Thanh Hoa bridge, a combination of AAA 37mm, 57mm and 85mm guns organized in more than 50 active sites of multiple barrels, some controlled by radar. Several Surface-to Air-Missile sites were active in the area. MiGs were a lesser threat, but were never completely discounted and MiGCAP was required. The following is a more complete picture of North Vietnam defenses in late 1967. Quote from the Project CHECO Report…
“Strikes over NVN, particularly in the vital Northeast sector, had encountered increased opposition. The results for the year had been a reduction in NVN’s fighter aircraft capability and frequent disruption of operational airfields. At the beginning of the year, NVN had about 72 fighter aircraft on its airfields. By the end of October, all but one airfield had been struck and approximately 20 fighter aircraft were operating from airfields within NVN (others were operating out of ChiCom airbases). Probably the most notable reaction to the U.S. bombing had been the enemy buildup (and integration) of his air defense system. The number of SAM sites had increased to 270 of which 30 to 35 were occupied, an increase of 119 sites over the 1966 total. Although about 3,495 SAM firings were noted in 1967 as compared with 990 firings in 1966, SAM kill-ratios actually declined. The total AAA weapons increased from approximately 830 guns to a high of 7,959 for 1967.” Unquote.
PLANNING. The strike was planned, briefed and led by COMMANDER LESLIE C. HOFTO, commanding Anti-Submarine Fighter Squadron THREE, and employed twenty-two air wing aircraft against the two bridges. Twelve A4s directed their attacks on the bridges; six A4s provided flak suppression and Ironhand support; and 4 F-8 Crusaders provided MiGCAP.
EXECUTION. After an expeditious rendezvous the strike group proceeded to the pre-planned coast-in point about 15 miles northeast of the target. As the target was approached the strike group began receiving fire from numerous 85mm and 37/57mm antiaircraft batteries. The intensity of the opposition increased as the strike group split up to achieve optimum roll-in points for their respective attacks on the bridges and active flak sites. LCDR WILLIAM V. BEST, VSF-3, led out his element of flak suppressors to attack the easily-identified firing AAA sites. Three sites were silenced by the flak suppressors pressing undaunted dive attacks and accurately placing racks of MK-82s within the diameters of the three sites struck. However, more than a dozen other AAA sites sustained accurate aimed and barrage fire to defend the two bridges. COMMANDER HOFTO and his lead division penetrated the enemy fire to commence and complete their devastating dive bombing runs against the main bridge scoring several direct hits destroying the southern span. LCDR RONALD R. BOYLE, VA-15, leading a division of “Valions,” followed the lead division and duplicated the accuracy of COMMANDER HOFTO’s division of “Chessmen”to destroy the northern span and seriously damage the center span. The bombing of LT ALBERT A. ISGER, VA-15 was particularly accurate and effective. LCDR NEULAND C. COLLIER, VA-34, led his division of “Road Runners” through the intense flak to score several hits on the bypass bridge, dropping the northern span, fulfilling the assigned mission. The damage assessment witnessed and reported by the pilots was confirmed by post-strike photo reconnaissance. Egress from the target was opposed by the extraordinary volume of enemy fire always encountered in the area of the other Highway 1A bridge three miles closer to Thanh Hoa. All twenty-two aircraft on the mission returned to USS INTREPID intact. Mission accomplished in the face of intense opposition with unsurpassed excellence. Just what CINCPACFLT ordered.
EFFECT. The complete interdiction of Highway 1A at the Phoung Dinh location led to a successive strike on the bridges at Dong Phong Thong, about ten miles north of Phuong Dinh. Success in interdicting 1A at two points enabled strike aircraft to trap trucks, rail cars and locomotives between the two breaks for attack as lucrative targets by follow-on armed reconnaissance missions.
BITS OF RIBBON. For 17 of the 22 strike pilots on this successful strike there was no “bit of ribbon.” Just 2-points toward a Strike-Flight Air Medal. COMMANDER HOFTO was awarded a gold star in lieu of a second Distinguished Flying Cross and three other recommendations for DFCs were downgraded to Individual Air Medals ( Ron Boyle, Al Isger and Neuland Collier). Humble Host never understood how or why hundreds of young warriors flying wing, and getting the best hits on more than a hundred intensely opposed missions over North Vietnam–Rolling Thunder– came home, or didn’t, without a Distinguished Flying Cross. How could surviving more than 200 missions over North Vietnam be accomplished without a great deal of distinguished flying? Shame on the Admirals who sent their young men into the “valley of death” on a relentless schedule of taking the fight to the enemy where he lived–the only American warriors in the entire Vietnam war so honored–and then deny those bravehearts a bit of red,white and blue….
HOW EXTRAORDINARY BECOMES MERITORIOUS: with the stroke of a pen. Humble Host has chosen the example of the recommendation for the award of a Distinguished Flying Cross for LCDR RONALD R. BOYLE on the mission that took out the bridges of Phoung Dinh on 8 November 1967 that suffered a downgrade to an AIR MEDAL to make the point. The BOYLE DFC award recommendation submitted by INTREPID and CVW-10 was reduced to the AM by the Awards Board of CINCPACFLT as they sat around a table in Hawaii talking about where their next round of golf would be played. The only change in the proposed DFC citation and the Air Medal citation signed by ADMIRAL JOHN J. HYLAND, CINCPACFLT, was to change one word in the lead sentence of the write-ups. “For heroic and exceptional achievement in aerial flight…” was changed to “meritorious achievement.”
HUMBLE HOST is honored to include the AIR MEDAL citation for LCDR RON BOYLE as part of the story of “the bridges of Phuong Dinh.” Ron was my outstanding and indefatigable Executive Officer during my 1972-74 tour as Commanding Officer of VA-46 embarked in USS JOHN F. KENNEDY. He subsequently fleeted up to command the “Clansmen.” He is remembered here with highest respect, admiration and appreciation as he rests in peace having completed a distinguished career in the Navy and later with McDonnell-Douglas (F-18E/F Program). Glory gained, duty done…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR MEDAL to LIEUTENANT COMMANDER RONALD RAYMOND BOYLE, United States Navy, for service as set forth in the following:
CITATION: “For heroic and meritorious achievement in aerial flight as a pilot attached to Attack Squadron FIFTEEN, embarked in USS INTREPID (CVS-11), on 8 November 1967. Lieutenant Commander BOYLE led a bomber division in a 22 plane strike against the Phoung Dinh highway bridge complex three miles north of Thanh Hoa, North Vietnam. During the approach to the target, Lieutenant Commander BOYLE displayed extraordinary aerial skill in maneuvering his division safely through skies darkened by an umbrella of flak. Disregarding the anti-aircraft artillery fire of ever-increasing intensity and accuracy, he pressed the attack and delivered his bombs onto his assigned bridge with unerring accuracy. His ordnance was observed to impact directly on the target and post strike bomb damage assessment photography revealed three spans of the bridge were totally destroyed. Lieutenant Commander BOYLE’s courageous leadership, aggressiveness and precise weapons delivery were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”…. /s/ John J. Hyland, Admiral, USN, CINCPACFLT… Oohrah, XO….
NEXT POST: NAVAL AVIATION ROARS Episode 4. USS ENTERPRISE (CVA(N)-65) and Attack Carrier Air Wing NINE strike the Kep Airfield complex in coordination with USS CONSTELLATION strike operations on 7 June 1967… F-4s and A-6s in the van with A-4s as detached flak and SAM suppressors…
Lest we forget… Bear
