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 bloody war to the heartland of North Vietnam in the years of Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)…
GOOD MORNING. I have a tale to tell. WHEN NAVAL AVIATION ROARED… Tale #5… Source: CinCPACFLT Awards Files.
USS KITTY HAWK (CVA-63) and Attack Carrier Air Wing ELEVEN respond to Presidential tasking and obliterate North Vietnam’s sole cement plant located one mile from the center of Haiphong on 25 April 1967. Surgical removal required. Mission accomplished…
USS KITTY HAWK and CVW-11 were on the second of six combat deployments to Southeast Asia. They departed North Island, San Diego on 5 November 1966 and returned 12 June 1967. They spent 118 days on-the-line at Yankee Station. During the cruise the fighter guys bagged 4 MiGs and the Air Wing lost 14 aircraft in combat and 3 in operational losses. Nine aviators were left behind as POWs, eight were Killed-in-Action and three others died in the operational losses. Two were originally listed as MIA but later added to the KIA lists. War is a bloody business. Details of these losses were noted in earlier RTR blogs. The details of these losses may also be found at Vietnam Air Losses by searching USS Kitty Hawk. Dave Lovelady has organized his website to facilitate rapid recall of every fixed wing air loss in the war… Try it, you’ll like it. Then visit the Vietnam Veterans’s Memorial Fund, “Wall of Faces” site and leave a remembrance for one or more of the CVW-11 fallen…. Try it, you’ll love it…
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/
INTREPID and CVW-11 began their fourth of five line periods on 12 April 1967. The intensity of the air war was increasing by the day as the monsoonal weather cleared the skies over the heartland of North Vietnam exposing two hundred JCS targets for Navy and Air Force strike operations. In addition, USMC A-6 Intruders made nightly runs into the Red River Valley. Strike plans discussed at the 22 April 1967 White House Luncheon in Washington were approved for immediate execution, to include the Haiphong Cement Plant. Readers are encouraged to read in detail the notes of a meeting with President Johnson held in the White House on Friday, 17 February 1967. The document is an extraordinary example of the conversations concerning the lead participation of President Johnson in controlling the targeting of North Vietnam during the war, and includes reference to the Haiphong Cement Plant. Take a few minutes to read the minutes of the 17 Feb 67 meeting at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d84
THE MISSION. The Haiphong Cement Plant was the only plant of its kind in North Vietnam. It produced 95% of the nations requirement for concrete to repair bridges, highways and buildings. Its destruction would force the North Vietnamese to add cement to the long list of materials required to be imported by rail from China or through the Haiphong harbor facilities. Its destruction was delayed for two years due to the location of the facility–one mile from the center of the port city of Haiphong. The plant was surrounded by non-military targets. The cement plant area of 700-feet by 1300-feet consisted of a crusher building, kilns, storage buildings, warehouses, slurry tanks, cement silos, barge off-loading areas, a dust precipitator, washing basins, water towers, conveyors, and road and rail accesses. The mission was to surgically remove the plant thereby destroying the ability of North Vietnam to produce concrete internally. Civilian casualties and collateral damage were deemed unacceptable.
ENEMY DEFENSES. The target was defended by numerous surface-to-air missile sites, over 250 antiaircraft artillery pieces and inestimable numbers of automatic weapons and small arms located on almost every rooftop in the urban environment. All of the military airfields in North Vietnam were within intercept range of the target with Cat Bi Airfield located under the planned bombing pattern. The area was one of the most highly integrated defense systems in the world and the enemy was ready and waiting for CVW-11 and her brave, bold strike group.
TARGET PLANNING. Commander Hank URBAN, CAG-11, coordinated the strike. Commander Marion MINNIS, Commanding VA-112, planned and led the strike. Enemy defenses indicated that only a well coordinated, low-altitude approach with minimum exposure to the array of defensive fire would be successful. The proximity of civilian industries and densely populated areas on all sides of the 22-acre target demanded the utmost precision in delivery accuracy… COMPOSITION. The strike group was composed of: eight A-4 aircraft, each armed with two 1,000-pound bombs and one 2,000-pound bomb, and, three A-6 aircraft each carrying thirteen 1,000-pound bombs. Each Skyhawk pilot was assigned a specific aimpoint in the target complex and each A-6 Intruder crew was to lay a string of bombs through the area. If a pilot could not be sure of keeping his bombs within the 22-acre plant site, he was instructed to break off his attack and not release his bombs. To counter the SAM threat, two A-6s and four A-4s were to precede the strike group over the coast-in point by three minutes. This Ironhand group would both draw off enemy AAA and counter any missile sites observed firing. Suppression of AAA in the target area was assigned to seven F-4s carrying six rocket pods each. Selected 37/37mm gunsites at the target area were to be struck precisely as the strike group of A-4s and A-6s reached their respective roll-in points for their 45-degree dive attacks. BARCAP protecting the strike group from MiGs was provided by four F-4s flying barrier patrols north and west of the city of Haiphong. EW, RESCAP and tankers remained clear off-shore…. THE APPROACH and ATTACK. A high speed, low altitude thrust up the river channel through the harbor from Do Son at the coast setup a pop-up by the eight A-4s to achieve their roll-in points for a diving attack. The three A-6s would take interval for their follow-on line abreast run on the 22-acre target site, each dropping 13 1,000-pounders “inside the fence” from low altitude.
EXECUTION. The CVW-11 Alpha Strike group launched and rendezvoused with the support forces as planned. Departure from overhead KITTY HAWK was made at a medium altitude allowing the group to slowly descend and hit the coast-in point abeam Do Son at 1117H on 25 April 1967. As the group entered the channel, fire from both sides of the harbor took them under attack. The A-6 division leader, LCDR Wendy MULLEN and his B/N, LTJG Tom MURPHY, provided CDR MINNIS navigation updates for the en route portion of the strike. Ten miles short of the city the flight observed puffs of black, white and orange AAA/SAM explosions that had been fired at a previous strike in the Haiphong area. As the Ironhand group led by LCDR Fred METZ and B/N LTJG Dante KOLIPANO preceded the strike group, as briefed, the antiaircraft artillery firing intensified. As the group turned west to approach the target and climb to attack altitude the group received a SAM warning and the subsequent firing of a single SAM. CDR MINNIS ordered the A-4s to maneuver to avoid the threat and a resume when the missile passed his group. The integrity of the group was maintained as two more missiles passed through the group. The F-4 flak suppressors pressed ahead and had no difficulty locating firing AAA sites for their individual attacks thereby silencing seven of the numerous sites actively countering the strike group. Flying directly into enemy AAA to make their respective attacks were: Division lead CDR Gerry BARKALOW and RIO LTJG Perry ROBERTS; LCDR Dick HUSTON and RIO ENS Dan HARBRECHT; LT Dave McRAE and RIO LTJG Ron ZIOLKOWSKI; LT Frank TILLOTSON and RIO LTJG Bob KERN; and LTJG Bobbie LOWELL and RIO ENS Wilson VOELKER. CDR Hank URBAN, CAG, and RIO LTJG DYER, as Strike Coordinator, operated independently. Breaking off from the group in the target area, they executed a rocket attack on a firing 57mm site before assuming last man out coverage as the group completed the strike. At attack altitude the 37/57/85mm gunfire grew more intense and continued at all altitudes as the A-4s followed their intrepid leader and his wingman LTJG John LOCKARD, into diving attacks on their respective targets in the cement plant complex at 1120H, as planned. The six A-4s chasing the lead section were flown by: LCDR Cliff RUTHRAUFF, LT Gerry ZIMMER, LCDR Bernie WHITE, LTJG Bob CURTIS, LCDR Nigel FRANCIS and LT Bob KAPP. The three A-6s, led by LCDR Wendy MULLEN and LTJG Tom MURPHY with LT George BURRIDGE and LTJG J.J. BURNS on one wing and LCDR Pete ANDERSON and LTJG Bill REDUS on the other, followed at close interval in their line abreast attack on the 22-acre target now exploding into smoke, fire and dust from the 24 MK83/84 bombs unleashed by the Skyhawks. The thirty-three MK83s dropped by the A-6s disappeared into the fire and smoke and created a climbing cloud of smoke and dust that reached 1,000-feet as the group turned and fled the target area headed for feet-wet. The exit was opposed by intense automatic weapon fire and two more SAMs, but all aircraft were feet wet at 1123H and accounted for as they returned to KITTY HAWK. CDR MINNIS reported mission success and “all weapons on target,” a conclusion confirmed by post strike BDA. All 57 MK83/84s were delivered into the 22-acre box hosting the Haiphong Cement Plant. The plant was demolished and was out of commission for the duration of the war. The North Vietnamese solved the problem by importing their cement through the open port of Haiphong, until, of course, the harbor ws mined in 1972.
BITS OF RIBBON. USS KITTY HAWK and CVW-11 recommended 43 of the air wing warriors in the air and participating in the extraordinarily successful Haiphong Cement Plant strike on 25 April 1967 for “bits of ribbon.” A total of three medals were approved. Go figure… I guess the CinCPACFLT Awards Board figured with a coast-in at 1117H, on target at 1120H, and feet wet at 1123H– six minutes of extreme exposure– even with complete target destruction and zero collateral damage, in the face of intense opposition, failed to meet the criteria for “heroic, extraordinary or meritorious achievement.” Not to worry, warriors, “success is it’s own reward.”… Press on, Bubba, you’ll get another shot at glory and bits of ribbon tomorrow, and for dozens of days thereafter… And they did…
SUGGESTED READING…BOMBING AS A POLICY IN VIETNAM: EFFECTIVENESS… a 34-page, post-Rolling Thunder Congressional Committee report at:
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/reports/images.php?img=/images/212/2120110013.pdf
NEXT POST NAVAL AVIATION ROARS… #6…
USS CORAL SEA (CVA-43) and Attack Carrier Air Wing FIFTEEN versus the bridges in downtown Haiphong executed on 18 September 1967.
Lest we forget… Bear
