9 SEPTEMBER 1965 STOCKDALE SHOOT-DOWN The cockpit clock in his A-4 Skyhawk read 1210 as he pushed over toward a line of railroad cars at 400 knots. Bad weather over Vinh, North Vietnam, had forced a diversion to this familiar secondary Read More
10 JULY 1975 “THIS CAN’T BE GOOD” “This can’t be good,” Chief Paul DeLange thought to himself as he stood on the deck of the attack submarine USS FINBACK (SSN-670) early this morning overseeing the aft line handlers. Disco music blared Read More
6 MAY-22 JUNE 1966 DODSON/ECKES ESCAPE On the 6th of May 1966, USMC SGT James Dodson was surveying for a road construction team in friendly territory just south of Da Nang, South Vietnam. While investigating a peasant hut about 200 yards Read More
22 MAY 1966 “CHARLIE’s AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE” The Rung Sat is a 400-square mile mangrove swamp between Saigon and the Vietnamese coastline. Four major rivers course through the otherwise impassable area, including the Long Tau shipping channel leading to Saigon. The Read More
7 APRIL 1954 THE DOMINO THEORY In March 1938, (then) LCOL Dwight D. Eisenhower watched Hitler convince the Austrians to join an Anschluss (alliance) with Nazi Germany. Seven months later Hitler annexed the Sudetenland (eastern Czechoslovakia). The whole of Czechoslovakia fell Read More
4 JANUARY 1966 “LIVE” PATIENT Dr. James H. Chandler completed his residency at Columbia University, then under one of a series of Vietnam-era physician recruitment plans, reported for duty with the US Navy. He received orders to the Marine Corps’ Field Read More
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY TWO WEEKS LATER THE “APACHE” (cont.) Two weeks had gone by since a captured Marine had suffered a grizzly death at the hands of the notorious female Viet Cong sniper and interrogator “the Apache” (see story Read More
NOVEMBER 1966 THE “APACHE” The cruelty experienced by American servicemen at the hands of the North Vietnamese confounds verbal description. Such was the case in “Indian Territory” in the northwest corner of South Vietnam in 1966, nicknamed for its rampant Viet Read More
29 JULY 1967 “FOREST” FIRE There were three major fires aboard US Navy aircraft carriers during the course of the Vietnam conflict. The first occurred on 26 October 1966, killing 44 sailors aboard ORISKANY (CVA-34) after a phosphorous parachute flare accidently Read More