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 target, a rail siding near Tinh Gia, 60 miles further up the North Vietnamese coast.  CDR James B. Stockdale had visited here frequently–a secondary target considered by most pilots in the squadron to be a low-risk milk-run.  And after this last mission of ORISKANY’s (CV-31) busy 30-day line period at Yankee Station, Stockdale and his wingman, CDR Wynne Foster, could count on a well-deserved R&R in Hong Kong.

Stockdale pickled his “snake-eye” (retarded fall) bombs and watched the rail cars splinter in his rear-view mirror.  But now his ears became aware of an unexpected sound, the booming of a newly placed, well-positioned, 57 mm anti-aircraft gun firing at point blank range up his tail.  He felt his Skyhawk lurch with each impact and watched his cockpit indicators come alive.  Hydraulics out.  Fire aboard.  Then no response from the controls.  Though he could see the ocean just three miles distant, it was apparent his plane was fatally hit.  By now the G-forces in the tumbling plane prevented Stockdale from reaching the overhead ejection loop.  He grabbed instead for the lever between his legs and–WHAM!–the canopy was gone.  Stockdale pitched through the air, away from his disintegrating craft.

He landed in a tree bordering the north-south “Highway 1” and dangled momentarily while he worked free of the parachute harness.  On the ground he was immediately massed upon by several hundred locals who welcomed this opportunity to vent their pent-up frustrations over US bombings.  Stockdale was beaten and stripped of his clothing until an official-looking man in a pith hat calmed the crowd.  He was then loaded onto a flatbed truck for transport to Hanoi.  He now noticed his left arm hung limp at his side and his left lower leg was displaced 60^o outboard.

Thus began seven and a half years of torture and deprivation at the hands of the North Vietnamese.  As the senior officer among the POWs at the Hoa Lo prison, Stockdale quickly organized his fellow prisoners in resistance.  Incurring punishment for doing so, he promoted a “tap code” system of prisoner communication.  The scant correspondence he was permitted to his wife back home contained encoded information about fellow prisoners at the “Hanoi Hilton.”  On one occasion he self-inflicted facial wounds to avoid becoming the subject of TV propaganda.  Universally admired by his fellow POWs, for his unparalleled bravery during his detainment, Stockdale was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Stockdale, James and Sybil Stockdale.  In Love & War:  The Story of a Family’s Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam Years.  Harper & Row, New York, NY, 1984.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 146-47.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The tap code employed by the prisoners of the “Hanoi Hilton” was based on a five-by-five grid in which 25 letters of the alphabet were arrayed.  Correspondents would spell words one letter at a time by tapping first the row, then the column of each letter.  The letter “k” was dropped (substituted with “c”) to make 25 letters.

For example, the word “kite” would be communicated with the following series of taps:  1 (pause) 3; 2 (pause) 4; 4 (pause) 4; 1 (pause) 5.

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                                          “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 from speakers rigged on the sail as FINBACK got underway from the Port Canaveral facility in Florida.  But what held the Chief’s attention was on the port fairweather dive plane.  As a tugboat towed the nuclear sub through the restricted waters of Canaveral inlet, a go-go dancer clad only in a thong and sneakers gyrated on the dive plane to the obvious delight of the crew!

Unorthodox actions were not foreign to CDR Connelly D. Stevenson, skipper of FINBACK.  Previously, he had converted the wardroom dining table for ping-pong.  He was notorious for wearing non-regulation head gear on the bridge, often exchanging his ballcap with pilots in foreign ports.  His thoughts were for his crew who had just finished a laborious, long-hours overhaul.  Morale was low in the Navy in this post-Vietnam era.  Retention was poor, funding inadequate, substance abuse was common, facial hair abounded, and discipline was problematic.  Surely a bit of levity as the boat began this long deployment would brighten the crew’s outlook.

Cathy “Cat” Futch was a dancer known to many of the 121-man crew from the Cork Club, a local Port Canaveral hotspot.  The crew had convinced Stevenson to let her perform as they got underway.  After about ten minutes of dancing FINBACK glided past the “boomer” ALEXANDER HAMILTON (SSBN-617) and at this cue Ms. Futch stopped, re-donned her long white robe, pocketed cash collected from the crew, and transferred to the waiting pilot boat.

Word of the event rose as high as the Secretary of Defense, James Schlesinger.  On August 1^st, shortly after FINBACK reached her station near the Bahamas, a message from SUBGRU Six commander, CAPT Austin Scott, instructed Stevenson to abort his mission and return to Norfolk.  A month later the Washington Post broke the story, and the Navy had a major public image debacle on her hands.  Ms. Futch was instantly the most popular go-go dancer in the country, and later stated, “I never saw such a smiling bunch of men go to sea.”  Within the Navy opinions ranged from solid support to categorical rejection.

CNO, ADM James L. Holloway III ultimately decided Stevenson’s fate, detaching him for cause and awarding a Letter of Reprimand and a fine.  The punishment was later reduced to a Letter of Admonition and the fine was waived.  This allowed Stevenson to retain eligibility for promotion, though all agreed his chances were remote.  He was reassigned to the Naval Research Laboratory in London and subsequently left the Navy. 

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14 JUL 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Taylor, Robert A.  “Cat on a Cold Steel Dive Plane.”  Naval History, Vol 24 (1), February 2010, pp. 40-43.

Trescott, Jacqueline.  “After Dancing Topless on a Submarine, the Bar Scene Isn’t the Same.”  Washington Post, 25 June 1977.

Wilson, George C.  “Topless Dance on Sub Gets Skipper Beached.”  Washington Post, 9 September 1975, p. A1.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Secretary of the Air Force, John L. McLucas, seized the occasion to jab at the Navy, “even the Navy thinks $100 million is far too much to spend for a go-go dancer platform.”

Cat Futch enjoyed her fame briefly, claiming familiarity with the Navy from having been previously married to a sailor.  After a series of dead-end jobs that followed, she enlisted in the US Marine Corps.  But she was dropped from boot camp at Parris Island for medical reasons, problems she blamed on her treatment at the hands of resentful instructors and officers.

FINBACK was decommissioned 28 March 1997 and broken up for scrap.

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                                         DODSON/ECKES ESCAPE

On the 6^th 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 from his buddies, Dodson suddenly felt a sharp blow to the back of his head.  When he came to, he was being led on a six-foot rope down a jungle path by several Viet Cong soldiers.  Four days later LCPL Walter W. Eckes was hitch-hiking south of Da Nang close to the location from which Dodson had been taken.  Three jovial soldiers in South Vietnamese uniforms approached carrying American rifles.  But as they pulled abreast of Eckes they suddenly became sullen, leveled their rifles, and led him off on a similar tether.  On May 12^th the two Marines were united in a temporary POW encampment 20 miles south of Da Nang.

Dodson and Eckes remained at this camp nearly a month, under the constant watch of their VC guards.  They were fed a steady diet of rice with fish sauce and given liberty to bathe and wash their newly issued black “pajamas” in a nearby stream.  Each noon they were forced to read Communist propaganda, and around 1700 they would be subjected to a 30-minute English language broadcast of Radio Hanoi.  Their chief captor occasionally grilled them on the propaganda they endured, taking particular interest in Dodson, an African-American.  But though they were treated better than many American prisoners of the Communists, Dodson and Eckes never abandoned hopes of escape.

One day in June, as they were being marched for several days to a new camp, the constant vigil of their guards relaxed.  As the Marines and three guards sat in a semicircle eating their evening meal, Dodson suddenly jumped up and grabbed two carbines leaning against a tree.  He tossed one to Eckes, and in a flash their three VC guards beat a retreat into the jungle.

Eckes and Dodson rummaged through the packs abandoned by their captors and quickly shed their VC pajamas for green fatigues.  Taking only the rifles, canteens, and some hard candy, the two Marines struck off in the direction of Da Nang.  Their trek was not an easy one.  They stumbled down steep mountains, fell into the paths of wild boar and water buffalo, and survived a brush with quicksand.  They endured fatigue and received numerous cuts and bruises.  One night their sleep in the underbrush was disturbed as a VC search party passed a mere three feet away.  Finally on June 22^nd, the exhausted Marines stumbled into a South Vietnamese Army camp near Da Nang, where they were sheltered and fed.  The next day the two were taken to a nearby airfield and flown to the Marine Corps airbase at Da Nang.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  27 JUN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“Guests of the VC.”  Newsweek, Vol 68 (2), 11 July 1966, pp. 36-37.

Rochester, Stuart I. and Frederick Kiley.  Honor Bound:  American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia 1961-1973.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 272-73.

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                           “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 swamp was home to no one before the Vietnam war.  However, refugees took up residence during the 1960s on house boats or stilted huts.  The Viet Cong also frequented the area earning it the reputation as the “forest of assassins.”  Here they set shore-detonated mines and ambushed shipping traffic with recoilless rifles and rocket launchers.  So much activity plagued the area that the US Army launched Operation “Lexington” between 21 May and 9 June 1966.  In conjunction, our Navy launched Operation “Jackstay” to stop enemy riverine activity.

On the sinuous Song Dinh Ba River, LT Alex Balian watched the shore closely this day from PCF-41 as dusk approached.  The “old man” of the crew, BM2 Raleigh Godley, with his forty-ish years of experience, steadied the helm.  Above the pilothouse EN3 Charles Barham scanned the shore with binoculars beside twin .50 caliber machine guns.  It was a hot and muggy evening.

Using a common nickname for the VC, the LT warned, “Charlie’s around here somewhere,” just as a 57mm recoilless rifle round struck the fast patrol craft and the world exploded for RM2 Robert L. Keim.  The Radioman staggered to the pilothouse from the edge of the gunboat to which he had been blown.  The instrument panel and BM2 Godley at the wheel were gone.  Out of control, PCF gathered speed as Godley may have shoved the throttle forward in a dying effort to save PCF-41.  Balian reached the aft steering station as SN Ralph Powers and GMG3 Glenn Greene readied the 81mm mortar.  Then the patrol boat suddenly lurched and ran fast aground beneath the overhanging jungle canopy.  As everyone regained their feet Balian called, “We can hold them off until one of the other boats comes up here.”  But there was no help coming.  The thick jungle and sharp turns of the river shielded the sound of the attack from others.

When the Viet Cong reached PCF-41 the crew was ready.  Bullets and shells whizzed, and after emptying the ammo locker, Balian ordered everyone into the water.  The remaining crew piled into a life raft; the tide and current were in their favor.  Crocodiles, snakes, and voices of enemy guerrillas now kept their attention as they drifted.  To avoid detection the men slid into the water, holding onto the raft and enduring the stinging of jellyfish.  When they heard an engine in the distance Balian lifted his rifle into the air.  The radar shadow was sighted by a nearby PCF and the crew was rescued.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  27 MAY 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Calaunan, Jun.  “A Navy Jury Friday Convicted Capt. Alexander Balian.”  UPI Archives, 24 February 1989.  AT: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/02/24/A-Navy-jury-Friday-convicted-Capt-Alexander-Balian-of/9782604299600/, retrieved 3 May 2025.

Schreadley, Richard L.  From the Rivers to the Sea: The U.S. Navy in Vietnam.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1992, pp. 279.

“22 May 1966 Sinking of PCF-41.” Swiftboats website.  AT: http://swiftboats.net/stories/pcf41.htm.  Retrieved 15 April 2014.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  LT Balian was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in combating the VC and in saving his crew.  He remained in the Navy, eventually rising to the rank of CAPT.  However, his career was dealt a fatal blow when he was convicted of dereliction of duty at a court martial in February 1989.  In command of USS DUBUQUE (LPD-8) in June of the previous year, en route to the Persian Gulf, Balian had failed to rescue Vietnamese refugees adrift in the South China Sea in an unseaworthy boat.  Twenty-eight refugees had already died prior to DUBUQUE’s encounter, and though Balian passed a week’s worth of food and water to the refugees, 30 more succumbed before the boat drifted 300 additional miles to the Philippines.  The 52 refugees who survived did so by resorting to cannibalism.

Godley’s body was ultimately recovered.  He is remembered today on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC.

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                                          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 in March 1939.  Poland was invaded six months later, triggering WWII.  The year of 1940 saw the consecutive falls of Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Norway, France, Romania, and Hungary.  All this transpired while the other Axis power, Italy, took Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Egypt then invaded Greece.  The result, by the time the United States entered the war, was that much of Europe languished under dictatorial fascism.

After WWII, concern over Russian Communism in eastern Europe prompted the influential American diplomat George Kennan to coin the term “containment” to describe the need to limit the spread of world Communism.  Americans tended to view Communism as a monolithic threat to democracy, made no less dire with the subsequent Communist revolutions that divided China and Korea.  And in 1954, during the Viet Minh’s siege of French forces at Dien Bien Phu, a Communist takeover of French Indochina (Vietnam) seemed imminent.

No doubt reminiscent of the sequential fall of nations in Europe before the war, now our 34^th President, Dwight Eisenhower, called for US backing of the French in Indochina.  In a press conference this day he justified the effort stating, “You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the ‘falling domino’ principle…You have a row of dominos set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is a certainty that will go over very quickly.”  He implied that should the Communists take Indochina, next to fall would be Burma, Thailand, Malaya, and Indonesia, extending perhaps even to a Communist takeover in Japan!  The French did ultimately lose Indochina, while Eisenhower’s “domino theory” came to drive our involvement in Vietnam, and our foreign policy in general, for the next two decades.

Today the domino theory is suspected by some to have been an anxious exaggeration.  As was shown after the US embarrassment in Vietnam, and subsequent Communist pushes in Laos, Malaya, the Philippines, Indonesia, and several African and Central American nations, Communism proved to be non-monolithic.  Russian, Chinese, and other versions of Communism are disparate, even competitive at times.  A world takeover by “monolithic” Communism seems a delusion today as competition between versions of Communism limit its spread.  Indeed, the rise of Communism in third-world nations was likely driven more by local desires to improve economic depression than by an overarching plot for world domination.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 APR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.  “The President’s News Conference, April 7, 1954.”  The American Presidency Project website.  AT: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=10202, retrieved 23 February 2018.

Kennan, George.  “The Sources of Soviet Conduct.”  Foreign Affairs, 01 July 1947, AT: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/1947-07-01/sources-soviet-conduct, retrieved 23 February 2018.

Leeson, Peter T. and Andrea M. Dean.  “The Democratic Domino Theory: An Empirical Investigation.”  AT: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2009.00385.x/abstract:jsessionid=28BD26109195D99094FN7E9732F8861E.f03t02, retrieved 23 February 2018.

Ward, Geoffrey C. and Ken Burns.  The Vietnam War: An Intimate History.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017, p. 27.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The word fascism comes from the Roman fasces,

a type of battle axe.  The fasces became the symbol of the Roman Republic, much like the eagle is a symbol of the United States.  Modern fascism got its start in WWI-era Italy with a (failed) political movement to recreate the former Roman Empire.

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                                                     “TOP GUN”

During the Korean Conflict US warplanes dogfought MiG-15s, with the superior American jets and well-trained US pilots scoring kill ratios as high as 12:1.  But by the Vietnam War two decades later, Communist aircraft technology had improved.  The North Vietnamese employed more advanced MiG-17s and MiG-21s.  Over the same period, American air-to-air defenses grew dependent on the missile.  US planners envisioned the future of air combat to be one of long-range missile strikes against an unsuspecting target.  Pilots were not trained in close maneuver gunfighting, in fact some US fighter aircraft did not even mount machine guns.  The effectiveness of American pilots began to decline.

The issue of kill ratio came to a head for the Navy in 1968.  The heavy bombing offensive in Vietnam in 1967-68 brought frequent MiG encounters, and Air Force pilots enjoyed better success than their Navy counterparts.  During the first half of 1967 Air Force pilots accounted for 46 MiG downings.  This was particularly notable in view of the fact that Air Force F-4s and F-105 “Thunderchiefs” were only free to pursue MiGs after they had “pushed through” their bombing runs.  Air Force pilots were so successful at sweeping enemy fighters that LGEN William Momyer, in command of the 7th Air Force, was prompted to declare to a Senate committee that, “we have driven the MiGs out of the sky for all practical purposes.”  During the same period, Navy F-8 “Crusaders” (and an A-4) accounted for only 12 MiGs.  By the end of 1968 the Navy’s kill ratio had dropped to 2:1.

The reason for the disparity was multi-factorial, but the Naval command was sufficiently alarmed to demand action.  In 1968, CAPT Frank W. Ault, a former “air boss” aboard CORAL SEA (CVA-43), was directed to investigate the matter.  Honest without regard for his career, his study became famously known as the “Ault Report.”  It criticized reliance on stand-off missiles, stressing the need to train pilots in “old fashioned” visual-maneuver dogfighting.

Officially titled U.S. Navy Postgraduate Course in Fighter Weapons Tactics and Doctrine, “Top Gun” enrolled its first class on this day in 1969.  Initially formulated as part of the Pacific Fleet’s F-4 training squadron, VF-121, successful Vietnam air veterans were recruited to instruct.  They flew highly maneuverable A-4s and F-5s in simulated aggressor roles.  By 1972 “Top Gun” graduates had reached the Fleet in significant numbers.  And with President Nixon’s escalation of the air war that year, the Navy’s kill ratio climbed to 12:1.  Originally formulated at NAS Miramar in San Diego, “Top Gun” was relocated to NAS Fallon, Nevada, in 1997 as part of the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  8 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cunningham, Randy and Jeff Ethell.  Fox Two:  The Story of America’s First Ace in Vietnam.  Mesa, AZ:  Champlin Fighter Museum, 1984, pp. 133-36.

Mersky, Peter B. and Norman Polmar.  The Naval Air War in Vietnam.  Annapolis, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1981, pp. 105-06.

Site visit.  NAS Miramar, San Diego, CA, 12 January 1997.

Wilcox, Robert K.  Scream of Eagles: The Creation of Top Gun–and the U.S. Air Victory in Vietnam.  New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1990.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The nickname “Top Gun” dates to 1959 when it was used in signage for the last annual USN/USMC Air Weapons competition at MCAAS Yuma.  What had been a yearly event was dropped in 1960 as a cost-cutting move.  “Top Gun” was fashioned after the Air Force DACT program.  “DACT” was an acronym for Dissimilar Air Combat Training, a reference to the use of aggressor aircraft that were dissimilar to the training aircraft.

The first “aces” of the Vietnam War were graduates of “Top Gun.”  LT Randall Cunningham and his RIO LTJG William Driscoll reached Vietnam after having flown over 200 simulated dogfights during their “Top Gun” training.  They scored their fifth kill in May 1972.

Throughout the Vietnam conflict Navy and Marine Corps aircraft flew 10% more missions than did the Air Force–55,000 in total. 

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                                                “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 Medical Service School at Camp Pendleton.  After graduating on this date, he was posted to “C” Medical Company, 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division in one of the field units around Da Nang, South Vietnam.  Before that year was out, LCDR Chandler was to earn inadvertent fame for which he continues to be remembered today.

Late in 1966, Chandler began what seemed to be another routine day in the field hospital’s OR.  His third case of that day was a 20-year-old Marine who had received a neck wound while on patrol east of Dai Loc.  Chandler was working from a disadvantage on this case as the pre-op X-ray was obscured by a large metal artifact apparently left on the stretcher under the patient’s neck.  But as he explored the entrance wound, past the fractured jaw to the displaced larynx, Chandler’s instrument contacted a foreign body lodged under the posterior tongue.  The object proved too slippery to grasp on several attempts with forceps, but using his fingers, Chandler was able to pop it loose.  The proud surgeon held the strange cylindrical object up for all to see.  The words, “What’s this?” were hardly out of his mouth when knowledgeable corpsmen in the OR broke scrub and hit the deck.  Chandler had delivered a live M-79 grenade!

Reasoning it downright immoral to pass a live explosive to a corpsman, Chandler tendered the grenade himself on a gingerly stroll out of the OR.  Employing a surgeon’s foresight that probably would have proven worthless, Chandler cradled the grenade in his non-dominant hand.  The 200-yard walk to the far side of the chopper pad must have seemed eternal.  After gently placing the device in a ditch Chandler, “…took about four steps calmly, and then ran like Hell!”  The Ordnance Platoon of the 1^st MarDiv harmlessly destroyed the grenade.  It had apparently traveled only 10 feet prior to striking the Marine.  M-79 grenades arm at 14 feet.

Chandler re-scrubbed and returned for five more hours of surgery on the same Marine.  The neck wound proved surprisingly less serious than a second injury, a badly mangled leg.  This case was the third to date in Vietnam in which a military surgeon removed a live explosive from a patient.  In one of the most celebrated, on 1 October 1966 Navy CAPT Harry Dinsmore and EOD EN1 John J. Lyons jointly removed an intact mortar round from the chest of a South Vietnamese soldier at the Naval Hospital in Da Nang.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  8 JAN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Dinsmore, Harry H.  “Dr. Dinsmore’s Souvenir.”  Navy Medicine, Vol 80 (6), Nov-Dec 1989, p. 6.

“Navy Doctor Removes Live Shell from Soldier’s Body.”  The Pendleton Scout, 21 October 1966, p. 5.

Site visit, Field Medical Service School, Camp Pendleton, California, 12 March 1990.

“Surgeon Removes Grenade Lodged in Marine’s Throat.”  The Pendleton Scout, 13 January 1967, p. 5.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  LCDR Chandler is remembered today with a photo and press release posted in the passageway of the Field Medical Service School at Camp Pendleton.

CAPT Dinsmore’s case got better press than did Chandler’s.  The x-ray of the South Vietnamese soldier’s chest bearing an obvious mortar round, complete with tail fins, was widely published in medical journals of the day, including the Navy Medical Department’s journal, Navy Medicine. 

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                                             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 28 NOV).  Marine sniper SGT Carlos N. Hathcock and his CO, CPT Edward J. “Jim” Land, had spent fruitless days hidden in the underbrush.  Such is the lot of the sniper, endless days of lying motionless in wait, unable to swat the swarming mosquitoes or the biting ants that crawled inside their pantlegs.  Often their sufferings were in vain.  This morning, they lay before a bomb-cratered hill three miles from their base camp.  Before them was a spot thought to be a transit point for the “Apache’s” movements.  When a lone figure stepped from the trees at 200 yards, their intelligence seemed to be confirmed.  At the moment Land was attempting to wrest the sniper rifle from Hathcock in exchange for the spotting scope.  His eyes were tired after hours of squinting.  Hathcock resisted at the sight of the enemy.  The argument continued uncharacteristically as the enemy stepped into view, even becoming a bit of a physical tussle.  Alerted, the enemy scout slipped back into cover and disappeared over the crest of the hill.  “He’ll be back, with help” thought both Americans.

The snipers waited through the rest of that hot and particularly buggy day.  Having re-established a new hide within view of their previous position, just as sunset was about to call the day’s efforts, an armed figure re-appeared on the crest of the hill.  Six additional figures showed themselves and cautiously began descending the hill toward the American’s previous position.  From her command movements, one of the figures was definitely “Apache.”  The close grouping of the figures presented a good target, and when “Apache” squatted to relieve herself, Land called an artillery strike.  The round came screaming in with pinpoint accuracy, before the enemy had time to react.  Three of the VC were thrown through the air to their deaths.  The round panicked “Apache,” who bolted down the hill exactly in the direction of the waiting Americans.  One of her operatives chased after her shouting, probably trying to warn of the possible American presence, but it was too late.  Hathcock’s first round struck her shoulder as she turned toward her follower, cutting her spine and exiting from her other shoulder.  Hathcock chambered another round, this one impacting her squarely in the chest.  She lay motionless while her frustrated salvor turned to flee.  A third shot from Hathcock laid him flat.

“Apache” and four of her six comrades died in this short minute.  Hathcock and Land made it safely back to their base camp at Hill 55 later that night to the celebrations of many!

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  16 DEC 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Henderson, Charles.  Marine Sniper:  93 Confirmed Kills.  Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein and Day, 1986, pp. 91-96.

Podlaski, John.  “Who Was Known as Apache?”  Operation Triumphus website, AT: https://operationtriumphus.org/story/who-was-known-as-apache/, retrieved 19 November 2024.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Carlos Hathcock went on to amass an enviable record of 93 confirmed kills as a US Marine sniper.

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                                                 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 Cong (VC) activity.  Hill 55, in the midst of the area was a forward operating base for the 5^th Marines, 1^st MARDIV.  From here on a November morning in 1966 a rifle squad headed out on a routine patrol.  They were to proceed along rice paddy dikes to a crossroads below the hill and there check the identity papers of passers-by, hoping to nab a few VC for intelligence.  But a sudden burst of rifle fire and anti-personnel mines cut into the patrol still within sight of HQ.  Four Marines fell dead while the rest scurried back to camp.  A reinforced platoon descended the hill to reclaim the bodies of the Marines.  But, in fact, the fourth was not dead.  He had been knocked unconscious when an enemy bullet slammed into his helmet and grazed his skull.

It was a notorious female VC operative who led a sniper squad against the Americans.  Worse, she had become hated for butchering captive Marines, slicing their legs and arms with knives and torturing them to death in what was usually a drawn-out, all-night affair.  So heinous were her machinations that the Marines had nicknamed her, the “Apache.”  The fourth Marine from the ambush this day had fallen into her hands!

Not long after sunset the tortured screams of a Marine could be heard just beyond Hill 55’s perimeter wire.  After a merciless beating he had been stripped to only his boots and socks and bound to a tree.  “Apache” then sliced away his eyelids, causing intense pain every time he blinked.  Blood streamed down his face as she proceeded next to rip out his fingernails one by one. Then, starting with his little fingers, she bent each finger backwards in sequence until it fractured.  Her assaults were timed at perfect 20-minute intervals to maximize the Marine’s pain.  All the while, she taunted him and spat betel nut juice in his face.  Then in a final act of depravity, she amputated his genitals with a single swipe of her knife and cut him loose.  She sent him running for the perimeter wire, clots of blood dropping down his legs.  He reached the perimeter but sliced himself to shreds in the concertina wire as he breathed his last.

The camp at Hill 55 was home at the time to a Marine sniper school, an early attempt to give scout snipers first-hand experience in combat, under the guidance of seasoned snipers.  One such experienced marksman was SGT Carlos N. Hathcock, stationed there as a combat sniper and instructor.  Hathcock listened impotently to the screaming and torture being inflicted just beyond the perimeter wire.  The hair on his neck bristled with hatred and frustration.  He and his CO, CPT Edward J. “Jim” Land, vowed to put “the Apache” in their sights as soon as possible!

Continued 12 December…

Henderson, Charles.  Marine Sniper:  93 Confirmed Kills.  Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein and Day, 1986, pp. 79-83.

Podlaski, John.  “Who Was Known as Apache?”  Operation Triumphus website.  AT: https://operationtriumphus.org/story/who-was-known-as-apache/

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Geographic features in Vietnam were named for their elevation above sea level.  The crest of “Hill 55” was 55 feet above sea level.  As such there were likely multiple “Hill 55s” during the course of the Vietnam war.

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                                                 “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 ignited in a hangar-deck storage locker.  The last was aboard ENTERPRISE (CVAN-65) on 14 January 1969, when a rocket ignited under the wing of an F-4 during start-up, touching off a multi-level blaze that killed 28 and took three hours to control.  But the worst, and best remembered, of these disasters occurred aboard USS FORRESTAL (CVA-59).

Having transferred from the Atlantic Fleet for a rotation off Southeast Asia, FORRESTAL had arrived on Yankee Station just four days earlier.  Her seven squadrons, VF-11, VF-74, VA-46, VA-106, VAH-10, RVAH-11, and VAW-123 flew 150 sorties without incident.  Flight operations were continuing around 1100 on the 29^th of July when a Zuni air-to-ground rocket under the wing of an F-4B misfired as the plane was being readied on the after flight deck.  The rocket skidded forward among aircraft crowding the deck and struck an A-4 in the fuel tank.  The resultant explosion spread flaming JP-5 over the after half of the flight deck.  Within minutes ordnance and fuel from other aircraft began exploding.  Fanned by a 20-knot wind, the blaze quickly turned to an inferno and spread to berthing spaces below the flight deck.  Here the flames blocked the egress of about fifty unfortunate sailors.

Meanwhile secondary explosions were turning the 4-acre flight deck into an aircraft scrapyard.  Panicked sailors began ripping ordnance from aircraft hardpoints to be thrown overboard.  Many were blown overboard themselves, or had bombs and rockets explode in their faces.  It took almost an hour, with firefighting help from nearby ORISKANY and RUPERTUS (DD-851), to control the flight deck blaze.  Secondary fires below decks burned into the night.

One hundred and thirty-four officers and enlisted lost their lives in this tragedy.  Sixty-four aircraft were destroyed or damaged.  FORRESTAL was detached to Norfolk where $72 million in repairs began in September (not including replacement aircraft).  She returned to active service, this time with the dubious nickname, “USS Forest Fire” which she carried for years.  On 4 February 1991 she was re-designated AVT-59 and took over as our pilot training carrier, replacing the venerable WWII-era LEXINGTON (AVT-16).  Her duty in this capacity was short-lived, she was decommissioned on 30 September 1993, another victim of post-Cold War downsizing.  Video of this after deck disaster was subsequently used in a film shown to many sailors of the late 20^th century as part of damage control training.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  5 AUG 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Mersky, Peter B. and Norman Polmar.  The Naval Air War in Vietnam.  Annapolis, MD: Nautical and Aviation Pub., 1981, pp. 121-22.

Polmar, Norman.  The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 16^th ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1997, pp. 87,101.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 227.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Flight deck cameras caught much of this mishap, including the escape of the pilot of the A-4 struck by the rocket.  LCDR John S. McCain, III, saved his own life and that of another pilot, after jumping from the wing of his Skyhawk.  He was wounded in the legs and chest by fragments of an exploding bomb.  He would later be shot down over Hanoi and spend 5 1/2 years as a POW of the North Vietnamese.

FORRESTAL remembers former Secretary of the Navy and our first Secretary of Defense in 1947, James V. Forrestal.  McCain is remembered today, along with his father and grandfather, with the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer JOHN S. MCCAIN (DDG-58).  We currently do not maintain a designated AVT carrier.

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