It has been close to forty-years since the end of the Vietnam War and there are still secrets that have not been tolled. Men from both sides who’s actions and deeds have not been recognized or ever made public. Even for those who were once there, such as myself, still have questions that remain unexplained. There were good reasons at one time to keep those secrets I am sure, both for military and political reasons but that is no longer true.
I am interested in the untold stories of Naval at sea, Naval-air, and Air force events that never made it to the open public domain. The confusing ground war has been revealed to some extent. It is now so heavily imbedded into sphere of mythology that it can never be separated again to find the real truth of what happened in so many cases but the Naval and air aspects are by their nature less prone to the emotional and hence the possibility of clarity still remains. And I am sure there are hundreds of more questions from others and their experiences that also remain unanswered. Just a few of which I will mention, though if there are others out there with their own questions please add them to my short list.
1. Was the USS Chicago CG-11 in the final stages of count down to fire fourteen TALOS ARM RIM-8H missiles at, sixteen different North Vietnamese fixed land based radar sights, when President Johnston announced one of his foolish booming halts and stopped it with just seconds left to go?
2. Did a US destroyer go in to Halong harbor to pick up a Navy pilot that had bailed out over the bay, picked him up, and then exchanged machinegun fire with the locals just to get out?
3. What did Monkey Mountain really do? I heard that it was located some place near Da Nang but it reported it position on NTDS was all over the place and why was it on the net when I never saw it doing anything useful?
4. Did the Chinese send a flight of MIGs to attack US Navy ships from Hainan Island and as a result got several of them shot down? An act never to be repeated or reported.
5. I did some net research on the battle of Dong Hoi in Vietnam. An incident where I had reliable information to go on from people I knew were there and was amazed at how wrong it was in so many ways. For instance in the Wikipedia entry The USS Higbee DD-806 was said to have suffered a direct hit by a 500 pound bomb from a MIG-15 upon a forward gun mount. Wrong. The gun mount had been evacuated early because of a hang fire round. The gun barrel was very hot from its high use and the unfired shell was in danger of cooking off. The MIG’s bomb missed the ship by about 500 feet and the hang fire in the barrel went off from a combination of the heat it had taken up from the hot barrel and the shock wave of the close aboard explosion. The Higbee however, all most sank from the blast damage before in got back to Subic Bay. But it was not from the damaged to the gun mount but from the underwater shock damage. The ship was 28 years old at the time and the tin can’s hull had been scraped and repaint so many time that the hull was paper thin in some places and it buckled. And this is just one of many examples of the inaccuracies within just this one military action in this Wikipedia report. Are all the reports from the Vietnam so bad and as inaccurate as this one? I read several more reports on the same incident but they were no better.
6. Did A Shrike ARM missile go off course and exploded over a US destroyer killing two guys and wrecking all the antennas in the mast making the ship non combat ready for six months?
7. Did the buffalo drones used in Vietnam ever do anything useful?
8. How many times was there a good target solution for one of the Guided Missile Ships out in the gulf and one was ready to shoot down a North Vietnams MIG its missiles only to have the Airdail Brown Shoe Admiral sitting on the carrier, call a hold fire, so that one of this air jockeys could go in for the kill and then watch the MIG get away because they tock too long to get into position?
9. How many times did anybody track an SR-71 going north in o China flying at 70,000 feet traveling at mach two plus and have Red Crown call drop track? Yes you can see them easily on radar in every aspect except coming head on.
10. Were any of the rumors true that some F-4’s ducked in and out of China to make bombing runs in North Vietnam?
What are your stories and questions?
I am interested in the untold stories of Naval at sea, Naval-air, and Air force events that never made it to the open public domain. The confusing ground war has been revealed to some extent. It is now so heavily imbedded into sphere of mythology that it can never be separated again to find the real truth of what happened in so many cases but the Naval and air aspects are by their nature less prone to the emotional and hence the possibility of clarity still remains. And I am sure there are hundreds of more questions from others and their experiences that also remain unanswered. Just a few of which I will mention, though if there are others out there with their own questions please add them to my short list.
1. Was the USS Chicago CG-11 in the final stages of count down to fire fourteen TALOS ARM RIM-8H missiles at, sixteen different North Vietnamese fixed land based radar sights, when President Johnston announced one of his foolish booming halts and stopped it with just seconds left to go?
2. Did a US destroyer go in to Halong harbor to pick up a Navy pilot that had bailed out over the bay, picked him up, and then exchanged machinegun fire with the locals just to get out?
3. What did Monkey Mountain really do? I heard that it was located some place near Da Nang but it reported it position on NTDS was all over the place and why was it on the net when I never saw it doing anything useful?
4. Did the Chinese send a flight of MIGs to attack US Navy ships from Hainan Island and as a result got several of them shot down? An act never to be repeated or reported.
5. I did some net research on the battle of Dong Hoi in Vietnam. An incident where I had reliable information to go on from people I knew were there and was amazed at how wrong it was in so many ways. For instance in the Wikipedia entry The USS Higbee DD-806 was said to have suffered a direct hit by a 500 pound bomb from a MIG-15 upon a forward gun mount. Wrong. The gun mount had been evacuated early because of a hang fire round. The gun barrel was very hot from its high use and the unfired shell was in danger of cooking off. The MIG’s bomb missed the ship by about 500 feet and the hang fire in the barrel went off from a combination of the heat it had taken up from the hot barrel and the shock wave of the close aboard explosion. The Higbee however, all most sank from the blast damage before in got back to Subic Bay. But it was not from the damaged to the gun mount but from the underwater shock damage. The ship was 28 years old at the time and the tin can’s hull had been scraped and repaint so many time that the hull was paper thin in some places and it buckled. And this is just one of many examples of the inaccuracies within just this one military action in this Wikipedia report. Are all the reports from the Vietnam so bad and as inaccurate as this one? I read several more reports on the same incident but they were no better.
6. Did A Shrike ARM missile go off course and exploded over a US destroyer killing two guys and wrecking all the antennas in the mast making the ship non combat ready for six months?
7. Did the buffalo drones used in Vietnam ever do anything useful?
8. How many times was there a good target solution for one of the Guided Missile Ships out in the gulf and one was ready to shoot down a North Vietnams MIG its missiles only to have the Airdail Brown Shoe Admiral sitting on the carrier, call a hold fire, so that one of this air jockeys could go in for the kill and then watch the MIG get away because they tock too long to get into position?
9. How many times did anybody track an SR-71 going north in o China flying at 70,000 feet traveling at mach two plus and have Red Crown call drop track? Yes you can see them easily on radar in every aspect except coming head on.
10. Were any of the rumors true that some F-4’s ducked in and out of China to make bombing runs in North Vietnam?
What are your stories and questions?
