HEAVY ATTACK SAILORS

O

OLDNAVYMCPO

US Veteran, Absent Comrade
Joined
Jun 13, 2014
Messages
1,068
Reaction score
7,404
Location
EL Paso, Tx
The thread on fighter aircraft got me to thinking about the heavy attack birds and you sailors that maintained and flew them. So here's a shout out to all you Viet Nam era vets who served with Heavy Attack Squadrons. Did you fly or work on A3D, A3, A3J, A5A or RA5C's? Were you stationed at Sanford, Albany or Key West? What Squadrons were you in and what shop did you work out of?

I was in RVAH-3 from '64-'68 at NAS Sanford,Fl. Then with RVAH-12 at sea from '70 to '73 out of NAS Albany, Ga.

The A-3 Douglas had been phased out when I came aboard RVAH-3. We did have some TA3B's for training R/N's. Made some test flights on those. Made a transition to the A5A Vigilante and before I left three, we had gone to the RA5C.

I worked out of the ASB shop (Airborne Systems Bombing) with the ASB-1 and ASB-12 systems. Worked the flight deck at sea and on the last cruise as night check CAG ( Carrier Air Group) Maintenance Chief on the Connie.

The RA5C had the greatest loss rate of any bird in the Navy during Viet Nam because of its mission of pre-strike photo recon and post-strike BDA( Bomb Damage Assessment).
 
Register to hide this ad
For a minute I thought you were talking about over weight sailors in a bar with a bunch of Marines......

The plane I crewed on was pretty heavy on takeoff, a tad over 78,000# when loaded for bear. Flew missions out of Cam Ranh Bay in support of Operation Market Time. Carried 4 M-60's, 8 rockets and torpedoes if the mission required them. We also carried a cardboard box full of wooden plugs of all sizes to plug any bullet holes because we could only land in the water.

 
Hey Master Chief..

As I get to see her at least once a week.. Thought you might like to see her yourself.. NAS Sanford Fl. ( Sanford International Airport)

RA-5C_VigilanteOrlando.jpg
 
Last edited:
Lee in Quartzite, your talking about wood plugs to fill bullet holes reminds me that a sister squadron flew a low level photo mission and came home with a bullet hole in the wing. It had another mission on the turn around so they patched it with a bolt with rubber washers on both sides of the wing since the wings were wet (fuel cell).

When they developed the film from the mission, there as plain as day is a VC shooting at the bird as it flew over. A bombing mission was immediately launched on his ***.
 
By "heavy attack" I thought you meant the A6's. At 28 500 pound Mk82's in her racks not much hauled more ordnance except a B52. I put two tours in SEA and was around for Desert Storm with these aircraft. Was an electrician, Maintenance Control Chief and a Flight Deck Coordinator for these birds. She was a heavy bird at 26K, with 16K of fuel and 14K of bombs.
 
Last edited:
Heavy Seven 1975-8 (Key West). After a few months in FRAMP, I joined the squadron on the Forrestal in the Med for three months, then spent a couple of years TAD to NIPSTRAFAC (I was a PH). When I made Chief, I went back to the squadron in charge of organizational-level photo maintenance, and went out on the Kitty Hawk (WestPac) for a few months, leaving mid-cruise for knife and fork school when I made LDO.
 
Last edited:
Most of the landlubbers out there probably don't understand the significance of the Black Shoe vs Brown Shoe Navy. Naval Aviation Chiefs and Officers wore brown shoes with khaki and green uniforms whereas the rest of the Navy wore black shoes and didn't have a green uniform . We all wore white bucks with the white uniform and black shoes with the blue uniform.
 
NAS Key West '72-'75, Station SAR in the H-3. I remember going on at least 2 or 3 missions for downed RA-5s. If I remember correctly they were having some hydraulic problems.
 
I'm just a small child here with my naval experience limited to a one day 'family day cruise' on the U.S.S. Ranger, the "CV-BY GAWD-61" but my Dad, Bill Lone and his brother, my Uncle Bob Lone, served in the Navy in the Pacific during WWII. Dad was a SeaBee and called himself a "nail bender." Dad primarily repaired combat damage on Higgins boat landing craft returning from combat, the Higgins having a lot of wood content and getting pretty shot up while landing invading Marines and soldiers on hostile beaches.

Uncle Bob flew in the back seat of a light observation floatplane called a Curtis OS2U Kingfisher. These planes were carried by battleships and heavey cruisers. The Kingfishers were catapulted off the rear turrets of the ships, spotted gunnery for the ships' guns and watched for submarines, sometimes landing to rescue downed sailors or airmen. Unca Bob was the observer, radio operator, navigator and rear gunner while the rest of the crew, the pilot, flew the airplane. At the end of the mission, they found their ship and landed alongside while the ship was still moving, and the ship deployed a floating net which the Kingfisher pushed itself onto. The ship's crane then swung a hook over and down to the still floating, prop spinning floatplane and the radio operator/navigator/observer/navigator/rear gunner would crawl out of his cockpit and up on the pilot's slid open canopy and grab the swinging crane's hook and secure the hook to the anchor ring on the Kingfisher, and then the ship lifted the Kingfisher aboard. Uncle Bob flew from the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Pensacola, sister ship to the U.S.S. Salt Lake City. The Pensacola won more battle stars than any other cruiser in the Pacific.

Seemed to me that the Douglas A-3, the Whale, didn't do much bombing in Viet Nam but earned its fame primarily as a tanker, passing extra gas to others who, without it, would have been shortly transformed into floaters and sinkers.

The RA5 suffered great losses due to Robert MacNamara's moronic insistence of flying missions at known times, altitudes and routes that the North Viets quickly learned and could set their watches by, concentrate all their AA guns and SAMS along the known RA5 routes after the bomb runs, knowing where to be pointing their weapons when the Vigilanties came over to take their BDA photos.

MacNamara cost this country and the Vietnamese hundreds of thousands of killed and wounded with his stupidity. May he rot in hell.
 
OLDNAVYMCPO said:
Most of the landlubbers out there probably don't understand the significance of the Black Shoe vs Brown Shoe Navy. Naval Aviation Chiefs and Officers wore brown shoes with khaki and green uniforms whereas the rest of the Navy wore black shoes and didn't have a green uniform . We all wore white bucks with the white uniform and black shoes with the blue uniform.
Click to expand...

OH, those Aviation Greens and Dress Khaki uniforms! You could go on an all night bender wearing those and still look good the next morning. Think I still have mine hanging in the upstairs closets somewhere. ::)
Brought my first set at Abbots in P-cola on Paxton St. A long time ago, and a galaxy far away
 
Last edited:
BUFF,

You are exactly correct about the same flight schedule, day after day. Another thing that made no sense is that we constantly bombed the railroads in the North day after day. The NVA would pre-position repair materials and crews and repair any damage within a short time. Flight crews would request time delay fuses, time after time and would be denied because bomb loads and schedules were dictated out of Washington. The same crappola probably continues to this day.
 
fordson said:
OH, those Aviation Greens and Dress Khaki uniforms! You could go on an all night bender wearing those and still look good the next morning. Think I still have mine hanging in the upstairs closets somewhere. ::)
Brought my first set at Abbots in P-cola on Paxton St. A long time ago, and a galaxy far away
Click to expand...
Palafox St, I believe.

BTW, RVAH sailors might want to check out the following link: RVAHNAVY'S RecceNet - For those who served in the RVAH Community, their families, and friends! .
 
Last edited:
OLDNAVYMCPO said:
Most of the landlubbers out there probably don't understand the significance of the Black Shoe vs Brown Shoe Navy. Naval Aviation Chiefs and Officers wore brown shoes with khaki and green uniforms whereas the rest of the Navy wore black shoes and didn't have a green uniform . We all wore white bucks with the white uniform and black shoes with the blue uniform.
Click to expand...

I kinda do even though I was never accepted to serve Army or Navy.
 
Heck yes, Heavy 12 here. USS Independence, USS Constellation, NAS Albany and NAS Key West. I was an AKAN, AK3 & AK2. I was discharged right before the World Cruise on the USS Enterprise to show off the then brand new F14 Tomcat. I was TAD to Ship's Aviation Supply when we were WestPac on the Connie.

PM me.....
 
VN Vet said:
Heck yes, Heavy 12 here. USS Independence, USS Constellation, NAS Albany and NAS Key West. I was an AKAN, AK3 & AK2. I was discharged right before the World Cruise on the USS Enterprise to show off the then brand new F14 Tomcat. I was TAD to Ship's Aviation Supply when we were WestPac on the Connie.

PM me.....
Click to expand...

VN Vet, you got to check out the link Model 520 fan posted. If you click on the Heavy 12 emblem it will take you to another page, halfway down click on the PDF file for the news letter from '73 Connie cruise. It will blow you away.
 
Last edited:
For those of you that like photos of aircraft, here's one of RVAH12's RA5C returning aboard the USS Constellation after a photo-recon mission over Viet Nam in 1973. Shortly after this photo was made, this very same aircraft (605) was lost at sea on April 21, 1973. The aircraft caught fire during a catapult launch off a bow cat when the internal fuel cell broke loose in the fuselage. The pilot and RAN safely ejected in under 300 foot elevation and were rescued. I have a bunch of photos of the event but they are all on 35mm slides.
 

Attachments

  • DSC_0481.jpg
    DSC_0481.jpg
    89.8 KB · Views: 14
OLDNAVYMCPO said:
For those of you that like photos of aircraft, here's one of RVAH12's RA5C returning aboard the USS Constellation after a photo-recon mission over Viet Nam in 1973. Shortly after this photo was made, this very same aircraft (605) was lost at sea on April 21, 1973. The aircraft caught fire during a catapult launch off a bow cat when the internal fuel cell broke loose in the fuselage. The pilot and RAN safely ejected in under 300 foot elevation and were rescued. I have a bunch of photos of the event but they are all on 35mm slides.
Click to expand...

Ah, the ole 35 MM slides. Have friend that took hundreds of those while at Chu Lai with A6's there. They just sit in boxes now.......
 
AJ said:
Ah, the ole 35 MM slides. Have friend that took hundreds of those while at Chu Lai with A6's there. They just sit in boxes now.......
Click to expand...

Same here, close to 1000 35mm slides. I bought a small scanner that will scan each slide and convert it to digital format for the computer. The one I have does one at a time and it is a slow process, but the results are very good. The editing can be done on the computer to enhance the photo.

I also took a lot of Super 8mm movies that I first had made into VHS tapes, then years later on DVD's. The video quality isn't the best. Some are on YouTube.....here is one of my plane, SF-1:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFDpYdr0qE[/ame]
 
Lee, That was just too cool. About the slides, I'm thinking about buying a Wolverine F2D mighty 20mp 7in1 to download my 35mm slides to digital on a thumb drive and then onto my computer so I can edit them.
 
Ah yes...my formative days. No heavy Recon experience; first time I ever saw a Vigilante was sitting on the tarmac at NAS Cubi Point the first time when MIDWAY pulled into Cubi in 1972. At the time we had F4Bs, A6, A7, RF8, E2, and A3 Whales onboard. I was an AO Striker in the Ship's Guided Missile (GM) Division.

I had a bunch of photos from those days but all were lost in a move. A special photo or two were of the damaged aircraft - including two HC-7 up armored H3 Heavy Combat Rescue Helos - damaged when a Whale pilot landed 2 feet to the right of the center line. His right wing tip sliced through 5 aircraft. I believe the Admiral onboard came down from his spot on the bridge and ripped the pilot's wings off of his flight suit...

My first WESTPAC was on MIDWAY; I reported onboard on 8 April 1972, we left two days later on the 10th, and returned to Alameda on 3 March 1973 only to leave again in September of 1973 for homeport in Yokosuka, Japan. In July of that year I celebrated my 21st birthday anchored off of San Diego during REFTRA.

Although I had no intentions to make the service a career after my Navy experiences; I did enjoy my time on MIDWAY. At least 1 or 2 times a month I talk with the Chief of the GM Division who over the years we have become friends. When I went back in the service (Coast Guard) in 1975 I was able to use a lot of what I learned from him about leadership and work ethics during my career. In 1991 as an SKC I made CWO2 and was stationed in Los Angeles on a Coast Guard Cutter. Somewhere around here I still have the invitation I received to MIDWAY'S decommissioning ceremony but I wasn't able to attend. I retired in 2001 after a total of 30 years of active duty as a CWO4 (F&S); while serving as the Supply Officer on a Coast Guard Cutter home-ported in Key West. No regrets at all about my service.
 
AJ said:
Ah, the ole 35 MM slides. Have friend that took hundreds of those while at Chu Lai with A6's there. They just sit in boxes now.......
Click to expand...
There are ways to digitize those. There's various hardware devises that will scan them.

The simplest way is to just project the picture on a white surface in a dark room, with the imaged maybe 8 inches across. Then take a picture of it with a digital camera mounted on a tripod. Sure, it's jury rigged, but it actually doesn't look half bad. Many of those old slide didn't have real great resolution anyway, so you're not loosing much.

One tip. Wipe the dust of the slide. Those old 35mm slides are dust magnates.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

TXBryan
Back to Viet Nam
Replies
17
Views
1K
Onomea
Onomea
ameridaddy
Family Gone For Their Cause
Replies
26
Views
2K
Shibadog
S
ameridaddy
Memorial Day
Replies
5
Views
890
jeffrefrig
J
C
  • Locked
Military collectables, knife, misc
Replies
9
Views
3K
chuck303
C
Shotguncoach
2024 HomeSmith project list
Replies
1
Views
2K
redninja
R

Latest posts

Back
Top