Dragon in the river. A Vigilante recon plane brought dramatic proof of USS America’s (CVA-66) successful strike in October 1972. (Adm. Leighton Smith)
A Vietnamese repair crew rigging lines to raise the collapsed portion of the bridge. The work was not accomplished until after the 1973 cease-fire. (Doan Cong Tinh)
The rebuilt Dragon’s Jaw Bridge at Thanh Hoa as it exists at this writing, 2019. Once again it is an important transportation asset for Vietnam. (Theo van Geffen)
APPENDIX
US Aircraft Known Lost on Thanh Hoa Bridge Missions
Date: April 3, 1965
Aircraft: F-100D
Unit/Base*: 401 TFW/Danang
Crew: Smith (KIA)
Date: April 4, 1965
Aircraft: F-105D
Unit/Base*: 18 TFW/Korat
Crew: Harris (POW)
Date: April 4, 1965
Aircraft: F-105D
Unit/Base*: 355 TFW/Korat
Crew: Bennett (KIA)
Date: April 4, 1965
Aircraft: F-105D
Unit/Base*: 355 TFW/Korat
Crew: Magnusson (KIA)
Date: April 4, 1965
Aircraft: A-1H
Unit/Base*: 1131 SAS/TSN
Crew: Draeger (KIA)
Date: April 4, 1965
Aircraft: A-1H
Unit/Base*: RVNAF SAS/TSN
Crew: Vu Khac Hue (KIA)
Date: May 7, 1965
Aircraft: F-105D
Unit/Base*: 355 TFW/Korat
Crew: Lambert
Date: May 31, 1965
Aircraft: F-105D
Unit/Base*: 35 TFS/Takhli
Crew: Peel (POW)
Date: Aug. 2, 1965
Aircraft: F-105D
Unit/Base*: 18 TFW/Korat
Crew: Dauthtry (POW)
Date: Aug. 26, 1965
Aircraft: F-4B
VF-21/Midway
Unit/Base*: Crew: Franke & Doremus (POW)
Date: May 30, 1966
Aircraft: C-130E
Unit/Base*: 61 TCS/Danang
Crew: Case, Zook, etc (8 KIA)
Date: May 14, 1967
Aircraft: F-4B
Unit/Base*: VF-114/Kitty Hawk
Crew: Southwick & Rollins (POW)
Date: April 21, 1972
Aircraft: F-4E
Unit/Base*: 8 TFW/Ubon
Crew: Brown & Peters
Date: June 16, 1972
Aircraft: RF-8G
Unit/Base*: VFP-63/Midway
Crew: Ringwood
Totals
KIA/MIA: 13
F-105s: 6
C-130: 1
POW: 7
F-4s: 3
RF-8: 1
Recovered: 4
A-1s: 2
F-100: 1
* Unit and Base abbreviations:
SAS: Special activities squadron
TCS: Troop carrier squadron
TFS: Tactical fighter squadron
TFW: Tactical fighter wing
TSN: Tan Son Nhut, Saigon
VF: Navy fighter squadron
VFP: Navy reconnaissance squadron
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CONTRIBUTORS
James R. Bassett, USAF
Pete Batcheller, USN
Walter J. Boyne, USAF
Thomas F. Brown, III, USN
George Cannelos, USN, USAF
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry, USAF
Richard Davies
Kenneth J. Davis, USN
Dave Dollarhide, USNR
David Dungan, USN
Bill Egen, USMC
Bart Flaherty, USNR
Wayne Foster
Wynn F. Foster, USN
Fred A. Franke, USN
James D. Franks, USAF
Jim Glendenning, USN
Jack L. Graber, USAF
Stephen R. Gray, USN.
Richard P. Hallion
Troy Harworth
Mark Hasara, USAF
Richard D. Hilton, USAF
Hoang Tran Dung
John Holm, USN
Bryon E. Hukee, USAF
Randy Kelso, USN
Carlo Kopp
Bob Krone, USAF
Robert C. Laymon, USAF
Lonny K. “Eagle” McClung, USN
Ivy McCoy, USAF
J. Michael McGrath, USN
George Mellinger
Ronald Milam, USN
Rick Morgan, USN
Mike Najim
John Nicholson, USN
Russ Ogle, USN
Christina Olds
Robert D. Peel, USAF
Timothy Pham
Charles Plumb, USN
Howard Plunkett, USAF
David C. Richardson, USN
Robert R. “Boom” Powell, USN
Merle Pribbenow
Samuel M. Purvis, III, USN
Hugh Replogle, USN
Paul Ringwood, USN
James Rotramel, USAF
Ron Rowen, USAF
Sam Sayers USN
Richard W. “Brown Bear” Schaffert, USN
Jim Schueckler (Virtual Wall website)
D.D. Smith, USN
Leighton “Snuffy” Smith, USN
James B. Stockdale, USN
Jeremy “Bear” Taylor, USN
William B. Thaler, USAF
Ron Thurlow, USAF
Istvan Toperczer
Theo van Geffen
David Webb
H. Wayne Whitten, USMC
Glenn Winter
Dennis Wisely, USN
Jack Woodul, USN
R. J. “Zap” Zlatoper, USN
For archival support, thanks to Dr. Daniel Haulman and Ms. Lynn Gamma of the Air Force Historical Records Agency and to John Darrell Sherwood of the Navy History and Heritage Command. Our great thanks, also, to Rear Admiral Christopher Murray and Kallie Rose of the Naval Safety Center.
NOTES
CHAPTER 1. “WE WILL PAY ANY PRICE…”
1. Gary Wayne Foster, emails to Tillman, January 2016.
2. H. R. McMaster, Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam (New York: HarperPerennial, 1997), 23.
3. Ibid., 51.
4. Ibid., 101.
5. Ibid., 61.
6. Ibid.
CHAPTER 2. A DAMNED TOUGH NUT TO CRACK
1. James B. Stockdale and Sybil Stockdale, In Love and War: The Story of a Family’s Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam Years (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990), 23.
2. H. R. McMaster, Dereliction of Duty, 125.
3. Wayne Morse comments: Denny Freidenrich, “50 Years After Wayne Morse, 40 After Mark Felt,” The Hill, August 15, 2014, http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/215150-50-years-after-wayne-morse-40-after-mark-felt.
4. McMaster, Dereliction of Duty, 94.
5. Cyrus Vance quoted in McMaster, Dereliction of Duty, 62.
6. David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (Bridgewater, NJ: Baker and Taylor, 2008), 250.
7. John T. Correll, The Air Force in the Vietnam War (Arlington, VA: Aerospace Education Foundation, 2004), 5.
8. Istvàn Toperczer, MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units of the Vietnam War (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2012), 16.
9. “Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17.
10. Ibid.
11. Cheng Guan Ang, The Vietnam War from the Other Side: The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective (Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis, 2013), 96.
12. A. J. C. Lavalle, ed., The Tale of Two Bridges and the Battle for the Skies over North Vietnam (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1985), 50.
13. Walter Boyne, “Route Pack 6,” Air Force magazine, November 1999.
14. Gary Wayne Foster, Phantom in the River: The Flight of Linfield Two Zero One (Ashland, OR: Hellgate Press, 2010), 10.
15. Dinh Khoi Sy, History of the 228th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment (1998), 45, translated for the authors by Merle Pribbenow.
16. Ibid., 55–56.
17. Gary Wayne Foster, Phantom in the River: The Flight of Linfield Two Zero One (Ashland, OR: Hellgate Press, 2010), 87.
18. Enemy Forces, www.enemyforces.net/artillery/zu23.htm.
19. “Russian Army Light-Heavy Weapons,” Army Recognition, www.army recognition.com/russia_russian_army_light_heavy_weapons_uk/m1939_61-k_37mm_anti-aircraft_gun_technical_data_sheet_specifications_description_pictures_video.html.
20. Barton Meyers. “Vietnamese Defense Against Aerial Attack,” Center for the Study of the Vietnam Conflict, 1996, www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/meyers.php.
21. Steve Gray, “First Combat Use of the Walleye Weapon,” A-4Ever Skyhawk Association Journal (Fall 2014): 9–10.
CHAPTER 3. THE FIRST HAMMER BLOW
1. McCrea and Center for Naval Analyses, U.S. Fixed Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia.
2. W. H. Plunkett, 34th TFS Attacks on Thanh Hoa Bridge, www.34tfsthuds.us.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “George C. Smith,” POW Network, www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s038.htm.
6. Colonel Ivy J. McCoy, via email from Ron Rowen, March 2017.
CHAPTER 4. “HE DID NOT WANT ANY MORE MIGS SHOT DOWN”
1. Pham Ngoc Lan, quoted in Roger Boniface, MiGs over North Vietnam: The Vietnamese People’s Air Force in Combat, 1965–1975 (Manchester: Crecy Publishing, 2015), 4.
2. “They Were Warriors,” Forgotten F-105 Warriors, www.forgottenf-105warriors.com/Pilots.html.
3. Toperczer, MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units, 30–31.
4. Magnusson missing: “Magnusson, James A. Jr.,” POW Network, www.pownetwork.org/bios/m/m007.htm.
5. Jack Graber, email to Bob Laymon, April 2005, Shared by Laymon with authors.
6. Peter Davies, “F-100—MiG Encounters of the First Kind,” The Intake, Spring 2012.
7. Ibid.
8. Don Kilgus: Robert F. Dorr, “F-100 Versus MiG-17: The Air Battle Nobody Told You About,” Defense Media Network, April 18, 2014, www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/f-100-versus-mig-17-the-air-battle-nobody-told-you-about.
9. Ibid.
10. Byron E. Hukee, USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War (Botley, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2013), 60.
11. See also Jack Broughton, Thud Ridge: F-105 Thunderchief Missions over Vietnam (Manchester: Crecy Publishing, 2006).
12. Jacob Van Staaveren, Gradual Failure: The Air War over North Vietnam, 1965–1966 (Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2002), 107.