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In December of 1966 I was attached to VA 165 embarked on the USS Ranger, then on Yankee Station. The squadron was only six months old having been re-established in June to fly A6's. VA 165 was formerly an A1 Skyraider squadron. We had begun flying combat flights about the first of December. On the 15th, Bill and I were slated to drop DST's on a coastal target. DST's were Mk 82's with special fuses; the bombs didn't blow up on contact with the ground but armed during flight and would be set off with the metal in a shoe eyelet within 50 feet. As usual, we had planned the primary target but also had a secondary target ready in case we couldn't hit the primary. It was a night launch and the weather, as I recall, was none too good. We pointed the nose to the beach, dropped to about 500 feet and headed for the target. It was going to be the standard drill: find the target, step the system into attack, accelerate to 480 knots, watch for flak and keep everything under control until release. It was going to be a straight path delivery. Nothing fancy. Well, it was all looking really good but at the release point- zip, nada. The bombs didn't release. So there we were heading inland with the same 18 bombs "cruising " at 500 feet and 480 knots IAS and now we had to horse around getting feet wet again. With the max trap weight of about 34,000 pounds leaving about 5,000 pounds for fuel, there was no way to get back aboard the ship with those 10,000 pounds of bombs. At the time MER's (Multiple Ejection Racks) were so valuable that jettisoning the whole shebang would have been severely frowned upon, if you get my drift. We decided to go for the secondary target to see if we could get the bombs off, not knowing why they didn't release the first time. OK, here we are approaching the secondary target "Now….Now…DROP!" Zip, nada, nothing again. Man, we can't understand why those things won't drop. Anyway, we manage to get back out over the Gulf (of Tonkin) without getting shot down. We called Strike Operations on the USS Ranger and told them we were heading to Da Nang some one hundred mile or so to the south, I think. I don't remember that fuel was a problem but we were facing a maximum weight landing at a relatively hot airport. Field length was not going to be a problem, as you guys know.(Da Nang had two N/S parallel runways of 10,000 feet each) The approach was IFR all the way until we cleared whatever mountain (Monkey Mountain) one flew over on the approach to the south. I can still remember the runway shining at us in the night from about 2 miles out. Looked LOTS longer than Ranger did at night, ya sure, ya betcha! You guys ever make a max weight landing? Pretty high airspeeds, eh? We noticed that right away! Took the entire 10,000 feet to get her slowed down enough to taxi off at the end. About half way to 242 which, as I recall, was about the last outfit on the left taxiing north on the west taxiway, we felt the airplane slow to a stop and more power didn't help. I got out to see what the problem was and noticed that both wheel brakes were glowing a nice cherry red and burning nicely. Both fuse plugs had blown. We called the tower and ask them to send help. As I recall, some 242 guys showed up with a tractor to tow the airplane and I'm sure they put out the wheel fire. At the 242 line, it was pretty obvious that the bombs didn't drop-duh! The ordnance guys said they'd take them off for us (and arrange to have them delivered up north). We put our fight gear in the cockpit and headed off to the "BOQ". I don't recall if we walked or rode but one way or the other we got there. A TENT! Even had mosquito netting as I recall but I'm sure that those of you who were there know if my recollection is accurate on that matter. I think we were briefed as to where to go if the field came under rocket or mortar attack, which they suspected was going to happen that night. (During 1966-67 DaNang seemed to be on "Charlie's hit list for the 15th of each month). Since we never went to the shelter that night I assume nothing happened. The next morning we went to the airplane to preflight for the flight back to Ranger. I think we had an overhead time of 1300. We didn't have to get too close to the airplane to observe that the paint scheme had changed somewhat overnight. There were Bats painted everywhere!!! Even the birdcage was painted with bats. They looked especially good on the inside of the wing tip speed brakes. When we opened the canopy to get our flight gear, we found that, truly, nothing had escaped the bats. Even our helmets were painted-fortunately not on the visors. As I recall Bill and I were both tickled by the whole thing. I know I was as were obviously the dozens of grinning Marines who were there to see us depart. My recollection is that I kept my Bat helmet clear through the end of my next cruise, at which time I departed the squadron. It was a great momento. Anyway, we launched back to the boat and landed. Naturally, everyone in the tower saw the bats on our airplane and word soon filtered down to our CO who was not pleased with the honors bestowed upon one of his A6s. I believe he might have written a letter to the CO of 242 expressing his displeasure about his airplane being all marked up but I'm not totally sure about that. In all it was a great night on the beach. Editors note. This may have been the first of many such coups that were scored by the Batmen of 242 on our Navy brothers. It got so bad that the Navy started posting a guard on the aircraft, which only meant that we had to paint the bats on the aircraft as it taxied from the flight line. It really became great sport. Besides, what we're they going to do to us…..Send us to Vietnam? In addition to unloading the bombs from this Navy Intruder, the Marine maintenance guys of 242 worked all night swapping out parts from the Navy A6 with parts, shall we say less than RFI, from our inventory. We wanted to make sure those two Navy guys didn't get hurt on the way back home but we didn't have the heart to send them back with all that working gear aboard. Besides, it really wasn't stealing, was it? FILE ARCHIVED ON 2003.06.23 AND RETRIEVED FROM THE INTERNET ARCHIVE ON 2005.11.21 BY INTERNET ARCHIVE WAYBACK MACHINES. ONLY NON-COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS INCLUDED. |
