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The 17th of April in 1967 started as great day. I had just received word that I was going to Hong Kong for R&R on the 19th of April. I was elated as the 19th was my 25th birthday, and the thoughts of ushering in a birthday at Da Nang's "O" club left me cold! The day could not have been better, that is until I got my first look at the flight schedule: Clark/Springfield, launch 11:30, RT. A night flight anywhere in North Vietnam was not what I considered fun! When crews saw RT or Rolling Thunder it had a way of creating anxiety!! Capt. Ray Springfield was my regular bombardier/navigator. Ray had the nickname of Magellan, for his uncanny ability to navigate with the system. I felt that he could put a bomb on a flea sitting on a dog's back while it was hiding under a bridge!!! This ability, however; did not carry over to out of the boot or visual hops. Ray was reputed to have a brain/finger co-ordination problem which caused his finger to move on the map about 10 knots faster or slower than the aircraft! But then, I had a reputation of having a hard time talking on the radio and keeping the plane in the air at the same time!! It was this match that allowed Ray and me to see some interesting country, off the beaten track!!! With Rolling Thunder missions we would have a full system bird. Ray would be at his best and I, as pilot, would only have to follow the "yellow brick road" the system provided me. I was showing a little of the strain and it surfaced as we walked to the briefing hut. In front of my eyes was one of Col. "Red" Thomas' saber toothed ducks. I harbored a deep dislike for the Colonel's ducks. These ducks were treated better than we were; plus the Colonel had turned them into sea gulls. We use to say that a sea gull was good only for defecating and if you want them to fly you had to kick them!! I tried to drop kick one of the slower ducks but as usual they knew what I was up to and scurried off to the safety of Col. "Red's" pond and nature area. Once inside the briefing hut, Ray and I were pleasantly surprised with our mission draw. The butterflies caused by route package 4, 5, and 6 flew away. We had drawn an interdiction point north of Vinh, and south of Thanh Hoa with a secondary mission of a road reconnaissance in route package 1 and 2. When Ray and I looked at the Target Pack, the aerial photograph revealed truck tracks on both sides of the river. Being good Marines, we could only assume that Washington had us bombing an under-water bridge. With a target of this quality, gone were the usual intense negotiations of the pilot and bombardier/navigator. Ray always started out with the best radar look angle. I always started out with a run-in line over the least amount of guns!! Through negotiations and compromise we would arrive at a mutually acceptable run-in direction. In fact, it was such a piece of cake target, Ray talked me into a fake run at Dien Chou which was a little quite town just north of Vinh, then breaking off to the north and proceeding to our primary target. This was a maneuver I had been taught in flight school and later, as a flight student, I was able to practice with low level passes on migrant farm workers in the Rio Grande Valley. From the classroom to real life--hot damn!!! The pre-flight start and system alignment was uneventful. With 18-500 pound bombs and 6-19 shot packs of 2.75 rockets armed and ready, we hit our launch time perfectly. With the gear sucked up in the wheel well, we climbed to flight level-20 and leveled. Ray checked in with our Air Force controller and updated the aircraft's system on Fire Island. Ray gave me the pushover point and I reached down and flipped the external master switch, killing my navigation lights and rotating beacon. I was ready to make this mission history, as I upped the RPM's to 100%. My object was to get going as fast as I could, in fact, if I could have gotten one more RPM or knot out of the aircraft, I would have put my foot on the throttle!! We leveled at 1,500 feet. I had long ago stopped the 100 foot run-ins for a simple fear for my life!! As I crossed the beach I gave a "Feet Dry" call and all hell started breaking loose. You would have thought I had sent an invitation asking them to stay up and shoot at us. For a moment, I thought that we were number 2 in a coordinated attack!! I knew it was going to be a bad night when I received heavy weapon fire from the kindergarten/play school in the area!! I followed my first impulse, which was to get the hell out of there; as it was evident that the North Vietnamese on the ground were not impressed with my tricky little move. While proceeding to our primary target we were receiving ground fire from areas that we didn't know had people. With the target acquired, we did a quick salvo of the 18-500 lb. bombs and retired to the ocean to let the people on the ground quiet down In fact, we decided we had enough of that area and headed directly for Route Package 1 for a quiet night of truck hunting. It was a beautiful night with a quarter moon, a few puffy clouds, and a little ground fog forming. We eased down the highway and as we approached the split in the road north of Dong Hoi, Ray picked up a mover. I pushed over and followed the pathway on my VDI., when in range, I committed and 2-19 shot packs of rockets left the aircraft with a blinding flash. As I followed the rockets down it appeared as if they had done a U turn and were heading straight for our aircraft. The ground fire streaked by our canopy scaring me so badly that I jerked the plane hard enough to get Ray to look out of the Boot. His only words were J-E-S-U-S- ------- CHRIST! He went for the boot as I went for the water. I told Ray I had enough excitement for one night and we were heading home. As we climbed to 10,000 feet heading for Da Nang, we popped our oxygen masks. It was about that time the aircraft went through a small puffy cloud. The aircraft was immediately bathed in a white light. My first thought was FIRE! A moment later Ray suggested that I turn off my taxi light!!!!! As it turned out I had flown the entire mission with the taxi light which is located on the nose landing gear door shining straight down!!!! The next day we wrote up a suggestion that the taxi light be added to the external master light switch. This was done on later models and retro-fitted to our A-6's. Now, when Ray and I talk about our A-6 days with our grandkids, we say that we were an integral part of the A-6 Intruder Development!!! Captain Charles Clark left the Marine Corps in 1969. Currently he is Tax Administrator for Durham County, North Carolina. He and his wife Penny encourage old 242ers to stop by when in the Raleigh /Durham area of North Carolina for a touch of southern hospitality. Lt. Col.Ray Springfield retired from the Marine Corps in 1983. He then pursued his first love, that of teaching. He is currently a Mathematics Instructor at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville, North Carolina. He and his wife, Margaret reside in Swansboro, North Carolina. 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. |
