Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 6.

At 1am, the battle begins.  A swarm lights up our screens.

A massive, lethal armada of aircraft is launched by the Navy. 

The carriers USS Hancock, Ranger, and Oriskany had staged seven A-3 tankers and electronic countermeasure aircraft at Da Nang AB.  All seven now head up the coast to North Vietnam.

From the USS Oriskany: Twenty-five aircraft launch, including an E-1B, eighteen A-7s, and six F-8s.

From the USS Ranger: Twenty-six aircraft launch, including an E-1B, ten A-6s, nine A-7s, and six F-4s.

The NVAF Air Defense Command immediately has startled to life.  They’re entirely surprised, confused, and slow to comprehend the enormity.

The first indication I get that a SAM site is active: I hear the enemy’s long-range radar operator calling out targets in Vietnamese.  These are Russian-supplied SA-2 SAMs, known as “Guideline” in NATO’s naming system.  (The Soviets’ name for it is the S-75 Dvina.)  Its long-range radar is known by the NATO name “Spoon Rest” and picks up targets nearly 150 miles away.  That gives them the range to watch all of this US air activity in the Gulf of Tonkin—including us.

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

Click Here:  Now also available as an audiobook!