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When Operation Rolling Thunder (the U.S aerial campaign against North Vietnamese infiltration in

Vietnam) began in April 1965, the Navy’s aircraft carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf hurled F-4 Phantom II and F-8 Crusader fighters and A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft into the fight, soon to be joined by A-6 Intruder all-weather attack aircraft. The glamorous jets, the successors to the pioneering jets of the 1950s, carried the fight to the enemy with hard-hitting speed. Almost ignored, however, were the squadrons of piston-engined, propeller-driven A-1 Skyraiders, remainders from an earlier era.

Until the arrival of the A-6, each of the carrier air groups in the early 1960s included a squadron of 12 Douglas A-1H/J

A-1s Fly out with a Bang in Southeast Asia

By Lt. Cmdr. Richard R. Burgess, USN (Ret.)

Skyraiders, later versions of the attack aircraft that were the most effective naval aircraft of the Korean War. Designed during World War II, the A-1 (the AD under the pre-1962 designation system) had replaced dive and torpedo bombers in the fleet by 1950. Twenty years after its initial flight, the Skyraider was an anachronism on the flight deck among the pack of jets. The former AD designation and the “seat-of-the-pants” appeal of the Skyraider led to the nickname “Spad,” in tribute to to the World War I biplane fighter of that name.

The A-1 was no slouch, even though it was relatively slow. The Spad’s Wright R-3350 engine generated enough horsepower to allow it to carry bomb loads of 8,000 pounds

A VA-25 A-1J drops a load of 500-pound bombs over a target in Vietnam in 1965.

“SPADS foreVer”

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or more (equivalent to the short-range bomb load of the much larger B-17). The A-1 could loiter over a target or patrol area for hours longer than could a jet, and its relatively slow speed gave it great accuracy in the visual delivery of bombs or rockets.

The Skyraider already had been flying in combat in Vietnam for five years. In 1960, the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) had received a shipment of 25 ex-Navy single-seat AD-6s (A-1Hs) to replace F8F Bearcat fighters. U.S. Navy Lt. Ken Moranville was sent to Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam from Air Training Unit 301 in Corpus Christi, Texas, to instruct the VNAF pilots on what would become their front-line combat aircraft.

In a related development, the U.S. Air Force selected multi-seat A-1s transferred from the Navy to equip its advisory units in South Vietnam and to assist the transition of the VNAF to the A-1. The dual-control A-1Es (including some former night-attack A-1Gs modified with dual controls) equipped two air commando squadrons, deployed to South Vietnam in 1964 as part of the Farm Gate program, and were soon flying combat missions in addition to training the VNAF. The Air Force’s adoption of the A-1 garnered much attention from the news media, and a reader could have been forgiven for not realizing the Navy still flew more than a dozen squadrons of the Spad.

The first Navy Spad squadron to deploy Skyraiders to Vietnam was the VAW-13 Zappers. The Zappers flew the four-place EA-1F “Electric Spad,” the electronic countermeasures version of the Skyraider equipped with an intercept radar and armed with up to four 20mm cannon. In 1962, when U.S. officials believed the North Vietnamese were using low-flying aircraft at night to supply Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam, the Navy provided detachments of EA-1Fs to support Project Water Glass with night patrols. Interestingly, these Spads alternated with detachments of Air Force F-102 Delta Dagger supersonic jet interceptors, which operated under the name Candy Machine. In any event, no intercepts were recorded and the deployments were terminated in September 1963.

In April 1964, VA-152 was detached from CVW-15 and deployed 13 single-seat A-1s and half of its crews to Bien Hoa to assist in VNAF training. While in-country, the Wild Aces also flew training missions in the VNAF A-1Es.

Also in 1964, carrier-based Skyraiders joined Operation Yankee Team low-altitude reconnaissance operations over Laos. During these deployments, the Spads of VA-52 on USS Ticonderoga (CVA 14) and VA-145 on USS Constellation (CVA 64) were on hand to participate in the Operation Pierce Arrow strikes against North Vietnam on 5 August 1964 in retaliation for the Tonkin Gulf Incident,

attacking petroleum storage sites and patrol boat bases. The only U.S. pilot killed was VA-145’s Lt. j.g Richard Sather, whose A-1H crashed after it was hit by anti-aircraft fire while attacking patrol boats. He was the Navy’s first aviator to die in combat in the Vietnam War.

For the rest of 1964, Navy A-1s joined in Operation Barrel Roll strikes in northern Laos and, in 1965, Operation Steel Tiger strikes in southern Laos. When the Viet Cong conducted sapper attacks against American advisors at Pleiku and Bien Hoa in February 1965, A-1s from VA-95 and VA-215 participated in the retaliatory Flaming Dart strikes against North Vietnam.

As Rolling Thunder escalated in 1965, the A-1 squadrons on Yankee Station participated in Alpha strikes against enemy facilities and transportation in North Vietnam and Laos and provided close air support for U.S. and allied forces in South Vietnam. The Skyraider excelled in armed reconnaissance and rescue combat air patrol (RESCAP) missions. A carrier arriving in theater would typically acclimate its air wing with combat missions launched from Dixie Station off South Vietnam before shifting to the intensely defended skies of North Vietnam.

The vulnerabilities of a slow-moving propeller plane in the flak-happy skies over North Vietnam became painfully evident in mid-1965. For example, the Barn Owls of VA-215, operating from USS Hancock (CVA 19), lost five of its 12 Skyraiders to enemy action during the squadron’s first Vietnam deployment. Another seven of its Skyraiders made it back from missions after having been shot up enough to render the aircraft beyond economic repair. The other squadrons deployed early in 1965 — VA-95, VA-196, VA-165, VA-25, and VA-152 — all suffered losses to a lesser degree.

One of the Navy’s last A-1 Skyraiders is “piped ashore” by VA-25 at NAS Lemoore, Calif., on 10 Apri1 1968. Lt. j.g Ted Hill, who flew the Navy’s last A-1 attack mission over Vietnam, had the honor of flying the “Spad” to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.

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One event on 20 June 1965 captured the imagination of the aviation world. When a division of VA-25 Spads on a reconnaissance and rescue mission from USS Midway (CVA 41) was jumped by two North Vietnamese MiG-17 interceptor jets, Lt. Clint Johnson and Lt.j.g. Charlie Hartmann found themselves closing head-on with one of the MiGs and fired their 20mm rounds into the oncoming jet, sending it plunging into the countryside below.

One month later, on 24 July 1965, an event occurred that would change the nature of the air campaign and make the skies more hazardous, particularly for slow-moving aircraft. A newly introduced SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile battery shot down an Air Force F-4C Phantom II. Though the Air Force and Navy developed tactics and weapons to defeat the SA-2, it remained a potent threat and eventually

would force the Navy in 1967 to restrict its Skyraider operations over North Vietnam to coastal operations, armed reconnaissance missions, and RESCAP. A-1s no longer took part in Alpha strikes.

VAW-13, which maintained a large detachment at NAS Cubi Point in the Philippines, provided two or three EA-1Fs to carriers in the Tonkin Gulf as they arrived. These aircraft usually orbited off the coast at altitudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet and jammed enemy anti-aircraft site radars to protect strike aircraft as they approached their targets. Occasionally, the EA-1Fs, armed with two cannon, would go down low and strafe enemy targets. Only one EA-1F, flying from Midway on 2 June 1965, was lost in combat, its four-man crew killed while coordinating a rescue effort.

An EA-1F Electric Spad assigned to VAW-13 recovers aboard a carrier on Yankee Station. This variant flew night missions against Vietcong infiltrations and electronic countermeasures missions

against air defenses.

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In almost four years of operations, 10 attack squadrons equipped with A-1H/Js made a total of 25 combat deployments on 10 aircraft carriers to the Vietnam War. A total of 65 Navy attack Spads were lost, 48 of them in to enemy action. Also, one EA-1E and three EA-1Fs were lost in mishaps, while one EA-1F was shot down. A total of 28 pilots, one observer, and two enlisted operators were lost to enemy action, while nine pilots were lost in mishaps. Three Spad pilots became prisoners of war; one, Lt. j.g. Dieter Dengler of VA-145, escaped captivity in Laos and was rescued. His celebrated escape is told in several books (see p. 34), a documentary film, and a major motion picture.

The retirement of the attack Spads was not the end of the war for Navy Skyraiders. The last EA-1Fs of VAW-13 finished a war deployment aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63) and VAQ-33 made two more war deployments to the Tonkin Gulf—aboard Ticonderoga and Intrepid—the last returning home in February 1969. VAQ-33’s Electric Spads made one last deployment to the Mediterranean, aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CVA 67), returning home on 20 December 1969. A handful of Skyraiders survived in test roles until the last was retired on 7 July 1971.

Lt. Cmdr. Rick Burgess is the managing editor of Seapower magazine and is a former editor of Naval Aviation News. He is the co-author of U.S. Navy A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War with another former Naval Aviation News editor, retired Capt. Rosario Rausa, a former Skyraider pilot.

One other Skyraider version, the EA-1E airborne early warning aircraft equipped with a large search radar, supported operations from antisubmarine carriers until it was finally replaced by E-1B Tracers in 1965.

As the war progressed through 1966 and 1967, the Navy’s Skyraider pilots took on naval gunfire spotting as another role, and they also became the scourge of water-borne logistics craft (WBLCs, or “wiblicks”). As with their Air Force brethren, however, RESCAP absorbed more of their attention and gave them a gratifying role as they covered downed aircrews and protected the helicopters and HU-16 Albatross amphibians that plucked the air crews from harm’s way. As the surviving Spad squadrons — VA-25, VA-52, VA-115, VA-145, VA-152, VA-165, VA-176, and VA-215 — rotated through their periods on the line, they became experts in RESCAP and seemed fearless in their willingness to brave the surface-to-air missiles and flak to pull their fellow air crews to safety.

In 1966, USS Intrepid (CVS 11) was loaded with an “all-attack” air wing, CVW-10, with four VA squadrons assigned—including, for the only time in the Vietnam War, two full squadrons of Skyraiders on one carrier, VA-165 and VA-176. This deployment was distinguished by a dogfight on 9 October 1966 between four VA-176 Spads and four MiG-17s during a rescue mission. Lt. j.g. Tom Patton shot down one of the MiGs and Lt. Peter Russell and Lt. j.g. Jim Wiley damaged two others and were credited with probable kills.

VA-115, flying from Hancock in 1967, suffered the loss of four A-1s on 17 March, the Navy’s highest single-day loss of A-1s in the war. Two were shot down as they attacked a barge on the Sou Giang River, but both pilots were rescued. Later that night two more Spads collided in mid-air, with one pilot killed.

The VA-25 Fists, deployed on USS Coral Sea (CVA 43), was the last attack squadron to take the A-1H/J Skyraider into combat. The Fists suffered the last combat loss of a Navy Spad when Lt. j.g. Joseph Dunn, on a ferry flight to Coral Sea, was intercepted near Hainan by two Chinese MiG-17s and shot down. The squadron’s last missions were flown in close air support for U.S. Marines at Khe Sanh in South Vietnam. Lt. j.g. Ted Hill flew the last mission on 20 February 1968. Hill also flew VA-25’s last Spad to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola following a 10 April 1968 retirement ceremony at NAS Lemoore, Calif. It fell to VA-176 to be the Navy’s last Skyraider attack squadron. The Thunderbolts flew away their last two A-1s following a ceremony at NAS Jacksonville on 25 April 1968. Most of the Navy’s attack Skyraiders were refurbished and sent to U.S. Air Force and VNAF units in Southeast Asia.

Lt. j.g. Tom Patton (left) and Lt. Pete Russell of VA-176 recount their MiG-killing mission of 9 October 1966 over North Vietnam. A year before, Spads were among the first aircraft to shoot down a MiG in the war.