Category Archives: vietnam

Will the M113 ever die?

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First reaching IOC in 1960 (!) and seeing inaugural combat use in Vietnam just two years later, the 12-ton aluminum-hulled M113 is a Cold War stalwart.

11th ACR M113 in Vietnam, in its ACAV configuration

U.S. Army M-113 near the destroyed Panamanian Defense Force headquarters, Operation Just Cause, 21 December 1989

While “officially” replaced in front-line service with the U.S. Army by the Bradley and Stryker, the Pentagon only stopped buying the APC in 2007 and moved to phase it out in ancillary service (mortar carriers, ambulances, cargo carriers, smoke makers, OPFORs, etc.) with the very M113-ish but Bradley-derived BAE AMPV, a move that won’t materialize until the late 2020s.

These 11th ACR VIZ-MOD’ed OPFOR vehicles at the NTC aboard Fort Irwin started life as M113s.

Besides Vietnam, Panama, Desert Storm/Shield, Bosnia, and OIF/OEF, the M113 has proven itself in Ukraine, which has received over 500 of these surplus APCs in numerous variants from NATO as military aid, making it a common and unlikely favorite of the forces there.

It is considered reliable and fast, at least when compared to legacy Soviet-era MT/GT platforms.

Rafael is currently offering a series of upgrades for the old track, including new powerpacks, Trophy Active Protection Systems, Spike anti-tank guided missiles, Sampson Remote Weapon Stations, and advanced modular armor kits.

With some 80,000 of these durable machines produced over the past 65 years, and with them in service with 50~ countries around the globe, odds are they may outlive us all ,and the last M113 driver is yet to be born.

Red Devil Crusaders

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With the 100th anniversary of the Red Devils recently, these two great images from its bad old Crusader Days in Vietnam felt appropriate. While the F-8 was a gunfighter built for speed, when used as a low altitude strike aircraft, it took heavy losses.

Official caption “Poised for Action: An ordnance-laden F-8E Crusader jet of Marine All-Weather Fighter Squadron 232 [VMF (AW)-232] stands ready on the Marine Aircraft Group 11 [MAG-11] flight line (official USMC photo by T. J. Mercurio).” From the Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.

“On the Way: An F-8E Crusader jet of Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 232 [VMF (AW)-232] launches on a scramble mission in support of Marine ground forces south of Da Nang (official USMC photo by Staff Sergeant Bill Fisher).” From the Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.

The above airframe, Bu150316, WT Red 17, was damaged by ground fire over South Vietnam on 4 May 4  1967. The plane made it to the South China Sea, where the pilot (Major Edward F. Townley) ejected and was rescued by a helicopter.

As noted by the unit history:

The squadron, flying the newer F-8E Crusader, which it received in August 1966, began full combat operations in December. The F-8E was similar to the F-8D but with higher-performance radar, which, being mounted in the nose section, changed the appearance slightly.

By the end of the month, VMF(AW)-232 had flown 571 sorties while delivering 418 tons of ordnance to enemy targets; four aircraft had received hits, and the Red Devil pilots had become familiar with the I and H Corps area as well as portions of the area north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

During the first 4 months of 1967, 19 more F-8Es were hit. In most cases, the damage was caused by a single small arms round and was easily repaired. Most importantly, no pilots were injured, but in May and June, the Red Devils were not quite as fortunate.

On 4 May, Major Edward F. Townley’s jet was hit as it circled over a suspected enemy position. Soon, the fighter was heading seaward, trailing fire and smoke. Major Townley was ejected and recovered uninjured.

On the 19th, the first Red Devil was killed in action, and the squadron lost its second aircraft. While flying a direct air support mission, Captain Harold J. Hellbach reported receiving fire over the target area. As the pilot turned toward the sea, the jet suddenly pitched nose up and then entered a dive, exploding when it hit the ground about 6 miles from the target area.

On 21 June, Major Charles L. Cronkrite, who, after his transfer from 232 to the group staff, continued flying with the Red Devils, was killed. After experiencing mechanical difficulties, Major Cronkrite ejected, and “it was suspected that the pilot was unconscious when he hit the water.”

July was a better month in that no one was killed or injured, but one aircraft was lost on the 2nd when Major Bruce A. Martin ejected after his plane was hit.

Two other F-8s were destroyed on 15 July as a result of an enemy rocket attack on Da Nang.

August marked the last month of the unit’s combat tour, and on the 30th, when the last plane landed, the Red Devils had amassed totals of 5,785 sorties, 7,273 flight hours, and 6,271 tons of ordnance expended.

The Red Devils received their first two-seater F-4B/J Phantoms on 19 September 1967 and, as VMFA-232, deployed with them back to Vietnam in March 1969.

Red Devils Mark a Century

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U.S. Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, stand in formation during a centennial ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, Aug. 15, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samantha Devine) 250815-M-YL719-1079

The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, earlier this month, celebrated the 100th anniversary of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232 “Red Devils,” an F/A-18C/D Super Hornet squadron with Marine Aircraft Group 11, during a commemorative ceremony aboard MCAS Miramar. It is the Marine Corps’ oldest active fighter attack squadron.

The squadron was established as VF-3M on 1 September 1925, at NAS San Diego, and its long combat history began less than two years later when the squadron’s Boeing FB Hawk single-seat biplanes provided reconnaissance and air support to Gen. Smedley Butler’s 3rd Brigade in Teintsin. Their ersatz mud field was about 35 miles from the city, and the ground crew had to provide their own security against bandits and warlords. The squadron nonetheless logged 3,818 sorties in support of the 3rd Brigade over 18 months.

The “Red Devils,” later flying SBD dive bombers as VMSB-232, became the first flying squadron to land on Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field on 20 August 1942 during World War II and made history as part of the Cactus Air Force, earning two presidential citations during the war.

Wreckage of an SBD scout-bomber, still burning after it was destroyed by a Japanese air attack on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-14409

When it left Henderson two months later, only one of the original 15 Guadalcanal Red Devils was still walking.

Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron 232 Insignia, circa 1942, Guadalcanal, where they specialized in paving Iron Bottom Sound with Japanese ships/The drawing was done by I.F. Waldgovel in 1983.

Then came Korea (the squadron itself did not deploy, but all of its original pilots and 40 percent of its enlisted were sent overseas as replacements), two tours in Vietnam, numerous carrier deployments, 740 combat missions in Desert Storm, etc. It later became the first F-18 squadron to land in Afghanistan in 2010 during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Over the past century, the squadron has flown 15 different aircraft (including TBM Avengers, F6F Hellcats, F4U Corsairs, FJ Furys, F-8 Crusaders, and F-4 Phantoms) and participated in every major (and many minor) U.S. conflicts.

The legacy aircraft figure will soon be updated to 16, as it is slated to move to F-35Cs in the next few years.

A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet, serving as the color bird for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, is staged in the hangar during a centennial ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, Aug. 15, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samantha Devine)

‘Investigate probable spacecraft radar contact bearing 160, distance 25 miles’

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It happened 60 years ago today.

21 August 1965: Recovery of part of the first stage of NASA’s Gemini V first stage Titan II booster, the first to ever be retrieved from space, was made by the Forrest Sherman-class destroyer USS Dupont (DD-941).

NASA photo

The booster was used to launch the third crewed Gemini flight from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere 450 miles Northeast of the launch site. Spotted by a passing aircraft, Dupont was bird-dogged to the floating fragment.

The ship’s crew managed to lug the partially flattened 27-foot 15,000-pound booster section aboard, complete with its (empty) nitrogen tetroxide tank, and return it to shore a week later, where it was later returned to Martin’s plant in Baltimore and found to be in “remarkable condition.”

As noted by her deck log:

While the manned capsule, with Air Force Col. Gordon Cooper and Navy LCDR Charles Conrad aboard, was “officially” recovered by the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), Dupont, as part of the 19-ship recovery task force, remained busy during Gemini V’s weeklong trip– at the time the longest crewed space mission.

After recovering the booster, Dupont spent the next day drilling with an unoccupied Gemini boilerplate capsule she had aboard, then steamed to NAVSTA Bermuda for a short port call before heading towards Norfolk, stopping on the way on the 29th to “investigate probable spacecraft radar contact bearing 160, distance 25 miles.”

Cooper and Conrad had returned, and Dupont was the closest vessel to splashdown.

“Escorting Gemini V to USS Lake Champlain.” USS Dupont was the closest ship for the recovery of Gemini 5. Navy divers from the destroyer recovered the astronauts and transferred them via helicopter to USS Lake Champlain. Painting, Watercolor on Paper; by Luis Llorente; 1965; Unframed Dimensions 30H X 22W Accession #: 88-162-CO

88-162-CT These sketches show the sequence of retrieving the command module – recovery by the UDT team Gemini 5

Dupont made Norfolk’s Pier 20 on the morning of the 31st, wrapping her month.

Just a normal week in the life of a 1960s tin can.

Commissioned in 1957, she was the third (and last) destroyer named for Mexican War hero RADM Samuel Francis Du Pont. Besides the Cuban Missile Crisis quarantine and her work for NASA, she served three stints on the gunline off Vietnam, firing over 50,000 rounds of 5-inch shells in NGFS.

USS Du Pont (DD-941) underway in 1967

Given an SCB 251 update with ASROC and improved sensors, she continued to serve and clocked in again for NGFS off Lebanon in 1982.

Aerial starboard bow view of the destroyer USS Du Pont (DD-941) off the coast of Lebanon, during a multinational peacekeeping operation. The ship was deployed here after a confrontation took place between Israeli forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization. PH3 R.P. Fitzgerald, DN-ST-83-02991 / National Archive# NN33300514 2005-06-30

DuPont was decommissioned on 4 March 1983 and, after a decade in mothballs, was sold for scrap.

Speaking of scrap, the Gemini V booster section, the only recovered non-spacecraft launch item in the U.S. collection until the Shuttle program’s boosters in 1981, is preserved at the Space Force Museum in Florida after being at Redstone Arsenal since the 1970s.

Operation Cochise

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3rd Marine Division AOR, Vietnam, 12 August 1967. “Army of the Republic of Vietnam Rangers dash from a Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 164 CH-46 Sea Knight [its ramp seen to the left] during Operation Cochise. The Ky Ha-based squadron transported the rangers to the operational area South of Da Nang.”

USMC photograph A 422604 by CPL Cowen. National Archives Identifier 26386815. Local Identifier 127-GVB-104-A422604

Note the hard-charging ARVN Ranger’s very handy M1 .30 Caliber Carbine in some of its final battlefield use, Nomex flight gloves, and the large battle dressing on the band of his M1 helmet, the latter complete with an ERDL camo cover. It seems he is using a 2-quart canteen carrier for spare mags, which isn’t a bad idea.

As noted of Operation Cochise by the history folder of the 1st Bn/4th Marines: 

The ARVN rangers made the first significant contact. On the morning of the 12th, three battalions of the 21st NVA Regiment attacked the rangers. Heavy fighting continued throughout the day and by 1700 the rangers reported heavy casualties. Dangerously low on ammunition, with darkness approaching, and with no sign of a letup on the part of the enemy, the rangers requested an emergency re-supply.

At 1730, a CH-46 from HMM-165, accompanied by two UH-1E gunships from VMO-6 arrived overhead with the badly needed ammunition. The gunships scouted the intended landing zone and reported that the CH-46 could not land in the contested zone. The pilot, Captain Jack H. McCracken, well aware of what would happen to the rangers without ammunition decided to try to deliver his cargo anyway. He ordered his crew chief, Corporal James E. Bauer, to stack the ammunition on the rear ramp. Captain Mc Cracken nosed over his helicopter and raced for the landing zone. McCracken then hovered 30 feet over the zone, and Corporal Bauer lowered the ramp and most of the ammunition dropped into the zone. While repeated enemy small arms hits shook the helicopter, Corporal Bauer kicked out the rest of the ammunition. As the last box dropped, enemy bullets severely damaged the helicopter, but McCracken’s re-supply permitted the rangers to continue the battle.

At 2300, the NVA units finally pulled back, leaving 197 bodies behind. The ranger losses also had been heavy, 81 killed and 153 wounded.

While the ARVN Rangers have not been around since 1975, the “Knightriders” of HMM-164 (now VMM-164) are still around as are the White Knights of the HMM-165 (now VMM-165).

As for Dr. Jack Hill McCracken, Ph.D, he earned both the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross in Vietnam and worked in both Marine and Army aviation for two decades following the conflict, “overseeing the development of a $29 billion lite helicopter project and simultaneously fighting vehemently against the proposed single-pilot helicopter program, which he successfully defeated in the interest of pilot safety and military effectiveness.” He passed at his Texas home in April 2023, aged 81.

Royal Blue

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It happened 50 years ago today.

A great original Kodachrome with an air-to-air right side view of a “hump-backed” A-4F Skyhawk (BuNo 154975) of the “Royal Blues” of Attack Squadron (VA) 127, on 21 July 1975. Hot rods, they carried J52-P-408 engines with 11,200 lbf of thrust on an aircraft with an empty weight of 10,450 pounds.

Scene Camera Operator: PH3 Stoner. DN-SC-88-06702, National Archives Identifier 6430109

Established 15 June 1962 at NAS Lemoore with a complement of F-9F/TF-9J Cougar, VA-127 soon switched to Skyhawks. At the time of the above image, the Royal Blues were the only A-4 Replacement Air Wing squadron in the Navy, a role that switched to a primary mission of adversary training by November 1975. Switching to T-38B/F-5Es in 1987, just after they became the “Cylons” in an ode to Battlestar Galactica, they briefly flew F-18s as the “Desert Bogeys” out of NAS Fallon until they were disestablished in 1996.

As for BuNo 154975, she arrived in the fleet in 1967, then flew with VA-113, VA-192, and VA-212, seeing time on Yankee Station from USS Hancock (CV-19), before serving almost a decade with VA-127 starting in 1973, and was loaned to the Blues for a period.

It was in Blue No. 5 Livery that she and her pilot, LCDR Stuart R Powrie (USNA ’70), 34, was killed when the airframe crashed in the Imperial Valley desert near the Salton Sea following the completion of a maneuver called “the clean loop-dirty loop” while flying from NAS El Centro, on 22 February 1982.

Welcome, Denton

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The future USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), the third Flight III advanced Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be built at Ingalls, was christened in Pascagoula on Saturday.

The ship’s name honors RADM Jeremiah Denton Jr., (USNA 1947), a Vietnam War veteran who earned the Navy Cross for his heroism as a prisoner of war. Denton spent 34 years as a naval aviator, including eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his Intruder was shot down while flying from USS Independence (CV-62).

He is known for his act of genius during a televised broadcast in captivity, when Denton spelled out the word “torture” through Morse code using his eyes to blink the code signal lamp-style.

Daughters of the RADM Denton, Madeleine Denton Doak and Mary Denton Lewis, performed the traditional bottle-breaking ceremony against the bow to formally christen the ship.

Ingalls has delivered 35 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to the U.S. Navy, including the first Flight III, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), in June 2023. In addition, Ingalls Shipbuilding has five Flight IIIs currently under construction, including Ted Stevens (DDG 128), Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131), Sam Nunn (DDG 133), and Thad Cochran (DDG 135).

Mortars and Sandals

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Between February 22 and 28 1951, Haiduong (French Indochina, now Vietnam).

Elements of the locally recruited Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. During this operation, the search of villages (Le Thon, Hong Tien, Phung Do, and Phung Xa) allowed the capture of Viet Minh partisans who had hidden in underground hiding places and shelters.

Note the mix of French and British kit, the nonchalantly carried 43-pound 60mm Brandt Mle 1935 light mortar (including very local footwear), and MAS-36 7.5mm rifle.

Ref.: TONK 51-28 R31, Guy Defives/ECPAD/Defense

The BMI was formed in January 1948 as the Annamite Bataillon, largely from the remnants of the five assorted Tirailleurs Indochinois regiments that dated to the 1880s and had fought against the Germans in WWI then the Japanese and Thais in WWII.

The five regiments of Tirailleurs Indochinois fought in numerous campaigns across Southeast Asia between 1880 and 1947 including forming 27 rifle battalions during the Great War, several of which fought in Europe.

With the lineage of the old Tirailleurs Indochinois– indeed carrying the flag and honors of the old 1er régiment de tirailleurs tonkinois (1er RTT)—  the Annamite Bataillon was redesignated the BMI in 1950 and was something of an elite unit over the tail-end of the French war against the Viet Minh.

Note the black beret, a standard headgear for the unit, complete with its distinctive dragon and anchor badge. (Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. )

Based south of the Tonkin Delta, theirs was a war of sharp actions among the rice fields and brown water.
Once the Geneva Accords went through in 1954, the BMI was disbanded and many of its members– who had elected to remain in the French Army rather than join the ARVN– joined the 1st battalion of the 43e Régiment dInfanterie de Coloniale (43e RIC), bound for service in Algeria.

8-inch Howie still on Watch

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The U.S. military perfected a self-propelled 8-inch howitzer in the early 1960s using the same Detroit Diesel 8V71T-powered double-tracked hull as the M107 175mm gun, only fitted with a short-barreled (25.3 caliber) 203mm M2A2 howitzer. The resulting gun, the M110, was improved in the 1980s with the longer-barreled (43-caliber) M201 203mm gun, complete with a double-baffle muzzle brake, in the follow-on M110A1/A2 variants.

US Army 8-inch gun Vietnam M110 SP, short tube

Vietnam 8-inch gun at Oasis 1968 D Battery, 5/16th FA, SP Howitzer M110 Diablo II. Note that short tube

Vietnam 8-inch gun at Oasis 1968 D Battery, 5/16th FA, SP Howitzer M110 Diablo II. 

1976 Rock Island Arsenal M110E1 203 mm 8-in Self-Propelled Howitzer with Muzzle Break

Used extensively in Vietnam and during the Cold War (the latter including a watch on the Fulda Gap, complete with the M426 chemical, M422, and M753 nuclear shells), a total of 1,163 M110 systems had been manufactured by the time the line ended in 1985.

American gunners of B Bty, 6 Bn, 27th Artillery, fire an M110 8-inch howitzer during a fire support mission at LZ Hong, approx. 12 km northeast of Song Be, South Vietnam. 26 March 1970.

3rd and 4th Armored Division artillerymen watching over W33 Atomic shell near M110 Self-Propelled Howitzer circa 1970. At 40 kilotons, it was double the yield of Hiroshima. It used tritium boosting to get more power.

Replaced by the 270mm MLRS in U.S. service in 1994 following a swan song in the first Gulf War, the Pentagon shopped around the low-round count M110A2s still on hand to assorted customers in the Middle East/Mediterranean in Bahrain, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Morocco, and Pakistan, most of which still have them.

Also, Taiwan got a boatload, of which 70 are still in front-line service, as seen in this recent moto video from the country’s military, loading their 200-pound shells via hydraulic rammers and blasting them offshore at ranges under 26,000 yards.

Muddy Rampage

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It happened 80 years ago this week.

Official period caption: “Soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division walk past mud-clogged tanks parked by the side of the road on Okinawa. 26 May 1945.”

U.S. Signal Corps Photo SC 208600. U.S. National Archives

The “tanks” are actually one of the more rarely seen armored vehicles in American service in WWII, the M8 Scott, an early 75mm self-propelled howitzer.

Offically known as “Howitzer Motor Carriage M8,” it picked up the easier moniker in a ode to “Old Fuss n Feathers” himself, Gen.Winfield Scott– the War of 1812 vet who lead the Army during the war with Mexico and the first year of the Civil War who later passed away at West Point just shy of his 80th birthday.

The M8 HMC was an interesting stop-gap vehicle. It used the hull, engine, tracks, and guts of the M5 Stuart light tank. It then substituted the 37mm popgun and the Stuart’s tiny turret for a new open-topped turret armed with a 75mm L18 M2 or M3 howitzer—an artillery piece that was essentially just an M1 howitzer modified for use in a vehicle.

Some 1,778 Scotts were made by the Cadillac division of General Motors from September 1942 to January 1944, and they were very useful in hill fighting due to the high angle of their guns.

“Members of the 758th Light Tank Bn. (Colored) fire their 75mm howitzer in support of infantry movements on the Fifth Army front. 4 April, 1945.” SC 329839

SC 329839 758th Light Tank Bn M8 Scott April 1945 4 April, 1945

M8 Scott HMC 75 howitzer passing a knocked-out Panther

Note that this M8 HMC is named “Laxative.”

M8 troop E, 106th Cavalry Recon Group, Karlsbrunn 6 February 1945

Post-war, they were quickly withdrawn, replaced with 105mm SPGs, but they went on to serve with U.S. allies such as Mexico and the KMT Army in exile in Taiwan for another two decades. They saw particularly hard Cold War service in Vietnam, first by the French and then by the Cambodians and South Vietnamese who inherited them.

M8 Scott 75mm howitzer motor carrier, October 1950, Pingtung exercise, ROC Taiwan, KMT

May 8, 1952 – French Indochina. A 75mm M8 howitzer advances on the Lang Khe road. Ref.: TONK 52-122 R37. © Raymond Varoqui/ECPAD/Defense

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