Category Archives: vietnam

103 Carrier Deployments in 13 Years

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Aviation Ordnancemen, assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8, perform routine maintenance on an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) in the Mediterranean Sea, Oct. 16, 2023. VFA-37 is deployed aboard Gerald R. Ford as part of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8. Gerald R. Ford is the U.S. Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, representing a generational leap in the U.S. Navy’s capacity to project power on a global scale. The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Mediterranean Sea, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense. The U.S. maintains forward-deployed, ready, and postured forces to deter aggression and support security and stability around the world. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Tajh Payne)

With the current “where’s the carriers” moment in history– including having the Ford Carrier Strike Group (CVN-78/CAW-8) in the Eastern Mediterranean along with U.S. 6th Fleet command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) and USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19) with half of the 26th MEU aboard while the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CVN-69/CAW-3) is operating in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz with the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the rest of the 26th MEU in the Red Sea– a look back at the old “million sortie” war waged from Yankee and Delta Station days is relevant, in which sortie rates would average upwards of 4,000 a month when three carriers were on station.

Vietnam

The NHHC recognizes at least 103 deployments of 21 assorted fleet carriers (CV, CVA, CVAN, CVS) to support operations in/off Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin between USS Oriskany (CVA-34)’s first cruise that began 1 Aug 1963 and her last that ended, post-Operation Frequent Wind, on 3 March 1976– putting “Big O” as the bookends for the conflict in terms of flattop operations.

The following ships are visible (bottom to top): USS Wiltsie (DD-716), USS Tappahannock (AO-43), USS Oriskany (CVA-34), USS Mars (AFS-1), and USS Perkins (DD-877). The Oriskany, with assigned Carrier Air Wing 19 (CVW-19), was deployed to Vietnam from 16 April to 17 November 1969.

A-7B of VA-215 standing by on the catapult of USS_Oriskany (CV-34) in 1976.

Only one of these carriers (USS Shangri-la) actually touched port in the Republic of South Viet Nam and only for one day (21 June 1970) when she stood into Danang for vitally needed parts for the down Number 3 elevator– received via helo. The ship returned to Yankee Station the same day.

The carriers

The run down by carrier and number of deployments, highest to lowest:

USS Oriskany (10)
USS Hancock (9)
USS Kitty Hawk (9)
USS Constellation (8)
USS Coral Sea (8)
USS Ranger (8)
USS Enterprise (7)
USS Ticonderoga (7)
USS Bon Homme Richard (6)
USS Midway (6)
USS Bennington (4)
USS Kearsarge (4)
USS America (3)
USS Hornet (3)
USS Intrepid (3)
USS Yorktown (3)
USS Forrestal (1)
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (1)
USS Independence (1)
USS Saratoga (1)
USS Shangri-la (1)

It was an air war that started with a generation of aircraft left over from WWII and ended with the final generations of the Cold War. 

A well-worn A-1A Skyraider of VA-215, “The Barn Owls,” is brought up to the Hancock’s catapult, while operating off the coast of Vietnam, 6 May 1966. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate Third Class Worthington, USN 1120337

An F-14A Tomcat of Fighter Squadron (VF) 2 pictured just after launching from the carrier Enterprise (CVAN 65). F-14s flew combat air patrols during Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of South Vietnam in 1975. (1st PHX launch from CV: Bean Barrett/Wizard McCabe) Robert L. Lawson Photograph Collection NNAM.1996.253.7419.029

Deployments by class:

Midway: 15 by 3 carriers
Essex: 50 by 10 carriers
Forrestal: 11 by 4 carriers
Kitty Hawk: 20 by 3 carriers
Enterprise: 7 by 1 carrier

Those who didn’t have a turn in the barrel

Just about every combat carrier in the U.S. arsenal during Vietnam made a deployment there with only a few exceptions.

USS John F. Kennedy (CVA-67), commissioned in 1968, spent Vietnam on Mediterranean Sea deployments. Meanwhile, the brand new USS Nimitz (CVN-68) was commissioned on 3 May 1975 and didn’t embark on her first deployment until the following summer, likewise to the Med.

Of the 19 Essex class flattops that were in commission in the era (1963-76), 10 clocked in on Vietnam’s Yankee/Delta Stations including four that were anti-sub boats. Of the others, four (Essex, Randolph, Wasp, and Lake Champlain) were East Coast anti-submarine (CVS) ships needed in the Atlantic to keep tabs on the Soviet Bear and provide recovery ships for NASA missions, Lexington was in a training role at Pensacola from 1962 onward, Antietam mothballed early in 1963, and the three unmodified “straight deck” carriers (Boxer, Princeton, and Valley Forge) rerated during the era as amphibious helicopter platforms (LPH) and served extensively in both shuttling Marines around during assorted Vietnam operations and carrying Army helicopters to the theater.

Boxer (LPH-4) loaded with 200 helicopters of the 1st Cavalry Division bound for the Vietnam War, 1965

As noted by VADM Dunn in a 2015 article on Yankee Station.

To keep three to four carriers on the line, at least seven had to be deployed. In addition to the four, one of the other three would be at Cubi Point, one at Hong Kong and one at Yokosuka, Japan. The latter had the only real ship repair facility in the western Pacific, with an aircraft repair facility close by, although lighter maintenance and less extensive alternations could be effected in Cubi as well. As for crew liberty, no one seemed to complain about any of the three ports.

Great white elephants?

 
 
Not too many years or even months ago, it was a popular pastime for amateur military strategists to speak and write words that questioned the U. S. investment in aircraft carriers in the U. S. Navy. These capital ships, termed “super-carriers” in the press, were considered to be great white elephants, vulnerable to whatever force an enemy chose to throw at them; costly dinosaurs that plodded the seas at 30 knots in an era when air speeds above a thousand knots were commonplace.
 
Today, as the continuous pounding from the three attack carriers at “Yankee Station” grinds on, this criticism is seldom heard. Instead, there are repeated requests for more carriers on the line, and expressions of approbation from quarters once opposed to the carrier weapons system. Thus, it appears appropriate after three years of conflict in Southeast Asia to examine the aircraft carrier and its aircraft and to forecast its future in this war and others the nation may encounter.

The cost was heavy

Over 700 men from air wings and ships companies were lost in action or taken prisoner. A whole generation of squadron and wing commanders was erased from the pipeline as more than 100 Navy commanders (O-5s) were killed or captured within nine years. No less than 532 Navy fixed-wing carrier aircraft were lost in combat and another 329 to operational causes with the F-4 Phantom leading the pack with 138 lost.

Those figures don’t include another 32 Sea Kings and Sea Sprites lost in operations in the Gulf of Tonkin or of Marines who flew from Navy carriers.

Throw in the terrible fires experienced by USS Oriskany (CV-34) that killed 45 in 1966,  Forrestal in 1967 that killed 134, and Enterprise in 1969 that left 28 dead, and you realize just how dangerous extended carrier operations can be.

Still, the refrain, “Where are the carriers,” endures. 

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023: From Midway to Trafalgar

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023: From Midway to Trafalgar

Above we see a great bow-on shot of the FRAM’d Gearing class destroyer USS Eugene A. Greene (DD/DDR-711)with a bone in her teeth in her second life as the Spanish Navy’s Churruca (D61) in the 1980s, the country’s traditional crimson and gold Rojigualda ensign on her mast, a twin 5″/38 hood ornament and two forward-facing Mk.32 triple torpedo tubes under the bridge wings. Her original moniker comes from naval aviator Eugene Allen Green, born 98 years ago this week.

The Gearings

In July 1942 the U.S. Navy, fighting a U-boat horde in the Atlantic and the Combined Fleet in the Pacific was losing ships faster than any admiral ever feared in his worst nightmare. With that in mind, the Navy needed a lot of destroyers. While the Fletcher and Allen M. Sumner classes were being built en mass, the go-ahead for some 156 new and improved Sumners— stretched some 14 feet to allow for more fuel and thus longer legs to get to those far-off battlegrounds– was given. This simple mod led to these ships originally being considered “long hull Sumners.”

These hardy 3,500-ton/390-foot-long tin cans, the Gearing class, were soon being laid down in nine different yards across the country.

Designed to carry three twin 5-inch/38 cal DP mounts, two dozen 40mm and 20mm AAA guns, depth charge racks and projectors for submarine work, and an impressive battery of 10 21-inch torpedo tubes (downgraded to just 5 tubes) capable of blowing the bottom out of a battleship provided they could get close enough, they were well-armed. Fast at over 36 knots, they could race into and away from danger when needed.

Meet Eugene A. Greene

Our subject is the first Navy ship to be named in honor of Eugene Allen Green, born in Smithtown, New York on 21 November 1921. A 1940 graduate of Rhode Island State College, he attended ROTC while in school and promptly enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve’s air cadet program, earning his ensign bar along with his wings of gold by August 1941.

Assigned to Bombing (VB) Six aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6) in March 1942, he gave his last full measure behind the controls of his SBD (6-B-9) at the ripe old age of 21 during the Battle of Midway when, following the attack by VB-6 against the aircraft carrier Kaga on 4 June, he was one of 14 of the “Big E’s” pilots that had to ditch their planes on the way back home, out of fuel. Greene and his gunner, RM3c SA Mutane, along with the crews of eight other ditched aircraft from Enterprise that day, would never be seen again.

Greene was granted a posthumous Navy Cross in December 1942 and his widow, Mrs. Anita M. Greene, would sponsor the destroyer named in his honor.

The second of 16 Gearings contracted via Federal Shipbuilding, Kearny, New Jersey, the future USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) was laid down on 17 August 1944, launched the following March, and commissioned on 8 June 1945.

War!

While 98 Gearings would eventually be completed, most of these arrived too late to take part in WWII, with Greene joining a club that only included 44 sisters who arrived very late in the war. Although some were present in the final push to Tokyo, none were damaged or lost. Three of the class– USS Frank Knox, Southerland, and Perkins— entered Tokyo Bay in time to be present at the Japanese surrender, on 2 September 1945.

As for Greene, her WWII service, as detailed by her War History, consisted primarily of a shakedown cruise ranging from Penobscot Bay, Maine to Guantanamo Bay then, in mid-August following the news of the Japanese surrender, was assigned to the Atlantic fleet to serve as a school ship in Norfolk and Casco Bay, then to Pensacola to assist as a plane guard for aviation cadets– a task she would be well-versed in over her career.

USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) off New York City on 29 May 1946. She is still painted in wartime Camouflage Measure 22. NH 66345

A Chilly Peace

As the Navy’s newest destroyers, none of the new Gearings were mothballed after the war.

On 13 February 1947, Greene sailed south in a task group bound for Montevideo, Uruguay, to participate in the festivities accompanying the inauguration of the country’s new president, Tomás Berreta. The group also paid a goodwill visit to Rio de Janeiro before returning to Norfolk on 31 March.

Light cruiser USS Fresno (CL-121) on port call at Rio De Janeiro, March 1947, alongside her Gearing class consorts, USS Gearing, USS Gyatt, and USS Eugene A. Greene. Note the stern depth charge racks. The quartet was returning from Uruguay where they represented the U.S. at the inauguration of the new Uruguayan president. The Fresno was launched in 1946, too late to serve in WWII, so she took part in good-will diplomatic missions like this. She was sold for scrap in 1966. Photo attributed to Robert Norville, from NavSource.

As detailed by DANFS, the Norfolk-based Greene then became a staple of the 6th Fleet until 1960:

On 10 November 1947, Eugene A. Greene sailed on the first of 9 Mediterranean cruises made over the next 13 years. During those years, she and her sisters of the U.S. 6th Fleet have guarded the interests of peace and order in that sea which was the cradle of democratic government. Voyages to northern Europe and the Arctic varied the routine of overseas deployment for Eugene A. Greene.

What was skipped by DANFS was the fact that Greene was on hand in the region for five months through the 1956 Suez Crisis just in case she was needed.

It should be noted that, by this stage, she was significantly modernized, picking up a new tripod mast with AN/SPS-6 L-band radar (later augmented by an SPS-8A S-band capable of spotting aircraft 60nm away) and lightened her topside by landing most of her WWII AAA suite, torpedoes, and depth charges. This resulted in a change to a destroyer radar picket (DDR-711) that she held from July 1952 until she reverted to the simpler DD-711 in March 1963.

USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) underway at sea on 19 September 1950. Note that she has received a new tripod mast with AN/SPS-6 radar and has landed much of her WWII AAA suite, torpedoes, and depth charges. National Archives Identifier 24743125

At sea, October 1951. 80-G-442191

USS Eugene A. Greene (DDR-711) off the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 18 December 1952. National Archives Identifier 24743145

Same as the above, bow on 24743147

Same as the above, stb profile. Note the newly installed AN/SPS-8 air search radar aft for her role as a DDR picket. 24743143

The Frostiest Part of the Cold War

Greene experienced the life that came with all the classic 1960s naval adventures in the Atlantic.

Greene is on the list of U.S. Navy ships that received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for participating in the Cuban quarantine, from 24 October through 20 November 1962.

Roger Powell missed ship’s movement of the destroyer USS Rush (DD-714) — along with 44 other shipmates as she sortied out over the weekend on little notice– and was tacked on to help fill out Greene’s crew, similarly, headed for Cuba to be a plane guard alongside the USS Enterprise.

Greene would undergo a nearly year-long FRAM I reconstruction at Boston NSY, completed in October 1963. Meant to add 8 years to the ship’s life via a complete rehabilitation of all shipboard components, it also fundamentally changed the destroyer to a modern sub-buster. The 5″/38 Mount 52 forward was removed during the rebuild while a hangar and platform for the QH-50C DASH ASW drone was added in place of the SPS-8A radar house.

Also new was an 8-cell ASROC matchbox launcher amidships, SQS-23 SONAR, VDS, and a six-pack of Mark 32 torpedo tubes. She added Mk 44 ASW torps to her magazine, for use by her own Mk32s as well as DASH, which theoretically could drop them some 20 miles away from the destroyer.

When she left Boston, she became first the flag of Destroyer Squadron 28, then DESRON 32.

Like most East Coast-based Navy ships in the era, Greene participated in several NASA recovery missions between other assignments, logging two (Mercury-Atlas 2 and 3) in early 1961 and Gemini-Titan 2 (GT-2) in 1965, supporting the primary recovery ship, USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39).

A great view of the post-FRAM’d USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) steaming past USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) during operations on 23 September 1964. Note her ASROC amidships and her big DASH hangar aft in place of the deleted Mount 52. She still carries her aft mount (Mount 53) and forward (51). One of the carrier’s big Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King ASW helicopters is flying by in the right foreground, and another destroyer is in the left distance. Photographer: AN Thomas J. Parrett. NH 107007

Speaking of the Med, Greene would make another four deployments there between 1968 and 1972– and on two of them job into the Persian Gulf/Indian Ocean to show the flag in the increasingly important region. This included a seven-month goodwill cruise with the U.S. Middle East Force in 1968 during which she was the first U.S. ship to enter the new Iranian port of Bander Abbas, doing the Shah’s Navy the courtesy of charting the harbor from end to end with her advanced sonar.

Earning “blue noses” for her crew, she also took part in Operation Deep Freeze ’69 in the Antarctic and two North Atlantic cruises that crossed the Arctic Circle. Warming up, she went to Latin America once again in UNITAS ’68.

War! (This time for real)

Greene, being a top-of-the-line ASW boat post FRAM mods, also sailed to the Pacific to take part in a West Pac deployment (June-December 1966) to Vietnamese waters, shipping via the Panama Canal, Pearl Harbor, Guam, Subic Bay, and Hong Kong to take up station as a plane guard alongside the carrier USS Constellation (CVA-64) on 28 July.

There she remained for a month at sea, every day closing to within 4,000 yards with a rescue detail at the ready in case one of Conny’s birds went into the drink, all the while her sonar techs kept an ear out for anything funny in the depths.

USS Constellation (CVA-64), the third ship named for the configuration of 15 stars on the original United States Flag shows an A-4 Skyhawk given landing instructions by a technical crewman using the Landing Signal Officer’s (LSO) console as the LSO watches, October 1966. Greene was her primary plane guard during a good part of Conny’s 1966 Far East Cruise (12 May–3 December) with CVW-15 on board during which 16 aircrewmen and 15 aircraft were lost in operations. K-33638

This lifeguard work paused on 21 August when Greene was dispatched to close to the South Vietnam littoral under control of Task Unit 70.8.9 where she stood by in the Republic of Vietnam’s I Corps area on call for naval gunfire support missions. Over the next five days, her gunners got in lots of work as she steamed as close as 2,000 yards from shore answering NGFS calls with 311 rounds of HE and WP and providing 90 nighttime star shell illumination for friendly outposts. She was credited with annihilating an enemy base camp, wiping out a platoon-sized element of infiltrators in the open, and destroying several enemy supply buildings.

A sampling from her deck log:

Headed back to Yankee Station after rearming while underway, she worked alongside the carrier USS Coral Sea for the rest of her deployment until she slipped her port shaft in October and had to limp into Tse Ying, Taiwan, for a quick fix that would get her to Subic Bay. Returning to Norfolk in December via the Suez and the Med, Greene ended up circumnavigating the globe in a 205-day around-the-world deployment.

In short, her 27-year career with the U.S. Navy was diverse and, well, just remarkably busy. It was little surprise one of her lasting nicknames was “The Steamin’ Greene.”

But all good things must come to an end and on 31 August 1971, with Greene almost eight promised years to the dot past her FRAM I service life extension, she was decommissioned.

A second life

With the general post-WWII rapprochement between a still very fascist Franco and the Western allies, the 1953 Madrid agreements thawed the chill between the U.S. and the country, opening it to military aid in return for basing.

Soon, the country would receive its first modern submarine, the snorkel-equipped USS Kraken (SS-370) (taken in service as Almirante García de los Reyes, E-1), later joined by three Guppy’d Balao-class smoke boats.

Then came five Lepanto-class destroyers– WWII Fletcher-class tin cans– starting with USS Capps (DD-550) in 1957, which were transferred. The old light carrier USS Cabot was loaned to the Spanish Navy on 30 August 1967, which renamed her Dédalo (R.01).

In many ways, the Spanish fleet by the late 1960s, was very American.

These were soon joined by five FRAM I Gearing class destroyers, starting with USS Eugene A. Greene (DD/DDR-711) in 1972. By this time, the Spanish were also slated to get five new-made Baleares-class frigates, variants of the Knox class destroyer escort/fast frigates updated with Standard SAM suites.

Greene, still on the Navy List, was loaned to Spain the same day she was decommissioned. Renamed Churruca (D61) she honored RADM Cosme Damián Churruca y Elorza, who was lost on his ship-of-the-line San Juan Nepomuceno at Trafalgar in 1805.

Muerte de Cosme Damián Churruca (detalle), Eugenio Álvarez Dumont

Stricken from the U.S. Navy List on 2 June 1975 three years after she joined the Spanish Navy, Greene was sold to Spain for a token fee and remained in service with the force through the 1980s, class leader of her 11th Destroyer Division sisters. To be fair, although they were 30 years old, these FRAM I Gearings in the 1970s and 80s were still capable against Russki Whiskey, Romeo and Foxtrot-type smoke boats and their guns still worked enough for old-school NGFS should the large Spanish naval infantry need fire missions.

Period photos of Churruca show her still very much in her prime.

With the Cold War ending, so did the Gearings worldwide. Churruca was stricken by Spain on 15 September 1989, and disposed of in a SINKEX in 1991.

Sent to the bottom by a mixture of ordnance from Spanish Air Force F-18s and Spanish Navy AV-8 Matadors as well as some Standard missiles and Harpoons, her death was captured on grainy video, much like a snuff film.

Her four sisters in Spanish service (Gravina, ex-USS Furse; Méndez Núñez, ex-USS O’Hare; Lángara, ex-USS Leary; and Blas de Lezo, ex-USS Noa) were all disposed of within another year.

Epilogue

Greene’s deck logs are digitized in the National Archives and represent one of the few items left of the old girl. 

Of her massive armada of 98 Gearing-class sisterships that were completed, 10 survive above water in one form or another including three largely inactive hulls in the navies of Mexico and Taiwan. The others are museum ships overseas except for USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850) in Fall River, Massachusetts; and the USS Orleck (DD-886) in Jacksonville. Please visit these vital floating maritime relics.

Orleck, fresh out of dry dock, being towed to her new home in Jacksonville

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Tragedy in Tustin

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Any fan of aviation or naval history is familiar with this incredible image, that of a monstrous hangar filled with 150~ fresh and brand new F4U Corsairs and at least another 100 F6F Hellcats, plus a few random Helldivers, likely heading for points Pacific in WWII.

The image was inside one of the two wooden blimp hangars at Naval Air Station Santa Anita in Tustin, Orange County, California. Built in 1942 for the U.S. Navy’s Lighter Than Air Program, they were constructed of Douglas Fir, with each some 1,072 feet long, 292 feet wide, and 192 feet high.

Hangar construction with blimp in the air, Lighter Than Air (LTA) Base, 1942

Hangar construction of the roof, Lighter Than Air (LTA) Base, 1942

Hangar construction, Lighter Than Air (LTA) Base Tustin

Hangar Number One under construction, Lighter Than Air (LTA) Base, Tustin, 1943

Each was large enough to store six fully inflated K-class blimps.

Keep in mind a K blimp had a 425,000 cu ft volume and went 251 feet in length.

Or seven in a pinch.

After the war, when the LTA program was put to bed, the base became Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Tustin and was an important cradle for USMC helicopter operations in the Korean and Vietnam eras. 

Aerial view of the Tustin MCAS blimp hangar and Tustin area, ca. 1960. Note the H-34s on the ground around the hangar

It hosted rotor-wing elements of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing into the early 1990s when it was hit by BRAC and closed in 1999.

Meanwhile, Hangars 1 and 2 endured and had been designated in 1975 as National Landmarks and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since then, they have appeared as backdrops in dozens of movies and TV shows.

Sadly, historic Hangar 1 met its end this week due to a fire. It was quick and couldn’t be contained.

Via the Tustin Police Department

Via the Tustin Police Department

Anyone with general questions can call the Tustin Police Department/OC Fire Authority hotline at (714) 628-7085.

Hopefully, Hangar 2 will continue to stand for another 81 years to offset the loss of its sister.

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023: Mad Marcus

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023: Mad Marcus

Photographer: PHCM/AC Louis P. Bodine Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 107602

Above we see a great 1968 image of the Edsall-class destroyer escort-turned-radar picket, USS Vance (DER-387) underway off the coast of Oahu. At this time in the little tin can’s life, she had left her mark on the end of two German U-boats, frozen in polar expeditions, logged three very trying tours off coastal Vietnam, and survived a real-life Lt. Commander Queeg who, no shit, was named for a Roman emperor.

She was brought to life on this day in 1943.

The Edsall class

A total of 85 Edsall-class destroyer escorts were cranked out in four different yards in the heyday of World War II rapid production with class leader USS Edsall (DE-129) laid down 2 July 1942 and last of class USS Holder commissioned 18 January 1944– in all some four score ships built in 19 months. The Arsenal of Democracy at work–building tin cans faster than the U-boats and Kamikazes could send them to Davy Jones.

The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Edsall (DE-129) underway near Ambrose Light just outside New York Harbor on 25 February 1945. The photo was taken by a blimp from Squadron ZP-12. Edsall is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-306257

These 1,590-ton expendable escorts were based on their predecessors, the very successful Cannon-class boats but used an FMR type (Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive) propulsion suite whereas the only slightly less prolific Cannons used a DET (Diesel Electric Tandem) drive. Apples to oranges.

edsallArmed with enough popguns (3×3″/50s, 2x40mm, 8x20mm) to keep aircraft and small craft at bay, they could plug a torpedo into a passing enemy cruiser from one of their trio of above-deck 21-inch tubes, or maul a submarine with any number of ASW weapons including depth charges and Hedgehogs. Too slow for active fleet operations (21 knots) they were designed for coastal patrol (could float in just 125 inches of seawater), sub-chasing, and convoy escorts.

Meet USS Vance

Our subject is the only U.S. Navy warship to carry the name of Joseph Williams Vance, Jr.. A mustang who volunteered for the Navy Reserve at age 21 in 1940, the young Seman Vance served aboard the old battlewagon USS Arkansas (BB-33) and, as he had university hours at Southwestern and Florida on his jacket, was appointed a midshipman in the rapidly expanding Navy after four months in the fleet. Joining the flush deck tin can USS Parrott (DD-218) in the Philippines on 16 April as an ensign in charge of the destroyer’s torpedo battery. Facing the Japanese onslaught in the Western Pacific, Ensign Vance picked up a Bronze Star at the Battle of Makassar Strait (24 January 1942)– the Navy’s first surface action victory in the Pacific– saw action in the Java sea and the Badoeng Strait, and, by Guadalcanal, had been promoted to lieutenant (junior grade). With the promotion came a transfer– to the ill-fated HMAS Canberra, as liaison officer with the Royal Australian Navy. He was aboard Canberra on that tragic night off Savo Island on 9 August 1942 when the Kent-class heavy cruiser was sent to the depths of “Ironbottom Sound” with 73 other members of her crew.

His body lost to sea at age 23, his family remembered Joe in a cenotaph at Bethlehem Cemetery in Memphis. He is also marked on the Tablet of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. The paperwork for Makassar Strait caught up to him eventually and his family was presented his bronze star posthumously.

The future Vance (DE-387) was laid down on 30 April 1943 at Houston, Texas by the Brown Shipbuilding Co. and launched just 10 weeks later on 16 July 1943.

She was sponsored by the late Lt. (jg.) Vance’s grieving mother, Elizabeth Sarah “Beth” Harrison Vance, and Joe’s sister, Willie.

A Coast Guard-manned DE, Vance’s pre-commissioning crew was formed in August 1943 at the sub-chaser school in Miami while their ship was under construction on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico. Consisting of 40 officers and men drawn from across the USCG– most had seen war service chasing subs and escorting convoys across the Atlantic. This skilled cadre left Miami after two months of training and headed to Houston in early October, joining 30 newly minted techs and specialists direct from A schools and 130 assorted bluejackets right from basic.

All hands moved aboard USS Vance on 1 November 1943 when she was commissioned at the Tennessee Coal & Iron Docks in Houston, LCDR Eric Alvin Anderson, USCG, in command. As noted by her War History, “The shipyard orchestra played for the commissioning ceremonies and later sandwiches and coffee were served to all hands.”

Following outfitting and shakedown cruises off Bermuda, Vance became the flagship for the all-USCG Escort Division (CortDiv) 45, including the sequentially numbered sisters USS Lansing (DE-388), Durant (DE-389), Calcaterra (DE-390), Chambers (DE-391) and Merrill (DE-392) with Commodore E.J. Roland raising his command pennant aboard on 19 December.

The CNO, ADM Ernest J. King, had, in June 1943, ordered the Coast Guard to staff and operate 30 new (mostly Edsall-class) destroyer escorts on Atlantic ASW duties, trained especially at the Submarine Training Centers at Miami and Norfolk. Each would be crewed by 11 officers and 166 NCOs/enlisted, translating to a need for 5,310 men, all told.

By November 1943, it had been accomplished! Quite a feat.

The USCG-manned DEs would be grouped in five Escort Divisions of a half dozen ships each, 23 of which were Edsalls:

  • Escort Division 20–Marchand, Hurst, Camp, Crow, Pettie, Ricketts.
  • Escort Division 22–Poole, Peterson, Harveson, Joyce, Kirkpatrick, Leopold.
  • Escort Division 23–Sellstrom, Ramsden, Mills, Rhodes, Richey, Savage.
  • Escort Division 45–Vance, Lansing, Durant, Calcaterra, Chambers, Morrill.
  • Escort Division 46–Menges, Mosley, Newell, Pride, Falgout, Lowe.

These ships were soon facing off with the Germans in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

War!

Celebrating Christmas 1943 at sea “being tossed around like a matchstick,” Vance’s first escort job was to ride shotgun on a group of tankers running from Port Arthur, Texas to Norfolk just after the New Year, then escorting the jeep carrier USS Core (CVE-13) to New York City.

She crossed the Atlantic with her division to escort a large slow (7-10 knots) convoy, UGS.33, to Gibraltar in February then turned around to the return trip with a GUS convoy, returning to the Med with UGS 39 in May, where she would come face to face with the enemy. On 14 May 1944, the Type VIIC sub U-616 (Kplt. Siegfried Koitschka) torpedoed two Allied merchants– the British flagged G.S. Walden (7,127 tons) and Fort Fidler (10,627 tons).

From Vance’s war history:

Eight American destroyers and aircraft from five squadrons hunted U-616 until it was sunk on 17 May, lost with all hands.

1944 Palermo, Sicily – USS Vance (DE 387) via navsource

Following her battle with U-616, Vance would recycle and cross the Atlantic again with UGS.46 in June, UGS.53 in September, UGS.66 in January 1945, UGS.78 in March 1945, and UGS.90 in May 1945. The latter dispersed on 18 May as it wasn’t considered needed after the German surrender.

It was on this last convoy that the advanced Type IXD2 Schnorchel-fitted submarine, U-873 (Kptlt. Friedrich Steinhoff), was sighted on the surface at 0230 on 11 May off the Azores by Vance and her sister, Durant. Finding Steinhoff’s crew, illuminated by 24-inch searchlights and with every gun on two destroyers trained on them, ready to surrender and the boat making no offensive actions, Vance put a whaleboat with the ship’s XO, Lt. Carlton J. Schmidt, USCGR; Ensign Vance K. Randle, USCG; and 19 enlisted aboard to take U-873 as prize. They found seven Kriegsmarine officers and 52 enlisted, about half of whom had come from the gesunken U-604.

By 0410, a spare U.S. ensign was hoisted aboard the German boat, and Vance, departing the convoy with her prize, made for Bermuda, then was directed to Casco Bay to bring the sub to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, arriving there on the 17th.

U-873 is under her own power, manned by 2 officers and 19 crewmembers of USS Vance DE 387. Notably, U-873 carried a rare twin 3.7 cm Flakzwilling M43U on the DLM42 mount, seen stern. Photo courtesy of Joe Haberkern, son of Joseph W. Haberkern, Jr., MoMM2/C, Plankowner

Captain Friedrich Steinhoff (wearing white cap) and Officers and Crew of Surrendered German U-873 on Deck of Tug, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, May 17, 1945. Note the Marine to the right with a Reising SMG at the ready. NARA photo

Steinhoff under heavy Marine guard

Crewmembers of USS Vance DE 387. Showing items from their captured German U-boat, U-873. Photo courtesy of Joe Haberkern, son of Joseph W. Haberkern, Jr., MoMM2/C, Plankowner

Sadly, as detailed by U-boat.net, even though VE-Day was well past, post-war POW life would not be kind to U-873‘s crew.

Steinhoff and his men were taken, not to POW camp, but to Charles Street Jail, a Boston city jail where they were locked up with common criminals while awaiting disposition to a POW camp. There are many accounts of mistreatment of the U-boat men while they were held there.

After suffering harsh interrogation, Steinhoff- [brother of rocket scientist and future U.S> Army rocketry bright bulb Ernst Steinhoff] committed suicide on the morning of 19 May 1945, opening his arteries using broken glass from his sunglasses. U-873‘s doctor, Dr. Karl Steinke, attempted to give first aid but was too late.

Steinhoff was buried in the military cemetery at Fort Devens, age 35, while the rest of his crew were sent to warm their skin in a Mississippi POW camp until repatriated.

As for U-873, she was placed in dry dock for a design study of her type by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard engineers and then later transferred to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for tests. After trials, the U-boat was scrapped in 1948, her lessons being rolled into the Navy’s GUPPY program.

For Vance, her war in the Atlantic and Med was over.

She put into Boston Naval Yard for additional AAA guns and departed on 2 July 1945 bound for the Pacific. Crossing through “The Ditch” and putting into San Diego then Pearl Harbor, she was there with orders to sail for the 5th Fleet in Philippine waters when news of the Japanese surrender overtook her.

Ordered to the Green Cove Springs, Florida reserve fleet, she was decommissioned on 27 February 1946. Her Coast Guard crew returned to their home service, with most being demobilized. Her skipper for five of her eight convoy runs and the capture of U-873, LCDR Frank Vincent Helmer, USCG (USCGA ’35), would go on to retire as a rear admiral during the 1960s.

The Edsall class, 1946 Janes.

Break out the White Paint

With the dramatic surge in air and maritime traffic across some downright vacant stretches of the Pacific that came with the Korean War, the USCG was again tapped to man a growing series of Ocean Stations. Two had been formed after WWII and the Navy added another three in 1950, bringing the total to five.

These stations would serve both a meteorological purpose– with U.S. Weather Bureau personnel embarked– as well as serve as floating checkpoints for military and commercial maritime and air traffic and communication “relay” stations for aircraft on transoceanic flights crisscrossing the Pacific. Further, they provided an emergency ditch option for aircraft (a concept that had already been proved by the Bermuda Sky Queen rescue in 1947, which saw all 69 passengers and crew rescued by the cutter Bibb.)

As detailed by Scott Price in The Forgotten Service in the Forgotten War, these stations were no picnic, with the average cutter logging 4,000 miles and as many as 320 radar fixes while serving upwards of 700 hours on station.

Ocean station duty could be monotonous at one moment and terrifying the next, as the vessels rode out storms that made the saltiest sailors green. One crew member noted: “After twenty-one days of being slammed around by rough cold sea swells 20 to 50 feet high, and wild winds hitting gale force at times, within an ocean grid the size of a postage stamp, you can stand any kind of duty.”

A typical tour was composed of arriving at Midway Island for three weeks on SAR standby, three weeks on Ocean Station Victor midway between Japan and the Aleutian Islands, three weeks on SAR standby at Guam, two weeks “R and R” in Japan, three weeks on Ocean Station Sugar, three weeks on SAR standby Adak, Alaska, and then back to home port.

To stand post on these new ocean stations and backfill for other cutters detailed to the role, the Navy lent the USCG 12 mothballed Edsalls (Newell, Falgout, Lowe, Finch, Koiner, Foster, Ramsden, Rickey, Vance, Lansing,  Durant, and Chambers), nine of which the service had originally operated during WWII.

To man these extra vessels and fill other wartime roles such as establishing new LORAN stations and pulling port security, the USCG almost doubled in size from just over 18,000 to 35,082 in 1952.

The conversion to Coast Guard service included a white paint scheme, an aft weather balloon shelter (they would have to launch three balloons a day in all sea states), and the fitting of a 31-foot self-bailing motor surfboat for rescues in heavy weather. The USCG designator “W” was added to the hull number, as was the number 100.

This brings us to Vance, some seven years in Florida mothballs, being recommissioned as the white-painted USCGC Vance (WDE-487) on 9 May 1952. She was stationed at Honolulu, and, assigned to the Commander Philippine Section, served on Ocean Station Queen there from 2-23 August 1953, and again on 4-24 October 1953.

Coast Guard Cutter Vance WDE 487 working with a Sangley Point USCG-operated PBM-5G, one of two PBM-5Gs and a JRF that were assigned to augment the PBY-5As there in 1951-53. Importantly, one of the Sangley Point PBMs went to attempt the rescue of a VP-22 P2V-5 Neptune (BuNo 127744) crew shot down in the Formosa Strait while the aircraft was on a covert patrol along the Communist Chinese coast near Swatow. USCG photo 211103-G-G0000-002

Vance was decommissioned for a second time on 3 April 1954 and returned to the Navy.

DER

The DER program filled an early gap in the continental air defense system by placing a string of ships as sea-based radar platforms to provide a distant early warning line to possible attack from the Soviets. The Pacific had up to 11 picket stations while the Atlantic had as many as nine. A dozen DEs became DERs through the addition of SPS-6 and SPS-8 air search radars to help man these DEW lines as the Atlantic Barrier became fully operational in 1956 and the Pacific Barrier (which Vance took part in) by 1958.

To make room for the extra topside weight of the big radars, they gave up most of their WWII armament, keeping only their Hedgehog ASW device and two Mark 34 3-inch guns that would eventually be fitted with aluminum and fiberglass weather shields.

DER conversion of Edsall (FMR) class ships reproduced from Peter Elliot’s American Destroyer Escorts of WWII

Detail of masts. Note the WWII AAA suite, one of the 3″ guns, and centerline 21-inch tubes have been landed

Vance was towed to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in November 1955 for conversion to a radar picket destroyer escort. Designated DER-378 as a result, she recommissioned for a second time on 5 October 1956, a 12-year-old Navy escort with its first Navy skipper, CDR Albert Martin Brouner (USNA ‘44).

USS Vance (DER-387) underway in San Francisco Bay, California (USA), on 1 November 1956. Note her 3-inch guns are open, which would change in the 1960s when they would get distinctive weather shields. Photo via Navsource

As detailed by DANFS:

Between March of 1957 and the end of the year, Vance was homeported at Seattle, Wash., as a unit of CortDiv 5 and completed eight patrols on various stations of the Radar Early Warning System in the northern Pacific. Each tour lasted approximately 17 days, and the ship maintained a round-the-clock vigil with air-search radars, tracking and reporting every aircraft entering or approaching the air space of the northwestern United States.

This continued into 1958 when she shifted homeports to Pearl Harbor; and she began operating with CortRon 7, the first ship working the DEW line in the newly organized Pacific barrier patrol. This would continue through early 1965, with a segway to join TF43 for Deepfreeze ’62, serving as the relay ship for aircraft bringing supplies to the Antarctic stations from Dunedin, New Zealand between August 1961 and March 1962. In this duty, she was called “The Loneliest Ship in the Navy.”

Then came Vietnam.

Market Time

With the DEW line service fading as far as the Navy was concerned at the same time the Navy established Operation Market Time (March 1965-1972) to prevent North Vietnamese ships from supplying enemy forces in South Vietnam, recycling the fleet’s increasingly idle shallow-draft DERs into what would be today called a littoral combat ship was an easy choice.

Vance would complete four WestPac cruises (March-Sept 1965, Jan.-August 1966, Dec. 1966- August 1967, Jan-Aug. 1968) with the 7th Fleet, detached to TF 115 for use in brown water. Of note, she was the first DER to take a Market Time station, reporting for duty to CTU 71.1.1 on 1 April 1965, and soon after was the first U.S. Navy ship to take aboard a Vietnamese Navy Liaison Officer while underway.

USS VANCE South China Sea 1966. Note the weather shields on her 3-inch mount

For example, during this time Task Force 115 consisted of an LST mothership, 70 Navy PCFs, 26 Coast Guard 82-foot patrol boats (WPBs), with the support of the “big boys” in the form of eight DERs (including Vance), and 16 smaller minesweepers (six MSCs, and 10 MSOs).

USS Vance (DER-387) – November 1967. Note her Hedgehog device uncovered and ready to rock 

A typical breakdown of how one of these deployments would run can be had from Vance’s 220-day 1967 stint which included 62 days on Market Time operations in the Vietnam littoral, 24 days on the tense Taiwan Patrol, and 15 days in Hong Kong as SOPA Admin station ship. To illustrate just how busy a Market Time rotation could be, in her short 1965 deployment which included just 92 days under TF 115, Vance had 1,538 radar contacts, sighted visually 1,001, and investigated 185 vessels.

USS Vance (DER-387) underway at sea on 26 November 1967 NHHC

Among the more notable incidents while on Market Time was saving Capt. Leland D. Holcomb, USAF, who had ejected from a burning F-100 Super Sabre in 1965 while on a ferry mission from Danang to Clark AFB in the PI. Her 1966, 1967, and 1968 reports are on file in the NHHC and make interesting and sometimes entertaining reading.

Vance as radar picket 1960s with her glad rags flying. Note by this time the large EW “pod” on her aft mast.

Oh yeah, something else happened while off Vietnam as well.

The Arnheiter Affair

LCDR Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter entered West Point in 1946 but subsequently resigned, later obtaining an appointment to Annapolis where he passed out as 628th of 783 mids in 1952 and then saw Korean War service on the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61). He later saw much service on destroyers (USS Ingersoll– where he served as XO– Fiske, Coolbaugh, Abbot, and Worden), held a series of staff appointments in the Pentagon where he authored a novel (Shadow of Pearl) under a pseudonym before arriving on Vance’s quarterdeck as her 14th (7th Navy) skipper on 22 December 1965.

Just 99 days later, he was relieved of his first, and last, seagoing command.

The scandal over just what happened in those 99 days aboard Vance is lengthy, including a book by NYT writer Neil Sheehan that was the subject of a libel suit filed by Arnheiter. Suffice it to say, there are avenues to dig deeper if you are curious but among the (many) oddities seen on Vance during Arnheiter’s command was the purchase (through MWR funds!) of a 16-foot fiberglass speedboat that was armed with a .30 caliber M1919 machine gun and painted with a shark’s mouth.

The speedboat was supposed to be for interdiction and patrol work but ended up getting Vance’s crew into problems time after time.

Other oddities included the skipper’s insistence to blare the Hellcat Reveille over the 1MC while in port rather than a simple bosun call for reveille, follow gun line destroyers into no-go areas while they were performing NGFS ashore to the point that said destroyer’s skipper directed the radio traffic be recorded and incident logged, establishing a “boner box” in the wardroom with mandatory levies of 25-cents per perceived infraction, requiring non-religious personnel to attend services, cruising danger close to shore (like within small arms range) while only one engine was working, doubling the small arms locker from 15 authorized M1 Garands to 30 without permission then holding wild live-fire drills in congested waters (to include reportedly keeping a rifle on the bridge wing that the skipper would use to zip off rounds at random “sea snakes” while VBSS crews were away checking a sampan.)

Following a six-day non-judicial inquiry at Subic, Arnheiter was removed from his command quietly but not reprimanded or court-martialed, even though he repeatedly requested the latter to clear his name, even lobbying Congress. He ended up retiring from the service in 1971, still as an LCDR, and passed in 2009, aged 83. Sheehan died in 2021, likely closing the matter although both continue to be the subject of much conversation.

As for USS Vance, her usefulness ended following extensive Vietnam service, she was decommissioned on 10 October 1969.

Her fellow DERs shared a similar fate, either laid up in mothballs or transferred to overseas allies.

1973 Janes on the Edsall class DERs.

Stricken on June 1, 1975, Vance was used as a target for several years off the California coast until finally sent to the bottom in deep water in a 1985 SINKEX.

Vance in August 1983 when being used as a target ship off San Francisco. The sign amidships reads “Target Ship – Stand Clear.” Photo from Ozzie Henry who acquired them from a sailor at a DESA Convention. Via the USS Vance veterans’ group.

Vance received seven battle stars for USN service in Vietnam in addition to her USCG service in WWII and Korea.

Epilogue

Vance’s war history, plans, and diaries are in the National Archives.

Vance’s memories are carried forward by a well-organized veterans’ group and they last had a reunion last October in Georgia.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Le Char Chaffee

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U.S. Light Tank, M24 entered production in 1943 with Cadillac and Massey-Harris with the tractor firm making 1,139 at its Racine, Wisconsin facility (a former Nash-Kelvinator plant!) and another 3,592 hulls coming direct from Cadillac’s Detroit factory, with lots of sub-components supplied by Oldsmobile.

They were an excellent light tank for the era, hitting the scales at 20 tons (which was still much larger than a 15-ton circa 1941 M3 Stuart that it would doctrinally replace) while carrying an effective 75mm M6 main gun, up to 38mm of armor (which was actually lighter in spots than the Stuart but better than nothing) and could hit speeds of up to 35 mph on good roads and with good tracks/wheels.

Fort Hood, a good example in size between an M24 Chaffee light tank, M4A3E8 Easy Eight Sherman medium tank, and M26 Pershing heavy tank, all shown with deep wading equipment

It came rather late to WWII and only started reaching the ETO in November 1944, not making much of a difference. In U.S. service, however, it did see much more action in the first days of Korea, as we have covered in the past.

Where the M-24 really shined, in terms of military history, is in rebuilding Allied tank forces post-war, and it saw something like 28 different operators including Norway who used them until the end of the Cold War, only retiring their Cadillac-Massey light tanks in 1993!

NM-116: Norwegian M24 Chaffe repurposed as a tank destroyer

In fact, that is where the “Chaffee” designation comes from on the tank, issued by the British who were fond of naming Lend-Leased Yank tanks for generals.

However, while countries as wide-reaching as Ethiopia, Chile, and Denmark would use the humble little Chaffee, no one used as many as the French, who picked up no less than 1,250 M-24s in the late 1940s to early 1950s– a full one out of every four built.

These tanks saw lots of serious use in Indochina from 1947-54 in French hands, where the small (compared to a main battle tank) was ideal from primitive roads and bridges.

26 March 1951 Indochine française. French and Vietnamese soldiers catching a ride on the M24 Chaffee “Metz”. Réf. : TONK 51-37C R13 Guy Defives; Paul Corcuff/ECPAD/Defence

Ten were even flown, disassembled into components, into Dien Bien Phu where they served as mobile artillery for the embattled garrison, reportedly firing in excess of 15,000 shells during the siege.

French Foreign Legionnaires working on US-supplied M24 Chaffee tanks at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina. They would suffer repeated massed bazooka and recoilless rifle attacks and somehow endure. 

Once the French left, the NVA and ARVN had so many third-hand Chaffees inherited that they continued to use them well into the 1960s, with the South Vietnamese replacing theirs with U.S.-supplied M-41A3 Walker Bulldogs and Uncle Ho’s tankers graduating to Soviet-supplied PT-76 light tanks with the latter first seeing combat against the Lang Vei Special Forces camp on 6/7 February 1968.

Two M24 Chaffee tanks of the People’s Army of Vietnam, which had been captured from French forces, at a military parade in Hanoi, 1955.

M24 Chaffee light tanks of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) prior to the commencement of operations in the Iron Triangle, Oct 1965. Binh Duong Province, Ben Cat. Tom Gosper photo via the AWM. P11006.017

The ARVN also transferred many semi-working M24s to the VNAF, the South Vietnamese airforce, for use in static roles by their local security police, which continued well into the 1970s. 

M24 Chaffee of the VNAF (South Vietnamese Air Force) guards Tan Son Nhut in Saigon.

Some fought to the bitter end, pressed into service in a losing battle against impossible odds.

M41 Bulldog and M24 Chaffee light tanks of the ARVN after being destroyed by North Vietnamese T-54 on the outskirts of Saigon, during the 1975 Spring Offensive

As for the French, they kept a few M-24s in their inventory where some saw combat in Algeria as late as 1962, but by that time had moved to replace them with more than 3,500 domestically-produced air-portable AMX-13, which remained in service with the Republic into the 1980s and is still seen in many third world environments as another 3,500 were exported to French allies– a true successor for the M24. 

70 Year Throwback: Operation Seagull

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October 1953, French Indochina. A locally recruited paratrooper of 2e Bataillon du 1e Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes (2/1er RCP) posted in observation and firing position, on the edge of Phu Nho Quan (Nho-Quan district) during Operation Mouette (Seagull). As a sign of being in an elite unit, he is armed with a new 10-shot 7.5mm MAS 49 rifle outfitted with an APX L806 scope– a decent setup for the time– and clad in a combination of TAP 47 uniform and American “Beo Gam” duck hunter camo. Also, note the American bino case and canteen. 

Ref: TONK 53-112 R83 ©Pierre.Ferrari/ECPAD/Defense

Mouette, which ran throughout October and into December, would see a 24,000-man French force attempt to encircle and defeat a Viet Minh divisional-sized element around the Phu Nho Quan area, south of the Red River Delta. In the end, the French withdrew, claiming a tactical victory, and the area “pacified,” citing that the Viet Minh had suffered “at least 10 times the casualties” they had inflicted in return (~750) on the men of the Republic.

As for the 1er RCP, it was formed 80 years ago this month in Oujda, Morocco on 7 October 1943, 11 months after the Torch Landings, made up of 10 companies and an HHC group, with a cadre from the old 1re Compagnie parachutiste, which had been formed in 1941 from remnants of two earlier French air force paratrooper companies (601e GIA, 602e GIA) that had shifted to Oued Smar aerodrome outside of Algiers post-Fall of France.

The original pre-WWII 601e and 602e GIA (Groupe d’infanterie de l’Air) companies were part of the Air Force but some cadre were folded into the 1er RCP

They had already been bloodied in service to the Allies, with volunteers accompanying the U.S. 2/509th Parachute Infantry Regiment during the raid to destroy a bridge in El Djem, Tunisia on Christmas Eve 1942.

The French paras trained side-by-side at Oujda with the U.S. 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (82nd Airborne Div) and, by D-Day, sent several sticks over Normandy in 15 small jumps on June 6, 1944, to help establish bases in the German rear in association with SOE and BCRA.

Their first company-size operation was on 5 August, when 84 men of 2nd Coy and 83 of 3rd Coy, as part of the French 3rd battalion of Special Air Service, jumped in Operation Derry 1, 2, 3, to protect bridges around Ploudaniel, Saint-Jean du Doigt, and Finistère, France. Later jumps were made in the enemy’s rear to harass the German withdrawal from Southern France while more men were detached for service and embedded with Allied paratroopers for the Dragoon Landings.

Trained and typically operating with American sky soldiers, the men of the 1er RCP used GI arms and equipment in WWII, with the 1937-established French paratrooper insignia

Then came lots of use as traditional infantry in the Vosges and Colmar regions.

Later in the war, they would make small jumps into Holland as late as April 1945.

When it came to Indochina, the RCP would send two companies in late 1946, making their first (of 21) combat jumps in the region there at Sam Neva, Laos on 23 March 1947 before the whole unit was eventually deployed, even turning to local recruitment and an in-theatre parachute school to keep it flush.

Some of the biggest Indochina missions for the regiment included dropping 450 men in Operation Papillon 1, to capture Hoa Binh in April 1947, a 532-man airborne inserted search and destroy operation between Cu Van and La Hien dropped on 26 November 1947, Operation Pingouin, where 283 men were dropped to neutralize a Vietminh unit at Hoang Xa in September 1948; seizing Son Tay with a full 734-man airdropped battalion in November 1948, a 1,000-man raid on Day in December (revisited the next year in Operation Pegase with a similar force), 331 men recapturing Nam Dinh in 1949’s Operation Anthracite, and their Indochine swan song– setting down among 2,650 massed paratroopers to establish a base at a remote place known as Dien Bien Phu on 20 November 1954.

Then came Algeria, Lebanon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Bosnia, Afghanistan, the Ivory Coast, Haiti, Mali, etc.

Today, the regiment is part of the 11th Parachute Brigade (11e BP) and their motto is “Vaincre ou mouri“– Victory or Death.

And they very much remember their past. 

They maintain the French parachutist badge first established in 1937, and their regimental flag has honors for Vosage (1944) Colmar (1945) Indochine (1947-50, 53-54), and AFN (Algeria) 1952-62. Besides the traditional amaranth (red) airborne beret, they also wear a blue Air Force cap on occasion, to mark the old 601e/602e GIA linage.

Legion calling…

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70 years ago today: 5 Septembre 1953 – Indochine Française. Radioman 1er bataillon du 3e Régiment Etranger d’Infanterie (1/3e REI).

Photo by Pierre Ferrari/ECPAD/Défense TONK 53-84 R3

Note the M1 Thompson submachine gun in the center of the photo and a MAS 36 on the ground to the left. Also, drink in the Mle. 47/49 bush caps– “Le Chapeau de Brousse“– and a “canne du poilus,” a staple of French soldiers going back to 1914. 

Formed 11 November 1915 to serve in the Great War from the shattered remnants of other Foreign Legion units, the 3e REI earned its kepis under the command of the famed Lt. Col. Paul-Frédéric Rollet, “the father of the Legion” at the siege of de Belly-en-Santerr, the Somme, Verdun, and in piercing the Hindenburg Line. Following inter-war service in Africa and combat against the Germans in 1940 and 1943-45, the regiment embarked for Indochina in 1946 and served through Dien Bien Phu, losing 3,837 Legionnaires in Southeast Asia. Notably, its Indochina-era march, “Anne-Marie du 3e REI” has its lyrics in German, a clear reference to the old “Devil’s Guard” days when much of the Legion were former Wermacht and even Waffen SS troopers.

Following combat in Algeria, the regiment moved to Madagascar in 1962 when that country became independent and then, in 1973, back to the jungles when it shifted garrison to Kourou in French Guiana where it still exists today as a battalion-sized light infantry force guarding France’s space center and operating the French Army jungle warfare school.

The more things change…

Vigilante at 65

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31 August 1958 saw the first flight, with North American Aviation test pilot Richard Wenzel at the stick, of the No.1 prototype North American XA3J-1, eventually to be known as the A-5 Vigilante.

The big American carrier-based supersonic bomber was powered by a pair of General Electric J79-GE-2 turbojet engines each rated at 15,150 lbs trust with afterburning, and the program sped along with the Vigilante going supersonic for the first time just a week later on 5 September.

Some 76 feet long and with a 50-foot wingspan, the big bird had a maximum takeoff load of some 32 tons– nearly twice that of the B-25s that Jimmy Doolittle had to shoehorn onto the deck of the USS Hornet just 16 years before. Likewise, they could carry a much more capable bomb load much further, being dedicated to the strategic nuclear strike role and capable of air-to-air refueling.

A3J-1 Vigilante pictured during an open house at an unidentified air station in 1961. Likely NAS Stanford where VAH-1 was set up

By 1960, the 6th Vigilante (4th production frame) completed carrier suitability tests by making 14 launches and landings on the USS Saratoga (CVA-60).

The 4th production North American A3J-1 Vigilante bomber (BuNo 146697) conducted the type’s initial carrier suitability tests aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CVA-60) during the week of 25 July 1960. Piloted by NATC’s CDR Carl Cruse, LCDR Ed Decker, and LT Dick Wright, the Vigilante made 14 successful launches and arrested landings.

On December 13, 1960, an A3J-1 crewed by CDR Leroy Heath and LT Larry Monroe set a new altitude record of 91,450.8 feet– beating the previous record by over 4 miles. They did this with an operational 2,200-pound payload. The Vig was capable.

The first squadron, VAH-3, was set up in 1961 and the operational debut of the Vigilante was in August of 1962 when VAH-7 deployed aboard the USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) for a short cruise in the Mediterranean. 

Heavy Attack Squadron (VAH) 7 “Peacemakers” aircrew pictured in front of an A-5A Vigilante on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVAN 65) on its first cruise, 1962, just four years after the type first flew– note the brown shoes

However, with the Navy wanting more nuclear eggs in one SSBN-shaped basket, they soon started converting the A-5 to the RA-5C recce bird, and 10 RAVH squadrons were ultimately established, with eight of those seeing service over Vietnam– and 18 Vigilante left there, numbers that qualified as decimation by the old Roman standard.

With air bosses wanting more room on their flight decks for sexy new F-14s, post Vietnam the Vigilante’s days were numbered.

The size difference between the A-5 Vigilante and A-4 Skyhawk. She was a big bird that took up lots of space. 

The last RA-5C squadron, RVAH-7, completed its final deployment to the Western Pacific aboard USS Ranger in late 1979 and the type was retired by the end of the year.

RA-5C BuN0 156608 of RVAH-7 Peacemakers of USS Ranger (CV61)– the last operational Vig

In all, just 170 Vigilantes of all variants would be produced, one of the shortest runs of U.S. carrier tactical aircraft in modern times. Compare this to 188 S-3 Vikings.

Point Brown, is that you?

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USCGC Point Swift (WPB-82312) likely off Florida in the 1980s, note the 50 cals

The 79 assorted 82-foot Point class patrol boats largely held the line in the Cold War for the Coast Guard, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, with some serving as late as 2003.

A whole batch of 26 served in Market Time operations off Vietnam, fighting it out with NVA armed trawlers and VC sappers.

USCGC Point Grey (WPB-82324) off Vietnam. Note her M2/81mm piggyback forward, at least three M2s over the stern, and nearly a dozen Coasties on deck preparing the away boat

Very few of these craft survive, and there is one, formerly USCGC Point Brown (WPB 82362), that is up for grabs in excellent condition. Plus, she is only $70K and would make a great little museum ship, especially for any of the dozens of coastal towns that based these 82s back in the day.

Via the ad:

Selling a unique vessel, an ex-US coast guard 82’ patrol/ rescue boat. Built in 1967 by the US coast guard as a point class cutter to serve until 1991, research online the history of these great ships. This was formerly WPB82362 Point Brown, after her service she was repurposed as a training ship at a college in RI. In 2000 she was purchased by a former USCG Commander, he bought her and had her for 20 years as a liveaboard, after 9/11 she was put back into Auxiliary CG service and patrolled NY waters.

I bought her in 2020 and my plans for use have changed due to other ships I have. All details would be better discussed to those of serious interest. Do some research, she’s a great ship, in full operation, ole faithful Cummin diesels VT12-900M, twin 2-71 Det gens. Full galley, mess. 2 heads, accommodations. My plans have changed with her, hauled April 2022 for bottom job, docked on Staten Island. Too many details to list. Negotiable open to offers. Thank you

If you hold your ear close, you can almost hear a gearshift…

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In my travels around New Orleans, I tend to come across old French Foreign Legion insignia in antique and curious goods shops. My guess is that francophiles and Cajuns in the area often at one point would sign up for life in the old Legion then return home at the end of the contract and, holding their old insignia as souvenirs of places long gone, they would eventually ebb away from them when they passed on to the great barracks in the sky. Echoes of history, I suppose.

This one is appropriate today.

It belongs to the 2nd Foreign Legion Transportation Company, 519th Transportation Group (2e Compagnie de Transport de la Legion Etrangere du Groupe de Transport No 519) which only existed from June 1949 to 31 July 1953– disbanding 70 years ago today.

Rushed into battle, it had been created from 120 members of the 1er REI based at Sidi Bel Abbes following a crash course (no pun intended) in truck driving.

After forming in Algeria, CTLE 2/519 spent its life in Indochina. While there, it was largely based in the Cholon district of Saigon, and ran troops, ammunition, food, mail, and vehicles throughout Cochinchine, working primarily with the famed 13e DBLE and the Legion’s 1er REC.

Collecting Foreign Legion Badges tell us that CTLE 2/519’s badge was approved on 20 April 1950, and that “many variants of the badge exist, the normal version of the badge is made by Drago, Paris.”

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