Some 60 years ago this week, over the skies of the Republic of Vietnam.
An LTV F-8E Crusader of the “Hunters” of Fighter Squadron 162 (VF-162), fires 2.75-inch Zuni rockets in support of ground forces in South Vietnam during USS Oriskany (CVA-34)’s 1966 West Pac deployment. The photo is dated 23 July 1966. Eighteen rockets are visible in this image.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph USN 1117222, now in the collections of the National Archives.
VF-162 was established aboard NAS Miramar on 1 September 1960 as a Douglas F4D outfit but only flew their pokey Skyrays on their first deployment aboard USS Intrepid in the Med in 1961-62.
Switching to the speedy F-8 in 1963, they would make their next four deployments from Oriskany’s deck on Westpac cruises (Aug 63 – Mar 64, Apr 65 – Dec 65, May 66 – Nov 66, and Jun 67 – Jan 68).
A Sidewinder-armed F-8E Crusader from the VF-162 Hunters prepares to launch from USS Oriskany (CVA 34) on a mission over North Vietnam in August 1967. Note the “Hunters” moniker on the aircraft’s wing roots.
Keeping the Tonkin Gulf in their blood, the Hunters shipped out in 1969 for another Vietnam tour aboard USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) and their last on USS Shangri-La (CVS-38) in 1970.
With 16 aircraft lost in action, VF-162 had the second-highest combat loss rate after VF-111 of the F-8 fighter units deployed to Vietnam, but had two confirmed A-to-A MiG kills (9 October 1966, when CDR Dick Bellinger bested a VPAF MiG-21; and 14 December 1967, when LT Richard Wyman shot down a VPAF MiG-17).
VF-162 disestablished on 29 January 1971, having just nine years on the books but lots of time in combat.
The squadron’s last “deployed” aviator downrange, LCDR Richard Minnich, shot down over North Vietnam by an SA-2 in December 1968, had his remains repatriated in December 1985 and identified the next year.
Capt. Elmer Royce Williams (Ret.), the United States Navy’s most recent Medal of Honor recipient, will celebrate his 101st birthday in April. Capt. Williams was formally inducted into the Hall of Heroes this week for deeds done in Korea some 73 years ago.
Minted as a WWII-era naval aviator at Pensacola in August 1945, he flew F9F-5 Panthers with the “Pacemakers” of VF-781 aboard the USS Oriskanyoff Korea, chalking up 70 combat sorties.
The most famous of these sorties, on 18 November 1952, included a 35-minute dogfight (not a misprint) that pitted Williams and his wingman against seven MiG-15s in what is believed to be the longest dogfight in U.S. Navy history. He splashed four of these MiGs and, when he landed, ground crews on Oriskany counted 263 holes in his Panther.
The nitty-gritty details of the dogfight were covered up for years so as not to offend the Reds, who may or may not have lost four Soviet Naval Aviation pilots that day (later confirmed to be Captains Belyakov and Vandalov, and Lieutenants Pakhomkin and Tarshinov).
Can you imagine? A half hour of turning and burning against smaller and more maneuverable swept-wing MiGs in an all-gun fight at speeds no WWII pilot had to contend with. To this day, no single U.S. Navy pilot has repeated his one-engagement MiG tally, especially in a gun fight.
Williams earned a Silver Star at the time (later upgraded to a Navy Cross) and, in retrospect, the MoH is certainly in order.
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.
– Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, April 3
Today we see the last of the US Navy’s WWII Essex-class fleet carriers to commission, USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34). The Big O, a ‘long-hull’ ship stretched by more than thirty feet, was the 24th Essex commissioned with eight of her sister-ships never completed.
The Essex class was the USS Nimitz of its day, the most powerful and modern aircraft carrier in the world. Ordered August 1942 during the epic sea battles around Guadalcanal Oriskany was not finally completed and commissioned until 25 September 1950. This was because the end of WWII in 1945 brought a near halt to her construction and then a drastic change to her configuration. She earned two battle-stars in Korea, her aircraft pounding North Korean and Chinese ‘volunteer’ positions to gruel.
Oriskany with F4U Corsairs aboard off Korea in 1952. I challenge you to find a more beautiful warplane of the 1950s!
Oriskany, built as the most modern Essex class in the fleet, was the last angled-deck conversion, received a unique SCB-125A refit which upgraded her to 27C standard, and included steam catapults and an aluminum flight deck in 1959.
With Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard, January 1968. Just count all of those A4s and Vigilantes! You can see the difference between the angled flight deck here when compared to her 1940s style strait deck seen in the 1955 image scrolling up.
Oriskany deployed to Vietnam six times in the 1960s and 70s, usually with Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard, winning an additional five battle-stars. Between 10 May and 6 December 1965 alone, she carried out over 12,000 combat sorties (60 per day) and delivered nearly 10,000 tons of ordnance against enemy forces.
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.
Her 1960s era air wing consisted of two fighter squadrons of F-8J Crusaders, three attack squadrons of A-4E Skyhawks, 4 E-1 AEW Tracers, 4 EKA-3B Skywarriors, and 4 RF-8G photo Crusaders. Not bad for a carrier designed to fly F4F Wildcats.
A-7B of VA-215 standing by on catapult of USS Oriskany (CV-34) in 1976.
In 1970, the three A-4 squadrons were replaced by two squadrons of A-7A Corsair IIs and the Oriskany became the first carrier in the fleet to use the E2 Hawkeye. The F-4 Phantom II and A-6 Intruder were considered too heavy to operate from the Essex-class, and the ships’ jet-blast deflectors were not liquid cooled, a requirement for operating jets like the Phantom which launched using after burner.
The rest of her class being retired in the early 1970s, she was the last Essex-type ship used in regular fleet service as an attack carrier. Her final Western Pacific deployment was from 16 September 1975 – 3 March 1976.
An overhead view of a crowd gathered on the pier at Naval Air Station (NAS) Alameda, California, as the carrier Oriskany (CVA 34) returns from her 15th and final Western Pacific cruise March 3 1976.
The only one of her sisters to outlive her in Navy service, Lexington, had been designated a non-deployable training carrier (AVT-16) in 1969 and spent the last 22 years of her life qualifying nuggets on T-2s out of Pensacola.
Oriskany was decommissioned 30 September 1976 and laid up by the Carter administration, she spent a quiet 13 years in rusty mothballs. Her condition was so bad in fact that when Regan’s Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, architect of the ‘600-ship Navy’ visited the ship in the early 1980s with an eye to recommission her was shocked at her appearance. She was coated with thick rust and had not only grass but small trees growing on her deck. Nonetheless she still was kept as an emergency mobilization asset on the Naval List until the Cold War ended in 1989 then she was removed. Sold for scrap in 1995 she was repossessed by the Navy two years later when her breaker defaulted.
With a 40,000-ton unusable aircraft carrier on their hands, the Navy decided to sink her as a reef.
(Oriskany‘s burial at sea)
Based on EPA’s approval, after a public comment period, the ship was towed to Pensacola, FL in March 2006 for final preparations for sinking under a Navy contract. A team of Navy personnel accomplished the sinking of the ship on 17 May 2006, supported by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Escambia County Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Pensacola Police Department, and several sheriff departments of Escambia County and surrounding counties. A Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from Panama City, FL detonated C-4 explosive charges of approximately 500 lb (230 kg) net explosive weight, strategically placed on 22 sea connection pipes in various machinery spaces. 37 minutes after detonation, the ship sank stern first in 210 ft (64 m) of water in the Gulf of Mexico, 24-miles south of Pensacola– the cradle of US Naval Aviation.
Today she is one of the most popular dive destinations in the Gulf.
Specs, as built 1950
Displacement: As built:
30,800 tons (over 40,000 later in life)
Length: As built:
904 ft (276 m) overall
Beam: As built:
129 ft (39 m) overall
Draft: As built:
30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) maximum
Propulsion: As designed:
8 × boilers 565 psi (3,900 kPa) 850 °F (450 °C)
4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines
4 × shafts
150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)
Range: 20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement: As built:
2,600 officers and enlisted
Armor: As built:
2.5 to 4 inch (60 to 100 mm) belt
1.5 inch (40 mm) hangar and protectice decks
4 inch (100 mm) bulkheads
1.5 inch (40 mm) STS top and sides of pilot house
2.5 inch (60 mm) top of steering gear
Aircraft carried: As built:
90–100 aircraft
1 × deck-edge elevator
2 × centerline elevators
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