Page 5 - DFCS News Magazine Summer 2015

Volume 15, Issue 2 - Summer
Cont’d Hai Duong Bridge
of gray. 85mm and 100mm are bright orange fire balls accompanied by clouds of black smoke. The anti-aircraft bursts were so in- tense that passing 9000 ft I knew that if I stayed at altitude any longer we would never make it, so I rolled inverted at about 9300 feet and rolled out in my dive. I could not have asked for a better track. I was tracking the bridge right to left with a twenty degree cut. As I looked through my gun sight I was staring right down the barrels of the auto- matic weapons. The tracers were so intense it looked like St. Elmo’s fire on my wind- screen. The air flow across the windscreen seemed to be deflecting the automatic weap- ons fire.
The intensity of the flak only increased my determination. “I know I’m dead so I’m going to get that damned bridge”. Just as I released my bombs and started my pull-out I spotted an F-4 as he flew under the nose of my air- craft. I had the horrible thought that I had just bombed one of our F-4’s. Our G limit on the F-4 was six positive and four negative G’s. On my pullout my accelerometer registered ten G’s. Once we had delivered our ordi- nance, we joined another aircraft and sped to the coast. The reason for joining up with an- other aircraft was so someone could report if and where your aircraft went down.
When we finally got photos, they showed that the two center spans of the four spans of the Hai Duong Bridge were in the river. I did- n’t know it then and wouldn’t know until many months later when I was in St. Louis that I had been recommended and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for my part in the Hai Duong Bridge Alpha Strike.
“for heroism or extraordinary achievement in aerial flight”
In the name of the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief U.S. Pacif- ic Fleet takes great pleasure in awarding the Distinguished Flying Cross to Lieutenant
William Frederick Klumpp II, United States Navy, for heroism and extraordinary achievement in aerial flight as a pilot of a fighter/bomber aircraft, attached to and serving with Fighter Squadron ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN embarked in USS KITTY HAWK (CVA 63) on a strike against enemy installations in North Vi- etnam on April 1966. Assigned as a member of the strike element against a key target in a heavily defend- ed complex protected by intense anti-aircraft artillery, surface to air missiles, and enemy fighters, Lieutenant KLUMPP, in the face of great personal danger, exhibit- ed extraordinary skill and airmanship in executing a closely coordinated precision attack against the target. Timing his attack with the flak suppression group, he resolutely dove through an intense barrage of anti- aircraft fire to place his bombs on target. As a result of his courageous and thoroughly effective contribution to the attack the vital and key strategic target was de- stroyed and the entire strike group retired without casualty. Lieutenant KLUMPP”s professional skill and courageous actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of
the United States Naval Service.
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