Page 53 - DFCS NEWS MAGAZINE 2020-1

The KC-135s in orbit over the Gulf of Tonkin as fueling stations for our fighter support were watching and listening as the drama began to unfold. Thirty-nine support aircraft were in the zone to lay down chaff, suppress SAM and AAA sites, jam enemy radar, and escort the B-52 fleet against MiGs.
As we turned eastbound out of Laos to enter North Vietnam for the bomb run, we were all focused on making this the best, most accurate mission we had ever flown. We would be within lethal range of SAMs
for about 20 minutes, and we couldn’t be distracted by the threats. The Bombardier and I turned off our exterior radios so we could concentrate on our checklists and crew coordination. We were headed downtown to break the back of NVN transportation and warehousing and there was no doubt in my mind that we could do that.
For a variety of reasons, we had been ordered to take no evasive action from the initial aiming point to the bomb release point, and to restrict any post-target evasive maneuvers to no more than 30 degrees of bank. If we could not guarantee that our bombs would fall in the target, we were to withhold release and bring them home.
About 110 nautical miles from the target, the D cells (Rose, Lilac, and White) and G cells (Rust, Black, and Buff) out of Andersen turned 10 degrees left, while Charcoal, Ivory, and Ebony continued straight ahead. At 1945 local Hanoi time Snow and Brown (Ds from U Tapao) struck the Hoa Lac airfield in southern Hanoi. At 1949, more Ds from U-T (Maple, Gold, Green) struck the Kep airfield northeast of Hanoi. At 1955, Purple and Walnut (Ds from U-T) struck the Phuc Yen airfield near our target on the northeast side of Hanoi. Four minutes later the D and first G wave from Andersen struck the Kihn No Complex just to its southeast, followed by our wave flying against the Yen Vien Rail Yard, about another mile to the southeast.
As we made our southeast turn at the initial aiming point, about 75 nautical miles from the target, Bombardier Dick Johnson easily found the target and both offset aiming points. The crosshairs were steady, with no drift. I calculated the time to target and confirmed that our bombs would reach the ground at exactly 2014:00 local time. We were on time, on target, and with the best bombing system possible.
At SAM Site VN-119 on the ground below, Thang Nguyen was commanding the 59th Missile Battalion. By using a “three-point” technique with Fan Song tracking radar, they were able to find glimpses of our BUFF on their Spoon Rest radarscopes. Bombs were exploding at intervals in his direction, but Thang disregarded the bombing and gave the launch order. Two missiles were fired at our B-52.
With our outside radios still off, and the crew maintaining only checklist and bombing instructions on the intercom, the Bombardier and I were concentrating on this critical offensive phase of the mission. Fifteen seconds before bombs away, Dick opened the doors, and five seconds later I restarted my stopwatch as a back-up should anything go wrong. Almost immediately, it did!
At 2013, the radar screens went blank and other instruments lost power. Before I could speak, Copilot Bob Thomas was shouting over the intercom, “They’ve got the Pilot! They’ve got the Pilot!”. EW Tom Simpson was also shouting, “Is anybody there? Gunner, gunner!” His cockpit had gone black, his equipment had major electrical shorts and explosions, and the Gunner Ferguson was covered in blood and slumped in his seat. Tom had also lost his earphones but not his microphone. We could hear him, but he couldn’t hear us. Dick had lost his intercom completely.
The first SAM had exploded to the left front of the aircraft, scattering hot shrapnel like a shotgun blast at a velocity of 8000 feet per second wounding the pilot and killing the gunner. Some of it was sucked into jet engines (which destroyed them and the engine-driven generators), and others cut hydraulic lines and set the oil on fire. We probably had ruptured fuel tanks on fire too, but there would be no major explosion unless the JP-4 lit off in an intact tank. That might come in a few seconds.
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