May 2018 FLYPAST 29I’m beginning to think this wasn’t
going to be my night!”
LEFT BEHIND
“I discussed the situation with my
B/N, Lt Cdr Mike Hall, and we
decided to try an airborne alignment
of the inertial system. That meant
flying straight and level with
minimum turns for about 25 minutes
to see if we could get an alignment.
After 22 minutes we got a ‘ready’ light
on the inertial platform.
“I checked the fuel and it was going
to be close, but I thought we had
enough to complete the mission and
we headed into mountains southwest
of Hanoi.
“As we descended into the flat lands
of the Red River delta I could hear the
Russian ‘Fansong’ SAM radars start
tracking us. I levelled off at 200ft and
proceeded inbound at 350 knots.
“In a minute or so, my missile
warning receiver started blaring and
I spotted two missiles at 11 o’clock
position coming toward us. I told my
B/N that I was descending. At 100ft,
even though it was pitch black outside,
I could see objects whizzing by my left
windscreen and I thought to myself
those must be farmhouses.
“I was now at full throttle
and accelerating to 450 knots
and watched those two missiles
approaching us. When I thought that
they were close enough, I dropped
chaff [countermeasures], rolled to
89° right bank and pulled a 5 to 6g
climbing turn.
“One missile went through the spacethat we’d just vacated and the second
exploded under the aircraft, buffeting
it violently, and put a small hole in our
left wing.
“I rolled out on that heading to the
target. We were now about 22 minutes
behind the rest of the strike group.”WAKE-UP CALL
“As we approached the target,
everyone in Hanoi was awake and
shooting. There was so much anti-
aircraft artillery [AAA] fire going up I
could see the outline of the Red River
flowing through Hanoi and knew we
were right on track.
“At 04:20, I dropped 18 Mk.36
500-pounder Destructors [magnetic
aerial mines] on the port facilities and
egressed right over the centre of Hanoi
at 400ft, waking the heavy sleepers.
“On the outbound heading I would
pick two AAA sites that were firing
and flew right in between them. As
soon as they passed, I picked two more
AAA sites that were firing and flew
right in between them. I continued
this until we were over the outskirts of
Hanoi where the AAA fire started to
diminish.
“I keyed the intercom and said to my
B/N: ‘Hey Mike, we are home free.’
No sooner had those words cleared
my mouth than the missile warning
receiver started blaring again.
“I rolled into a 90° right bank atLeft
A Grumman publicity
image showing the
Intruder’s impressive
payload. KEYLeft
Intruder 151581 of VA-75
overfl ies an A-4 Skyhawk
about to launch from the
USS ‘Independence’ in- ANDY LICURSI