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Combat-Green. At that moment, planes from the Ticonderoga and the Constellation, now nearing the gulf, were indeed speeding toward their coastal targets. Although it would still be another 1½ hours before they would unleash their first rockets, Hanoi radar undoubtedly had already noted their approach.
The pilots flew through a heavy overcast that forced them to approach at low altitudes—and uncomfortably close to the modern, radar-controlled antiaircraft installations ringing the North Viet Nam bases. Despite the poor visibility and the stiff ground fire, the airmen, nearly all of them' combat-green, performed remarkably well.
The flak was thickest over the northernmost target at Hongay, where 37-mm. and 57-mm. ground batteries atop a hill protected the harbor. From the Constellation, ten A-4 Skyhawk jets, two supersonic twin-engined F-4 Phantoms, and four slower propeller-driven A-1 Skyraiders blasted Communist patrol craft at the docks with bombs, rockets and 20-mm. cannon. Farther to the south, five Skyhawks, thiec Phantoms and four Skyraiders from the Constellation hit Loc Chao.
The Ticonderoga sent six Crusader jets against the southernmost target at Quang Khe. Biggest concentration of airpower—and the most spectacular damage—was focused at Phuc Loi and its nearby oil-storage facilities at Vinh. In all, 32 aircraft from the Ticonderoga ripped into patrol boats there and set a dozen of the depot's 14 storage tanks ablaze. A happy squadron leader radioed that the tanks were "burning profusely" and that black smoke rose 14,000 ft. Up with the smoke went some 90% of the depot's oil, which constitutes 10% of North Viet Nam's stored reserves. And down to the bottom went 25 North Vietnamese patrol craft—more than half of its entire fleet.
Red Reaction. McNamara called the raids "very successful." Oley Sharp, who followed the action on charts in his war room, termed it "well executed." He was proud of the carriers' ability to get into position, their pilots briefed, planes armed and into the air as quickly as they had. "They had to make their preparations at night and in the early morning hours." he said. "It shows their high state of readiness."
The U.S., however, did not come off unscathed. In 64 sorties, two planes were shot down. One of the 365-m.p.h. Skyraiders, piloted by Lieut, (j.g.) Richard Sather, 26, of Pomona, Calif., was hit at Loc Chao and crashed into the sea with no evidence of the flyer's survival. A 680-m.p.h. Skyhawk caught flak at Hongay. Its pilot, Lieut, (j.g.) Everett Alvarez Jr., 26, of San Jose, Calif., radioed that he was bailing out, and other pilots heard the telltale 60-second radio "beeper" signifying an opened parachute. They saw the plane splash three miles at sea. Hanoi later announced it had captured Alvarez. Two other planes were crippled: one reached its carrier; the other made a safe landing in South Viet Nam.