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UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1972-Contin ued

and industrial/power targets. Aircraft involved in

Freedom Train operations were from Hancock, Coral

Sea, Kitty Hawk and Constellation. By the end of

April, operations were permitted in NVN throughout

the region below 20° 25'N and many special strikes

above the 20th parallel had also been authorized.

6 April Heavy air raids were conducted against

NVN, the first since October 1968 when a halt was

called on heavy raids. Since the bombing halt in

October 1968, the U.S. air effort had been concentrat-

ed on interdicting men and supplies moving along the

routes into SVN. Except for protective reaction strikes

and a five-day operation at the end of 1971, called

Proud Deep, very few heavy attack missions had been

flown into NVN. The U.S. heavy reactionary raids were

prompted by a massive invasion of SVN by six North

Vietnamese divisions, that by 6 April involved 12 of

North Vietnam's 13 divisions. The objectives of these

heavy raids were: (1) destruction of all NVN aggres-

sion-supporting resources, (2) harassment and disrup-

tion of enemy military operations, and (3) reduction

and impediment of movements of men and materials

through southern NVN.

6 April Elements of two Phantom II Marine

squadrons, VMFA-115 and VMFA-232, flew into Da

Nang from Iwakuni, Japan, as part of the reinforcing

effort in support of SVN troops, particularly around

Quangtri. VMFA-212 arrived from Kaneohe, Hawaii, on

14 April. Targets for Marine sorties were enemy tanks,

trucks and troops, giving SVN forces a chance to

regroup and reestablish a line of defense north and

west of Hue.

6 April The Navy's new air superiority fighter, the F-

14 Tomcat, arrived at Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent

River, Md. The swing-wing, twin-engine Grumman air-

craft arrived for a series of catapult launches, automat-

ic carrier landing system checks, airspeed system cali-

brations and weight and balance checks to determine

its suitability for naval operations.

7 April During the week ending 7 April, the Navy

flew 680 sorties in SVN to counter the NVN troop con-

centrations and their equipment flow, and to support

the SVN forces with close air support, direct air sup-

port and interdiction missions. This was more than

five times the number of sorties the Navy flew for the

entire month of March.

11 April The Harpoon anti-ship missile underwent

its first drop test at the Naval Missile Center, Point

Mugu, Calif. The missile, developed by McDonnell

Douglas Corporation, was dropped from 20,000 feet by

a P-3 Orion operated by the Missile Center. The

Harpoon was designed to be launched from aircraft or

ships from a stand-off range against enemy ship targets.

12 April The new P-3C Acoustic Sensor Operator

Trainer (Device 14B44) was made available for train-

ing aircrew personnel at Fleet Aviation Specialized

Operational Training Group, Pacific Detachment. It

was designed to train aircrewmen in the operation of

sensor stations on the P-3C Orion aircraft. The simula-

tor could duplicate the real world conditions of under-

water acoustical data and also simulate the detection,

classification and localization procedures of the AQA-7

Jezebel system on board the P-3C Orion.

14 April The Navy averaged 191 sorties per day in

SVN, a 97 percent increase over the previous week.

Sorties concentrated west and north of Quangtri City

with interdiction and direct air support flown in the

area. Carriers on Yankee Station were Constellation,

Hancock, Coral Sea, and Kitty Hawk.

16 April Apollo 16 was launched successfully from

Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for a lunar highlands

investigation. The astronaut team was composed of

Captain John W. Young, Lieutenant Colonel Charles M.

Duke, USAF, and Lieutenant Commander Thomas K.

Mattingly. Astronauts Young and Mattingly, the Navy

members of the Apollo 16 crew, landed on the moon

four days later to conduct scientific research.

16 April Aircraft from Coral Sea, Kitty Hawk and

Constellation flew 57 sorties in the Haiphong area in

support of U.S. Air Force B-52 strikes on the Haiphong

petroleum products storage area. This operation was

known as Freedom Porch.

25-30 April An example of Naval Air action against

enemy positions inside central and south SVN during

NVN's spring offensive occurred the last six days of

April as Hancock's VA-55, -164 and -211 struck enemy

held territory around Kontum and Pleiku and

Constellation's VA-146, -147 and -165, hit areas around

the besieged city of Anloc in support of SVN troops,

some only 40 miles outside the capital of Saigon.

Targets attacked included artillery fire bases, enemy

tanks, bunkers, troop positions, ammunition caches

and gun emplacements.

27 April HC-1, aboard Ticonderoga, recovered

Apollo 16 after it splashed down in the south Pacific.