Bombing the crap out of the enemy.-

"We gave them everything we had..... EVERYTHING!" . The following is an account courtesy of Clint Johnson, Captain, USNR Ret. Captain Johnson was one of the two VA-25 A-1 Skyraider pilots credited with shooting down a MiG-17 on June 20, 1965.

Photo By National Museum of Naval Aviation.

I was a pilot in VA-25 on the 1965 Vietnam cruise.

For those too young to remember, during the Vietnam conflict, carriers were so woefully short of ordinance that missions were often launched with only a half load just to keep the sortie rate up so that the REMF's (Rear Echelon Mother Fucker. One who has no frontline or combat experience) in DC would not send out blistering messages about failure to support the war effort, etc. Given that the loss rate approached, and sometime exceeded, one aircraft a day, all will understand that there was a degree of reticence to launch with less than a full load, if I must dance with the elephant, at least let's make it worthwhile. Nevertheless, the indomitable spirit of the carrier aviators and their squadron-mates prevailed in some rather perverse ways. Yes, this really happened. Once again history is stranger than fiction, and a lot funnier.

Photo By National Museum of Naval Aviation.

In October 1965, CDR Clarence William "Bill" Stoddard Jr., Executive Officer of VA-25 "Fist of the Fleet", flying an A-1H Skyraider (NE-572, BuNo 135297) "Paper Tiger II" (which was a temporary name used for just this one flight) from Carrier Air Wing Two aboard USS Midway, carried a special bomb to the North Vietnamese in commemoration of the 6-millionth pound of ordnance dropped. This bomb was unique because of the type... it was a toilet!. The toilet was a damaged toilet which was going to be thrown overboard. One of the plane captains of VA-25 saved it and the ordenance crew made a rack, tailfins and nose fuse for it.

Our checkers and VA-25 personnell maintained a position to block the view of the Air Boss and ship's Captain while the aircraft was taxiing forward to the catapult.  Just as it was being shot off, we got a message from the bridge, "What the hell was on 572's right wing?". There were a lot of jokes with air intelligence about germ warfare.

Photo By National Museum of Naval Aviation.

572 was flown by CDR "Bill" Stoddard. His wingman in 577 (BuNo 139768, which was my assigned airplane) was LCDR Robin Bacon, who had a wing station mounted movie camera (the only one remaining in the fleet from WWII). The flight was a Dixie Station strike going to the Delta. Dixie Station was a geographic position during the Vietnam War in the South China Sea off the Mekong Delta, located about 130 km due southeast of Cam Ranh Bay, at 11° N and 110° E. Dixie Station was established on 15 May 1965 as a single-carrier counterpart to the multi-carrier Yankee Station, which was located further north near the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin and was responsible for strikes on North Vietnamese targets. Targets for Yankee Station strikes were personally selected (sometimes months in advance) by President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, resulting in notoriously restrictive rules of engagement. In contrast, Dixie Station missions were carried out in response to requests for close air support by friendly ground forces engaging enemy guerrillas in South Vietnam, and the strike forces were usually vectored on to their target in real time by a ground-based forward air controller. The name "Dixie" was chosen to match that of the phonetic-alphabet-designated "Yankee," resulting in a pun relating to the traditional slang terms for the Northern United States and Southern United States, with Yankee bombing the North, and Dixie the South. Aircraft carriers continued rotating on station at Dixie flying in support of friendly forces until 3 August 1966, when enough land-based aircraft had become available to support operations in the area that aircraft carrier support no longer was needed. Yankee Station, in contrast, remained in use until August 1973.

Photo By National Museum of Naval Aviation.

When the flight arrived in the target area and CDR Stoddard was reading the ordnance list to the FAC, he ended with "and one code name Sani-flush". The FAC couldn't believe it and joined up to see it. It was dropped in a dive with LCDR Bacon flying tight wing position to film the drop. When it came off, it turned hole to the wind due to its light weight and almost struck his airplane. It made a great ready room movie. I wish that we had saved the movie film. The FAC said that it whistled all the way down. Some poor ground troop probably was sent to the psycho ward because he swore he saw a toilet dropped during a bomb run.

CDR Clarence William "Bill" Stoddard, Jr.

On 14 September 1966, while Commanding Officer of Attack Squadron 25 "Fist of the Fleet" embarked on the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43), CDR Stoddard was leading a two-plane bombing mission over North Vietnam searching for enemy truck convoys. Near the village of Nghi Thiet, his radar detection system warned him of enemy missile activity. He withdrew over the Gulf of Tonkin before his aircraft, an A-1 Skyraider single engine propeller plane, was struck by enemy fire. A missile was fired and  CDR Stoddard and his flight dove toward the water, but a missile scored a direct hit on his plane before he could escape. The other planes airborne searched for him, but there was no parachute or anything in the water. Body was not recovered and CDR Stoddard was initially listed as Missing In Action. His status was changed in 1973 to Killed In Action.

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