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Memories of Flying a ThrashLight8894 Reads
I was a 1stLt. copilot in HMH463, and had only been in-country for a month at the time. I was assigned to the flight schedule for the nape drop, and was very excited to be going on one. I had heard about them, but this was going to be the biggest. Charlie Ridge was our target. The NVA there were in tight, and didn't want to move. Attempts to clear the area with fixed wing bombs had failed. Marines were taking heavy casualties.
Fixed wing aircraft and artillery also participated in the effort. At 0300 in the morning, artillery from all of the fire support bases within range (Danang, Ross, Ryder, An Hoa, Baldy, etc.) started firing into the area with 105 mm, 155 mm, and 175 mm. The goal here was to keep the enemy pinned down. At daylight the fixed wing bombing started, with 500 and 1000 lb. bombs. When the first flight of three CH53s hit the initial and started inbound, the fixed wing attack lifted. Then OV-10s would mark the target with Willie Pete for each of the four flights of three CH53s. Each of the wingmen would pickle their load when the lead dropped, bringing sixty 55-gal drums of napalm raining down (3300 gallons). When the last flight of CH53s returned to reload, the fixed wing started again. That day HMH 463 dropped 2000 barrels (110,000 gallons) of napalm. Note: by Skip Burns
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1792:
Russian troops invade Poland.
1802: Britain declares war on France. 1828: The Battle of Las Piedras, between Uruguay and Brazil, ends. 1863: Union General Ulysses S. Grant surrounds Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, in one of the most brilliant campaigns of the war. 1864: The fighting at Spotsylvania in Virginia, reaches its peak at the Bloody Angle. 1917: The U.S. Congress passes the Selective Service act, calling up soldiers to fight World War I. 1943: Adolf Hitler launches Operation Alaric, the German occupation of Italy in the event its Axis partner either surrendered or switched its allegiance. 1944: The Polish Corps, part of a multinational Allied Eighth Army offensive in southern Italy, finally pushes into Monte Cassino as the battle to break German Field Marshal Albert Kesselrings defensive Gustav Line nears its end. 1969: Two battalions of the 101st Airborne Division assault Hill 937 but cannot reach the top because of muddy conditions. 1969: More than 1,500 communist troops attack U.S. and South Vietnamese camps near Xuan Loc, located 38 miles east of Saigon. After five hours of intense fighting, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces were driven off. |
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