29 April 1975..Operation Frequent Wind

Scratch said:

The tail-fin painting of that Phantom reminds me of the "japanese sun". Was that SQ perhaps involved in combat against imperial Japan in WWII?

And I notice two dumb bombs (mark82?) at the hard-points. Where they only to be used in case US troops get attcked or had US aircraft permission to engage NVs targerts of oppotunity?

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VF-111 began its life as VF-11 at NAS North Island on October 10, 1942 and on October 23 the same year the squadron was on its way to Hawaii with Grumman F4F Wildcats. While stationed at NAS Maui for intensive pre-deployment training, the fighter pilots were adopted by a prosperous Maui couple, Boyd and Maria Von Temsky, who owned a large cattle ranch on the slopes of Mount Haleakala Crater. The pilots appreciated their new home and while there some of them took steps which ensured the future terminology and fighter sprit of the squadron. It was decided that VF-11 should have a squadron insignia and designed one where the Wildcats were shooting a Rising Sun into the ocean. It was with the help of the couple that every one of the squadron’s Wildcats had the insignia stenciled on them. At the time numbers were not allowed on unit insignias so along the bottom the words "Sundowners" were printed. The name refers to the squadron’s job of shooting down Japanese "Suns", but also an old nautical term..... In January 1943 the squadron was at war, stationed at Guadalcanal. From April to July 1943 VF-11 downed 56 enemy aircraft in aerial combat. In October 1944, VF-11 deployed for the first time on USS Hornet (CV-12). After Guadalcanal, the squadron transitioned to the F6F Hellcat and participated in strikes and shot down 102 enemy aircraft and dozens more destroyed on the ground. As a direct result of their combat record, the squadron was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

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--- In [email protected], "Gerry"
wrote:

Yes thats true. There are some conflicting stories about
that incident..

By my recollection we were along side the Kawishiwi about 1800 or so
to take on fuel and water. Oh yea the Hanna had to unrep water...I
was behind the island in the bomb farm watching the unrep.

It seemed to me that the Kawishiwi was very close and moving back and forth in a very calm sea state. I decided to go down to the shop..so as I got to the front of the island I heard a horn blast from the bridge
then on the 1 MC & 5 MC I heard "Take a brace!!, Take a brace!!" The Hanna made a turn to port.

Next the collisional alarm was sounded but there was no
collision. Actually what had happend was the USS Kawishiwi had
lost steering and we had an emergency breakaway with them. We almost had a collision.

Some say our STBD aft aircraft elevator did hit the
Kawishiwi. I did not see any damage though.

Well I went down to the hangar deck and saw Bos'un mates covered in fuel. Fuel lines ruptured during the emergency & them fellas were covered with fuel & needed to be hosed down. I did not see any injuries.

Shortly the skipper passed the word on just what had happened.

The following was posted on a Hancock website by a QM2 Shaklett
who was on the bridge at the time of the near collision;

"I was that "Quartermaster at the helm" during the UNREP with
KAWISHIWI in '75. And believe me, it was the most difficult
evolution I had ever done!

According to our division chief (QMC Steve Brown), the problem was caused by KAWISHIWI losing power to her rudder and the venturi effect pulling the ships together.

I had only been on the helm about 10 minutes when things went wrong,
in a hurry. For the record, I was one of only six qualified Special
Evolution helmsmen on board. As you know, the Special Evolution
helmsmen have the responsibility for driving the ship in and out
of port, and taking the helm during Flight Ops and UNREPS. We would
generally have 2 or 3 Special Evolution helmsmen for each UNREP,
rotating every twenty minutes.

Here is what happened on the bridge. My compass heading would not hold, no matter what I did on the helm. I reported to the Conning Officer that I was unable to hold my course. But with each correction in the rudder, the lines and hoses between the ships would pull us closer together. Capt Fellows on seeing the danger, relieved the Conning Officer, because we were
not gaining distance between ships fast enough. He ordered the
Quartermaster of the Watch to sound the Emergency Breakaway
signal on the ship's horn and ordered the 1MC announcement on the
breakaway. We successfully pulled away, after "All Ahead Flank,
Emergency" was ordered. The first and only time I had ever heard
that particular command. It's a funny thing, after writing this,
I remember it like it was yesterday. Hard to believe it's been 25
years!!! Only by speeding up and literally pulling away, did we
get out of harm's way. Our division Leading Petty Officer (QM2
Mende) wanted to relieve me in the middle of the breakaway, but Chief
Brown refused to let him on the helm. Mende thought I wasn't turning
the rudder fast enough. Capt Fellows was giving me rudder commands
every few seconds. And believe me, I had never done so many rudder
reversals in my life. My arms felt like lead.

The credit really goes to Capt Fellows for recognizing the danger we were in and directing me correctly on the helm. I later received a commendation from
him for expert performance on the helm.

I'm just glad there were no serious injuries.

Even though UNREPs can become routine, you must always be prepared for emergencies. I also want to give credit to Chief Brown for my training and his guidance. It saved the day.

Footnote: It should be noted that while I was doing my best to
keep up with rudder commands and course changes, my counterpart in
after-steering had to match everything I did on the bridge. The after-
steering gang really saved everyone, by staying alert and by keeping
both steering engines on line.

Fred Shacklett, QM2, N Division 1974-1976 (Last LPO of
N-Division

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In [email protected], Gerry >
wrote:

Oh yea! Can you smell it!? We're in 'da P.I.!. Oh yeah!!
Liberty time! Our department had max liberty because all our spaces got
outstanding during zone inspection..Yahoo!! Ooppss!! Actually we
did have max liberty but the ship was on alert to get underway in 12
hours or something like that. So guess what? ALL hands liberty
expired on board at midnight the 3 days we would be in
P.I...That was way below average...Believe it or not I did not go on liberty..I did have Shore Patrol the second day inport.

While inport Weapons Dept big wigs planned the upcoming ammo off load
and onload. We hadda unload some of the fixed wing ordanance. Then onload
some helo weapons. Was not really that hard. An easy day for an ordanceman.

Mean time the rest of the airwing(CVW-21) left the ship and was billeted
at NAS Cubi Pt. More Marines came onboard as the Hanna was transformed
into an LPH of sorts...We had HMM-164 & 165 Ch-46's. HML-367 with their Cobras. And loads of 1st Battalion Marines{Grunts}..Things were happening at a quickening pace. All in all we had 40{I think}USMC helos by the
time we left P.I.

By the time we left 'da P.I. we knew what our mission was ...we
just did not know when it would happen.

More to come!!

Gerry H

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Well..not officially. But we were operating as an LPH. We had
departed Cubi Pt. RP on the 9th{I think}..coulda been the 10th.

Hangar bay three was full of pallets of diapers,baby
formula,medical and sanitary supplies. C-rations, blankets, cots..etc..most
anything you may need for a humanitarian effort was stored there.

In hangar bay one elements of the First Battalion Marines were living
there. Oh we had enough berthing on the Hanna for them but a lot of the
berthing vacated by the Airwing was reserved for the "Refugees"
So some,not all, the Marine "Grunts" were quartered in Hangar Bay
one.

Any way one of the first things we did at sea was off load some
of our fixed wing ammo in favor of helo ammo. This consisted mostly
of rockets, small arms and flares. I think we had to only empty two
or three magazines. I worked the flight deck during this evolution.
I was the hook up man during the vertrep. Basically I passed the
tether to the helo crewman hanging out the belly door on a
CH-46. I will never forget that on the bottom of HC-3's CH-46's was
painted the slogan.."Slipping the meat to the Fleet"..No kidding.

After the UNREP/CONREP the Hancock spent a lot of time operating
it's new Marine airwing in order to get the flight deck crew use
to handling strictly helos. We had to be ready because the first
evacuation "Operation Eagle Pull" would occur on the 12th of
April 1975. Fightin' Hanna would be ready!!

Gerry H

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The capitol of Cambodia was about to fall to the communist Khmer
Rouge. They had the city surrounded. The US fleet was standing
by to evacuate Americans and other foreign nationals out of the
country... as usual Hanna was ready.

HMH-463 from Hancock and HMH-462 from the USS Okinawa LPH-3
proceeded with the plan. CH-53's were used exclusively because
of their load capacity. Operation Eagle Pull went off on the
morning of 12 April 1975 without a hitch. 287 people were evacuated. No
evacuees were brought to the Hanna or Okinawa. Most were flown
to Thailand. For more info..

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

As an AO on the flight deck our job was to assist the USMC
loading 50cal ammo in their birds. Just some minor league humping for an
ordie.

All we did was pull skids loaded with ammo cans to the
helos and hand the cans of ammo to the flight crew. Simple.

One thing that bothered me though was that EVERY night when helo ops secured we hadda to download the ammo and strike it below. I always wondered if we were on alert why did we have to do this?

The other Avation Ordancemen of G Division, Flight Deck Ordanance" were , AO2 Harry Depaw(LPO), AO3 Micheal Hagan, AO3 Hollowell, AOAN Hartman & AN Howell...Good crew.. Our jersyes were RED and stenciled on the front and back it read;

G DIV
FLT DK ORD

The American military involvement in Southeast Asia was soon to end...

Gerry H

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Hanna pulled into Singapore on the 16th of April for some well deserved R & R. Singapore in 1975 was not the Singapore you modern sailors know today. It was a changing metropolis. But still somewhat seedy..'Nuff said about that. We were to be inport 6 days..or so we thought!

I remember none of the Grunt Marines had civies with them. So civilians came onboard and sold them clothing.

No one knew when the operation in Vietnam would take place. Most our time at sea had been spent practicing for the evacuation...Singapore was a welcomed relief from the constant drilling for the event..

Suddenly on the 18th of April on Hanna.."Deep Purple!!..Deep Purple!!"..The word was passed..Hanna was placed on 4 hour alert..that meant that we had to get underway immediately! Trouble was probably half the crew was ashore. The word was passed throughout Singapore.."All Hancock men return to your ship immediately by order of the commanding officer"..Well the sailors and Marines ashore responded in kind. Amazingly >>> Not a single Hanna sailor or Marine was left ashore!!

The USS Hancock CVA-19 answered the call one last time. The ship was underway at 2030 that evening!! Those snipes got that old ship cranked up one more time. The black stack smoke belched...The rooster tail was high as Hanna steamed across the waves at 27 knots to the Tonkin Gulf....one last time...

Gerry H

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Scratch said:

A defeat is certainly something that noone likes to be reminded of.
Especially in a case were the scrifices of the troops were somewhat useless. I know that's a hard word, but in the end, was it worth the 58.000 that were killed just to hold SV for a decade more? I would say no.
On the tactical level, US troops were quiete succesfull to my knowledge. Why didn't it come to an ivasion of the north by US troops in the earlier years?
If the US considered themselves as allies of the South, I think it would have been worth to initiate a counterattack. Did they fear active soviet involvement?

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bd popeye said:

The US armed forces lost no major battle or surrendered any teritory to the North . But the US still lost the war. Why? Because the Ford administration and the Republicans were still reeling from the Watergate scandal and the resulting resignation of Pres. Nixion. Remember..>>>.. in January 1973 the US, N.Vietnam, the Viet Cong and S.Vietnam signed the Paris Peace accords which were susposed to end the hostilities. The US removed its troops but with the US gone the North and Viet Cong resumed the war against the South.

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