October 6, 1972

[:FI:WillieOFS]

The Than Hoa bridge in N Viet Nam went BOOM and fell down.

It was also known as the Dragon's Jaw bridge, It was the most heavily defended bridge in North Vietnam. Over 100 Us aircraft were shot down trying to take out that bridge.

That moring, two A-7C's belonging to VA-82 Marauders, piloted by Lt Commander Leighton (Snuffy) Smith and LtJg. James Brister, rolled in and dropped their Mk84, 2000lb gen purpose bombs and SPLATTERED that punk!!

There were only two operational A7-C squadrons in the Navy. The C bird had the A/B series engine with the E series electronics and M-61 gun. We were flying them becasue just prior to our deployment, the entire E series birds were downed because of engine issues. They sent us a bunch of C birds from Davis Monthan and we worked our butts off getting them painted in our squadron's markings and operational. the other "Charlie:" squadron was VA-86 "Sidewinders"

Both Squadrons are still operational and flying F-18's nowadays.

Those bombs wer loaded by my mates and I and I put the M904E2 nose fuses in 'em. . Everything performed as advertised.

Neither Snuffy nor Mr Brister recieved any damage from the AAA that painting the sky black around that place.

For a big pic of what was left after the smoke cleared..
http://webpages.charter.net/palm.willia ... Bridge.bmp

You can tell there was a LOT of stuff thrown at that place from the great whackin holes in the ground.

RVAH-6 ( Heavy 6 ) flying the old RA-5C "Vigilante" took the pictures for the bomb damage assessment. It was also the ONLY place in N Viet Nam that the NVA AAA would try to shoot them down. Those old Vigi's would haul the mail when they pointed them down hill with both burners lit.

Of all the crappola on the web that I've read, none of them have gotten all the pilots names right at the same time.

[Tonopah]

Exellent I remember reading some where that before the start of Linebacker 1 the bridge had withstood a combined 871 sorties from US forces. Yea tho I fly thru the Valley Of Death, my Thud does comfort me. I shall not fear charlie,For the Dragons Jaw awaits me,and if i survive again today I will go back tommorrow.

[AltarBoy]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the US use some sort of floating bomb that was supposed to be dropped by air and explode near the bridge? It wasn't succesful I guess.

[Podge]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the US use some sort of floating bomb that was supposed to be dropped by air and explode near the bridge? It wasn't succesful I guess.

Hum... could you be thinkin about one of those "dam busters" or whatever they're called?
You know one of these (behold the best description ever...lol)

[AltarBoy]

I found the book I read about the 'Pancake Bomb" in "The Story of Air Fighting" by J.E. Johnson, the WW2 Spitfire Ace. In the book it said that in late 1965 a new weapon was available against the Dragon Bridge.. It weighed 5,000 lbs, 8 feet in diameter and some 2 feet thick. Owing to its size it had to be transported by a C-130 Hercules and dropped upstream of the Song Ma River. 2 C-130s dropped the pancake bombs but no damage was recorded by recon flights of the bridge. One C-130 was lost.

See I told ya I can read!

[:FI:Fenian]

That's a lot of craters--- waay off the mark...

I suppose it's not a palce you'd a wanted to hang around for too long before dropping your eggs

Nice to be a part of history... eh?

Sounds terrible, doesn't it

[Menace]

Holy crap, look at the aproaches, steep mountains, probably bristiling with AAA. Fly high, everybody shoots at you, fly low and everybody shoots DOWN at you. Those guys had some SERIOUS Cojones.

[:FI:WillieOFS]

The thing that REALLY gives me the ARSE about that place is that just about EVERYWHERE on the net that you look, it says some Major with THE AIR FORCE blew it up.

It was hit and damaged several times, but our guys put it in the river.

LtCdr. Leighton "Snuffy" Smith went on to become CINUSNAVEUR ( say that fast three times ) and retired as Admiral in 1996. He didn't like his boss.

As for LT(jg) Brister, I have no idea what happened to him.

I remember Snuffy telling us "ordy" types about attacking that place. TV guided "WALLEYE MKII's" were in vogue back then. Very accurate, good glide ratio and 2,000 lbs of LSC (linear shaped charge) fun. The NVA would light fires and make a lot of smoke so the walleyes couldn't lock up on their intended target.

There was a railyard near that thing. Snuffy siad when they smoked out the bridge one moring, he decided to declare war on the railyard. He put 2 walleyes in amongst their rolling stock and told us how it was "ABSOLUTELY F%$&^&*)K'g AMAZING at how high one of those bombs can blow railroad boxcar!!!"

The smokescreen was why they decided to hit it with MK84s.

Class 2,000 lb. General Purpose Bomb/Fragmentation
Guidance Ballistic
Control: None
Autopilot: None
Propulsion: None
Weight 2039 lbs.
Length 129 in.
Diameter 18 in.
Explosive 945 lbs. H-6 or Tritonal
Fuze Variety of mechanical or electrical
Stabilizer BSU-50 AIR
MK-84 Conical Fin
Contractor/Manufacturer
Unit Cost $3,100

That's a LOT of bang for the buck.

I've been within a quarter of mile of where a stick of 6 of those things hit. I was wishing I was 25 miles away rather than .25 miles away. I did NOT feel sorry for the guys on the receiving end. It got real quiet after the echos died down, it quit raining trees and stuff, and the smoke drifted off.[/quote][/code]

[AltarBoy]

Reading up on the 'Nam really made me think of how deadly being a USAF pilot was subjected to. Especially out-country where deadly SAMs and AAA lie in wait.

The same book I mentioned above spoke of a N. Vietnamese fighter ace (never knew they had one) named Col. Toon with around 13 kills.

Hey WillieBoy think you can still get me one of 'em funny cigarettes them guys smoked? If not a coke bottle shaped Thunderchief will do.

Altar-"Me love you loooong time"-Boy.

[:FI:WillieOFS]

Never did the funny cigarette thing.


As for Col Toon?
http://www.acepilots.com/vietnam/viet_aces.html

[:FI:IceFrog]

Willie
That’s cool. I remember hearing about the Dragon’s Jaw way back then, but I was just a little kid . your bombs.............cool

[AltarBoy]

Thanks for that link Willie. Thinking about doing a 3D model of a Vietnam-era aircraft and the info may come in handy. Think I'm gonna dig up Hamburger Hill and Apocalyspe Now DVDs and watch.