Deadly Airborne Animals Born over Vietnam

In a 1967 painting by artist Larry Zabel entitled Rung Sunset, an UH-1B Iroquois of the Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron 3 "Seawolves" banks over the Rung Sat Special Zone, a vast and treacherous mangrove swamp southeast of Saigon, after making a firing pass against Viet Cong guerrillas.  in the distance, another "Huey" gunship from the squadron is making its run. (Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection)

By Zachary Smyers
HRNM Educator

During the Vietnam War, the Navy devised Operation Game Warden. This was the Navy’s plan to deny Viet Cong forces, which were dedicated to overthrowing the U.S.-allied government in South Vietnam, the use of local waterways to move personnel and supplies throughout the region. Due to the considerable amount of rivers in the Mekong Delta, Operation Game Warden proved to be a challenging task for the Navy. The rivers and waterways typically had a tremendous amount of boat traffic and it wasn’t always easy to identify friend from foe. The Navy’s plan involved the use of river patrol boats, or PBRs, which would typically operate on the rivers in groups of two, boarding and searching local sampans and junks for enemy weapons and supplies. While this task could become tedious, often times it could also become quite deadly, resulting in intense firefights. The PBRs had the advantage though of being able to call in immediate air support from the Navy Seawolves. 

A HAL-3 gunship comes in for a landing aboard USS Garrett County (LST-786) anchored on the Co Chien River and serving as a patrol craft tender for the River Patrol Force.  Although the LST's flight deck could accommodate two choppers, only one could turn its main rotor at a time.  (Naval History and Heritage Command image) 

Using UH-1B “Hueys” acquired from the Army, the Navy formed Helicopter Attack Squadron (Light) 3, the Seawolves. The Seawolves were an all-volunteer squadron and the first pilots and aircrewmen deployed to Vietnam on July 1, 1966. Operating from a landing ship, tank (LST) which served as a “mother ship,” the Seawolves were always on call to provide support in their Hueys. 

Equipped with two 2.75-inch seven-tube rocket pods and four flex-mounted M-60C machine guns facing forward, not to mention door gunners capable of training their own swivel-mounted M-60s in virtually every other direction, this UH-1B Iroquois flying low over PBRs on the Cho Gao Canal in the Mekong Delta in April 1968 gave riverine units in South Vietnam an invaluable multi-dimensional defense against ambushes and other nastier surprises they might encounter. (Naval History and Heritage Command image)  

Between missions, a Seawolf crew member loads rockets aboard an unnamed LST. (National Archives and Records Administration)

The Seawolves’ Hueys were set up in the gunship configuration, carrying a variety of weapons which included 14 2.75-inch rockets, two M-60 machine guns (which were hand-held and operated by the aircrewman from the door area), four M-60 machine guns known as “flex guns,” M-2 .50 caliber machine guns (also operated by aircrewmen) and two 7.62 mm mini-guns. The most common load out for the UH-1B was carrying the rockets in pods with one mini-gun mounted on the left and one mounted on the right which were fired from the cockpit. Set up in this configuration, the UH-1B proved to be a vital air asset to the Navy forces working on the rivers which included Navy SEALs.

The co-pilot of a UH-1B keeps a close watch over a PBR traveling ahead. If a threat presents itself, at a moment's notice he can swing the XM-60 reflex sight mounted on the windshield frame ahead of him down to the right in order to aim the Huey's four M-60C machine guns, which are capable of turning 80 degrees horizontally, 10 degrees upward and 85 degrees downward, hurling over 500 7.62 mm rounds a minute. (Naval History and Heritage Command image)    

The Seawolves’ first major combat action in Vietnam took place on October 31, 1966. Two PBRs discovered a fleet of sampans (more than 80 vessels) that were trying to move a Viet Cong unit that was the size of a battalion from one riverbank to the other along the Thon river. The two PBRs came under intense fire from both sides of the riverbank. The PBRs retreated and called for immediate air support. The Seawolves arrived on station 15 minutes later, and with their first rocket and gun pass, completely destroyed a sampan. The second pass destroyed another sampan and the enemy forces began to retreat. By 2100 hours the battle was over and the Seawolves claimed the destruction of 16 junks and sampans as well as damaging 7 additional vessels. The Seawolves helped turn the tide of the battle and prevent the crossing of the Viet Cong battalion.

Assigned to the river patrol force and flying from USS Belle Grove (LSD 2), Seawolf 26 fires a 2.75 mm rocket dislodging a sampan from a river bank in the Rung Sat Special Zone during operation Jackstay. The blast stripped the sampan of its camouflage and it was sunk by subsequent rocket and machine gun runs in April 1966. (Naval History and Heritage Command image)

The Seawolves served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1972. They logged over 120,000 combat missions flying in Vietnam as well as Cambodia. Personnel within the unit were awarded the following: five Navy Crosses, 31 Silver Stars, two Legion of Merit Medals, 219 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 156 Purple Hearts, 101 Bronze Stars, 142 Vietnam Gallantry Crosses, 439 Navy Commendation Medals, 228 Navy Achievement Medals, six Presidential Unit Citations, and two Navy Meritorious Unit Commendations. During their time in Vietnam, 44 members of the Seawolves were killed in action.

A retired UH-1B with HA(L)-4 "Helwingres" markings at Ely Memorial Park near Gate Four of Naval Station Norfolk. (M.C. Farrington)   

HA(L)-3 was decommissioned in 1972. However, the success of the squadron in Vietnam lead to the creation of Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron 4 at Naval Air Station Norfolk and Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron 5 at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, in 1976.

The UH-1B static display helicopter at Ely Park represents those that flew with Helicopter Attack Squadron (Light) 4, those that flew with HA(L)-3 before it, those that followed in Helicopter Combat Support Special Squadron 4 (HCS-4) afterward, and, finally, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 84 (HSC-84), which was disestablished on March 19, 2016.  (M.C. Farrington)   

Naval Station Norfolk's "Phrogs" Face Extinction

"(T)his aircraft may well have been at the forefront of more American military operations in peace and war than any other.”  
Roger Connor, National Air and Space Museum

"In my mind it represents what multi-mission really means."
Gil Birklund, former commanding officer, Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Two (HC-2)

On Thursday, July 30, over 17,000 pounds of history slowly lifted into the sky above Naval Station Norfolk for the last time.  For generations, the CH-46E Sea Knight pictured above served Sailors and Marines on deployments to destinations as diverse as Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but its mission that day was to travel to a destination only about an hour away by air: The Smithsonian Institution's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, just outside Dulles International Airport, west of Washington DC.  The museum will display the aircraft after its arrival on Saturday, August 1, until a new wing of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, is completed. 



Retired naval aviators Gil Birklund and Tom Stites watch as a Boeing-Vertol CH-46E Sea Knight that has been chosen for eventual display at the National Museum of the United States Marine Corps as it taxis for final takeoff at Norfolk Naval Station on July 30, 2015. 

Among the personnel of Marine Corps Reserve Medium Squadron 774 (HMM-774) who had gathered to watch the event were two retired naval aviators with extensive experience in the aircraft popularly known by both Marine Corps and Navy pilots as the "Phrog."  They watched in silence as the helicopter, painted almost exactly as it would have been a half-century ago, ambled towards the flight line, seemingly resigned to the fact that the last of the Phrogs serving at Naval Station Norfolk will soon be gone.

Although Tom Stites was a retired Navy officer who commanded two Helicopter Combat Support Squadrons (HC-8 in Norfolk and what was then HC-3 at Naval Air Station North Island) during his career, he readily admitted that without the Marine Corps, the Navy might never have begun using the CH-46 in the first place.  "They were the drivers," Stites said, pointing out that surplus Marine Corps Phrogs were used to establish the first two Navy squadrons that utilized the helicopter, HC-6 at NAS Norfolk and HC-3 in San Diego, in September 1967.

Watching the helicopter recede into the distance with Stites was Gil Birklund, another retired naval aviator and CH-46 pilot who once commanded HC-2 in Norfolk.  "This is emotional," said Birklund.  You crawl into one of these when you're 23 years old... We spent our whole adult lives in these things."

"There was nothing better," Birklund said of the Phrog. "In multiple missions, all kinds of weather, all parts of the world."  "It's iconic in the U.S. Navy and in the U.S. Marine Corps as well.  In my mind it represents what multi-mission really means."

“Although often overlooked next to the Vietnam-era Huey in the pantheon of helicopter fame,” wrote Roger Connor, curator of the National Air and Space Museum’s vertical flight collection, in the museum’s blog recently, “this aircraft may well have been at the forefront of more American military operations in peace and war than any other.” 

Maintenance personnel from Marine Corps Reserve Medium Squadron 774 (HMM-774) watch the Boeing-Vertol CH-46E Sea Knight, Bureau Number 153369, that they have been taking care of since April, as it taxis for final takeoff at Norfolk Naval Station on July 30, 2015.  On August 1, the helicopter will temporarily join the collection of the National Air and Space Museum, ultimately becoming part of the National Museum of the Marine Corps after its expansion is complete.  (M.C. Farrington/ Hampton Roads Naval Museum)  

The last of the Navy's CH-46 Sea Knights based at Naval Station Norfolk departed nearly 11 years ago and its Search-and-Rescue (SAR), Vertical Replenishment (VERTREP), and other logistical duties were taken up by the MH-60 Knighthawk, an aircraft with other variants serving the Navy since 1983 in other capacities such as Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) and Antiship Surveillance and Targeting (ASST).  The Marines of Reserve Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 774 (HMM-774) also based at the naval station, however, stubbornly maintained their Phrogs until the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, a truly revolutionary yet controversial replacement that has been in the development pipeline since before the demise of the Soviet Union, could take its place.  Although its first flight was in 1989, the Osprey's maiden operational deployment with a Marine Corps squadron occurred in 2013.

With a cargo of fresh eggs, a UH-46D Sea Knight helicopter, looking not unlike its Marine Corps counterparts at the time, leaves USS Camden (AEO-2) bound for a nearby aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, December 1968. The helicopter is attached to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Three (HC-3), one of the first Navy squadrons to employ the aircraft. (Photo: National Archives via Naval History and Heritage Command / Photographer's Mate Second Class William M. Hopkins)

For generations of Sailors, the Sea Knight or "Phrog" was a ubiquitous sight on long deployments, delivering anything from eggs to tactical nuclear weapons on endless lines of palettes, frequently in pairs, between auxiliary ships and surface combatants.

Two UH-46D Sea Knight helicopters bring supplies to USS Intrepid (CVS-11) in the South China Sea, December 1968. The helicopter to the right is attached to Helicopter Support Squadron Three (HC-3) from USS Camden (AOE-2). The helicopter to the left is attached to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Seven (HC-7) from USS Mars (AFS-1). (Photo: National Archives via Naval History and Heritage Command / Photographer's Mate Second Class William M. Hopkins)

The cockpit of CH-46E Sea Knight (popularly known as a "Phrog"), Bureau Number 153369, which was temporarily attached to Marine Corps Reserve Medium Squadron 774 (HMM-774) from April to July 2015, frames the other Phrogs scheduled to depart Naval Station Norfolk on August 5, 2014, marking the and of an aviation era in Hampton Roads. (M.C. Farrington/ Hampton Roads Naval Museum)  



A replacement data plate was recently made for the aircraft by its manufacturer. (M.C. Farrington/ Hampton Roads Naval Museum)  

The signatures of personnel who participated in bringing the CH-46, which is ultimately bound for the National Museum of the United States Marine Corps, back to its original Vietnam-era appearance appear on this commemorative plaque just behind the cockpit. (M.C. Farrington/ Hampton Roads Naval Museum)  

Thousands of Marines, Sailors, and untold tons of cargo transited through this CH-46 in its 48-years of operational life.  (M.C. Farrington/ Hampton Roads Naval Museum)   

This memorial painted on the starboard side of the aircraft commemorates the last CH-46 lost in Vietnam and the two officers, Marine Corps Captain William Nystul and First Lieutenant Michael Shea, who perished when their helicopter, Bureau Number 154042, crashed into the South China Sea.  (M.C. Farrington/ Hampton Roads Naval Museum)      

Marine Corps Reserve Sgt. John Belanger keeps an eye to the rear of Phrog 153369 as the CH-46 taxis away from the HMM-774 hangar for the last time.  (M.C. Farrington/Hampton Roads Naval Museum) 

At noon on Saturday, August 1, Phrog 153369 will make its final touchdown as a part of an official retirement ceremony and “passing of the torch” to the MV-22 Osprey to be held at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. 

“It’s an honor that we get to participate,” Said HMM-774's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dominic J. DeFazio just before boarding Phrog 153369 for his flight from Norfolk to Chantilly, where he will also be piloting the helicopter during its retirement ceremony.  “But,” he added, “it’s still business.” 

DeFazio expressed his belief that credit is due to those who kept their aircraft flying throughout the last half-century, making the point that without the hard work of hundreds of maintenance personnel, pilots and crew, their existing Phrogs would not have made it to retirement.  “They should be honored,” said DeFazio.  He also wanted to emphasize why Bureau Number 153369 in particular was singled out for the vintage paint job and historical conservation. 

This particular CH-46 was selected because it was among those used by Marine First Lieutenant Joseph P. Donovan as he selflessly exposed himself to enemy fire to evacuate casualties during the Vietnam War.  Both his mettle and that of the aircraft he flew were proven again and again in early 1969 and are attested to on his Silver Star and two Navy Cross citations for instances of heroism from February to May of that year.    

After the helicopter's retirement ceremony on Saturday, a 14-person team from HMM-774 will, in the words of Master Gunnery Sergeant Willy Orosemane, HMM-774's maintenance chief, "demilitarize" the helicopter by emptying it of fluids, disabling the aircraft's fire suppression system, and removing any other materials or components considered hazardous.  Phrog 153369 will then take its rightful place among other historical aircraft at the cavernous Udvar-Hazy Center such as the B-29 "Enola Gay," Space Shuttle Discovery, and the Bell XV-15, the experimental aircraft that led directly to the development of the CH-46's replacement, the MV-22 Osprey.  

To Tom Stites, the retired naval aviator, the reasoning behind the Corps' adoption of the Osprey instead of settling for the SH-60 Seahawk or MH-60 Knighthawk years ago is easy to understand.  "The United States Marine Corps wants to fly higher, faster.  That's where the V-22 comes in."  Stites added, however, that the Osprey was not designed to accomplish vertical replenishment, and so the Navy's decision to stick with a more conventional yet more proven rotary wing platform made sense.

Still, Stites opined that the Navy and now the Marine Corps was letting go of the most capable aircraft for vertical replenishment and combat resupply.  The CH-46 design incorporating tandem contra-rotating propellers provided, in his words, "phenomenal lift," with near-100% efficiency, said the former squadron and wing commander, whereas a helicopter with a tail rotor has to expend 15 to 20% of its energy just to keep the fuselage from spinning out of control.  

Master Gunnery Sergeant Willy Orosemane, who is in charge of maintenance for Marine Corps Reserve Medium Squadron 774 (HMM-774), closes the hatch on one of the squadron's two remaining CH-46E Sea Knights.  Both will be departing Naval Station Norfolk on August 5, marking the end of an aviation era in Hampton Roads.  (Farrington/Hampton Roads Naval Museum)    

Reflecting upon losing the last of his Phrogs, Master Gunnery Sgt. Orosemane was circumspect. "It's bittersweet.  But you have to be objective. These aircraft are about as old as I am."  He called some of the new capabilities of the Osprey "out of this world."  "When you see the new technology," said Orosemane, "you cannot not be impressed."   

On Wednesday, August 5, the last two operational CH-46 helicopters aboard Naval Station Norfolk will depart HMM-774 for the last time.