  | The Virginian-PilotCarrier, Escorts, Planes Off to VietnamShips to Sail for War Zone |
| Tuesday, April 11, 1972 - NORFOLK: The aircraft carrier Saratoga, a detachment of escort ships, and at least three squadrons of Norfolk-based fighter planes are scheduled to leave Mayport, FL, early today for Vietnam, reliable sources said Monday.
They said that the unexpected deployment of the Saratoga would last eight months. The ship previously had been scheduled to relieve the carrier John F. Kennedy in the Mediterranean next month. Several additional warships, including two Norfolk-based destroyers and a cruiser, reportedly have been placed on standby alert. The Navy refused to say why. The action apparently is part of a continuing buildup of sea and air forces in South Vietnam, a buildup designed to counter the North Vietnamese offensive. The Associated press reported that at least eight warships left Southern California naval bases Monday for undisclosed deployment. Sailors said they were going to Vietnam. The Navy refused to comment on the departure of four warships from Long Beach and four more from San Diego. They reportedly will rendezvous with the carrier Midway. The Midway left its base at Alameda and sailed out the Golden Gate from San Francisco Bay in late morning, AP said. The four Long Beach-based ships previously had been scheduled to leave 30 days from now for the Western Pacific. The sailing followed sudden cancellations of all leave for ship personnel, said sailors aboard. “We cannot comment on ship movements,” a Navy public affairs officer in Long Beach said after newsmen watched the ships depart. The Pentagon Monday refused to confirm that the Saratoga will sail today, but conceded that a number of ships are moving towards the Pacific. However, reliable sources said that the Saratoga would sail for Vietnam at 7:45 AM. She will be accompanied by the destroyer Sarsfield, the sources said. Both ships are based in Mayport. Sources also said that the heavy cruiser Newport News, flagship of the 2nd Fleet, and the destroyers Mullinnix and Biddle were on standby alert in Norfolk Monday, preparing to rendezvous with the other vessels. The Biddle is equipped with guided missiles The Norfolk-based guided missile cruiser Columbus reportedly had been placed on 48-hour alert. Other East Coast ships mentioned ass probable candidates for a Vietnam deployment were the guided missile destroyer Standley, guided missile cruiser Albany, destroyer Glennon, and oiler Detroit. Sources said that Fighter Squadrons 31, 75, and 103 from Oceana Naval Air Station would deploy to Vietnam aboard the Saratoga. Squadrons 31 and 103 fly the F4 Phantom, and Fighter Squadron 75 is equipped with A6 Intruders. It could not be determined Monday which additional aircraft squadrons will be aboard the Saratoga, but the ship almost certainly will carry at least one detachment of E2A Hawkeyes, twin-engine radar planes that have been called the ‘eyes of the fleet.’ Reliable sources said that besides the ships on standby alert and those scheduled in sail today, a guided missile ship and a destroyer left Norfolk for Vietnam during the weekend. The Navy refused to discuss this. The Pentagon said that its military command in Vietnam will discuss which units are going to Vietnam when the units arrive there, not before, Official spokesmen would not answer and questions relating to the naval buildup. Tits was not known Monday whether the Saratoga’s departure for Vietnam will change the operational schedule of the Kennedy, which has been in the Mediterranean since before Christmas. A spokesman at the Cruiser-Destroyer Force Headquarters at San Diego identified the San Diego ships as the guided missile frigate John S. McCain and the destroyers Hull, Hanson, and Dennis J. Buckley. They identified the Long Beach vessels as the guided missile destroyers Somers and Berkeley and the conventional destroyers Eversole and Osbourne. What is described as a major training exercise was reported nearing Monday for the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. Including air units stationed at El Toro Marine Air Base. Units were reported preparing for at least 10 days of drills off San Clemente Island or at Camp Pendleton, staring possibly within a week. There was no confirmation or denial of the reports from base public information officers. |
Courtesy FTG3 Dennis "Ski" Wenske
| Saigon (AP)Allies claim enemy tank battalion destroyed below DMZ by B52sBy GEORGE ESPER |
| Saigon (AP) – South Vietnamese forces today claimed major successes on two fronts of the North Vietnamese offensive, including destruction of an entire enemy tank battalion by U.S. B52 bombers below the demilitarized zone and the killing of more than 100 enemy troops on the northern front.
On the southern front north of Saigon, an American general claimed that the North Vietnamese who swept down Highway 13 had been badly battered and “are on the run to Cambodia.” South Vietnamese forces abandoned a second district town North of Saigon Monday. Delayed field reports said that several hundred rangers and their families were evacuated by helicopter from the town of Bo Duc because of heavy enemy pressure and shelling attacks. Bo Duc is 80 miles north of Saigon and about 15 miles northeast of Loc Ninh, which the North Vietnamese captured last week. Bo Duc is deep in largely abandoned rubber plantation country, and its main military function was to monitor enemy infiltration across the Cambodian border five miles away. Field reports said that pullout was orderly and the rangers took their four 195mm howitzers with them. There were conflicting reports about North Vietnamese troop movements in the border region north of Saigon, An American general said that enemy forces that swept down Highway 13 had been badly battered and were on the run back to Cambodia. But other field reports said the North Vietnamese were moving reinforcements into South Vietnam. Enemy troops sweeping down Highway 13 earlier captured the district town of Loc Ninh and surrounded some 10,000 Vietnamese troops in An Loc, the provincial capital 60 miles north of Saigon. About 2,000 more government soldiers were lifted by helicopter today into the town President Nguyen Van Thieu has said must be held at all costs. The Communists also intensified their shelling attack in the central highlands after a week’s lull, hitting a series of government bases. In the worst attack, rockets slammed into South Vietnamese troops bunched together at the Konturn airfield awaiting transportation; field reports said 23 of the troops were killed and more than a score wounded. Delayed reports said the tank battalion was wiped out Sunday on one of the most successful B52 strikes of the war. The reports said waves of the giant Stratofortresses destroyed 27 tanks and three artillery pieces and killed 100 North Vietnamese. Secondary explosions went off for 30 minutes, the reports said. The target area was five miles northwest of Dong Hxx and seven miles below the DMZ. The reports said South Vietnamese officials confirmed the destruction. Nearly 60 more B52 strikes were flown today across South Vietnam and the big bombers dropped about 1,800 tons of explosives on North Vietnamese’s troop concentrations threatening the provincial capitals of Quang Tri and Hue in the northernmost provinces, Kontum City in the central highlands and An Loc north of Saigon. The South Vietnamese command claimed that infantry, artillery and air strikes killed another 442 North Vietnamese troops in 10 battles along the approaches to Quang Tri and objectives of the Communists’ 13-day-old offensive. One fight was within a half mile of Quang Tri, which is 19 miles below the DMZ and nine miles below the government’s northernmost defense line. Hue is 35 miles southeast of Quang Tri. Ten South Vietnamese troops were killed and 84 wounded, the Saigon command said. Eight U.S. destroyers and the cruiser Oklahoma City, the 7th Fleet’s flagship, bombarded enemy positions 10 to 18 miles north of Quang Tri. The 7th fleet said two tanks were destroyed. A battalion of several hundred U.S. troops from the 196th Infantry Brigade was moved today from the Da Nang area to Phu Bai, eight miles south of Huy, to strengthen U.S. security forces already there. Although the 196th is one of the two U.S. ground combat units left in Vietnam, informed sources said the role of the troops was not to help out the South Vietnamese but to augment a company of other 196th Brigade soldiers who are responsible for the protection of American communications unit and other facilities there. In the Saigon area, a lone Viet Cong sniper slipped into a South Vietnamese ammunition dump eight miles east of the capital before dawn and set off explosive charge. The blast destroyed 25 per cent of the ammunition stores and shook buildings in Saigon. The sniper was killed, and one South Vietnamese soldier was wounded. The claim of success on Highway 13 north of Saigon came from Maj. Gen. James F. Hollingsworth, the senior U.S. adviser in the capital region. He said lead elements of a 20,000-man government relief column would reach An Loc, the threatened provincial capital 60 miles north of Saigon, by Wednesday. Associated Press correspondent Lynn C. Newland, with the relief force, said the lead units were moving slowly and as night began falling were within eight miles of An Loc. No major fighting was reported. |