april 1968 wunder beach viet vietnam war

On Rear Admiral Robinson and staff arrived onboard Davidson just before noon and were transferred by Davidson’s motor whale boat (MWB) to the nearby guided missile destroyer USS Benjamin Stoddert (DDG 22), where the then Gunline Commander (CTG70.8.9) was embarked on the nearby guided missile destroyer, USS Waddell (DDG 24). Davidson returned to Pearl Harbor on November 10, 1972, completing a deployment lasting just over 7 months.ĭavidson was one of few DD’s or DE’s initially on scene at the DMZ at the onset of the Easter Offensive with a helicopter landing deck and hanger capability. Equipped with two (2) 5-inch/38-caliber afloat naval guns, Davidson commenced gunfire support for troops ashore and continued engaged in naval gunfire for the duration of its deployment, ending October 17, 1972. Within an hour of arriving, Davidson was tasked with its initial Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) fire mission. Departing Subic at 12:01am on the morning of April 25, 1972, Davidson, joined other US Navy ships positioned just offshore of the DMZ at 4 o’clock pm April 26, 1972, having completed an underway replenishment (UNREP) for fuel enroute. Arriving at Naval Station Guam 6 o’clock in the morning on Ap(with less than 5% fuel) and departing at noon, the ship arrived at Subic Bay at 9am on April 22, 1972. Davidson arrived at Midway Island noon on Apand refueled, departing at 4 pm that afternoon.

However, on Friday afternoon, April 7, 1972, Davidson received standby orders to deploy and on the following Monday, Apdeparted Pearl Harbor enroute to WESTPAC “at best speed without running out of fuel”, normally a transit requiring about 3 weeks.

After JanuDavidson began preparing for its next deployment scheduled to begin in August 1972. ( All Hands Magazine)Īs background, USS Davidson, a US Navy destroyer escort, later reclassified in 1975 a frigate (DE/FF 1045), had returned to Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, (its homeport) from a 6-month deployment to the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) on Decemand had enjoyed a 30-day stand-down period post deployment. The United States responded by committing its remaining in-country combat units (for the most part, US Marines) and an increasing number of naval ships to counteract the NVA invasion, which has often been referred to as the 1972 Easter Offensive, 50 years ago. NVA troops easily overran the SVN army forces located in I CORPS in Northern South Vietnam. In early April 1972, North Vietnamese army (NVA) forces began a land campaign and invaded South Vietnam (SVN), crossing the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing the two countries, with significant numbers of regular NVA troops and tanks. Note: Operation Pocket Money was the naval mining of the North Vietnam coast and harbors and Operation Linebacker 1 tasked Navy ships with surface action group bombardment from the sea on North Vietnamese costal defense sites and military targets and Operation Linebacker 2 was the re-activation of significant Air Force and Navy air bombing campaigns against North Vietnam. Navy admiral to have died in the Vietnam War. The significance of this accident was later revealed in the events and activities of that evening, May 8, 1972, when Operation Pocket Money (to October 10, 1972) and Operation Linebacker 1 (to October 23, 1972) were in their initial phases of execution on the direct orders of then President Nixon. The helo crew and the aviation staff officer were able to escape and were rescued. Leaver, Jr., USN, Surface Operations Officer. Killed in the accident were Rear Admiral Robinson, Capt. The helo, with Admiral Robinson, three members of his staff and the helo crew aboard, on approach to the Providence, suffered an operational malfunction, crashing into the fantail of the Providence and fell overboard into the Gulf. The helo was returning from a conference aboard the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CV 43) where senior officers met with the Commander of the US 7 th Fleet and others at the onset of a major escalation of the Vietnam War. Robinson, USN, the Commander (i.e., CTG) of various naval surface ships afloat constituting task groups TG70.8 and TG77.7. Navy’s guided missile light cruiser USS Providence (CLG 6), flagship of Rear Adm. Navy SH-3 Sea King helicopter was making its approach to the U.S. Fifty-years ago, in the Gulf of Tonkin, during the evening of May 8, 1972, offshore North Vietnam, a U.S.

April 1968 wunder beach viet vietnam war