USS Ticonderoga CVA-14 conducting bombing raids over North VietNam

[theoriginalbadbob]

I was in VA-56, had two near-death experiences on the flight deck of the Tico, and spent my 21st birthday on her off the coast of Vietnam. That was May 8, 1963. That's right, 1963. We were supposed to be in Beppu, Japan on my birthday, but made an emergency underway from Manila Bay, stopped in Subic to load bombs and food, and hauled ass for Nam. Capt. John Daniels kept telling us to "strip the ship for wartime running." We spent about 30 days off the coast of that miserable country. 1963!

[ehmc2]

The plane you were referring to was an Enterprise CVAN-65 maybe a F-4 Phantom flying overhead the Tico. YES ...the Enterprise had Phantoms in 1965 and were no match for the Megs..we just had better pilots to out fly them.

Please read the above: In December 1965 the USS Ticonderoga CVA-14, USS Enterprise CVAN-65 and the USS Kitty Hawk CVA-63 headed north for the Gulf of Tonkin a few miles off the Coast of North VietNam.

[Ulleval73]

From 7:00 on, that ain't the Ticonderoga....and they're flying F14s. Now at 8:00 we're back to the 1960's and AD-1s, A4s, and S2 Trackers.

[phyliscd]

i was there on board the uss yorktown cvs 10 in 1966,

[Astoria11103]

I was on the TI from Feb:1963 to Feb:1965 and was anxious to hit the shores of Australia because initially that was the next Port of Call. So we are out to sea heading there and the next thing ya know we changed direction and headed for Vietnam. War is Hell no matter what. And we had some fatalities on our ship....Crewman & Pilots. May Their Memories Be Eternal.

[oinei]

what a shame that the reason for the whole thing was a fake story to get it all started by macnamara, avoiding telling johnson the truth. What a waste of lives and money as the vid makes everyone in the west a hero with hero music and all. We were ALL sucked in. Yankee doodle dandy joksters USA

[Chasll]

PR3 - I was there standing by the nose in the chow line waiting to go down to the next deck for lunch. Aircraft jumped the chocks and flipped over backwards. It looked like was putting his helmet on and was unable to hear the plan captain blow his whistle to stop (put on the brakes) I have whitnessed a couple F8 run off the flight deck but this A4 was the worst.

1964 1965 1966 aboard Ticonderoga attached to the Fighter Squadron 53 - F8U - Parachute Rigger.

[pfiabane]

Brings back memories of that afternoon. I was on the wheel chock moving the bird onto elevator # 2 when this tragedy occured. RIP LTJG Webster.

PJ Fiabane V-3 1965-1968

[aVeitnamVeteran]

This is a GREAT video..thanks for sharing it .. .brings back a lot of old memories.