Marines’ Mighty Midget Over Vietnam

Marine pilots in their diminutive Douglas A-4 Skyhawks provided vital close air support for ground forces in Vietnam.

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By Jerry Scutts

When infantrymen of the 1st Marine Division waded ashore at Da Nang in March 1965, the conflict in Southeast Asia might have seemed quite a low-key affair, as banners and pretty girls wearing flower garlands welcomed America’s crack troops. But when he deployed the Marines, President Lyndon B. Johnson significantly escalated the war. They were sent to Vietnam to protect airfields from Viet Cong guerrilla attack, but the Marines were soon in the midst of heavy action and were requesting their own air support.

The Corps’ air inventory in 1965 included the diminutive Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Designed as a Navy shipboard attack airplane, the A-4 had the smallest possible airframe to assist stowage aboard carriers. By 1965, as the A-4E, the Skyhawk had become a highly capable warplane. The A-4 had been flown by the Corps since 1957, but it had waited eight years to make its combat debut in the hands of Marine pilots.

The A-4E was armed with two internal 20mm cannons and could carry additional guns in external pods. With three stores stations available in the A-4C and five in the A-4E “Echo,” Marine pilots could deliver approximately 8,500 pounds of ordnance–”iron” bombs weighing up to 1,000 pounds, napalm, Zuni semi-guided rockets, cluster bombs, and unguided rockets. The A-4 was fast, maneuverable and rugged, well able to survive combat in Vietnam, where anti-aircraft artillery and small arms were the enemy’s principal weapons.

The Marine landings coincided with a need for a new air base on the coast in order to reduce flight time to targets in Quang Tin province and adjacent districts. Da Nang was the first Marine air base in South Vietnam. A second airfield was sorely needed, and Chu Lai, located about 50 miles south, was chosen.

Marine Aircraft Group 12 (MAG-12) would direct most operations assigned to the A-4 force in South Vietnam, plus bring in new squadrons as required. MAG-12 was commanded by Colonel Dean Macho, an en-

ergetic and resourceful officer who usually led from the front. Macho would fly numerous A-4 strike missions.

Navy Seabees sweated in 100-degree-plus temperatures to prepare the Chu Lai site for an AM-2 aluminum plank runway, dubbed the “tinfoil airstrip.” Designated SATS, for short airfield for tactical support, the facility had been designed for areas where no airfield existed. The one at Chu Lai initially had a 4,000-foot runway, taxiways, a parking ramp and, later, a catapult and arrester gear. As one individual put it, Chu Lai eventually had everything a Navy carrier had except the water.

A launching catapult was not immediately available, but Chu Lai had ample supplies of JATO (jet-assisted takeoff) bottles for an extra push on takeoff. These dry-fuel rockets were attached to the rear fuselage of each A-4 to give a five-second burn that generated 3,500 pounds of thrust. Using them cut the A-4’s takeoff distance in half.

On June 1, 1965, Colonel John D. Noble, commanding MAG-12, flew into Chu Lai in a Skyhawk, leading three other A-4s belonging to Lt. Col. Robert W. Baker’s squadron, VMA-225, into the new air base. Those Skyhawks were followed later the same day by four A-4s of the VMA-311 “Tomcats,” commanded by Lt. Col. Bernard J. Stender.

The urgent need for Marine fixed-wing air support was demonstrated by the fact that on the same afternoon he arrived, Baker was briefed to fly Chu Lai’s first airstrike. His aircraft duly hit targets identified by Vietnamese army troops who were in contact with the enemy six miles north of the base. The close proximity of the enemy to South Vietnamese air bases was a fact that the Marines learned to accept.

Combat flying for the VMA-311 Tomcats began on June 2; the first of two four-plane sections flown that day was launched in the morning. Noble led, followed by Stender, who ran his engine up to 85 percent power for the standard fuel state check prior to calling the tower for takeoff clearance. The ground people answered, and Stender moved to acknowledge the message, but instead of keying the microphone button he hit the JATO firing button. The A-4 leaped forward. There was little to be done, for Stender was on his way, “blowing sand for a mile,” as one eyewitness described it. Fortunately, the A-4 responded to the controls, and Stender’s four aircraft went on to bomb and strafe Viet Cong forces in Quang Ngai, about 20 miles south of their base.

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