The Patriot Files Forums

The Patriot Files Forums (http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/index.php)
-   Vietnam (http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=99)
-   -   Viet Cong Commandos Sank an American Aircraft Carrier (http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1466377)

Boats 07-23-2017 12:31 PM

Viet Cong Commandos Sank an American Aircraft Carrier
 
Viet Cong Commandos Sank an American Aircraft Carrier
By: July 23, 2017 Paul Richard Huard
RE: https://warisboring.com/viet-cong-co...craft-carrier/


Viet Cong Commandos Sank an American Aircraft Carrier

U.S. salvage crews raised the ship in 17 days (first I heard of this?)


It was shortly after midnight when two Viet Cong commandos emerged from a sewer tunnel that emptied into Saigon Port, each man carrying nearly 90 pounds of high explosives and the components needed to make two time bombs.

Their target was the largest American ship in port, USNS Card. An escort carrier that saw distinguished service as a submarine-hunter in the North Atlantic during World War II, during the early morning hours of May 2, 1964, Card was part of U.S. Military Sealift Command.

The ship supported an escalating military commitment of the South Vietnamese government that occurred well before the Tonkin Gulf Incident. Since 1961, Card had transported both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to the beleaguered nation as well as the U.S. pilots and support crews need to operate them.

The commandos swam toward Card, where they spent about an hour in the water attaching the charges just above the waterline near the bilge and the engine compartment on the ship’s starboard side. They set the timers and quickly swam away.

The charges exploded. Five civilian crewmen on board Card died, the explosion tore a huge hole in the engine-room compartment and a proud ship that had survived German U-boat attacks was on her way to the bottom — the last aircraft carrier in U.S. military history to date sunk by enemy action.

The sinking of the Card was stunning victory for the Viet Cong, yet little remembered today. It illustrated how vulnerable naval vessels can be even when faced with a low-tech enemy … and how difficult maintaining port security can be in a war with no real front.

But it also demonstrated how resilient American naval forces are. In 17 days, salvage crews raised Card out of nearly 50 feet of water, and six months later the ship returned to service for another six years.

Not surprisingly, North Vietnam celebrated the sinking of Card, considering it a propaganda victory of the first rank. The U.S. government refused to even acknowledge the vessel’s sinking, telling the public the carrier had only been damaged.

The North Vietnamese government even commemorated the event by portraying the operation on a 1964 postage stamp.

Naval vessels often have a mystique about them — they look formidable, bristle with weapons and aircraft, and have the ability to project a nation’s power anywhere on the planet. In particular, aircraft carriers are the symbol of a nation possessing “great power” status.

But they are vulnerable to attack. For example, there are reasons why even aircraft carriers have numerous escort vessels — destroyers, guided-missile cruisers, even submarines — to protect a carrier as well as engage the enemy.

We shouldn’t be too surprised when an enemy takes out a naval vessel in combat, even if it is a commando with a time bomb, James Holmes, a naval historian and analyst who teaches at the U.S. Naval War College, told War Is Boring.

“We shouldn’t get carried away with thinking of warships as ‘castles of steel,’ or latter-day dreadnoughts, or whatever,” Holmes said. “A castle is a fortification whose walls can take enormous punishment, whereas most modern warships have thin sides — the nuclear-powered carrier being an honorable exception. So a guy with a charge can do a lot of damage.”

Holmes said the sinking of Card “provided a preview” of the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 — a textbook case of a low-tech assault taking out a prime example of U.S. naval might.

Al Qaeda operatives mounted a suicide attack against Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, using a small boat packed with explosives that targeted the American ship while she was docked in Aden harbor. The blast tore a huge hole in the vessel, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 — the deadliest attack on a U.S. Navy ship in recent history.

The blast from the explosion reached Cole’s galley, killing and wounding many there as sailors were lining up for lunch. Investigators later said they did not consider the timing of the attack a coincidence.

Fifty years ago, penetrating harbor security was a major concern as well for the perpetrators of the attack on Card.

Lam Son Nao, 79, the leader of the Viet Cong commandos, was a maintenance worker at the port at the time of the attack. He used his job as cover while he gathered intelligence, hid explosives and planned the mission.

Despite patrol boats filled with harbor police, Nao and his companion were able to mount their operation because of careful planning and the corruption of Saigon law enforcement.

“For the Card mission, my fellow operative and I pretended to be fishermen,” Nao said in an April 22, 2015 interview with Vietnamese News Service. “When our boat reached Nha Rong Wharf, the police chased us to the bank of the Thu Thiem Peninsula. To avoid having my boat inspected, we pushed the boat to a swamp, so that the police boat could not reach it.”

Nao told the harbor police that he wanted to shop at a market on a nearby island, offering to share part of the clothing and radios he planned to buy there. Then, he gave the police a generous bribe — and they let Nao go his way.

The aftermath of the attack on the Card rallied American rescue and salvage crews to deal with a severe crisis. The American brass and Pres. Lyndon Johnson wanted to keep the results of the attack as quiet as possible.

However, raising Card would be a major salvage operation.

Five Navy divers investigated damage to Card. One said he found the remains of a U.S.-made demolitions pack — evidence that the Viet Cong might have used stolen American military munitions.

In the meantime, the Navy sent the salvage vessel USS Reclaimer and the tug USS Tawakoni to Saigon Port to begin pumping water out of the sunken vessel. Despite poor diving conditions and numerous equipment malfunctions, salvage crews raised Card in a little more than two weeks.

Soon, both Reclaimer and Tawakoni towed Card out of Saigon harbor on their way to the U.S. Navy port of Subic Bay in the Philippines for repairs.

Naval vessels are very flexible ships capable of recuperating from serious battle damage. Apparently, Card was no exception — ships are often “re-purposed” in the U.S. Navy and enjoy long lives in service, Holmes said.

“The carrier Midway went from being a World War II carrier to a modern supercarrier over the course of her life, which reached into the 1990s,” he said. “That philosophy — deliberately build ships to allow for easy changes and upgrades over a long life — is making a comeback.”

Even Cole survived her attackers. After 14 months of repair, Cole departed dry-dock on April 19, 2002, and returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia.

The ship deployed again in 2003. Cole remains in operation with the Sixth Fleet. Card decommissioned in 1970.

This article originally appeared on April 26, 2015.

Boats 07-23-2017 02:32 PM

On May 2, 1964: Viet Cong Sink US Aircraft Carrier at Dock in Vietnam!
RE: https://www.historyandheadlines.com/...-dock-vietnam/

(Photo of the USS Card on site only)

On May 2, 1964, before even the Gulf of Tonkin Incident that heralded major US involvement in the Vietnam War, a Viet Cong or North Vietnamese frogman placed an explosive charge against the hull of the USS Card (USNS Card at the time of sinking), blowing a hole in the ship and sinking 48 feet as she lay berthed at the dock at Saigon.

Digging Deeper

The USS Card started life in 1942 as ACV-11 (Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier) after being laid down as a cargo ship. Just under 10,000 tons and just under 500 feet long, the little carrier could carry 28 planes, 12 Devastator torpedo bombers and 16 Wildcat fighters. With a crew of 890 men, she was armed with 2 X 4inch guns and anti-aircraft rapid fire cannons.

The Card served anti-submarine patrol in the Atlantic during World War II, with considerable success sinking 11 German submarines. After the War she was decommissioned, but re-commissioned in 1958 as the USNS Card, a designation for a Navy ship crewed by civilian sailors. The Card became an ‘aviation transport ship,’ AKV-40, with helicopters as the aviation being transported.

At the beginning of the Vietnam War, the Card delivered helicopters to Vietnam, and was tied up at dock when she was sunk. Though the ship had sunk at the at the pier, the ship only settled 48 feet to the bottom with most of her hull above water. Five American sailors were killed in the blast. The Card was pumped dry, patched, refloated (after 17 days) and towed to Subic Bay, then Yokosuka, for repairs and returned to service. The Card was once again decommissioned in 1970, and scrapped in 1971.

The brave frogman that sunk a US ship all by himself (with an accomplice not in the water) was Lam Son Nao, age 27 at the time of the attack, who placed 80 kilograms of TNT and 8 kilograms of C-4 against the Card’s hull to sink the ship. In fact, Nao had failed to sink the USNS Core in a similar attack in December of 1963, an attack foiled by faulty a detonator battery. Nao claimed 23 helicopters and jets had been destroyed in the attack, with “high casualties.”

Lam Son Nao was an employee of the Saigon Port, and had bribed the port police to allow him and his assistant to canoe out into the port under the pretense of smuggling, for which the cops got a nice bribe. Approaching the returning saboteurs after the explosives were placed to solicit another bribe, the cops were diverted by the massive explosion, allowing Nao and partner to escape.

Although firmly patriotic Americans, we at History and Headlines have to recognize bravery and daring from whomever is gallant enough to display such courage. Lam Son Nao is obviously such a fighting man and patriot to his own country and worthy of recognition. With only low technology and a simple plan he managed to sink a giant ship, truly one of the great individual feats in Naval Warfare History.


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:41 AM.

Powered by vBulletin, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.