Fullbore Friday

secondary targets are still...

Today, I'm going to direct you over to the archived but now defunct Skipper's place for a story and a man more people should know about, CDR Hugh Magee, USN (Ret), who passed the month I first wrote about this in 2016.

You honor men by speaking their name and telling their stories of honor…and giving him a mighty Bravo Zulu for that deployment ‘stach.

... on June 25th, the entire strike package got airborne and headed north for the 20-minute trip to Haiphong. And, while the weather had improved slightly, in the end it still wasn’t good enough for the planned “ALPHA” strike. Divisions were split off and sent on to secondary targets.

Busy Bee One, Two, Three, and Four turned toward their pre-briefed secondary mission, but before making much progress in that direction they were directed to support an ongoing SAR effort. An A-6A from CONSTELLATION had been shot down near the coast. The pilot survived the ejection only to land ¼ mile off shore and well within the range of enemy coastal mortar positions. After a series of frequency changes and then visually locating the A-6 crew, the lead A-4 (flown by the Blue Diamond Commanding Officer, CDR Ed Schaufelberger) called “Busy Bee 1, rolling in.” Then 2. Then Hugh. What followed is an amazing tale of luck (both good and bad), remarkable bravery and regrettable loss.

Read it all.