Chap 3, 4, 5, 6, 7--295-344 4/10/95 12:35 PM Page 307 CHAPTER 5 Light Attack Squadron History (VAL) VAL-4 Chronology of Significant Events Sep 1968: VS-41 was assigned the responsiblity of Lineage training personnel scheduled for assignment to VAL-4. Established as Light Attack Squadron FOUR (VAL-4) Oct 1968: VS-41 received its first OV-10A Broncos on 3 January 1969. for training VAL-4 personnel. Disestablished on 10 April 1972. The first squadron Jan 1969: VAL-4 was established with the mission of to be assigned the VAL-4 designation. conducting surveillance and offensive operations in support of river patrol craft, as well as providing air support for SEALS and combined U.S. Army, Navy and Squadron Insignia and Nickname South Vietnamese operations. The squadron’s first insignia was approved by CNO Mar 1969: VAL-4 was permanently based at the on 7 March 1969. Colors for the Yellow Jacket Naval Support Activity Detachment Airfield, Binh insignia were: a red Thuy, South Vietnam, for combat operations. The background outlined squadron had two detachments, Det A assigned to in black; a white Vietnamese Air Force Base, Binh Thuy and Det B at scroll outlined in the Vung Tau, Army Airfield. black with black let- 19 Apr 1969: The squadron began its first combat tering; black stylized operations, flying air support of the Naval River Forces aircraft with yellow in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam. The missions contrails; the yellow included normal patrol, overhead air cover, scramble jacket had silver alert and gunfire/artillery spotting. wings with black Apr–May 1970: VAL-4’s OV-10A Broncos participated markings, a brown in combined South Vietnamese and U.S. Riverine body outlined in Force operations designed to neutralize sanctuary black, the head and bases in the Mekong River Corridor in support of U.S. and South Vietnamese strikes against enemy sanctuar- The yellow jacket wasp was the stinger tail were yel- squadron’s first insignia design. low with black mark- ies in Cambodia. ings; the lightning bolt from the tail was black and the explosion was yellow outlined in black. On 14 July 1971 CNO approved a modification to the squadron’s insignia. Colors for the Pony insignia were: a red background outlined in black; a white scroll outlined in black with black let- tering; the stylized aircraft were black with yellow contrails; The squadron’s second insignia, the the pony was black. Black Ponies, is the one that is best Nickname: Black A OV-10A Bronco taking off from Vung Tau, Republic of Vietnam, known. Ponies, 1971–1972. on a combat mission, June 1969. 307 Chap 3, 4, 5, 6, 7--295-344 4/10/95 12:37 PM Page 308 308 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN NAVAL AVIATION SQUADRONS—Volume I 1 Jul 1970: With the completion of new facilities for Aircraft Assignment VAL-4 on Vietnamese Air Force Base Binh Thuy and the consolidation of VAL-4’s operating units, the Type of Aircraft Date Type First Received squadron’s Detachment B was disestablished. OV-10A 03 Jan 1969 31 Mar 1972: The squadron conducted its last combat YOV-10D Jun 1971 mission prior to its disestablishment on 10 April 1972. Air Wing Assignments Home Port Assignments Air Wing Tail Code Assignment Date Location Assignment Date VS-41 UM Sep 1968 NAS North Island 03 Jan 1969 COMFAIRWESTPAC UM Mar 1969 NSA Binh Thuy, South Vietnam 23 Mar 1969 Unit Awards Received Commanding Officers Unit Award Inclusive Dates Covering Unit Award Date Assumed Command NUC 01 Jun 1964 01 Jun 1968 CDR Gilbert L. Winans 03 Jan 1969 01 Apr 1971 31 Oct 1971 CDR Martin S. Schuman 06 Sep 1969 MUC 26 Mar 1969 03 Sep 1969 CDR Verle W. Klein 06 Mar 1970 RVNGC 21 Nov 1968 21 Nov 1970 CDR Leonard M. Rausch 03 Sep 1970 CDR Robert W. Porter 03 Mar 1971 Unit Awards Received for VAL-4 Detachment B Unit Award Inclusive Dates Covering Unit Award NUC 14 Jun 1969 12 Aug 1969 PUC 24 Jun 1969 28 Feb 1970 Three squadron OV-10A Broncos on a combat mission over the Mekong Delta, circa 1971. Note the squadron’s Black Ponies insignia A squadron OV-10A Bronco in flight, 1969. on the tail. UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910–1995 PART 9 The Sixth Decade 1960–1969 The year 1961 marked the golden anniversary of series of high-level studies directed toward clarifying Naval Aviation. It was a year filled with many nostalgic lines of authority and responsibility. The bureau sys- memories of past glories and also a year in which tem was abolished, and material support was central- Naval Aviation attained new stature as an effective ized under a strengthened Material Command placed fighting force. One nuclear-powered and two conven- under direct control of the Chief of Naval Operations. tionally powered attack carriers joined the operating New impetus was given to the project manager con- forces, perhaps the greatest array of carrier-air might cept and other changes radiated outward to the oper- added during peacetime to any fleet in a single year. ating forces and the shore establishment. Before the decade was out, two more attack carriers In other respects, the Navy’s traditional role in con- had been commissioned and another was taking form trolling the sea remained unchanged. Revival of the on the ways. Four new amphibious assault ships, and old technique of naval blockade during the Cuban others built to exploit the unique capabilities of heli- missile crisis found a modern Navy fully capable of copters in vertical assault and replenishment, joined performing it. Operating forces were near at hand to the fleet. New high-performance aircraft went into give aid to the stricken when hurricanes, typhoons, operation. Vertical and short-takeoff-and-landing air- and earthquakes struck in widely distant points. The craft were developed; one went into service. New round-the-world cruise of a nuclear-powered task types of missiles appeared and such old standbys as force and operations in the Indian Ocean carried the Sparrows and Sidewinders were given new capabili- flag into many foreign ports. Crises in Africa, the ties. On the other side of the ledger, the blimp and the Middle East, over Berlin and the threat of war in flying boat, long-familiar figures in Naval Aviation, Caribbean nations, found naval forces ready to evacu- became victims of the relentless march of technology. ate American nationals and by their presence to reaf- Efforts to conquer space began in earnest as firm the Navy’s role in keeping the peace. In Southeast manned orbital flight became a reality and a series of Asia, the nation responded to aggressive actions with successes culminated in the first manned lunar land- retaliatory air strikes. As retaliation developed into war ing. More than half the nation’s astronauts had Navy and the nation’s commitment increased, the burden of backgrounds—Naval Aviators made the first American the Navy’s air war was carried by aircraft of the suborbital and orbital flights. Navy flight surgeons Seventh Fleet. The requirement for sustained naval joined in the study of physiological effects of space action and support of operations ashore posed major flight. A Navy space surveillance system helped forge problems for logistic planners and force commanders the necessary links for a continuous watch on space. alike, as the action became progressively heavier Satellites developed by Navy scientists expanded our despite repeated attempts to halt the fighting and to knowledge of space, and a Navy satellite navigation settle differences at the conference table. system gave to all nations an accurate means of travel- ing the earth’s oceans. Carriers or amphibious assault 1960 ships, were at sea in both oceans during all orbiting periods to cover an emergency landing, and were 1 January Electronics Countermeasures Squadrons always on station to recover the astronauts and their were redesignated Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons, spacecraft upon their return to earth. without change of their VQ letter designation. Support of the space program was responsible for a number of organizational adjustments within the Navy 15 January The Naval Weather Service Division was Department as well as for formation of a Recovery transferred from the Office of DCNO (Operations & Force command in the fleet. Broader and more basic Readiness) to the staff of the Vice Chief of Naval changes in departmental structure resulted from a Operations, and an Office of the U.S. Naval Weather 235 236 UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910–1995 1 1960—Continued 26 ⁄2 hours. The balloons were tracked by early warn- ing aircraft from the carrier and shore bases, and the Service was set up as a field activity under the man- instruments were recovered by a destroyer. The pro- agement control of the Chief of Naval Operations. The ject was under the joint sponsorship of the National responsibilities of the new office included manage- Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Naval ment control of the integrated Fleet Weather Central Research (NRL). system and technical direction of meteorological mat- ters within the shore establishment and the operating 25 February A Navy R6D transport, carrying mem- forces. bers of the Navy Band and a team of antisubmarine specialists, collided with a Brazilian airliner over Sugar 26 January The first of two giant unmanned bal- Loaf Mountain, Rio de Janeiro. The accident took the loons was launched from Valley Forge, at sea south of lives of all 26 persons on board the airliner and all but the Virgin Islands. Almost as high as a 50-story build- 3 of the 38 Navy men on board the R6D.