Wednesday, June 7, 1972
What's Going On? A Helluva Fight...
By Spec. 4 Ken Schultz
OFF THE NORTH VIETNAM COAST --Churning between North Vietnamese fishing sampans and junks 80 miles south of Haiphong, a U.S. cruiser and six destroyers shelled a Communist surface-to-air missile site in a daring daylight raid before retreating under heavy pressure."What's going on here- this ain't right," a surprised Marine said as the cruiser Newport News steamed into firing position near the heavily-defended port city of Thanh Hoa, south of Haiphong, last week.The lightning-quick attack also caught the North Vietnamese shore defense off guard, at least momentarily.Cutting through the mirror-like calm of the sea along the North Vietnam coast, the American warships became engulfed in a seemingly endless body of sampans and junks as they neared the target area."They started popping up like freckles on the radar scope," said Cmdr. Robert Leverone of Boston, Mass., the Newport News" executive officer.U.S. Marines looked down the barrel of a .50-caliber machine gun, ready to shoot if the ship began to take fire from one of the sampans.Grim-faced, helmeted sailors and Marines wearing flak vests stood on the ship's deck and held their breath as they neared the coast. The tension increased measurably.There was a bright flash of gunfire from the shoreline. And then another. Not too much at first.Inside the ship's nerve center, sailors began plotting the areas where shore batteries were reported firing at the American ships.The 21,000-ton cruiser and the six destroyers with her abruptly veered into line. The air exploded with the flame and smoke of answering gunfire.The spent powder from the erupting eight-inch guns of the Newport News burned eyes and filled lungs. The sea and ship trembled from the jolt of the giant guns.But the enemy fired back like a man stung by a bee and angrily swinging back.The flashes of shore batteries dug into hillside could be seen. Huge columns of water shot up around the ships. The men on the decks ducked down.The sampans and junks were caught in the fierce crossfire. Some tried to scramble out of the way, others took in their sails and floated listlessly in the water awaiting their fate. At least two of the boats were blown out of the water by their country-men's guns.Three fishermen in a sampan narrowly escaped being crushed to death under the bow of the Newport News when they were swept alongside of the heavy cruiser and slid along the ship"s hull-directly under the cruiser's thundering guns. The little boat shuddered violently from the concussion.The ships turned and steamed out of range and the fight ended almost as quickly as it had begun.The small sampan was nearly swamped in the wake of the Newport News-on the small boat's deck lay three trembling fisherman, their arms wrapped around their heads."What's Going on? A Helluva Fight...", by Spec. 4 Ken Schultz, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Wednesday, June 7, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.