Dave Cable was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1941. He went to Purdue University on a regular NROTC scholarship. He graduated and was commissioned, and went straight to Pensacola for flight school, having already received his private pilot’s license while in college through the Flight Indoctrination Program at Purdue. He got his wings in 1965. He initially wanted to fly helicopters, but after his first carrier landing, his whole idea of what he wanted to do in the Navy changed. He learned to fly jets at Kingsville, Texas, and was then assigned to an A-6 Intruder squadron at Oceana. Cable deployed to Yankee Station off the coast Vietnam at the end of 1966. He flew almost all of his 100 combat missions over North Vietnam, bombing bridges, petroleum sites, truck parks, power plants, and even air bases. He tells of several close calls with surface-to-air (SAM) missiles, one of which exploded just below him after some evasive maneuvers, and another that exploded just above him. He also vividly recalls successfully bombing a MiG on the ground at Kep Air Base near Hanoi. Cable describes Black Friday, 19 May 1967, when “the Enterprise, Bonnie Dick, and Kitty Hawk each lost two aircraft that day and 10 aircrew,” including his friends Red McDaniel (POW), Kelly Patterson (Red’s bombardier, who disappeared and was never heard from again), Dick Rich (MIA/KIA), and Bill Metzger (POW).

Key Words: A-6 Intruder, USS Essex (CVS-9), USS Enterprise (CVN-65), USS Bonhomme Richard (CV-31), USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63), Shrike missile, SAM site

Key Names: Stu Johnson, Ken Van Lue, Kelly Patterson, Red McDaniel, Dick Rich, Bill Metzger, Subic Bay, Olongapo City, Bob Miles, Harrison Salisbury, Jim Holloway