Dutch Rauch enlisted in the Navy Reserves in 1960, and entered the Naval Academy in 1962. After graduating with the class of 1966, he went to flight school in Pensacola, Florida, then went for A-4 Skyhawk training at Lemoore, California, joined VA-23, and deployed to Yankee Station on USS Oriskany (CVA-34) in 1967. He returned to Vietnam with VA 27 aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), 1974-1975, flying A-7s by now, and participated in Operations EAGLE PULL in Cambodia, and FREQUENT WIND protecting refugees evacuating from Saigon. He admits that the name of the last operation “caused a lot of jokes.”
Rauch recalls being hit and burned by a white phosphorous round that ricocheted around his cockpit up near Vinh. He describes harrowing bombing runs over the “very, very rough” Ho Chi Minh Trail area, the satisfaction of secondary explosions when successfully hitting a good target, and the disatisfaction with dropping sensors and listening devices because “nothing happens”—there’s no obvious destruction of “stuff that was moving down to kill our guys.” He also recalls providing air support to troops in contact, and discusses the things that can go wrong. And he describes the return home from his first tour, sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge while protesters dumped garbage onto the carrier. “Sucked.” Rauch also remembers losing close friends, and especially the dark night Stan Smiley’s jet crashed in the jungles of Laos, unsure if he ejected, and still MIA; and a mysterious visitor at the Pentagon in the early ‘90s showing him a shocking photograph.
Key Words: Syracuse, New York, enlisted, Reserves, Naval Academy, Class of ’66, Bancroft Hall, Memorial Hall, flight school, Pensacola, Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, A-4 pilot, USS Oriskany (CVA-34), Cub, T-34, VT-1, Meridian, Mississippi, T-2 Guppy, VT-4, Saufley Field, Mainside Field, carrier quals, gunnery, F-9s, Kingsville, and Beeville, Texas, VT-21, wings, Heinemann's Hot Rod, Fallon, Nevada, air-to-mud bombing, Tonkin Gulf, Alameda, air wing, F-8 squadrons, A-4 squadron, Whale, A-3 Skywarrior, tanker, helicopters, carrier, legal officer, Newport, Rhode Island, military law, Ban Karai Pass, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vinh, DMZ, CVIC, Carrier Intelligence Center, mission planning, cyclic ops, logbook, alpha strike, A-7, Pax River (Patuxent River), Empire Test Pilots' School, WBLC, Waterborne Logistics Craft, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), Operation FREQUENT WIND, Subic Bay, Philippines, Grande Island, refugees, USS Midway (CVA-41), Guam, Bataan, Orion-Bagac Line, triple-A (anti-aircraft fire), Vung Tau, ZSU, quad mounted 23-millimeter gun, Mark-82, 19th Parallel, FACs, forward air controllers, O-1s, O-2s, Bird Dogs, white phosphorus rockets, Willie Pete, electronic sensors, snake-eye fins, listening devices, magnetic sensors, mines, Black Whales, karst mountains, TACANs, Tchepone, Laos, COD, Carrier Onboard Delivery airplane, US-2, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, Cambodia, Operation EAGLE PULL, Hanoi Hilton
Key Names: Ed Heinemann, Helen, Tom Gravely, Charlie Plum, Stan Smiley, Cassius Clay, Ray Daley, Ron Gay