| Date: 13 August 1965 |
| Aircraft type: A-4C Skyhawk |
| Serial Number: 148564 |
| Military Unit: VA-22 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Midway |
| Name(s): |
| Lt William Edward Newman (Survived) |
| Aircraft type: A-4C Skyhawk |
| Serial Number: 148475 |
| Military Unit: VA-153 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Coral Sea |
| Name(s): |
| Cdr Harry Eugene Thomas (KIA) |
| Aircraft type: RF-8A Crusader |
| Serial Number: 146849 |
| Military Unit: Detachment D, VFP-63 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Coral Sea |
| Name(s): |
| Maj Paul Arlen Manning (USMC) (Survived) |
| The Navy’s search for SAM sites in North Vietnam continued into its second day but with little success and 13 August entered US Navy lore as ‘Black Friday’. The first aircraft to be lost was a Skyhawk from the Midway. As it was flying north of Vinh Lt Newman’s Skyhawk (call sign Beef Eater) had its nose cone blown off by a direct hit from a large calibre anti-aircraft shell. Parts of the aircraft structure was ingested by the engine causing damage and a loss of power. Lt Newman managed to fly his crippled aircraft to a point about five miles off the coast near Sam Son where he ejected near a waiting US Navy destroyer on SAR watch. A couple of hours later Cdr Thomas, the CO of VA-153 and a Korean War veteran, was shot down 30 miles north of Thanh Hoa while searching for the SAM site that had shot down Lt Brown’s aircraft. Cdr Thomas’s Skyhawk (call sign Power House) was hit by AAA at very low level and he was killed instantly as the aircraft slow rolled and hit the ground inverted. It was obvious to his wingmen that the Commander had died in the crash but his family had to wait nearly 30 years before his remains were returned to the USA for burial. Joint field investigations by US and Vietnamese teams in 1994, 1995 and 1996 eventually recovered parts of the wreckage of the Skyhawk along with Cdr Thomas’s remains which were identified in October 1996.
At almost the same time as Cdr Thomas was shot down an RF-8A photographic reconnaissance aircraft, also from the Coral Sea, was attempting to photograph a radar site at Ninh Binh some 35 miles to the northeast of Thanh Hoa. Maj Manning’s Crusader (call sign Cork Tip 920) was hit in the starboard wing by either a 57mm or 85mm anti-aircraft shell. The Crusader’s wing tank exploded but miraculously, despite the loss of the starboard wing flap, a five-foot hole and a twisted leading edge, the aircraft kept on flying. The loss of fuel made it impossible for Maj Manning to reach his carrier or to divert to Da Nang but he did manage to rendezvous with a SAR destroyer that picked him up safely after his ejection. |
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