| Date: 17 October 1965 |
| Aircraft type: F-4B Phantom |
| Serial Number: 151515 |
| Military Unit: VF-84 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Independence |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Cdr Stanley Edward Olmstead (KIA) |
| Lt(jg) Porter Alexander Halyburton (POW) |
| Aircraft type: F-4B Phantom |
| Serial Number: 151494 |
| Military Unit: VF-84 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Independence |
| Name(s): |
| Ens Ralph Ellis Gaither (POW) |
| Lt(jg) Rodney Allen Knutson (POW) |
| Aircraft type: F-4B Phantom |
| Serial Number: 150631 |
| Military Unit: VF-41 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Independence |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Roderick Lewis Mayer (KIA) |
| Lt(jg) David Robert Wheat (POW) |
| On 17 October the Navy flew an Alpha Strike or major mission against the Thai Nguyen road bridge, 30 miles due north of Hanoi. The mission proved costly for the Independence’s air wing although, curiously, the losses occurred not at the bridge itself but on the way to and from the target. The strike force of 15 aircraft crossed the coast well to the east of Haiphong and approached Thai Nguyen from due east. The first aircraft to go down was a Phantom (call sign Victory 215) assigned to the flak suppression force and was hit by AAA at 2,000 feet while still 40 miles short of the target. An anti-aircraft shell burst in the cockpit and the NFO, Lt Halyburton could not make contact with his pilot, Lt Cdr Olmstead, who was either killed or knocked unconscious by the blast. With the aircraft out of control, Lt Halyburton had no alternative but to eject.
After the raid at Thai Nguyen the strike force headed back towards the east to avoid the heavier flak concentrations around Hanoi and Haiphong. Another VF-84 Phantom (call sign Victory 216) crewed by Ens Gaither and Lt Knutson strayed too far east and was shot down within a couple of miles of the Chinese border and 65 miles northeast of Thai Nguyen. Although US aircraft were not permitted by the Pentagon’s rules of engagement to enter a 15-mile buffer zone west of the Chinese border, it was easy for an aircraft to stray into the zone by accident considering the confined airspace of the region to the east of Hanoi. At 450 knots it would have taken less than 10 minutes for the Phantom to reach the Chinese border from Thai Nguyen. Gaither and Knutson ejected from their Phantom when it was hit by AAA causing an engine fire followed quickly by total loss of control. Knutson was badly injured during the ejection suffering fractures to his neck and backbone. As he landed he was fired upon by North Vietnamese soldiers and Knutson drew his service revolver and killed two of his attackers before he was knocked unconscious by a shot at point blank range which fortunately only grazed his forehead and nose. He was lucky not to be killed and was taken to Hanoi along with his pilot. Rodney Knutson’s injuries had still not healed when he and Ralph Gaither were released over seven years later. He eventually retired from the Navy as a Captain. The last Phantom to be lost on this raid was from VF-41, the other F-4 squadron resident on the Independence. Lts Mayer and Wheat were assigned to CAP duties to protect the strike force from MiGs. The Phantom (call sign Egg Shell 105) was orbiting at low level covering the strike aircraft as they left the target when it was hit by small arms fire. Lt Mayer soon lost control of the aircraft and it crashed less than 10 miles from where Lt Cdr Olmstead’s Phantom had been lost earlier in the mission. Two parachutes were seen but it appears that Lt Mayer was killed either during the ejection or upon landing. On 12 February 1973 Halyburton, Gaither, Knutson, and Wheat emerged from the North Vietnam prison system. Ralph Gaither later wrote of his experience as a POW in a 1973 book titled With God in a POW Camp. |
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