| Date: 22 December 1972 |
| Aircraft type: B-52D Stratofortress |
| Serial Number: 55-0061 |
| Military Unit: 96 BW attached to 307 SW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: U-Tapao |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Peter James Giroux (POW) |
| Capt Thomas Waring Bennett (KIA) |
| Lt Col Gerald William Alley (KIA) |
| Capt Peter Paul Camerota (POW) |
| 1Lt Joseph Bernard Copack (KIA) |
| MSgt Louis Edward LeBlanc (POW) |
| Aircraft type: B-52D Stratofortress |
| Serial Number: 55-0050 |
| Military Unit: 7 BW attached to 307 SW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: U-Tapao |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Col John Harry Yuill (POW) |
| Capt David Ian Drummond (POW) |
| Lt Col Louis Henry Bernasconi (POW) |
| Lt Col William Walter Conlee (POW) |
| 1Lt William Thomas Mayall (POW) |
| SSgt Gary Lee Morgan (POW) |
| The fourth day of the B-52 campaign against North Vietnam marked the second phase of the offensive and had been planned to involve mainly the B-52Ds from U-Tapao. This was fortuitous as it gave the planners time to revise their thinking about the employment of the more vulnerable B-52Gs. A total of just 30 U-Tapao aircraft flew the raid while another 30 aircraft from Andersen flew Arc Light sorties over South Vietnam. About 70 SAMs were thought to have been fired on this night, two of which found their mark.
The targets for Day 4 were the Bac Mai military storage area near Hanoi, the Van Dien storage depot and Quang Te airfield. Scarlet 1, a 96th BW aircraft from Dyess AFB, Texas, was being flown by a 22nd BW crew from March AFB, California under the leadership of Capt P Giroux and was assigned to the Bac Mai raid. When the crew were pre-flighting the B-52 they noticed that it had suffered a radar failure on a previous flight but that the fault could not be traced on the ground. However, as the aircraft approached the initial point to start its bomb run the radar failed again and Capt Giroux ordered Scarlet 2 to take the lead. As Scarlet 1 dropped back it became separated from its cell and before it could catch up the gunner warned the pilot that a MiG was on the aircraft’s tail. Capt Giroux took evasive action as the tail gunner fired at the MiG and launched flares to decoy two air-to-air missiles that had been fired at the bomber. The MiG pulled away as the B-52s approached a SAM site and two SA-2s were fired at the cell. With the cell spread out and ECM protection reduced, both missiles guided towards Scarlet 1 and one of the missiles hit the aircraft in the centre fuselage. The port wing caught fire as did the two inboard engines on the starboard wing. After the bombs had gone the co-pilot, Capt Bennett, ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft and fired Capt Giroux’s ejection seat manually as the pilot was semi-conscious at the time. MSgt LeBlanc later recollected that he saw six parachutes leave the aircraft. He and the pilot were captured immediately but Capt Camerota, the EWO, spent the next 12 days on the run in enemy territory including several days spent hiding in a cave. On 30 December Capt Camerota reached the top of a high hill in an attempt to contact someone on his survival radio. He eventually made contact with several aircraft but he could not be rescued due to intense enemy activity in the area. On 3 January, suffering from extreme exhaustion, he turned himself in to some Vietnamese villagers and was taken to the Hanoi Hilton. Capt Giroux was released on 12 February due to his severe injuries and Capt Camerota and MSgt LeBlanc were released on 29 March 1973. Lt Col Alley and 1Lt Copack’s remains were returned by the Vietnamese on 15 December 1988 and their identity confirmed the following June. Capt Peter Giroux had flown 264 combat missions during the war including 104 missions flying EC-121Rs with the 553rd RS. A total of 43 of his 160 B-52 missions were over North Vietnam. At some stage in its career 55-0061 was painted as ‘Big Country Bomber’. A little way behind Scarlet cell on the Bac Mai raid, Blue 1 was hit by two SAMs just three minutes later about seven miles to the west of Hanoi soon after releasing its bombs. The crew had seen 10 SAMs between their initial point and the release point. The aircraft caught fire, the cabin depressurised and the electrical power failed. All the crew abandoned the aircraft safely and were captured although four of the men were slightly wounded by shrapnel. 1Lt Mayall had to bail out manually through the navigator’s hatch when his ejection seat failed to operate. With three Lieutenant Colonels on board the aircraft this crew was singled out for special interrogation by the North Vietnamese but the days of torture and inhumane treatment had long gone. This was the only complete B-52 crew to be captured alive during Linebacker II and they were all released on 29 March 1973. The crew was deployed from the 7th BW from Carswell AFB, Texas, but was using a 43rd SW aircraft from Andersen. The crew was flying their third mission in four days. Lt Col Yuill had flown the F-86, F-102, B-58 and the C-130 before converting to the B-52. He had flown C-130s during a combat tour at Tan Son Nhut earlier in the war. His son, Michael Yuill, later joined the USAF and flew the B-52 and the B-1B. SSgt Gary Morgan had been a SAR helicopter crewman in Southeast Asia with the US Navy before joining the Air Force and becoming a B-52 tail gunner. |
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