| Date: 13 November 1965 |
| Aircraft type: A-4E Skyhawk |
| Serial Number: 151067 |
| Military Unit: VA-163 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Oriskany |
| Name(s): |
| Cdr Harry Tarleton Jenkins (POW) |
| An armed reconnaissance mission claimed another Oriskany aircraft on the 13th, this time a Skyhawk flown by Cdr Harry Jenkins, CO of VA-163. Flying a Skyhawk with the call sign Old Salt 340, the 17-year Navy veteran Cdr Jenkins was looking for signs that a river near Dong Hoi was being used for transport of supplies. As the river appeared not to be navigable Cdr Jenkins and his wingman decided to bomb a road junction which he knew of to the south of Dong Hoi. As the pair flew over the village of Xuan Noa, just 15 miles north of the DMZ Cdr Jenkins spotted what appeared to be signs of recent vehicle activity. He flew very low and slow to make a positive identification and saw tracer from a 37mm anti-aircraft gun curving towards his Skyhawk. He pulled up into a shallow climb to try to reach cloud cover but his aircraft was hit. He immediately lost all aileron control and electrical power and the aircraft started to roll uncontrollably. Cdr Jenkins ejected from the wildly gyrating Skyhawk just short of the coast. The Commander’s wingman, Lt(jg) Vance Schufeldt, was soon joined by nine other Navy aircraft that began searching for their downed leader but he had been captured by armed Vietnamese. He was driven to Hanoi over several nights and was amazed to see a large quantity of trucks on the road with dimmed lights following reflective strips set along the road at short distances. He was taken to the Hoa Loa Prison (the infamous Hanoi Hilton) in Hanoi and was interrogated and tortured like so many of the men who had preceded him. As a senior officer Harry Jenkins became an example for the other POWs to follow and, like Jim Stockdale, he was often singled out for harsh punishment, spending almost four years in solitary confinement. He fought back against his captors whenever he could and several times he fused the camp’s lights by shorting out the wires that run through his cell. Cdr Harry Jenkins had been shot down on his 133rd combat mission and was released on 12 February 1973 with the rank of Captain. He later retired from the Navy and joined a defence contractor. Sadly, Harry Jenkins died in the crash of a homebuilt aircraft on 2 August 1995. |
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