| Date: 12 October 1966 |
| Aircraft type: A-1H Skyraider |
| Serial Number: 135323 |
| Military Unit: VA-25 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Coral Sea |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Robert Deane Woods (POW) |
| During a road reconnaissance mission a Skyraider (call sign Canasta 572) was hit by AAA as it flew along Route 15 near Lang Long, some 30 miles southwest of Thanh Hoa. The aircraft’s starboard wing was well ablaze as Lt Woods approached the coast but he was forced to abandon the aircraft before he could reach the sea. After being on the run for two days, Lt Woods was captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW. He was released on 4 March 1973 and in the following July married a lady who had worn a POW bracelet with his name on it. These bracelets were produced by a POW support organisation to highlight the continuing fate of America’s POWs in North Vietnam. Each bracelet was produced engraved with the name of a POW with the intention that it should be worn until he either returned or was accounted for. Soon after Woods hit the ground a Navy Sea King helicopter made a rescue attempt but it was driven off by intense ground fire. The JPRC arranged for a Shining Brass team in Laos to be flown out to the USS Intrepid to attempt a rescue. On the 16th the 12-man team of US Special Forces and Nung commandos was inserted near the Skyraider’s crash site by two SH-3s. After about four hours of searching through the jungle the team encountered a patrol of four North Vietnamese soldiers, who they killed. However, the jungle was full of NVA so the team had to call for help and the helicopters returned. The men were winched up into the two helicopters under heavy fire but one of the Sea Kings (150618 of HS-6) was hit by ground fire and two crewmen and two commandos were wounded. The helicopter’s engine was badly damaged and the pilot had to ditch near the carrier. All the occupants were rescued by a boat from the destroyer USS Halsey as the helicopter sank beneath the waves.
The Coral Sea had made a bad start to its second cruise. In it first 30 days of operations the ship had lost nine aircraft in combat (three Phantoms, three Skyhawks, two Skyraiders and a Crusader) and one more in an accident. |
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