Air Force Jets and Navy Bombers Hit North Vietnam

Mar. 15, 1965 - United States Air Force jets joined Navy bombers from the Seventh Fleet and flew deep into North Vietnam this afternoon to bomb an ammunition depot 100 miles south of Hanoi.

More than 100 U.S. jets and propeller aircraft struck at Phuqui, more than 180 miles north of the 17th Parallel, which divides North and South Vietnam.

No South Vietnamese Air Force planes took part in the attack.

Today’s target was the eighth since bombing raids began Feb. 7.

The director of operations for the Second Air Division, Col. Hal Price, described the ground fire from the Communist base as “light.”

One of the propeller-driven A-1H Skyraiders was lost at sea about 60 miles from its carrier on the return flight. Military spokesmen in Saigon said they did not know whether a malfunction or enemy ground fire had caused the crash.

Col. Price said the depot was “an excellent target, our most remunerative target.” The colonel, from Orlando, Fla., said Phuqui had been used as a base to supply the Viet Cong in the South as well as the regular North Vietnamese army.

The heaviest bomb dropped was 750 pounds, Col. Price said. He described all of the bombs as “conventional ordnance,” adding that no napalm incendiary bombs were used.

North Vietnam said its antiaircraft units had shot down five of the attacking planes and damaged “many others,” UPI reported. This assertion remains unconfirmed.

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