Welcome for Vietnam Vets

WHILE THE BAGPIPES skirled and the families and reception party waited, the 12 Patron One Neptunes taxied into parking position for a formation shutdown. The ceremony which followed was impressive, but not essential.

It doesn't take much fanfare to make home look good after a tour in WestPac.

Aboard the aircraft were 144 men, returning to NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., after six and one-half months in the Western Pacific. The ground crew had returned earlier and was now available to relieve the new arrivals, who were due some CONUS liberty.

PIPED HOME - Patron One welcomed via bagpipes at NAS Whidbey Island.

During four months of the deployment, seven Patron One aircraft were assigned to the Market Time Patrol and based at the Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon. The remaining five aircraft performed ASW and ocean surveillance patrols out of Iwakuni, Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines.

The Saigon detachment flew a total of 351 combat missions during the deployment, accumulating a total of 2400 flight hours. The flights were made over the South Vietnamese coast from the Cambodian border in the vicinity of the Mekong Delta and north to the 17th Parallel.

The flights were usually at altitudes from 1000 down to 100 feet. The crews identified shipping and made night flare drops. On one occasion Patron One flares exposed a Viet Cong smuggler disguised as a trawler. The ship had been driven ashore to prevent Viet Cong salvage.

WHILE PERFORMING Market Time patrols, Patron One Neptune crews maintained radio contact with Swift boats and Coast Guard cutters. When a suspicious contact was made the aircraft might vector a surface unit into the area for investigation - or surface forces might guide the aircraft to a questionable contact.

The aircraft were often subjected to VC ground fire from beaches, jungles and junks. Despite the low flight altitudes, however, Patron One aircraft sustained only minor damage and suffered no casualties among the flight crews.

The Saigon detachment came under its heaviest fire while on the ground, and this time there were casualties. Early in the morning of 13 April the Viet Cong attacked the air base with mortar. Aviation Machinist's Mate Second Class Randolph P. Vedros was killed and several other squadron Navymen were wounded.

The attack occured shortly after midnight. By dawn the ground crews were hard at work repairing the damage and within eight hours the detachment launched a Market Time mission. Within a few days the most seriously damaged plane was underway on its own power. 

MANY OF THE CHIEFS and senior officers found the conditions of combat in Vietnam similar to those they had experienced during WWII and Korea: Heat, insects, rats, smells, mud and marstan matting.

The 12 aircraft averaged 1100 flight hours each month. To date the squadron has flown more than 48,500 hours without an accident. The unit holds the CNO Aviation Safety Award for West Coast patrol squadrons as well as the 1965 Battle Efficiency "E" and the Isbell Trophy.

While deployed, each of the 12 Patron One flight crews became "alpha" qualified. The squadron claims to be the first to qualify all its aircrews while deployed and under combat conditions.

An "alpha" crew is one which has succesfully completed a long series of exercises and thus established its combat readiness. The exercises include weapon loading, weapon delivery, aerial mining, reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare. The final operation consists of a submarine hunt and simulated kill.

FAMILY STYLE - Henry A. Martin, AT3, is greeted by his wife and daughter as Patron One returns from Vietnam. Below: LTJG R. M. Clark gets hug from wife.

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