OPERATION SPRING HIGH
IN MARCH 1965, PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON, INTENT ON PREVENTING NORTH VIETNAM FROM PUTTING ITS FULL MILITARY MIGHT INTO AN INVASION OF SOUTH VIETNAM, AUTHORIZED OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER, A SUSTAINED BOMBING CAMPAIGN TARGETING THE NORTH’S MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE.
The White House established a 10-mile radius around the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi as off limits to American air power. In addition, a 30-mile radius was put under White House control, so that only President Johnson had the authority to order air operations within that area.
On July 24, 1965, four U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4C Phantoms took part in an airstrike against the Dien Ben Phu munitions storage depot and the Lang Chi munitions factory west of Hanoi. The Phantoms dropped their ordnance and withdrew to provide MiG suppression for the Republic F-105D Thunderchief fighter-bombers that followed. One of those F-105s was piloted by Captain Victor Vizcarra of the 80th Tactical Fighter Squadron. “As we started climbing out of the area after our single pass at the target, our mission commander informed the Phantoms that we were departing,” Vizcarra recalled. “We all remained on the same frequency as we climbed and headed south. Suddenly we heard a call from the F-4s. ‘What the hell was that?’ one of them said.”
Leopard Lead called for his Phantom flight to check in. Leopards Three and Four responded, but Two was never heard from, having been blotted out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). The blast had also damaged the other three Phantoms in the flight. They were the first victims in Vietnam of the soon-to-be-infamous SA-2.
Known to its Soviet builders as the S-75 Dvina, the SA-2 had come as a rude shock to NATO in
