Operation Pierce Arrow
Operation Pierce Arrow was a U.S. bombing campaign at the beginning of the Vietnam War. In response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident when the destroyers and of the United States Navy engaged North Vietnamese ships, sustaining light damage as they gathered electronic intelligence while in the international waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered Operation "Pierce Arrow" which was conducted on 5 August 1964. The operation consisted of 64 strike sorties of aircraft from the aircraft carriers and against North Vietnamese naval vessels (mostly Swatow gunboats—only two were torpedo boats) and the oil storage depot at Vinh. The U.S. lost two aircraft to anti-aircraft fire, with one pilot killed, Lieutenant Richard Sather, piloting an A-1 Skyraider. Another, Lt. (jg) Everett Alvarez Jr. an A-4 Skyhawk pilot, became the first U.S. Navy prisoner of war in Vietnam. The Soviet-made 14.5mm gun used to shoot down the A4 is now on display in Hanoi at th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct United States in the Vietnam War, US military involvement escalated from 1965 until its withdrawal in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian Civil War, Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, which ended with all three countries becoming Communism, communist in 1975. After the defeat of the French Union in the First Indoc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A-1 Skyraider
The Douglas A-1 Skyraider (formerly designated AD before the 1962 unification of Navy and Air Force designations) is an American single-seat attack aircraft in service from 1946 to the early 1980s, which served during the Korean War and Vietnam War. The Skyraider had an unusually long career, remaining in frontline service well into the Jet Age (when most piston-engine attack or fighter aircraft were replaced by jet aircraft); thus becoming known by some as an " anachronism". The aircraft was nicknamed "Spad", after the French World War I fighter. It was operated by the United States Navy (USN), the United States Marine Corps (USMC), and the United States Air Force (USAF), and also saw service with the British Royal Navy, the French Air Force, the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF), and others. It remained in U.S. service until the early 1970s. Design and development The piston-engined, propeller-driven Skyraider was designed during World War II to meet United States Na ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Conflicts In 1964
Conflict may refer to: Social sciences * Conflict (process), the general pattern of groups dealing with disparate ideas * Conflict continuum from cooperation (low intensity), to contest, to higher intensity (violence and war) * Conflict of interest, involvement in multiple interests which could possibly corrupt the motivation or decision-making * Cultural conflict, a type of conflict that occurs when different cultural values and beliefs clash * Ethnic conflict, a conflict between two or more contending ethnic groups * Group conflict, conflict between groups * Intragroup conflict, conflict within groups * Organizational conflict, discord caused by opposition of needs, values, and interests between people working together * Role conflict, incompatible demands placed upon a person such that compliance with both would be difficult * Social conflict, the struggle for agency or power in something * Work–family conflict, incompatible demands between the work and family roles of a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. It includes the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as well as Peninsular Malaysia. The term ''Indochina'' (originally ''Indo-China'') was coined in the early nineteenth century, emphasizing the historical cultural influence of Indian and Chinese civilizations on the region. The term was later adopted as the name of the colony of French Indochina (present-day Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). Today, the term "Mainland Southeast Asia" is more commonly used, in contrast to Maritime Southeast Asia for the island groups off the coast of the peninsula. Terminology In Indian sources, the earliest name connected with Southeast Asia is . Another possible early name of ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Guerrilla Warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism, raids, petty warfare or hit-and-run tactics in a rebellion, in a violent conflict, in a war or in a civil war to fight against regular military, police or rival insurgent forces. Although the term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of the Peninsular War in the 19th century, the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th century BC, Sun Tzu proposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics in '' The Art of War''. The 3rd century BC Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare through what is today called the Fabian strategy, and in China Peng Yue is also often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Operation Farm Gate
''Farm Gate'' was the code name for a United States Air Force (USAF) mission operating in Vietnam before the overt US entry into the Vietnam War. History In the early 1960s, the U.S. armed forces were developing units specifically designed to counter guerrilla warfare. The first USAF unit of this nature was the 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron code named "Jungle Jim" that were later renamed the 1st Air Commando Wing (after the similarly named 1st Air Commando Group which served in the China Burma India Theater of World War II). The squadron specialized in tactics used to support friendly ground forces in small, 'brushfire' conflicts. In October 1961, John F. Kennedy authorized the deployment of a detachment of Air Commandos to South Vietnam. The 4400th CCTS headed from their home at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, to Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam. Their mission was to train the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) using older aircraft in support of the type of co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Torpedo Boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. These were inshore craft created to counter both the threat of battleships and other slow and heavily armed ships by using speed, agility, and powerful torpedoes, and the overwhelming expense of building a like number of capital ships to counter an enemy. A swarm of expendable torpedo boats attacking en masse could overwhelm a larger ship's ability to fight them off using its large but cumbersome guns. A fleet of torpedo boats could pose a similar threat to an adversary's capital ships, albeit only in the coastal areas to which their small size and limited fuel load restricted them. The introduction of fast torpedo boats in the late 19th century was a serious concern to the era's naval strategists, i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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P 4 Class Torpedo Boat
The P 4-class torpedo boat, Soviet designations Project 123-bis and Project 123-K, commonly called the Komsomolets class (Russian: Комсомолец, a male member of the Komsomol), were Soviet aluminum-hulled torpedo boats. They were armed with twin heavy machine guns and two torpedoes. A large number of them were exported to allied states such as North Vietnam and China. They saw service in a variety of armed conflicts including World War II, the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Vietnam War and the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. The P 4 torpedo boats consisted of two primary types; the Project 123-bis (B-123) type with machine guns, and the Project 123-K (K-123) type with added radar and machine guns. Design and development The P 4 torpedo boats were developed from the pre-war prototype Komsomolets torpedo boat (Project 123) in 1942 due to the unsatisfactory performance of the type motor torpedo boat. The original Project 123 was a single-step, hydroplaning design built from ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prisoner Of War
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons. These may include isolating them from enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and Repatriation, repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishment, prosecution of war crimes, labour exploitation, recruiting or even conscripting them as combatants, extracting collecting military and political intelligence, and political or religious indoctrination. Ancient times For much of history, prisoners of war would often be slaughtered or enslaved. Early Roman gladiators could be prisoners of war, categorised according to their ethnic roots as Samnites, Thracians, and Gauls (''Galli''). Homer's ''Iliad'' describes Trojan and Greek soldiers offeri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A-4 Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company, and later, McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D under the United States Navy's pre-1962 designation system. The Skyhawk was developed during the early 1950s on behalf of the Navy and United States Marine Corps as a replacement for the propeller-driven Douglas A-1 (AD) Skyraider. The A-4 is a compact, straightforward, and lightweight aircraft for the era; its maximum takeoff weight of was roughly half of the Navy's weight specification. The Skyhawk has a short-span delta wing configuration, a tricycle undercarriage, and is powered by a single turbojet engine. The U.S. Navy issued a contract for the aircraft on 12 June 1952. On 22 June 1954, the XA4D-1 prototype performed its maiden flight; it went on to set a world speed record of 695.163 mph on 15 October 1955. On 1 October 1956, t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Everett Alvarez Jr
Everett Alvarez Jr. (born December 23, 1937) is a retired United States Navy officer who endured one of the longest periods as a prisoner of war (POW) in U.S. military history. Alvarez was the first U.S. pilot to be shot down and detained during the Vietnam War and spent over eight years in captivity, making him the second longest-held U.S. POW, after U.S. Army Colonel Floyd James Thompson. Early life and captivity Alvarez was born in 1937 in Salinas, California. He is the grandson of immigrants from Mexico. He went to Santa Clara University on an academic scholarship. He joined the United States Navy in 1960 and was selected for pilot training. On August 5, 1964, during Operation Pierce Arrow, LTJG. Alvarez's Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was shot down in the immediate aftermath of what is known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Alvarez endured eight years and seven months of brutal captivity by the North Vietnamese at the Hỏa Lò Prison (sarcastically known as the "Hanoi Hilton" by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-based weapon systems, in addition to associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements, and passive measures (e.g. barrage balloons). It may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries, the main effort has tended to be homeland defense. Missile defense is an extension of air defence, as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight. Most modern anti-aircraft (AA) weapons systems are optimized for short-, medium-, or long-range air defence, although some systems may incorporate multiple weapons (such as both autocannons and surface-to-air missiles). 'Layered air defence' usually refers to multiple 'tiers' of air defence systems which, w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |