YAP is stories. They were picked up over the years trading tales with pilots usually.

There was an island about 70 miles off the shore from Haiphong named Bach Long Vi or Nightingale Island. The North Vietnamese kept a search radar site there. At sea level, it had the same advantages as the cruisers operating Red Crow. Because of this, it was attacked on several occasions with varying success.

I met a Navy F-4 pilot while sitting in a class in the '70's. He was on the one cruise of the USS Independence in the Tonkin Gulf. YAP has told several of the stories he recounted. This is the last of them.



A decade after the strike, he said he thought that the Independence was "snake-bit". The strikes we retell involved losses. Thai Nguyen Bridge was a disaster.

It was early in the war. The Phantom was new to combat as were the crews. Techniques had not yet been worked out. Men flew in harm's way as they would not at later years.



In this mission you will probably "press" the target. You will make multiple passes. You will be required to take a little fuel. You will return to trap. And you probably won't make it home until you learn what it took aircrews years to learn...that one target is not worth it.

It's fun to blow up that pier and the freighter, too. But keeping a realistic altitude will give you the right view and get you back to the ship.

Starting to upload Set 5 now. It's huge. We should announce the release in a couple of days.