On the night of 3 August 1964, South Vietnamese small craft attacked two North Vietnamese islands in the Tonkin Gulf. The U.S. destroyer Maddox (DD-731) was on patrol in the northern end of the gulf, her duty unrelated to the South Vietnamese operation (the United States was not yet involved directly in the Vietnamese civil war). Still, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S. destroyer, which responded with 5-inch gunfire.
While this engagement was in progress, a flight of four F?8E Crusaders, launched earlier from the USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) on a combat air patrol under Commander James B. Stockdale, was vectored to the scene. Armed with 20?mm cannon and Zuni unguided rockets, the fighters swung in over the North Vietnamese craft and made several attacks. The pilots reported sinking one. In fact, two were damaged, none sunk; all were returned to service.1
The American belief that there was a second attack on U.S. destroyers two days later in the gulf led to carrier air strikes on torpedo-boat bases and other installations in North Vietnam. This led to full U.S. participation in the conflict. Carriers had an important role in the Vietnam War, with Crusader fighters as well as RF-8 photo-reconnaissance aircraft being major participants.2
By the mid-1960s the larger carriers of the Forrestal (CVA-59) class and later ships were flying two fighter squadrons, normally with 24 F-4 Phantom fighter-attack aircraft; the smaller ships of the modernized Essex (CVA-9) class normally operated two squadrons with 24 F-8 Crusaders plus three RF-8G photo planes.
When North Vietnam introduced MiG fighters to the conflict they soon were engaged by U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine fighters. The first Navy “kills” were by F-4 Phantoms—and an A-1 Skyraider! On 12 June 1966, Commander Hal Marr, commanding Fighter Squadron (VF) 211 on board the Hancock (CVA-19), scored the first MiG kill by a Crusader. Flying escort for a force of A-4 Skyhawks, Marr and three other F-8E pilots from VF-211 saw four MiG-17s beginning a low-level attack on the Skyhawks. Turning toward the oncoming enemy, Marr fired a Sidewinder that missed, but a second missile blew the MiG apart at an altitude of only 50 feet. Marr then turned his fighter toward another MiG, firing his 20?mm cannon until his 576 rounds of ammunition were expended. At the time he was credited with a probable second kill, which later was confirmed.
The advanced MiG-21 soon joined the air war, and on 26 June 1968, an F-8E Crusader from the Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) shot down one of them, again with a Sidewinder. Through 1972, Navy and Marine fighter and attack aircraft accounted for downing 58 MiGs confirmed in air-to-air combat as well as two An-2 biplane transports. Although the F-8 was hailed as the “last gunfighter” because its successor, the F-4 Phantom, did not have an internal gun, only one of the 18 confirmed MiG kills by F-8 Crusaders was obtained solely by gunfire; the others were by Sidewinders or a combination of missiles and cannon fire. (The 37 Navy kills by the “gunless” Phantoms were by missiles. The two MiG-17s destroyed by A-1H Skyraiders were shot down with 20-mm gunfire while the MiG-17 downed by an A-4C Skyhawk was the victim of unguided Zuni rockets. The single MiG kill by Marines flying from a carrier was made with a Sidewinder.)
As the older, modernized Essex-type carriers were phased out of the attack role, Phantoms filled out the fighter squadrons on board the larger carriers. The last fleet U.S. Navy F-8s were retired in 1976 with the last RF-8G squadron disbanded in 1982. Four Naval Reserve fighter squadrons and one Marine Corps Reserve fighter squadron continued to fly Crusaders, as did two Naval Reserve photo squadrons. Again, the final units to go flew the photo planes, the last in 1987.
Throughout the Vietnam War Crusaders were flying over the Atlantic and Middle East—American and French. In a most unusual incident, a Crusader from the carrier Shangri-La (CVA-38) was over the Tyrrhenian Sea when the aircraft suffered an electrical failure. Seeking to land near Naples, Italy, the pilot—sans working navigation gear and radio—used dead reckoning. Lost and finally breaking through the clouds, he spotted an airfield and landed. As he taxied his heart almost stopped—MiGs with red stars were lined up on the ramp!
He had landed at Dubrovnik in communist Yugoslavia. As highly coded messages flashed between U.S. European commands, Washington, and the 6th Fleet, the pilot (nicknamed “Duke”), was wined (with vodka) and dined, his aircraft checked out, and off he went—with a MiG escort to the Yugoslav border—to fly on to Italy.4
The Aeronavale—the French naval air arm—had needed a modern fighter-interceptor for the carriers Clemenceau and Foch, about the size of U.S. Essex-class ships. The Phantom was too large, and hence the Crusader was the obvious choice. French pilots and veteran U.S. Navy pilot James H. Flatley flew trials of the F-8E (FN) aircraft on board the carrier Shangri-La in 1964. The French Navy flew Crusaders from 1964 until 1999, those aircraft being provided with a modified fire-control system and the Matra R.530 air-to-air missile (in addition to the Sidewinder).
These Crusaders came close to being in combat on 7 May 1977, when in an exercise with French air force aircraft flying from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, they encountered two Yemeni MiG-21 fighters. Although the French fighters switched their armament selector to “on,” ultimately the aircraft parted without missiles being fired. French carriers operated in several crisis areas in the Middle East region, and their Crusaders did see action in the NATO air war over Kosovo in 1999.
Meanwhile, to extend the life of their Crusaders, the Aeronavale upgraded 17 of their aircraft, rewiring electrical and upgrading hydraulic systems, and providing a radar warning receiver; these planes were redesignated F-8P (for prolongé— “prolonged”). The final French carrier landing and catapult shot were from the Foch on 28 October 1999.
Also, 25 remanufactured U.S. F-8H Crusaders were transferred from storage to the Philippine air force, which flew them from 1977 to 1988, when they were grounded because of high maintenance costs. They saw limited service against rebel forces. (Another ten Crusaders were transferred to the Philippines to provide spare parts.)
LTV proposed a follow-on to the original Crusader, the advanced F8U-3, that first flew in 1958. But that aircraft lost out in competition to the two-crew, twin-engine Phantom. While the Phantom did not have an internal gun, its successors in carrier fighter squadrons—the F-14 Tomcat and now the F/A-18 Hornet—had an internal, rotary-barrel, 20?mm Vulcan cannon.5 Although the Crusader was not the Navy’s “last gunfighter,” it was an outstanding fighter aircraft.
1. Stockdale, subsequently a prisoner of the North Vietnamese from 1965 to 1973, was the only Crusader pilot to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
2. For an account of the wartime Crusader exploits, see Peter B. Mersky and Norman Polmar, The Naval Air War in Vietnam, 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation, 1986), and Mersky, F-8 Crusader Units of the Vietnam War (London: Osprey, 1998).
3. U.S. Air Force fighters shot down 137 MiGs during the conflict.
4. RADM Paul T. Gillcrist, USN (Ret.), Crusader: Last of the Gunfighters (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1995), 142–43.
5. The follow-on F-35B/C Lightning aircraft have an external gun pod.
U.S.-versus-MiG exchange rates
Navy F-8 6.00:1
Navy F-4 5.42:1
Air Force F-4 3.07:1
Air Force F-105 1.37:1
Based on U.S. data. The combined F-4 exchange ratio with MiGs was 3.38:1.3