Operation Flaming Dart
1965 military operation
Operation Flaming Dart was a U.S. and South Vietnamese military operation, conducted in two parts, during the Vietnam War.
Background
United States President Lyndon B. Johnson in February 1965 ordered a series of reprisal air strikes after several attacks on U.S. bases by Vietcong units, particularly in reply to the Viet Cong Attack on Camp Holloway.
Operation
Forty-nine retaliatory sorties were flown for Flaming Dart I on 7 February 1965. Flaming Dart I targeted North Vietnamese army bases near Đồng Hới, while the second wave targeted Vietcong logistics and communications near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Among the pilots was Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, then a member of Vietnam's ruling junta.
U.S. Navy aircraft carriers launched aircraft for strikes on the barracks at Vit Thu Lu (just north of the DMZ) and Đồng Hới (somewhat farther to the north).
The attack on Vit Thu Lu was cancelled because of heavy clouds over the target. The weather was little better at Dong Hoi, home of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 325th Infantry Division. A 29-plane strike formation from USS Coral Sea approached the target under a low cloud ceiling at 500 knots. The A-4 Skyhawks of attack squadrons VA-153 and VA-155 hit the barracks with rockets and 250-pound bombs.
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This entry incorporates text from “Operation Flaming Dart” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.