On 13 October 1969, Biddle spent part of the day away from our normal location on the line. Instead of cruising east-west a few miles off Vinh, we were up north, approaching Haiphong, North Vietnam’s major port.
Here’s how shipmate James Treadway talks about it in his Hard Charger! The Story of the USS Biddle (DLG-34):
“On a quiet, calm morning, I stepped outside for some fresh air and noticed that we were dead in the water and surrounded by hundreds of North Vietnamese fishing boats. Generally, we were far enough from shore that spotting a fishing boat was a rare event. So, why was Biddle dead in the water and surrounded by so many fishing boats, and where were we? Clearly, we were somewhere we shouldn’t have been.”
We were somewhere we had been ordered to be. I had learned from CAPT Olsen or perhaps LT Holtel on 10 October that Biddle would move north to Haiphong for a brief time. Task Force 77 or someone higher in the chain had noticed that the US had not operated a ship off Haiphong in quite a while and were now curious about what might happen if a ship “visited.” Whiskey tango foxtrot!? Were we to be “bait”?
While doing research for his book, Treadway asked CAPT Olsen about the visit to Haiphong. From the book, CAPT Olsen’s response:
“I believe it was midway through our third period on PIRAZ station when we received message orders to proceed north with our ‘shotgun’ destroyer under the cover of darkness to patrol off Haiphong, the principal seaport of North Vietnam, during daylight hours the next day, and then return to PIRAZ. The purpose was to accustom the North Vietnamese to U.S. Navy ships moving around the Gulf without hostile intent. It was a tactical maneuver . . . no intelligence collection was involved. It was a rainy day, no aircraft were airborne and we saw no ships.” [Except for fishing “junks,” I guess.]
Continuing Treadway’s account: “I had observed that most electronic equipment was turned off, apparently to not reveal our position. Eventually, Biddle slowly turned to the south and began to pick up speed. . . . Soon, we were making flank speed south and kicking up a fine rooster tail. As we passed a Russian trawler like it was standing still, my binoculars found a bikini-clad woman on the trawler’s deck. Perhaps being in the Russian navy has its benefits.”
My journal for 13 October noted: “Up off Haiphong. Nothing happened. Slower day than usual. Only were up there 11 hours. Back down by midnight.”
That was not enough, however. Five or six days later, Biddle received new orders. We had to poke the North Vietnamese again and for a longer time. This time, 24 hours off Haiphong and overnight.
During the intelligence briefing we had received pre-deployment, we learned about North Vietnamese torpedo boat tactics. One night-time tactic was to float among fishing boats, slowly approaching the target, then light up, launch, and move away into the crowd of boats. I believe I conducted a briefing a day or so before we went north about such tactics for relevant officers.
My journal on 21 October: “Were up around Haiphong again. More action this time. Lots of MiGs up, some surface contacts, a couple of Soviet merships [merchant ships].”
CAPT Olsen: “This time we detected 20 or so military aircraft practicing touch-and-go landings during daylight hours. They knew we were there and were careful not to fly out over the Gulf. We encountered one large Soviet merchant ship departing Haiphong. After several challenges by flashing light, she identified herself and said she was en route to Vladivostok.
“I do recall the phenomenon of hundreds of fishing boats coming out after dark, possible from the island of Hainan, their black hulls silhouetted against the horizon. We kept them at a distance to preclude a torpedo boat or similar high-speed craft threading its way out of the pack and making a run on us. But I’m not sure whether this happened only during our two northern sorties or whether we saw them on other occasions at PIRAZ station.”
I remember a nervous night. In CIC that night, we were not observing “hulls silhouetted against the horizon.” We were looking at lots of radar returns on screen, wondering if one or more of them was not like the others.
My journal on 22 October: “Well, we lived through the night. Went back down south at 0900. Nice to be back.”
UPDATE: Found this Biddle “newsletter” dated 12 October 1969, which alludes to our proximity to North Vietnam in a contemporary but now politically incorrect manner. The newsletter contained wire service articles and all the college football scores.
(Reminder: Hard Charger! The Story of the USS Biddle (DLG-34) is available from Amazon in either hardcover or paperback. Written by shipmates James Treadway (also a plank owner) and Rear Admiral Thomas Marfiak USN (Ret.), and Captain David Boslaugh USN (Ret.), Hard Charger! tells the distinctive tale of USS Biddle from concept to decommissioning and more.)