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CAPT John Wallace, Jr.
to remember
Sather, Richard Christian, LTJG.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Pomona, CA
Last Address Pomona, CA
Casualty Date Aug 05, 1964
Cause MIA-Finding of Death
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Land
Location Vietnam, North (Vietnam)
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (VA) - Honolulu, Hawaii
Wall/Plot Coordinates 01E 060 / SECTION X SITE 947
Description This campaign period was from 15 March 1962 to 7 March 1965. In the early days of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Sailors worked with the developing Vietnamese Navy as advisors, helping them with such things as logistical support, vessel construction techniques, and so forth. As the Communist insurgency increased, the Americans became more and more involved in combat operations.
The average American naval advisor was dedicated to preparing the Vietnamese Navy to some day stand alone against the Communist foe. Often assigned to vessels or bases lacking even basic amenities, the advisor also shared the risks of combat with his hosts. His task was a heavy one. Not empowered to give orders, he could only hope to persuade his Vietnamese counterpart that a particular course of action was warranted. That advice often was ignored. Aside from the natural difficulty of getting others to accept counsel, the naval advisor was often hampered by the language barrier and differences in cultures, educational levels, and personalities that separated him from his counterpart. Furthermore, the one-year tour completed by most advisors did not allow them enough time to learn the job and bring about meaningful change. Despite all this, the Naval Advisory Group helped improve the Vietnamese naval service in important respects.
During this phase, The first significant U.S. naval engagement of the war was the famous Tonkin Gulf incident of 1964. On the afternoon of 2 August, three North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats attacked the destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin with gunfire and torpedoes. On the night of 4 August, Maddox and another destroyer, Turner Joy, reported fighting a running battle with hostile patrol craft in the middle of the gulf. Communications intercepts and other relevant information convinced Washington that an attack had taken place. At President Lyndon B. Johnson's direction, on 5 August navy carrier forces bombed North Vietnam. Two days later, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which Johnson thereafter used to wage war in Vietnam. A sustained bombing campaign of the North (dubbed "Rolling Thunder") began on 2 March 1965.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1964
To Month/Year
December / 1964
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories LTjg Richard Christian Sather was flying the first airstrike on Hanoi when he and LTjg Everett Alvarez were both shot down. Alvarez survived and held the dubious distinction as the first naval aviator POW and longest held (8.5 years)of the war. Dick Sather did not survive and his remains were not returned to US control until 1985 when he was identified at the Central Identification Lab Hawaii (CILHI). See: http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s359.htm
SYNOPSIS: By midsummer 1964 events were taking place in the Gulf of Tonkin that would lead to the first clash between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces. In late July the destroyer USS MADDOX, on patrol in the gulf gathering intelligence, had become the object of communist attention. For two consecutive days, 31 July-1 August, the MADDOX cruised unencumbered along a predesignated route off the North Vietnamese coast. In the early morning hours of 2 August, however, it was learned from intelligence sources of a possible attack against the destroyer.
The attack by three North Veitnamese P-4 torpedo boats (PT boats) materialized just after 4:00 p.m. on August 2. The MADDOX fired off three warning volleys, then opened fire. Four F-8 Crusaders from the aircraft carrier USS TICONDEROGA, also took part in the skirmish. The result of the twenty-minute affair saw one gunboat sunk and another crippled. The MADDOX, ordered out of the gulf after the incident concluded, was hit by one 14.5 mm shell.
A day later the MADDOX, accompanied by the destroyer USS C. TURNER JOY, received instructions to reenter the gulf and resume patrol. The USS CONSTELLATION, on a Hong Kong port visit was ordered to join the TICONDEROGA stationed at the mouth of the gulf in the South China Sea. The two destroyers cruised without incident on August 3 an din the daylight hours of August 4 moved to the middle of the gulf. Parallel to the movements of the C. TURNER JOY and MADDOX, South Vietnamese gunboats launched attacks on several North Veitnamese radar installation. The North Vietnamese believed the U.S. destroyers were connected to these strikes.
At 8:41 p.m. on August 4 both destroyers reportedly picked up fast-approaching contacts on their radars. Navy documents show the ships changed course to avoid the unknown vessels, but the contacts continued intermittently. At 10:39 p.m. when the MADDOX and C. TURNER JOY radars indicated one enemy vessel had closed to within seven thousand yards, the C. TURNER JOY was ordered to open fire and the MADDOX soon followed. For the next several hours, the destroyers, covered by the TICONDEROGA's and the CONSTELLATION's aircraft, reportedly evaded torpedoes and fired on their attackers.
Historians have debated, and will continue to do so, whether the destroyers were actually ever attacked. Most of the pilots flying that night spotted nothing. Stockdale, who would later earn the Medal of Honor, stated that a gunboat attack did not occur. The skipper of the TICONDEROGA's Attack Squadron 56, Commander Wesley L. McDonald, said he "didn't see anything that night except the MADDOX and the TURNER JOY."
President Lyndon B. Johnson reacted at once to the supposed attacks on the MADDOX, ordering retialiatory strikes on strategic points in North Vietnam. Even as the President spoke to the nation, aircraft from the CONSTELLATION and TICONDEROGA were airborne and heading for four major PT-boat bases along the North Vietnamese coast. The area of coverage ranged from a small base at Quang Khe 50 miles north of the demarcation line between North and South Vietnam, to the large base at Hon Gai in the north.
At 1:30 p.m. on August 5, 1964, a flight of sixteen aircraft from the TICONDEROGA on the Vinh hit petroleum storage complex in response to the presidential directive to destroy gunboats and supporting facilities in North Vietnam which the President indicated were used in the attack on the MADDOX. The results saw 90 percent of the storage facility at Vinh go up in flames.
Meanwhile, other coordinated attacks were made by aircraft from the CONSTELLATION on nearby Ben Thuy Naval Base, Quang Khe, Hon Me Island and Hon Gai's inner harbor. Skyraiders, Skyhawks and F8s bombed and rocketed the four areas, destroying or damaging an estimated twenty-five PT-boats, more than half of the North Vietnamese force.
LTJG Richard C. Sather was an A1 Skyraider pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 145 onboard the USS CONSTELLATION. During the retaliatory strikes, his "Spad" was hit by enemy fire just offshore from the city of Thanh Hoa, some 25 miles north of the island of Hon Me. No parachute was seen, and no emergency radio beepers were heard. It was generally agreed that Sather had died in the crash of his aircraft. He was declared Killed in Action, and his body was not recovered.
Among the pilots participating in the Hon Gai attack was LTJG Everett Alvarez Jr., an A4C Skyhawk pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 144 onboard the USS CONSTELLATION. His flight was given a target at Hon Gai. The flight leader briefed them to expect PT boats tied up at the southeast pier.
When the aircraft reached the bay, however, Alvarez noted that the PT boats were out in the bay rather than at the pier. The flight rolled into two layers of smog--actually one layer of smog and one of anti-aircraft smoke. The pilots realized they were being fired on and noted that Alvarez had been hit.
Alvarez's call sign was Four-Eleven, and he came up on the air saying, "411, I'm hit," followed by "I can't control it. I'm ejecting." Accompanying aircraft heard his emergency beeper, made three or four orbits, and then were forced to leave the area because of low fuel states. Alvarez was captured and imprisoned.
The Navy had lost two aviators, LTJG Everett Alvarez from VA 144 and LTJG Richard C. Sather from VA 145, an A-1 squadron. Alvarez earned the dubious distinction of being the first naval aviator captured by the North Vietnamese and spent eight-and-one-half years in captivity.
Richard Sather, in a sense, was less fortunate, becoming the Navy's first pilot killed during the conflict. It was twenty-one years, August 14, 1985, before the Vietnamese "discovered" his remains and returned them to U.S. control.
Finally, on February 12, 1973, Everett Alvarez was released from prisoner of war camps and sent home. Alvarez had been a prisoner of war for eight and one-half years. In all, 591 Americans were released. The remains of Richard Sather were not returned until 1985.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing, prisoner or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Many authorities who have examined this largely classified information are convinced that hundreds of Americans are still held captive today. These reports are the source of serious distress to many returned American prisoners. They had a code that no one could honorably return unless all of the prisoners returned. Not only that code of honor, but the honor of our country is at stake as long as even one man remains unjustly held. It's time we brought our men home.
