This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Robert Connors, CDR
to remember
Graf, John George, CDR.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
He went back to RVN because he wanted a Silver Star.
"the only Sailor, Officer, or Enlisted who was shot down twice, captured by the enemy, and killed during an escape attempt ... A Naval Intelligence Officer by experience, a Mustang by background, an aviator by training, and a Fleet sailor who braved the Antarctic gale in his time ... He is also a symbol of the American Sailor, officer and enlisted, who stood up to his brutal captors and gave the full measure of devotion while attempting to perform the final duty of a prisoner: escape."
Lieutenant Commander John Graf, an intelligence officer, was assigned to the Naval Advisory Group. On 15 November 1969 he and then-Captain Robert White (73rd Aviation Company) were conducting a visual reconnaissance mission in an OV-1C Mohawk aircraft (tail number 61-2690). Their aircraft was hit by enemy fire and was observed by a U.S. Navy patrol boat to be on fire and descending. Both men escaped the burning aircraft, parachuting to the ground. Although an extensive air and ground search was conducted by allied forces, the two could not be found. White and Graf initially were classed as Missing in Action, but after reliable reports were received indicating that both men had been captured by the Viet Cong they were reclassified as prisoners of war.
Nothing more was heard of the two men until Major White was released by the Viet Cong on 01 April 1973 - the last American POW released during Operation Homecoming. During his debrief, White reported that he was held with Graf in various prison camps until late January 1970, when Graf escaped with another POW. Captain White never saw Graf after that, but he was told by his captors that Graf had drowned during his escape attempt.
Captured documents and post-war reports by former residents of the area supported what White had been told, and indicated that Graf's body had been recovered and buried somewhere in Vinh Binh Province.
His remains have never been recovered.
Other Comments:
New information sent to CDR Graf's niece, Helene Judith Connors, on 7 Feb 2013 indicates that a Vietnamese citizen, Mr. Hong, may be holding CDR Graf's remains in his home garden. Mr. Hong claims that he was a South Vietnamese soldier who was captured by the North. During his re-education, he heard the story of CDR Graf's capture. Many elements of his story, including the typr of plane, and information on the other individual captured, match official records. The year of the capture, however, was reported as 1963 or 1964, when in fact it was 1969. Mr. Hong claims that in 1999 he went to the village near the river where CDR Graf apparently drowned and was buried. With help of Vietnam citizens, he dug up the remains and brought them to his home Garden. U.S. investigation continues. I am asking the U.S. Government to obtain the remains and subject them to expeditious anthropological investigation and DNA analysis.
Unfortunately, in May 2013, the Pentagon informed us that the above story had been checked out by U.S. Officials in Nam several years ago. A U.S. anthropologist examined the remains held in the garden and they were that of a female child.
Robert E. Connors, CDR, MSC, USN, husband of Helene J. (Hook), CDR Graf's niece.
Operation Market Time
From Month/Year
January / 1965
To Month/Year
April / 1973
Description Operation Market Time was the United States Navy’s effort to stop troops and supplies from flowing by sea from North Vietnam to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was one of four Navy duties begun after the Tonkin Gulf Incident, along with Operation Sea Dragon, Operation Sealords and naval gunfire support.
Operation
Seaplane tenders USS Currituck (AV-7), USS Pine Island (AV-12), and USS Salisbury Sound (AV-13) served as flagships for Market Time.
A VP-40 SP-5B Marlin on patrol in 1965.
An SP-2H Neptune of VP-1 flying over Vietnamese junks.
When a trawler was intercepted landing arms and ammunition at Vung Ro Bay in northern Khánh Hòa Province on 16 February 1965 it provided the first tangible evidence of the North Vietnamese supply operation. This became known as the Vung Ro Bay Incident.
North Vietnamese mine laying ships attempted to close the entrance to the bay but were turned back by U.S. Marine helicopters modified with anti-ship missiles launching daring close range attacks on the vessels, braving intense machine gun fire from North Vietnamese commandos on the decks of the ships.
P5M seaplane Patrol Squadrons, Navy destroyers, ocean minesweepers, PCFs (Swift boats) and United States Coast Guard cutters performed the operation. Also playing a key role in the interdictions were the Navy’s patrol gunboats (PGs). The PG was uniquely suited for the job because of its ability to go from standard diesel propulsion to gas turbine (jet engine) propulsion in a matter of a few minutes. The lightweight aluminum and fiberglass ships were not only fast but highly maneuverable because of their variable pitch propellers. Most of the ships operated in the coastal waters from the Cambodian border around the south tip of Vietnam up north to Dà Nẵng. Supply ships from the Service Force, such as oilers, would bring mail, movies, and fuel.
Of the many vessels involved in Operation Market Time, one of the more notable was the USCGC Point Welcome (WPB-82329) which, on 11 August 1966, was brought under fire by a number of United States Air Force aircraft. This incident of a "blue-on-blue" engagement killed two members of the cutter’s crew (one of whom was the commanding officer) and wounded nearly everyone on board.
Operation Market Time was established by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff after the 1965 Vung Ro incident to blockade the vast South Vietnam coastline against North Vietnamese gun-running trawlers. The trawlers, usually 100-foot-long Chinese-built steel-hulled coastal freighters, could carry several tons of arms and ammunition in their hulls. Not flying a national ensign that would identify them, the ships would maneuver “innocently” out in the South China Sea, waiting for the cover of darkness to make high-speed runs to the South Vietnam coastline. If successful, the ships would off load their cargoes to waiting Viet Cong or North Vietnamese forces.
To stop these potential infiltrations, Market Time was set up as a coordinated effort of long range patrol aircraft for broad reconnaissance and tracking. These aircraft, initially SP-5 seaplanes, later P-2 and SP-2 Neptunes and P-3 Orions, were armed with Bullpup air-to-surface missiles and were therefore capable of engaging these craft directly. Under normal conditions, however U.S. and allied surface forces intercepted suspect ships that crossed inside South Vietnam’s 12-mile coastal boundary. On the aviation side, some of the patrol squadrons that were involved and flying from South Vietnam, Thailand, or Philippine bases were: VP-1, VP-2, VP-4, VP-6, VP-8, VP-16, VP-17, VP-22, VP-26, VP-28, VP-40, VP-42, VP-45, VP-46, VP-47,VP-48, VP-49 and VP-50.
A significant action of Market Time occurred on 1 March 1968, when the North Vietnamese attempted a coordinated infiltration of four gun-running trawlers. Two of the four trawlers were destroyed by allied ships in gun battles, one trawler crew detonated charges on board their vessel to avoid capture, and the fourth trawler turned tail and retreated at high speed into the South China Sea. LT Norm Cook, the patrol plane commander of a VP-17 P-2H Neptune patrol aircraft operating from Cam Ranh Bay, was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for discovering and following two of the four trawlers in the action.
Market Time, which operated day and night, fair weather and foul, for eight and a half years, succeeded in denying the North Vietnamese a means of delivering tons of war materials into South Vietnam by sea.
