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This Sailor has an (IMO) Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing, Honolulu, Hawaii
Attack Squadron 82 was reactivated 01 May 1967 and equipped with the A-7A light attack aircraft. LCDR David Scott Greiling was a "plank-owner" and Department Head in the squadron. VA-82 deployed aboard USS AMERICA (CV-66) as part of Carrier Air Wing 6. The ship departed Norfolk, Virginia, in April 1968 for its first Viet Nam cruise. AMERICA began combat operations immediately upon her arrival on Yankee Station in early May. By late July, the air wing was fully seasoned and engaged in day and night combat operations in North Vietnam and the NVN/Laotian border areas.
On 24 July, LCDR Greiling led a section (2 aircraft) on a night armed reconnaissance mission -- a truck-busting mission. The section undertook an attack on a truck convoy in the vicinity of Cape Mui Ron, NVN. LCDR Greiling, as lead, was first in. His wingman observed a large explosion and fires in the target area and initially considered them to be the result of Greiling's attack. However, when he realized that he had lost radio contact with Greiling, he also realized that the explosion and residual fire probably represented a crash site.
Other air wing aircraft in the area immediately undertook combat SAR. The crash site was on the side of a karst ridgeline, about 500 feet below the crest. No beeper was heard, nor was there any radio contact with Greiling. Following-day SAR efforts failed to locate Greiling, who was placed in MIA status.
In 1969, a Polish seaman reported evidence that Greiling was a captive in North Vietnam. Although his status was changed from MIA to POW, the North Vietnamese never acknowledged capturing LCDR Greiling, and he did not return with the POWs released in early 1973. The returning POWs knew nothing of LCDR Greiling's fate. On 14 Sep 1973, the Secretary of the Navy approved a Presumptive Finding of Death for him, changing his status from POW to "Died while Captured."
Within the air wing, the concensus was that LCDR David Scott Greiling died that night -- it was overcast with multiple cloud layers and mountains rising above the pull-out altitude, not a good night for low-level visual bombing.
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase V Campaign (68)
From Month/Year
July / 1968
To Month/Year
November / 1968
Description This campaign was from 1 July to 1 November 1968. During this period a country-wide effort was begun to restore government control of territory lost to the enemy since the Tet offensive. The enemy attempted another such offensive on 17-18 August but his efforts were comparatively feeble and were quickly overwhelmed by Allied forces.
In the fall of 1968 the South Vietnamese government, with major U.S. support, launched an accelerated pacification campaign. All friendly forces were coordinated and brought to bear on the enemy in every tactical area of operation. In these intensified operations, friendly units first secured a target area, then Vietnamese government units, regional forces/popular forces, police and civil authorities screened the inhabitants, seeking members of the Viet Cong infrastructure. This technique was so successful against the political apparatus that it became the basis for subsequent friendly operations. Government influence expanded into areas of the countryside previously dominated by the Viet Cong to such an extent that two years later at least some measure of government control was evident in all but a few remote regions.
