This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Daniel L Arnes, CMDCM
to remember
Cranor, David Arthur, Sr., LT.
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Contact Info
Home Town Marion, IN
Last Address Naples, FL
Date of Passing Dec 05, 2000
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Obituary:
David A. Cranor Sr., 58, of Naples, died Tuesday, December 5, 2000. David was born January 5, 1942 in Marion, Ind., to Kenneth L. and Mary Lou Cranor. He was a veteran serving with the U.S. Navy as a search and rescue and heavy utility pilot in the Philippines and a gunship pilot in Vietnam. In 1975, he joined the Collier County Sheriff's Department as the department's first chief pilot, flying both helicopters and fixed winged aircraft. Following his retirement from the Sheriff's department as a lieutenant, he received his Master's Degree in clinical counseling from the University of South Florida, Ft. Myers. He returned to the Sheriff's Office working with inmates in Project Recovery, as well as at the David Lawrence Center. Most recently, David was an avid marathon runner and the former president of the Gulf Coast Runners. He was also a certified Yoga instructor. He is survived by his three sons, David A. (Tricia) Cranor Jr. of Naples, Kenneth (Richawn) Cranor and Cameron Reed, both of North Carolina; his three grandchildren, Kya, Alexiana and Kinden Cranor of North Carolina; his brother, Robert (Cindy) Cranor of Lake Wales, Fla.; and his nieces and nephews. A life celebration service will be held Saturday, December 9, 2000 at 2:00 p.m. at the Unity of Naples Church, 2000 Unity Way. The family will receive friends following the service. Memorial contributions in David's memory may be made to the Learning Connection, 279 Airport Road, Naples, Fla. 34104. Muller-Thompson Funeral Chapel 597-8888
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase IV Campaign (68)
From Month/Year
April / 1968
To Month/Year
June / 1968
Description This Campaign period was from 2 April to 30 June 1968. The Naval air and gun fire support to operations such as Operation Silver Mace gave ground units the needed firepower while AirForce units were moved to air operations over Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. From 7 to 18 April, ground, air, and naval units from each of the American services, the Vietnamese Navy, and the Vietnamese Marine Corps conducted Silver Mace II, a strike operation in the Nam Can Forest on Ca Mau Peninsula. The enemy avoided heavy contact with the allied force, but his logistical system was disrupted.
Enemy air defenses caused aviators more concern for by 1968 the Communists had developed a defensive system that was well-armed, coordinated, and supported. On the ground throughout North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Laos, the enemy trained skyward thousands of small arms, automatic weapons, and antiaircraft artillery. North Vietnam alone contained 8,000 weapons of many calibers, concentrated around key targets. Beginning in early 1965, surface-to-air missiles (SAM) were added to this defensive arsenal, and by early 1968 over 300 SAM sites dotted the North Vietnamese countryside. The entire defensive system was tied together with a sophisticated network of communications, air alert stations, and early warning, ground control-interceptor, and fire control radars. New and replacement weapons and ammunition were amply supplied by sympathetic Communist countries. The loss in Southeast Asia of 421 fixed-wing aircraft from 1965 to 1968 attested to the strength of these defenses. The aviators killed, missing, or made prisoner totaled 450. The operating environment was especially dangerous in North Vietnam, where 382 Navy planes were shot down, 58 of them by SAMs.
Although only accounting for eight of the Navy's aircraft during this three-year period, the North Vietnamese air units posed a constant threat to U.S. operations, thus requiring a diversion of vital resources for protection. The enemy air force varied from 25 to 100 MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, and MiG-21 jet fighters. The country's jet-capable airfields included Gia Lam, Phuc Yen, Cat Bi, Kep, Kien An, Yen Bai, Son Tay, Bai Thuong, Hoa Lac, and Vinh. The U.S. Navy engaged in its first air-to-air encounter of the war on 3 April 1965, when several MiG-15s unsuccessfully attacked a flight of F-8 Crusaders near Thanh Hoa. On 17 June, two Midway F-4 Phantoms registered the first kills in the long conflict when they downed two MiG-17s south of Hanoi.