| Date: 1 June 1966 |
| Aircraft type: C-130E Hercules |
| Serial Number: 64-0511 |
| Military Unit: 61 TCS, 64 TCW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Sewart |
| Name(s): |
| Maj Thomas Franklin Case (KIA) |
| 1Lt Harold Jacob Zook (KIA) |
| Capt Emmett Raymond McDonald (KIA) |
| Capt Armon D Shingledecker (KIA) |
| 1Lt William Rothroc Edmondson (KIA) |
| SSgt Bobby Joe Alberton (KIA) |
| AM1C Philip Joseph Stickney (KIA) |
| AM1C Elroy Edwin Harworth (KIA) |
| Despite repeated attempts by both the USAF and the US Navy, the Thanh Hoa Bridge stubbornly resisted to fall. Although undoubtedly an important strategic target, the destruction of which would have a serious impact on the North Vietnamese railway system, it had also become a symbol of resistance, both to the North Vietnamese and to the Americans who plotted its destruction. As conventional bombing appeared to be having little effect on the immense structure of the bridge, thought was given to alternative means to bring it down. One of these avenues of thought resulted in Project Carolina Moon, an attempt to destroy the bridge by dropping a number of 8-feet diameter saucer-shaped mass-focus bombs. The weapons would have to be dropped at low level in the Song Ma River where the current would carry the floating bombs under the bridge when a sensor would detonate the 5,000lbs of explosives. Due to the size and shape of the weapon, the aircraft chosen to drop it was a C-130 Hercules. Two crews were trained at Eglin AFB, Florida and they deployed to Da Nang two weeks before the attack took place.
The first attempt was made on the night of the 30th when a Hercules captained by Maj Richard T Remers dropped five bombs in the river and escaped unharmed thanks, in part, to a nearby diversionary attack by two Phantoms and jamming of North Vietnamese radar by an RB-66. Although the mission was successfully executed, post-strike reconnaissance revealed that the bridge was undamaged indicating either that the bombs had not detonated or they had not exploded in the right position. Maj Case flew the second attempt the following night and took 1Lt Edmondson with him as he had successfully navigated the aircraft on the first attempt. At the time the Hercules (call sign Radium 1) should have been making its attack a large explosion was seen a few miles north of the bridge and it was assumed that the aircraft had either been shot down or had flown into the ground or the river. No trace of the aircraft or its crew were discovered despite several reconnaissance missions. The remains of 1Lt Zook and AM1C Harworth were amongst 22 boxes of remains handed over by the Vietnamese on 10 April 1986 and those of Maj Case were returned in February 1987. In 1998 the other boxes of remains were re-examined using Mitochondrial DNA testing and the remains of Capt Shingledecker and AM1C Stickney were also positively identified. |
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