[All photos and info courtesy Betty Storey.  Many thanks, Betz!]

Hal receives congratulations upon return

Reviewing the mission with participants

From a Hancock press release:

Dateline June 13, 1966

Saigon, Vietnam (UPI)

Commander Harold "Hal" Marr waited a long time for Sunday. "I’ve waited 18 years to do that," Marr said, referring to the MIG 17 he shot down 51 miles northwest of the North Vietnamese city of Haiphong.

Marr, of Roseburg, Oregon, has been a Navy flier for 18 years. But Sunday was the first time he had a chance to shoot down an enemy plane. He didn’t miss.

The 40-year old Navy commander was flying an F-8E Crusader jet from the 7^th Fleet Carrier U.S.S. Hancock. He was one of a flight of Crusader pilots flying Combat Air Patrol for a flight of A-4 Skyhawks that were attacking the Dai Tan military area, 24 miles northwest of Haiphong.

The Skyhawks had completed their attack and were returning to the carrier. The Crusaders had made two 360 degree orbits over the area once again and began heading north and back to the Hancock.

Marr and his wingman, Lt. J.S. Philip Vanpatella, age 26, of Islip Terrace, N.Y., were flying at 2,000 feet when the MIGs appeared from the east.

"We were flying in the missile envelope around the Haiphong-Hanoi area," Marr said. "We wouldn’t be flying very high and take the chance of getting a telephone pole (missile) shoved into us."  (Dave, I think it neat how he cleaned it up but certainly not like Hal Marr).

When Vanpatella spotted the MIGs, he flew his plane into them and the communist subsonic jets soared by below the American planes and overshot them.

For the next four minutes, at speeds between 350-550 miles per hour and as low as 50 feet, Marr and the pilot of the communist jet banked and turned to get into position to shoot.

Marr maneuvered his Crusader jet behind the MIG and fired a heat-seeking Sidewinder missile, which missed the MIG and streaked to earth.

Marr was alone in the fight. Vanpatella and a third pilot ran out of 20mm cannon ammunition and were low on fuel and returned to the ship.

Marr maneuvered his aircraft around and fired again at the MIG. "The missile clipped the tail off and it went right into the ground," Marr said.

Marr sighted another flight of MIGs and the chase began again. Having used both of his Sidewinders on one MIG, Marr only had 20mm cannon fire, which he began firing at a second MIG. He hit it and saw parts of the plane’s wing fly off. Low on fuel and short on ammunition himself, Marr returned to his ship.

VF-211 officers -- Hancock Jan. 66;.
From the left (standing) ENS E. Jorden, LTJG J. Stewart, LTJG T Hall, (shot down spent 2094 days POW) LCDR. K. Russel (shot down spent ? days POW) LCDR. S Thomas, CDR. H. Marr, Miss Checkmate, CDR. Speer, Lt. R Smith, LTJG. B Nelson,
From the left (kneeling) LT. Hubbard, LCDR. Black (shot down spent 2428 days POW) LTJG P. Vampatella, LT. R. Hulse, LT. Chancy, LT. W. Veeneman, LCDR. W. Rennie, LTJG T. Brown, LTJG. B. Henderson
(names courtesy Richard Wheeler, plane captain then AQF-3 from 1964 to 1967 with VF-211)

Flight of 4 "Checkmates" --