USS Turner Joy (DD-951) - Gulf of Tonkin Incident

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

On 13 March 1964, Turner Joy departed Long Beach to embark upon her most celebrated tour of duty in the Far East. The third western Pacific deployment of her career began routinely enough. After calling at Pearl Harbor on her way west, the destroyer joined a task group built around Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) for operations in the Philippine Sea, followed by a cruise through the South China Sea to Japan. Further training operations and port visits ensued, as the deployment continued peacefully. During late July, Turner Joy, while attached to a carrier task group built around Ticonderoga, began making "watch dog" patrols off the coast of Vietnam where a vicious guerrilla war had been raging at varying levels of intensity since the end of World War II. In the afternoon of 2 August, Maddox (DD-731), engaged in a DeSoto patrol, called for assistance when three People's Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnamese) Navy motor torpedo boats from the 135th Torpedo Squadron attacked her. As Maddox engaged the boats, firing over 280 5-inch shells, the contact was broken, and each combatant withdrew from the contact. While retreating to the North Vietnamese coastline, the three torpedo boats, were attacked by four USN F-8 Crusader jets from Ticonderoga which fired rockets and strafed with 20mm cannon fire, damaging two boats and leaving one torpedo boat in apparently sinking condition. Meanwhile, Turner Joy raced to Maddox to provide additional surface strength. By the time she reached Maddox, the torpedo boats were no longer in the area.

On 3 August 1964, the Turner Joy was ordered to accompany the Maddox for another DeSoto mission, on 4 August Turner Joy’s radar screens picked up a number of what appeared to be small, high-speed surface craft approaching, but at extreme range. As a precaution, the two destroyers called upon Ticonderoga to furnish air support. By nightfall, the unidentified radar echoes suggested that PRVN torpedo boats were converging upon the two American warships from the west and south. Turner Joy reported that she sighted one—maybe two—torpedo wakes, then rang up full speed, maneuvered radically to evade expected torpedoes, and began firing in the direction of the unidentified blips. Over the next two and one-half hours, Turner Joy fired approximately 220 5-inch shells, while planes from Ticonderoga fired at the supposed torpedo boats. Reports claimed that at least two of those were sunk by direct hits and another pair severely damaged, and that the remaining boats retired rapidly to the north. A sailor in the Gun Director on the USS Maddox, Patrick Park, reviewed radar and sonar records for the next three days after the incident on orders from his superiors. His conclusion, there were no attacks on August 4 against the Maddox and the Turner Joy. This has been supported by evidence from the Vietnamese since the end of hostilities. In addition, Admiral Moore reported on August 7 to Admiral Sharpe that "Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonar men may have accounted for the many reports.

During 01/02 July 1966, the three torpedo boats from PRVN (Peoples Republic of Vietnam) Torpedo Squadron 135; T-333, T-336, and T-339 which had attacked the USS Maddox on 02 August 1964, came into the Tonkin Gulf again to attack two more US destroyers, only to be promptly sunk by US jets from the aircraft carriers USS Constellation and USS Hancock. Nineteen PRVN Sailors were taken as Prisoner of War from those sunk torpedo boats, and they made it clear that no PRVN (North Vietnamese) Navy torpedo boats had been sunk in the year 1964. It could well have been that bad weather and "the Tonkin Ghosts" (freakish radar conditions) for which the Gulf of Tonkin is famous, caused radar echoes to appear on Turner Joy's screen and prompted her captain and crew to take defensive action in consideration of the events two days earlier.

In any event, the "Tonkin Gulf Incident" prompted American retaliation. Constellation (CVA-64) joined Ticonderoga off North Vietnam the following day; and, together, they launched 64 sorties against the bases from which the attacks had been launched and against an oil storage depot known to have been used to support those bases. Planes from Constellation hit the communist motor torpedo boat bases at Hongay and Loc Chao in the north while Ticonderoga aircraft went after three targets in the south: the motor torpedo boat bases at Quang Khe and Phuc Loi as well as the Vinh oil storage depot. At the last-named target, American planes set fire to 12 of the 14 oil storage tanks sending almost 10 percent of North Vietnam's oil reserves up in smoke. Of more lasting significance both to the warship and the country, however, the incident prompted the United States Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, the legal foundation for the US to deploy conventional US military forces and directly confront North Vietnam in open warfare; which would ultimately involve the United States in a bloody and costly war in Indochina for the ensuing eight and one-half years. Throughout that period, the Turner Joy would serve repeatedly throughout the conflict.