Navy Attack Squadron 15 Thornhill Recovery


August 1, 1967 - Lieutenant Dave Thornhill straps on his trusty A-4C Douglas Skyhawk BuNo. 147670 for a mission to Hon Gai, North Vietnam.
During this mission North Vietnamese Triple A fire got lucky and managed to bag Dave. After an "interesting" ejection and subsequent "interesting" rescue - the Jolly Green dropped Dave on the PIREZ ship --- the frigate Fox.
The United States Ship Fox then began delicate negotiations with Intrepid for the amount of ice cream Thornhill was worth. Finally the Fox and Intrepid agreed on the trade and Intrepid sent a helicopter (with the ice cream) to retrieve Dave.
The welcome committee - left to right: Lieutenant Bob Cole, Lieutenant Dave Thornhill, Lieutenant "Bo" Smith, Lieutenant Commander Pete Schoeffel and Lieutenant Junior grade Keith Strickland. Dave had just hopped off the Intrepid Angel (in the background).
It is party time! During the dickering with the Fox the Intrepid Mess managed to bake a cake saying: "Welcome Home Thorny." AND the Flight Sturgeon managed to find a bottle of medical brandy for the happening.
Lieutenant Commander Jerry Tuttle, (the rescue on-scene-commander) presented the cake to Dave. Unfortunately, Fox got all the ice cream so there was just brandy to wash the cake down with.
United States Navy photographs from Dave Thornhill.