Saturday, May 13, 1972
N. Viet Mining Rehearsed?
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (AP) --The mining of North Vietnamese ports by the United States was apparently rehearsed a month ago off San Diego, the San Diego Evening Tribune reported Tuesday.At that time, sea approaches to San Diego were seeded with drill mines as part of the 1st Fleet's training exercise involving 34 warships and 100 aircraft.Capt. G. J. Lebreton, commander of Mine Flotilla 3, was quoted as saying those sea bombs were real, but with the explosive charges removed."A number of the warships assigned to the exercise are now in, or en route to, the Vietnam war zone," the newspaper said.A new Navy helicopter minesweeping system was tested in Pacific waters for the first time during the April 13 exercise, wrote military editor Bob Dietrich."The flying minesweepers can be rushed to emergency areas aboard giant Air Force C5A Galaxy transports. Each Galaxy can carry two of the helicopters. The helicopters are designed to tow an assortment of devices to explode or neutralize all types of mines including magnetic and acoustical mines on the sea floor," Dietrich wrote.Dietrich quoted Lebreton as saying, "There are types that can be programmed to trigger when slow ships pass nearby. The same types can be set to explode at a selected time later when a faster ship passes."In addition to mines that go off by command through acoustic or underwater radio signals, the Navy officer said there also are pressure-sensitive mines that can wait until a heavy ship comes into its sensitivity zone, thus avoiding detonation when lighter escort ships pass by."N. Viet Mining Rehearsed?" by (AP) published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Saturday, May 13, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.