He watched the Walleye as it went straight through one of the barrack’s windows and exploded. Smith stood off from his target, but stayed close enough to observe whether the new weapon would perform as advertised in actual combat. This allowed the pilot to drop the Walleye and move away to avoid antiaircraft fire.
The glide bomb could make its own course corrections based on a comparison of the two images. Its onboard guidance system used the image of the target and aim point chosen by Smith and compared it to the image on the TV camera. The bomb dropped rapidly toward the enemy base. High above the target, Smith locked his Walleye onto the selected building, put the target in his cross-hairs, and released it.
When it was time for his attack run, Smith aimed his plane at one of the barracks buildings. The raid included other attack aircraft and fighter escorts. His cockpit held a small TV monitor to guide the weapon onto its target. The squadron flew the A-4 Skyhawk, a light attack jet able to carry nearly 10,000 pounds of ordnance-more than a B-17. The age of precision weapons was dawning.Ĭommander Homer Smith led VA-212, an attack squadron based on the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard (CV-31), a World War II-era, Essex-class ship modernized for the continuing struggle of the Cold War. The nose of the Walleye contained a small TV camera that allowed the pilot to monitor its descent to the target. The Walleye glide bomb was a free-fall, 1,000-pound munition equipped with an innovation that promised to change warfare. On March 11, 1967, the Americans came for Sam Son armed with a new weapon. The base was near the coast, placing it within easy reach of the United States Navy. The North Vietnamese Army barracks at Sam Son was less than 100 miles south of the capital city of Hanoi.
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