Herbert Shippey - Flying with the Spooks: Memoir of a Navy Linguist in the Vietnam War

Flying with the Spooks

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Jefferson, North Carolina

The manuscript of this memoir was submitted for prepublication review to the NSA at Fort George Meade, Maryland, and was determined to be unclassified and approved for public release. The material and views presented in the memoir are those of the author and in no way reflect official approval or endorsement by the NSA or the U.S. Navy.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Names: Shippey, Herbert, 1944 author.

Title: Flying with the spooks : memoir of a Navy linguist in the Vietnam war / Herbert Shippey.

Other titles: Memoir of a Navy linguist in the Vietnam war

Description: Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2022 | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021062284 | ISBN 9781476686721 (paperback : acid free paper)

ISBN 9781476645476 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Shippey, Herbert, 1944 | Vietnam War, 19611975Personal narratives, American. | United States. Navy. Fleet Support DetachmentBiography. | Vietnam War, 19611975Aerial operations, American. | Vietnam War, 19611975Military intelligenceUnited States. | LinguistsVietnamBiography. | BISAC: HISTORY / Military / Vietnam War

Classification: LCC DS559.5 .S55 2022 | DDC 959.704/3092 [B]dc23/eng/20220107

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021062284

British Library cataloguing data are available

ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-8672-1

ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-4547-6

2022 Herbert Shippey. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: Painting of the EC-121 Warning Star (top) and P-3 Orion by an anonymous Japanese artist in Atsugi, Japan (photograph in authors collection)

Printed in the United States of America

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640

www.mcfarlandpub.com

To the men who served in

NAVCOMMSTA PHIL Fleet Support Detachment Da Nang

(DET BRAVO)

during the Vietnam War.

Also, to the officers and enlisted men of

Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron ONE (VQ-1),

who piloted and maintained the aircraft

in which the Big Look Spooks flew.

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

Psalm 139: 910 (ESV)

To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings,

Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun,

For my mean Pen are too superior things;

Or how they all, or each their dates have run,

Let Poets and Historians set these forth.

My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.

The Prologue by Anne Bradstreet