ALVAREZ, EVERETT JR.

Name: Everett Alvarez Jr.
Rank/Branch: O3/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 144, USS CONSTELLATION
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Santa Clara CA
Date of Loss: 05 August 1964
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 105600N 1070800E (YJ218160)
Status (in 1973): Released POW
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A4C

Other Personnel in Incident: Richard C. Sather (remains returned)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 May 1990 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 730212 RELSD BY DRV

SYNOPSIS: By midsummer 1964 events were taking place in the Gulf of Tonkin that
would lead to the first clash between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces. In late
July the destroyer USS MADDOX, on patrol in the gulf gathering intelligence, had
become the object of communist attention. For two consecutive days, 31 July-1
August, the MADDOX cruised unencumbered along a predesignated route off the
North Vietnamese coast. In the early morning hours of 2 August, however, it was
learned from intelligence sources of a possible attack against the destroyer.

The attack by three North Veitnamese P-4 torpedo boats (PT boats) materialized
just after 4:00 p.m. on August 2. The MADDOX fired off three warning volleys,
then opened fire. Four F-8 Crusaders from the aircraft carrier USS TICONDEROGA,
also took part in the skirmish. The result of the twenty-minute affair saw one
gunboat sunk and another crippled. The MADDOX, ordered out of the gulf after the
incident concluded, was hit by one 14.5 mm shell.

A day later the MADDOX, accompanied by the destroyer USS C. TURNER JOY, received
instructions to reenter the gulf and resume patrol. The USS CONSTELLATION, on a
Hong Kong port visit was ordered to join the TICONDEROGA stationed at the mouth
of the gulf in the South China Sea. The two destroyers cruised without incident
on August 3 an din the daylight hours of August 4 moved to the middle of the
gulf. Parallel to the movements of the C. TURNER JOY and MADDOX, South
Vietnamese gunboats launched attacks on several North Veitnamese radar
installation. The North Vietnamese believed the U.S. destroyers were connected
to these strikes.

At 8:41 p.m. on August 4 both destroyers reportedly picked up fast-approaching
contacts on their radars. Navy documents show the ships changed course to avoid
the unknown vessels, but the contacts continued intermittently. At 10:39 p.m.
when the MADDOX and C. TURNER JOY radars indicated one enemy vessel had closed
to within seven thousand yards, the C. TURNER JOY was ordered to open fire and
the MADDOX soon followed. For the next several hours, the destroyers, covered by
the TICONDEROGA's and the CONSTELLATION's aircraft, reportedly evaded torpedoes
and fired on their attackers.

Historians have debated, and will continue to do so, whether the destroyers were
actually ever attacked. Most of the pilots flying that night spotted nothing.
Stockdale, who would later earn the Medal of Honor, stated that a gunboat attack
did not occur. The skipper of the TICONDEROGA's Attack Squadron 56, Commander
Wesley L. McDonald, said he "didn't see anything that night except the MADDOX
and the TURNER JOY."

President Lyndon B. Johnson reacted at once to the supposed attacks on the
MADDOX, ordering retialiatory strikes on strategic points in North Vietnam. Even
as the President spoke to the nation, aircraft from the CONSTELLATION and
TICONDEROGA were airborne and heading for four major PT-boat bases along the
North Vietnamese coast. The area of coverage ranged from a small base at Quang
Khe 50 miles north of the demarcation line between North and South Vietnam, to
the large base at Hon Gai in the north.

At 1:30 p.m. on August 5, 1964, a flight of sixteen aircraft from the
TICONDEROGA on the Vinh hit petroleum storage complex in response to the
presidential directive to destroy gunboats and supporting facilities in North
Vietnam which the President indicated were used in the attack on the MADDOX. The
results saw 90 percent of the storage facility at Vinh go up in flames.

Meanwhile, other coordinated attacks were made by aircraft from the
CONSTELLATION on nearby Ben Thuy Naval Base, Quang Khe, Hon Me Island and Hon
Gai's inner harbor. Skyraiders, Skyhawks and F8s bombed and rocketed the four
areas, destroying or damaging an estimated twenty-five PT-boats, more than half
of the North  Vietnamese force.

LTJG Richard C. Sather was an A1 Skyraider pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 145
onboard the USS CONSTELLATION. During the retaliatory strikes, his "Spad" was
hit by enemy fire just offshore from the city of Thanh Hoa, some 25 miles north
of the island of Hon Me. No parachute was seen, and no emergency radio beepers
were heard. It was generally agreed that Sather had died in the crash of his
aircraft. He was declared Killed in Action, and his body was not recovered.

Among the pilots participating in the Hon Gai attack was LTJG Everett Alvarez
Jr., an A4C Skyhawk pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 144 onboard the USS
CONSTELLATION. His flight was given an ocean target right on the border with
China, a port facility where the Chinese border meets North Vietnam. None of the
pilots had ever flown this area. The CONSTELLATION pilots were briefed on a
problem that would evidence itself several times later in the war -- it was
paramount that they not come anywhere close to dropping bombs on Chinese soil
when launching attacks on the Hon Gai area. Yet, looking at the map, pilots
realized that "if you sneezed or did something wrong, the bomb could end up in
China with no trouble at all."

Just before launch, the target was changed to Hon Gai. There was little time to
study the new target, and then they were off in a mass "gaggle." The flight
leader briefed them to expect PT boats tied up at the southeast pier.

When the aircraft reached the bay, however, Alvarez noted that the PT boats were
out in the bay rather than at the pier. The flight rolled into two layers of
smog--actually one layer of smog and one of anti-aircraft smoke. The pilots
realized they were being fired on and noted that Alvarez had been hit.

Alvarez's call sign was Four-Eleven, and he came up on the air saying, "411, I'm
hit," followed by "I can't control it. I'm ejecting." Accompanying aircraft
heard his emergency beeper, made three or four orbits, and then were forced to
leave the area because of low fuel states. Alvarez was captured and imprisoned.

The Navy had lost two aviators, LTJG Everett Alvarez from VA 144 and LTJG
Richard C. Sather from VA 145, an A-1 squadron. Alvarez earned the dubious
distinction of being the first naval aviator captured by the North Vietnamese
and spent eight-and-one-half years in captivity.

Richard Sather, in a sense, was less fortunate, becoming the Navy's first pilot
killed during the conflict. It was twenty-one years, August 14, 1985, before the
Vietnamese "discovered" his remains and returned them to U.S. control.

Finally, on February 12, 1973, Everett Alvarez was released from prisoner of war
camps and sent home. Alvarez had been a prisoner of war for eight and one-half
years. In all, 591 Americans were released. The remains of Richard Sather were
not returned until 1985.

Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing,
prisoner or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S.
Government. Many authorities who have examined this largely classified
information are convinced that hundreds of Americans are still held captive
today. These reports are the source of serious distress to many returned
American prisoners. They had a code that no one could honorably return unless
all of the prisoners returned. Not only that code of honor, but the honor of our
country is at stake as long as even one man remains unjustly held. It's time we
brought our men home.


