Word: torpedoed
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...Panic. Thus there was no reason to panic on that sunny Sunday last week when Maddox lookouts sighted three Communist torpedo boats near the island of Hon Me (see map). The destroyer merely continued north on its patrol, and in due course made a leisurely turn and headed back south...
...Maddox cruised down the gulf 30 miles from any land, her radar men spotted three torpedo boats, ten miles to the north, speeding toward the Maddox. They were Russian P-4 types, 85 ft. long, armed with torpedo tubes and 25-mm. machine guns. The destroyer skipper, Commander Herbert L. Ogier, 41, sounded general quarters. Two hundred and fifty-five officers and crewmen raced to their battle stations. Ogier held his course southward. And he waited...
White Wakes. The battle began at 3:08. The Maddox opened up with her aft five-inchers and her 3-in. and 40-mm. guns. The two trailing craft closed to 5,000 yds., launched one 18-in. torpedo apiece. Officers on the Maddox bridge had no trouble following the foot-wide white wakes of the torpedoes as they ran through the blue-green sea at a depth...
...third torpedo boat took up the attack. Skillfully, she pulled 5,000 yds. abeam of the destroyer so that evasion would be far more difficult. But this also brought the PT boat under the fire of two pairs of the Maddox's biggest guns. The Maddox fired-a direct hit. The enemy craft stopped dead in the water, helpless and aflame. Later she could not be found and was assumed to have sunk...
There was no doubt in Sharp's mind that the U.S. would now have to answer this attack with much more than a diplomatic protest note. He recommended that the U.S. hit the North Viet Nam torpedo-boat bases. Could the carriers do the job? asked McNamara. "Hell, yes!" replied Sharp. That was all McNamara needed to know. While McNamara dealt with the problem in Washington, Sharp waited for a decision. "I was watching Saigon time to see how light it was getting, and watching Washington time to see what they were doing. You spend an awful...