Firing Missions (VN)
Records were downloaded from Archives.gov (aad.archives.gov)
Combat Naval Gunfire Support File (CONGA), covering records about naval gunfire support
during the Vietnam War.
That archives only has digital records from 3/1966 - 1/1973, and I'm sure many are missing.
Hoel's records: 12/10/1966 - 12/21/1972. (1,438 entries, last checked 4/30/2020)
This included Hoel's 3rd-7th Westpacs, with the 6th Westpac(11/70-5/71) missing.
Note: On Hoel's 3rd Westpac, apparently the Hoel spent the majority of time plane guarding.
3rd WestPac 1966-67 - 265 records (from 12/10/66 - 12/21/66)
4th WestPac 1967-68 - 699 records (from 01/28/68 - 05/26/68)
5th WestPac 1969-70 - 43 records (from 10/30/69 - 02/03/70)
(Note: since there are so few records for this WestPac, and the next one is missing entirely, that most
likely the missing records for this deployment are associated with the missing records for the following
deployment)
6th WestPac 1970-71 (missing)
7th WestPac 1972-73 - 431 records (from 07/11/72 - 12/21/72) (Last shot(s) fired for Hoel in Vietnam War)
If you would like to play around with the Archives, perhaps to look for data on another ship you were on,
I would highly suggest doing your search in 2 steps.
1) When you first do a search, Click on <show more fields>, <default fields>, <submit>.
You can however choose your own fields, and Click on <submit>.
The system only lets you choose 10 fields now. When I first created my spreadsheet (above), the number of fields was unlimited.
2) Normally all is needed is to fill in the 'Name of Firing Ship', and click on 'Search'.
3) I suppose there might be a circumstance where there are records for more than one ship that includes the name you entered.
If that is the case, you can go back and also enter the specific 'UIC of Firing Ship' 'Nxxxxx' number as well, then click <Search> again.
4) If you end up wanting to download your data, choose the "Download Data With Meanings" option.
UTM COORDINATES OF TARGET explained....
(Yeah, complicated, took me hours of research to figure out what the data in the table meant)(JohnH)
First of all,
Here's what UTM stands for... Wikipedia - UTM - Universal_Transverse_Mercator_coordinate_system
Here's a map... World UTM Grid Zones Map
The UTM coordinates in the spreadsheet have to be split up and converted in order to produce a map.
This is the converter I used... www.rcn.montana.edu - UTM Converter (use WGS-84 Map Datum)
The following is an example of how to use it...
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Here's another converter... uwgb.edu - ConvertUTM (use WGS-84 Map Datum)
https://www.google.com/search?q=utm+converter+to+lat+long&oq=utm+converter
