Khe Gát Airfield (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

: Sân bay Khe Gát, also known as Khe Phat Airfield) was a military airfield in Bo Trach District, Quang Binh,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. It was built within seven months in 1969 and played a major role for the

Vietnam People's Air Force The Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF, ), formally refers itself as the Air Defence - Air Force (ADAF, ) or the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF, ), is the Air force, aerial warfare service branch of Vietnam. It is the successor of the former North V ...

during the

Battle of Dong Hoi A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

in April 1972. Nowadays it is part of the

Ho Chi Minh Highway Ho Chi Minh Road or Ho Chi Minh Highway ( vi, Đường Hồ Chí Minh, links=no) is a highway in Vietnam. It runs from the north to the south of Vietnam, west of National Route 1. The highway was named after Hồ Chí Minh. History The route ro ...

History

On 19 April 1972, two

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 w ...

s piloted by Lê Xuân Dị and

Nguyễn Văn Bảy Nguyễn Văn Bảy (1936 – September 22, 2019), was a Vietnamese jet fighter ace for the Vietnam People's Air Force (North Vietnamese Air Force) during the Vietnam War. Piloting a MiG-17F while assigned to the 923rd Fighter Regiment, Bay claime ...

"B" took off from the airfield. At approximately 17:00, one of the MiG-17s scored a direct hit on USS ''Higbee'' with a BETAB-250 () bomb, after failing to hit its target twice on two previous attack runs. The attack crippled Higbee's 5-inch gun turret, impaired its steering and propulsion, and wounded 4 sailors on deck. Another MiG-17 simultaneously aimed its bombs at USS ''Oklahoma City'' but missed the target. The U.S. later responded by bombardment against

Vinh Vinh () is the biggest city and economic and cultural center of north-central Vietnam. Vinh is the capital of Nghệ An Province, and is a key point in the East–West economic corridor linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The city is ...

and Dong Hoi on the same day and the following, and an air strike by 33 aircraft on April 22 at the airfield, destroying one MiG and damaging another on the ground.

References

{{reflist Installations of the Vietnam People's Air Force