In the naval mines put together by Gill’s team, an arming device that activated the dropped mines was set for a three-day delay. I would end up working about 44 hours straight to get this done ASAP.” They handed me a bunch of papers with settings, limits and other info I needed.

“I said: ‘Are you sure you want Alpha condition?’” - which meant the mines would be live and ready to go.'” I was told we had about three dozen Mk 52 underwater mines that had to be assembled in Alpha condition. “I walked into the area where the captain of the USS Coral Sea, other officers and chiefs were waiting for me. “After a 14-hour day I was called up to Ordnance Control,” Gill said. In February he was put in charge of the mine assembly team. They worked in the bomb assembly division with aviation ordnance men, and “12 hours a day was the norm,” Gill remembers. Gill was one of four sailors with his rating on board the Coral Sea. The mines would be released at ports under Hanoi’s control and form a strong barrier at the entrances of key harbors. The weapons were Mark 52-2 naval mines-magnetic mines that lie on the bottom of the sea, triggered to detonate when a metal-hulled ship passes over them and causes an alteration in the Earth’s magnetic field, which the mines can detect. From the carrier’s lower deck crewmen were preparing mines to be attached to Operation Pocket Money’s aircraft. Hours earlier, a burst of activity had begun among Navy crews responsible for armament, fuel and aircraft maintenance on board the Coral Sea. 7th Fleet’s Task Force 77, was positioned at Yankee Station, an area of the South China Sea where the Navy launched attacks on North Vietnamese targets. The aircraft chosen to carry out Operation Pocket Money were the A-7E Corsair II and A-6A Intruder attack planes based on the aircraft carrier Coral Sea, which was stocked with airborne sea mines.

They were timed to coincide with the takeoff of fighters, attack aircraft and surveillance planes conducting airstrikes while Nixon was still speaking.

For pocket money