Prepared as they had not been during Operation Pierce Arrow, North Vietnamese antiaircraft gunners threw up a curtain of fire from 37-millimeter guns, automatic weapons and small arms ashore and from Swatow gunboats in the Kien River.

Some of this fire hit Lieutenant Edward A. Dickson's A-4 but he continued his attack before ejecting from his crippled plane, however his parachute failed to open and he plunged to his death.

Right behind Coral Seas formation came 17 A-4s of VA-212 and VA-216 from the USS Hancock which dropped their ordnance on already burning and smoking camp facilities as F-8 Crusaders suppressed fire from antiaircraft sites.

Although MiGs did not interfere with the operation, antiaircraft gunners damaged a Coral Sea A-4C, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing at Da Nang Air Base.

[2]: 81–2 While the naval aircraft bombed Chanh Hoa, the RVNAF and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) attacked Chap Le.

On 19 February 1965, USAF B-57s conducted the first jet strikes flown by Americans in support of South Vietnamese ground units.

On 24 February 1965, USAF jets struck again, this time breaking up a Viet Cong ambush in the Central Highlands with a massive series of tactical air sorties.