RIPPLE SALVO… #218… and his JOLLY GREEN crew of 1LT DON HARRIS, SSGT DON HALL, and A2C ROBERT WILLIAMSON, USAF, all…. but first…

Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED EIGHTEEN of recalling the days and years of the air war called Rolling Thunder over North Vietnam…

5 OCTOBER 1966… THE NEW YORK TIMES WITH THE NEWS IN CONUS… A fair then partly cloudy Wednesday and the Yankees are watching the World Series on TV…

Page 1: “French Minister Says Hanoi Feels It Can’t Win The War”…”Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville of France today was said to have told President Johnson that North Vietnam no longer saw a chance for a military victory in South Vietnam. At the same time, the French diplomat was said to have warned the President that the Hanoi regime was in no mood to negotiate a cease fire. This, it was said, is true partly because  Hanoi believes it can keep troops fighting indefinitely in South Vietnam and thus wear down United States resistance, and partly because published United States terms for a cease fire remain ‘fuzzy.’ Hanoi has 20 regiments totaling 50,000 troops in battle and there is believed to be about 230,000 Vietcong in arms against the Saigon regime’. Saigon is supported by 320,000 regular troops plus American and other Allied troops (On Wednesday 4,000 infantrymen landed in South Vietnam raising the total American troops strength to 320,000). The French diplomat de Murville is regarded here as a valid interpreter of the North Vietnamese view point because he heard it first hand in Pnompenh, the Laotian capital on August 21 during discussions with Nguyen Thuong, Chief of North Vietnam’s diplomatic mission in Cambodia.”… Page 1: “Kohler Terms A Blockade Of North Vietnam Perilous”…”Foy Kohler, the United States Ambassador to Moscow warned today that ‘an American blockade of North Vietnam  would be a dangerous step’ that could raise the risk of a military confrontation with the Soviet Union. Mr. Kohler told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he saw no present inclination on the part of the Soviet Union leaders to try to end the Vietnam War. He predicted that the Soviet Union would ‘contest’ perhaps through military actions any American attempt to impede the flow of Soviet material to North Vietnam by mends of a naval blockade.”…

Page 1: “Rise In War Cost Reaches Peak”…”The cost of the war in Vietnam increased the yearly rate of Defense spending by $3 billion of a little more in the third quarter of this year. This was the largest of the increases that have occurred each quarter since the war began to raise outlays for defense in the middle of last year. The rise in the July-September quarter meant that the rate of defense purchases of goods and services in that period converted to on an annual basis, was a little more than $60 billion, the first time the $60 billion mark has been passed since World War II.”…. Page 1: “Senate Approves Anti-Poverty Bill: $746 Million Cut”…”The Senate passed an anti-poverty bill tonight after cutting it to the $1.75billion approved by the House last week. The vote was 49 to 20. the crucial vote to cut $746 million from the bill 45 to 27 was a budget victory for President Johnson.”…

Page 1: “150,000 Join Pope In Plea For Peace Negotiations”…”Pope Paul VI led 150,000 Roman Catholics in St. Peter’s Square and millions elsewhere through radio and television in prayers today for peace in Vietnam by negotiations conducted with honor and humanity. Speaking in an open air mass on the anniversary of his peace appeal to the United Nations General Assembly last year in New York, the Pontiff said there could be no flagging in the search for peace ‘since it concerns the dizzying gamble with the fate of mankind.’…”…

5 October 1966… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (Top Secret sanitized Sept 2015) South Vietnam: Ky has indeed acted quickly to head off the cabinet crisis that appeared to be brewing yesterday. He requested and received and accepted the resignation of the northern cabinet minister whose heavy handed treatment of his chief subordinate, a southerner, started the fuss. Ky today denied that any other cabinet members had resigned, and told Ambassador Lodge that the incident was closed… Vietnam: The Soviets will soon begin to supply North Vietnam with petroleum from Vladivostok, in the Far East. They will use 4,000-ton tankers rather than the 10-11,000-tonners that have been used to bring oil from the Black Sea. Use of the smaller ships will give the Soviets greater flexibility in off-loading at Haiphong. Since the June bombings of the facilities there, off-loading a large tanker has taken at least three weeks. The change route will not keep the Soviets from meeting Hanoi’s petroleum requirements of about 16,000 tons a month. Sufficient small tankers are ready in the Far East, and siphoning off this amount of petroleum products will not seriously deplete supplies there….Communist China: The Chinese leaders appear nervous over this year’s harvest. We believe they have cause for concern–there are reports of hunger already. A few sentences are extracted from the 5 Oct PDB TS brief annex on “the Hungry Giant: China’s Agriculture Stumbles Again”… china is a land where the specter of famine lurks just beyond the next harvest. this year is no exception. The winter ahead looks bleak and hungry. Two grains–rice and wheat– form the basic staples of the Chinese diet. The major harvest is in the fall and signs are not promising…agriculture in China is still essentially a form of basic combat between a man with a hoe and the elements…farming standards comparable to those in the US at the time of our Revolutionary War…periodic natural disasters strain China’s ability to feed itself… the sheer mass of Chinese humanity keeps the wolf at Peking’s door…No census since 1953 but China’s population is estimated between 700 million and 900 million…it is doubtful that even the Chinese government knows within 50 million the number of mouths to be fed. The Chinese reproduce themselves at the rate of 17 million per year…Food is already scarce. In six major cities, Chinese are on short rations and the situation is getting worse…

5 OCTOBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (7 Oct reporting ops of 5 Oct)…Page 17: “In North Vietnam yesterday American pilots destroyed 34 barges, 15 boxcars and 3 bridges in 130 missions. Two Air Force helicopters flew through intense small arms fire and rescued the pilot of an F-4C Phantom that crashed west of Hanoi… The copilot of the F-4 could not be found and he was listed as missing. A helicopter crewman was wounded. GREAT TALE IN SOME DETAIL IN RIPPLE SALVO…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Page 76…Two fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 5 October 1966…

(1) LTJG JAMES ALVIN BEENE was flying in a section of A-1H Skyraiders from the VA-152 Wild Aces embarked in USS Oriskany on a coastal reconnaissance mission between Thanh Hoa and Cape Mu Ron. The section entered a thunderstorm and LTJG BEENE did not come out of it. A search failed to locate either the pilot or a crash scene, although a large oil slick was located 15 miles south of Hon Mat island. For unknown reasons LTJG BEENE perished, killed in action, fifty years ago today. He remains where he fell on that battlefield where he fought for his country…   

(2) 1LT EDWARD W. GARLAND and CAPTAIN WILLIAM RICHARD ANDREWS were flying an F-4C of the 433rd TFS and the 8th TFW out of Ubon in a flight of four F-4s escorting two EB-66s during a Rolling Thunder strike on a bridge 45 miles southwest of Yen Bai. While maneuvering in the target area at 30,000-feet the flight received a MIG warning at the same time the flight leader noticed his #3, LTJG GARLAND, was missing. It was assumed that the missing F-4 has been hit by a MIG. Both aircrew safely ejected from the F-4 and CAPTAIN ANDREWS reported he was OK but said enemy troops were approaching. Two Jolly Green HH-3Es (04 and 36) from Detachment 5 of the 38th ARRS based at Udorn arrived on scene and in the face of intense enemy ground fire Jolly Green 36, piloted by CAPTAIN OLIVER O’MARA, made an attempted pickup of CAPTAIN ANDREWS, who had landed in trees. In the process of the initial pick-up attempt enemy troops took the scene under fire scoring hits on Jolly Green 36 forcing him to pull out. Unfortunately, in the process, CAPTAIN ANDREWS was hit in the chest by small arms and lost consciousness. CAPTAIN O’MARA’s subsequent attempt led to more damage to Jolly Green 36 and he was forced to head for an emergency landing field.  The second Jolly Green 04 piloted by CAPTAIN LELAND KENNEDY was successful in finding and rescuing 1LT GARLAND, but not without drama. A further search in an extremely hostile environment for CAPTAIN ANDREWS resulted in additional small arms damage to CAPTAIN KENNEDY’s HH-3E and he was forced to leave the area before he could find CAPTAIN ANDREWS, who perished at the site that day fifty years ago. His remains were returned to the United States and identified in 1991… more in Ripple Salvo…read on…

RIPPLE SALVO… #218… CAPTAIN LELAND THORNTON KENNEDY flew his eighth combat rescue mission on 5 October 1966 as the back-up “high bird.” Events would lead to he and his crew’s successful recovery of 1LT GARLAND. Their first save. …. oohrah… but the story is in the details… Your Humble Host suggests you take a few minutes to call up Captain Kennedy’s entry on Wikipedia…   (or just Google CAPTAIN LELAND THORNTON KENNEDY) …

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/Leland.T.Kennedy   or

http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=3442

…and read about courage under fire and a clear case of four young men putting their lives on the line and keeping them there through unrelenting enemy fire to save the life of a downed Phantom driver… You’ll love the part where, after four unsuccessful passes to make the pickup, Captain Kennedy, turns to his three-man crew of Jolly Green 04, 1LT DONALD HARRIS, SSGT DONALD HALL and A2C ROBERT WILLIAMSON, one of whom was wounded by the antiaircraft fire that that had already riddled their HH-3, and gets a unanimous vote to give it another try…  all for one and one for all… we have a job to do, let’s do it… damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead… and you know what else? His 5 October rescue was just Captain Kennedy’s FIRST AIR FORCE CROSS…. The man was an Audie Murphy… I am saving how I really feel about this valiant warrior for October 30 when he does it again to become second only to Colonel Jim Kasler’s three AFCs for valor in the Vietnam War…

For my fellow Rolling Thunder operators, we have been spoiled in this one life we have logged on earth–we have lived among real heroes, valorous men, and “the happy warriors that every man should wish to be.” Men like Captain Kennedy who are imbued with a brave heart and fighting spirit that knows no bounds.  

Lest we forget…          Bear         ……….  –30–  ……….