RIPPLE SALVO… #387… INTRUDER CREWS: “The bravery of their souls was equal to the dangers they encountered,” Lord Hawke might say. …but first…

Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY-SEVEN of a long look-back to the skies of North Vietnam fifty-years ago…

27 MARCH 1967…HEAD LINES and LEADS from the Ogden Standard-Examiner on a partly cloudy Monday on “Two-bit Street”…

Page 1: “Tanker Splits, Oil Soaks Britain”... “The giant American tanker Torrey Canyon lay split in two on the Seven Stones Reef today spilling more oil toward the beaches of southwest England that were r being ruined. Huge seas during the night wrenched the 61,263-ton ship apart almost amidships. The two halves lay 25 yards apart with the bow at an angle of about 40-degrees to the stern section.”… Page 1: “Crime Report Calls Experts to Mull Underworld  Battle”… “More than 500 law enforcement officials, judges, professors and state legislators will confer Tuesday and Wednesday on how to implement more than 200 recommendations made by the National Crime Commission… The 352-page report contains thousands of statistics and adds recommendations on topics ranging from alcoholism to development of a national strategy to fight organized crime.”… Page 1: “Thais Waiting for Purr of B-52s”... “Premier Thanon Kittikachorn said today the first group of three B-52 bombers will arrive at their new  base in Thailand on April 2. He said a second group of nine B-52s will land at the Utapao air base in southern Thailand on a April 9.”... Page 1: “Vice President In Geneva Says: U.S. Right On Vietnam”… “Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey likened the American fighting in Vietnam today to the United States stands in Berlin and Korea and told U.S. representatives in Genoa we have nothing to apologize for. Humphrey injected Vietnam and European criticism of the U.S. policy in Asia into a 45-minute talk to personnel of the American mission here on the first day of a two-week Western Europe tour.”…

Page 7: “Students Rollick, Rock and Riot at Fort Lauderdale”... “Youth had its fling over the Easter weekend at several East and Gulf Coast resorts to climax their holiday vacations. But it wasn’t all rioting and arrests as the mod set staged a West Coast ‘love in’ and a Manhattan ‘be-in’. Police heaved a sigh of relief Sunday as more than 40,000 collegians headed back to classes. There were 500 arrested for drunkenness, rowdyism, loitering and interfering with police. At Biloxi, Mississippi a rain put a damper on activities of 10,000 college students…. In Los Angeles 4,500 bearded and mini-skirted hippies gathered at Elysian Park for a ‘love-in.’ ‘Christ is here with us,’ said Peter German, who organized the encampment. In New York Central Park 10,000 members of the beard and sandal crowd staged the city’s first ‘be-in,’ featuring love and ‘happenings’… Page 2: “NFO Inches Toward Success In 25-State Milk boycott”… “The National Farmers Organization maintained the pressure of a 25-state milk boycott today and with the help of the Teamsters Union shut off the flow of milk to homes and stores in Tennessee. As the 13th day of the boycott, the NFO claimed a major success in its campaign to increase by 2-cents per quart the price paid to farmers for their milk. The NFO has settled with dairies in Minnesota and a deal is in expected in Wisconsin.”…

27 MARCH 1967… THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF…CIA (TS sanitized 2015): SOUTH VIETNAM: We have few details beyond press reports yesterday’s incident between police and a routine funeral procession organized by militant Buddhists. The police held up the procession until Ky gave it his okay. Thee have been signs for some time, however, that the Buddhists desire to resume political action, although they show little inclination to compete in the coming elections. This orderly procession was probably a test of Buddhist strength and government reaction…SOVIET UNION: There have been eight Soviet space launches so far in March, a new monthly record for the program (the rest is still redacted)… COMMUNIST CHINA: Peking is still trying hard to keep the cultural revolution from interfering with spring planting. The regime has ordered attacks on production cadres and ‘power seizures’ in the countryside to cease. It has also restricted the time to be spent on ‘mass activities,’ and called on the army to reimpose discipline on the peasants. Even so, we doubt that spring farm work this year will be up to par. There are already reports of food shortages in some areas. Peking, however, can probably prevent widespread famine….

27 March 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… Ogden S-E: Page 1: “Navy Planes Hit Oil Storage Tanks at Port City”…”Navy pilots smashed oil storage tanks at the edge of the North Vietnamese lifeline port of Haiphong… LTJG NICK CARPENTER of Cincinnati, one of the A-6 Intruder pilots striking the Haiphong oil tanks Monday, said ‘the flak was heavy, but the Navy bombs hit the oil depot and a huge orange fireball bounced up.’ The attack was part of a U.S. 107 mission air assault that marked the return of American planes against the Communist country’s war arsenal and the port city through which virtually all of Hanoi’s imports come… In the air war, a U.S. spokesman said an Air Force F-4 Phantom was shot down Sunday by ground fire over North Vietnam and the two-man crew is missing in action. (Reported in RTR of 26 Mar: LCOL F.A. AUSTIN and 1LT H.P. FOWLER, both POW) The same day U.S. planes shot down a Communist MIG-17 in a  supersonic dogfight near Hanoi… (Bear#46mk82RPIIIbridge)... “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing losses in Southeast Asia on 27 March 1967.

RIPPLE SALVO… #387… Humble Host requests you bear with me during my revisit to Rolling Thunder in the days of the Northeast Monsoon that limited the effectiveness of Rolling Thunder. Most of the excitement of those days of bad weather was in the hands, heads, hearts and cockpits of the all-weather attack warriors. So that is where the focus of RTR has been and will remain until the skies permit the rest of the strike forces to take the fight to the enemy in his homeland. ‘Gangway Intruder Crews’… Crews like: GLENN KOHLMAN and JOHN GRIFFITH of the VA-35 BLACK PANTHERS embarked in USS Enterprise, who were the bravest of the brave!!! …

Here is a tale found in my files from the night of 25-26 March 1967: After encountering a series of delays caused by weather, the Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet directed that the heavily defended Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Mill, among other high priority targets, be struck by Commander Task Force 77 with all-weather attack systems. On 26 March, Attack Squadron Eighty-Five operating from USS Kitty Hawk struck the target with two A-6 Intruder strike aircraft and one A-6 Ironhand aircraft…

A daring closely coordinated attack during the early morning hours of darkness was planned, briefed and led by LCDR CORNELIUS WENDOLYN MULLEN. The close interval of attack and two diverse tracks to the target were designed to split and to confuse the formidable enemy defensive capability during the penetration, while over the target and during retirement. One aircraft penetrated through the Red River Delta while the other attack aircraft and the Ironhand aircraft penetrated through the mountainous route south of the Chinese/North Vietnamese border. The mountainous route offered the advantage of light defenses and radar masking for the longest period of time. To provide deception and mutual support, LCDR MULLEN and LTJG THOMAS PATRICK MURPHY of the VA-85 Black Falcons, “gallantly flew the more hazardous track through the delta.”

An attaboy message from Commander Attack Carrier Striking Forces, Seventh Feet, CTF-77 of 270838Z Mar 1967 summarizes their extraordinary performance…

“Please convey to LCDR C.W. MULLEN and LTJG T.P. MURPHY my admiration for the skill and determination exhibited by this aircrew in their attack against the Thai Nguyen Steel Mill during the early morning of March 26. It is noted that five surface-to-air missiles were fired against the A-6 aircraft flown by these officers, that these missiles were avoided by a series of high ‘G’ 90-degree turns at very low altitude at night, with a fully loaded airplane carrying 13,000-pounds of bombs. Throughout these violent maneuvers the Bombardier/Navigator continued to maintain his navigational track and immediately provided data to continue the attack. As a result of evasive tactics used it was necessary to approach the target from an unplanned headlong. Despite this LTJG MURPHY was able to acquire the target and the crew completed a successful all-weather systems attack. Had LCDR MULLEN elected to abort his mission while under heavy attack he could have appreciably increased his probability of survival by jettisoning his load of bombs. That this aircrew continued on to complete the attack is a tribute to their courage, skill and determination to accomplish their mission despite the most immediate hazard of the five surface-to-air missiles exploding in rapid succession at close quarters. The fact that this was the second time that this crew had accomplished a similar feat is further testimony to their dedication and devotion to duty. Rear Admiral Richardson, CTF-77.”   oohrah, oohrah…

LCDR MULLEN and LTJG MURPHY were recommended for the award of the Silver Star for this gutsy flight. The award came back as a DFC… IMHO– Go figure! Of course, a similar feat on Enterprise would have merited an Air Medal… Grin and bear it!!!

CAG’s QUOTES for 27 March: ADMIRAL DAVID FARRAGUT: “Personal courage is a peculiar value.”… PERICLES: “Time is the wisest counselor of all.”…

Lest we forget….    Bear