RIPPLE SALVO… #479… “GEE, MOM I WANNA GO HOME…” …but first…

Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED SEVENTY-NINE of a return to the deadly hunting grounds of the summer of 1967–trains, planes, trucks, bridges and SAM sites in North Vietnam…oohrah…

27 JUNE 1967…HEAD LINES from the Gray Lady on a sunny Tuesday in New York City…

(1) Page 1: “President Still Sees Hope of Soviet Mideast Accord”... “President Johnson and his aides, reflecting on their meetings with Premier Aleksie Kosygin, have not lost hope that they can interest the Soviet Union in a more durable Middle Eastern settlement. They appear to have concluded that the Soviet leaders attitude toward their proposals was frozen rather than negative–that is, resistant to cooperation with Washington at this time, but not necessarily hostile to all the ideas put forward by the Administration.”… Page1: “Hussein of Jordan Bids U.N. Condemn Israel–Peace With Justice Asked By King–Eban Charges Jordan Provoked War”… “King Hussein warned the General Assembly today that if it did not condemn Israel as an aggressor and force the return of Arab lands, the recent fighting would only be one clash in a long war. ‘Jordan will survive,’ the King said, ‘Ground down by sorrow for the moment, we will rise again. And with us will arise the Arab nations.’ “… Page 1: “Pope Again Urges Jerusalem Step at Elevation of 27 Cardinals”… “The Pope appealed for “international status” for Jerusalem and made an appeal for the end of fratricidal wars in both the Mideast and Vietnam.”…Page 1: “Kosygin Arrives In Cuba to Hold Talk With Castro–Russian Reception is Quiet on His Arrival In Havana After 10-day Visit in U.S.–Soviet Policy at Issue–Premier is expected to tell hosts Kremlin is firm in anti-imperialistic Stand”… “…there was no crowd or fanfare as Mr. Kosygin arrived, just Castro and a small delegation.”

Page 1: “Food Aid Program Revamped By U.S.”... “Cost of stamps cut in half in Mississippi in first step in new plan to reach more poor people. The changes, which will be eventually throughout the South and the rest of the country, were in response to demands of civil rights groups and to the finding by a team of doctors, of hunger approaching starvation among hundreds of Negro children.”… Page 1: “U.S. And Panama Agree On New Canal Treaties governing control of the Panama Canal and possible construction of a sea level canal. Under the treaties the United States will surrender its 64-year old sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone and Panama will help run the present canal as well as any sea-level canal on her territory.”… Page 1: “U.S. Ready to Exchange Land in California for Redwood Park”... “The Administration is ready to start trading Federal land in California, including two national monuments and Pacific Coast beaches now used for defense purposes to gain a Redwood National Park…cost to government will include $100-million cash.”…

Page 1: “Enemy in Vietnam Shells U.S. Posts–Five American Marines and a South Vietnamese militiaman were killed and 100 hundred wounded in North Vietnamese mortar and artillery barrages last night and this morning. The attacks were against three forward United States base camps just south of the demilitarized zone…The heaviest casualties were sustained in a mortar barrage on a Marine forward position four miles west of Khesanh near the Laotian border. Four Marines were killed in action and 83 wounded in this attack. The area around Khesanh had been repeatedly pounded by B-52s in recent weeks as the North Vietnamese continue a new build-up along the Laotian border.”…

27 June 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief…SOVIET UNION: Kosygin left the U.S. yesterday. He faces an uphill battle if he is really to mend his fences with Castro and company. The Cubans regard Soviet tactics early in the Mid-East war to have been a sellout to the imperialists…. UNITED NATIONS: Yesterday’s session was dominated by King Hussein’s effective presentation of the Arab position…Some signs are appearing that the Arab states may now be moving toward acceptance of a resolution simply calling for Israel’s withdrawal…In Jerusalem, Prime minister Eshkol has firmly reiterated Israel’s uncompromising stand on no withdrawals until direct talks with the Arabs have taken place. He added that the peace settlement must give Israel “better frontiers.” On the refugee problem, he expressed his government’s readiness to contribute financially to “help heal this festering sore.”

27 JUNE 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (28 June reporting 27 June) Page 3: “U. S. Jets Bomb Power Plant Near Hanoi Again”… “Navy fighter-bomber pilots attacked the Nam Dinh power plant 46 miles south of Hanoi yesterday. The spokesman said the few structures still in tact in the plant after two devastating strikes Thursday and Friday were knocked out with 500-pound and 1000-pound bombs. ‘We rolled in and laid our bombs down and then we saw several large secondary explosions indicating that we inflicted heavy damage,’ said one of the attack pilots: LCDR Tom Shanahan of Flushing, New York. At the same time Air Force Thunderchief pilots based at Korat air base in Thailand bombed the Kep railroad yard 38 miles northeast of Hanoi leaving it unserviceable. Thunderchief pilots from Takhli air base in Thailand attacked a surface-to-air missile 54 miles north-northeast of Hanoi setting off one explosion on the ground. Air Force pilots also cut tracks in the Phuxugen railroad yard 34 miles northeast of Hanoi. Navy jets attacked the Phuly railroad yard 37 miles south of Hanoi. B-52s pounded targets near Khesanh that had attacked Marines yesterday.”..

“Vietnam: Air Losses”(Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 27 June 1967….

34 TFS F-105 HISTORY (Howie Plunkett) 27 June 1967: “F-105s from the 388 TFW bombed the Thai Nguyen iron and steel combine… Major Clarence H. ‘Klu’ Hoggard from the 44 TFS flew an F-105D as number 3 in a flight of four F-105s against the steel factory. ‘We were flak suppression flight in support of the wing attack. SA-2 missiles were launched and heavy anti-aircraft fire. I received credit for silencing a battery of 85 millimeter guns which helped the guys with the bombs make a safer attack.’ He was awarded the Fourth Oak Leaf Cluster to the Distinguished Flying Cross (Heroism and Extraordinary Achievement) for this mission...” Major Louis Levy of the 469 TFS, also attacking the steel factory, had a great DFC day “attacking one of the most heavily defended targets in North Vietnam. Completely disregarding the intense fire directed at his aircraft, he relentlessly pressed the bombing attack in such a manner as to place all his ordnance on target effectively destroying the capability of his target to produce war materials.”   oohrah… Major Donald Fryauf of the 34 TFS was also one of the 388 TFW warriors striking the Thai Nguyen plant….The 388 TFW pilots also struck the Huon Vi railroad yard 37 miles northeast of Hanoi, including a train of 10 to 12 cars. Major Jackie Moothart, 13 TFS: “The bombs went right down the length of the train from one end to the other.”… “Up to 30 pieces of rolling stock were visible in the Ho Na Luong railroad yard, 40 miles north-northeast of Hanoi, before a bombing strike by other 388 TFW F-105s pilots reported at least 18 pieces of rolling stock destroyed and multiple rail cuts in the yards.” (Thanks Howie)…

RIPPLE SALVO… #479… I spent a couple of summers–1954 and 1955– as a YMCA camp counselor– Camp Blackrock, about 20 miles north of Baltimore in horse country (Nashua lived there). Haunting me still is the chorus and bottom line of the Camp Blackrock song: “Gee, Mom I wanna’ go home.” It became my anthem for the ensuing years of a life of risky living for reprising anytime things got real tight and I found myself talking to myself…”Gee, Mom, I wanna’ go home.” My Route Pack Six strikes on my 67-cruise were such occasions. The odds-makers figured it out: a flight into the Red River valley was five times more likely to be a one way trip than the other target areas. About 1 in 40 aircraft going into the Hanoi/Haiphong heartland wasn’t coming out to go home, and we all wanted to go home.

A couple of F-105 guys put their feelings on the pages of books that are fun to read. Between 1965 and 1968 more than 330 F-105s didn’t come home. Ed Rasimus (“When Thunder Rolled“) and Al Lenski (“Magic 100“) used a countdown on the “Magic 100” counters to give their respective Rolling Thunder journals a steady story line. Both warriors were forthright and honest in confronting their fears as they counted down to the “magic 100.” It wasn’t much different for Navy Tailhookers. Our cross to bear was two combat cruises of 6-9 months each at Yankee Station that provided ample opportunity to log 200 plus Rolling Thunder/Steel Tiger missions, with about three dozen opportunities to go where one in forty weren’t coming home.

Brig Gen Al Lenski’s “Magic 100” is a fun read. If you have scheduled a few hours on an airplane i suggest you shorten the painful experience by taking “Magic 100” with you. Here is teaser episode (page 109-10)…”The Golden Rule Changes”… I quote…

“Since the tailend of June (1967), all of July, and into the 1st week of August, I’d been hitting pack 6 hot and heavy, and I was really getting punchy. I had reached my 86th mission on July 25th, and I thought, ‘I only had 4 more to turn golden (90) and then I would only have 10 more in the lower route pack.’ I was looking forward to that as sort of a reprieve.

“I always hated the NE railroad, and in particular the Kep railroad yard target. I thought I was getting only one more crack at it on my 87th (31 Jul). But that was followed by Thai Nguyen (88); a RR tunnel, NE of Thai Nguyen (89); and a RR siding south of Thai Nguyen (90) which at that time should have been my last pack 6 mission. I remember thinking about really putting it on this last pack 6 shot at Ho Chi Minh’s backyard, number 90.

“So after attacking the target and dropping the bombs, I remember feeling great, and on egress, after crossing the red river heading south, I looked back to take one more look at the Hanoi area and pack 6. I wanted to look at the place that had humbled me so greatly! I’d met the magic number of missions. 90 up North, and now the last 10 would be the lower NVN route packs where I felt it would be a piece of cake to finish up with easier missions. Little did I know that I’d be back to pack 6 two more times after my 90th and before I finished 100.

“After landing, I debriefed the mission with Intelligence, then proceeded to the photo intelligence area to look at my bomb film. I was feeling good knowing I only had 10 more missions to complete the tour, then home! (“Gee, Mom, I wanna’ go home.”)

“After debriefing, I proceeded to the operations and mission planning area where the large mission scheduling board was located. The large scheduling board would have the missions, pilots, aircraft, bomb loads, etc. for the next days missions. I wanted to see who was on the missions and what lower route pack missions might be scheduled.

“One of the intelligence officers came into the room and was making changes to the scheduling board. I asked him what the changes were and he told me, but also added that the Wing had changed the ‘golden rule’ from 90 to 95 missions because of lack of qualified pack 6 pilots.

“I couldn’t believe what he said and thought, ‘this can’t be true. i just completed 90 and now they decided to change the rule. Just my luck!’ It was true, and my name was on the schedule for the JCS target, Kep rail yard on the NE railroad, for tomorrows mission.

“Now I was really paranoid! At this point, I really thought someone or something was out to get me. I’d finished my 90 missions like everyone also that preceded me, I hated Kep and the northeast railroad where we lost of many guys, and now, the day I reach 90, they change the rules. Not only that, but I was scheduled to Kep railyard, the worst target in the system. I thought, ‘was the world against me, or what.’

“I knew in my own mind that this was it! My last mission. I wouldn’t come back.

“I went to the O’Club and had a few drinks with the rest of the guys and laughed and scratched as we joked about the new policy. I figured I was a dead man. I really believed it!

“As it turned out, I survived Kep one more time, on August 5, ’67, and made it back, much to my surprise.” ….end quote…

“Gee, Mom, I wanna go home.”

And how did Ed Rasimus feel when he returned from his 100th? In his own words: “Debrief is quick, with John Hill volunteering to take care of the paperwork and the details while Spider, Ricks and I pose for pictures in front of the squadron building. My face hurts from smiling and laughing so much. The three of us are giddy, shaking people’s hands, and patting each other on the back. For the first time in six months we’re certain that we will live through tomorrow. And the day after that. We’re finished.”…

Lest we forget…       Bear