Across the Wing-Stories of Navy Carrier Combat Squadrons in the Vietnam Theatre



ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 21 AUGUST 1967

RIPPLE SALVO… #533… Chris Hobson tells a Rolling Thunder story of a dark day fifty years ago when ten strike aircraft went down, five warriors were killed in action and three were imprisoned, including one in China. To boot, Chinese feathers got ruffled… Bad day? You betcha’…  but first…

Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE of a visit to the past and the air campaign called Rolling Thunder…

21 August 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a fair Monday in NYC…

SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: Page 1: “New Haven Arrests 165 In 2nd Night of Disorders”... “Racial disorders flared here again last night despite the imposition of a curfew and the declaration of a state emergency by Governor Richard C. Lee…total arrests for two nights put at 215…new flames burned in two buildings added to four the previous night; 50 to 75 store windows were broken out; three cars were set afire in the streets. In the first night 150 windows were broken into and a number of stores were looted.”… Page 1: “Students At Maryland Conference Demand A Greater Voice–Association Members Ask Wider Role in Colleges–Urge End of Draft”… “…calling for ‘student power.’ The Congress of the National Student Association approved a resolution abolishing the draft in favor of an all-volunteer army by voice vote of 226 to 139. Also demand a change in the way colleges are run and what they teach.”… Page 23: “Catholics Conference Accuses Church Of Failing to Recognize Urban Racial Crisis”... “The National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice defended today the concept of black power and failure to recognize the crisis that is escalating in every urban center in the nation. …. a four-day conference in Kansas City. A policy statement… ‘deplored in most areas of the life of the church and absence of involvement, commitment, concern or even awareness of the basic economic, racial and spiritual needs of the poor in our rapidly changing urban society.’ The church’s traditional method of dealing with these problems of the poor is no longer adequate.”… Page 24: “Negroes Warned To shun Radicals–Whitney Young also Advises apathetic Whites to Act”… Mr. Young: ‘Turn your backs on the Pied Pipers of Destruction…the extremists of the drive for racial equality.’… “

Page 1: “Panel On Schools Wants U.S. Funds Focused On Poor–White House Study Decries Shift To General Grants to The States–NEA View Is Rejected–Report Also Challenges the Stand Of Many Republican Leaders in Congress”… Page 1: “Mayor of New York Asks Curb On Sale Of Rifles Under A City Law–Seeks Power Also To Ban All Gun Business During Periods of Civil Disturbances”… “New U.S. Smoking Report Warns of Cigarette Peril–Public Health Service Unit In 3 1/2 Year Follow-up of ’64 Study, Strengthens Earlier Findings On Hazards”… 

21 AUGUST 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (22 Aug reporting 21 Aug ops) Page 1: “2 US NAVY JETS DOWNED IN CHINA–ONE PILOT SEIZED–PENTAGON SAYS THE PLANES STRAYED AFTER HITTING RAIL YARDS IN NORTH VIETNAM–PEKING MAKES CHARGES–SEES FLAGRANT INTRUSION–CENTRAL POWER PLANT IN HANOI IS ATTACKED”… “The Pentagon said that two United States Navy jets were shot down today over communist China after having veered off course. The official Chinese press agency Hsinhua said the planes had ‘flagrantly intruded’ into Chinese airspace in ‘an act of deliberate war provocation’ and  had been downed over the Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region by the Chinese Air Force. One of the American pilots had been captured. Each plane carried a two-man crew. Pentagon officials said that the Navy planes, Grumman A-6A Intruders, had probably been downed by MIGs…But they couldn’t be sure. The Pentagon said the Navy jets had gone off course after having completed a bombing run near Hanoi in which they encountered heavy fire from anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. Severe thunderstorms, harassment by North Vietnamese fighters and malfunctioning navigational equipment are thought to have contributed to sending the planes off course. The loss of the planes over China, coming atop Congressional criticism that a recent decision to bomb closer to the China border might provoke Peking into entering the war is expected to intensify attacks on Administration bombing policy. The White House press secretary said that ‘with all precautions taken, you are still going to have incidents like this one.”… Senator J.W. Fulbright of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee described the incident as most unfortunate and very ominous. ‘I don’t know how they can be so sure Red China won’t intervene in the fighting. They are pretty close to being in the war when they are shooting down ones planes over their territory.’ Senator Al Gore of Tennessee said, ‘The incident illustrates the risk of a wider war in attacks along the Chinese border.’ “…

Page 3: “US NAVY PLANES ATTACK HANOI POWER PLANT…“Planes from the carrier Oriskany bombed the main power plant in Hanoi yesterday (21st) during one of the heaviest days of air strikes in the area of the North Vietnamese capital. The pilots said smoke and dust had prevented an immediate estimate of damage to the plant, which is about a mile from the center of the city. Navy planes also attacked the Van Dien army supply depot five miles south of Hanoi, the Port Walut naval base 40 miles northeast of Haiphong and the Kep airfield 37 miles northeast of Hanoi. A transformer station and railroad bridge 30 miles south of Hanoi were also raided. Air Force pilots attacked two railroad yards about 5 miles north of Hanoi.”... Page 3: “Hanoi Claims 8 Planes”... “Hanoi radio said today that five American planes had been shot down during raids on the capital and that three had been shot down in other parts of North Vietnam. All of the  pilots shot down were either killed or captured. An announcement in Hanoi reported pilots from three planes shot down have been captured.”…

RIPPLE SALVO… #533… A VERY HARD DAY…

“VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES” by Chris Hobson…Page 114… On 21 August 1967 eight fixed wing aircraft were shot down in Southeast Asia. Humble Host defers to Chris Hobson’s report on the grim Rolling Thunder operations on that Monday fifty years ago today…

“Monday the 21st of August proved to be a very expensive day for both the US Navy and the Air Force with the loss of eight aircraft and 10 men in combat. The four naval aircraft lost during the day all came from the Constellation, where morale must have been left shaken. The first to fall was a Phantom from VF-142 which was part of the flak suppression element on an early morning raid on a road bridge at Chap Ke near Uong Bi, 12 miles northeast of Haiphong. Commander ROBIN H. McGLOHN, Executive Officer of VF-142 (and RIO LTJG J.M. McILRATH) was pulling up from a run on a target when an anti-aircraft shell holed the aircraft’s starboard wing. Within a few seconds the hydraulic flight controls began to fail and the crew ejected when all control was lost. Despite coming down in one of the hottest parts of North Vietnam, they were both rescued by a Navy SAR helicopter and returned to the carrier.

“Later in the morning the Tahkli Wing flew a strike against the Yen Vinh railway marshalling yards near Hanoi. Two of the F-105s from the Bear flight were lost during the raid. The first, flown by 1LT LYNN KESLER POWELL, (354th TFS and 355th TFW) was seen to be hit by AAA as it dived on the target. the pilot may have been wounded as he was not seen to eject before the aircraft crashed in the outskirts of Hanoi. As Bear flight was leaving the target area another of its aircraft was hit by AAA and crashed about seven miles southeast of Hanoi. Again none of the other aircrew saw a parachute or heard a beeper by CAPTAIN MERWIN LAMPHREY MORRILL was carried as missing in action as not one was sure he had not actually ejected. When the US prisoners of war were released in 1973 POWELL and MORRILL were not amongst their number, but it was not until 10 years later on 3 June 1983 that the mortal remains of both men were handed over to the US by the Vietnamese…

“At exactly the same time as the USAF strike was going in at Yen Vinh, a naval strike consisting of four A-6 Intruders of Milestone flight from VA-196 was being unleashed on the nearby Duc Noi railway yard five miles northeast of Hanoi. The Intruders were led by COMMANDER LEO TWYMAN PROFILET and B/N LCDR WILLIAM MORGAN HARDMAN of VA-196, and it was their aircraft that was hit first. The flight had received several SAM warnings and there was intense anti-aircraft fire in the vicinity of the target. The cloud base was between 3,000 and 5,000-feet and storm clouds were building up. As COMMANDER PROFILET and LCDR HARDMAN’s aircraft rolled into a 30-degree dive from 7,500-feet an SA-2 exploded close-by, which badly damaged the aircraft’s starboard wing. A few minutes later the wing came off and the aircraft cartwheeled toward the ground. The crew ejected and landed close to Hanoi and were quickly captured and taken to the Hanoi Hilton. A total of 51 SAMs were fired at Constellation’s aircraft during a series of strikes on this day. COMMANDER PROFILET and LCDR HARDMAN were on their 59th mission together when they were shot down. LEO PROFILET was a veteran of the Korean War where he had flown 98 combat missions in the Skyraider. Both men were released from captivity in March 1973…

“Of the three remaining aircraft in the Milestone flight, two of them, flown by LCDR JIMMY LEE BUCKLEY and B/N LT ROBERT JAMES FLYNN and LTJG DAIN VANDERLIN SCOTT and B/N LTJG FORREST GEORGE TREMBLEY became separated from the deputy leader in the other aircraft, but were tracked on his radar screen and those of an orbiting E-2 Hawkeye and on the Constellation itself. The two Intruders flew northeast away from the target but instead of turning east and out to sea they continued heading northeast until they crossed into China, almost 110-miles from Hanoi. It was possible that low cloud and thunderstorms forced them to head further north than had been planned and they apparently missed their pre-planned turning point. Whatever the cause, when the two aircraft crossed into China airspace they were attacked and shot down by Chinese MIG-19s and the event was loudly proclaimed on Peking Radio. Of the four occupants of the two Intruders, only LT FLYNN survived the incident to be captured.FLYNN was well-known throughout the Air Wing for carrying his cornet with him on combat missions with which to sound the US Cavalry charge into a keyed microphone just before roll-in. LT FLYNN spent no less than 2,030 consecutive days in solitary confinement in a Chinese prison but was flown to Hong Kong and repatriated on 15 March 1973. On 16 December 1975 the Chinese Government handed over the ashes of LCDR BUCKLEY.”….. No info on LTJG SCOTT or LTJG TREMBLEY ???

The other two losses were an A-37A of the 604th ACS and 3rd TFW from Bien Hoa and an A-26A out of the 606th ACS and 56th ACW out of Nakhon Phanom. MAJOR G. SHANNON was piloting the A-37 on a close air support mission and was in the pattern for landing at Bien Hao when hit in the tail by ground fire requiring him to eject. He was seriously wounded in the incident. The A-26 was crewed by MAJOR JOHN CREIGHTON GILLE KERR and CAPTAIN BURKE HENDERSON MORGAN and was lost on an armed reconnaissance mission in Northern Laos. Radio and radar contact with the aircraft was lost and an extensive search failed to find any trace of the aircraft or the two aviators. Strangely, MAJOR KERR is carried as Killed in Action, body not recovered, while the remains of CAPTAIN MORGAN were returned in February 2005 and identified in October 2005.

RTR QUOTE for 21 August: Apologies to Addison, Cato: “From hence, let fierce contending factions know, what dire effects from civil discord flow.”…

Lest we forget…    Bear

 

 

 

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