RIPPLE SALVO… #594… Coincident with the Stennis Hearings of 11-25 August and the authorization of Rolling Thunder 57, many here-to-fore restricted targets in and near Hanoi and Haiphong were freed up for attack. On 6 October the President added five more in the heart of Haiphong to the list of approved targets. Two weeks later a correspondent for Agence France-Presse provided a report from ground zero… but first…

Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR of another look at the 40-month air war called Operation Rolling Thunder…

21 OCTOBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Saturday in Manhattan…

Page 1: “Thousands of Antiwar Marchers Ready to Demonstrate Today in Several Major Cities–Pentagon Targeted–Paratroopers Stand Ready”… Page 8: “Protests Abroad To Back U.S. Rally–Marchers Opposed To U.S. War in Vietnam set In Capitals: London, Paris, Stockholm, Bonn, Copenhagen”… Page 1: “Mississippi Jury Convicts 7 of 18 In Rights Killing–All While Panel Acquits 8 And Rules A Mistrial On 3 In Klu Klux Klan Conspiracy Case–2 Jailed Without Bond”... “…convicted for participating in a KKK conspiracy to murder three young civil rights workers in 1964…Guilty verdicts for Cecil Price, Jr. and Billy Wayne Posey, Jr. and five others. They face the maximum sentence for conspiracy is ten years in prison…”… Page 1: “Protest Ties up Brooklyn College Campus–College Virtually Shut Down As 80% Of Students Strike Over Actions of Police”… Page 9: “Thousands Stage Protest in Oakland”…

Page 1: “G.O.P. Governors Block War Stand”…Nation’s Governors meet in St. Croix, Virgin Islands… “Republican Governors blocked today a Democratic effort to win a bipartisan endorsement of President Johnson’ policies in Vietnam. The action was taken after the President refused the Governor’s invitation to fly to the Caribbean tonight or tomorrow to address the group.”… Page 1: “Senate Unit Bars House Bill To Put Curb On Spending–Votes Money For Agencies Without Cutback Order–Mundt Vows Floor Fight”…”House economy bill shelved by Senate Appropriations Committee.”… Page 26: “Carl Yastrzemski Signs New Red Sox Contract For $100,000–A Raise of $55,000″…

PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF: Selected from PDBs the week of 16 October 1967: NORTH VIETNAM: Hanoi Power Plant--Recent photography shows repairs to the Hanoi Power Plant are proceeding slowly and that the plant cannot be completely restored before the end of the year. Photo indicates that as of 18 October at least one of the three boilers damaged by air attacks was still unrepaired. In addition, one and possibly two of the plant’s six turbine generators remain unrepaired.. . NVN Engineering: A recent article in the leading Soviet military newspaper talks about bridge construction and traffic movements in NVN. For one thing, the article claims that the efficiency of NVN engineering troop has improved greatly. For example, a 100-meter pontoon bridge used to take three hours to set up. Now it takes 26-minutes. Also, 78 vehicles were recently moved across the Red River in three hours compared with only a couple of dozen a night not so long ago….

North Vietnamese Reflections of US Political Attitudes on the War:   Hanoi radio …said on 17 October that the “Vietnam Peace Committee”–which complements the Viet Cong “committee”–has sent a message of greeting to the American National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam” (Organizers of the antiwar march in Washington on 21 Oct). The message said that the Vietnamese people “welcome your initiative to launch new waves of struggle” to oppose “the war of aggression conducted by the US Government,” and concluded that “from the all-out fight to bring complete victory to our fatherland, we convey to the American people our warmest feelings.”…

Hanoi On Self Immolation: A 17 October Hanoi broadcast reported that while President Johnson is trying to “blur the political essence of the Vietnam problem” seven Americans have resorted to self-immolation to tell the President that he is the Aggressor. The broadcast stated that Mrs. Florence Beaumont burned herself to death in Los Angeles on 15 October to protest US aggression in Vietnam… More On Immolation in US: Yesterday Hanoi radio returned to the US burnings, noting that “in only four days, two US citizens immolated themselves to oppose Johnson’s war in Vietnam.” From this Hanoi generalized that “the American people have realized more and more clearly that the war conducted by the US administration in a country thousands of miles away, which has no enmity toward them, is only a dirty colonialist war. This war is against the independence and freedom of the Vietnamese people, against peace and justice, and runs counter to the genuine interests of the American people. It has wasted thousands of American lives and its burden is weighing heavily on  the American Taxpayers. It betrays the tradition of democracy of the American people and ruins the reputation of the US….

21 OCTOBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (22 Oct reporting 21 Oct ops) Page 1: “U.S. Jets Sink 4 North Vietnamese Patrol Boats–2 Craft in Gulf of Tonkin Evade The Attackers–Antiaircraft Fire Heavy Off Thanh Hoa”...”Two carrier based Skyhawk jets sank four of six North Vietnamese patrol boats at daybreak today in the Gulf of Tonkin, an American spokesman announced. He said that Lieutenant Commander WILMER P. COOK, 33 years old, Annapolis, Maryland, and his wingman, Lieutenant Junior Grade MICHELL J. WATSON, 25, of Portland, Oregon, flew through heavy fire from the boats and from shore to destroy the four torpedo boats. According to the spokesman the boats were caught a mile offshore, east of the mouth of the Thanh Hoa River, 90 miles south of Hanoi. The pilots said that they dropped 250-pound bombs and 500-pound bombs on the fleeing boats. One was disintegrated, two were blown in two and the fourth rolled over and sank, they said. The pilots reported the antiaircraft fire was heavy. ‘We were getting fire from the boats as well as the beach,’ LT Watson said.

“A United States military spokesman said that there were no reports of American vessels in the area at the time although ships of the Seventh Fleet patrol the coast nearby. There are two groups of Seventh Fleet vessels operating in the Gulf of Tonkin. The main force centers around three or four carriers. The second force, generally comprising about 10 destroyers and a cruiser, operates fairly close to shore, from the 17th parallel north to Thanh Hoa. Large numbers of torpedo boats and motor gunboats have been destroyed or damaged by United States planes. Two North Vietnamese torpedo boats were sunk and one was damaged on August 4, 1964, when they attacked American naval vessels in international water in what became known as the Tonkin Gulf Incident.”…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 21 October 1967…

(1) CAPTAIN CLARENCE JOSEPH HEMMEL was flying an F-100D Super Sabre of the 612th TFS and 37thTFW out of Phu Cat on a close air support mission on the coast near Thanh Binh, about 30 miles southeast of Danang. He was probably hit by antiaircraft fire and subsequently flew out to sea before inexplicably crashing without an ejection. CAPTAIN HEMMEL was killed in combat on this day fifty years ago and his body rests on his shield where he fell. Glory gained, duty done… 

(2) A KA-3B was lost on launch from the USS ORISKANY when JATO system was inadvertently activated and control of the aircraft was lost. All four members of the crew survived… #24 for Oriskany/CVW-16…

21 October 1967…USS Oriskany/Carrier Air Wing 16 strike on the Hanoi Thermal Power Plant… The combat mission of LIEUTENANT RUSSELL HERD DECKER, VA-164 “Ghost Riders”… Role: surface-to-air missile suppression…

Lieutenant DECKER was assigned to an anti-surface-to-air missile suppression element in support of a top priority major air wing strike against the Hanoi Thermal Power Plant on 21 August 1967. Throughout this extremely dangerous mission which penetrated 70 miles inland to the enemy’s capital city, Lieutenant DECKER maneuvered his Shrike armed A-4E Skyhawk aircraft high above the strike group in order to be in a position to detect and attack the highest threat enemy missile sites. He was in fact a decoy, operating in the most effective range of the enemy’s missiles, thus drawing many of the surface-to-air-missiles way from the strike group. Lieutenant DECKER was assigned to cover the southern sector of the ring of enemy missile installations surrounding Hanoi.

Approaching the target, Lieutenant DECKER detected and initiated an attack delivery on a site radiating in the launch mode located thirteen miles southeast of Hanoi. During his attack, he observed two missiles lift off from a site further north and began guiding on him and his escort. After completing a successful attack on the first site which forced the missile guidance radar to go off the air, he skillfully evaded the two enemy missiles and proceeded to position himself for a second attack directly on the site where the two missiles had been observed to lift off. Lieutenant DECKER fired his anti-radar Shrike missiles at the target. Although impact was not observed, the target ceased its radar emissions and did not fire any more missiles during the remainder of the time the strike group was in the target area.

Lieutenant DECKER then proceeded to his assigned station and commenced a visual and electronic search for other active missile sites. During his search he encountered heavy enemy barrage 85mm antiaircraft fire and missiles while remaining in the area providing protection cover until the strike group had cleared the target area. Lieutenant DECKER’s courage and aggressive execution of the anti-surface-to-air missile role in the face of continuous enemy antiaircraft fire, and intrepid missile attacks contributed significantly to the success of the strike and the safe return of all aircraft involved.   (Source: CVA34/1650/VA-164/11/js of ser: 30 Jan 1968)…Declassified 2/1980…

Humble Host extends highest respect and admiration to one of the bravest of the brave– LT RUSS DECKER… OOHRAH… 

RIPPLE SALVO… #594… Saturday, 21 October 1967…The New York Times, page 1: “HAIPHONG DAMAGE IS TERMED LIGHT–U.S. Assaults Are Said To Have Negligible Effect On Movement of Supplies”… By Agence France-Presse… Dateline 20 Oct 67…

“The United States air assault on transport facilities inland from the Haiphong docks has cause enormous damage to the city and its outskirts since it began 50 days ago. The multiple bombing raids coming almost every day, have demolished whole neighborhoods,but observers believe the effect of the unloading and routing inland of strategic material have been negligible.

“A correspondent who witnessed three raids, seven bombing waves, eight alerts and numerous isolated flights over the area Wednesday was told that the day was normal. Ships continue to arrive. Long truck convoys return from the docks over roads riddled with craters. The bridges to Hanoi and the rest of the country have been knocked out in Haiphong. Large piles of supplies wait in the streets. Traffic has definitely slowed since the attacks began August 31. But foreign observers recall that the streets were piled with goods several months ago. Examinations of present storage areas turned up nothing of notable strategic value. The same kinds of machinery and spare parts can be seen stacked on sidewalks and squares in Hanoi. Most observers believe that nothing of significant value to the war effort remains in Haiphong very long.

“Meanwhile, as the transport battle has raged between hundreds of fighter-bombers and tens of thousands of Vietnamese, Haiphong and its outskirts have suffered enormously. The western suburbs,on the whole, are fields of rubble. In the city proper, two western quarters, Hongbang and Anduong, were totally deserted when a correspondent visited them this week. Of Hongbang’s 36 sectors, bombs had fallen in 17 and 8 were totally destroyed. A sector usually houses about 400 families.

“Haiphong authorities estimate that 200 people have been killed or wounded in the city since August 31. Dr. Do Quang said at the Vietnam-Czechoslovakia Friendship Hospital that about 50-percent of the wounded had been hit by the fragmentation bombs that often dropped after the big bombs. Several projectiles were reported to have fallen in the center of the city in the last month and a half, damaging a hospital, a school and a children’s clinic.

“Evacuation measures have cut Haiphong’s population in a few months to 60,000 from 230,000. Whole residential blocks are abandoned in the center of the city. Traffic is sparse. Most of the people remaining are young. A correspondent saw youngsters sitting beside sidewalk shelter pits weaving straw armor to protect their chests and backs. The authorities say that some social activities–movies and concerts–are continuing.

“In the harbor, seven ships were berthed at the docks and two others were anchored to buoys. Their crews were on the decks, watching the waves of American aircraft.”

Aye, my hearties, now here’s the rub: A few weeks ago Rear Admiral Tom Brown (Old Friend!!!) commented on the strikes on the Haiphong bridges by the carriers at Yankee station. “When we (CAG 15/Bonnie Dick) dropped the bridge on 28 September our BDA was taken by Cdr Chuck Gillespie, orbiting overhead, with a hand-held camera. It clearly showed the bridge down!! As I wrote before, that was the 4th and last bridge connecting Haiphong to the mainland. We now had tons of off-loaded material trapped along the river and guess what?… We were never targeted to strike these war supplies. We were targeted to do other things, instead.”…

Humble Host leaves to the reader: how’s that for a half-arsed way to run a bombing campaign??? We had them down, and we let them up. FIND-FIX-FIGHT-FOLLOW-FINISH…  Ovid wrote  (Tristia) that: “The fight is over when the enemy is down.” Not true, if you let him up…

RTR QUOTE for October 21: SHAKESPEARE, Henry V: “He who hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart, his passport shall be made.”

Lest we forget…        Bear