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



ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 22 FEBRUARY 1968

PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON: Born 22 February 1732, died 14 December 1799. “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” Founding Father, warrior, leader, statesman… oohrah…

RIPPLE SALVO… #719… NYT, 22 FEB 1968… Page 1: “SENATOR WILLIAM FULBRIGHT SAYS ROBERT McNAMARA DECEIVES PUBLIC ON TONKIN–ASSERTS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE OFFERED ONE-SIDED ACCOUNT OF 1964 RAIDS IN GULF OF TONKIN–SENATOR WAYNE MORSE DECLARES DESTROYER WAS A SPY SHIP”… “Senator J.William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara today of deceiving the American public by presenting a one-sided story of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. The Senator suggested that the Defense Secretary was suppressing information that cast doubt on whether two American destroyers came under North Vietnamese attack in August, 1964.”.. continued below… but first…

Good Morning… Day SEVEN HUNDRED NINETEEN of remembering the events and intrepid warriors of Operation Rolling Thunder in the air over North Vietnam…

22 FEBRUARY 1968… HEAD LINES From The New York Times on a Thursday of sun and cold in New York…

ENEMY OFFENSIVE/KHESANH: Page 1: “JETS BOMB ENEMY NEAR CITADEL; MARINES ADVANCE–ROCKETS AND NAPALM USED IN FIRST AIR STRIKES IN FIVE DAYS–Foe Being Penned In–More Saigon Fighting–Southern Troops On Attack In The Chinese Quarter–Missiles Fall At Airport”... “United States Marine jet bombers hit enemy positions outside the south Citadel Wall in Hue yesterday with rockets, bombs and napalm. The attacks followed a five-day pause  is air strikes because of weather. Inside the walled city, American Marines forced North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong troops into a strip about 150 yards wide. Fighting continued, meanwhile, in the Chinese quarter of Saigon, where South Vietnamese rangers reported killing 50 enemy soldiers in two days. Seven miles west of the city United States forces reported 128 enemy killed in a five-hour battle in which helicopter gunships, artillery and Air Force planes aided the ground forces. American losses were reported as 3 killed and 21 wounded… About four hours later 30 enemy soldiers were killed a mile east of the earlier battle. No Americans casualties were reported…. At least 122-mm rockets expanded in the vicinity of Tansonnhut Airport, but no casualties of damage were reported.

“In the air action at Hue, four Marine A-4 Skyhawk bombers, flying beneath extremely low clouds attacked a strip of land 100-150- yards wide between the Citadel wall and the Huong River. For several days, enemy machine gunners and mortar teams have dueled with American gunners on the other side of the river.”… “…Entrenched enemy troops estimated at 350 to 800 men, have been ordered to defend their positions until the death, an American advisor reported.”… Losses by the Marine battalion of 800 men fighting alongside the South Vietnamese troops in the old imperial capital are not clear, but some unofficial estimates have placed them as high as 50 percent.”... “The Saigon Government made public South Vietnamese casualty figures resulting from the enemy offensive begun during the Lunar New Year. A spokesman reported 5,275 military personnel were killed and 8,692 wounded. A total of 609,000 South Vietnamese were made refugees during the three-weeks-old offensive, 133,500 of them in the Saigon-Cholon area. Houses destroyed during the fighting total 39,700.”Page 1: “MARINES AT KHESANH FIND FLAWS IN THEIR DEFENSE”... “A Marine lieutenant inspected his sandbag and steel bunker at Khesanh one morning recently and shook his head. ‘I wish I could say it’ll take a direct mortar hit, but it won’t. Not enough steel, no wooden beams.’ At another bunker the night before, the arms and legs of seven marines, including a major, were intertwined as they tried to sleep in space suitable for only three.”…

Page 1: “Vietnam War Dead Listed At Pentagon… names 93 American Servicemen Killed-in-Action”... Page 10: “Air Mobile Division Short of Copters and Supplies”… Page 10: “Force, Believed To Be Reserve For Khesanh Is Fighting At Hue and Quang Tri”… Page 7: “Fog Fails To Lift And A Marine Dies–Copter Grounded Too Long To Save Man On Hill 881″… Page 14: “House Unit Charges War Policy Errors”…

Page 1: “Soviet Embassy In Washington Bombed –Johnson Orders Investigation–Explosion At Soviet Embassy Called Senseless”...”A bomb explosion tore into a ground floor office of the Soviet Embassy before dawn today in what the United States called a ‘senseless act.'”...Page 1: “Jetliner With 109 Is Hijacked In Air And Flown To Havana–Armed Passenger On Delta DC-8 Over Florida–Uses Stewardess As Hostage–Cuba Lets The Plane Go–Craft Was On Flight From Chicago to Miami When Diverted at Gunpoint”... “A man wearing a white cowboy hat hijacked an $8.5-million Delta airline jet at gunpoint this afternoon and forced the pilot to fly him and 101 other passengers to Havana.”…

Page 95: Review of “CBS Reports” by Jack Gould: Disturbing view of Vietnam war that shows obstacles to victory…ingenuity of Vietcong stressed.”… Page 3: “100,000 In Berlin Back U.S. In Rally–Mayor Leads Their Answer to Leftist Students”… Page 1: “Church Council Urges Peace Bid–Calls On U.S. To Adopt New Foreign Policy–Ending Its Reliance On the Military”…  “The National Council of Churches called upon the US Government to make far-reaching changes in its foreign policy to pave the way for world peace based on justice. The changes included: stop the bombing of North Vietnam as a prelude to seeking a negotiated peace; avoid provocative military actions against mainland China; press for the admission of mainland China into the United Nations; Create conditions for cooperation between the United States and the Communist countries of Eastern Europe; recognize the government of Cuba and a acknowledge the existence of the East German Republic; and remove restrictions on imports from Communist countries and on cultural exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union.”… Page 1: “13 Midshipmen Face Dismissal In Marijuana Case At Annapolis”… “…admitted smoking in their rooms in Bancroft Hall.”…

Page 1: “Negroes Urged At Intermediate School 201 To Arm for Self-Defense”...”About 600 Negroes, attending a memorial program for Malcolm X held at Intermediate School 201 in East Harlem were urged yesterday to obtain weapons for ‘self-defense’ against whites and to practice using them so that when the ‘hunting season’ came they would be ready. The exhortation was given by Herman B. Ferguson, who was suspended last summer as an assistant principal at a Queens public school after being accused of conspiring to murder moderate Negro leaders.”… Page 1: “Senators Reject Open Housing Ban–Leadership Move is Beaten By Civil Rights Coalition On a Vote of 58 to 34″... “A move by the Democratic and Republican leadership to kill open housing legislation was firmly rejected by the Senate today….a victory for a coalition of civil rights backers.”… Page 15: “Thant Reports To The President On His Vietnam Peace Mission”… Page 9: “Swiss Establish A Channel To Hanoi For Peace Negotiations–Envoy To Peking Named as a Link to North Vietnam”…

State Department, Office of Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Relations, 1964-68, Vietnam Volume 6: Document 84. This is a very short but interesting report by CIA Director Helms is an admission that intelligence fell short of what it was supposed to provide ahead of the surprise of Tet… Read at:

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d84

21-22 February 1968… President’s Daily Brief… a few notes… SOUTH VIETNAM: The situation in Saigon has been relatively quiet…sharp fighting continues around Saigon… in other areas, no major new attacks have been reported... NORTH VIETNAM: Notes on the situation…North Vietnamese representatives abroad continue to press Hanoi’s views on negotiations and to stress Hanoi’s willingness to engage in talks if the US makes the first move by stopping the bombing… NVN claim on 10 February that 800 civilians were killed or wounded by US air strikes around Hanoi Haiphong and Vin Linh during the last three months of last year. The February claim increased Hanoi’s reported total of civilian casualties for 1967 to about 5,000… (killed?)…

22 February 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times…(23 Feb reporting 22 Feb ops)… Page 1: “The American command announced that Navy Intruders (VA-35/Enterprise) had made a radar-guided strike against what was described as the most powerful radio transmitter in East Asia. It is at Bachmai, three and a half miles from the center of Hanoi….Hanoi’s propaganda programs, including a nightly half hour in English by a woman known as ‘Hanoi Hannah,’ are broadcast from the station… Reuters reported from Hong Kong that the Hanoi radio continued to broadcast in Southeast Asia after the strike and the broadcast made no mention of an air attack on the station.”... (oops?) “Other areas struck in the North were the Hoalac airfield, 20 miles west of Hanoi, two radar sites 85 miles northwest of the capital and transportation sites in the panhandle section. Because of the weather only 54 missions were flown against the North, an American spokesman said… B-52s, bombing by instruments from above the mist and fog struck three times near Khesanh. Fighter-bombers flew 201 sorties in the area…

HUMBLE HOST was back in action. 22-Feb-68: Flew #107. Led a section of brand new VA-113 A-4F Skyhawks to Khesanh and worked with a Covey FAC on a troops target in a hole north of Khesanh. Ordnance 8 MK-81 Ladyfingers per aircraft. Made four passes, 2 MK-81s each pass… Bombs on target, no BDA… As much fun as the law allows… Back in the saddle and back in the game…

Compilation “34TFS/F-105 History” by Howie Plunkett: 22-Feb-68: “Simmer flight from the 34 TFS flew a morning mission to Laos… This was Major Sam Armstrong’s #72 mission. “We made a radar drop on a target in Laos, east of Sam Nuea. There was fog and mist in the valley so we couldn’t assess our bombs… we practiced some …?… on the way home and that was it. Pretty easy”…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses on 22 February 1968…

RIPPLE SALVO… #719…NYT, 22 Feb 68, Page 1; “FULBRIGHT SAYS McNAMARA DECEIVES PUBLIC ON TONKIN” by-line: John W Finney…Continued from above introduction… I quote…

At the same time, Senator Wayne Morse, Democrat of Oregon took issue with the Secretary’s assessment that one of the destroyers, the Maddox, was on routine patrol. “The Maddox,” Senator Morse said, “was a spy ship under instruction to stimulate the electronic instruments of North Vietnam to carry out a spying activity. That is not a routine patrol for a destroyer.”

Senator Fulbright, an Arkansas Democrat, issued a statement challenging the reliability of what Mr. McNamara called “highly classified and unimpeachable” intelligence information demonstrating beyond doubt that the destroyers had been attacked. Mr. McNamara told of the intelligence report yesterday as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee began hearings on the Administration’s handling of the Tonkin incidents. The incidents, involving North Vietnamese attacks on August 2 and August 4 against American destroyers, marked a turning point in American involvement in Vietnam and led to the decision to carry the war to North Vietnam.

Now, three and a half years later, the Senate committee wants to know whether the Administration had sufficient proof of the second PT boat attack on the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy to warrant its decision to bomb North Vietnam and got Congressional approval of “all necessary measures” to repel aggression.

Instead of resolving committee doubts with his testimony, Mr McNamara has apparently precipitated what was expected to be a brief investigation int an angry political confrontation. In their indignation, committee members began throwing angry perconal charges at the outgoing Secretary of Defense and disclosing secret information about the Tonkin incidents that could prove politically embarrassing to the Administration in an election year. In part, the indignation of the Senators was provoked by Mr. McNamara’s action in making public his testimony without the committee. But beyond this point of protocol, some committee members were irate over what they regarded as the one-sided self-serving nature of Mr. McNamara’s testimony.

Mr. Fulbright charged that the Defense Secretary had presented “only one side of the story” and had suppressed information that did not serve his case. The Senator declared: “Secretary McNamara’s statement is a classic example of selective declassification of security material. everything related to the Tonkin incidents is ‘secret’ except that which the Pentagon deems should be made public. This, I believe, deceives the American public.” For example, the Senator said, the defense Secretary has refused to release information that raises questions about the detection of torpedoes by sonar on the Maddox and task force messages that indicated doubts about the second attack. But at the same time, Mr. Fulbright went on, the Defense Secretary saw fit to discuss the incident with anybody who is mentally sound, the Senator said, but such action represents a threat to anyone who is willing to tell the truth about this or any other incidents.

Senator Fulbright said in his statement that he agreed with Mr. McNamara’s assertion yesterday that it would be ‘monstrous” to suggest that the United States had induced the incidents as an excuse to carry the war to the North. “But it is equally monstrous,” the Senator continued, “to insinuate that any member of the committee holds such an opinion.”…  End of Quote…

RTR Quote for 22 February: GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, 1796: ” ‘Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”… 

Lest we forget…       Bear

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