RIPPLE SALVO #635… HUMBLE HOST NOMINATES THE MVP (“Most Valuable Plane”) OF THE ROLLING THUNDER CAMPAIGN: F-105D Thunderchief 62-4347 was recognized and titled “High Time Thud” after an illustrious, perhaps incomparable, career as “Wendy June II,” “Little Lois Ann,” and “Calamity Jane II.” Runner-Up for MVP-RT: A-4 Skyhawk “Lady Jessie.”…. but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE immersed in history of the air campaign of the Vietnam war called Rolling Thunder…
1 December 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a fair Friday on the East Coast of the Homeland…
Page 1: “FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON TIES UP TRAFFIC”... “The first major snow storm of the season rolled over the Eastern Seaboard yesterday, snarling transportation, harrying pedestrians, and leaving a soggy and sometimes icy mantle in the metropolitan area that made driving and walking hazardous.”… Page 1: “McCarthy To Fight Johnson Policies In 5 or 6 Primaries–Will Oppose Role In Vietnam–Seeks War Settlement”… “In an attempt to prevent President’s Johnson nomination Senator McCarthy backs a negotiated peace. Says he would accept race by Robert Kennedy…during a bantering, low-level news conference the Minnesota Senator never actually declared himself a candidate for President or contended that he could deprive the President of the nomination…said it would not disturb him if his running in the primaries resulted in making Robert F. Kennedy the candidate next year.”...Page 1: “Atom Arms Gains Achieved By U.S.–Senator Henry Jackson Tells of Advances Formerly Held Impossible Under Treaty Restrictions”… Page 1: “President Eisenhower’s Grandson to Wed a Nixon Daughter”... Page 1: “Wilbur Mills Indicates a Rise in Taxes is Out At Least Until ’68–Heads Up House Ways and Means–appears More Receptive But Calls for Data on Spending.”… Page 1: “Senate bids Johnson Seek Action In U.N. To End War–Passes By 82 to A Mansfield Resolution To get Help From Security Council–Administration Aides Concerned”... “see little hope of U.N. action and have expressed concerns that Security Council consideration might interfere with diplomatic efforts to arrange a negotiated settlement.”…
Page 1: “War Over Cyprus averted By Pact–Procedures Detailed Between Greece and Turkey Delay Formal Announcement”... “…gave assurances that there was no chance that these details would upset the agreement.”… Page 3: “War Resisters Will Try To Close Induction Centers Here–Sit-in and Picketing Monday–Aim for Showdown”… “…part of a concerted effort to force a ‘legal confrontation’ with the Government over the war in Vietnam…includes Dr. Benjamin Spock, who said ‘people will either march or sit-in. I expect to sit-in’… legal protest and no violence expected.”…
THE GROUND WAR: Page 2: “FOE’S USE OF TRAIL IN LAOS GROWING–HO CHI MINH ROUTE IS SAID TO CARRY MORE SUPPLIES”… “Informed military sources reported that North Vietnam was making greater use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to send supplies to Communist forces in south Vietnam. Traffic along the trail has increased to a bit more than normal for this time of the year, according to the same sources. Some of Hanoi’s troop reinforcements, which once were routed over the trail, are now cutting around the corner of the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam, then moving along a series of mountain footpaths into the central provinces of South Vietnam, the sources said.
“Meanwhile, trucks are moving down the Ho Chi Minh Trail carrying supplies that in previous years went by sea or through Cambodia. The sources based their reports on air reconnaissance and information from the ground forces in Laos. The trail, a complex of roads and paths is ‘practically an all-weather road now,’ qualified sources said.
“North Vietnam is reported to have used more than 10,000 coolies in constructing the trail from the Nape and Mujia (Mugia) passes int Laos and to the route’s southern point in South Vietnam, west of Dakto. According to conservative intelligence estimates, the labor force has been guarded by 3,000 to 5,000 North Vietnamese backed by several thousand pro-Communist Pathet Lao troops.
“Qualified sources said the United States had attempted to cut the trail with air strikes, including occasional B-52 raids and ground forces consisting of a small number of Americans commanding South Vietnamese, Thais, tribesmen and Laotian commandos. The commando group was said to have failed to move close enough to make a proper investigation of North Vietnamese troops movements South Vietnam officers denied this allegation, however, One Officer said he had hidden close enough to the trail to count the passing troops. According to intelligence sources, 14,811 armed North Vietnamese are in Laos.
“United States diplomats here would not discuss American involvement in operations along the trail. On official said the involvement was kept relatively small despite the scope of North Vietnamese activities, because the United States does no want to spread the war from South Vietnam into Laos and openly break the Geneva accords of 1962, which prohibit the entry of foreign troops into Laos. United States officials here conceded, however, that ground operations against the trail had increased.”
1 DECEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (2 Dec reporting 1 Dec ops) Page 1: “In the North, poor weather limited United States pilots to 62 missions, the lowest number since October 20. American pilots attacked minor targets along the coast and in the southern area of North Vietnam near the demilitarized zone.”….
“Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 1 December 1967…
From the Howie Plunkett Collection: 01-Dec-67…“On 1 December, during mission RT56A-212, nine F-105D pilots from the 469TFS, Korat RTAFB, Thailand struck a target 6 nautical miles south-southwest of Sam Neua… Also on this day, pilots from the 357 FTS, 355 TFW flight struck Yen Bai airfield in RP-5 through an undercast using Commando Club radar bombing. Three separate flights hit the air field with a total of 72 750-pound bombs reported on target…. Under Commando Club another 355 TFW flight struck the Kim Lang Army Barracks with no damage claimed.”
Plunkett: “The history of the 354 TFS from Takhli RTAFB Thailand recorded their accomplishments during December 1967 and provides an overview of Rolling Thunder operations for the month.”
“December saw increasing weather over North Vietnam that frequently prevented visual bombing missions. Emphasis was shifted to radar controlled ‘Commando Club’ missions, to keep pressure on selected North Vietnamese Targets. these strikes were launched against large storage areas, troop barracks, rail yards and airfields. On the few times when it was possible to get visual BDA, our pilots reported these strikes as very accurate and successful. Other 34th flights were busy in Laos where the weather was general good, by working with airborne FACs who marked the hidden targets with smoke. Our pilots were able to bomb with a high degree of accuracy. These targets were usually storage areas, truck parks and vulnerable road segments.”….
During the month of December the pilots and EWOs of the 354th TFS were recommended for 1 Air Force Cross, 5 Silver Stars, 26 DFCs and 38 Air Medals… Humble Host notes that these award recommendations weren’t for Commando Club group gropes… The action remained in RP-5/6A for the Air Force guys and the weather breaks came as short opportunities between the longer periods of bad weather that gave the enemy gunners time to stock up and be fully up and ready for the bombers to come through sucker holes to hit assigned targets…
RIPPLE SALVO… #635… “High Time Thud” is a retired F-105D Thunderchief now resting on a pedestal near the south gate of Hill AFB with a clear view of Utah’s Wasatch mountains. 50 years ago this great warhorse was assigned to the 357 TFS , 355 TFW at Takhli RTAB, Thailand and in the month of December 1967 flew 36 combat sorties to lead the pack of Thunderchiefs in the 357th. Pages 200-203 of W. Howard Plunkett’s “F-105 Thunderchief: A 29-Year Illustrated Operational History,” tell the full story of F-105D 62-4347–“High Time Thud.”
The caption of a picture of the F-105D on a “pedestal” in Utah reads: “This ‘D’ is the well-known ‘High Time Thud’– the F-105D that accumulated the most flying hours of all the Thunderchiefs. In its twenty-year career, its airframe logged over 6,700 hours. It spent six years in the Pacific with the 355 Tactical Fighter Wing, beginning in August 1964 with the first F-105 deployment from the Tactical Air Command in response to the North Vietnamese attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. This deployment began two years of temporary duty with three of the 355th’s squadrons at Yakota Air Base, Japan and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. It moved to Takhli, Thailand in March 1966 and stayed there until the base closed near the end of 1970. During its four years of combat flying from Takhli, the plane consistently set monthly sortie and flying hour records, a tribute to the skilled care from its crew chiefs. Total hours logged in the aircraft by the 355th –4,020!!! When it went to the Kansas Air National Guard in 1971, it had reached over 4,000 hours, the design limit of the F-105. The Kansans flew it another 2,000 hours before turning it over in 1980 to the 466 Tactical Fighter Squadron, the Air Force Reserve Unit at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. When it retired three years later, the 466th placed it on a dramatic pylon mount and dedicated it to all Thunderchief crews who lost their lives flying the Thud.”…The photo was taken in 1997 by Howie Plunkett, an authority on the F-105!!!
“High Time Thud” is my candidate for Rolling Thunder MVP… What’s yours??? Maybe “Lady Jessie“?
Long live “High Time Thud”…
RTR Quote for 1 December: BRYANT, the Battle-Field: “The victory of endurance born.”…
Lest we forget… Bear