RIPPLE SALVO… #123… A GOOD START…but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE of a review of Operation Rolling Thunder–the “air war” over North Vietnam…
1 JULY 1966… ON THE HOME FRONT… NYT… A mostly sunny Friday with the high of 92-degrees…
Page 1: “President Vows To Press Punishing of Aggressors; Hanoi Area bombed Again”…”President Johnson said today that the United States air strikes on military targets in North Vietnam will continue to impose a growing burden and a high price on those who wage wart against the freedom of their neighbors. The resolute tone of Mr. Johnson’s remarks, made in a speech in Omaha, indicated no wavering in his decision to step up the tempo of the war to convince North Vietnam that it cannot win and should seek to negotiate a settlement. It was the President’s first pronouncement alluding to the important escalation of the war signaled by the United States bombing raids yesterday on fuel dumps close to Hanoi and Haiphong. The tenor of his remarks made it plain that he was un-swayed by criticism of the raids in congress and abroad. In a broad ranging a speech, Mr. Johnson emphasized the perils posed by developing world food shortages and his hope that nations no matter their ideologies, could cooperate to end poverty, ignorance and disease. He also urged Americans to stand fast behind his policy in Vietnam: “If you are too busy and not inclined to help, please count to ten before you quit.” Page 1: “Pentagon Urges Youth 19 to 20 Be drafted First”…”The Defense department told Congress today that it favored changing the draft system so that men 19 to 20 would be taken ahead of older men…this plan reverses the present Selective Service System of calling the oldest men first. In three of the four ‘call ups’ in use today, the oldest men are called first.” The recommendation: that men up to 35-yeears old who had received college deferments be subject to call up upon completion of their education. The new system will become effective when the Vietnam build-up ends….Page 1: “Medicare Starts Coverage Today; 17 Million Signed”…”The Medicare program begins tomorrow amid predictions of a smooth start for the most extensive expansion of Social Security since the first law was passed in 1935. President Johnson announced that 92-per cent of the nation’s hospital beds were in hospitals that complied with the law. “Since I signed this historic Medicare Act last summer we have made more extensive preparation to launch this program than for any other peaceful undertaking in our nation’s history.”
Page 1: “John Lewis Quits S.N.C.C.; Shuns Black Power”…John Lewis who was regarded as a militant figure in the civil rights movement during his three years a chairman of SNCC has resigned from the organization and taken issue with it’s new concept of “black power.” Mr. Lewis, 26, was defeated by Stokely Carmichael in an election in May.”…Page 1: “U Thant Despoiled By U.S. On Vietnam”… “Ambassador Arthur Goldberg told the security Council and Secretary U Thant tonight that a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam would no end the war. This was a direct rejection of the first of three steps toward peace proposed by Mr. Thant on June20… Page 2: “Iraq Reports Suppression of a Revolt Of Officers”… “President Abdel Rahman Arif of Iraq today crushed an attempted coup d’état by air force officers and a former premier, BGEN Arif Abdel Razzali, A supporter of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of the United Arab Republic. ” Arif called the coup …”a foolish attempt was carried out by a group of adventurers who tried to spoil the people’s happiness about the reestablishment of national unity.”…Page 2: “LBJ Praises CIA and Chiefs”… “The President gave high praise to the Central Intelligence Agency, ‘a hearty well done” to it’s outgoing director Admiral William Raborn and a welcome for Richard Helms.”… Page 2: “Warheads Withdrawn By U.S.”…”The United States notified France today that it was withdrawing the American nuclear warheads, believed numbering in the 100s assigned since 1961 to French air and ground units stationed in West Germany.”..
Page 3: “U.S. Is Quietly Continuing Build-up In Thailand”…”Veiled in official silence the United States military build-up in Thailand is continuing. About 25,000 U.S. servicemen are now stationed in the strategic kingdom, double the number reported in January. Two thirds are personnel in the 13th Air Force supplying or flying several hundred F-105, F-4C and other combat aircraft that strike along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.” ..Page 4: “China Warns U.S. On Air Assaults”…”Communist China said today that the United States bombing at Hanoi and Haiphong was a serious escalation of the Vietnam war and warned it would lead United States one step closer to the grave. The Vietnamese people will not be forced into submission and the Chinese will support their struggle through to the end.”
1 JULY 1966…PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEFING…CIA (TS sanitized)…Vietnam: entire set of notes still classified…Only interesting note: Communist Fronts: Pro-Communist and pacifist groups plan wide spread demonstrations on 4 July protesting US policy in Vietnam. The meetings will be held at US embassies and other establishments. The North Vietnamese youth organization has appealed to the Communist-front world youth organizations to hold solidarity demonstrations on 20 July, the anniversary of the Geneva accords. These plans were under development before the US air strikes at Hanoi and Haiphong, but the turnouts will probably be larger because of the strikes…
1 JULY 1966… ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS…NYT (2 July reporting on 1 July ops)…Page 1: “U.S. Planes Sink 3 Torpedo Boats”…”United States naval aircraft yesterday (July1) sank three North Vietnamese torpedo boats racing toward ships of the Seventh Fleet in the Gulf of Tonkin. The torpedo boats were detected on the radar screens of several Seventh Fleet ships patrolling in international waters about 60 miles southeast Haiphong. The boats were closing fast and planes of the carrier Constellation were launched to meet them. The North Vietnamese crewmen opened fire on the planes as some of them approached the torpedo boats and a duel of almost two hours followed with the aircraft attacking the three boats were all sunk. Seventh Fleet rescue units plucked 18 of the North Vietnamese crewmen from the water. One attack plane from the Constellation was damaged by the fire from the torpedo boats but managed to land on the carrier. There were no reports of any American casualties… Page 2: “American war planes also pounded North Vietnamese gasoline and oil storage facilities for the third successive day yesterday (July 1) at the Dongnham storage depot 15 miles northwest of Haiphong. An American military spokesman said Navy planes from the Seventh fleet carrier Constellation also struck the Dongnham storage depot. The depot was struck by bombs from several flights of A-6 Intruders, A-4 Skyhawks and F-4C Phantoms. No accurate bomb damage assessment is available. But the pilots reported that their bombs hit the target sending up clouds of smoke. The Dongnham depot had a capacity of 14,000 metric tons that represents about 9-per cent of North Vietnam’s total storage. Yesterday’s raid, the only reported against all gasoline storage depot, was part of the major effort of the United States begun Wednesday to destroy as much as possible of North Vietnam’s fuel supplies and thus hamper the movement of men, munitions and material toward South Vietnam in trucks. According to official spokesmen the United States destroyed 50-per cent of North Vietnam’s fuel storage capacity in Wednesday’s raids against the major depots three and a half miles from the center of Hanoi and two miles from the center of Haiphong. Friday’s strikes destroyed the Bacgiang depot 25 miles northeast of Hanoi. That depot accounted for 4-per cent of Hanoi’s storage capacity. Other raids yesterday were against the Nguyen Khe depot 7 miles from Hanoi. Three U.S. Air Force F-100 s attempted to jettison their BDU s in a specific drop area and six of the weapons hung up, were released late and hit a village killing 7 South Vietnamese and injuring 47 others including, women and children… An Air Force F-105d was shot down yesterday by NVN anti-aircraft fire in the southern part of North Vietnam. The pilot (SHATTUCK) maneuvered out over the Gulf and parachuted into the sea 15 miles east of Dong Hoi and was rescued 40-minutes later by an Air Force HU-16…”
“Vietnam: Air Losses”… A bad day….four aircraft lost… Author Chis Hobson has put it all together and here is the tale with a few of my edits…
(1) CAPTAIN LEWIS WILEY SHATTUCK was flying an F-105D of the 354th TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli on a strike on the Nam Lamh road bridge 20 miles north of Dong Hoi and flew his burning aircraft over the Gulf and ejected. He was rescued by an Air Force HU-16. CAPTAIN SHATTUCK would be shot down AGAIN, and captured ten days later…ouch…
(2) COMMANDER CHARLES HENRY PETERS was flying an A-4E of the VA-155 Silver Foxes, embarked in USS Constellation on a strike of the POL site at Dong Nham, 20 miles northeast of Haiphong and was hit in the starboard wing by 37mm AAA pulling off the target and caught fire. COMMANDER PETERS, Commanding Officer of the Silver Foxes, was able to keep the aircraft flying and was just feet wet when the aircraft snap rolled and was out of control as the Skipper ejected. His parachute opened and he was in the water but never surfaced. COMMANDER PETERS had previously ejected from an A-4 during training off the coast of California and had spent several hours in the dark hanging onto a floating drop tank before he was found and rescued… COMMANDER PETERS was Killed in Action while leading an otherwise highly successful strike on a heavily defended target…… and was lost at sea...
(3) 1LT BURTON WAYNE CAMPBELL was flying an F-105D of the 13th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat in a flight of Thunderchiefs to strike the railway and road bridge 40 miles northwest of Dong Hoi in the panhandle. His aircraft was hit in the dive on the target and on recovery became inflamed as 1LT CAMPBELL headed west for Laos. Unfortunately, he was forced to eject about five miles from his target and was subsequently captured as the RESCAP aircraft circled his position…see next …1LT CAMPBELL was downed on his 13th mission and would spent the next six years plus as a POW. he was released on 12 February 1973…
(4) MAJOR ROBERT CYRIL WILLIAMS was flying an A-1E of the 602nd ACS and the 14th ACW out of Udorn on a RESCAP mission dispatched to attempt the recovery of 1LT CAMPBELL. As the rescue team entered the area and set up an orbit to attempt the rescue, MAJOR WILLIAMS’ Skyraider was hit by AAA and immediately crashed without an ejection. MAJOR WILLIAMS was Killed in Action and it is fair to say that this brave warrior laid down his life in an attempt to save another… His remains were recovered by the Joint Recovery Team in August 1994 and returned to the United States for identification and burial in 1995. MAJOR WILLIAMS was buried in a small cemetery in Illinois on 1 July 1995, twenty-one years ago today… he rests in peace and is home…
RIPPLE SALVO… #123… “Strangling the POL System”…
The following is taken from the Time-Life series entitled “The Vietnam Experience” and the volume “Thunder From Above,” pages 128-130… I have pulled this one to wrap up the “the most important strike of the war to date.” …
“American officials found initial reports of the raids extrememly encouraging. Eighty percent of the thirty-two tank POL farms in Hanoi and 95-percent of the facilities in Haiphong had been destroyed, perhaps 60-per cent of North Vietnam’s entire supply. General Meyers called the coordinated attack on the POL sites, ‘the most important strike of the war to date.’
“Secretary McNamara explained the strikes at a Pentagon news conference the next day. He told reporters that the decision to attack the sites was based on North Vietnam’s increased use of trucks and motorized junks to infiltrate supplies. He said the raids were designed to prevent Hanoi from transforming the war from a small arms guerrilla action against South Vietnam to a quasi-conventional military operation involving major supplies, weapons and heavier equipment.
“Although the strikes had been the first launched against targets near Hanoi and Haiphong, the secretary emphasized that they did not represent a departure from the administration’s policy against bombing population centers. He stressed the precautions that had been taken to avoid civilian casualties. The raids were merely an extension of the bombing campaign against North Vietnamese infiltration targets, McNamara said, not an attempt to widen the war.
“Nevertheless, the raids provided spectacular headlines around the world. Radio Hanoi predictably denounced them as a ‘new and serious step,’ claiming U.S. planes had indiscriminately strafed residential areas and killed civilians. Of greater concern to U.S. officials were the reactions of China and the Soviet Union. Moscow labeled the action a step toward further escalation of the war but stopped short of any threats of retaliation. Peking took a more strident tone, claiming the U.S. pushed back the boundaries of war’ and warned of ‘due punishment.’ But reading between the lines, Washington deduced that Hanoi’s allies were unwilling to do more than to promise more aid.
“Peking’s and Moscow’s relatively mild reactions coupled with initially positive damage reports and low casualties, induced a decision to continue the anti-POL campaign. On July 8 McNamara cabled Admiral Sharp that President Johnson wanted to give ‘strangulation of North Vietnam’s POL system first priority.’ Strikes against the remaining sites fixed POL sites, as well as follow-up strikes against tank farms at Hanoi and Haiphong, were authorized. The limits on armed reconnaissance missions were lifted in order to destroy smaller sites dispersed in the countryside and to cut off any shipments of POL supplies by rail from China. Pilots were elated to be able to attack these targets instead of chasing trucks through the jungle. ‘Now you know you’re really hitting instead of just slapping them on the hand,’ said one naval aviator.
“Hanoi had been caught by surprise on the twenty-ninth because its air defense command was going through a shakeup. But for the follow-up strikes into the heart of their country, the North Vietnamese quickly closed ranks. Prepositioned anti-aircraft batteries took a heavy toll on pilots and planes. The North Vietnamese began to firing SAMs in volleys despite the danger from Iron Hand and Wild Weasel aircraft. North Vietnamese pilots became more aggressive, constantly challenging American bombers as they attacked targets within striking distance of their Mig airfields. The U.S lost forty-three aircraft in July alone, the largest monthly rate since Rolling Thunder began in March 1965.
“On August 8, a little over one month after leading the first POL raid, Major James Kasler also fell prey to North Vietnamese ground fire. He was captured by hill tribesmen waving machetes and four days later found himself in cell #18 in Hao Lo Prison in Hanoi. Running a high fever and nearly delirious from the pain of a severely broken leg suffered during the ejection, Kasler was told by his captors, ‘if you want to live you will cooperate with us.’ But he refused to sign a confession of his ‘crimes’ against the Vietnamese people. Eventually he was taken to a hospital where his leg was set and placed in a cast and then he shifted to another POW camp southwest of Hanoi nicknamed the ‘Zoo’ by American pilots.
The POL campaign marked a major milestone in Operation Rolling Thunder. For the guys who carried this part of the fight to the heartland I am sure that they will never forget this phase of the fight. July 1966 will be a month for all of us to remember. The refresher course has begun and will be poste righthere for your reading pleasure…
Lest we forget… Bear ……… –30– ……….