RIPPLE SALVO… #583… INCLUDING THE BEST OF “THE SPECIAL DAILY REPORT ON NORTH VIETNAM–FOR THE PRESIDENT’S EYES ONLY (TS)”… but first and foremost…
SPECIAL NOTE: “The Bubba Meeting (With) the MIG Pilots of 20 September 2017″… JayBee Souder has posted a superb summary of a unique meeting of a mix of aging American and North Vietnamese fighter pilots and RIOs who shared the angry skies of North Vietnam. Good reading. The meeting was round-two of a muster of old adversaries to trade combat experiences of forty-five to fifty years ago. It was also a social event marked by mutual admiration, according to the JB Souder summary. For the record, Humble Host, who harbors no love for any of the Rolling Thunder enemies who expended tons of ammunition trying to kill me, among a few thousand other American aviators, shares sentiments about such musters with F-4 Phantom warrior Joey Crecca, who posted this after reading the JB Souder summary…
“In 1966 I was shot down by a SAM launched by Russians. Hob-nobbing around with MiG drivers who shot down and probably killed Americans or put them into Hanoi Hilton is not my idea of a good time out on the town. I would never even think of having a party with the Russian bastards that shot down my Phantom, killed Scotty Wilson and put me in the slammer for 6+ years. I’d sooner put a bullet in each of their heads and then go have a party. Still water runs deep. Joey C…. “… Who adds… “One other point is that this crap is exactly like Dan Cherry’s book, “My Enemy, My Friend,” where reconciliation (and $elling a book) takes precedence over keeping the faith with your combat veterans and not giving the finger to all of us who served in Southeast Asia.”
Sleeping with the enemy –and ex-enemies– is a personal choice. Count Crecca and Taylor out… RTR readers are invited to comment…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED EIGHTY-THREE of a review of an air war like no other fought fifty years ago in the skies over North Vietnam…
10 October 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a rainy Monday in New York… Page 1: “Red Sox Win, 3-1; Trail Cardinals By 3-2 Games–Lonberg Allows Only 3 Hits, One a Homer By Roger Maris–Sixth Game Tomorrow in Boston”… Page 1: “U.S. SHIFTS UNITS NORTH TO BOLSTER BUFFER ZONE AREA–3,000 MARINES AND 4,000 SOLDIERS MOVED TO EASE PRESSURE IN REGION–NEW BASE BEING BUILT–POST WILL BE 18 MILES SOUTH OF THE NEUTRAL STRIP OUT OF RANGE OF FOES GUNS”… “…heavy fighting in the area…North has moved as many as 35,000 men into area for attacks on Conthien and other outposts just below the border.”… Page 1: “Bolivian Army Says Che Guevara Was Killed in Guerrilla Clash”... “…he has been reported killed or captured before.”... Page !: DNC Chair John Bailey Says GOP Uses War For Gain–Lays Opportunism To Critics of Johnson–Hugh Scott, Former RNC Chair Advises GOP To Moderate Criticism–Cautions Against GOP Becoming ‘Peace At Any Price Party’ “…
Page 2: “Colonel Francis Grabeski, Air Ace, To Retire”… “…the nation’s top living ace, plans to retire after 27 years of service, ‘It’s been one of the most interesting jobs in the world.’ Credited with 37 1/2 destroyed enemy aircraft during World War II and Korea war…Commander of 52nd Fighter Wing at Suffolk County Air Force Base, the Colonel retires 31 October to take position at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in public relations.”...Page 17: “Supporters of Vice Admiral Hymen G. Rickover Fighting to Block His Forced Retirement–Controversial Admiral, 67, Will Have to Bow Out if Johnson Does Not Act”… “…Rickover is the Director of Nuclear Propulsion and Director of Naval Reactors in the Atomic Energy Commission. The opposition is from Secretary of Defense Robert D. McNamara. The Navy has come to accept the Admiral due to the success of his nuclear submarines.”… Page 20: “Shoulder Strap Rule for Cars Stands”... “The Federal Government affirmed its position–after a seven week study–it’s decision to require shoulder harnesses as standard equipment on passenger cars will stand.”…Page 40: “Dr. King, Jr. Is Denied A Rehearing–Faces 5-Day Term for Contempt–High Court Rejects His Plea With Five Other Negroes On Conviction In Alabama”… “The Supreme Court refused today to reexamine the contempt of court convictions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and seven other Negro ministers who led desegregation demonstrations in Birmingham in 1963…this means Dr. King and the others can be jailed at once.”… Page 40: “Legality of Draft Card Burning to Be Studied by Supreme Court”… “…agreed today to consider the constitutionality of the amendment to the Selective Service Act that makes it a crime to burn a draft card.”… Page 2: “Life Magazine Expected to Shift War Stand”... “An editorial next week calling for a temporary halt in the bombing of North Vietnam.”… Page 2: “War is Protested by Yale Students”… “750 students and faculty members conducted a 40-minute ‘silent vigil’ against the war as Mrs. Lyndon Johnson spoke in the Yale Political Union on ‘Beautification in America.’ Students posted signs saying, ‘Lady Bird Beautifies While Lyndon Bombs.’ “…
10 October 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times drew a blank…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 10 October 1967…
34TFS/F-105 History: From the 100-Mission Combat Log of Major Sam Armstrong and unpublished manuscript titled “Southeast Asia October 1967-May 1968″… Three entries for period 9-11 October 1967…
9 Oct 67…”Mission 2. F-105D…Call Sign: ‘Cambo.’ Takeoff 1525. Mission Length 1+50. Flight Lineup: #1-Jack Rollins…(his 100th mission). #2-Me.
“2-ship flight fragged against a natural river ford in Laos just west of Vietnam but was unable to go to target due to heavy cloud coverage in eastern Thailand and Vietnam. Instead we received a Combat Sky Spot (CSS) and dropped our 12 bombs together from level flight at 18,000-feet. Target was the Mu Gia Pass. Could not see impact because of clouds. Came back to Korat and made low pass in trail and tactical pitch-up to honor Major Rollings completing his 100 missions.”
11 Oct 67…”Mission 3. F-105D… Call Sign: “Cleveland.” Takeoff 0733. Mission Length 1+50. Flight Lineup: #1-David B. Waldrop…#2-Me.
“2-ship flight fragged against a road section across a stream in Laos very close to Mu Gia Pass. weather was bad in the target area and we had to use CSS to drop. Drop was routine from 17,000-feet and bombs disappeared into clouds with no Bomb Damage Assessment (BDA). Made weather reconnaissance sweep over Pack I to get counter. Waldrop is the 1/Lt who shot down 2 MIGs one day back in August. (As a 34 TFS pilot, Waldrop was officially credited with shooting down one Mig-17 on 23 August 1967.) GCA recovery into Korat.”… “That afternoon late I walked over to the club and went to the bar. I noticed that something was unusual. I noted that some guys from Takhli were raising hell in our bar. I learned later that they had flown over on a C-47 and bombed the base with toilet paper and put dye marker in the pool before going to the bar. They were doing carrier landings on some tables wet down with large quantities of beer. Then I noticed a familiar figure–my old room mate– Ted Moeller (Captain Theodore G. Moeller, 357 TFS). He was doing his flame thrower routine by putting lighter fluid in his mouth and spewing it out over a lighted cigarette lighter. I had a chance to speak with him briefly before we took them down to the rathskeller for dinner and threw them into the pool before their 10 p.m. ride back home.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #583… One of the RTR sources is the CIA Library and Reading room… Readers are encouraged to check it out at: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/
Once there, access “the President’s Daily Brief” with year and month. This will put yuu among the briefs of those days… In September 1967 the PDB was expanded to include a “Special Daily Report on North Vietnam for the President’s Eyes Only”... no explanation why this was added or why it only went to the President… These are very interesting and very wordy… Humble Host scans them all and adds the hottest entries to the daily RTR blog. However, these documents are highly redacted, even after 50 years, and so wordy that your Humble Host can only offer a portion of what the President was seeing/reading… The following is a collation of notes from the 7 Oct to 11 Oct 67 to give you a feel for what is there for the deep readers…
7 Oct: … “North Vietnamese Reflections of US Political Attitudes Toward the War“… A commentary by the Viet Cong’s Liberation Press Agency broadcast clandestinely in Vietnamese in South Vietnam on 4 October contained a lengthy and harshly worded attack on recent statements on the war by President Johnson and UN Ambassador Goldberg. The broadcast described ‘Johnson and his clique in the US administration’ as a ‘band of cunning, deceitful, insolent, and stupid people.’ It further asserted that the peace offensive which the ‘Johnson clique has advertised for a long time’ is merely an ‘old trick accompanied by ambiguous arguments which are disastrously indecisive.’ The broadcast further asserted that the current US peace effort ws put forth ‘for the absurd reason of continuing the war of aggression.’ Going on in the same vein, the broadcast recounted in vindictive language the ‘insolent deeds’ of the US ‘aggressors’ and emphasized that ‘Johnson’s deceitful arguments about peace negotiations have not been able to deceive US and world public opinion nor can they provide him with any hope of maintaining his presidency for another term,’ the broadcast closed by restating the Communists’ determination to continue the war until a settlement on their terms can be achieved….the 7 Oct brief “Notes on the Situation” in NVN addressed the operation of the Paul Doumer bridge but the entire page was redacted with the exception of “rail and highway traffic have been restored on the Doumer bridge,… “…Another Note: “Hanoi on the Chinese presence in North Vietnam.” North Vietnam has extolled the extensive presence of Chinese engineering, construction, and other personnel in North Vietnam and has also publicly alluded for the first time to Chinese personnel engaging in combat and ‘fighting courageously’ on behalf of Vietnam…”
9 Oct:… “Hanoi on War Protests in the US”... In a broadcast to a domestic audience on 4 October, Hanoi radio rounds-up a series of reports from the US concerning protests against the war. The broadcast takes note of the demonstration planned for Washington on 21 October and quotes Mrs. Dagmar Wilson of the ‘Women’s Strike for Peace’ as predicting that American mothers will voice their protest against sending their son to fight in Vietnam. The broadcast also claims that the recent conference of ‘Businessmen for Peace in Vietnam’ condemned the ‘aggressive policy of the Johnson clique’ and demanded an end to the war. It also cited a resolution of 21 American bishops opposing the war, the sixth national congress of the ‘Women’s Strike for Peace,’ and the actions of individuals refusing inductions into military service as examples of the antiwar effort in the United States.”…
10 Oct:… Notes on the Situation: “The Hard Life of a North Vietnamese Soldier:” The personal history statement of a North Vietnamese soldier who recently rallied to the South Vietnamese Government in Quang Ngai Province provides what is probably a typical vignette of the hardships and anxieties borne by individual North Vietnamese who are sent to the South….The soldier recounted that in early 1965 he was ‘very unhappy’ when informed that he would have to go South to fight, chiefly because he felt that he might not return. Efforts by his family to have the assignment changed resulted only in his being accused of having ‘weak ideology.’ After a farewell visit to his family, which was’ as sad as a funeral,’ the soldier left for his assignment….While en route to the South, the soldier received the impression that any fight there would be brief since he had been told that four-fifths of the country and three-fourth of the people had been liberated. His group was not warned of any potential hardships during the trek South. The long marches and constant rain were a great strain, especially while carrying a 65-pound pack. Many in the group, including this soldier, suffered from malaria from which three died and 12 had to be left behind…The troops were warned that if they tried to desert, they would be sent back to the North where they would be humiliated and their families’ lives probably affected. After reaching the South, the soldier experienced a shortage of food and noticed that the ‘liberated area’ was for the most part unpopulated wild country. Most of his associates now do not expect to return to the North but are resigned to being killed or maimed in combat.”… “Sea Deliveries to North Vietnam in September”… For the third month in a row, cargo deliveries to North Vietnamese ports were lower than the unusually high monthly average set during the first half of the year. The drop-off has permitted further reduction in the backlog of ships waiting in Haiphong to unload. (the rest redacted)... “Treatment of Prisoners:”…A captured North Vietnamese private who infiltrated South Vietnam early this year said during his interrogation that American Prisoners in North Vietnam are generally well treated and receive a ration allowance three times that of a North Vietnamese soldier. The soldier did say, however, there had been some cases of mistreatment by local militia units making initial captures. All American pilots were sent to Hanoi, he said.”…
10 Oct: …”North Vietnamese Reflections of US Political Attitudes Toward the War”... “Viet Cong on ‘American Negroes’ Struggle” : A September 30 Viet Cong clandestine broadcast aimed at South Vietnamese Government troops cites the American Negroes ‘struggle for democratic freedom’ as an example for the Vietnamese. The broadcast states that recent uprisings in New York and Detroit show that the Negroes have already used and will continue to use violence to oppose their ‘barbarous repressions.’ The broadcast notes that the Negroes have endured many hardships and states that the Vietnamese ‘should stand up and struggle for your own democratic freedoms.’ Only by resorting to ‘just force’ as the American Negroes have done, according to the Viet Cong, will the South Vietnamese be able to ‘liberate’ themselves from the US repressive force. The Struggle by the American Negroes ‘considerably contributes’ to a ‘further increase’ in US weaknesses, according to the Viet Cong. The broadcast cites recent demonstrations in Milwaukee and protest meeting in Chicago as examples of the Negroes ‘struggle.’ Noting that the Negroes have continued their efforts despite the ‘Johnson’ clique’s farce’ of signing many civil rights laws, the broadcast claims that many Negroes still cannot attend the same schools, take the same buses, go to the same theaters, or eat at the same restaurants as whites. The broadcast also claims that Negro servicemen in Vietnam are not granted equal treatment. According to the Viet Cong, ‘everyone knows that American Negro troops have been chained to their armored vehicles so they cannot escape death when their vehicles are set ablaze.”
11 Oct: … “North Vietnam Reflections of US Political Attitudes Toward the War”... “Hanoi on ‘Peaceful Settlement”... In its customary fashion, Hanoi is once again claiming that current US statements about a peaceful settlement of the war are merely a shield behind which ‘the US imperialists have further escalated the war.’ In a domestic broadcast on 5 October, Hanoi offered a wrap-up of the ‘criminal escalation’ alleging that the latest bombing raids have been mainly directed against densely populated areas, as well as economic and civilian establishments including a number of schools. The broadcast pointed out, however, that the furious struggle by the Vietnamese people in both the North and South is forcing the US to pay a heavy price for its aggression, and that the people of Vietnam are resolved to fight and win ‘no matter how much longer we will have to fight and no matter what hardships we will have to undergo.’ “
RTR Quote for 10 October: An American general during World War I: “I see no reason why the range of the military aeroplane should ever exceed three days march by the infantry. An independent Air Force, if adopted and maintained, can only contribute to disaster and defeat in war.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear