LEST WE FORGET… ALSO REMEMBERING “9/11,” THE 16th ANNIVERSARY OF A BRUTAL ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES BY ISLAMIC TERRORISTS…
RIPPLE SALVO… #554… THE “CONCLUDING STATEMENT” OF THE AUGUST 1967 STENNIS HEARINGS ON THE AIR WAR… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY-FOUR of a look back at the air war called Rolling Thunder one day at a time…
11 SEPTEMBER 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on fair and breezy Monday in NYC…
VIETNAM: Page 2: “Heavy Fighting Near Buffer”... “…broke out late yesterday between North Vietnamese regulars and U.S. Marines two miles south of the buffer near the Marine outpost at Conthien. A Marine spokesman in Danang said that Marines of the 26th Regiment were fighting a North Vietnamese force of about 600 men. The hillside outpost of Conthien has been under almost daily artillery and mortar fire from enemy positions in and north of the demilitarized zone… In the Central Highlands two tanks defended an artillery position near Pleiku this morning when it was attacked by the Vietcong. the tanks cut down the Vietcong with machine guns. Ten of the VC guerrillas who managed to break into the artillery battery’s perimeter were killed. the rest, bout 115 men, were scattered.”... Page 2: “Controversy Over Bombing of NVN Ports”… A lengthy article rehashing all previous port bombing incidents….
SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: Page 1: “Nation’s Teachers Using Civil Rights Protest Methods”...”This is a national fight, a reflection of discontentment throughout the country,’said Ulice Jordan of East St. Louis, Il. ‘For too long we have stood by almost helpless and watched the situation grow more and more desperate,’ said a union leader in Detroit. ‘This is a power struggle, pure and simple,’ said an official in Tallahassee, Fla. The subject under discussion was not this summer’s racial violence or the national spate of agitation against the war in Vietnam. It was the wave of discontentment among American teachers this month, with a rash of strikes and mass resignations that could make education the most turbulent issue in the United States this year, apart from racial discontent and the war.”… Page 1: “Teachers Reject Offer; Schools Will Open Today Under Supervisory Staff–New York City Obtains Writ– Union Leaders Insist Members Will Defy Injunction”… “the Union has 50,000 members among the 55,000 teachers and 6,000 other school employees under its bargaining jurisdiction.”… Page 15: “NAACP Division Decries War–Youth Group also Attacks Wilkins”... “The rebellious Youth Division of the New York branch of the NAACP went against the organization’s national policy yesterday by condemning the war in Vietnam. It called the war ‘morally unacceptable’ and said that it was speaking out because it has a “moral obligation to take a position’… the official NAACP position is ‘no comment.’ Roy Wilkins, executive director of NAACP was attacked as: ‘The most paranoic leader the black people have and will step on anyone in the NAACP who gets more press coverage than his bland statements.’ Roy Wilkins: “I have no comment on what these two young men said.’ “… Page 40: “Police Use Tear Gas To Quell Whites After March in Milwaukee”… “The largest civil rights march in Milwaukee history led by reverend James F. Groppi and his open housing demonstrators from seven mid-western states.”… Page 19: “A Confederate flag at Marquette University was booed”…Page 19: “260 Economists Urge a Tax Rise–Educators Mostly Liberals–Say They Fear Inflation”…
11 September 1967…The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief… SOUTH VIETNAM: Some of the defeated civilian presidential candidates are losing their enthusiasm for contesting the election… COMMUNIST CHINA: A late June item in the press mentions some 600 doctors and nurses leaving Peking for Sinkiang (Lop Nor) to care for “casualties” from China’s sixth nuclear test earlier in the month. This is the first report of casualties from any of the tests, but Chinese movies of the first three showed troops rushing into the test area immediately after detonation. It is possible that in June some zealots dashed in too soon or with inadequate preparation... NORTH VIETNAM: Hanoi condemns U.N. role. A commentary in yesterday’s issue of the party paper made it unmistakably clear that Hanoi will have no part of any United Nations initiative on Vietnam. The commentary accused the United States of a “shopworn plot to legalize its war of aggression against Vietnam.” As on previous occasions, Nhan Dan insisted that the United Nations has no right whatsoever to”interfere in Vietnam. The Vietnamese question, the paper stated, can only be settled on the basis of the four-point stand of the North Vietnamese government and the five points of the Liberation Front.
11 September 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (12 Sept reporting 11 Sept ops)…Page 13: “The Air War: The port of Campha which was attacked by United States fighter-bombers yesterday is a major shopping point for coal, one of North Vietnam’s few export items. The attack was the first against the dock area of a major enemy port. Air Force pilots bombed railroad yards and bridges north of Hanoi. One MIG-17 was struck by cannon fire from an F-105 Thunderbolt.”… “U.S, Says Foe’s Missiles Fell Near Foreign Ships”… “Navy pilots reported today that two enemy surface-to-air missiles exploded yesterday (10th) afternoon near three foreign ships anchored about 20 miles from Haiphong. The pilots observed the missiles being launched from a SAM site south of Haiphong and their end–one hit the water 2,000 yards from the three ships, the other exploded at 1,800-feet directly over the three ships.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 11 September 1967…
(1) MAJOR RICHARD WILLIAM HAWTHORNE, USMC, and CAPTAIN RICHARD RAYMOND KANE, USMC were flying an RF-4B of VMCJ-1 and MAG-11 out of Danang on a photography recce flight 50 miles west of Danang and were observed to hit and crash on high ground near Ben Giang, 35 miles southwest of Danang. The cause of the loss is undetermined and both MAJOR HAWTHORNE and CAPTAIN KANE are recorded as Killed in Action on their last flight fifty years ago this day…
(2) LT JAMES SHAW was flying an F-8 if the VF-111 Sundowners embarked in USS Oriskany on an armed reconnaissance mission and returned from the mission with two MK-82s that would not release. LT SHAW was diverted to land at Danang. Unfortunately, he lacked the fuel to complete the divert and was required to eject at sea and was rescued to fly and fight again.
RIPPLE SALVO… #554… STENNIS August 1967 AIR WAR HEARING SUMMARY: “CONCLUDING STATEMENT”….
“We emphasize again that nothing in this report is meant to suggest the indiscriminate bombing of civilians or civilian population centers. No witness favored this. Certainly, the subcommittee does not recommend it. It is clear from the testimony, however, that, within this limitation, many military actions already discussed which have thus far been withheld or restricted can or should be taken which are calculated to have a direct and adverse effect upon Hanoi’s ability and willingness to continue to support the war.
“Nor do we derogate in any manner the principle of civilian control of the military. We recognize this as one of the truly great bulwarks of our system of government. The best traditions of military uphold this principle and it has been scrupulously adhered to both in the conduct of this war and during these hearings. However, as the subcommittee said in a report issued on October 3, 1962, ‘If war should come, it can be conducted fully by professionals in that art, and, if strategy and tactics come under the influence or direction of unskilled amateurs, sacrifice in blood is inevitable.’
“All must agree that we are in a major war. More than 500,000 of our fighting men are engaged in deadly combat. We believe that, within the broad policies and objectives laid down by the Commander-in-Chief, unless policy reasons to the contrary exist, this requires that greater weight be given to recommendations for military actions which our high-ranking military experts, with lifetimes of experience and expertise behind them, believe to be necessary to bring the war to a successful conclusion.
“When the decision was made to commit American fighting forces to South Vietnam, we believe certain risks became inevitable. They were assumed at that time, otherwise, we would not be in South Vietnam at all. Further and needless risks should not be incurred recklessly, but within that framework, it should be our purpose to support our fighting men to the greatest extent possible and, within reasonable limits, to do that which is necessary to bring the war to an end as quickly and successfully as possible. That is the major thrust of this report.
“Every military witness who testified emphasized that the air war has been waged under severe handicaps which were contrary to military principles. Complex and complicated rules and controls, plus the necessity to obtain approval in Washington for even relatively insignificant actions and tactics, have been the order of the day. We note that in recent months many of these restrictions have been eased but that others, vital to the success of the war, remain in effect.
“It is high time, we believe, to allow the military, to be heard in connection with the tactical details of military operations.”
Tailhook ’17 Summary tomorrow… It was well planned and flawlessly executed…Bravo Zulu to the Tailhook Association from Life Member 297…
RTR QUOTE for 11 September: WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, Memoirs: “You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”… (Sherman said he cannot remember ever saying: “War is hell.”) …
Lest we forget… Bear