RIPPLE SALVO… #164… TRY #2 FOR AUG 12….. ABBREVIATED….
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED SIXTY FOUR of remembering the days and nights of Rolling Thunder…
12 AUGUST 1966: NEW YORK TIMES HEADLINES… A fair Friday in the Big Apple…
Due to computer glitch yesterday this is an abbreviated Headlines only blog to give me time to catch up, computer willing…
Page 1: “Rights bill foes in Senate force delay in debate” … “Johnson orders raid error study”… “President seeks any sign of move in Hanoi to talk”…
Page 3: “Humphrey says foe errs on U.S. policy”… Page 4: “Senate approves G.I. Medicare Bill”… “U.S. thinks Chinese put 50,000 in North”…
12 AUGUST 1966…OPERATION ROLLNG THUNDER… NYT (13 August reporting 12 August)… “Jets And 2 MIGs Battle In The North”…”United States Air Force F-105 Thunderchief jets battled two MIG-17s over North Vietnam near Hanoi yesterday. Both of the Soviet built planes and one of the United States jets were damaged… encounter took place 60 miles northwest of Hanoi. The attempt to intercept the American Bombers took place after United States planes again raided North Vietnamese oil depots. Pilots reported seeing three surface-to-air missiles 30 miles north-northwest of the port of Vinh today. American jets flew 118 missions against North Vietnam Thursday hitting the Ubongi power plant that furnishes half the electricity to the Hanoi-Haiphong industrial area. Two flights of A-6 Intruder jets from the carrier Constellation struck the Ubongi facility. They have hit the plant at least twice before, but each time the North Vietnamese have rebuilt it. Air Force and Navy pilots left two orange fireballs rising from the thermal power plant which is about 15 miles northwest of Haiphong. They also pounded 14 oil depots and storage areas. One strike was only a mile from Thanh Hoa, a major coastal city 100 miles south of Haiphong. The pilots encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire and two surface-to-air missiles. An F-8 Crusader from the USS Oriskany was shot down, but the pilot was rescued” (Balisteri on 11 August) …
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson)… three aircraft lost on 12 August 1966…
(1) 1LT MARTIN JAMES NEUENS was flying an F-105D of the 333rd TFS and 355th TFW at Takhli on a strike on the oil storage facility at Thai Nguyen and was hit by anti=aircraft fire over the target and was required to eject from his burning aircraft a few miles later. 1LT NEUENS was captured and imprisoned. He survived and was repatriated on 4 March 1973…
(2) CAPTAIN DAVID JAY ALLISON was also flying an F-105D of the 333rd TFS out of Takhli on the same strike at Thai Nguyen and in a subsequent strafing attack on another target and was hit by ground fire. CAPTAIN ALLISON was forced to eject 10 miles from Yen Bai and was seen to parachute into a stand of trees. There was no radio contact and a rescue attempt was aborted. CAPTAIN ALLISON was assumed to be Killed in Action. No further information.??? Why?
(3) MAJOR BLAIR CHARLTON WRYE was flying an RF-101C of the 20th TRS and 460th TRW and was flying out of Udorn on a Rolling Thunder reconnaissance mission and was last positioned near Nam Dinh. He perished and was listed as missing in action until his remains were returned to the United States by the North Vietnamese on 13 September 1999. MAJOR WRYE was Killed in Action and for more than 13 years was totally lost to his family and mates…
RIPPLE SALVO… #164… If at first you don’t succeed…try, try, try again…
“WEEK IN REVIEW”…”Price Rising In Vietnam”… (NYT)… “In Vietnam…the United States stepped up its punishing air attacks against North Vietnam. Last Monday alone U.S. planes flew 139 missions to the North, the most ever flown in one day since the attacks began in 1964.. The massive operation followed Black Sunday–as they are calling it in Saigon–when another one day record was set: seven American planes were lost. In all at least 13 planes went down during the week–the highest for any day. At a news conference President Johnson said: ‘Sometimes…you have heavier losses than you expect, and sometimes much smaller…but I wouldn’t say that losses are unexpected…’…Last week the Navy added a third carrier for attacks already being launched daily from the carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin and bases in South Vietnam and Thailand. Targets have been widened steadily until they now include key power stations, missile sites, oil installations at Hanoi and Haiphong and the demilitarized zone between the two Vietnams. All of this effort in the words of the Administration has been expended in the hope of accomplishing two ends: first, to slow the flow of men and equipment from the North to South, and second, to persuade Hanoi that negotiations are the best way to conclude the struggle. The best evidence that neither goal has been reached, despite the continuous escalation. Statistics made available by an unimpeachable source in Saigon last week show that during the first seven months of 1966 an accepted total of 35,000 North Vietnamese regulars infiltrated into South Vietnam, an average of 5,000 per month. American strategists in Saigon now list 40,000 North Vietnamese regulars as active and ready for combat in South Vietnam. As for drawing Hanoi to the bargaining table, there is no evidence that this is in sight.”
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….