RIPPLE SALVO… #494… A CRUSADER ROUND ROBIN LIKE NO OTHER… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR of a return to the contested skies of Rolling Thunder…
12 JULY 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a comfortable Wednesday in NYC…
Page 1: “McNamara Hints He’ll Hold Down Troops Increase”… “Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara has told officials here in Saigon that he is determined to hold to a minimum the number of additional United States troops sent to Vietnam. He ended his four-day visit this afternoon and flew back to Washington...He said, ‘all the resources now being made available are not being well used. The South Vietnamese youth are riding bicycles–why aren’t all those long-haired kids I see riding around town on motor bikes in the army? The South Vietnamese Army is not fighting well enough.”
HUMBLE HOST adds a document from Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker that summarizes the four-day visit–no holds barred. Good reading, several pages… at: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d237
A recommendation: The dilemma of how many troops and what’s the strategy facing McNamara and LBJ in 1967 Vietnam is comparable to the ongoing Afghanistan dilemma of Secretary Mattis and President Trump… Over the past month the dilemma has been well reported in the media. The NYT has published three pertinent columns that are worth digesting:
3 June 2017: Obama’s Dilemma On Troops Surge in Afghanistan Now Vexes Trump
18 June 2017: As US Adds Troops In Afghanistan, Trump’s Strategy Remains Undefined
10 July 2017: Trump Aides Recruited Businessmen to Devise Options for Afghanistan
History is the teacher. I wonder if anybody in the White House War Room or over at Foggy Bottom took History 404: Course title: THE VIETNAM WAR: Quagmire I… ??? Dear Reader: What’s your advice? Opinion? email to White House?…
Back to NYT, 12 Jul 67… SIX DAY WAR: Page 1: “Israel Tells U.N. She Won’t Annul Jerusalem Move–But government Agrees to Stationing of Observers On Suez Cease-fire Line–Delegates See Affront in Eban Note Listing Gains in Assimilated Areas”… “Israel today rejected a General Assembly resolution asking annulment of the unification of Jerusalem and asserted the city’s administrative and municipal integration provided the legal basis for protection of the holy places. Israel did agree to the positioning of the holy places. Israel did agree to the positioning of UN observers along the cease-fire line on the Suez Canal.”…Page 1: “Hussein Said To Be Ready for Wide Deal With Israel–But It Would Be An Elaborate Truce Accord Not A Peace Treaty, Diplomats Say–Direct Talks Unlikely”… “King Hussein of Jordan is reliably reported today to be willing to make a far-reaching deal with Israel that would enable the two states to exist side-by-side. It would take the form of an elaborate armistice but would not be a peace settlement…Hussein ready to acknowledge Israels ‘right to exist.’ “… Page 15: “Suez Blocked At Three Points”... “There are two Egyptian ships sunk at the north entrance south of Port Said. A small tanker blocks the waterway at Suez on the north end of Bitter Lake.”…
SUMMER 1967: Page 22: “Brooke Opposes a Bar to Whites in Rights Drive”... “Senator Edward Brooke told the NAACP in Boston that the civil rights movement would be betrayed by any effort to exclude white Americans”… Page 23: “Dr. King Expands Negro Job Drive...announced today nationwide application of Operation Breadbasket.”… Page 1: “Shipbuilder Riot In Virginia Strike”... “Striking ship builders at the gates of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company became a rioting mob early today. Violence raged throughout the business district of this tidewater city for two hours. A crowd of 3,000 turned and looted at least four stores.”… Page 1: “Jobless Rate 4-Per Cent, An 18-Month High”…”Jobless number at 66.1 million, an increase of 150,000 more than is normal.”…
Page 1: “Study Says Soviet Cuts Missile Gap”... At the present rate the Russians will have big lead by 1971. A study sponsored by the House Armed Services Committee has concluded that the Soviet Union will have a marked nuclear superiority over the United States by 1971 unless steps are taken this year to improve American Strategic nuclear capabilities. The 103-page study conducted by American Security Council. Members include General Curtis LeMay, Dr. Edward Teller, General Thomas Power, and General Bernard Schriever. The study was requested by Committee chairman Mendell Rivers.”… Page 2: “Romney Proposes A Rein On Bombing”... “Governor George Romney called today for de-escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam and a concentration on targets directly related to the infiltration of men and supplies in South Vietnam. He is accused of shifting his position.”… Page 3: “Saigon Men Say They Beat Off Foe”… “Two companies of South Vietnamese troops, outnumbered 4 to 1 beat back a night long attack by North Vietnamese regulars 60 miles north of Saigon. At dawn 116 enemy bodies were found on the battle site. South Vietnamese casualties were 15 killed and 30 wounded.”…
12 JULY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (13 July reporting 12 July ops) Page 16: “In the air war United States pilots flew 137 missions mostly against trucks, roads, and bridges in the panhandle. Navy Skyhawk pilots reported seeing 5 MIG-21s during a strike against three anti-aircraft artillery sites 15 miles southwest of Haiphong.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses”(Chris Hobson) There were five fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 12 July 1967…
(1) MAJOR JAMES ALVIN RAINWATER and 1LT T. PLANK were flying an F-4C of the 391st TFS and 12th TFW out of Cam Ranh Bay on a combat support mission and while awaiting for clearance to strafe and rocket a landing zone suddenly dove into the ground. Both airmen ejected but only 1LT PLANK survived. It is assumed that the aircraft was hit by ground fire. MAJOR RAINWATER was Killed in Action fifty years ago today…and rests in peace…
(2) CAPTAIN CHARLES LARRY MOORE was flying an F-100D Super Sabre of the 531st TFS and 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa and conducting a Napalm run on a Vietcong position at 150-feet when hit by automatic weapon fire. The F-100D burst into flame and crashed–no ejection– killing CAPTAIN MOORE. The site was 15 miles south of Saigon…
(3) LCDR JOHN H. KILPATRICK was flying an A-4E of the Va-212 Rampant Raiders embarked in USS Bon Homme Richard on an air wing strike on the railway at Mai Truong near Hai Duong. His aircraft was hit in the port wing coming off the target. He cleaned off his badly damage aircraft and turned back toward the Gulf.
Steve Gray tells the rest of the story in his great journal, “RAMPANT RAIDER“… Page 261-62… (Thanks , Steve)…
“Later that day, 37-mm fire struck Lt.Cdr. John Kirkpatrick’s engine while he was returning from a target far inland toward Hanoi. Once again the route out was over the heavily populated Red River Delta. The area was all rice paddies and villages, and there was no cover for downed airman. Ejecting here meant certain capture. I had the strike tanker and was holding about five miles off the coast due south of Haiphong and east of Nam Dinh. John’s engine was developing only 80 percent thrust, and he was losing altitude and airspeed. The engine was running very rough as it shed turbine and compressor blades out the back. Down to about two hundred knots and three thousand feet with more than twenty miles to go before reaching the safety of the Gulf, John clearly didn’t think he would make it out. His voice sounded resigned as he described his engine readings to his wingman and prepared to eject. But the rugged little J-52-P8 just kept chugging along while it ate itself. At two hundred knots John was a sitting duck for flak and SAMs, but as the miles slowly dragged long beneath his airplane and the coastline came into view, hope began to creep into his radio transmission. There were a few sandbar islands a few hundred yards off the coast, and John began to think he might be able to make it to one of the sandbars. The rescue helicopter, on station a few miles out over the water, was monitoring John’s transmissions, and the pilot called to say he didn’t know if he could go in to the sandbars without permission from the admiral. John answered him passionately. ‘Gawdammit, Help, if you don’t come in to pick me up, I’ll crawl, swim, fly out there and shoot your ass down!”‘ One of his wingmen echoed the threat. John’s sturdy A-4 got him three miles out over the water before the tired engine gave up the ghost, but three miles was plenty. The rescue helo was on the scene when John ejected and picked him up uninjured within five minutes. I was elated that John made it out safely, but somehow saddened by the loss of the airplane. John was flying ship 228, the airplane I had left at Udorn after the premature explosion of my bomb back in February. But the little airplane got two of its pilots to safety from extremis in its short life, and I am sure it has a place of honor in Davy Jones’s Locker.”… (Great story Steve)…
(4) CAPTAIN JACK PARIS DOVE and MAJOR BOYD EDWIN SQUIRE were flying a T-28D of the 606th ACS of the 56th ACW out of Nakhon Phanom on a night armed reconnaissance mission looking for trucks on the North Vietnam border. The aircraft went missing. A wing of the aircraft was found but no airmen. In 1992 the crash site was excavated and the remains recovered and identified as being those of CAPTAIN DOVE and MAJOR SQUIRE were killed in action fifty years ago today…they are remembered as they continue to rest in peace, duty done…
(5) An A-4E of the VA-163 Saints embarked in USS Oriskany was launched with insufficient end speed and went into the water. The pilot ejected and was rescued. The Oriskany was en route to Yankee Station to begin a cruise for the record books…
12 July 1967…34 TFS/F-105 History (Howie Plunkett)… “Lt Col Mervin M. Taylor from the 34th TFS, 388th TFW, at Korat flew F-105D…o132 against a target… (Hoa Lac airfield)… The day’s missions were designated RT-56A-070…
“The target was Hoa Lac airfield 20 nautical miles west of Hanoi. The PACAF for the period described the results of the strike. ‘This photo obtained by strike aircraft shows bombs impacting along the runway, bomb impacts covering the administration area. The strike photo on your right shows additional bomb impacts on the coverage of the airfield show the location of dummy MiGs and the two previously identified damaged MiGs. This enlargement of the administrative support area shows 15 buildings destroyed or damaged. An enlarged view of the runway shows that it is unserviceable due to several bomb craters. Photography dated 19 July (one week later) showed the runway repaired and serviceable.’ “… (Thanks Howie)…
RIPPLE SALVO… #494… With my pause to honor the passing of a great warrior leader VADM DUKE HERNANDEZ I included a request for a Duke story for the ages… Thanks to the “Redman,” I think we have a tale that will pass the test of time… it already has a life of nearly 60-years… Thanks, Red Best… who tells this story…
“In the early days of the supersonic F-8 Crusader Duke was on a fuel bingo into Naples, Italy from the ship being below minimums in the central Med. En route to his bingo field he lost his navaids and radio. His only option was dead reckoning navigation above a low overcast. He overflew Italy and the Baltic Sea before he found a break in the clouds and sighted an airport that had a real runway. Thinking he found Italy, he landed and taxied up to the tower where he was met by two guys that were excited, but friendly. He discovered he was in Yugoslavia.
“As a native of Puerto Rico Duke tried his Spanish on the pair of Slavs and was able to order up a fuel truck. After refueling came a major problem–no starter probe. His new friends located a piece of equipment that enabled Duke to get enough RPM to get ignition. Duke told me that he now knew where he was, where he had to go, and before anybody could ask any questions, or take an interest in his brand new Crusader, he was airborne and headed west to DR his way back to the ship. With luck, a lot of VFR weather, great ad libbing, and Divine guidance he made it back into the central Med, found the carrier with help, and subsequently survived long conversations with senior officers.
“Duke never told me how he paid for the fuel. Duke Hernandez would go on to experience countless other exciting chapters in a lifetime of great adventures and service for our country. He was a great aviator, inspirational leader, patriot of fighting spirit, and a positive role model all who knew him, including me.”
RTR Quote for 12 July: CERVANTES, “Don Quixote”… “When good luck comes to thee, take it in.”…
Lest we forget… Bear