RIPPLE SALVO… #433… The President’s Special Consultant says: “…it is not worth the lives of our pilots.”…but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE of a long look-back to revisit an historic air war fought fifty years ago…
12 MAY …HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a P/C Friday in the Big Apple…
Page 1: “A Soviet Warship Bumps U.S. Destroyer Second Time In Two Days”...”The American destroyer Walker was scraped today for the second time in two days by a Soviet destroyer in the Sea of Japan. The United States immediately called upon the Soviet Union to take prompt action to halt harassment of American naval vessels…The Soviet destroyer involved was a different one than yesterday, but the U.S. destroyer was the same–Walker. The U.S. is conducting anti-submarine exercises in the Sea of Japan.”... Page 1: “Thant Is Afraid of a Wider Conflict”… “…fears that the initial phase of World War III was being fought in Vietnam. If present trends continue, he said, a direct confrontation between Washington and Peking is inevitable. He reminded a luncheon gathering of United Nations correspondents that a mutual assistance treaty between the Communist Chinese and the Soviet Union was still in force…never before has U Thant gone so far as to predict a world war groping out of the Vietnam conflict.”… Page 1: “U.S. Warns Greece War Aid is Imperiled”... “Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara has warned the Greek junta that the United States may cut off military aid unless Greece is returned to constitutional government.”… Page 1: “Senate Moves to Extend the Draft Law Almost Intact”… “The Senate passed tonight a bill to extend the Selective Service Act for another four years without major change. The roll-call vote was 70-2. The two negative voters were Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Oklahoma.”…
Page 1: “Ky Says He’ll run For President”…”Premier Nguyen Cao Ky told his cabinet at a private meeting today that he would run for President in the election on September 3…. ‘the decision is final and unequivocal…’…A few hours later Air Vice Marshall Ky made the decision…Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Thieu the chief of state said it was entirely possible that he would run against his military colleague.”… Page 1 “New U.S Brigade Will be Formed For Vietnam.”... “Defense Department officials said today that a 5,000-man Army infantry brigade to be formed this month at Fort Hood, Texas would eventually be sent to South Vietnam. It will take at least five months for the new unit, the 198th Infantry Brigade, to be organized, fully trained and sent to South Vietnam.”… Page 1: “Mississippi Guard Stems Negro Riot”...”National Guardsmen carrying carbines with fixed bayonets and led by three armored cars took over the campus of Jackson State College for Negroes tonight and imposed martial law in the downtown section. They acted within minutes of the serious wounding of a Negro man who was shot in the back. Another was also hit by the shotgun fire of a Jackson policeman.”… Page 4: “U.S. Renews Drive On P.O.W. Exchange”... “U.S. revealed an effort to win North Vietnam agreement on prisoner exchange. The U.S. holds 19 North Vietnamese torpedo boat crewmen for possible exchange. U.S. has 200 MIA in North Vietnam and North Vietnam holds about 190 American prisoners.”…
Page 6: “A spokesman reported combat deaths in Vietnam last week totaled 276 to match the previously high weekly figure in the war. 1,748 were wounded in action. Enemy losses for last week were put at 1,903 killed in action. Since the arrival of the first American military advisors here in 1981, a total of 9,681 have been killed in action. The total to date in 1967 is 3,037.” …
Page 6: “Vietcong Attack 2 U.S. Bases, Killing 6 and Damaging Planes”… “Vietcong gunners shelled the major United States base at Bien Hoa, 16 miles northeast of Saigon today with about 125 rounds of mortar, rocket and recoiless rifle fire. Six USAF men were killed and 29 wounded in the 15-minute attack. There was moderate damage to buildings, equipment and aircraft. At the same time the Phuocvinh strip 35 miles north of Saigon was the target of 30 rounds of mortar fire. No injuries or damage was reported.”… Page 20: “15 in Protest on War Ousted From Pentagon”... “Fifteen anti-war protesters were carried from the Pentagon for the second day in a row after they camped outside the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They were asked to leave but sat in a circle and sang ‘We Shall Overcome.’ They were carried out the back door. The five girls in the group were carried out on stretchers as prescribed by Government regulations.”…
Page 8: “Fire At U.S. Jets Laid to Chinese”... “Ships flying the flag of Communist China fired a American planes bombing Haiphong. British officers from a merchant vessel said today. The British vessel was berthed at Haiphong on 25 April when it occurred… United States jets fired rockets on a cement plant…they saw one American plane shot down by ground fire. Barney Giles, the second mate of the Ardcrossmore: ‘The harbor was full of foreign shops,’ he said, ‘but only the Chinese ship joined in the ground fire, which was pouring into the sky from the North Vietnamese tugs and launches and from rifles of the guards on shore. So far as we could see all the Russian and East German ships were unarmed.”…
12 MAY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (13 May reporting 12 May ops)…Page 1: U.S. Planes Blast Two Military Areas Near Hanoi Again”… “Unite Sates fighter-bombers returned to Hanoi area again yesterday to attack a storage area and an Army barracks. Each target was four miles from the center of the North Vietnamese capital. Pilots hammered the army barracks at Hadong southwest of Hanoi for the second time since May 5. The other target was a supply storage area north of the city. A North Vietnamese broadcast monitored in Tokyo said American planes attacked several populous areas yesterday in Hanoi and in Hotay Province southwest of Hanoi. Hanoi asserted that five American planes had been shot down. The U.S. declined to comment.”... Page 15: “U.S. Plane Hit By Missile”… “A North Vietnamese missile believed to be emplaced just north of the demilitarized zone brought down an A-4 fighter-bomber Wednesday night. The third stage of what may have been the same missile was discovered by a marine patrol near Conthien. The pilot is missing.”… Page 15: “2 Planes Down Hanoi Says”… “MIGs shot down 2 American aircraft during a 20-minute raid on the outskirts of the city.”..(see Hobson next para)…(bear#75#76bridgevinhson/bargesvinh)…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were six fixed wing downed/destroyed in Souteast Asia on 12 May 1967…
(1) COLONEL NORMAN CARL GADDIS and 1LT JAMES MILTON JEFFERSON were flying an F-4C of the 390th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang and participating in the strike on the Hadong army barracks four miles southwest of Hanoi and were hit by ground fire in the target area. A MIG-17 closed and downed the crippled F-4C. Both COLONEL GADDIS and 1LT JEFFERSON ejected. COLONEL GADDIS was captured and interned as a POW, the first full Colonel captured in the Vietnam war. He was on his 73rd mission. He returned home in March 1973 to resume his Air Force career. 1LT JEFFERSON died ejecting or shortly thereafter. His remains were returned 14 July 1999 and identified on 5 June 2000. Young Lieutenant JEFFERSON perished fifty years ago today, bravely, on the battlefield in the service of his country…
(2) CAPTAIN EARL WILLARD GRENZEBACH was flying an F-105D of the 357th TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli on a strike on a storage depot at Nguyen Khe near the Hadong barracks and was climbing clear of the target after the attack when hit by ground fire and is believed to have ejected about ten miles south of Yen Bai. A brief search of the hostile area was conducted but CAPTAIN GRENZEBACH was never heard from or seen again and his body rests where he fell fifty years ago today… Gone, but not forgotten…
(3) CAPTAIN PETER POTTER PITMAN and CAPTAIN ROBERT ALLEN STEWART were flying an F-105F of the 34th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a strike on a ferry complex in Quang Binh province. The aircraft did not return from the mission. Both CAPTAIN PITMAN and CAPTAIN STEWART are presumed to be dead, Killed in Action. Their bodies have not been found and they apparently rest where they fell on 12 May 1967…
(4, 5 and 6) An F-100D, an F-102A and an O-1G destroyed on the ground at Bien Hoa in a Vietcong Mortar/Rocket attack.
RIPPLE SALVO… #433… “BRAINSTORMING ROLLING THUNDER: whaddawedonow?”… The objectives of the bombing program–Rolling Thunder–and North Vietnam targets were the President’s most intense priority during the first two weeks of May 1967… The Documents attached to my last few RTRs are supporting evidence for this conclusion. There is more… On May 11 the President received a clear, concise and persuasive set of alternatives and advice for the his consideration from General Maxwell Taylor, the President’s most trusted “Special Consultant.” That memorandum starts out:
“Mr. President: I seem to sense a new wave of pessimism regarding Viet-Nam pervading official circles in Washington, apparently arising from renewed doubts about the bombing of the North and concern over future troop requirements to carry out the ground war in the South. For what they are worth, in this paper I would like to give you my current thoughts on the bombing…. (later in the two pager…)
“Having defended the need for continuing the bombing, I must say that I would be cautious in extending the target system much further. Some of our bombing advocates still think in terms of World War II and forget another fact conceded in past discussions–that there is really no industrial target system in North Viet-Nam worthy of the name and no war-supporting industry which, if destroyed, will bear importantly on the outcome of the war. Similarly, the transportation system, though subject to intermittent interruption, can never be damaged to such a point that the minimum supply requirements of combat can not reach the South.
“Under these conditions, I do not think that it is worth the lives of our pilots, the loss of out planes or such political risk as may be entailed to enter heavily defended areas and strike or restrike targets which do not have a clear relationship to our bombing objectives. It would be most timely to decide what targets are truly of that class and , hence, need to be put out of action and kept out of action….”
Read the entire General Taylor memorandum of 11 May at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d172
The documents in this series and the dates of 1-15 May are great reading for old Vietnam fighter-bomber aircrews… they were the memos that were on the minds and pens of the entire Washington target planning group. They were the agenda for two lunches and a dinner: May 11: the President, Rusk, McNamara, Rostow, Christian, Helms, and Humphrey; May 12: the President, Rusk, McNamara, Rostow and Christian. Then Dinner on the evening of May 12 that brought President Johnson’s dearest, old buddy sounding board and confidante Senator Richard Russell to the White House for a one-on-one for which the following are the only notes, jotted down by George Christian:
10:43…”To the Mansion with Mrs. J, Senator Russell, Harry McPherson. Directly to the dining room for dinner. At dinner the President told Senator Russell that what he needed to talk to him about was Vietnam. It was obvious that the two had discussed the same matter earlier in the evening. The President outlined the three choices given him: (1) ‘I can move further in the North–but they tell me that moving further in the North with the bombing will result in only killing civilians and will not accomplish anything that we’ve not already accomplished’; (2) ‘I can concentrate completely on the DMZ’; or (3) ‘I can concentrate on the areas between the seventeenth and twentieth parallels and make my planes make a desert of the area. Just destroy anything that moves.’...Senator Russell feels that dragging this out each day leans more toward getting us in a big war. ‘We’ve just got to finish it soon,’ said the Senator, ‘because time is working against you both here and there.’ The Senator suggested that his feeling was that ‘the only way to end the war was to blockade the ports and stop their lines of supply.’ The President expressed his sincere belief that a blockade would get us into war sooner that anything. The President also felt that ‘the only thing left to take out there,’ said the President, ‘is a power plant which is located 1/2 mile from HO’s headquarters. Suppose we missed,’ said the President... “… A little later the following: President launched into a tirade against the newspaper reporters who follow him around at receptions. ‘They watch me chew and swallow. I won’t attend anymore receptions attended by newspapers.”… At midnight, Senator Russell stood up and said, ‘Mr. President, its midnight and I have to go to bed because I am an old man, and you have to got o bed because you’re the President of the United States.’…The President said goodbye to Senator Russell and went to his bedroom.” (Source: The President’s Daily Diaries at the LBJ Library…)
Meanwhile, at Yankee Station, the Yankee Air Pirates were ready to take a day off for Buddha’s Birthday and a day of AOMs in the Ready Room… and on the beach, a chance for the North Vietnamese gunners and missileers to reload, relocate, and oil them weapons… it is about to get intense…
Lest we forget…. Bear