RIPPLE SALVO… #165… THE WEBER COUNTY LIBRARY…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED SIXTY FIVE of a day-by-day look back to the skies of North Vietnam Fifty-Years ago…
13 August 1966… PAGE ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES… A fair Saturday with a cool night coming…
Page 1: “Senate Unit Asks Reserve Call-up For Vietnam War”…”The Senate Appropriations Committee urged the Administration today to call-up a portion of the nation’s trained reservists to help meet steadily rising manpower demands sparked by the Vietnam War. The action came as the Committee approved a $58.1 billion military appropriations bill for the 1967 fiscal year which began July 1. Observers in Congress and in the Defense Department expressed surprise at the Pentagon’s refusal so far to call-up the reserves. The Committee Report said: ‘It is the view of the committee that our present commitments in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world are such that it would be in the national interest to use a reasonable portions of the Reserve forces of all the services in fulfilling these commitments,’ Senator Richard Russell, Democrat of Georgia, who is an Appropriations Committee member and the Chairman of The Armed Services Committee described the Administration’s protracted resistance to calling up the reserves a scandal. ‘Men who have enough pull to get into the Reserves or National Guard units are not being sent to fight while the man across the street who is drafted lands in Vietnam.'”… Page 2: “Defense Department called the Reserves a ‘perishable asset’ and that calling them up now would dilute their effectiveness in the event of another emergency. The Defense Department has decided instead of a rapid expansion of the active forces despite the extraordinary burden thrown upon the military forces training facilities…more than 130,000 draft age young men had enlisted in the Army Reserves and National Guard but had not been called for training because of the lack of training facilities.”…Page 2: “Morse Says Administration Aims At Big Troop Build-up”…”Senator Wayne Morse said today that the Johnson Administration was trying to prepare public opinion for a massive troop expansion in Southeast Asia. The Oregon Democrat charged it would be a step toward invasion of North Vietnam. “We can’t send American troops into North Vietnam without getting into a war with China and Russia. Our actions spell out immorality and all Asia knows it, all of Europe knows it,’ he said in a speech in an empty Senate chamber.”….
Page 2.”Draft Evaders In Canada Face U.S. Prosecution”…” Selective Service officials warned today that United States citizens who go to Canada to evade the draft would be prosecuted and possibly drafted when they return. A spokesman said there were reports that up to 400 young Americans were living in Canada to avoid being drafted. He said they could not be extradited, but on return they would be prosecuted as ‘draft delinquents.’ The offense is punishable by up to 5-years and a $10,000 fine.”
Page 3: “Hanoi Names Two Captives”…” North Vietnam announced today that it had captured two Air Force pilots who took part in the raid on the Hanoi fuel dump on June 29. Hanoi identified the pilots as Major James Kasler, leader of the attack, and Captain Wiley Shattuck. The U.S. Command in Saigon announced earlier Major Kasler, regarded as the leading fighter-bomber pilot of the war, was shot down Monday.”…
13 AUGUST 1966… THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF… CIA (TS sanitized)… French officials are reported to have set aside time for a short meeting between De Gualle and a representative of Ho Chi Minh during De Gaulle’s visit to Cambodia beginning late this month. De Gualle himself is said not yet to have responded to the proposal. There are a number of reports that the French President intends to make a major pronouncement on Vietnam on his three day stay in Cambodia. This could be, although as far as we can tell De Gualle still feels the situation is not yet ripe for a French initiative. De Gaulle may well see an advantage, however, in trying to demonstrate that France is in a unique position to serve as a mediator at some time in the future…
13 AUGUST 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (14 August reporting 13 August ops)… Page 1: “In the air war, the downing of a Navy F-8 Crusader jet brought to 14 the number of United States planes lost in North Vietnam during the week, a re cord for the war. Over North Vietnam bad weather again restricted United States air attacks yesterday. the one plane lost was an F-8 but the pilot ejected and was rescued about 35 miles southeast of Haihong. the plane was the 335th to be announced as lost. air force pilots attacking communication lines and storage areas reported destroying 16 trucks in yesterdays raids. Navy pilots exploded an oil barge and set two aflame 25 miles east of Haiphong. “… “Vietnam: Air Losses”…(Hobson)… One aircraft reported downed in southeast Asia on 13 August... (1) LCDR NORM S. LEVY was flying an F-8E of the VF-111 Sundowners embarked in USS Oriskany on an armed reconnaissance mission in the islands east of the port of Hon Gay. LCDR LEVY found a large barge 10 miles south of Hon Gay and on his second rocket attack on the lucrative target was hit by ground fire. He headed his heavily damaged Crusader southeast but his hydraulic systems failed and the cockpit filled with smoke requiring him to eject 5 miles east of Dao Cat Ba where he was rescued by Navy helicopter. That evening LCDR NORM LEVY was in a borrowed dry flight suit and pushing hard for the pinky launch until the Air Wing commander put the kibash on his aggressive same day effort to get back in the fight… LCDR LEVY perished in the Oriskany fire later in the cruise. Please refer to the posts of CAPTAIN BROWN BEAR SCHAFFERT on this website for additional narrative on the fire and LCDR LEVY… who gave his all for his God, family and country …
RIPPLE SALVO…#165… The Weber Country Library… In researching this project I am getting about ten hours a week reading New York Times microfilm in the superb Ogden Branch of the Weber County Library system. I am making a lot of new friends. “My” film reader is amid fourteen computer stations that attract and serve an unusual clientele–folks who don’t have a computer at home. A significant number do not even have a home. The Public Library is their daytime refuge. Access to the County’s bank of computers, along with a small staff of computer/librarians who schedule and manage the non-stop flow of users, is a must in our society. Three or four days a week I sit at my reader located between two of the computer stations. As a consequence, I am meeting many folks who are struggling, but are trying. Some are there to spend their 30 to 60 minutes of computer time to search for jobs. Some are updating resumes’. Others are: completing on line courses; instructing their kids in English, or vice versa; digging in law books (these folks are their own lawyers); house hunting; and just killing time playing games… The folks come in all ages, from young mothers dragging 2 or 3 kids to elderly ladies with one to three service dogs. Dozens of homeless men and women stop in every day. I am there, right in the middle of it all. I try to ignore the flow and bear down on my reading and note taking from the pages of old NYT amid the mayhem. Public libraries are not quiet places.
The New York Times library of microfilmed newspapers starts in the 1800s and carries forward to the current year. Microfilm readers are linked to printers and computers and are simple to operate and I inevitably draw a crowd as I roll through 1966 one day at a time… “What’s that?” is the leading question I hear a couple times per day. And in the ensuing conversation I learn that nobody in this neighborhood ever heard of Rolling Thunder or the air war with North Vietnam., or cares. I have that under control: I will be at my machine for two more yeas–god willing–with abundant opportunities to mix my mission with associations with a cross section of the poorest among us… Life is good…
Lest we forget…. Bear… ………. –30– ………..