RIPPLE SALVO… #646… The air war was sustained at high tempo and intensity through September and October, slowing in November as the weather turned, to become, for the most part, an all-weather bombing system campaign in December….but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED FORTY-SIX dusting off the history of the air war with North Vietnam to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war…
13 DECEMBER 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Wednesday in New York City…
Page 1: “Johnson Accuses G.O.P. or Blocking Key House Bills–Says Republicans ‘Lined up Like Wooden Soldiers’ In Support of Status Quo–AFL-CIO Hears Talk–Johnson Says Labor Chiefs Saved Some Legislation–Scores Critics of War”… “…delivered a speech at annual national convention of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organization.”… Included in the text of the President Johnson’s speech in Bar Harbour, Florida, 12 December 1967: …
“I know that many of labor’s sons have left their parents and have left their homes to risk their lives for liberty and freedom in Vietnam, and I know that is torture for you as it is for me. I also know that you regret every single dollar that we spend on war, dollars that we want to spend on works of peace here at home. But you and I know that we must persevere. The torture we feel cannot beg the truth. It is only our unswerving will, it is only our unshakeable determination that can bring us peace in the world.
“Oh, it is very easy to agonize over the television or to moralize or to pin your heart on your sleeve or a placard on your back and think to yourself that you’re helping somebody stop a war. But I only wish that those who bewail war would bring me just one workable solution to end the war. The peacemakers are out there on the field. The soldier and the statesman need and welcome the sincere and responsible assistance of concerned Americans. But they need reason much more than they need emotion.
“They must have a practical solution and not a concoction of wishful thinking and faint hopes, however, well-intentioned and well-meaning they may be. It must be a solution that does not call for surrender or for cutting and running now. Those fantasies hold the nightmare of World War III, and a much larger war today.
“The easiest thing in the world for the President to do is to get in a larger war. It’s very difficult to continue day-after-day to pressure the enemy without involving yourself in additional problems. I for one would be glad to–and grateful–for any help that any citizen can give me. Thousands of our soldier sons would also thank any one that has a plan or a program or a solution.
“They are really the concerned Americans who recognize the responsibilities that accompany their rights and the duties, that accompany their freedom and their liberty, and who see it as a duty of citizenship to try to be constructive in word and constructive in deed. For as long as I have borne the responsibilities of conducting our foreign policy, I have known what I want you to know, and that it’s easier to protest a policy than to conceive one.
“So your President has followed a rather simple practice. If someone has a plan I’ll listen to it. If it seems worth pursuing, I ask the best Americans that I can find to give me their judgement on it, and I’ve asked your President (George Meany) a good many times for his judgement on these matters. I will devote my days and my nights to supporting and supplying half a million of the bravest men who ever left these shores to fight to protect us. I will honor you and respect our sworn commitment t protect the security of southeast Asia, because in protecting their security I protect your security and your home and your family,too.
“We will not now betray the troubled leaders and the hopeful people of that region who have relied on Uncle Sam’s word to shield them from aggression, not after other Presidents who preceded me gave their solemn word. I am going to see that word is carried out. We will hold the line against aggression as it has been drawn so often by the Congress and by the President. We will not now nullify the word of the Congress or the people as expressed in the SEATO Treaty that we would come and take our stand in the face of common danger and that treaty was ratified by a vote in the Senate of 82 to 1.
“Or the Tonkin Gulf resolution where there were only two votes against it when they said they would support the President and whatever means was necessary to deter aggression. And I call on them to support it now. At all times and in all ways and with all patience and all hope your President and your country will strive for peace. Let no man, friend or foe, American or Asian, mistake our meaning. I remind all of you again tonight, and my fellow Americans who may be viewing these proceedings, of our exchange of correspondence with Ho Chi Minh. The North Vietnamese themselves released my letter of March 21 and in it the President of the United States on behalf of the United States made what we thought was a fair and a firm offer.
“There is a good way, I said, to overcome this problem and to move forward in the search for a peaceful settlement. And that is for us to arrange for direct talks between trusted representatives in a secure setting, away from the glare of publicity. As to the site of these bilateral discussions, I propose that there are several possibilities. We could for example, have our representatives meet in Moscow, where contacts in Moscow have already occurred. Or they could meet in some other country, such as Burma. Or you may have other arrangements or sites in mind and I would try to meet your suggestions.
“Can we be anymore specific? Hanoi spurned that olive branch.They answered with a rude no, and they have repeated it time after disappointing time. And until they relent–and until they see room for compromise, an area for agreement, we must stand unafraid. And we will win.
“In all that I do I will be strengthened by the powerful testimony for freedom that you sons of labor have supported our fighting men every time they needed you. And you have spoken as free men under fire must speak.” …end LBJ speech…
Page 1: “Huge U.S. Airlift Taking Two Brigades to Vietnam”… “More than 6,500 members of the 101st airborne Division and their equipment have been flown to Vietnam in the last three weeks in what military commanders describe today as the largest and longest airlift ever undertaken… the newcomers will bring to 480,000 the total American forces in Vietnam. President Johnson has imposed a ceiling of 525,000… The highest total in Korea for that war peaked at 472,800.”…
GROUND WAR: Page 1: “In the ground war, United States marines reported having killed 54 North Vietnamese soldiers yesterday in a six-hour clash five miles northeast of Giolinh, it the flat coastal area just south of the demilitarized zone…A United States spokesman said 20 marines had been wounded, seven of them requiring hospitalization. Marines of the Fourth Regiment on patrol with amphibious tractors in the soft sand encountered North Vietnamese troops, estimated at 100 at noon. The North Vietnamese hit the marines with rifle and machine gun fire and mortar shells… Action also flared in Central Highlands 19 miles southwest of Dakto, near the Cambodian border where troops of the United States Fourth Infantry Division fought for more than six hours with North Vietnamese regulars Preliminary reports listed two enemy killed and eleven American troops wounded…B-52 bombers hit a reported concentration of North Vietnamese troops and fortified rocket positions three miles north of Giolinh in the southern part of the DMZ…. Fighting also broke out in the jungles near Saigon only a few miles from Bienhoa air base, arrival point of the lift of the United States 101st paratroopers. The fighting broke out less than ten mile northeast of Bienhoa in the area where the 25th Infantry Division is conducting a new operation called Saratoga, aimed at depriving enemy soldiers of their food supplies. It was reported that 39 North Vietnamese had been killed in the two-hour battle. Six Americans were reported wounded…”
13 DECEMBER 1967: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times devoid of air war coverage… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 13 December 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN W.T. SAKAHARA and 1LT ROBERT ELWOOD BENNETT were flying an F-4C of the 558th TFS and 12th TFW out of Cam Ranh Bay on a zone preparation mission on the northern bank of the Mekong River 6 miles north of Phu Vinh. Their Phantom was hit by ground fire on their third run and the pair of airmen were forced to eject. Both came down in the Mekong River. CAPTAIN SAKAHARA was rescued , 1LT BENNETT was not–he was dragged under by his parachute and the currents of the river. His remains were recovered in April of 2010 and identified in November 2011… So young…
(2) CAPTAIN KENNETH I. CHRISMAN and 2LT CALLAHAN were fying a C-7A Caribou of the 535th TAS and 483rd TAW out of Vung Tau on a resupply mission and were hit by ground fire. A single bullet severed a fuel-line leading to engine failure. CAPTAIN CHRISMAN dead-sticked the aircraft into a rice paddy and both airmen survived…
Snipped From the Howie Plunkett compilation “34 TFS/F-105 History“…13-Dec-67….
“At 0640, four pilots from the 34 TFS of “Crossbow’ flight took off from Korat on a mission to bomb target in southern Laos. ” the flight was led by major Sam Armstrong with Captain L.G. Hoppe (flying his 100th counter) at #2; Colonel James L. Stewart (of the 388th Staff) at #3; and Major Donald W. Revers (who had been hit by a MIG-fired Atoll the previous day and flew the burning and badly damaged aircraft to Danang) at #4 in the flight. It was Major Armstrong’s 35th combat flight.” He wrote:
“Bad weather again in Pack VI. Our flight was sent over to Steel Tiger, southern Laos, for FAC control. There were several flights waiting to get on the target so we had to wait. Our target was a storage area along the river south of the Mugia Pass. We bombed it pretty accurately and had one small secondary explosion to develop from the target. ‘Cricket’ wouldn’t clear us into Pack 1 for a reconnaissance but fortunately we had swung into North Vietnam while orbiting the target. We logged it as a ‘counter’ but will have to wait and see it holds up as a counter.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #646… Part IV of review of Rolling Thunder in 1967… A summary of targeting in the fourth quarter: September, October, November and December… Quoted from: “CINCPAC and COMUSMACV Report on the War in Vietnam-June 1968″…
“Weather in the northern sections of North Vietnam during September was much worse than forecast and severely hampered air operations. Seventeen new targets were added to the ROLLING THUNDER 57 target list during September; eight were in the Hanoi restricted area and adverse weather limited our effort against the remainder. Despite the degraded effort in the northern Route Packages, constant pressure was maintained through the employment of the all-weather bombing systems of the Air Force and Navy.
“Improved weather during October, the lifting of restrictions on authorized targets within the Hanoi area on 23 October, and the addition of eight new targets to the ROLLING THUNDER 57 target list permitted a 60 per cent increase in attack sorties against these targets as compared to the September effort. The eight additional targets included seven new targets in the immediate Haiphong area plus a ship repair facility near Haiphong. The transportation, power, and air defense systems were dealt severe blows as result of the 23 October authority to re-enter the Hanoi area and to strike the new targets in and near Haiphong.
“During November 14 new targets were added to the ROLLING THUNDER 57 target list bringing it to a total of 85. Adverse weather throughout November precluded execution of the planned effort in the northern areas. However of the 85 targets, 25 were struck one or more times during the month.
“Although no new targets were authorized during December and the damage level to the ROLLING THUNDER 57 targets remained relatively unchanged, strikes were conducted against previously authorized targets. Both the Doumer and Canal des Rapides Railway and Highway Bridges at Hanoi were extensively damaged during the period 14 through 18 December. Other key targets struck included the Hai Duong, Haiphong, and Kien An Highway and Railroad Bridges and the Kien An, Yen Bai, Hoa Loc, Kep and Phuc Yen airfields. All were unserviceable for varying lengths of time. Weather continued to be the dominant factor influencing ROLLING THUNDER operations throughout North Vietnam during December. The poor weather conditions signified the true beginning of the northeast monsoon which would curtail air operations over North Vietnam for the next three or four months.”… Tomorrow: “North Vietnam’s Air Defense System”….
RTR Quote for 13 December: PASCAL, Pensees : “The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy days and my fine days within me.”…
Lest we forget… Bear