RIPPLE SALVO… #135… “…THE BOMBS FELL SQUARELY ON TARGET”… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE of another taste of military history…Operation Rolling Thunder…
13 JULY 1966…ON THE HOME FRONT… NYT… Fair and not so hot on a Wednesday in NYC…
Page 1: “Record Hot Spell Lingers At 101-Degrees; Death Rate Rises”…”The worst July heat wave in the city’s history was aggravated yesterday by a record breaking 101-degrees, 5-degrees above the previous mark for July 13 in 1954. So far this month the average maximum temperature of 94-degrees is almost four degrees above the hottest July on record here–in 1955. Since June 21 there have been only five days in which the temperature did not reach 90. With the record heat, the death rate of the city rose last week to a record 2,250, about 650 above normal. And this week the death rate, although a little lower so far, could equal or surpass that figure when reports are complete. New Yorkers were not alone in their suffering, as almost all of the United States east of the Rockies was blanketed by heat.. (Humble Host notes than in the 86 page edition of the New York Times for this day of record heat, there was not a word about Global Warming)… Page 1: “Negroes In Chicago Clash With Police”… “Violence erupted again last night in a Negro neighborhood in Near East Side. Windows were broken, rocks were thrown, and Molotov cocktails were hurled from a public housing project. At least two persons were shot. About 400 policemen moved into the area. Forming wedges of 32 men each, they moved up and down the streets yelling through bull horns. “Get in your houses and stay there or you will be arrested.” Shots were reported to have been fired by persons in crowds. It was also reported that the police had fired over the heads of an advancing mob, although police deny this. Four policemen were injured.”… Page 1: “Congress Urged To Curb Rising Rates Of Interest”…”The Johnson Administration urged Congress yesterday to halt the escalating rate war among financial institutions for the savings dollar. Secretary Henry Fowler, in a shift of the Administration position, said that Congress should enact a temporary statutory ceiling on interest rates that both banks and savings and loan associations can pay on time deposits of up to $100,000. The max rate to be 4 3/4%…”…
Page 1: “Defections By Foe On The Rise, Saigon Says”…”The numbers of enemy soldiers and former enemy sympathizers defecting to the Saigon government has almost doubled this year, according to a survey made public today. “…too much bombing, too much misery, no future…that is why the Vietcong rally to our side,” said Le Quang Diem, the Director of Open Arms Center. In the first half of the year, 9,839 accepted Saigon’s offer of forgiveness and transportation home. Only 11,124 came in during all of 1965. Though high, this years surrender rate has varied according to the political and military situation. They said there was relatively few defections in Central Vietnam during the Buddhist led turmoil earlier this year. Open Arms employ low flying aircraft broadcasting a woman’s voice with a message for Vietcong guerrillas: “Each day that passes brings you closer to death. All men must die sometime, but if you stay with the Vietcong, you will die soon by bombs or bullets. it is much better that you spend the rest of your life among your family and friends. Come home. Make your plans to leave the Vietcong now. Come home before you die. Come home.” In addition, an amnesty offer made in 1963 remains in effect and is continuously reinforced by leaflet drops… Page 3: “Move By Hanoi Foreseen” …”Lieutenant General Joseph Moore of MACV commented to reporters that recent victories over the Vietcong and North Vietnamese in South Vietnam indicate to him “…that our strikes will force Hanoi leadership to consider some form of disengagement from the war soon.” …”Although these pressures may not by themselves be decisive, added to the setbacks elsewhere and lack of forthright external military support from the Communist world, in my opinion, along with continued selective bombing of militarily significant targets in North Vietnam, should convince the Hanoi Government to consider some form of disengagement.”….
13 JULY 1966 THE PRESIDENT’s DAILY BRIEFING… CIA (TS sanitized)… North Vietnam: Jean Sainteny, who arrived back in Paris today, has told French officials that he has the impression the US prisoners in North Vietnam will be tried, but he has no idea when this will take place. Sainteny (French consul in Hanoi) also got the impression from Hanoi leaders that although the prisoners would be sentenced, the sentencing would not be carried out…
13 JULY 1966….ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS…New York Times (14 July reporting 13 July ops)…Page 2: “Jets Down MIG-17 In Clash In The North”…”United States Navy jet fighters shot down a communist built MIG-17 in an aerial duel with six MIG-17s near Hanoi yesterday. The battle began when the enemy planes engaged four F-4 Phantoms assigned as defenders for other American planes bombing the Cotran highway and railroad bridge 23 miles southeast of the Vietnam capital. It appeared that the MIG was downed by an air-to-air missile. Phantoms are armed with both heat seeking sidewinders and radar controlled sparrow missiles. The American planes were from the carrier Constellation stationed in the South China Sea. First reports indicated that all the Phantoms returned safely to the carrier. The MIG was the 15th shot down by American fighters in the air war over Vietnam. In other action, American pilots reported seeing MIG-15s airborne, a first time event in the air war. There was no engagement. During 37 group missions Tuesday Navy pilots olso hit fuel depots 16 miles northwest of Haiphong and 44 miles southwest of Thanh Hoa. Two flights of A-4 Skyhawks dropped 500-pound bombs on the tanks near Haiphong, destroying two and possibly three of them. Black smoke spiraled to 20,000-feet. There was no damage report for the raid near Thanh Hoa. Meanwhile, Air Force pilots who flew 54 group missions in the panhandle region reported the destruction of 18 trucks and damage to 15 near Donghoi. Early yesterday surface to air missiles shot past 3 F-4Cs 25 miles west of Donghoi and exploded harmlessly. B-52s struck targets within 10 miles of the DMZ…… “Vietnam: Air Losses”…there were no aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 13 July 1966….oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #135… EYE-WITNESS BDA, the best there is…. “Check six” is a term out of the fighter pilot’s dictionary. But the better “check six” aviators are the slower moving, loaded down with bombs strike aircraft. Strike fighter pilots know they are the principal targets for defending fighters so the requirement to keep your head on a swivel checking the entire clock code, high and low, especially high, is a survival motivated trait that comes natural to ordnance delivery pilots. In addition, no attack pilot ever completed an attack without a twisting turn in the cockpit to see where his bombs hit. The trait and the timing of the look-back is fine tuned in hundreds of practice runs on raked targets where dive bombing and ordnance delivery skills are honed. So checking six, and your hit and miss distance is the initial assessment of the damage your bombs may have done. This is an essential item for the debrief of a Rolling Thunder mission. In addition, others in your division and the group are pretty good at calling your hits. But nothing beats the assessments of somebody on the ground near the middle of a target –ground zero, which is where a witness to the 29 June Air Force attack on the Hanoi POL tanks happened to be. “Eyewitness BDA” from a foreign newspaper: “A westerner who was in Hanoi when American planes struck the fuel tanks near the North Vietnamese capital said today he had been assured that few civilians were killed in the raids. He indicated that he saw the bombs fall squarely on the target tanks, which he described as “31 revetment protected tanks and 13 out buildings situated well away from the suburbs on the north bank of the river.” Other eyewitnesses reported “radar controlled antiaircraft guns on the roofs of almost every tall building in downtown Hanoi that went into action” with the arrival of American aircraft. One witness said: “The planes seemed to be dive bombing to make sure they hit the right targets. After they let their bombs go they pulled up and banked sharply to the left (checking those hits?). You could see orange and red flak bursts all around them as they headed back to Thailand.”
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….