RIPPLE SALVO…#105… AN AIR MEDAL THE HARD WAY…but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED FIVE of an odyssey back in time to Operation Rolling Thunder…
13 JUNE 1966…ON THE HOME FRONT…(NYT)…A cloudy,windy, rainy Monday in NYC…
Page 1: “Medicare Spurs Vast Revisions In U.S. Hospitals”…and changes are due in fees, personnel and equipment as integration of assets is pressed by new2 law. “Medicare is leading more than 7,000 hospitals in the nation to make vast changes in their operations. Many will have to raiswe charges for some services and lower prices for others. Thousands of smaller hospitals must add new equipment and improve facilities. For the first time all hospitals will be checked to make sure that patients are getting the best care and that services are being used efficiently.” HUD admits being late on issuing the regulations required to execute the required program…. Page 1: “Protesters In Chicago Burn Police cars In 5-Hour Melee” …”A Chicago policeman shot and wounded a Puerto Rican youth in a Puerto Rican neighborhood during an altercation with the police. The police estimated that more than 1,000 persons were involved in the ensuing disturbance…bricks and bottles were thrown. Four police squad cars were set afire and another was vandalized by members of the mob. firemen attempting to fight the fires were attacked.” The article made the point that this was “not racial,” it was the cops against the neighborhood…Page 1: “Ky Cancels Visit To Seoul Parley, May Move to Hue'”… His abrupt decision could foreshadow new action against Buddhist foes. The dissident city of Hue’ is quiet but Buddhists are still using altars to block intersections and incidents are created when military vehicles bump or move them… Page 1: Harrison Salisbury writing from Laos under the headline “War’s Signs Mark A Laos At Peace.” While visiting Laos and operating out of Vientiane, the writer uses his words to describe the irony of International Red Cross peacekeeping helicopters sharing the airfield there with “five chubby bombers taking off like buzzing bees, going out for the late afternoon bombing run.” He concludes: “Meanwhile war goes on all around. And in Laos itself. But the little mountain kingdom still preserves what is technically called neutrality. And dazzling white International Control Commission helicopters are here to prove it– as bombers take off.”…
Page 2: “Battle For Highlands,” started almost by accident and it recalls the critical Vietnam campaign of 1954, whern the French and the Viet Minh accidently locked into a war ending engagement at Dienbienphu. the six day battle in Kontom province is still active. Charles Mohr writes: “As has been the case in many battles in many wars, no one seemed to have planned it this way. But when two armies meet they often make their own chemistry reacting to one another until they create something neither expected. Hard fighting in the blue-green mountains north of this small town since Tuesday between American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division and men of the 24th North Vietnamese Army regiment. The two forces ran into each other in a bamboo and elephant grass wilderness in which no one can see more than a couple of yards. As a result the battle involved courageous fighting by individuals and small units.” As the smoke cleared, General Westmoreland visited the area and concluded: “It may be the presence of a large North Vietnamese Army unit signals a campaign. The American operations here could be called a spoiling attack and by this spoiling attack we probably set them back by several weeks.” This was an American victory due to the advantage of numbers and the availability of air support that continues today as B-52s continue to pound the entrenched and embattled NVN troops remaining in the area…
13 JUNE 1966…PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF…CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: the Buddhist demonstration in Saigon today–the first in more than a week-was dispersed by police. Much smaller than Sunday’s huge Catholic rally, the Buddhist procession featured the usual banners denouncing the Ky government and its word. In Hue’, the standoff between the government and the “struggle” forces continues, but without violence. Buddhist altars are still in the streets. Various sources continue to report that KY is about to make sweeping changes in his cabinet. The ministers who threatened to resign back in March and April if the government used force against dissidence in Da Nang. The so called “baby Turks,” a loose faction of young officers who have wanted strong government action, would applaud such an overhaul if the replacements proved willing to deal firmly with the Buddhists. The latter, however, would probably become more, not less, obstreperous…
13 JUNE 1966…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (14 June reporting 13 June ops): Page 5: “Flier Says He Downed MIG In Low Altitude Fight”…Four Navy F-8s were escorting a strike group to a target near Hanoi and Haiphong and were flying below 3500-feet when jumped by four MIG-17s, the F-8s reacted and the fight evolved into a series of scissor maneuvers. LCDR Hall Marr was attacking one MIG when he ran out of gun ammo and found himself in a position to fire a sidewinder heat seeking missile at one of two MIGs in his sights. His wingman LTJG Phil Vampaletta also got some hits on one of the MIGs but a kill could not be claimed as the MIG fled into the clouds. No MIG was able to get a shot at the F-8s… There were two significant aircraft losses on 13 June 1966…
(1) CAPTAIN ALAN PIERCE LURIE and 1LT DARREN EDWARD PYLE were flying an F-4C of the 480thTFS and the 35thTFW out of Danang on an armed reconnaissance mission north of Dong Hoi in Route Package 1. They were hit by ground fire attacking a target northwest of Dong hoi and were forced to eject. Both were captured and interned for the war as POWs. They were released from Hilton Hanoi on 12 February 1973. CAPTAIN LURIE would resume his career and retire as a one star general. 1LT PYLE was killed in a civilian aircraft accident about a year after his release.
(2) LCDR JOHN TURNER GLANVILLE, LTJG GEORGE GREGORY GIERAK, and CPO BENNIE RICHARD LAMBTON were flying in an RA-3B from the VAP-61 squadron aboard USS Hancock on a night armed photo reconnaissance mission over Route Package 2 using infrared cameras. An escort aircraft saw an explosion in the area of the mouth of the Gia Hoi River. There was active AAA in the area and it was assumed the aircraft was downed by ground fire. The aircraft and three airmen have never been found. LCDR GLANVILLE, LTJG GIERAK, and CPO LAMBTON were Killed in Action and perished forever fifty years ago today. They will remain forever somewhere on the battlefield of North Vietnam. Unless, of course the search goes on. Leave no men behind?
RIPPLE SALVO…#105… MOON DOES BEN THUY… I was pawing through a box of old stuff I’ve gather like a picker of paper over the last sixty years and I came across a tale of uncommon bravery logged by an old and dear squadron mate during the summer of 1967 in the middle of Rolling Thunder. I found a two page story about light attack tailhooker Ron “Moon” Moreau’s 13th Air Medal. Ron and I go back to Attack Squadron Twelve on FDR and Med cruise in the early 60s. I relate this hidden tale to honor this great man and friend. It is part and parcel of what “Remembering Rolling Thunder” is all about. This format provides an opportunity for me– and any of my readers– to let it all hang out…
MOON DOES BEN THUY….
On 30 June 1967 Lieutenant Commander Ronald F. “Moon” Moreau was attached to Attack Squadron 15 and Air Wing Ten aboard USS Intrepid and cruising in the Gulf of Tonkin. The target of the day for Intrepid and Air Wing ten was the Ben Thuy thermal power plant located in the city of Vinh, North Vietnam. Intelligence indicated that the plant, which had been heavily damaged in previous strikes in 1967, was approaching a return to operation. The requirement to strike the facility was imperative to ensure the ineffectiveness of the plant would be sustained. Moon was an old hand by this time with about 120 previous “counters’ and scores of flight leads on Rolling Thunder missions. On this day he was the alternate strike leader and the lead of second division of A-4 Skyhawk bombers in the 14 aircraft mini alpha strike group. The A-4s were armed with 4-Mk82s and 2-Mk81s. The target was immediately defended by eleven 85mm sites, seventeen 37/57m sites and three SAM sites. The target was located in the middle of this ring of fire.
The strike group crossed the North Vietnam coast just below the 8000-foot overcast and immediately began taking enemy fire, Moon.s trailing division was getting more than its share of 85mm, which increased in intensity as he threaded his way through the black puffs to a modified roll-in point. He led his division straight down into the enemy gunfire and delivered his six bombs on the power plant, as it was his job to do. due to the lower than desired roll-in altitude, the weapon release point was lower as was the recovery altitude. Intense 37/57 tracked his division in their dive and continued in the recovery. Moon pulled off the target and in a climbing turn to exit the “ring of fire” he called his wingmen for a radio check. One of his wingmen was missing. LT LeGRANDE OGDEN COLE was down. Moon immediately turned back to reenter the “ring of fire,” as it was his responsibility to do. He let the strike lead know he was returning to look for LT COLE. Orbiting the target with his wingman, LT Albert Anthony Isger, he assumed On Scene Commander for the rescue operation. On one of his orbits he noted a blackened area close to the Ben Thuy power plant and scooped down to 500-feet in an unsuccessful attempt to confirm it was a downed Skyhawk. Nor was he able to see a chute or LT COLE. After eight more minutes of orbits tracked by dozens of hot guns and emboldened gunners, Moon reached bingo fuel and was required to depart the target and the crash site without locating LT COLE. Moon and his valiant and steady wingman, LT Isger headed for Intrepid.
Chris Hobson in “Vietnam Air Losses” relates the loss of LT COLE this way. “Four Skyhawks were launched form the Intrepid to hit the Ben thuy thermal power plant on the Song Ca River just south of Vinh. In the face of intense flak the Skyhawks rolled in after the other to bomb the target but LT COLE’s aircraft was not seen after the attack started. However, COLE’s wingman did report seeing a large explosion and fire to the south of the target which at first he thought was a stray bomb. When LT COLE failed to rendezvous with the rest of the flight it was surmised that he had been shot down. Photographs of the target area taken by an RF-8 showed no sign of the Skyhawk wreckage and no SAR beeper or radio transmission were ever heard. LT LONG was on his second combat tour based on Intrepid when he was shot down having flown 100 missions from the ship on his first cruise in 1966. In November 1988 the Vietnamese returned remains that were said to be those of LT (since promoted to Commander during the years he was missing) COLE. This was verified by the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii and on 5 May 1989 COMMANDER LeGRANDE OGDEN COLE was finally laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Moon Moreau and Lt Isger were recommended for awards that were downgraded by the staffees at CinCPacFlt… Moon got his 13th Air Medal in lieu of the deserved DFC and Lt Isger got a Green Weeenie in lieu of an Individual Air Medal. Nobody said the awards system was fair…
Moon, I’ll fly your wing anytime… I luvyaman…
Lest we forget….. Bear ………. –30– ………..