RIPPLE SALVO… #831… ON THE 53rd ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY LARRY GUARINO WENT TO JAIL… IN THE BEGINNING:… “The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS with Combat “V” to MAJOR LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO, United States Air Force, for heroism while participating in aerial flight as pilot of an F-105 aircraft over North Vietnam on 14 June 1965. On that date, while leading a fighter-bomber strike against a heavily defended barracks complex, Major GUARINO displayed a high degree of combat leadership ability and airmanship in assessing target defenses and expertly directing flak suppression aircraft to their targets. Then, ignoring marginal weather conditions and intense ground fire, he doggedly rallied in to lay his ordnance on target and led his teammates to a successful mission. The outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Major GUARINO reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”… but first…
GOOD MORNING: Day EIGHT HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE of remembering the events and great warriors who carried the Vietnam War into the heartland of North Vietnam to make a difference… they were the American offense…
HEAD LINES from The NEW YORK TIMES on Friday, 14 JUNE 1968…
THE WAR: Page 13: ROCKETS STRIKE SAIGON AIR BASE–But City Is Spared Attack Second Night In Row”… “A handful of rockets crashed into Tansonnhut Air Base shortly before dawn today as Saigon passed another restless night awaiting the explosion of shells amid its homes and shops. Casualties were light… Yesterday morning 30 shells struck an ammunition dump just beyond the city limits. An enemy ground attack accompanied the shelling, but South Vietnamese troops managed to repulse the drive…The ammunition dump was ‘fully wiped out’ said a military source…”…
PEACE TALKS: Page 1: “HANOI FOLLOWS FIGHT-AND-TALK TACTICS IN PARIS–ATTACKS IN SAIGON AREA REGARDED AS TEXT BOOK EXAMPLE OF THIS STRATEGY”… “More than two years ago in the jungle southwest of Saigon, a North Vietnamese general is reported to have said at a meeting of Vietcong leaders: ‘In fighting while negotiating, the side that fights more strongly will compel the adversary to accept its conditions.’ These words in view of American negotiators catch the essence of Hanoi’s present maneuvers at the negotiations here in Paris and on the battlefields in South Vietnam. This is what Hanoi terms its fight-and-talk strategy. It helps explain why the talks, which began on May 13 have made so little visible progress and why it may be several more weeks before that is a significant diplomatic breakthrough. For the battle now raging around Saigon is regarded by Western analysts as a textbook example of the fight-and-talk strategy. It involves very high stakes. It is a critical test of strength, which must probably run its course before either Washington or Hanoi will signal any important shift in its bargaining position.”…
Page 1: “SAIGONESE SEEK ROCKET REPRISAL–Pressure Grows For U.S. To Resume Bombing of Hanoi If The Attacks Continue”… “The current wave of rocket attacks on Saigon has posed major political problems for the Government and has raised outcries against the United States for restricting the bombing of North Vietnam. Members of parliament, newspapers and rank-and-file citizens are demanding that the Government do something–and do it immediately–to stop the bombardments.”… Page 1: “PRESIDENT MAKES ANOTHER APPEAL TO THE RUSSIANS–At Ceremony On Consular Accord, He Again Calls On Soviet For Cooperation”…”…another appeal–his third in 10 days–despite Moscow’s insistence that the war in Vietnam be ended first.”… Page 10: “SOVIET ACCUSES JOHNSON”… “The Government newspaper Izvestia accused President Johnson gain today of overlooking the Vietnam war while appealing for world cooperation toward peace. Commenting on the President’s speech yesterday at the United Nations, Izvestia said. ‘But there is not peace in Vietnam. No matter how beneficial the nonproliferation treaty is, it was clear yesterday that official Washington was using this opportunity to present itself as a peacemaker because it looks quite different in Vietnam.’… Page 1: “JOHNSON INACTION ON ANTI-CRIME BILL CRITICIZED BY FORD”… “Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, the House Republican leader, urged President Johnson to act on the crime control bill. ‘What is he waiting for? Mr. Ford asked.”…
14 JUNE 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NEW YORK TIMES (15 June reporting 14 June ops) Page 3: “Elsewhere in Vietnam, there was a mid-air collision between an Army helicopter and an Air Force spotter plane in which eight Americans lost their lives.” (posted in RTR for 13 June)… “In the air war in North Vietnam, American pilots carried out 135 multi-plane missions in the southern part of the country…”
VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 14 June 1968…
(1) The mortar attack on Tansonnhut destroyed a U-3B liaison aircraft parked overnight on the ramp.
(2) CAPTAIN HAROLD RAYMOND VOGEL was flying an O-1E Bird Dog of the 22nd TASS and 504th TASG out of Binh Thuy an inexplicably flew into a radio tower in Sa Dec Province. Sadly, then, and just as sad to ponder fifty years later, CAPTAIN VOGEL was killed in this accident…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON 14 JUNE FOR THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION IN THE SKIES OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965… MAJOR LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO, USAF… (POW)…
1966… NONE…
1967… 1LT EDWARD JOHN MECHENBIER, USAF… (POW)… and… 1LT KEVIN JOSEPH McMANUS, USAF… (POW)…
1968… NONE…
RIPPLE SALVO… #831… I love this job. I get to frolic in the pages of history, picking and plucking the events and makers of history for closer inspection and appreciation. COLONEL LARRY GUARINO, who rests in well-earned peace after an extraordinary life in the arena– in the combat service of our country–is the subject of my admiration today. His 92 years of life was marked by non-stop sacrifice and service for God and country.
Born in 1922 he was flying fighters in combat in 1943 and World War II. Flying Spitfires with the British in the Mediterranean theater he was credited with downing three enemy Messerschmitt Bf-109s. As the war in the European theater wrapped up, he joined the fight in the Asiatic-Pacific theater in time to log a few more combat flights with the American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) in China and an early experience flying combat in Vietnam. Total WW II combat flights: 156.
After WW II he served a short stint in the Air Force Reserve that ended with a recall to active duty and flying in the Southeast Asia theater during the Korean War. Then came fighter squadron duty in Louisiana, North Carolina and Mississippi leading to duty as Operations Officer of the 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Clark AFB in November 1961. Fate would keep him in the Western Pacific for the next dozen years. Major GUARINO began flying F-105Ds in combat with the 44th TFS and 18th TFW out of Korat AFB, Thailand in 1965. His luck changed on 14 June 1965 on his 50th Rolling Thunder mission…
Chris Hobson put the flight this way. “During a Rolling Thunder strike against an enemy army barracks at Ban Xom, just inside the North Vietnam border, an F-105D was shot down about 30 miles northeast of Sam Neua. Major GUARINO ejected and landed in a village where he was captured.”
On this day 53 years ago, Major GUARINO began a tour of almost eight years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. He was the oldest–and among the most senior– of the nearly 600 American POWs imprisoned in Hanoi. He spent 2,801 days of honorable duty in captivity before release in February 1973 to return to duty in the United States. He served with distinction in those 2,801 days of deprivation, inhumane treatment, and endless debilitating torture…
AMONG THE BRAVE… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… COLONEL LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO… The AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to COLONEL LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO, United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force as Senior Ranking Officer of a North Vietnamese prison camp during the period 11 May 1968 to 22 September 1969. Following the execution of a carefully conceived escape plan by two of his officers, Colonel GUARINO, who was known by the enemy to be the Senior Ranking Officer in the camp, immediately came under maximum pressure including savage torture without parallel. Colonel GUARINO exhibited exceptional heroism, courage and determination during this period. Displaying great resilience in the face of a brutal enemy. Colonel GUARINO reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”…
AMONG THE BRAVE… EXCEPTIONALLY MERITORIOUS AND DISTINGUISHED SERVICES… COLONEL LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO… The AIR FORCE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL…
“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL to COLONEL LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO, United States Air Force, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility. COLONEL GUARINO distinguished himself as the Senior Ranking Officer of the largest prison camp in North Vietnam from 28 April 1968 to 1 June 1970. During this period, the enemy was attempting to convert this camp into a progressive camp of Americans conditioned to make written or oral statements contrary to the best interests of the United States and its allies. COLONEL GUARINO, recognizing his duties as Senior Ranking Officer, set the resistance posture against the enemy by outlining policy, rebuilding and strengthening the camp communications system, and counseling cell block senior officers in resistance activities. Despite the continuous enemy program of harassment and torture, the prisoners of war maintained a solid front of resistance under the leadership of COLONEL GUARINO. His courage in the face of great adversity and torture had few equals in prisoner history, and his personal resistance offered a rallying point. By his singularly distinctive accomplishments and devotion to duty COLONEL GUARINO reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”…
Among COLONEL GUARINO’s other combat awards: two awards of the SILVER STAR, the LEGION OF MERIT, two awards of the DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS, two awards of the BRONZE STAR, and numerous awards of the AIR MEDAL. And, of course, the PRISONER OF WAR MEDAL… Colonel Larry Guarino’s ribbon bar was ten rows deep at three ribbons a row and on the top over all–the AIR FORCE CROSS… ooohrah
I asked former Vietnam POW Joey Crecca to provide an end note for this RTR tribute to Larry Guarino, a great warrior and adventurer who made all of us proud… From Joey: “The quote on the inside front cover of the book, “Saved By Love,” by Larry’s wife Evelyn, goes like this;
“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.”…
Evelyn and Larry were married on Valentine’s Day 1943 and were together until Larry’s death in 2014. He was buried in Arlington in 2015 and Evelyn passed on to join him in the front rank of Angels on the 4th of July, 2017. Glory gained, duty done…
They also serve who stand and wait…
Lest we forget… Bear
Thanks, Joey…Youdaman…