RIPPLE SALVO… #712… Last hurrah: “…any final attempt, competition, performance, success or the like.”…
The window of opportunity–clear weather for a day or two in mid-February–quickly closed as the northeast monsoon moved back over the region. At the same time, the requirement for additional air support for the troops at Khesanh, and the President’s wavering confidence in the bombing all combined to put the brakes on Rolling Thunder ops in the heartland of North Vietnam. The exception was the meager all-weather capability of our fighter-bombers. Wayne Thompson summarizes the situation in “To Hanoi and Back“…
“In yet another attempt to make use of the clear weather on the 14th, a flight of four F-4s from Ubon dropped Walleye television guided bombs on the thermal power plant associated with the Thai Nguyen iron works, some thirty miles north of Hanoi. At least one of the Walleyes made a direct hit. Two were obscured by dust and smoke that may also have interfered with their guidance systems. Although the Walleye could be very accurate, its relatively small warhead sometimes failed to do enough damage even when right on target. At any rate, the power plant was soon operating and remained on the target list.
“During the weeks of bad weather which followed, there was little more that Seventh Air Force or the Seventh Fleet could do in the Hanoi-Haiphong region. Meanwhile, Thailand finally permitted fighter aircraft based there to be used in South Vietnam, nearly a year after Thailand-based B-52s. Thus, the principal response of the Thailand-base fighters to the Tet offensive came in the hills around Khesanh, where they joined B-52s and other fighters in delivering an unprecedented tonnage of bombs on so small an area–a hundred thousand tons in a few weeks, about as much as the Hanoi-Haiphong region had suffered in three years.
“Since B-52s were not used near Hanoi-Haiphong, most major targets in North Vietnam were adequately protected from American air power by the northeast monsoon. The solo missions of Navy and Marine A-6s and the less accurate flights of four F-4s or four F-105s (guided by radar at Phou Pha Thi in Laos) could not do more than harass the enemy. Some of the Red River port facilities on the south side of Hanoi were attacked for the first time without much damage. Unfortunately the most prominent target gives the bad weather attackers was one demanding greater accuracy than they could muster. They were supposed to turn off the voice of Hanoi Hannah by bombing Radio Hanoi. Not surprisingly, they failed, while the White House paid close attention. After the A-6 attempt, Walt Rostow was informed that Radio Hanoi had kept to its usual schedule ‘which would indicate that our plane missed.’ ” ….More in RS below…
Good Morning: Day SEVEN HUNDRED TWELVE of a return to the air war fought fifty years ago called Rolling Thunder…
15 FEBRUARY 1968…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cold, clear Wednesday in NYC…
Page 1: “U.S. JETS ATTACK CLOSE TO NEAR HANOI–BRIDGE AND TWO AIRFIELDS ARE TARGETS OF BIGGEST RAIDS ON NORTH IN TWO WEEKS”… “United States warplanes yesterday (14th) mounted their biggest assault on North Vietnam in six weeks, bombing a bridge just outside Hanoi and two airfields in the region of the capital…The raiders also wrecked four missile sites in the protective ring around Hanoi…Waves of planes swept through clearing skies. The United States command did not announce the total number of missions, but the strike was said to be the biggest since January 5. …the raids on the Hanoi area concentrated on the Canal des Rapides Bridge, about three miles outside the city limits… (Pilot eye-view of mission in Ripple Salvo)…The air fields hit were at Phucyen, 18 miles northwest of Hanoi and Hoalac, 20 miles west of Hanoi. Pilots reported several secondary explosions had come from fuel , ammunition or concealed aircraft….the raiding pilots did not see any MIGs on either airfield…” Page 1: “JETS HAMMER AT HUE CITADEL”...United States jets bombed Hue’s historic Citadel repeatedly yesterday in an effort to destroy the enemy’ last major stronghold in a South Vietnamese city… The Navy and Marine planes had been called in for ‘substantial numbers of bombing runs after some 15 marines were killed and 40 wounded Tuesday while trying unsuccessfully to storm the eastern entrance to the Citadel. ‘We’re planning on blowing the walls down if that’s what it takes to get Charlie out of there,’ an officer said.”.... Page 1: “VIETCONG CLAIM WIDE GAINS”… Hanoi dateline for article by Agence France-Presse “The Vietcong asserted today that it controlled four provincial capitals south of Saigon, and partly controlled two more.”… Page 1: “FOE CLOSING GAP AT KHESANH”... “From foxholes just inside the wire that makes up Khesanh’s vulnerable perimeter it was easy today to spot an occasional North Vietnamese soldier within 150-yards. The marines, battered, exhausted and dirty, cheered as a Skyraider fighter-bomber dropped napalm on the most advanced North Vietnamese positions. Incoming fire has been heavier than before. The marines C-130 supply planes have discontinued their trips into Khesanh because the thin airstrip is now considered too dangerous for them. Smaller, swifter C-123s are carrying ammunition in and wounded out. Two North Vietnamese divisions are now at lest 200-yards nearer the wire than they were 48-hours ago… they hope to get in so close the B-52s won’t be permitted to drop on them.”… Page 1: “WHEELER DOUBTS KHESANH WILL NEED ATOMIC WEAPONS”... “General Earl G. Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed confidence today that the Marine outpost at Khesanh in South Vietnam could be defended without the use of nuclear weapons…The general said he ‘refused to speculate further’ in response to a reporter’s question.”… Page 1: “RUSK SAYS HANOI SPURNS U.S. TERMS FOR NEGOTIATION–Declares ‘All Explorations to Date’ Prove Rejection of Johnson’s Position–2 New Contacts Cited–Washington Given Reports That Thant and Italy’s Fantani Meet North Vietnamese”... “Secretary of State Dean Rusk declared today that all explorations so far show that North Vietnam had rejected United States terms for entering peace negotiations.”… Page 2: “Thant Confers With Hanoi’s Envoy and deGaulle–But Paris Assessment Is That Prospects for Peace Have Weakened Recently”… Page 1: “VANCE AND PARK REACH AN ACCORD–Agree On Moves To Counter North Korean Actions–War Threat Noted”... “The United States and South Korea agreed today on a joint program to counter aggressive moves by the Communist North Korean regime. A communique issued jointly by President Chaung Hee Park, of South Korea and Cyrus Vance, President Johnson’s special envoy, declared that recent North Korean actions ‘seriously jeopardize the security of the area and if persisted in , can lead to renewed hostilities in Korea.”…
Page 4.”The Strategic Reserve: Serious Depletion Feared As a Result of A Decision to Bolster Vietnam Forces”…Page 26: “176 In VISTA Urge Johnson To End War–Letter Asks Diverting Funds To Antipoverty Programs”… Page 26. “Romney Urges Peace Offensive, Scores Nixon For Lack of Stand”… Page 29: “Negro History Week Stirs Up Semantic Dispute–Use of Word Negro Is Scorned As A Reminder of Slavery Days”…
15 FEBRUARY 1968…President’s Daily Brief, briefly: SOUTH VIETNAM: Menacing Communist troop movements continue in the central and eastern sectors of Quang Tri Province. The effect unpopular morale in the province capital has been severe. The people expect new attacks…The enemy’s relative lull in urban areas continued overnight. There was no significant ground probes in the Khesanh area.”… CAMBODIA: Another package of material documenting North Vietnamese and Viet Cong use of Cambodia was sent to Phnom Penh yesterday. The Australian ambassador in Cambodia believes that the first batch of information was a real eye-opener for Sihanouk. He said Sihanouk appreciates the restraint the President (Johnson) has applied and the care he has taken to avoid border violations… Sihanouk told Look Editor… that President Johnson was “a hawk about Vietnam, but a dove about Cambodia.”… NORTH VIETNAM: Comment on site for negotiation talks: not bothering to think about a possible site for preliminary talks according to a North Vietnamese press official…North Vietnamese Shipping Trends: A received data on foreign shipping to North Vietnam during 1967 shows a striking change in the country’s trade pattern as compared with 1966. Seaborne exports declined 51% in 1967, and imports rose 46%. This, of course, is attributable largely to the bombings. Hanoi’s growing dependence on foreign assistance was reflected last year in a 66% increase in seaborne imports from the Soviet Union and China. These two countries accounted for 79 percent of total seaborne imports. (MINE THE HARBOR!!!)
STATE DEPARTMENT, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Relations, 1964-68, Vietnam: Document 76 dated 15 February 1968 is Ambassador Bunker’s 39th weekly report from Saigon to Rusk and the President: “As the massive Viet Cong Tet Offensive subsides, it becomes increasingly possible to draw certain conclusions. What was blurred a week ago begins to become more clearly into focus…” This is a succinct summary made after the dust of the historical event had settled. Worth a scan or so.
15 FEBRUARY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times… as reported with page 1 news above… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost on 15 February in Southeast Asia…
(1) CAPTAIN JOSEPH V. CARPENTER and CAPTAIN LAWRENCE DANIEL WRITER were flying an F-4D of the 389th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang on an armed reconnaissance flight in Route Package 1 near Dong Hoi and took enemy trucks under fire. They were making their second strafing pass on the trucks when hit by 37mm ground fire forcing an almost immediate ejection. They were captured quickly precluding any SAR attempt. Chris Hobson reported their internment as POWs this way: “It took thee weeks for the two men to reach their first prison camp in Hanoi. Captain Carpenter was only in prison for five months and became one of the three airmen released early by the North Vietnamese as propaganda stunt on 18 July 1968 (about 150 days)…
Captain Writer had arrived in Vietnam on the eve of the Tet Offensive and had only flown seven missions when he was shot down and captured. He was released and came home on 14 March 1973.” (Humble Host calculates that POW time at about 1,835 days…Let that sink in!!!)…
(Webmaster note: A total of twelve American POWs accepted early release, including Captain Carpenter. Only one of those twelve, Petty Officer Doug Hegdadl, was authorized by senior POWs. The other eleven accepted release in contravene of the POW code of conduct)
AMONG THE BRAVE… CAPTAIN LAWRENCE D. WRITER… SILVER STAR… 15 FEBRUARY 1968…
“CAPTAIN LAWRENCE D. WRITER, USAF distinguished himself by gallantry in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force as an F-4D Weapons Systems Officer in Southeast Asia on 15 February. On that date CAPTAIN WRITER’s aircraft made repeated attacks against an armed convoy of forty trucks carrying men and supplies to the Demilitarized Zone. Despite adverse weather conditions which necessitated extremely low-level passes in the face of intense, accurate antiaircraft fire and with complete disregard for his own personal safety, CAPTAIN WRITER’s aircraft damaged several trucks, setting four on fire and successfully stalling the entire convoy. The courage and outstanding airmanship demonstrated by CAPTAIN WRITER in stopping the convoy significantly degraded the North Vietnamese logistics capabilities. By his gallantry and devotion to duty CAPTAIN WRITER has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force…oohrah…
His pilot was also awarded a Silver Star to go with his six Distinguished Flying Crosses…
15 February 1968…From the “Compilation: “34TFS/F-105 History” by Howie Plunkett… 15-Feb-68: “Crossbow flight from the 34 TFS bombed a road in RP-4… This was Major Sam Armstrong’s 67th combat mission.”… Major Armstrong: “We were going to an army barracks 8 miles SW of Hanoi and were on the tanker when we got word to divert to Cricket Control. Apparently, they found that the weather was clobbered when they got the satellite picture after we were airborne. Cricket was flooded and there were no FACs up so I took my flight into Route 7 and went about 35 miles into the Package (Pack IX) and when we didn’t find anything, we dropped our bombs on a road and came home.”… “The mission lasted 2 hours and 55 minutes….”
RIPPLE SALVO… #712… I raised the question in the title of this post is this “The Last Hurrah?” knowing what the wise men and Tuesday Lunch guys knew was about to happen because they had all the facts. The Rolling Thunder operators could only guess. We were sure that come mid-March when the northeast monsoon would fade away, we were going back into the Red River Valley to start all over at slowing and stopping the flow of war fighting capability down the funnel into South Vietnam. As it turned out, the ops in the middle of February would be the last hurrah for the aluminum clouds of major strikes and Alpha strikes by the fighter-bombers. Strike operations in the heartland became the reserve of the intrepid all-weather A-6 Intruder squadrons and the radar directed Air Force flights coming in from the northwest. As noted in “To Hanoi and Back,” these flights were a fraction of what was needed to derail the North Vietnamese flow of aid and capability to the battlefields in the South.
In my post for 14 February and Ripple Salvo #711 I included the account of the 34th TFS’s “Scuba’ flights strike on the Canal des Rapides Bridge in Hanoi and promised to include the debrief of the Scuba flight of F-105s in RS #712. Here ’tis in the words of Major Sam Armstrong written when he was Lieutenant General Sam Armstrong… (from Howie Plunkett’s collection)…
“When we landed Bob Smith (the 34th TFS Commander and leader of the strike) told us what happened to him on the way in. He was flying on autopilot as the mission commanders always did to give some stability to the many aircraft using him for guidance when the autopilot ‘burped’ and he hurriedly grabbed the control stick. In his haste he inadvertently hit the already armed bomb release system (and dropped his bombs on the beach many miles before reaching the target area). Explanation: .. There were a dozen things that had to be done before entering North Vietnam. maybe some pilots used a checklist but I memorized the steps since I wanted to keep my head out of the cockpit. I made up a little jingle which contained the first letter of what needed to be done and had rehearsed it enough so that it came naturally even in times of extreme stress! Some of these steps were to dump the cabin pressure so that you would not ingest fumes in case of a hit in the compressor section. You also had to verify that you had selected the correct mil setting for the attack, selected the proper ordnance on the appropriate wing station, go on 100% oxygen, etc. All of this time you had to maintain your formation position and look for MiGs and SA-2s. This was not easy and the less competent current pilots had all they could handle! Bob (Smith) had already done all of this and now was concentrating on positioning the force for the attack when the auto pilot ‘burped.’
“Bob was now faced with two thoughts. The first was what to do with Bill’s (Thomas, his wingman, #2 in the flight) bombs. 3,000-pound bombs were a precious commodity, so he was loathe to just drop them safe. Secondly, he was still smarting over the inadvertent loss of his bombs. So after we all took on our post strike fuel (Bob told us to take a couple thousand pounds more than every other flight was taking on board) Bob called for a FAC in Pack 1. All of the other flights proceeded down the Gulf and headed back to Thailand across South Vietnam–except the four of us. We flew in to Pack 1 and made contact with a FAC who said he had spotted a building at the north end of the Mu Gia Pas where some bad guys were hanging out. It was easy to see so Bob told Bill Thomas to bomb it. Bill made his run but the bombs failed to release a second time–an obvious material malfunction. Bob then told him to do it again but this time to hit the jettison button which cased the bombs to impact still attached to the pylon and thus not armed.
“This was done. Then Bob asked the FAC if he wanted us to strafe the building since we had 1,000 rounds of 20mm ammo each. Of course the FAC said yes. So Bob made the first pass by flying below the heights of the pass to get the right attack dive angle. We all followed and made 3 passes each until we had fired all of our ammo. I’m sure it looked to a casual observer that we were doing a gunnery practice on a range back in the states. In fact, Mu Gia Pass was known to have the fiercest defenses on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Reconnaissance aircraft transited it at 600-knots and still got shot at by the flak sites situated on the hill sides. As far as any of us could tell, they never fired a shot at us while we made three vulnerable, multiple passes. We concluded that this was such an unusually bold effort that the North Vietnamese just knew it had to be a trick! From my stand point, I had just hung my precious bottom out twice on one mission for just one counter. This was vintage Bob Smith! He had no fear of anything.”…
Humble Host adds: Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Smith was awarded the Air Force Cross for extraordinary heroism for a flight flown on 19 November 1967 (previously noted in my RTR) On that date, Colonel Smith led a strike force of twenty F-105 and four F-4 aircraft to the vicinity of Hanoi for the initial strike on an important military target (Phuc Yen Airfield?). Colonel Smith gallantly led his force through a hostile aircraft attack, an awesome and extended attack by missiles which downed two aircraft, and into heavy antiaircraft defenses to strike crippling blows to the assigned target and to a large active surface-to-air missile site. Colonel Smith never wavered from his goal, and with complete disregard for his life, displayed great courage and determined leadership to accomplish an extremely hazardous and difficult mission. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, Lieutenant Colonel Smith reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”….oohrah…
RTR Quote for 15 February: CLAUSEWITZ: Principles of War, 1812: “If the theory of war does advise anything, it is the nature of war to advise the most decisive, that is the most audacious.”
Lest we forget… Bear