RIPPLE SALVO… #436… the rest of the Linfield 201 story…by Gary Wayne Foster…but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX of a day-to-day remembrance of the air war over North Vietnam fought fifty years ago…
15 MAY 1967…HEADLINES from The New York Times on a rainy day in NYC…
Page 1: “Chou Said To Give Terms for Vietnam’s Intervention”... “Chou En-lai was quoted as having said that China would send its armies into Vietnam if the North Vietnamese were threatened with invasion or in the event of ‘sell-out’ China is ready, tomorrow if need be, to send an avalanche of volunteers into North Vietnam if Hanoi should ask for assistance.”… Page 1: “U.S. Crime Study Sees Cosa Nostra As Growing Problem–Report Finds Syndicate is Increasingly Penetrating Legitimate Businesses–Corruption Is Feared–New York is Headquarters for Broad Organization.”… “A report for the national crime commission warned today that the growing penetration of legitimate businesses by the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate threatened increased corruption of public officials at all levels.”… Page 1: “House GOP Cutting Ties With Southern Democrats”...”Republicans and Southern Democrats, old allies in the House of Representatives, are becoming bitterly estranged in the 90th Congress. The reason is that Republican leadership has decided that it must keep its distance from the Southerners if the party is to gain control in the elections in 1968.” … Page 3: “Command Post Overrun”... “Vietcong guerrillas overran a battalion command compound of the South Vietnamese Army five miles southwest of Saigon early today killing 3 of the 4 American advisors and 27 South Vietnamese…34 other defenders were wounded in the 30 minute fight. Six enemy dead were left behind”… Page 3: “Billy Graham Assailed For Not Opposing War”… “Christian Century, a leading ecumenical Protestant weekly took to task the Reverend Billy Graham for not speaking out against the United States role in Vietnam and for criticizing clergymen who have done so. The editorial said: ‘Graham has the right to hold and express opinions on Vietnam. We wish however, that he would do so without duplicity. He should drop either the image of holy transcendence or the mantle of concerned involvement. God alone is capable of wearing both.’ “…
Page 5: “Thieu Sees Allied Troop Role Long After War”... “Chief of State Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Thieu says he believes that ‘50,000 Americans or allied troops will be needed in South Vietnam for 10 to 15 years after the end of the war against the Vietcong…our forces can never handle the job.’ “... Page 8: “Korea Tells Its People War is Imminent”... Wilfred Burchett reporting… “What is clearly visible here is that the armed forces and people here are being prepared physically and psychologically for the idea that a new shooting war could break out anytime in Korea.”… Page 14: “Gallup Finds 1 of 4 Backs A-Bomb Use ... to gain a military victory in Vietnam.”…14 per cent favor withdrawal and 37 per cent say it was a mistake to send troops to South Vietnam. 59 per cent said the war was morally justified.”… Page 15: “Civil Liberties Unit Bids Draft Boards Drop Class Standing”... “The American Civil Liberties Union urged that class ranking,grades and test scores be eliminated in determining draft deferments. Grades should not have life and death significance.”…
15 MAY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (16 May reporting 15 May ops)… Page 4: “Fifteen North Vietnamese MIGs have been shot down by United States pilots so far this month in the stepped-up war during May, an Air Force spokesman said. Noting the increased opposition to American air attacks, ‘they’re making it a pretty sporty course for all concerned.’ Besides an Air Force Thunderchief shot down during attacks over the North, a Navy F-4B Phantom was downed by unknown causes with the two crewmen missing in action (LCDR EV SOUTHWICK and LT JACK ROLLINS…POWs) . Hanoi claims 10 U.S. aircraft downed.”….
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 15 May 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN DONALD LESTER HEILIGER and MAJOR BEN M. POLLARD were flying an F-105F Wild Weasel of the 13th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a night strike on the railway marshaling yards at Kep. They were intentionally deployed ahead of the strike group to find and attack the opposing fire. As they approached Kep at 17,000-feet they were hit by enemy ground fire, forced to eject deep in hostile country, were captured and imprisoned as POWs. Both were released in 1973.
RIPPLE SALVO… #436… “Phantom in the River: The Flight of Linfield Two Zero One” by Gary Wayne Foster…This is a great little book of interest to every participant in Rolling Thunder or Linebacker ops. The author brilliantly blended 27 very short chapters to tell this remarkable story from 14 May 1967 through the return visit of Ev Southwick and Jack Rollins to Vietnam in 2004. Pictures, maps and charts are five-star.
For review, here is what I posted yesterday in 14 May RTR… LCDR CHARLES EVERETT SOUTHWICK and LT DAVID JOHN ROLLINS were flying an F-4B of the VF-114 Aardvarks embarked in USS Kitty Hawk as flak suppressors for a strike on the Thanh Hoa bridge. They attacked a firing AAA site with Zuni rockets that apparently flamed their Phantom out as they were fired. Unable to get a restart both aviators ejected, were captured immediately and interned as POWs for the duration of the war. The F-4B crashed in a flat attitude on a mud and sandbar in very good condition and became a story unto itself. The hulk remains on display in Hanoi… LCDR SOUTHWICK and LT ROLLINS returned home in March 1973…
THE SITUATION. Linfield 201, the VF-114 F-4B on the tidal mud flat in the Song Ma river a few miles east of the Thanh Hoa Bridge, became a target for several air strikes by attack aircraft from the three carriers operating at Yankee Station for two days. The problem was the amazing condition of the AIM-7 Sparrow laden F-4. The downing became a race between the Navy to destroy the Sparrows before the North Vietnamese could salvage the hulk and the air-to-air missiles she carried. The race was on. Kitty Hawk bombers had several shots at the easily spotted target on its barren mud flat, but nary a direct hit. During the day on 15 May the assault continued by Yankee Station bombers with poor results. When the sunset on the 15th the F-4 remained intact.
THE BEAR STRIKES AT DAWN. Then came my turn. I was to strike the hulk at dawn on the 16th. I chose as the weapon for the assignment the Mk-4 gun pod lightly loaded with 400-rounds of 20-mm FOR ONE LONG PASS SHOOTING FROM ABOUT 3,000′ DOWN TO 1,000′. 400 20-MM HEI WILL DO A LOT OF DAMAGE. Strafing also remains the most accurate weapons delivery in the A-4 Skyhawk inventory of weapons choices. A little more hairy, but time was running out to destroy that F-4 and her Sparrows. I led a division of A-4s with Wild Bill Ellis on my wing loaded with Mark-82s and my section lead was George Wales, also armed with a MK-4 gun pod and his wingie was also a MK-82 bomber.
Tactics counted on an element of surprise--one division of A-4s popping up from the sea at dawn, hours before the usual Doctor Pepper schedule “10-2-4” the Thanh Hoa gunners counted on. Climb to 10,000 and rollin headed southwest for one long strafing pass with Wild Bill dropping 5 MK-82s on my hits. George and wingman rolling in from the North for a North to South pass and about a 20-second interval. One run, four aircraft. And outta there…
The Stingers Strike at Dawn (16 May 1967)… Strike on Linfield 201 went exactly as briefed, except– popped up, climbed to rollin, eyeballed the F-4 right where it was on the pre-strike photos from the day before, down the chute passing 3,000-feet F-4 centered in gunsight, squeeze the trigger–blap!!! One round of 20-mm and a jam. My two bombers moved a lot of mud and George looked like his 20-mm were all over the hulk. (#79)
Linfield 201 and her Sparrows remained there for the taking. Take her the North Vietnamese did. And that’s the story told in “Phantom in the River”… Gary Foster’s well researched, well written and easy reading book about an event that was ongoing 50-years ago this week…
Also on 15 May 1967: The President’s Special Assistant Walt Rostow sent a TS memorandum to the President that is a humdinger…Subject: The Hanoi Thermal Power Plant, the”last standing target” … this memo frames the issues that will be discussed at the “Tuesday Lunch” on 16 May… read it at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d173
CAG’s QUOTES for May 15: MAO TSE-TUNG: ” Imaginative, intelligent and bold leadership is absolutely essential.”… PATTON: “If the staff of life is bread, what is the life of the staff? One long loaf.”…
Lest we forget… Bear