RIPPLE SALVO… EXTENDED BATTLEFIELD… but first…
Good Morning: Day FORTY-SIX of a look back to Operation Rolling Thunder… Half a Century Ago…
16 APRIL 1966 (NYT)… ON THE HOMEFRONT… A nice spring Saturday in New York…Page 1: “Buddhists Pledge Conditional Halt to Anti-Ky Demonstrations.” The tone of all reports was that things were calming down and moving in a good direction… On the other hand, a few columns over…”99-Day Total GI Deaths Above 1965 Total.” In the first three months of 1966 1,361 American troops killed in action as opposed to 1,342 in all of 1965. This while the number of troops in-country increased from 25,000 to 210,000 in 1966. Aircraft losses increased to 306 since the war began February 1965, with 205 of the losses over North Vietnam, 14 by SAM. The North Vietnamese claimed 900 aircraft downed in the same period… Page 3: In the air war over the north weather continued to limit operations above route packages 1 and 2. Fifty six missions were flown on 15 April. and in a little box on the page the Defense Department announced that 29 troops had been killed in action…. And this: “U.S. Grant Sharp in PI at Clark AB,” quoted at a press conference…”We are doing quite well in the task we have set for ourselves and the Vietnamese Army.”… And LBJ was home from his meetings with Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz where his parting speech concluded: ” May we always seek justice and peace together, come what may; may we always be good neighbors. And may we always be good amigos.”…. On the Editorial Page…under the headline: “Vietnam: Pause and Portent”…this: “It is much too early to breathe easily about the political situation in South Vietnam, but there is a government in that unhappy land — and that is cause for gratification. The civil war within a civil war never materialized at Danang. In Saigon the virtual declaration of war against the Ky government by Buddhist leaders proved unnecessary. The political congress, which the Ky government had hoped would produce a program to counter that of the Buddhists, ended by accepting nearly all the Buddhists demands.”…
16 APRIL 1966…ROLLING THUNDER… An F-4C from the 433rd TFS was downed on an armed reconnaissance mission 35 miles north of the DMZ, in the “extended battlefield” of Secretary McNamara. Both the pilot, MAJOR SAMUEL ROBERT JOHNSON, and GIB, 1LT LARRY JAMES CHESLEY ejected from their disabled aircraft, were captured, and imprisoned. Both men survived ill health in prison and were released 12 February 1973. JOHNSON returned to flying, including a tour with the Thunderbird demonstration team. He retired in 1979 as a Colonel and ran successfully for Congress from Dallas, Texas in 1997.
RIPPLE SALVO… EXTENDED BATTLEFIELD… Rolling Thunder 50 execute message of 1 April directed the Air Force and Navy to commit additional sorties to targets in the southern section of route package 1, an “expanded battlefield,” per Secretary of Defense guidance. I quote from Jacob Staaverson’s “Gradual Failure”….
“After receiving Admiral Sharp’s execute message on April 1, Seventh Air Force and Commander Task Force 77 quickly dispatched their fighter-bombers and support aircraft over the enlarged bombing area. Substantial numbers of strikes, in accordance with bombing guidelines, were flown in route package 1 and the Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger sectors of Laos. Targets in route package 1 alone absorbed 2,400 sorties in April, of which most were flown by the Air Force with the VNAF contributing a few. In mid-April, Secretary McNamara declared his interest in concentrating the air effort near South Vietnam’s borders. ‘I want it clearly understood,’ he informed General Westmoreland, SAC Commander Gen. Joseph J. Nazzaro, General McConnell , and Admirals Sharp and McDonald, ‘that all commanders are to give first priority…to fulfilling requirements…against all targets in the extended battlefield.’ Operations in route packages 2,3,4,5,6A and 6B ‘are not to be carried out unless they can be performed without penalty’ in the first priority area. The policy would remain in effect, he added until a major field commander or a JCS member proposed a change, and he (McNamara) or Deputy Secretary Vance agreed that a shift in air emphasis was warranted.”
This explains why the Rolling Thunder ops in early April were so limited. The priority was the first 50 miles of North Vietnam bordering both Laos and South Vietnam, and the B-52s participating east of Mugia. Of course, the northeast monsoon weather also dictated the thrust of the air attack. The north packages were under cloud, but that was about to shift to the southwest monsoon, thereby clearing North Vietnam and clobbering the Laos side of the mountain spine separating Laos and NVN. Concentrating sorties on targets in McNamara’s top priority expanded battlefield in early April was the only thing to do. In May the weather would shift the priority north. Katie, bar the door. And, oh, by the way, the NVN gunners would be moving too.
Lest we forget…. Bear …………….. –30– …………….