RIPPLE SALVO… #714… THE DRAFT: “In the name of greater equity–which is long overdue–the Selective Service System has dealt a crippling blow to the nation’s academic community, and perhaps also to the armed services which it is supposed to support.”(NYT)… Dean Robert McKay of New York University’s law school: “The consequences are very severe. My guess is that the number of women in law school will rise. As for the Army, I don’t believe they will be as happy with college graduates as with 19-year-olds. The graduates are, I suspect, neither as physically fit nor as mentally amenable.”... (Amenable: “readily adapting to new circumstances; flexible)… Humble Host adds: nor as forgiving… Boomers with a chip… but first…
Good Morning: Day SEVEN HUNDRED THIRTEEN of a daily blog that remembers the sacrifice and service of the great Americans who went to war for their country 50 years ago…”My country, my country. Right or wrong, my country.”…
17 FEBRUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a Saturday full of sunshine, wind and chill…
Page 1: (Big, bold head line, 36 points) “MOST DEFERMENTS TO END FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS; JOB EXEMPTIONS LIMITED–EXCEPTIONS MADE–MEDICAL, DENTAL AND ALLIED FIELDS LISTED–EDUCATORS UPSET”... “The Johnson Administration abolished today most graduate deferments from the draft. Exceptions were granted for medical and dental students, students in allied fields and those who will have completed two or more years of their studies. The National Security Council also suspended indefinitely the list of critical occupations and essential activities that has formed the basis for about half the 339,474 occupational deferments now held by draft registrants… about 150,000 men to be drafted during the fiscal year beginning July 1, as a result of the decision on graduate deferments… 75,000 men now facing the draft are expected to volunteer… the other 75,000 are now vulnerable to be drafted… The effect on the nation’s graduate schools was expected to be severe under these circumstances and educators reacted sharply to the announcement of the Administration’s decision. There are now about 350,000 full-time college seniors and 200,000 full-time graduate students. About 41 percent of the combined total would be inducted or would volunteer for service under the threat of the draft. Dr. Logan Wilson, president of the American Council on Education, the country’s leading association of colleges and universities, called the decision a ‘short-sighted’ one. ‘In addition to the handicaps on advanced level education, its implications for the long-range rained manpower needs of the nation are alarming. The decision means that most college graduates in 1968 and students ending their first year of graduate school in 1968 will be drafted in the future.’… Only 14,000 college graduates be drafted in contrast to the 150,000 expected next year…”…Page 10: “EDUCATORS OPPOSE DRAFT RULE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS”... “Educators voiced vigorous opposition yesterday to the new Selective Service regulations on draft deferments for graduate students. They were concerned primarily with the impact on the structure of their universities which will be faced with an exodus of student from graduate schools into the armed forces.”…
Humble Host has included a bit more detail on this subject because “The (some and not others) Draft” was a significant factor in bringing our ’60’s society to a higher state of internal discord than at any time in our history, except, of course, the 1860s and our Civil War. It is also my contention that the long-term consequences of the flames of discord and division fanned during the Vietnam war years destroyed our unity of purpose as a nation. The seeds of “them” and “us” found fertile soil in “the year the dream died”–1968– and have festered and flourished ever since…
Other Head Lines: Page 2: “THE PENTAGON RELEASED THE NAMES OF 63 AMERICAN SERVICEMEN KILLED IN ACTION IN VIETNAM”… Page 1: “Hanoi Releases Three POW Fliers–They Arrive in Thailand–Are Due Home Today”… Page 1: “Johnson Denies Atom Use In Vietnam Is Considered”… Page 1: “Foe Clings To Hue Positions–Again Defies Bombardment and Tear Gas–Enemy’s Tanks Seen At Conthien”… Page 1: “President Declares Hanoi Doesn’t Want to Negotiate”… Page 1: “Two Soviet Bombers Spotted Off Canada (New Foundland)”… Page 1: “Vietnam Refugees Find Hue Provides No Haven”… Page 2: “Washington feels Vietcong Offensive Failed To Gain Maximum Objective”… Page 2: “U.S. Ends Search For Pilot Downed By Chinese Jets”… Page 3: “Special Warplane Sent to Vietnam–It Can Locate Foe Despite Fog, Darkness or Jungle”… Page 3: “Whole Pueblo Crew Sorry North Korea Says”… Page 3: “3 Dead Enemy Soldiers Chained To Their Guns–Allied Officers In Hue Assert–The Bodies Were Discovered When School Was Taken”… Page 4: “Army Study Said To Ask Readiness–Finds Need To Be Prepared For Global Intervention”…
17 February 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times devoid of coverage of air war in the north…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 17 February 1968…
(1) LCOL B.M. FIELDS and CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAVID CANUP were flying an F-100F of the 614th TFS and 35th TFW out of Phan Rang providing close air support for forces engaged with the Viet Cong five miles southwest of Can Tho in the Mekong Delta. They were hit by small arms fire on their second attack and forced to eject. Both were rescued. Sadly, CAPTAIN CANUP was killed in an F-100 seven weeks later on 6 April.
(2) On 17 February 1968 an OP-2E of the Navy’s VO-67 squadron operating out of Nakhon Phanom was lost on a sensor laying mission about 35 miles west of the demilitarized zone. the aircraft took enemy fire and hits on an initial run and after assessing the damage committed to a second run. Unfortunately, one of its two engines burst into flames and the crew headed for Nakhon Phanom. The fighter escort lost sight of the OP-2E in climbing through a layer of clouds. The OP-2E Neptune never showed so the escort pilot descended and reversed course to look for his silent partner. He found a burning wreckage on a ridgeline about two miles northwest of the village of Muang Phine. There was no sign of survivors in the nine member crew and it was presumed they were killed in action. In 1993 the remains of all nine were recovered and returned to the United States for positive identification and burial. CDR GLENN MILLER HAYDEN; LT CURTIS FRANK THURMAN; LTJG JAMES STEPHEN KRAVITZ; ENSIGN JAMES CHARLES WONN; ATN1 PAUL NICHOLAS DONATO; AO2 CLAYBORN WILLIS ASHBY; AN FRANK ARTHUR DAWSON; and AN JAMES EDWARD MARTIN perished on this day 50 years ago and rest in peace after sacrificing their lives for our country… They are remembered, it is the right thing to do…
RIPPLE SALVO… #713… New York Times, 17 February 1968, Opinion Editorial, Page 28:
BLOW TO THE UNIVERSITIES…
“In the name of greater equity–which was long overdue–the Selective Service system has dealt a crippling blow to the nation’s academic community, and perhaps also to the armed services which it is supposed to support.
“There can be no question that the decision to end most graduate school deferments, except in the fields of medicine, dentistry, and allied medical specialties, eliminates an escape hatch that has unfairly permitted thousands of young men from privileged backgrounds to elude a burden of service that has fallen disproportionately on those less fortunate.
“But if this abrupt change in policy is carried out with no change in the present rule of inducting the oldest first, the nation’s graduate schools next fall will be decimated, with serious academic and educational consequences. Education authorities estimate that more than 200,000 graduating seniors and first year graduate students will suddenly become eligible for induction and, at present and estimated induction rates, will be thrust into the armed forces before the year is out.
“This will, in the words of one university president limit next years graduate classes to ‘the lame, the halt, the blind and the female.’ It will complicate administrative problems, cripple university budgets, and create a serious gap in future teacher material. It will also affect undergraduate studies by drastically reducing the number of available teaching assistants.
“The induction of this large body of older, articulate students will also create serious problems for the armed services, which have found such older draftees less viable and more difficult to assimilate into military routines than younger men. It may create serious problems for Selective Service itself because a much higher percentage of war and draft objectors is found among graduate students.
“These bitter fruits are the inescapable price of the failure of Congress last year to rewrite a fundamentally bad draft law. Equity and the broader interests of the nation simply cannot be served by tinkering with a basically inequitable act. The law should be revised in general accordance with the recommendations of the President’s Advisory Commission on Selective Service, which Congress ignored last year. Meanwhile, the impact of the graduate studies ruling could be eased by modifying the ‘older first’ order of induction.”…
RTR Quote for 17 February: GEORGE S. PATTON, JR.: Diary, 1943: “I pray daily to do my duty, retain my self-confidence and accomplish my destiny.”…
Lest we forget… Bear