Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #377… “CLAY PREFERS JAIL TO ARMY”… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-SEVEN of a return to the air war over North Vietnam one day at a time…
17 MARCH 1967… HEAD LINES and LEADS from The New York Times on a partly cloudy Friday in NYC…
Page 1: “U.S. Aides Forecast Rise in The Bombing of North Vietnam”... “Top United States officials forecast today that bombing in North Vietnam and South Vietnam would continue to rise. Nonetheless, the officials said, inventories of bombs in the Vietnam theater are so high they will be cut back about 25-per cent. Bomb production will be reduced below planned levels for the next few months. Alluding to the recent extension of bombing in North Vietnam to include Thainguyen steel mill and thermal power plants, the officials said there had been a gradual change in the type of targets attacked. As one group of targets is neutralized, American Air Force and Navy bombers have shifted to others. This process will continue. The officials cautioned: don’t look for any drastic or dramatic escalation of air raids in North Vietnam.”... Page 1: “Sign Of Johnson’s Urgency Is Seen In Vietnam Shuffled”... “President Johnson’s reshuffle of the American civilian commander in Saigon is being interpreted by officials here as a further sign of his desire to press for greater and faster results on all Vietnamese fronts in the months ahead. No changes in policy or tactics are expected from the shift and no criticism of the retiring team in thought to have been intended.”…Page 2: “House Kills Move to Block Invasion”... “The House refused today by a vote of 123 to 2 to go on record as opposed to a land invasion of North Vietnam by United States ground forces. The standing vote preceded passage by a roll call vote of 385 to 11 of a $12.19 billion emergency appropriation bill to provide more money for the fighting in South Vietnam for the remaining months of the fiscal year . It was the first appropriation bill of 1967 and must still be ratified in the Senate.”… Page 1: “The Stock Market closed at a 1967 high at 868.49…
Page 1: “Nixon In Moscow Gets Soviet Snub”… “Former Vice President Richard M. Nixon fresh from talks with Pope Paul VI on Vietnam, arrived in Moscow tonight and was met by a snub from the Kremlin. No Soviet officials turned out to greet Mr. Nixon’s plane from Rome. He was met by Ambassador Llewelyn Thompson. Mr. Nixon is on a world-wide private fact-finding tour.”… Page 4: “Captured Film Shows Hanoi General”… “United States intelligence officers have uncovered what they call graphic proof that a North Vietnamese general directs the Communist side in the war in South Vietnam. Pictures of him were found in a captured underground dark room that contained 120 reels of motion picture film. He is identified as General Nguyen Chi Thanh who is second in command only to Gen Vo Nguyen Giap in the North Vietnamese hierarchy.”… Page 7: “Militia Ordered to Help Maoists”...”Peking called on the Militia today to give active support to the followers of Mao Tse-tung in this struggle to carry on the cultural revolution in China.”…
Page 2: “12 Marines Killed in 8-Hour Battle Near Laos Line…with Communist forces in the northwest corner of South Vietnam. Marine losses were announced as 12 dead and 52 wounded and a Chinook helicopter was downed in the battle. The fight started when a platoon of the Ninth Marines ran into heavy enemy fire three miles from Khe Sanh. Another platoon of about 45 men provided reinforcements and air strikes were called in to finish the fight.”… The weekly casualty report disclosed today that 175 American servicemen were killed and 892 wounded in action last week. The previous week losses were 232 killed in action, 1,381 were wounded in action, and 4 were missing.”
Page 4: “Dr. King Will Join A Vietnam Protest On April 15 At the U.N.”… “The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has agreed to play a leading role in an anti-war demonstration scheduled to be held here in New York on April 15 outside the United Nations headquarters. The civil rights leader, who has been increasingly critical in recent months of the United States role in Vietnam, will participate in a march from Central Park to the UN and will then address the rally–‘Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam.’ Dr. Benjamin Spock is chairman of the New York Rally.”…
17 MARCH 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER... New York Times (18 Mar reporting 17 Mar ops) Page 3: “32 Enemy Craft Hit”... “United States jet bombers from Thailand and the from carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin ranged along the North Vietnamese coast yesterday and destroyed or damaged more than 32 enemy supply vessels…they also hit at a rail and road trans-shipment point 24 miles east of Haiphong.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson) there were five American fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 17 March 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN ROBERT BROUGHTON BEALE, USMC was flying an A-4C of the VMA-214 Black Sheep and MAG-12 out of Chu Lai on a coastal reconnaissance mission and was hit by automatic weapon fire and crashed at sea off the coast about 15 miles from Chu Lai… CAPTAIN BEALE was Killed in Action fifty years ago on this date and remains where he fell… he rests in peace…
Four A-1H Spads from the VA-115 Arabs embarked in USS Hancock were lost on the night of 17 March 1967. LCDR ARNIE HENDERSON and LT R.B. MOORE were on a night armed reconnaissance mission and while making diving attacks on a barge in a river mouth about 15 miles north of Dong Hoi both aircraft were hit by automatic weapon fire and severely damaged. Both pilots attempted a return flight to the Hancock. Neither made it. Both ditched and were rescued by naval vessels. LTJG GENE WILLIAM GOEDEN and an unidentified VA-115 pilot manned two more VA-115 Spads and launched as part of the SAR for the two downed aircraft. Unfortunately, at some point in their flight and search for the two downed aviators they collided in a mid-air. LTJG GOEDEN was killed in the tragedy and the second pilot ditched and was rescued to fly and fight again… LTJG GOEDEN perished and remains where he fell in the service of his country. On this 50th anniversary of his death we salute his service and his family… “… ‘Tis not mine to reason why…. “
RIPPLE SALVO… #377… In the first two weeks of March 1967 the Department of Defense released the names of 405 American servicemen who were killed in action in Vietnam and another 2,273 who were wounded in action in the jungles of Vietnam. These bitter facts were carried in just so many words… A few pages later in the 17 March 1967 New York Times (Page 50–no byline) is the following article…
“Clay Prefers Jail to Army”... Cassius Clay, who prefers to be known by his Black Panther Muslim name of Muhammad Ali, implied yesterday that he would go to jail “for what I believe” rather than comply with his United States Army induction date of April 11. Clay said it was “against my teachings to serve in the Army.” When he was reminded that other Muslims had been ordered to report for induction, he said, “Jails are full of ’em.”
J. Allen Sherman, the Chairman of Local Board 47 in Louisville, Ky. announced Clay’s induction date on Wednesday. Should Clay defy the order, he would be subject to imprisonment and a fine for Selective Service evasion.
“My decision is made,” the 25-year old champion told newsmen,”but I have an answer to the government not to no reporters.”
“If necessary, I’ll have to die for what I believe. I am fighting for my people.” Clay was referring to one of the Muslim tenets, as published in the weekly newspaper: Muhammad Speaks: “We who believe that we who declare ourselves to be righteous Muslims, should not participate in wars which take the lives of humans. We do not believe this nation should force us to take part in such wars, for which we have nothing to gain from it unless America agrees to give us the necessary territory wherein we have something to fight for.”
The Muslims want to be allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own.
When Clay was reclassified 1A early last year (1966) he stated he had “No quarrel with them Viet Cong.” end article…
Makes me want to, puke! “The Greatest”?? …not on my scorecard!!! IMHO Ali was not in the same class with Sergeant Joe Louis.
CAG’s QUOTES for 17 March: MAO TSE-TUNG: “The principle of preserving oneself and destroying the enemy is the basis of all military principles.”… PATTON: “When the great day of battle comes remember your training.”….
Lest we forget… Bear
Excerpted from the e-Newsletter THE LIST (THE LIST 4410):
Rocky Marciano – Lest We Forget
(The Italian Stallion!)
When’s the last time you heard the name Marciano mentioned on any sports show?
If you grew up in the 40’s and 50’s, you listened to most of his fights on radio since they weren’t carried on the limited TV (ABC, NBC & CBS) of the time and Pay/Per View didn’t exist. His fights with Ezzard Charles, a black, were epics. Rocky didn’t know about “Rope a Dope”. His secret trick was to just put the his opponent to sleep in the middle of the ring . . . . 49 wins and no losses.
Since he was white and boxing has been taken over by blacks, he will never be given his due in this PC socially engineered society of the last 60 years or so. Since the Liberal/Progressives control our culture, society, media and sports, Marciano and his record will be buried forever in sports history. He is the only undefeated (49-0) Heavyweight Champion
in the history of boxing. He was also drafted and served in the Army. Just so you know…a lot of people have this title confused.
The Greatest Boxer of All Time: Didn’t die recently…he died 47 years ago. He didn’t have 5 losses, he had 0…None!!! He didn’t have 37 Knock Outs, he had 43 (88%). He didn’t dodge the draft. He wasn’t a race baiter and sure as hell didn’t convert to Islam. He was a local kid named Rocky Marciano, aka The Brockton Blockbuster. (No True! My Pop and I listened to just about every one of his fights and his alias was “The Broxton Bomber!” from Broxton, Mass).
Don’t let the mainstream media idolize false prophets. When he was asked on TV if he could’ve knocked out Ali in his prime his response was so classical!! “I’d be conceited if I said I could’ve, but I’d be a liar if I said I couldn’t.”
Real name: Rocco Francis Marchegiano