RIPPLE SALVO… #560… “NO MAN LEFT BEHIND”… 15 September 2017: National POW/MIA Recognition Day… President Donald Trump: …”We do not leave our fellow man or woman behind, and we do not rest until our mission is complete. For more than three decades, our country has conducted investigation and recovery operations in Southeast Asia with the help of the governments of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Whether in Southeast Asia, or in South Korea, Europe, the South Pacific, and in all other corners of the globe, we are committed to this most honorable mission of fully accounting for our missing personnel. We are encouraged by the progress made, but know our mission is ongoing until every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine missing in the line of duty is accounted for.”… The President’s National POW/MIA Recognition Day Proclamation…
On this day Humble Host salutes the DEFENSE POW/MIA ACCOUNTING AGENCY, the new Director, Major General Kelly McKeague, a longtime leader in the search for our missing in action–the men we have left behind–and the troops under his direction who do the field and lab work that will never be complete. They are the agents who must “deliver on the promise.”
Ripple Salvo #560 has selected from a thousand Agency successes and ongoing searches, the recover and identification of LTJG RICHARD CHRISTIAN SATHER, USNR, he rests in peace, as a success that is indicative of the tireless, relentless “commitment to this most honorable mission of fully accounting for our missing personnel,” as promised by our President…. but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SIXTY of a 1000-day journal of the air war fought fifty years ago over North Vietnam. Code name: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…
17 September 1967… Head Lines from the 900-page Sunday New York Times on a cloudy, cool weekend in NYC…
FALL 1967 in America: Page 1: “Hurricane Dorea Hits Carolina Coast and Loses Force–Winds Fall to 45-MPH–Three Dead Off Jersey Resort Communities Stuck In Widespread Flooding–Thousands Evacuated”...”Dorea struck the North Carolina mainland last night…moving down the coast and Carolina’s outer banks…three killed when a cabin cruiser driven ashore in Ocean City, New Jersey.”...Page 1: “Upstate New York Areas Fear Bankruptcy From Rising Costs of Medicaid”…. Page 2: “Senators Call Nike Plan a Step to Full Defense”… “The Administration’s decision to deploy a limited missile defense around the United States was viewed by some Senators today as the first step toward establishment of a full-scale system that would cost $7-billion to $15-billion.”... Page 6: “GI’s SUPPORTERS TO HOLD PARADE–LARGEST MARCHES PLANNED FOR OCTOBER 21 AND 22”… “The National Committee for Responsible Patriotism, hopes to hold the largest series of parades in American history on October 21 and 22… an outgrowth of the group in New York to support our boys in Vietnam… parade committee have been formed in 75 cities in 35 states and the Puerto Rico. The chosen dates have no connection with demonstrations planned that same weekend for Washington by the National Mobilization Committee to End The War in Vietnam, which has said that it will attempt to shut down the Pentagon and attack other buildings in Washington.”... Page 16: “3 Doctors Ask Oregon To Ease Marijuana Law”...”…contend marijuana is not a gateway drug and should not be classified as a narcotic but as a dangerous drug. ..narcotic possession is punishable for up to 10-years in prison. Dangerous drug possession, on the other hand, is a misdemeanor.”… Page 40: “EAST ST. LOUIS IS ‘DOOMED CITY’–MINISTER GIVES HIS VIEW ON RACE AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS”... “Reverend William L. Lahey of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, a leading white minister who has been at the forefront of civic and social reforms here, said, ‘This town is a tinderbox. It is a doomed city because of crooked politicians, a mobster element, apathy of the man in the street, a very high unemployment rate–now at least 60-per cent for Negroes who are now a majority–and because the potentially responsible white leadership has moved to the suburbs.’… Window smashing, looting and arson followed on the heels of last Sunday’s visit by H. Rap Brown, the black power advocate. But this city of 80,000 had already been having racial disturbances. ‘We averted what started out to be a riot,’ said Boyce Perry, Executive Board Chairman of IMPACT HOUSE, a Negro youth center. But Oliver Smith, assistant director, broke in: ‘Every black man in town supports the disturbances. Who is to say the violence is wrong? Let’s see what it accomplishes.”…
MIDEAST: Page 3: “U.S. Reports Standstill In Mideast Settlement Attempts”...”…despite slight sign of Arab moderation earlier this month.”… Page 3: “Nasser Reported In Mourning Over Amer Death”… “The suicide death of Field Marshall Abdel Hakim Amer follows his dismissal as Deputy Supreme Commander of Egyptian armed forces as a consequence of charge that he had taken part in failed attempt to replace Nasser.”….
VIETNAM: Page 1: Lead Story: “THANT INFORMED HANOI IS GETTING NEW VOLUNTEERS–SYMPATHIZERS SAID TO AGREE TO BOLSTER AIR FORCE WITH PILOTS AND ENGINEERS–BOMBING HALT IS URGED–SECRETARY GENERAL SAYS HE IS CONCERNED TALKS COULD START IN 3 OR 4 WEEKS”... “Secretary General Thant said today that according to unconfirmed reports available to him an agreement had been reached between North Vietnam and its ‘sympathizers’ to provide volunteers, including pilots, gunners and engineers for its air force…in the opinion of many, these are likely to be Communist Chinese…China and Russia have been in Chinese city of Kumming, 350-miles northwest of Hanoi to discuss an increase in military aid to North Vietnam. “… Page 4: “69 Vietcong Dead in Delta Fighting–21 Americans Die–9 From Navy’s River Task Force”… “…three days of fighting 47 miles south of Saigon…the worst casualties suffered by the river force since it began operations in the Delta in the Spring.”… Page 5: “Haiphong Cargo Slow Down Attributed to U.S. Bombing”...”It takes about four times as long to unload a cargo ship in Haiphong harbor in North Vietnam as it did about nine months ago…turnaround time for a vessel docking at Haiphong was four weeks compared with one week earlier this year…cargo is piled in the open on the wharves… delays and vulnerabilities due to cut roads and downed bridges.” (HUMBLE HOST NOTES: How could anybody not fail to see the value of closing the port and destroying the cargo handling facilities at Haiphong as a clear requirement for the effective conduct of the war?… Our “Strategy for Defeat” had blinded our leadership to the possibilities of victory.)…
17 SEPTEMBER 1967: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER the New York Times (18 Sept reporting 17 Sept ops) Page 1: Led Item: “JETS BOMB BRIDGE NEAR CHINESE BORDER–ATTACK IN NORTH VIETNAM IS 7 MILES FROM THE BORDER, CLOSEST OF WAR SO FAR–PORT RAID 2nd IN WEEK–HANOI SAYS IT DOWNED 3 JETS OVER THE CITY”... “Air Force bombers attacking in North Vietnam struck a bridge seven miles from Communist China yesterday (17th) in the closest raid to the border yet. Air Force and carrier based Navy planes meanwhile, attacked targets in Haiphong in the second raid on the port city in the last week. The pilots reported all bombs on target on a highway and railroad a mile from the center of the city and railroad yards in the area. The targets were the same attacked on 11 September. U.S. did not announce any plane losses but North Vietnam said three planes were downed in the Haiphong area…The target near the border was the Thatken highway bridge 92 miles north-northeast of Hanoi. The pilots said the center span of the bridge was destroyed. The previous closest raid to China took place on 13 August when the Langson railroad yard 10 miles from the border was attacked.”… Page 1: “U.S. Silent On Plane Loss”… “U.S. headquarters made no mention of any plane losses but North Vietnam said four planes were shot down yesterday, three of them in and around Haiphong. Air Force planes attacked nine miles from Hanoi. Pilots reported having damaged a radar van at a surface-to-air missile site. Air force pilots also attacked a rail siding 17 miles northwest of Hanoi and reported having wrecked a railyard 38 miles northwest of the North Vietnamese capital.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson)… There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 17 September 1967…
(1) MAJOR JOHN EDWARD STAVAST and LT GERALD SANTO VENANZI were flying an RF-4C of the 11th TRS and 432nd TRW out of Udorn on a photo reconnaissance mission near Phuc Yen when hit by an SA-2 missile. They were able to turn west and head for home, but after a about twenty miles of troubled flight their trusty Phantom failed and they were forced to eject about 17 miles southwest of Hanoi. MAJOR STAVAST, on his 91st mission, and LT VENANZI, who had been on continuous combat duty since 1962, was on his 62nd mission, were captured and interned for the rest of the war. They were released from honorable POW duty in March 1973…
RIPPLE SALVO… #560… On 5 August 1964 the carriers of CTF-77 at Yankee Station and their embarked air wings were the weapon of choice in Operation Pierce Arrow, “a limited retaliatory raid on military targets in North Vietnam,” in retaliation for the “torpedo attacks” of the “Gulf of Tonkin” incident. Targets at Hon Gai, Loc Chao, Quang Khe, Ben Thuy and Vinh were struck by carriers Ticonderoga and Constellation. Two naval aviators from Connie were downed in the attack. One was LTJG Everett Alvarez, who was captured to spend the entire war as a Prisoner of War. He was known as the “old man of the north” among the hundreds (591) of Rolling Thunder warriors who would join him in prison in Hanoi over the next eight and a half years. Everett Alvarez came home in March 1973 a hero among heroes to continue a life of service for our country that would include leadership of the Veterans Administration for several years.
The other brave aviator who fell that day to become the “first naval airman to be killed in the Vietnam war” was LTJG RICHARD CHRISTIAN SATHER of the VA-145 “Swordsmen.” LTJG SATHER was hit by intense barrage fire on his third dive bombing attack on his assigned target and crashed in the Gulf of Tonkin off-shore from Thanh Hoa–no parachute, no survival radio contact or beeper. Perished. Missing in action. 5 August 1964. Gone, but not forgotten. Never forgotten, but left behind. For twenty-one years. Then returned. Promise kept.
The intrepid young attack pilot, killed on his third attack on a heavily defended target, died courageously on the new American battlefield. He rested at peace where he fell until his remains were returned to the United States, on his shield, in August 1985. His remains were positively identified on 4 November 1985. LTJG RICHARD CHRISTIAN SATHER was subsequently interred with honors and now rests in peace in the hallowed ground of the National Cemetery of the Pacific, the Punchbowl Crater, in Hawaii.
LTJG SATHER’s loving family remembers: “You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on–in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be apart of you living in me, your brother, sisters and those who knew you and loved you. You will live on because we remember you.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear