RIPPLE SALVO…#80… DEFENSE POW/MIA ACCOUNTING AGENCY… but first…
Good Morning: Day EIGHTY of a planned 1000 day review of the “air war” over NVN...
18 MAY 1966 (NYT)…ON THE HOME FRONT... President Johnson spent yesterday (Tuesday 17th) in Air Force One and in Chicago looking for support…Page 1: “President Asks U.S. To Unite Behind His Vietnam Policy”… The President used a Democratic muster in the Windy City to gibe his “Nervous Nelllies” in the party with “his strongest attack on war critics yet,” wrote John Pomfret of the NYT… “He seemed to almost call for an end to criticism of the Administrations actions in Vietnam and to question his critics patriotism.” The event was at the Conrad Hilton, attended by 6,500 Democrats at $1000 a plate, and included a reception before the President flew back to Washington landing at Andrews at 2AM.
The President: …fifty years ago yesterday…
“Tonight I ask each of you present here tonight to give me a matching pledge. I ask you and I ask every American to put our country first if we want to keep it first. Put it above parties if you want to seize the larger victories of freedom, peace, and prosperity. Put away all the childish divisive things if you want the maturity and unity that is the mortar of a nation’s greatness.
“I do not think that those men who are out there fighting for us tonight think we should enjoy the luxury of fighting each other back home.
“So I ask each of you to read carefully the statements of every public official and of every candidate for every office then judge for yourself. Ask yourself, ‘Is he helping the cause of his country, or the cause of himself? Is he trying to draw us together and unite our land, or is he trying to pull us apart to promote himself?’ This is the measuring stick that I ask the people of America to judge us by.
“Let those who speak and write about Vietnam say clearly what other policy they would pursue. And let them weigh their words carefully. Let them remember there are 300,000 young Americans–our own boys–out there in Southeast Asia, on the land and on the sea, fighting to quarantine an aggressor, fighting for peace.
“The men who fight for us out there tonight in Vietnam, they are trying to find a way to peace. But they know — and I don’t understand why we don’t all recognize — that we can’t get peace just wishing for it. We must get on with the job until these men can come home, some day when peace is secure–not only for the people of America–but peace is secure for peace loving people everywhere in the world.” …
Page 1: “Cambodia Warned By U.S. On Vietcong”… A State Department note to the Cambodian government implies that Americans will cross the Cambodian border to retaliate for any further attacks on American troops in South Vietnam. The note pointed out that on two occasions in late April 1966 sustained gunfire that came from the Cambodian side of the border hit among American troops in South Vietnam and that in the future American forces are authorized to pursue any enemy who fires on them, as is the right of all to act in self-defense. Further, the note reminded Cambodia that it had an obligation as a neutral to protect its territory and prevent the use of Cambodia as a sanctuary for Communist troops–North Vietnamese or Vietcong…
PRESIDENT’s DAILY BRIEFING… (CIA- TS sanitized)… “Although open clashes have been avoided in I Corps area, neither side has made any concessions. In Danang, government troops and ‘struggle forces’ are continuing to reinforce their positions. ‘Struggle forces’ still hold the pagoda. Some South Vietnamese government officers are urging an all out attack on the rebellious ‘struggle forces,’ but Ky told Ambassador Porter he was opposed to that. Hue is reasonably quiet. General Thi to meet with Ky tomorrow.”
18 MAY 1966…ROLLING THUNDER OPS… NYT (May 19 for 18th)… “Air Strikes in North and South”…”United States Air Force and Navy jets pressed the air war against North Vietnam with a total of 38 (multiple aircraft) missions. Targets included radar sites and bridges. the B-52s struck east of the Mugia Pass.”… Two U.S. aircraft were lost on 18 May, both in the area of Ban Karai Pass. Chris Hobson’s write-up In “Vietnam Air Losses” does the event justice…”Two days after a USAF A-1 Skyraider was lost in the area, CAPTAIN LEE DUFFORD HARLEY and A2C ANDRE ROLAND GUILLET flying an O-1F Bird Dog FAC (from the 23rd TASS and the 505 TACG out of NKP; was hit by .50 caliber gunfire at almost the same location and was brought down near a recently discovered flying section of the Trail. The aircraft exploded and both crew were killed. About one hour after the O-1 was shot down a section of VF-213 Phantoms from the USS Kitty Hawk was reassigned from a Steel Tiger strike to assist in the search for the Bird Dog and its crew. The F-4B Phantoms arrived in the vicinity and came down to 500-feet to make a visual identification of the wreckage. During the first pass one of the aircraft was hit by ground fire and began to burn. The crew ejected a few miles from the Bird Dog’s crash site and were picked up by a USAF HH-3E.”
LCDR C.N. SUMMERS and LCDR W.K. SULLIVAN of VF-213 were returned to Kitty Hawk and duty in due course. CAPTAIN LEE DUFFORD HARLEY and AIRMAN SECOND CLASS ANDRE ROLAND GUILLET were Killed in Action fifty years ago today. It is our great honor to remember them today as brave men who went in Harm’s Way knowing full well that they were in grave danger as they did their duty for God, country and their families, who have lived for 50 years, and counting, with their tragic loss.
RIPPLE SALVO… #80… POW/MIA…”eating the elephant one bite at a time”…. The nation’s unemployed numbers are in the tens of millions many of whom are fit and ready to do honest work that needs doing. May I suggest that instead of hiring another ten thousand TSA body searchers, that our country take seriously the quest for the 8,000 warriors who are still missing and waiting to come home. Expand the thin ranks of the Defense POW/MIA accounting Agency and put a hundred teams in the fields of the world where our warriors have lain for fifty years or more. That’s right fifty years, and we are still looking for men like CAPTAIN HARLEY and A2C GUILLET… If you need a little motivation to join this cause I suggest you dial up http://www.dpaa.mil and spend a little time browsing through the great work in small quantities this government agency is quietly recording on behalf of the families of America’s missing in action. Their noble cause is all about chasing down as many of the missing as they can. They are eating the elephant one bite at a time. The DPAA has been reorganized and consolidated, again, and looks to be on the right track (s), no pun intended. But they are few and the missing are many. They know how to do the job, which entails a lot of grunt work, as well as how to apply the sciences to locate sites for excavation, extraction, retrieval, and identification of remains. No man left behind? Are you kidding? Check out the DPAA web site and then go see your congress-person, or the person who wants his/her job this November, and enlighten them that the POW/MIA “elephant” is a cause worth pursuing at a rate a whole lot faster than “a bite at a time.” On Memorial Day weekend the “Rolling Thunder” bikers will storm Washington in their annual ride around the Capitol. They will grab the media cameras for a few minutes to support the idea of “No man left behind,” but there is more a body can do than make a lot of noise and wave a big flag … like put a little pressure on a congress-person or two… NO WARRIOR LEFT BEHIND!!!
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….