RIPPLE SALVO…#622… On 18 November in the middle of “lost weekend,” where more than twenty American ROLLING THUNDER aircraft were downed, MAJOR SAM ARMSTRONG, 34th TFS and 366th TFW out of Korat, flew his “most disastrous flight”–#22–and first flight lead going into Pack VI (short tale pulled from his unpublished log of 100 counters)… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO of a cruise through the 1965-1968 air war with North Vietnam…
18 November 1967…Head lines from The New York Times great Saturday for college football…
Page 1: “Johnson Retorts To Critics of War: Scores Rowdyism–Backs Responsible Dissent At News Conference, But Not Storm Trooper Acts–Expects Much advice–But President Will Judge For Himself–Thrusts At Senators”...”Sometimes softly, sometimes angrily, President Johnson answered his critics today. Reminded at his White House news conference that he had been accused of labeling all critics of his Vietnam policy as ‘unpatriotic,’ the President thought for a moment, smiled, and reached into Proverbs: ‘The wicked flee-eth when no man pursu-eth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion,’ and he boldly responded at length with an American history lesson without equal…”...Page 1: “Three Holiday Truces Set by Vietcong–Allies Are Believed Unlikely To Accept Foe’s Pauses of Three Days or Longer”... “The Vietcong announced today that they would observe three days at Christmas and News Year and a seven-day cease-fire over the Vietnamese lunar new year, or Tet, in February (and we all know how that turned out)… Page 1: “Philadelphia Seizes 57 In Negro Rioting”… Page 1: “President Cautions Hanoi Not to Rely On ’68 Elections’… Page 15: “Big Enemy Drive Is On, Thieu Says–He Links Fighting at Dakto To a General Offensive’… Page 16: “Key Peak Near Dakto Base Is Captured by U.S. Infantry Men”… “…fought bitterly in three places near Dakto today. It was the 16th day of fighting in the Central Highlands.”…”
Page 1: “U.S. IS UNCERTAIN ON HANOI DAMAGE–Aide Says Casualties May Be Due to Foe’s Missiles”…“United States high command said today that it could neither confirm nor deny that it was planes had fired missiles into the center of Hanoi. Correspondents reported yesterday from the North Vietnamese capital that one Indian sergeant on the staff of the International Control Commission had been killed and another wounded when a missile exploded near the commission’s communication’s center. A servant at the home of a Polish consular official was said to have been wounded when a missile exploded near his home.
“The spokesman, Brig. Gen Winai Sidle, said that motion pictures taken by automatic cameras in the planes taking part in the raids near Hanoi did not show the reported attack. None of the pilots was said to have reported his missiles gone astray. The interpretation of the photographs taken later by reconnaissance planes, which may have been hampered by overcast skies over the capital, have not been completed, General Sidle said. He would not rule out the possibility that the damage had been done by North Vietnamese missiles plunging back to earth after missing their targets. According to pilot reports, the general said, at least 14 of the missiles, whose warheads contain 400-500 pounds of explosive, were fired at the striking planes. ‘It’s got to be some of their own stuff coming in or we made a mistake,,’ he said, ‘I can positively confirm that we weren’t going for any targets in Downtown Hanoi.’ The strike, which was carried out by Air Force F-105 Thunderchief pilots from Thailand, was directed against the Bachmai Airfield, one mile south of the city. (continued in ROLLING THUNDER summary)
18 November 1967…President’s Daily Brief: “Report on North Vietnam”: Bomb damage to the Hanoi Diplomatic Quarter (one line redacted) press sources in Hanoi report that the offices of the Soviet military attaché, the International control Commission, and the British consulate were hit during yesterday’s air raids on targets near the city. Limited damage was reported to the Soviet and British installations, while at the ICC quarters one Indian sergeant was killed and another wounded (rest redacted)…
18 NOVEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times Page 1: …”…109 missions were flown against North Vietnam yesterday (17th). Today (18th) Navy planes raided the Haiphong ordnance depot, six miles southwest of the center of the city, the Doanlai storage area, about 60 miles northwest of Haiphong and the Thuong boat repair yard, 16 miles to the northwest. Air Force planes struck the Donghoi area about 60 miles north of the demilitarized zone. THE LOSS OF FIVE PLANES WAS ANNOUNCED, bringing to 744 the total downed over the North.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses: (Hobson) There were four fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 18 November 1967– all three from the 388th out of Korat… Chris Hobson tells it this way and Major Sam Armstrong will take it from there in Ripple Salvo…
(1) MAJOR OSCAR MOISE DARDEAU and CAPTAIN EDWARD WILLIAM LEHNHOFF were flying a F-105F Wild Weasel of the 34th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat in support of a Commando Club strike on Phuc Yen. They were downed by a MIG-21 and both killed in action… Their remains were handed over by the North Vietnamese in 1987 TEN YEARS AFTER they had notified the United States they had recovered the remains……
(2) LCOL WILLIAM N. REED was flying an F-105D of the 469th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat was flying an F-105 in the Iron Hand flight with MAJOR DARDEAU, and was hit by an air-to-air missile, but was able to fly the damaged aircraft as far as Laos where he eject and luckily was found and rescued before the Pathet Lao in the area could find him… LCOL REED survived to fly and fight again…
(3) MAJOR LESLIE JOHN HAUER was flying an F-105D of the 469th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat and leading the Vegas flight headed for the target. At 16,500 above an overcast his aircraft was hit solidly by a SAM and he ejected immediately. He was seen in his parachute and a beeper was heard as he descended into the low overcast. However, nothing was ever heard of MAJOR HAUER until his remains were located and returned by the North Vietnamese in September 1990…
(4) COL EDWARD LESLIE BURKE BURDETT the 388th Wing Commander was flying an F-105D of the 34th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat was hit by one of many SAMs over Phuc Yen and was forced to eject from his burning aircraft 15 miles west of Hanoi. COL BURKETT “was thought to have been captured but died soon after either from injuries received during the SAM explosion or from the ejection or from torture. The loss of the wing commander and the vice commander was a crushing blow to the 388th TFW. ” (Hobson) … COL BURKETT’S remains were repatriated on 6 March 1974.
RIPPLE SALVO… #622… The third Commando Club mission: Major Sam Armstong’s “most disastrous flight,” and he was one of the lucky ones–he came home. The Commando Club mission was a radar drop using a super secret radar site set up in remote Laos. It was run like the Sky Spot radar controlled drops of the B-52s. Support of Wild Weasels was essential.
From the compilation of “34TFS/F-105 History” by Howie Plunkett (page 177): “On 18 November 1967, the 388th TFW flew their third Commando Club mission using the TSQ-81 radar at LS-85 in Laos. It was one of seven such missions the wing flew in November. The mission turned into a disaster that the 355th TFW Commander, Colonel Giraudo, had feared. Korat’s target was the MiG airfield at Phuc Yen (JCS 6). 14 miles northwest of Hanoi in Route Pack 6A. Using regular daylight dive bombing attacks, both Korat and Takhli had hit Phuc Yen, the home of MiG-21s and Il-28 bombers., for the first time on 24 and 25 October 1967.”
Lieutenant General Sam Armstrong’s memoirs… “The morning of the 18 Nov 1967, was another Pack VIA Sky Spot–what an oxymoron! As my 22nd mission, this was my first in Pack VIA as a flight leader. I was leading Hachet Flight, which was always the call sign for the morning CBU flight. The target was the Phuc Yen Airfield and we were going the land route. MiG-21’s attacked the Weasels which were a couple of minutes ahead of us. They (the MIGs) scored hits on #1 and #4 aircraft. #1 was piloted by Oscar Dardeau and both he and his EWO ejected and we definitely heard one emergency beeper which meant that a parachute had opened. However, neither turned up as POW’s and were later declared KIA (They and the others whom I will mention as casualties on this mission can be found on panel #30E on the Vietnam Wall in Washington. That’s the paneI I go to when I take a break from a meeting across the river at the National Academy of the Sciences.)
“The #4 pilot was my McConnell classmate, Lt.Col. Bill Reed, who was able to fly back far enough to bail out in Laos and be rescued. I never will forget the specter of his aircraft burning brightly, turning to head south. The other Weasels accompanied him so we had no SA-2 protection from that time forward. The strike force crossed Thud Ridge and headed southeast for the bombing run. There were three flights of aircraft carrying 750# bombs just like on the first Pack VIA Sky Spot. My flight was on the outside of the three flights. As briefed since we carried CBU’s, we were to provide some MIG protection or drop on any flak site that we might be able to attack. A smarter move would have been to have us as the fourth flight carrying 750# bombs but the command post at 7th Air Force in Saigon really didn’t have a clue what we facing since none of them had ever experienced the defenses in Pack VIA and kept ordering the bomb loads that they ordered for clear weather targets. (More on this idiocy later.) Anyhow, I was on the right side of the strike force with Don Hodge on my wing. My #3 was Ray Vissotsky with Gene Main on his wing. they were on the other side of the strike force.
“There was a thick cloud level just a few thousand feet below our 17,000-foot altitude as the strike force came within 3-minutes from bomb release. The next thing I noticed was two SA-2s self-destructing at about 30,000-feet. When this happened to an SA-2, there was a large orange burst that was unmistakable. Their position indicated that they had passed behind us. Then about 10-12 SA-SA-2s exploded at our altitude in the vicinity of the three flights carrying 750# bombs. The leader of the second flight, Major Lee Hauer, wash it by one close enough to catch his aircraft on fire. He ejected a few seconds later. Col. Burkett, our wing commander, was flying in the third flight and he was hit next. I watched his aircraft spin down into the undercast burning fiercely. There was no visual of audio indication that he had ejected.
“Despite these losses, we were pressing on when we received a call from the Skyspot controller that he had lost radar contact and that we needed to go out and start all over again! SA-2s were still exploding and we were receiving MiG calls from the radar aircraft over the Gulf. What we said to that controller would be ‘R’ rated by today’s classification. I called my flight to punch off the CBU.s and break right towards the area where the MiGs were reported. The four of us got back together and headed back for our post flight refueling and a safe landing at Korat. We had lost four aircraft and Jim King was hit badly enough for him to make an emergency landing at Udorn Air base on the Northern border of Thailand.
“This was the most disastrous mission I personally experienced up to that time and for the next 78! This mission took three pages for me to record in my log book whereas I needed only one for all the others. What happened when we got back was equally bizarre. After landing, we stopped into the maintenance trailer to dutifully debrief the aircraft’s condition–we were disciplined to do this even under the emotional love we all felt. Then I stopped by the Intelligence Office in the command post for a personal debriefing. There was an intelligence officer, a major wearing fatigues, who sat in on my debriefing. When I mentioned the SA-2s that were fired at us, he said I was mistaken in my identification because his data showed conclusively that there were no SA-2 batteries in that area. I protested in a matter-of-fact manner but he was convinced that all of us who survived were mistaken although we had seen numerous SA-2 bursts previously. I had not the stomach to argue further. I threw up my hands and left!
“Shortly thereafter, we all assembled in the command post for the mass debriefing. A Maj. Gen. Worley from 7th Air Force walked up on the stage. He had flown up from Saigon in a T-39 when they got the word on the radio that we had lost so many aircraft, including the wing commander. the intelligence major must have come with him. The general’s first words to us were: ‘Well, did anybody get any bombs on the target?’ This was probably the dumbest question that I have ever heard. But it substantiated my belief the guys in Saigon didn’t have a clue what the Pack VIA world was like. Finally, he had the good sense to ask us to tell him what happened. We did and he flew back to Saigon to pass this on to General Momyer. Ironically, General Worley was later killed in an F-4C accident in South Vietnam. He’s listed on the Vietnam Wall as well as the four brave men who lost their lives on this mission. We never knew what happened to any of the four but they were eventually declared KIA. I’ve always worried that our escapade the day before unknowingly kept Col. Burdett up the last night of his life.”… (Humble Host adds: the escapade was a 388th flight on the 17th that might have been responsible for the hits on Consulate Row in Hanoi that raised the fur in Washington and around-the-world.)…
RTR Quote for 18 November: CICERO: “Any man may make a mistake; none but a fool will persist in it.”…
Lest we forget… Bear…