RIPPLE SALVO… #231… “OUR PILOTS CALL HANOI DODGE CITY”… Part ONE… Sam Butz, Sunday Times Magazine, 16 October 1966…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED THIRTY ONE looking back FIFTY YEARS to the air war over North Vietnam…
18 October 1966… THE HOMETOWN NEWS from the New York Times… On a cloudy and possibly rainy Tuesday…
Page 1: “Johnson Stresses Unity On Vietnam In Hawaii Speech”… “President Johnson arrived today in Hawaii, midway in his trans-Pacific journey to offer a general definition of his policy toward Asia and to request patience and unity in support of his policies in Vietnam. In an effort to counter speculation that has disturbed the traveling White House party, the President also cautioned the American people against expecting any surprises from the trip. ‘We don’t expect to pull any rabbits out of any hats at next weeks seven nation conference of Vietnam allies in Manila.’ Mr. Johnson said. ‘There will be no new military strategy and no spectacular formula for peace,’ he explained, ‘for we know that the most important weapons in Vietnam are patience and unity,’ He thus underscored again his unwillingness to call a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam until there was some sign that the North Vietnamese would reciprocate in South Vietnam. ‘Our military strategy is clear: To resist aggression with minimum risk necessary,’ the President said, ‘and there can be no peace formula, until the Communists reason with us and help work one out.’ At the same time Mr. Johnson chided those who he said he had practiced ‘instant judgment’ by deriding his meetings with Premier Nguyen Cao Ky of South Vietnam and other foreign leaders.”… Page 1: “Soviet-Bloc Leaders Meet On Vietnam War and China”…”The Kremlin’s closest allies gathered in Moscow today, apparently to chart a unified strategy for war and an eventual settlement in Vietnam and exploit China’s isolation in the world Communist movement. Leaders of Cuba and Mongolia meeting that is likely to last until later in the week when the visitors are expected to witness a Soviet space launch.”….
Page 1: “London Reports Soviet Peace Hunt”…”The Soviet Union has signaled a new willingness to play a role in possible moves toward a settlement in Vietnam. Foreign Secretary George Brown brought word with him on his return from an American tour. The view was based on two long conversations Mr. Brown had in New York with Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Foreign Minister. Mr. Gromyko said his government was in touch with North Vietnam and was not without influence with them. He made evident a willingness at least to talk about war in Vietnam and about proposals for its settlements. Mr. Gromyko’s position hardly amounts to any dramatic Soviet intervention. British officials are treating it carefully and avoiding over optimistic inferences.”….
Page 6: “Marines Extend Officer’s Tours”…”The Marine Corps imposed today a one-year freeze on resignations or voluntary retirements by marine officers below the grade of colonel in aviation and other combat arms. Pentagon officials said the order had been signed today by the Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze. The order will directly affect 500 regular officers of LCOL or below who have submitted requests for retirement. Action is required to meet the need for pilots and other officer specialists at a time when the Corps has been greatly expanded because of the war in Vietnam.”…
18 October 1966… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized)… South Vietnam: Chief of State Thieu accepted the resignation of six dissident cabinet ministers today, but Ky still hopes to persuade some of them to reconsider. Ky told Ambassador Lodge that he believes three of the six are interested only in advancing their political careers. Ky said he would assure the six ministers–and Economic Minister Thanh, who has also offered his resignation–that he remains opposed to abuse of police power. Ky is willing to restate this position publicly if the dissidents insist…. Soviet Union: The gathering of top East European , Cuban, and Mongolian Communists in Moscow represents a considerable tactical victory for the Soviets in their fight with the Chinese. (redacted….) Attendance by the top dogs of nine ruling parties will give weight to Moscow’s claim that Peking’s policies have been unanimously denounced. The meetings will almost certainly focus on Vietnam as the issue on which the Chinese are most vulnerable. The participants can be expected to come out with a strong statement in support of Hanoi’s war efforts, and to decry–at least implicitly–China’s refusal to cooperate….
18 October 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT (19 Oct reporting 18 Oct ops)…Page 12: “Bad weather continued to stifle American air raids in North Vietnam yesterday, but for the first time since early August the fighter-bombers struck in the northeastern section of the demilitarized zone. One of the 86 missions of 2 to 5 aircraft flown in the North yesterday went into the demilitarized zone to the east of Highway 1 where earlier American diplomats had announced observance of a two week bombing pause…The bombing of the suspected enemy storage area yesterday was regarded by some observers as a symbolic move by the United States to punctuate its October 14 statements ending the ‘suspension.’…”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) One fixed wing aircraft lost over Southeast Asia on 18 October 1966 (Page 78)…
(1) MAJOR RALPH HAROLD ANGSTADT, 1LT JOHN HENRY SOTHERSON LONG, MAJOR INZAR WILLIAM RACKLEY, TSGT ROBERT LAVERNE HILL, SSGT LAWERENCE CLARK, SSGT JOHN REGINALD SHONEK and A2C STEVEN HAROLD ADAMS were flying an HU-16 Albatross of the 37th ARSS and 3rd ARRG out of Da Nang and were on station in the Gulf of Tonkin as Crown Bravo. The weather conditions were described as “extreme.” The aircraft failed to make a routine radio check. As soon as the weather cleared enough to conduct a search of the patrol area, a second HU-16 was launched to join several Navy ships in the search. No trace of MAJOR ANGSTADT’s amphibian Albatross or the flight crew of seven was ever found. The estimated last known position of the aircraft was 40 miles east of Dong Hoi. On this day fifty years ago seven brave and dedicated warrior “angels” perished while on rescue duty in a combat zone. They rest in peace where they died in the service of our country on 16 October 1966…
RIPPLE SALVO… #230… The New York Times published a lengthy essay by Sam Butz in the Times Sunday Magazine on 16 October 1966… I present it here in three parts. Part I of “Our Pilots Call Hanoi Dodge City”…. I quote…
Anti-aircraft guns and guidance missile systems have been crowded in and around Hanoi so tightly that U.S. pilots call it ‘Dodge City.’ Veterans of the air war over North Vietnam report that flights in this vicinity of the Communist capital and the port city of Haiphong regularly touch off some of history’s most spectacular fireworks drawing the most intense ground fire ever directed at aircraft.
A number of pilots know from personal experience exactly what they are talking about, for they are also veterans of World war II and Korea. Most of them believe the defenses of London, Berlin, the German oil refineries, and other key targets of the past never rivaled the North Vietnamese hornets nest.
Younger pilots with no such background simply say the gun-muzzle flashes on the ground are so thick ‘sometimes’ it looks like every tree is winking at you.
General John P. McConnell, Air Force Chief of Staff, has called it the greatest concentration of anti-aircraft weapons that has ever been known in the history of defense of any town or any area in the world.
This defense involves more than wild firing untutored peasants. Behind it are the power and technical prowess of the Soviets who just this month renewed their commitment to lend military assistance to Hanoi ‘taking into account the requirements resulting from the new state of the war.’ Brigadier General George B. Simler, Deputy Director of Operations at Air Force Headquarters who has been prominent in planning the Southeast Asian air effort for more than 15-months, says flatly, ‘The North Vietnamese air defense is the most sophisticated ever put to the test of combat.’
General Simler’s opinion is based partly on the fact that surface-to-air guided missiles, SAMs, have been used in war for the first time. Even though these SAMs are relatively old Soviet SAMs, which were first deployed around Moscow in the latter nineteen fifties, they are the most sophisticated and deadly weapons ever used against aircraft. The SAMs have an added importance because they are dangerous high altitude weapons and pilots must fly low–well under 5,000-feet– to evade them. This puts the pilots down into the effective range of light automatic cannons, of which many hundreds are reported to be in North Vietnam.
Conventional antiaircraft guns are indeed, the backbone of the North Vietnamese defense. A relatively small number of missiles have been fired, and the more elusive the target, the better the moves must be. The best evidence of the advanced nature of the North Vietnamese system comes from a comparison of its targets, the twisting, turning, blindingly fast Navy and Air Force fighter-bombers of today with the slow, clumsy heavy bombers of World War II.
The old bombers, such as the U.S. B-17 Flying fortresses and RAF Lancasters and the German HE-111K cruised around 250-knots or less and most often maneuvered in large formations at altitudes of 15,000-feet or higher. Usually they were exposed to enemy action over the target nation better than an hour–Allied bombers flying over German Europe for several hours.
In sharp contrast, jet powered fighter-bombers carrying a bomb load almost as heavy as the B-17s. They are capable of evasive maneuvers–jinking–that could only be dreamed of in World War II, even by pilots of the best fighter. Turns so sharp that aircraft and pilots are subjected to loads five to six times the force of gravity and sometimes more.
These modern fighter-bombers also climb 10 times faster than the P-51 Mustang, the Air Force’s best piston engine fighter–30,000 feet per minute compared to 3,000-feet per minute. Navy and Air Force pilots bounce all over the sky in their attacks over North Vietnam.
The North Vietnamese defense problem is complicated further by the country’s small size. the southern panhandle is less than fifty miles wide and attacking aircraft can get in and out in less than ten minutes. No target is less than 150 miles or 15 minutes by jet fighter from borders.
Consequently, the electronic nerves of the North Vietnamese must be excellent to give any warning at all of attack. and once the twisting turning targets are located the system must be even better to shoot anything down. Only split seconds are available to track the target, compute its probable flight path and pass aiming data to the guns and missiles. this can only be done by well trained troops equipped with modern radar and computer systems. Equipment from World War ii or the early nineteen fifties, which needed minutes to react, would be completely outclassed.
Basically, today’s anti-aircraft control equipment is similar to what was used in that war. Radar tracks a target. A computer uses this information to predict where the target will be seconds later so the guns and missiles can aim at that spot. But since World War II major improvements have been made in radar which provide much more accurate data on distance to the target, target speed, position, rates of change of speed, and so on. The vital computers are no longer mechanical, gear driven, adding machine apparatus. Now they are electronic…. end quote PART II of III tomorrow…
Lest we forget…. Bear ……… –30– ……….