RIPPLE SALVO… #471… Translation: “I have flown into the jaws of the cat of death,” or as an American warrior who has flown night strikes into North Vietnam would modestly say, “I have seen the Doom Pussy.”…. but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED SEVENTY-ONE of an odyssey into the glorious past in the skies 24/7 over North Vietnam…
19 JUNE 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a rainy day in New York City…
Page 1: “Two Sides Firmness On Mideast Issue Dims Hope at UN–Egyptian Envoy Rules Out Direct Talks Demanded by Israel on a Pull-Out–Assembly Meets Today–Kosygin Will Speak First–Syrians Accused of Raid in El Quneitra Area”… Israel and the United Arab Republic stood by their widely opposing policies today, dimming the prospects for effective peacemaking in the emergency session of the General assembly resuming tomorrow.”... Page 1 “Israelis Tell How and Why They Won”… “In 130-hours of battle the week before last, Israel trounced the forces of three Arab nations and established herself as the paramount military power in the Middle East. Historians will argue for years over who shot who first, but shortly after the first shot it became academic, the most ready, willing and able moved fast and overwhelmed the Egyptians.”… Page 5: “Cairo Reports 5 Sunken Ships Block Suez Canal...and 15 ships are trapped halfway along the international waterway…It took six months to clear the waterway after the 1957 Suez War.”... Page 5: “Soviets Said to Halt Emigration of Jews to Israel”…”departing Israeli diplomats reported today that the Soviet Union had withdrawn, at least temporarily, permission for soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel to join family there…Soviet Embassy staff has left Israel.”…
Page 10: “TIME Says Israelis Launched the War”... “Time Magazine says Israel scarcely denies any longer she started the shooting that erupted into war with her Arab neighbors. Decision to launch the war…was made in a secret meeting on 4 June, the day before the massing Arabs attacked. Vote was 19 to 2 to launch. ‘The Arabs, after all have for 19 years insisted that they were in a ‘state of war’ with Israel, and were clearly massing for their own first strike from the Sinai when the war began,’ Time said….”
Page 1: “Kosygin Rides and Walks Around Manhattan”… “Wilson in Paris to Meet De Gaulle”… “Johnson and Hold at Camp David”… Page 1: “Jack Nicklaus Wins U.S. Open with record 275; Arnold Palmer second, Don January third and Billy Casper fourth…”
Page 19: “U.S. Concedes Pilots May Have Hit Soviet ship”… “the Department of defense conceded today that United States warplanes may have struck a Soviet freighter with cannon fire aimed at anti-aircraft guns protecting the North Vietnamese port of Cam Pha. Turkestan was hit on June 2. An intensive investigation is underway…”
State Department, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of US, 1964-68, Volume V, 1967… Document #207. Editorial Note:
“The impending visit of Soviet Premier Alexsie Kosygin to New York in order to attend meetings at the United Nations presented the Johnson Administration with an opportunity to engage the Soviet leader in talks on a number of important issues, including the war in Vietnam. On June 19, 1967, at 10:57pm President Johnson discussed on the telephone with Senator William J. Fulbright the chances for successful talks during Kosygin’s impending visit…” Humble Host found this one long paragraph of LBJ jabber very interesting… at
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d207
19 JUNE 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (20 June reporting 19 June ops): Page 2: “In the air war, United States Air Force and Navy fighter-bombers again attacked major rail yards northeast of Hanoi and bombed and strafed truck convoys, bridges and storage areas in the panhandle–the long narrow southern part of North Vietnam. F-105 Thunderchief pilots based in Thailand reportedly had damaged the Bacgiang thermal power plant 28 miles northeast of Hanoi. One MIG had been sighted but there was no engagement.”… (bear#105HaiduongRRBridgeBpup)…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 19 June 1967…
(1) LCDR F.L. RAINES and ENSIGN C.L. LOWNES were flying an F-4B of the VF-142 Ghostriders embarked in USS Constellation on a photo escort mission in Route Packages 4/6 south of Hanoi and north of Nam Dinh and took a hit two miles south of Hanoi. Everything seemed normal until the gear and flaps were extended for landing. At that point the aircraft suffered a complete hydraulic failure requiring the two aviators eject. They were rescued by the carrier’s helicopters…
RIPPLE SALVO… #471… Elaine Shepard’s flyleaf quote in her bestseller, “Doom Pussy,” explains the title this way: “Only the men who flew up north after dark are entitled to wear the Doom Pussy emblem on their left shoulders. In green letters around the border is emblazoned: TRONG MIENG CUA CON MEO CUA THAM PHAN. Translated literally from the Vietnamese this reads: “I have flown into the jaws of the cat of death.”
“Most American flyers merely say, ‘I have seen the Doom Pussy.’ “
“Doom Pussy” was one of the first really good books coming out of the air war. It was lived and written by one of the bravest correspondents that ever went afield to cover war, Elaine Shepard. It was published in the summer of 1967 and was added to my library shortly after I returned to NAS Lemoore from my first combat cruise to train up for a second A-4 cruise on Enterprise. Having flown 21 night armed reconnaissance missions in Route Packs 2, 3 and 4 and a couple of Milkys down around the DMZ on my first cruise, I felt entitled to declare: “I have flown into the jaws of the cat of death.“ When by lovely wife heard this boastful declaration, and the companion boast: “I have seen the Doom Pussy,” I was banned to my room for my vulgar language.
The Doom Pussy patch belonged to the “The Canberra Night Fighters” and featured a cat with a patch over one eye chewing on a B-57 Canberra. The “Doom Pussy” was all theirs, but of course night flying into North Vietnam to find and destroy military targets became the work of thousands of Rolling Thunder attack and strike-fighter warriors… We all saw the Doom Pussy.
Humble Host recommends the book for a summer read on the beach, the back porch or on one of those cruises without chores. The book is cover-to-cover the air war of the years 1965-67. She nails it. And oh, by the way, you will meet Major Floren Bennion Nelson, who is “Nails” in Shepard’s narrative. “Nails” Nelson was in retirement in Utah the same character that stars in “Doom Pussy.” Nobody who knew “Nails” will ever forget him. Read the book and meet “Nails,” who was a colorful member of Pioneer Chapter of the Order of Daedalians at Hill AFB for decades. “Nails” was our premier teller of tales, and I never heard him tell the same one twice. He took his stories west on January 7, 2007… Nails, keepem’ laughing….
RTR Quotes for 19 June: ELAINE SHEPARD: “In covering this brutal many-sided war, you watch men go through their tours dreaming of home. Then when the day comes to separate from their buddies and commander, emotions tear them both ways, especially if their comradeship was born in moments of danger. Shared perils are a private thing of great depth between them.”… PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, 12 September 1963: “We have a very simple policy in Vietnam. We want the war to be won, the communists to be contained, and the Americans to go home. That is our policy.”…
Lest we forget… Bear