ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 2 APRIL 1967

RIPPLE SALVO… #393… “One of the toughest guys I know.”…John McCain… but first…

Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED NINETY THREE of another look at what happened fifty years ago in the skies of North Vietnam…

2 APRIL 1967… HEAD LINES and LEADS from The New York Times on a cloudy, rainy Sunday in NYC…

Page 1: “Latin Envoys Enjoy Day at Johnson Ranch”...”President Johnson served a thousand pounds of barbecue meat to a ranch full of diplomats and other guests today to promote a grand civic alliance for the progress of North American diplomacy, American-Latin America economy and a Texas exposition.”... Page 1: “Humphrey Gets a Plea From Pope On Vietnam Peace”… “Pope Paul VI told Vice President Humphrey today that ever more intensive efforts were needed to achieve peace in Vietnam. In a private meeting at the Vatican, the two men spoke about the war for about 10-minutes and spent the rest of the time talking about an intensified world campaign against hunger, as outlined by the Pope encyclical, ‘On the Development of Peoples.’ “… Page 1: “Big Enemy Repulsed by GIs”... “At least 518 Vietcong were killed today in a dawn attack that came within a few yards and a few minutes of over-running an American battalion. The tide of battle was turned at the last moment by a heavy artillery barrage and pin point bombings as the guerrillas were surging through a breach in the defense perimeter. A count disclosed 518 enemy bodies in the field. In addition, large numbers of the dead and wounded were undoubtedly carried away. The attackers had also been napalmed.”…

OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… COLONEL JOHN ARTHUR DRAMESI, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… 2 APRIL 1967… THE AIR FORCE CROSS…

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to COLONEL (then Captain) JOHN ARTHUR DRAMESI, United States Air Force, for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force while serving as Pilot of an F-105 of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, Pacific Air Force, in action near Dong Hoi, North Vietnam, on 2 April 1967. On that date, CAPTAIN DRAMESI was the leader of a flight of F-105 aircraft scheduled to strike a suspected surface-to-air missile site and perform reconnaissance of a hostile highway. Although intelligence reports indicated the area contained a heavy concentration of 37-mm and 57-mm flak positions, deadly antiaircraft guns, and possible missile fire, CAPTAIN DRAMESI successfully executed his attack and placed all ordnance on target. He then began his low-level reconnaissance of the highway. When only a few miles from his target, his aircraft was hit by an intense barrage of ground fire and immediately burst into flames, forcing him to eject into hostile jungle. Immediately after ejecting from his aircraft CAPTAIN DRAMESI acted as a ground forward air controller, pointing out targets and safest approaches. Repeated rescue attempts were met with withering fire from the ground. As the ground-air battle raged on, he continued to request ordnance, giving corrections which brought each successive strike closer to his own position. The last correction he had given brought the ordnance within a few meters of his last known position and no further transmissions were received from him. By his selfless and heroic concern for the rescue crews in the air, and his own continued request for close ordnance delivery, CAPTAIN DRAMESI displayed outstanding courage and exemplified the highest traditions and standards of the American fighting man’s code. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship and calm aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, CAPTAIN DRAMESI reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”

2 APRIL 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times: No coverage of air war over North Vietnam. (Bear#50mk81recceRPIItrucks)… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 2 April 1967…

(1) An F-102A of the 509th FIS and 405th FW flamed out on a training flight and was unable to restart the engine. An emergency landing and arrested landing destroyed the aircraft but the pilot survived…

(2) CAPTAIN JOHN ARTHUR DRAMESI was flying an F-105D of the 13th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat. Here is how Chris Hobson tells the tale from fifty years ago on this date: A flight of F-105s was sent on an armed reconnaissance mission that entailed flying along Routes 106 and 107 in Quang Bing province in the southern region of North Vietnam. As the aircraft reached a point about 15 miles northwest of Dong Hoi they came under a hail of anti-aircraft fire. Captain Dramesi’s aircraft was hit in the tail and with the aircraft on fire he ejected a few minutes later. He twisted his knee on landing and was immediately surrounded by North Vietnamese militia. He shot at them with his revolver but was shot in his right leg and captured. After eight days in his first prison camp he dismantled part of his cell and escaped but was soon captured and stoned and beaten by a crowd of Vietnamese. The next day he was taken to the Hanoi Hilton and then to the Zoo (one of several prison camps in the NVN prison system). On 10 May 1969, after months of planning he and Captain Edwin Atterberry escaped through the roof of their cell but were recaptured 12-hours later about four miles from the prison. Dramesi and Atterberry were beaten and tortured for their escape, Atterberry did not survive and Dramesi was near death when the brutal treatment stopped after 38-days. Dramesi remained in leg irons for six months and the entire prison population was also systematically beaten and tortured as punishment for the escape. This incident effectively put an end to any further escape attempts as the repercussions were to serious and in any case it was extremely unlikely that an escape and return to friendly territory would ever be successful. However, in June 1972 Captain Dramesi and Major Jim Kasler were involved in a planned escape, code name Operation Thunderhead, despite much planning and assistance from SAR forces in the Gulf of Tonkin, senior POW officers vetoed the escape at the last minute. John Dramesi was released on 4 March 1973 and told his POW story in Code of Honor published in 1975, He was awarded the Air Force Cross after his release and later flew the F-111 with the 366th TFW.”

Colonel Dramesi’s life and experiences are a matter of record on-line, in his superb autobiography aptly titled Code of Honor, and in the most interesting, complete and official Vietnam POW reference of them all, Rochester and Kiley’s Honor Bound… While Colonel Dramesi is considered a “controversial” personality and performer, Humble Host presents him on the RTR blog with the highest respect and admiration for his bold and forthright service as a warrior of fighting heart and indomitable courage… Here are a few quotes from the citation that accompanied his SECOND AIR FORCE CROSS…

…”for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in military operations against an opposing armed force while a prisoner of War in North Vietnam from May 1969 to November 1969. For a full year Colonel Dramesi planned an escape from a North Vietnamese prison camp near the edge of the city of Hanoi and escaped in the evening of 10 May 1969. Though later recapture, this escape resulted in great embarrassment to the enemy and materially lifted the morale of all American prisoners in camp.Though severely tortured, Colonel Dramesi refused to give information or submit to any demands. Many more brutalities were heaped upon him, and he remained in irons for six months…”

Humble Host adds this citation from Honor Bound, page 484, for a few more examples of the criminal cruelty of the North Vietnamese jailers…

“Both to punish Dramesi and to extract information from him on who ordered or assisted him in the escape, the Vietnamese went at him for 38-days straight. In the Zoo’s auditorium he was flogged with a fan belt, walloped about the face with roundhouse swings, strapped in extreme positions in the ropes, and forcibly kept awake. Moved to Hoa Lo’s room 18, familiar to Dramesi from a previous torture session, he was placed in heavy irons that soon bore into his flesh as Bug had him tape and write. Strung up in the ropes more than 15 times, fed only two small pieces of bread and two cups of water each day, having to sit in his own filth (“my little stool was my living room, my bedroom and my bathroom”), the PW eventually broke but protected identities and involvement of his accomplices as best he could. That the Vietnamese relented at all may have been the result of Atterberry’s death in a separate torture chamber close enough to Dramesi so that he could hear his partner’s screams.”….  

That is a picture of the real world and the viciousness of America’s enemies. No holds barred. Cruel. Sadistic. Violent. Sick. The Jane Fonda’s of the world remain oblivious to what goes on in the real world. They live a dream. Unfortunately, our enemies conduct is and always will be a case of man’s inhumanity to man. History shows that inhumanity is the inseparable companion of humanity. So the next time we fight and our women warriors are captured and interned, the legions of progressives, who believe our fighting forces must include 20-percent women in the van, should not be surprised when man’s inhumanity to man becomes man’s incomparable inhumanity to women, American women. Shame on you if you think that is ok…

Last point: IMHO waterboarding should be an acceptable option in a case where the extraction of intelligence will save American lives.  

Lest we forget…      Bear

CAG’s QUOTES for 2 April: “NAPOLEON: “The sight of a battlefield after the fight is enough to inspire princes with a love of peace and horror of war.”… PATTON: “No Army is better than the soldiers in it.”…