RIPPLE SALVO… #454… COLONEL JACK BROUGHTON STANDS UP… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY-FOUR of a look back to the air war over North Vietnam coded Operation Rolling Thunder…
2 JUNE 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Friday in NYC…
Page 1: (3 June reporting 2 June event) “Moscow Says U.S. Hit a Soviet Ship in Vietnam Port”… “The Soviet Government charged that the United States planes bombed a Soviet merchant ship in the North Vietnamese port of Cam Pha today (June 2). Filing a resolute protest against the alleged incident Moscow asserted that two crewmen of the vessel had been gravely wounded and that the ship had been damaged (one crewman had died). The Soviet note said they would be compelled to take appropriate action to ensure the safety of its ships if similar attacks occurred. Moscow demanded that those responsible for the attacks be punished and that Washington give assurances against future attacks. Washington did not have a response other than an investigation was underway. The charge was the Soviet diesel ship TURKESTAN was bombed while in port in Cam Pha, 50 miles north of Haiphong.” (See Ripple Salvo below)…
Page 1: “Casualties of U.S. Rise in Vietnam”… “American forces in Vietnam had 2,929 combat casualties last week. This was the highest weekly total of the war and reflected the heavy fighting in and near the demilitarized zone at the border of North and South Vietnam. The number of killed was 313 and 2,616 were wounded. The number wounded is the highest weekly total of the war. It brought American battle deaths in the last four weeks of intensified fighting in the Northern provinces to 1,177 Killed in Action and 7,965 wounded in action. One third of the wounded do not need hospital treatment. Total casualties for South Vietnam troops last week was 922 and other allies 106. North Vietnamese killed in the week was 2,216 and for the last four weeks was 8,720.
MIDDLE EAST. Page 1: “U.S. Drafts Plan to Assert Rights of Aqaba Passage”... “and is seeking the approval of maritime nations for a declaration asserting the right of free passage for ships of all nations through the Gulf of Aqaba…designed to bring an end to the Egyptian blockade…The document has been enthusiastically embraced by the Israelis. Premier Aleksi N. Kosygin of the Soviet Union has suggested to President Johnson that the two nations use their influence to keep war from breaking out in the Middle East.”… Page 1: “Egyptians Bar U.S. Consul From Ships at Suez Canal”… “The U.S. Consul here in Port Said has been barred from the customs area and prevented from boarding United States ships that pass through the Suez canal. Consequently, he and other officials of the consulate were unable to board the United States aircraft carrier Intrepid which completed transit of the canal today in convoy accompanied by two Egyptian submarines. The Intrepid was declared bound for the Indian Ocean and Vietnamese waters… The restrictions on the U.S. officials appear to be a United Arab Republic response to strained relations between the two countries.” THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF…CIA… ARAB STATES-ISRAEL: Ambassador Barbour says there is no doubt that the Nasir-Husayn pact is heightening the fears in Tel Aviv that time is working against Israel. Press commentary, for instance, is generally along the line that the agreement tightens the time frame in which diplomacy should be allowed to operate. From the security standpoint, the major Israeli fears are that the pact will strengthen enemy airpower and that Husayn will be unable to control the militant Palestine Liberation Organization along the Israeli frontier. The new Israeli cabinet will be presented to parliament for approval on Monday–General Moshe Dayan will in fact be the new Defense Minister. Another activist will serve as Minister Without Portfolio. War fever in Jordan, especially among the Palestinian element, continues to mount. Embassy Amman believes that even if fighting can be avoided there will soon ba a surge of anti-American sentiment throughout the country…
Page 4: “Southern Baptists Vote Support For Honorable Vietnam Peace”… “The Southern Baptist Convention, largest of the nation’s Protestants denominations, voiced solid support today for a continuation of the war in Vietnam until an honorable and just peace could be achieved. The convention let stand a carefully worded statement calling for peace but refused to adopt it without the addition of a proviso making clear the belief that military withdrawal should not precede settlement.”…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times…No coverage of air war…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 2 June 1967…
(1) MAJOR DEWEY E. SMITH was flying an F-105D of the 34th TFS and 338th TFW out of Korat and part of a strike on the Kep railyards. Nearing the target area at 16,000-feet his aircraft was suddenly hit by an 85-mm shell and his aircraft set aflame. He was forced to eject and was quickly captured before a SAR could be activated. He was interned as a POW until released in March 1973.
(2) CAPTAIN ALTON CRAIG ROCKETT and 1LT DANIEL LEWIS CARTER were flying an F-4C of the 390th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang on a night armed reconnaissance mission in the area of the Mugia Pass. They had completed their mission and were retiring directly east from the pass. It is presumed that as they crossed the beach about 25 miles north of Donghoi they were hit by AAA and ejected. The aircraft came down near Tu Loan. 1LT CARRIER’s remains were returned to the United States in 1989. CAPTAIN ROCKETT’s remains were recovered and returned to the United States in July 1989 and identified in August of 2006….Good work Joint Recovery folks… Leave no man behind…
(3) LCDR REX STEWART WOOD was flying an F-8C of the VF-24 Checkertails embarked in USS Bon Homme Richard on a night CAP mission over the Gulf of Tonkin. LCDR WOOD failed to show up at the rendezvous point and disappeared from the ship’s radar screens. Fifty years ago on this day LCDR WOOD perished and he lies where he fell in the service of our country… and, hopefully, never to be forgotten…
RIPPLE SALVO… #454… The Turkestan Incident…Humble Host suggests RTR followers google a little of Turkestan and Colonel Jack Broughton and read a little of what you find. I bet you will keep reading. Here are a few words from Colonel Broughton’s New York Times obituary dated 29 October 2014 written by Richard Goldstein…
“On June 2, 1967, one of Colonel Broughton’s pilots told him that his cannon fire may have hit a ship at Cam Pha while he was leading an attack on nearby antiaircraft sites. the next day, the Soviet Union complained that one of its merchant ships, the Turkestan, had been bombed at Cam Pha. Believing that his pilots would be punished for an infraction that could easily been overlooked, Colonel Broughton ordered destruction of the gun camera film that showed the ship in the sights of the pilot leading the flight. After an investigation, he admitted that he had ordered that the film be destroyed. Because it was the only evidence of an apparent attack on the Soviet ship, the court-martial board acquitted Colonel Broughton and two other pilots of conspiring to violate the rule forbidding the bombing of Cam Pha harbor.
“Colonel Broughton was found guilty of destroying government property–the seven rolls of film–and was fined $600 and admonished. Colonel Chuck Yeager, the president of the court martial, who in 1947 had been the first pilot to break the sound barrier, was quoted by Air Force magazine as saying later that ‘everybody from the Joint Chiefs down wanted to nail Colonel Broughton and his pilots and make them examples’ for flouting restrictive bombing rules, but that most of the rest of the Air Force colonels in Vietnam sympathized with him.
“Colonel Broughton was transferred to an administrative post in Washington. In July 1968, the Air Force Board of Correction of Military Records expunged the court-martial from his records, ruling that he should have been subjected to minor non-judicial punishment, known as an Article 15 proceeding. He retired a month later. In October 1968, Copley News Service cited an account from an unidentified source who had reported seeing the damage to the Soviet ship Turkestan and believed that it had probably not been hit by the Air Force, rather, the source said, it had apparently been accidentally struck by North Vietnamese antiaircraft gunners trying to shoot down a low-flying American warplane.”
Finally, this quote from the obit:
“Colonel Leo K. Thorsness, a pilot in Colonel Broughton’s wing who was shot down, spent six years as a prisoner of war and received the Medal of Honor, revered him. ‘He was a leader who led with brains and guts,’ Air Force magazine quoted him as saying. ‘But one of his greatest strengths–supporting his pilots–was his downfall.’ “
Colonel Broughton has a couple of great books for additional reading. “Thud Ridge” and “Going Downtown: the War against the Hanoi and Washington,” are real inexpensive on abebooks.com…
CAG’s QUOTES for 2 June: SUN TZU: “Anciently the skillful warriors first made themselves invincible and waited the enemy’s moment of vulnerability.”… PATTON: “It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gain the victory.”…
Less we forget… Bear