Good Morning…Day TWO of my look back at Operation Rolling Thunder from the perspective of 50 years of time and history. I am pleased and proud to have you in the formation. Check your rear view mirror…. That’s where we are going….
2 March 1966 (NYT)…ON THE HOMEFRONT…. Sports page reports that Mickey Mantle has extended his contract with the New York Yankees for another two years for $100K per season. The real news was on the front page. Congress passed the supplemental bill to fund $4.8 for the Vietnam War by an overwhelming majority. The vote followed an impassioned speech by Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas: “History…suggests that the military solution that appears so promising today is… a disaster tomorrow, whereas the course of accommodation, which always seems so difficult, is the only course with demonstrated promise of being able to bring about a lasting and honorable peace.” His message fell on deaf ears. In the House the vote was 392-4 and in the Senate it was 93-2, after two weeks of debate. The only notable glitch was Oregon Senator Wayne Morse’s proposed amendment that would repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. It was defeated by a vote of 92-5. Bi-partisan support for the war was applauded across the country. The President used the afternoon to make a speech in the White House East Room. The thrust of his speech was directed at North Vietnam. He urged the “Vietnamese Communists” to “…not let endless and unrewarding argument over what has happened prevent peaceful settlement of the war.” LBJ also declared, “…our desire for peace does not spring either from weakness or from hesitation. Our desire for peace springs rather from a further recognition of our knowledge that the search for peace always requires great skill and great courage.” The muster in the WH was also to celebrate the 5th year of the Peace Corps. The NYT ground war reports were sparse, but the Marines killed about 100 VC in a “fierce two hour fight” fifty miles north of Danang. Finally, on a back page, buried at a bottom corner, was a one inch report of a protest of 100 high school students in the Bronx protesting the presence of military recruiters at their school.
2 March 1966… ROLLING THUNDER… Weather limited air operations in the North and the reduced operations were redirected to targets in the areas near the DMZ and in Steel Tiger (Laos). Forward Air Controllers flying O-1 and O-2 aircraft did the targeting and directed the fire of the flights diverted their way. These were no significant Rolling Thunder ops. Nevertheless, it was a bad day for FAC pilots. One Bird Dog was shot down during an area recce south of Bong Son on the South Vietnamese coast. Two Air Force pilots with the 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron out of Pleiku were killed. CAPTAIN PAUL ALBERT MEINERS AND CAPTAIN MARSHALL MYRON HOLT died warrior deaths in combat with the enemy. Another FAC flying an O-1 out of a detachment of the 505 Tactical Air Control Group detachment at NKP in Thailand was killed when an F-105 Thud he was controlling collided with him. The F-105 was able to return to base. CAPTAIN KARL EDWARD WORST in the O-1 did not. Chris Hobson, in “Vietnam Air Losses” points out that at this stage of the war the Bird Dog aircraft were sporting camouflage paint jobs and were hard to see. This changed to a light gray color scheme later in 1966. Now, you might ask, why has Taylor included FACs flying in the South in a Rolling Thunder journal. Answer: personal admiration for some of the bravest of the brave warriors in the lineup. I will bend my rules to recognize these teammates as appropriate… please humor me.
Ripple Salvo: The mailing list is expanding. Bring it on. However, this is not a one curmudgeon project. All I am is an open window for you who have a Rolling Thunder story from March 1966 through March 1968 to tell. Use it. Please include the exact date it occurred. Take advantage of this opportunity to leave it for the ages. I am also a conduit for Rolling Thunder experiences and history to the Vietnam War Archives at Texas Tech University and from there into the National Archives. I’ll make it easy for you… you have a story you are too bashful to tell…send it to me and I will take the fingerprints off your truthful tale and go to press with it…or how about this… dig out your Silver Star or DFC citation or Summary of Action and use it to tell the story of that young wingman who did all the work on that mission, or at least a fair share… My experience was that seniority was a driving factor in the level of award, which is a shabby way to run a railroad, a squadron or an Air Wing… Please use this Rolling Thunder window to recognize one of your mates who went above and beyond but got left behind and never raised his voice when all he got was another two points toward a tenth Air Medal. Let your conscience be your guide…put the truth in my hands and let me tell the world a story about bravery and duty under fire. The fact is, this project will only be as good as its readers make it… and me (modesty forbid)…. This is about Remembering Rolling Thunder and the real heroes who were in the van….
“Lest we forget.”…Bear