RIPPLE SALVO… #321… WHERE THE FIGHT WAS FOUGHT… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE of a return to North Vietnam fifty years after the fight called Rolling Thunder…
20 JANUARY 1967: HOME TOWN HEAD LINES from the New York Times on a sunny Friday in NYC…
Page 1: BIG Headline: Page 1: “Casualties of U.S. During Last Week the War’s Highest”… “More Americans were killed or wounded in action during last week that ended Saturday than in any week since the Vietnam war began. The United States Military Command reported today that 144 Americans were killed and 1,044 wounded and 6 listed as missing in action (A total of 1200 casualties in a week). Only twice have more Americans been killed in a week. The highest number of deaths was reported for the seven days that ended 20 November 1965, when 240 Americans were killed, mostly in the first battle of Iadrang Valley in Pleiku Province. The total announced today reflected the gradual intensification of the war, rather than a single battle or operation in which American losses were severe. Most of the casualties occurred during small-unit patrols…many of the injuries in recent months resulted from mines and booby-traps. Operation Cedar Falls casualties have been described as light, but since 15,000 troops are involved, this operation accounts for many of the 144 killed in action and 1,044 wounded… 1,176 North Vietnamese and Vietcong had been killed last week…There are now 398,000 Americans fighting in Southeast Asia.”… Page 1: ‘Missile to Carry Warhead Clusters”…”United States officials said today that the new submarine launched Poseidon missile now being developed, would carry multiple warheads. One major purpose of such clusters of warheads on a single missile is to swarm over the enemy anti-missile defense in order to slip some weapons through.”… Page 3: “Air Force Officer is Awarded Medal of Honor”… “President Johnson presented the Medal of Honor today to Major Bernard F. Fisher for his rescue of a fellow pilot from the battle torn airstrip in South Vietnam last March. Mr. Johnson spoke briefly at the ceremony and said: ‘We are conducting the most careful and self-limited air war in history.’ “…
Page 3: “Visitor Describes Namdinh Damage”… “William C. Baggs, editor of the Miami News, who was recently in North Vietnam said in a dispatch today the complaint that many civilian areas had been bombed in the city of Namdinh ‘appears to be a valid complaint’…Now it is pretty much an evacuated city. At least half of the large wooden doors to the homes, huddled close together on narrow streets are closed and padlocked. Here in Namdinh the nursery school has been pretty much destroyed… You do not report what you hear in North Vietnam. Too much propaganda shrouds reality in any country at home. So you only report what you see and feel and examine. But the complaint of the people of Namdinh that many civilian neighborhoods with no military function have been bombed appears to be a valid complaint.”…
20 January 1967…The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) COMMUNIST CHINA: An intense poster attack is now being mounted against one of Lin Piao’s close military associates. This man only last week had been named deputy head of the army’s purge group. The posters claim that it was Madame Mao who put the finger on him. All in all, the fortunes of Lin Piao seem to have faded badly in the past few weeks…. MACAO: Pressure is up again. Chinese gunboats are said to have resumed their position off the colony and local Communists are set to take to the streets…GUATEMALA: The youngbloods in the Guatemalan Communist Party are feuding with the old guard over how fast and how far to proceed with a campaign of violence. The upshot may be a break between the party’s guerrilla arm, which wants action now, and the more conservative leadership. Fidel “Castro has been stirring things up behind the scene. He has gotten the ear of some of the hotheads to insist that Guatemala is ripe for revolution and that the only obstacle is the Communist old guard which should be repudiated and thrown out….
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES ROBINSON RISNER, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE is awarded the AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to James Robinson Risner, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while serving with the 67th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, SEVENTH Air Force, in action as Mission Commander and Air Coordinator for air strikes in North Vietnam on 3 and 4 April 1965. On each of these two days he directed 90 aircraft against the railway and highway bridge at THANH HOA, North Vietnam. On the 3 April mission, Colonel Risner’s aircraft was severely damaged by heavy ground fire, but with his cockpit filled with smoke, he managed to return to a friendly airfield where he landed safely. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, Colonel Risner reflected highest credit upon himself and United States Air Force.”
SECOND AWARD OF the AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a Second Award of the Air Force Cross to James Robinson Risner, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 31 October to 15 December 1965. Through his extraordinary heroism and willpower, in the face of the enemy, Lieutenant Colonel Risner reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United Air Force.”
Among LCOL Risner’s military awards: AIR FORCE CROSS (2); SILVER STAR (Korea); SILVER STAR (Vietnam); Distinguished Flying Cross (3): AIR MEDAL (3): and PURPLE HEART (3)…
20 JANUARY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (21 Jan reporting 20 Jan ops) Page 4: “Rail Yards and Bridge Struck”…”American Air Force and Navy bombers attacked railroad yards and rail bridges in North Vietnam yesterday for the fifth successive day…More than 20 Air Force F-105 Thunderchiefs flew through heavy antiaircraft fire to bomb the Vuchua rail yard 43 miles northeast of Hanoi…pilots reported having damaged rolling stock and tracks. Other Air Force Thunderchiefs struck at the Hagia rail bridge 20 miles north of Hanoi, while Navy carrier based planes hit at the Dong Phong Thuong railroad bridge complex nine miles north-northwest of Thanh Hoa. (see Ripple Salvo below) Adverse weather held the squadrons to 67 missions north of the border. The Americans said two of the planes were lost from undetermined causes. The four men aboard were listed as missing. The planes were a Navy A-6 from the USS Kitty Hawk (see RTR for 19 Jan: COMMANDER ALLEN BRADY [pow] and LCDR WILLIAM YARBROUGH [kia] ) and an Air Force F-4C Phantom (CAPTAIN JOHN JAYROE and 1LT GALAND KRAMER [both pow] ) bringing the number of aircraft lost over North Vietnam in the air war to 462.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Two fixed wing aircraft were lost over Southeast Asia on 20 January 1967…
(1) 1LT ARTHUR J. ABRAMOFF and 1LT G.D. HULL were flying an O-12G Bird Dog of the 21st TASS and 504th TASG out of Nha Trang on a FAC mission controlling strikes on enemy troops 20 miles north of Dak To in the Central Highlands. The aircraft was hit by small arms fire and crashed killing the pilot 1LT ABRAMOFF and injuring 1LT HULL… Young 1LT ABRAMOFF was Killed in Action carrying the fight to the enemy 50 years ago today…
(2) LTJG JERRY FRANKS HOGAN was flying as wingman in a section of A-4Cs of the VA-112 Bombing Broncos embarked in USS Kitty Hawk on a night armed reconnaissance mission armed with Mk-82 bombs and Mk-24 paraflares. The flight deployed flares over barges on a river 10 miles south of Thanh Hoa. LTJG HOGAN dove on the barges releasing his bombs but was observed by his wingman to fly into the ground on the recovery. Night dive bombing is unforgiving of human error… LTJG HOGAN died honorably on the battlefield serving with the courage and determination of a young warrior.
RIPPLE SALVO… #321… The bridges of North Vietnam numbered in the hundreds and were obvious targets for destruction in our interdiction campaign to slow the flow of arms and material and troops from North Vietnam to fight the war in the South. The bridges were easily identified from distance and altitude and were a favorite target for Rolling Thunder pilots. But there was nothing easy about bombing bridges. They were steel and concrete and direct hits were more likely to leave dents and divots rather than destruction–a span in the water. In addition, the North Vietnamese knew the bridges and river crossings were high on our target lists so they fortified their defenses to make it as uncomfortable for Yankee Air Pirates as they knew how, and they were experts at defending bridges and their bypasses by 1967. They were also experts at restoring and bypassing downed bridges. Many of the most important bridge targets were part of a complex of targets such as the array of military targets in the transshipment complex at Dong Phong Thuong, 10 miles north of Thanh Hoa.
On 19 January 1967 Carrier Air Wing ELEVEN on Kitty Hawk was one of three air wings at Yankee Station to attack the Dong Phong Thuong complex. The Summary of Action for that Alpha Strike went like this:
“One of the key transshipment complexes in North Vietnam is located at Dong Phong Thuong, 10 miles south ot Thanh Hoa. Serving as a a terminus for Route 1 and the primary North-South rail line, its significance to the North Vietnamese as a line of communication is apparent. Carrier Air Wing Eleven in Kitty Hawk was assigned the second of a three carrier strike on the morning of 19 January 1967 with a time over target of 1010H. Specific targets designated were both the East and West railroad bridges, the pontoon highway bridge, the East-West, North-South railway spurs, and the railway boxcars and equipment. COMMANDER ROGER BOS, Executive Officer of VA-144 was the strike leader of the 25 plane force.”
We were bombing more than bridges. We were bombing complexes of targets and in the process we were spreading bombs wide and far in order to interdict the flow of men and material to the South. That is the nature of bombing: destroy military targets… However, the bridges of North Vietnam were the centerpieces of our interdiction campaigns and therefore became the main battlefields where the air war was fought. And lost. Destroying bridges and transshipment complexes does little to “destroy the will of the enemy to resist.” ROLLING THUNDER proved that.
CAG’s QUOTES for 20 January: SUN TZU: “Speed is the essence of war.”… PATTON: “If a man does his best, what else is there?”…
Lest we forget… Bear