RIPPLE SALVO… #294… ALONE AND UPSIDE DOWN… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR of a day-to-day review of the forgotten but historic campaign called Rolling Thunder…
21 DECEMBER 1966… STATESIDE HEADLINES from the New York Times on a snowy Wednesday in New York City…
Page 1: “Peace Plea Made by U.N. President as Session Ends”…”The President of the United Nations General Assembly appealed to the United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (Vietcong) to declare during the holiday truce their unconditional willingness to make efforts toward negotiations on peace in Vietnam. Appeal made by President Abdul Rahman Pazhiwak in the last minutes of the 21st assembly. (Communist China called the United States request to Secretary General Thant to take whatever steps he considered necessary to bring about talks to cease hostilities another fraud.) Hsinhua, the Chinese press agency distributed: ‘After escalating its war of aggression…the Johnson Administration has again enlisted the service of the Secretary General of the United Nations U Thant to push through the U.S. peace talks swindle.’ U Thant will investigate Hanoi’s attitudes through intermediaries in normal–that is secret–diplomatic channels.”… Page 1: “Prime Minister Wilson Retracts Rhodesia Offers and implies independence can’t come before majority rule. This seemed certain to drive the white minority that controls Rhodesia to further intransigence.” … Page 1: “Greek Government Will Resign Today Unexpectedly after National Radical Union (Conservatives) accounted for 99 of 154 votes that held the Stephanopolous Government in office for 15-months withdrew its confidence from the cabinet.”… “Page 1: “Nevada Shaken By Nuclear Test but radiation is controlled. Test blast called the most powerful ever touched off in the United States. Blast contained deep in the desert on Pahute Mesa 105 miles northwest of Las Vegas, in a shaft 4,000-feet under the desert floor near Beatty, Nevada.”…
Page 1: “Mrs. Kennedy Nearing Accord with Look Magazine concerning dispute over publishing serial of ‘Death of a President.’ Look promised not to publish any of her personal recollections that did not deal directly with the assassination.” … Page 1: “Brooklyn Sit-In Bars 2nd Hearing by School Board”…Protestors claim the Board is guilty of neglect of ghetto pupils. A showdown with parents is expected tonight as budget battle continues.” … Page 2: “Catholic Weekly Opposes the War… and urges withdrawal from Vietnam even at the cost of a Communist victory. The weekly journal ‘Commonweal’ states ‘the war in Vietnam is a crime and a sin.’ Circulation of 45,000 but has no official connection with the Catholic hierarchy. ‘The war is unjust because the evil involved in achieving American military force now outweighs the good that would be achieved.’…” … Page 3: Picture of Ho Chi Minh inspecting an antiaircraft battery in suburban Hanoi…. Page 3: “U.S. Says Enemy Hit His Own Ships as errant SAM seen by U.S. aviators to drop into North Vietnamese fishing fleet three miles off the coast, 10 miles from Vinh. Incident occurred on 14 December.” …Page 4: “Saigon Charter Drafters Vote for System of Local Elections.”…
21 DECEMBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (22 December reporting 21 Dec ops)… “2 Enemy Planes Are Intercepted and Destroyed heading for U.S. cruiser. North Vietnam aircraft vanished after U.S. aircraft fire missiles at twin engine prop aircraft. F-4Bs from USS Kitty Hawk fired the missiles at 25 miles east of Thanh Hoa. No other coverage of Rolling Thunder ops…. “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson)…One fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 21 December 1966.
(1) LTJG DANNY ELLOY GLENN was flying an A-4C of the VA-144 Road Runners embarked in USS Kitty Hawk on an armed reconnaissance mission along Route 1 15 miles west of Mu Ron Ma and was shot down and captured…here is the way Chris Hobson reported the event…
“The USS Kitty Hawk returned to Yankee Station on 4 December to start its second tour of the war. On the 20th two of the ship’s F-4Bs shot down a pair of AN-2 biplane transport aircraft, the only examples of their type shot down by US aircraft during the entire war. However, on the 21st the Kitty Hawk lost its first aircraft of the tour. A Skyhawk was flying a road reconnaissance along Route 1 when it was hit by AAA about 15 miles west of Mu Ron Ma. The under surface of the fuselage behind the cockpit was engulfed in flames and LT GLENN ejected when he felt he was losing control of the aircraft. Danny Glenn was captured and spent the next seven years as a POW until released on 4 March 1973…”
RIPPLE SALVO… #294… LT DANNY GLENN… this footnote is found on page 646 of “Honor Bound” (Rochester & Kiley) and tells you just about all you need to know about this extraordinary warrior…”(Admiral James) Stockdale credited his young roommate in Thunderbird, Navy Lt (jg) Danny Glenn, with being ‘a sounding board and source of advice as I tried to build a foundation of fair and easily understandable law.’ Glenn had been captured only two months earlier, in December 1966, and spent Christmas Day ‘suspended from the ceiling on a hook, upside down’ when he refused to cooperate at his initial interrogation.” Danny would spend six more Christmas Days as a POW, but none more memorable, or is it less forgettable (?), than Christmas 1966… 50 YEARS AGO… Wherever you are Dan, Merry Christmas, with the highest respect, admiration and appreciation for your heroic service for our country…
Lest we forget… Bear -30-