RIPPLE SALVO… #323… SALISBURY and BAGGS ON THE GROUND and CTF-77 FROM THE AIR… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE of a review of the three year bombing campaign Rolling Thunder…
22 JANUARY 1967… HOME TOWN HEADLINES from the New York Times on a bright and sunny Sunday in NYC…
Page 1: “Fulbright Offers Plan to End War”… “Senator J.W. Fulbright of Arkansas detailing ‘an alternative to Vietnam’ has proposed an eight point plan to end the war and to shape a general accommodation with Communist China to neutralize Southeast Asia. As his first step the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urges in a book to be published Monday that the United States press the Government of South Vietnam into seeking negotiations with the Vietcong…the United States should join the South Vietnamese in proposing cease fire talks with the Vietcong and the Government of North Vietnam…” Page 1: “Chinese Turmoil seen Spreading to Country-side”… “Peking reports 3 million peasants near Shanghai in ‘a revolutionary torrent.’ More suicides of Communist Party Leaders. The possibility that Communist China’s ‘cultural revolution with its attendant turmoil, may begin to involve the nation’s peasants was raised by the official press. The vast majority of China’s more than 700-million people are peasants who have on the whole been little effected by the purge so far.”… Page 1: “Nixon allies Ask Leaders of G.O.P. for Support in ’68″… “The campaign to give Richard M. Nixon a second chance at the presidency has broken into the open. Two Republican leaders here for a series of party strategy meetings, have received letters from Nixon partisans backing the former Vice President for the nomination in 1968.”… Page 1: “Space Planners Debating Next Stop After the Moon”… “A growing confidence that the United States will be able to meet its Apollo project goal of landing an astronaut on the moon in 1979 has plunged space planners into an urgent debate over where to aim next. Where does the nation go in space after it goes to the moon? Mars? Venus? Or will it go for a galaxy of manned space laboratories in earth orbit for research and surveillance?…”
Page 1: “North Vietnamese Jet Pilots Train by Watching Butterflies and birds and studying the finer moves of embroiderers…These purely Vietnamese training methods help to sharpen pilots eyesight and develop deftness of fingers. Vietnamese pilots who have not yet had combat experience have shown that they can fight United States aces as their equals, said a correspondent of the Soviet press agency TASS.”… Page 13: “Strength in MIGs Reviewed by Hanoi”… “The North Vietnamese Air Force has replaced MIG fighter losses suffered in combat with United States jets earlier this month. LGEN William Momyer said in an interview that reconnaissance reports showed the air force was at least back up to where it was before United State pilots shot down 9 MIG-21s on January 2 and 6. Momyer: ‘…to really knock the air force out you have to knock it out on the ground,’ but he avoided a direct reply when he was asked whether he had recently urged bombing strikes against key MIG bases near Hanoi or would do so. The bases are now off limits to United States fighter-bombers…Momyer siad the greatest improvement in North Vietnam’s air defense has been its improved ability to integrate and coordinate operations of missiles, conventional antiaircraft guns and MIGs.” … Page 1: “U.S. Pilots Show Civilian Structures in the North Damaged“… “Intelligence sources said today that aerial photographs showed considerable damage to civilian structures as well as to military targets. President Johnson’s oft-stated policy is to limit air strikes to military targets used by North Vietnam in its support of the rebels in the South. The Administration acknowledges that some civilians may be hit by accident or because they are in the vicinity of military targets. Three Americans recently in Hanoi–Harrison Salisbury, William Baggs and Harry Ashmore–spoke of civilian damage they have seen there. They have talked with officials here (in Washington) during the past few days…some damage might have resulted from accidental bombing by American. On one occasion last month United States raiders jettisoned 23 bombs after they had sighted enemy fighters. The U.S. planes were armed with 750-pound bombs. One examination of the Yenvien railroad yard outside Hanoi is shown to have three craters inside the yard and 40 outside . 59 structures appear to have been destroyed…”
Page 14: “New Navy Plane in Vietnam Strikes Foe at Night and in Bad Weather”… A subsonic plane with ‘eyes’ that can pick out targets in any weather day or night is proving to be one of the most effective aircraft used against North Vietnam. It is the only aircraft in use in the war that is specially designed for interdiction or attacks upon enemy communications and supply lines in darkness and bad weather…The plane, which entered combat in Vietnam in small numbers more than a year ago, initially had the teething trouble that all new planes experience, but most of these have been eliminated and the Navy pilot reports are highly enthusiastic about the plane’s performance and its capabilities…The system the plane carries is called DIANE (digital integrated attack navigation equipment). The accuracy attained against sell defined targets by the A-6A Intruder is described in the January 1967 United States Naval Institute ‘Proceedings’ by Commander Ronald J. Hayes, who commanded an A-6A squadron flying over North Vietnam. Two A-6As carrying 26 1000-pound bombs attacked last April a heavily defended thermal power plant near Haiphong ‘which provided a significant percentage of the electrical power in North Vietnam.’ The two planes took off from a carrier deck near midnight, flew low over the water until near the target before the antiaircraft guns opened fire. ‘Subsequent photographs of the target showed that all 26 of the bombs impacted inside the perimeter fence that encircled the power plant. Commander Hayes wrote…’To date the Navy has 5 nine plane operating squadrons of A-6As and two training squadrons. ..Untimately it is expected the Navy will expand to twelve twelve-plane squadrons. The Navy has lost 13 A-6As in or around Southeast Asia since the plane entered combat in small quantities more than a year ago.”
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… CAPTAIN TRENT RICHARD POWERS, UNITED STATES NAVY… NAVY CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes great pride in presenting the NAVY CROSS (Posthumously) to CAPTAIN then LIEUTENANT COMMANDER TRENT RICHARD POWERS, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism on 31 October 1965 while serving as a pilot of jet attack aircraft with Attack Squadron ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR (VA-164), embarked in U.S.S. ORISKANY (CVA-34) during a combat mission over hostile territory in North Vietnam. CAPTAIN POWERS was assigned the demanding and unusual task of leading a two-division, United States Air Force flight into an area heavily defended by anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles, with the mission of locating and destroying the missile installations. He planned the attack route and led the eight-plane group over more than 600 miles of unfamiliar, cloud-shrouded, mountainous terrain, arriving in the target area precisely at a pre-briefed time that had ben selected to coincide with the strikes of two carrier air wings against a bridge. The target area was the scene of an intense air-to-ground battle, many surface-to-air missiles were being fied and heavy anti-aircraft fire was observed in all directions. With full knowledge of the serious hazards involved, CAPTAIN POWERS courageously led the Air Force aircraft into the battle. His bombs and those of the Air Force aircraft which he led inflicted severe damage to both missile sites. By the superior skill and valiant determination, CAPTAIN POWERS upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
Captain Powers was initially listed as Missing in Action status on 31 October 1965, the date of his extraordinary mission. The status was changed to that of Prisoner of War, though his full fate remains unknown. It is generally believed that he died in captivity. His remains were returned by the Vietnamese in May 1987.
22 January 1967…Operation Rolling Thunder… New York Times (23 Jan reporting 21-22 Jan ops)Page 1: “Three U.S. Planes Downed in North while conducting air operations over North Vietnam on 21 January…An Air Force F-105 Thunderchief, and Air Force F-4 Phantom and a Navy A-4 Skyhawk had been destroyed by enemy ground fire. The pilots of the three jets and the co-pilot of the F-4 were listed as missing. The losses brought the number of American aircraft downed over North Vietnam to 465…As has happened with some regularity lately, rescue helicopters were unable to reach the downed pilots because of increasingly dense North Vietnamese flak. Several flights of American planes reported contacts with North Vietnamese MIGs interceptors during the day, but no planes were lost in aerial combat. There were seven sightings with an F-105 exchanging gunfire with a MIG-17…American fighter-bombers flew 87 missions in North Vietnam yesterday principally against lines of communication north of Thanh Hoa in the panhandle and North of Hanoi. Flying weather continued excellent in the area of the North Vietnamese capital. Railroad bridges and freight yards were again prime targets. The United States has been concentrating on these in recent weeks to the exclusion of sites closer to downtown Hanoi. Navy pilots from all three of the carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin blasted the Ninh Binh complex an area 30 miles north of Thanh Hoa where rail lines and highways come together.
Commander Henry Urban, Jr., 41 years old, of South Bend, Indiana, Commander of aircraft aboard the carrier Kitty Hawk said at a Saigon briefing that his pilots together with others from Ticonderoga and Coral Sea had mounted an unusually intense campaign against rail lines in the Ninh Binh and nearby Dong Phong Thuong areas this weekend. The three carriers had put all their available aircraft–close to 200 planes–into the air in an effort to cut rail bridges and isolate box cars on their way south. At Dong Phong Thuong strikes last fall eliminated the main railway bridge, but according to reconnaissance the North Vietnamese had built bypasses and pontoon bridges to keep traffic moving. The attacks at the end of the week, the Navy pilots reported knocking out all four temporary bridges and achieved a substantial success in destroying railway rolling stock. Commander Urban conceded however that the enemy could quite possibly put the railroad back in operation in four or five weeks.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 22 January 1967… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #323… NINH BINH in the news and the “pippers.” The visits of Harrison Salisbury and William Baggs between Christmas and January 15 resulted in daily articles in the Home Town papers that Ninh Binh was being bombed to blithereens by Navy pilots and that Ninh Binh was just a sleepy little town devoid of military targets. The messengers from Ho Chi Minh received world wide interest in their stories. Doves all over the world jumped on the reports to add vigor to their cries to stop the bombing. the United States Navy response: It was as Commander Hank Urban, Carrier Air Wing Eleven said: we mounted an intense campaign. Two hundred aircraft put their “pippers”– or cross-hairs, if you will– on military targets in the “transshipment complexes of Ninh Binh and Dong Phong Thuong. It was a good plan: take out the bridges and rails of Dong Phong Thuong to halt the movement south. Follow up with destruction of the bridges and rails fifteen miles north at Ninh Binh and then go after everything stuck between the two transshipment points. Here’s my quick summary of a 27-plane Alpha Strike, a typical Rolling Thunder mission, extracted from an Air Wing 11 report.
In a major four day effort to strike the middle of North Vietnamese lines of communication CTF-77 carriers first rendered useless the Dong Phong Thuong complex on 19-20 January and then shifted its attention to the even more heavily defended transshipment complex at Ninh Binh on 21 and 22 January. Weather at Yankee Station and the target area on 21 January precluded attack. The mission that briefed but cancelled on the 21st went on the 22nd despite little improvement in the weather (400–feet overcast with one mile visibility at launch of the 27 aircraft group from Kitty Hawk). Nevertheless, the strike group led by COMMANDER ROGER BOS OF VA-144, was able to rendezvous and head off for the target. Fortunately the weather improved as the formations went feet dry. Six F-4s from VF-114 were tasked to strike and interdict the rail lines. Four A-4s from VA-112 provided flak suppression. Four A-6s from VA-85 were assigned destruction of the Ninh Xa Bridge five miles north of Ninh Binh with 4 A-4s from VA-144 providing flak suppression. In addition, six A-4s were assigned as missile suppression Pouncet aircraft. The strike group met moderate to heavy AAA opposition in the target area and received missile alerts and Shrikes were launched in response, but no missile were seen. All aircraft returned safely to Kitty Hawk… Damage: The 80+ 500-pound bombs of the four A-6 bombers were on target, but the little bridge was still standing. The flak suppressors quieted the guns with good hits in manned revetments, but damage was unknown. The six F-4s dropped 72 500-pound bombs on the rail lines in the yard and were credited with ” cutting a two track segment in three places contributing significantly to the planned interdiction of the Ninh Binh transshipment complex.” The six A-4 Pouncers covered the strike group’s entry attack and exit then proceeded to make dive bombing attacks on targets in the Ninh binh yard cutting two rail lines and destroying four boxcars.
WORTH THE RISK? You tell me…
CAG’s QUOTES for 22 January: VON CLAUSEWITZ: “Failure to act is worse than an error in judgement in selecting a course of action.” … PATTON: “I consider that I have always done my best, my conscience is clear.”…
Lest we frget… Bear