ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 22 JANUARY 1968

RIPPLE SALVO… #686… HOW THIN WERE WE?… “…at the time of the Pueblo Incident (23-Jan-68) no Japan based Air Force units were rated combat ready because the pilots were undergoing their long-delayed upgrading to F-4Ds and had yet to have their proficiency evaluated. When the USS Enterprise entered Korean waters in late January 1968 its aircraft had no Shrike radar-seeking air-to-ground missiles, no improved Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, and only 55 of the radar-guided, long-range Sparrow missiles. Its shortage typified those plaguing the Pacific Fleet.”… and the North Korean Air Order of Battle included more than 500 MIGs …. but first…

Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED-EIGHTY-SIX of a return of fifty years to the Vietnam was and Operation Rolling Thunder…

22 JANUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a really nice Monday in New York City…

GROUND WAR: “Page 1: “18 MARINES KILLED S ENEMY SHELLS CAMP NEAR LAOS–25 NORTH VIETNAMESE FOUND DEAD AFTER ATTACKS NEAR STRONGHOLD AT KHESANH–American Jet Downed–Cambodians Report Finding Gear Left By U.S. And Saigon Raiders”...”North Vietnamese troops staged  series of attacks yesterday close to the United States Marine stronghold at Khesanh, near the demilitarized zone on the Laotian border. The enemy probed the defenses of the base airstrip behind a mortar and rocket barrage and attacked a hilltop outpost two and a half miles to the north and a nearby Special Forces camp. Marine headquarters at Danang reported last night that 18 men had been killed and 40 wounded in the series of attacks. an incomplete count of enemy dead disclosed 25 bodies. One helicopter was destroyed and four were damaged in the bombardment. The airstrip, vital for supply planes, was cratered…. the North Vietnamese also shot down a Marine A-4 Skyhawk as the jet made a bombing run in support of the defenders on the hilltop. The pilot was rescued. It was the 225th plane lost to enemy action in South Vietnam…. Cambodia said that she had shown to the International Control Commission equipment abandoned by an American-South Vietnamese force” that she contends crossed into her territory Thursday and fought a sharp engagement with border guards…. The Special Forces Camp at Lanvei, two miles from the border, also came under attack and 12 defenders were killed and 25 wounded. Most of the casualties were Montagnard irregulars. Twenty miles to the northeast the Marine artillery base at Camp Carroll, eight miles south of the DMZ came under heavy rocket attack. No casualty report yet. By unofficial and incomplete count 52 marines have been killed and 2076 wounded  since the series of attacks across the 40-mile border area from Laos to the South China Sea began a week ago Saturday… In the Central Highlands a lack of support for a planned attack by more than 1000 men of the Fourth Infantry Division has been postponed.”…

Page 1: “Restored Ford’s Theater Is Reopened As A Playhouse–Vice President Humphrey Speaks At Lincoln Assassination Site of 103-Years Ago”... “A national shrine reopened today… a ceremony of prayer, music and prose as Vice President dedicated the restored theater to the arts of the city.”… Page 1: “New York City Schools Ask City to Double School Budget”... Page 1: “Auto Safety Recall Drive: Detroit Critics Heartened”... “Every week for the last yer, on the average, the American automobile industry rolled 179,000 new cars, trunks and buses from its assembly lines. At times the effort seemed almost to be a labor of Sisyphus. For every week, on the average, the same industry recalled 64,000 vehicles for inspections and correction of possible safety defects.”… Page 3: “President Johnson’s Church Ousts War Foes–17 Protesters Ushered Out ‘In Christian Manner”... “…17 Vietnam war protesters were ejected from President’s Washington church today. Mr. Johnson was not present.”… Page 3: “U.S. Completes Quiet Shift of Most of Men Out of Saigon”… “American troops wearing helmets and carrying rifles are no longer seen on downtown streets looking for a change from the pressures of patrols and fighting…”… Page 5: “Senator Robert Kennedy Says U.S. Seeks Surrender In Vietnam Again Urges A Bombing Halt In effort to Start Talks”… “…asserted today that the United States was ‘asking for unconditional surrender’ as its terms for peace talks in Vietnam. The New York Democrat again called for a bombing halt to try to start negotiations toward  compromise settlement. A renewed chorus of criticism of United States policy was also heard from Senator J.W. Fulbright…and governor George Romney of Michigan.”… Page 16: “Surveyor 7 Again Relays Back Images of Lights”... Page 19: “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Aide Tells Logic of Protests–Sees Spring Demonstrations As Shock To Sick Nation”…

22 JANUARY 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times: no coverage of the air war in the north…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 22 January 1968…

(1) LCOL HARRY T. HAGAMAN, USMC, CO-VMFA-323, and CAPTAIN DENNIS F. BRANDON, USMC, were leading a flight of F-4Bs of the VMFA-323 Death Rattlers and MAG-13 out of Chu Lai on a strike on enemy antiaircraft gun positions near Khesanh and were hit by small arms fire recovering from a weapon delivery pass. CAPTAIN BRANDON immediately ejected from the doomed aircraft. LCOL HAGAMAN attempted without success to control the aircraft and abandoned it as it rolled at low altitude in time to get full chute before touchdown. The pair of intrepid aviators were rescued from tall elephant grass by a Marine helicopter as North Vietnamese troops closed on them. LCOL HAGAMAN went on to Brigadier rank. CAPTAIN BRANDON completed his Vietnam combat tour with more than 400 combat missions…  oohrah…

RIPPLE SALVO… #686… Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis presented the National Security Strategy going forward from 2018 and in the final paragraph of the covering summary of the document included this: “TO CARRY OUT ANY STRATEGY, HISTORY TEACHES US THAT WISDOM AND RESOURCES MUST BE SUFFICIENT.”… Fifty years ago our country was spread all over the globe “containing communism” and the requirement far exceeded the ability of our economy to meet that requirement. We were spread thin in order to wage the war in Vietnam. How thin, and vulnerable were we?… Here is an excerpt from Edward J. Drea’s massive “Secretary of Defense Historical Series: McNamara, Clifford and the Burdens of Vietnam 1965-1969“…p. 528-9…

“Even before the escalation in Vietnam, McNamara had been whittling away at the Army’s logistic infrastructure in Europe to reduce balance of payments deficits and, he hoped, spur the allies to do more for their own defense. When he asserted that between June 1964 and December 1965 U.S. Seventh Army actually added 1,000 logistical personnel, he neglected to mention to the press that during the same period two reorganizations of USAEUR’s logistics structure decreased supply and support units by 10,900 troops or 19 per cent and phased out three of the five U.S. Army depot complexes in Europe. The Defense Secretary insisted that the decrease was offset by the greater efficiency of reorganized supply and support units; the JCS thought otherwise. The relocation of U.S. forces from France further disrupted logistic capability in Europe and left the Alliance dependent on ‘malpositioned commercially leased’ POL facilities. By late 1968 mergers of units and headquarters, closure of bases and facilities and reduction of support units, the Chiefs claimed, had steadily eroded USEURCOM’s logistic capabilities. As deleterious as cutbacks were, the manner of reducing the force structure to meet Vietnam requirements was more debilitating. According to SACEUR, the ‘piecemeal and unbalanced reductions’ of US forces in Europe had left the military with ‘little or no control of the tactical disposition of forces or the personnel to perform the assigned military mission.

“During the Vietnam Buildup, U.S. military units stationed around the world had to redistribute their war reserve stocks to support the forces in Southeast Asia, thereby impairing their own readiness. The Air Force had shipped almost all available 500-pound bombs from units stationed in Europe and Japan to Southeast Asia, leaving Headquarters, USAF Europe, with no 500-pound bombs against a 32,864 bomb requirement and Fifth Air Force in Japan and Okinawa with just 1,260 of its required 19,635 bombs. Higher priorities for Vietnam left the Atlantic Fleet chronically short of bombs, aerial missiles, spare parts, and modern aircraft. Aging equipment and deactivations to save money forced the Navy to transfer some 50 ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific Fleet between mid-1965 and mid-1968. In Korea by early 1966 general ammunition levels were nearly exhausted, some units having only enough ammunition for three days of fighting. Simultaneously, U.S. Army units were sending ammunition and helicopters to Southeast Asia. So much 20-mm ammunition from West Germany and the United States was shipped to Vietnam that war readiness material (WRM) stockages almost became depleted–something potentially embarrassing to DOD because McNamara’s Cost Reduction program for FY 1965 had highlighted savings of more than $26-million achieved by using excess 20mm. ammunition from stocks in lieu of new production.

“The problems of understrength and underequipped units that surfaced in early 1966 worsened over time. To equip Southeast Asia squadrons in 1966 with the latest F-4D aircraft, units in Japan retained the older model F-4C. Two years later at the time of the Pueblo Incident (23-Jan-68), no Japan based U.S. Air Force units were rated combat ready because the plots were undergoing their long-delayed upgrading to F-4Ds and had yet to have their proficiency evaluated. When the USS Enterprise entered Korean waters in late January 1968 its aircraft had no Shrike radar-seeking air-to-ground missiles, no improved Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, and only 55 of the radar-guided, long-range Sparrow air-to-air missiles. Its shortages typified those plaguing the Pacific Fleet. Only after the seizure of the Pueblo did OSD approve rebuilding the 45-day stockage of air munitions in Northeast Asia to include reconstituted pre-positioned war reserve stocks and naval ordnance, but this buildup encountered delays because huge demands for ammunition in Vietnam for the Tet and Spring offensives.

“The seven U.S.Army divisions stationed overseas, except in Vietnam, were kept deliberately understrength to conserve manpower, material and money for the Vietnam forces. The actual number of division troops averaged 60-70 per cent of assigned strength with personnel turnover rates averaging 150-200 per cent per year. These huge shortages of trained personnel and the seven ‘personnel turbulence’ due to Southeast Asia rotation requirements contributed to lower overall readiness.”

RTR Quote for 22 January: SECRETARY MATTIS: “TO CARRY OUT ANY STRATEGY, HISTORY TEACHES US THAT WISDOM AND RESOURCES MUST BE SUFFICIENT.”… Humble Host asks: Is there an old warrior out there who believes our current ALL-VOLUNTEER conventional forces are SUFFICIENT to fight and win a war with one or more of our current challengers–Russia, PRC, Iran, North Korea– except the Taliban and ISIS guerrillas where we find them, AND simultaneously meet our other global commitments?… Does the PRC consider us a “paper eagle”… ? HOW THIN ARE WE?

Lest we forget…     Bear