RIPPLE SALVO… #869… SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL (short one)… ABRAHAM LINCOLN: “People are about as happy as they want to be.”… Apparently, in America, or for that matter, all around the world, there is a dearth of people who want to be happy. My happiness divining rod is either out ot commission or our country is running several quarts low on the essence of life–happiness. In fact, most of the laughs these days are to hateful jokes told by comedians who have found a gold mine of material by pushing the audiences’ hate buttons. What the world needs now is sweet happiness, before it’s too late. Humble Host has a few groups on the subject… but first, a short post on a favorite subject…Rolling Thunder…
Good Morning… Day EIGHT HUNDRED SIXTY-NINE of daily posts corresponding to the 1,000 days of Operation Rolling Thunder… On schedule, 869 in the RTR archives, 131 to go and then some…
HEAD LINES from the OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINER for Monday, 22 July 1968… (somebody copped the Weber Country Library’s New York Times film for 14-31 July 1968)…
THE WAR: Page 1: “VIETCONG TERRORIST WAVE KILLS 13, WOUNDS 92–RAIDS HINT START OF OFFENSIVE”…”A new wave of Vietcong terrorism hit Saigon and two provincial capitals Sunday, killing 12 Vietnamese and wounding 92. Intelligence sources have said terrorist attacks might precede the threatened third major enemy offensive of the year, but the lull in the ground was still continued..East of Khe Sanh near Conthien, marine fighter pilots and artillery wiped out m ost of a 30-man North Vietnamese unit that was spotted in an open area…22 North Vietnamese bodies were found… South Vietnamese forces reported killing 10 Vietcong and capturing 21 others during a sweep through the Mekong Delta 70 miles southwest of Saigon…”
PEACE TALKS: No coverage…
Page 1: POLITICAL ROUNDUP… Page 1: “WALLACE BACKERS GAIN MOMENTUM”… “Louisiana governor John Keithen said today Third party candidate George C. Wallace is the presidential favorite in at least six states now–enough to throw the election into the House of Represenatives if the Republicans and Democrats run a close race…” … Page 2: “McCARTHY CAMP SEEKS 3 DEBATES WITH HUMPHREY”… “…proposed three nationally televised confrontations with Vice President Hubert Humphrey on the “issues confronting and dividing the nation and our party from Vietnam to economics.”… Page 4: “LABOR DISPUTE PERILS MEDIA COVERAGE OF G.O.P. SESSIONS”…”Pickets marched at the Convention Hall again today as a dispute over the feeding of a computerized television device continued to delay finishing touches on the meeting hall in Miami Beach… officials held that the dispute would be settled and the convention would go on time on August 5. Argument is between Electrical Workers Union and CBS… “… Page 4: “HUMPHREY BOOK BARES POLICY–NO CHANGE ON VIETNAM”… Page 6: “Nixon For Normalcy Called Unspoken Campaign Slogan”…
Page 1: “JAMES EARL RAY PLEADS ‘INNOCENT’–Trial Set For Late Fall”… Page 1: “INTEREST RATES HIGHEST IN HISTORY”… “Interest rates on conventional home mortgages rose sharply during june climbing to almost 7 per cent for the first time in history.”… Page 1: “RUSSIA PUSHES CZECH DEMANDS”… Page 2: “LBJ RESTS AT RANCH AFTER THIEU MEETING–Chance Exists of Attendance ot Governor’s Conference”… Page 2: “ANGRY FOREIGNERS–AMERICAN WINDOWS SHATTERED BY ANTI-WAR MOBS IN LONDON AND IZMIR, TURKEY”… Page 1: “ARABS HIJACK ISRAEL JET WITH 48 ABOARD”… “Armed Palestine refugees hijacked an El Al jetliner bound from Rome to Tel Aviv with 48 persons on board early today and forced it to land in Algiers.”…
22 JULY 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… Ogden Standard-Examiner/AP…No coverage of air war north of the DMZ…… VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 22 July 1968…
(1) 1LT LYNN ARTHUR HOFFMAN was flying an F-100D Super Sabre of the 531st TFS and 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa and was struck by lightning and damaged while on a combat mission. He successfully flew the aircraft back to Bien Hoa but lost control and crashed in the attempted emergency landing, sustaining fatal injuries. There are no easy days in the unforgiving world of flight… 1LT HOFFMAN is remembered as bold and brave on this 50th anniversary of his last flight for his country…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) IN THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM ON 22 JULY…
1965, 1966, 1967, 1968… NONE…
RIPPLE SALVO… #869… “LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS”… The Founding Fathers knew what was important. The way I figure, God controls a person’s LIFE and the Government controls a person’s LIBERTY. HAPPINESS is up to the individual. Where folks get in trouble is when their definition of HAPPINESS and what they expect is beyond what is achievable. The expectation exceeds reality. When they come up short, they aren’t happy. Our national problem is a universal problem– countless millions of folks are coming up short and they are disappointed and grumpy. In their frustration of having tried and failed, they are spreading their discontentment like the plague. They need to get HAPPY. The fact is, “folks are happy when things are going their way” (Mo Gaudat) and right now more folks than not have concluded that things are not going their way. As a consequence hordes of grumpy people have made HATE their path to HAPPINESS.
The FORMULAS for HAPPINESS are many. Google the subject and check out a few. A guaranteed winner for your consideration can be written on a business card. (1) FIND A GOOD CAUSE (2) WORK AT IT EVERY DAY (3) DO SOMETHING NICE FOR SOMEBODY EVERY DAY. The tricky part is the cause you select. My cause is RTR, for example. I work at it every day and while I’m at it, I throw in a few good deeds. Shazam, Grizzly out, Cuddly in. I am a happy camper. Works for me. When we were flying Rolling Thunder missions we were pursuing a GREAT cause, doing it most every day, and while we were at it: we were looking out for our troops and each other. Shazam. HAPPINESS.
Unfortunately, what we are seeing in our country these days are the legions of folks who failed to get a 2016 election return that would have met their expectation, so they are grumpy. What they have done for the last 18 months is zero-in on a new cause–not a good one. They have set their sights on HATING the President— and some include our country– in their quest for HAPPINESS. They have a cause, work at it every day, and are convinced that this is a great and good deed. Finding HAPPINESS in HATING is a sorry way to live each day, and right now, too many Americans are pursuing HAPPINESS by HATING.
We live in perilous times and the need to come together and solve problems and heal divisions has never been greater. Our cause is great and represents an opportunity to return our national HAPPINESS quotient —national morale— to a level that ensures national survival… That is what our President has requested American’s to do–join him in the cause—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. And work at it every day, and while you are at it, LIVE THE GOLDEN RULE… That will make you HAPPY…..
RTR quote for 22 July: ALBERT EINSTEIN: “A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it.”…
Let we forget… Bear