Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #324… A MUST READ MEMO… NITTY-GRITTY DETAILS on how the President and his men in suits picked the targets for Operation Rolling Thunder… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR of a look-back fifty years to the air war that goes forgotten… but remembered here…
23 JANUARY 1967… The New York Times HEADLINES on a mild and partly cloudy Monday in NYC…
Page 1: “4 Dead as Marine Jet Hits Home After a Collision”… “Two Marine Corps Reserve attack bombers collided and crashed today. One smashed into a retirement community killing four persons, including the pilot, and injuring five. The plane demolished the two-story dwellings in the Leisure World, Laguna Hills Development plowing through one dwelling and setting the other afire. Six other apartment-like structures were damaged by flying debris. The other aircraft fell beyond the San Diego freeway on property of the El Toro MCAS, toward which the planes were heading in heavy rain…”… Page 1: “Manchester Assails Kennedy ‘Politics’ “…”William Manchester says that Senator Robert F. Kennedy wanted to ‘shred and emasculate’ his book, ‘Death of a President,’ simply for political reasons. Furthermore, he says, ‘The Senator is surrounded by people who have hitched their wagon to his star. They all think in terms of another Kennedy administration.’ “… Page 1: “23 War Protesters Arrested in St. Patrick’s after Disrupting a Mass”… “Twenty-three peace demonstrators unfurled posters portraying a maimed Vietnamese child in the center aisle of St. Patrick’s Cathedral during the 10 o’clock high mass yesterday morning, causing the celebrant to interrupt the liturgy… a note left behind said they were leaving the church out of disrespect for Cardinal Spellman to protest his recent statement that ‘the war in Vietnam is a war for civilization.”…” …Page 1: “Mayor Lindsay Says We’ll Seek More Advice Here on Puerto Ricans from the Puerto Rican community on problems of urban development, education and housing rather than relying on leaders in Puerto Rico for advice. As a first step the Mayor has shifted some aides in his administration and has ordered a far-ranging review of relations with the 750,000 Puerto Ricans living here (NYC).” …
Page 1: “Green Berets Try to Shed Reputation as Derring-do Unit”… Dateline: Nha Trang… “‘The Ballad of the Green Berets’ is still on the jukebox of the Officers’s Club of the headquarters of the Fifth Special Forces Group here, but it isn’t played much anymore. The song is part of the picture of derring-do that the Special Forces, the Army’s experts in guerrilla warfare, is trying to live down. ‘This is no game for clowns,’ said Colonel Francis J. Kelly, who commands all Speccial Forces in Vietnam. ‘I haven’t got any time for boozers or cheaters or buglers.’…A bugler is a Special Forces man who likes to spread the word, preferably in bars, that his unit is the bravest, smartest and most effective in the Army.’ “… Page 3: “Enemy Use of Ho Chi Minh Trail Reported Dropping but still moving freely across the DMZ. During the period January to July 1966 the flow of North Vietnamese was 6,400 per month, perhaps as many as 8,800. In recent months the rate is about 4,000 per month. The South Vietnam Ambassador to the United States said the decline was due to the bombing of the North by the U.S. “…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM.. COLONEL LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to COLONEL LAWRENCE NICHOLAS GUARINO, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force as Senior Ranking Officer of a North Vietnamewe prison camp during the period 11 May 1968 to 22 September 1969. Following the execution of a carefully conceived escape plan by two of his officers, COLONEL GUARINO, who was known by the enemy to be the Senior Ranking Officer in the camp, immediately came under maximum pressure including savage torture without parallel. COLONEL GUARINO exhibited exceptional heroism, courage and determination during this period. Displaying great resilience when back in communication, he assumed command once again and slowly built the prisoner organization. Through his extraordinary heroism, and maximum resistance in the face of a brutal enemy, COLONEL GUARINO reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”
COLONEL GUARINO was serving with the 44th TFS at the time he was shot down and captured on 14 June 1965. Among his many awards are: The Air Force Cross, the Silver Star (2), the Distinguished Flying Cross (2), the Bronze Star with Valor V (3), the Air Medal (15), and the Purple Heart (2). oohrah…
23 January 1967… ROLLING THUNDER ops… New York Times (24 Jan reporting 23 Jan ops) Page 3: “In the air war over the North, four Air Force F-4 Phantoms routed four MIG-17s after a brief duel northwest of Hanoi. A total of 68 missions were flown against antiaircraft missile and radar sites, lines of communication and storage areas.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 January 1967…
(1) 1LT BARRY BURTON BRIDGER and 1LT DAVID FLETCHER GRAY were flying an F-4C Phantom of the 497th TFS and 8 TFW out of Ubon on a MIGCAP mission northwest of Hanoi. While on station at 14,000′ their F-4 was hit by an SA-2 and immediately disintegrated. Somehow both pilots were able to survive the explosion. Both were captured and interned until 1973. 1LT BRIDGER was on his 53rd mission and 1LT GRAY was on his second.
RIPPLE SALVO… #324… For the last fifty years I have been reading and hearing that one of the leading reasons OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER was ineffective was because the Tuesday Lunch bunch at the White House was doing the targeting. Nothing I have discovered matches the following “Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Walt Rostow) to President Johnson” dated 23 January 1967, as evidence that this group of suits sans uniforms were picking, choosing, changing, and cancelling targets in North Vietnam. The truth be known… The memo may be found at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d25
This memo from Rostow to LBJ is enough to make a grown man cry… and all the families of the great warriors who died in a wasted effort–a sparring match that cried out for a pounding like Linebacker I/II in order to destroy the enemy’s will to resist –as well…
On Friday 20 January 1967 President Johnson spoke briefly at an award ceremony in the White House and said: “We are conducting the most careful and self-limited air war in history.” And, how did that work out for you, Mr. President?…
CAG’s QUOTES for 23 January: “SUN TZU: “Generally in battle, use the normal force to engage; use the extraordinary force to win.”… PATTON: “Americans need some honest men who dare to say what they think, not what they think people want them to say.”….
Lest we forget… Bear
Thank you so much for sharing the story about my dad’s comments on “boozers, cheaters and buglers”. He said this on more than one occasion, and also made Green Berets quit wearing animal pelts on their shoulders. (True story!) He was so proud of the soldiers with whom he served and considered it an honor and a privilege to serve with the finest military fighters in the world. What a treat to see this again. And thank you for your dedicated service to our great country.