RIPPLE SALVO… #870… AN INDELIBLE LESSON FROM THE VIETNAM WAR… SELECTIVE SERVICE!!!…THE DRAFT… We entered the war slowly in 1961 and the regular forces could handle most of the commitment to defend South Vietnam. The Korean War tempo of draft calls reached 474,000 in 1953 then tapered off to a call of 87,000 in 1960. Of course, The Draft was hanging over the head of every 18 to 25 year old, so the recruiters had no trouble meeting enlistment quotas. They offered the preferred alternative to hiding or taking your chances on where The Draft might send you–the jungles of SE Asia. Humble Host was out of money for college at age 20 in 1955 and felt the heat of the Director of Selective Service breathing down his shirt, so he enlisted in the Navy as a NavCad. Good Move!
The Draft increased tempo as the Vietnam War involved more and more American support. By 1964 the annual draft call was at 112,000. When the first Marines went ashore in March 1965 the call jumped to 231,000. In 1966 more than 382,000 were pulled out of college and jobs and families and marched off to a war that was now killing about 10,000 American males a year. The call was 228,000 in 1967, the first year of enormous demonstrations and destructive rioting on college campuses and city streets from coast-to-coast. In 1968, the Presidential election year, the tempo increased again to 296,000. At the same time, General Westmoreland let it be known that the more than 500,000 troops on duty in Southeast Asia were not enough to do the job. A boost of 206,000 more troops was required. At each step of the escalating commitment in South East Asia, especially the period 1965-66 when Americanization of the war became a fact. It was now America’s war and the idea of never having American boys fighting a land war in Asia became a weak joke. To make matters worse, the Tet Offensive of January 1968 was played at home as a major setback and the popular conclusion was that we were not winning the war and there was no end in sight.
Resistance to the war was founded on many issues, not the least of them the Selective Service System that seemed to select the poor boys and provide a variety of ways to avoid The Draft for the rich boys. College deferments became the most utilized escape hatch. The 18 to 30 years olds anti-draft crowd hit the streets with a wide range of anti-war supporters and the United States verged on revolt. Revolution. By 1970 The Draft was a priority legislative agenda item and the painful lessons of The Draft during the Vietnam War resulted in change…(1964-1973 total U.S. men drafted= 1,857,304) But Selective Service and The New Draft are still alive and well, and it is propitious that they are. The world is full of hate and discontent and marching toward cataclysmic reorganization. Is America’s AVF–All-Volunteer Force (of about 1.7 million men and women), currently tired and stretched thin, going to be able to meet the requirement?… What will happen when the Millennials (b. 1981-1996) and Generation Z (b. 1997-Present) begin receiving draft notices?… Continued below…but first…
GOOD MORNING… Day EIGHT HUNDRED SEVENTY of a flash-back of fifty years to the time of the Vietnam war and the air war over North Vioetnam in the years 1965-1968. It was code-named ROLLING THUNDER… Lest we forget…
HEAD LINES from the OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINER for Tuesday, 23 July 1968…
THE WAR: “Page 1: “WAR’S TEMPO INCREASES–BASES HIT BY SHELLS–FIGHTING ERUPTS IN NORTH”… “Heavy ground fighting erupted in South Vietnam’s northern provinces today on the heels of a coordinated series of heavy shellings of key American and South Vietnamese military installations. Troops of the U.S. Americal Division were in heavy contact with enemy forces 20 miles south of Danang, the headquarters for military operations in the five northern provinces. a spokesman said 69 of the enemy had been killed by late Tuesday afternoon in the fighting around Tam Ky…20 miles south of Danang. There was no report of U.S. casualties….Earlier the Vietcong and North Vietnamese hit allied posts in the northern provinces with their heaviest shelling in recent weeks. American casualties were light and damages to aircraft and other facilities were negligible. Two civilians were killed and 17 wounded… The enemy slammed another 200-300 rounds of mortar and huge 100-pound Russian rockets into U.S. and South Vietnamese military facilities around Danang….No one was killed….On the Saigon front South Vietnamese militiamen and American helicopter gunships intercepted a Vietcong force 23 miles south of Saigon that may have been heading for the capital. Fifty-one of the Vietcong were reported killed…Forty miles further south South Vietnamese reported killing 36 Vietcong soldiers and taking 23 prisoners…Five South Vietnamese were wounded….Northwest of Saigon and seven miles from the Cambodian frontier U.S. infantrymen battled about 2300 North Vietnamese. After the battel 13 enemy dead were discovered. U.S. losses were 16 wounded.”…
23 JULY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… Ogden Standard Examiner … Page 1: “WAR TAKES THIRD GENERAL”…”Major General Robert F. Worley, deputy Commander of the U.S. Seventh Air Force, was killed today when his RF-4C photo reconnaissance plane was shot down by enemy ground fire 65 miles northwest of Danang. The 48-year old, who played a prominent role in directing the bombing in North and South Vietnam, was the third general killed in action in the war. A U.S. 7th Air Force spokesman in Saigon in a statement said Worley was killed a little after noon. ‘He was piloting a photo reconnaissance mission when the aircraft was hit by ground fire,’ he added. ‘The second pilot in the aircraft ejected safely and has been rescued. General Worley became 7th Air Force vice commander in July, 1967, and was scheduled to become deputy chief of staff for operations, headquarters Pacific Air Forces in Honolulu on September 1.’ The spokesman said that Worley was a command pilot qualified to fly the RF-4C, a Phantom fighter-bomber configured for phot recon. ‘He had previously flown similar aircraft on combat missions,’ the Spokesman said. ‘It is not unusual for a general to participate in the flying activity of his command.’ Worley had been directly in charge of the huge armada of Air Force planes bombing North and South Vietnam since last Tuesday when the commander, General William W. Momyer, left for the United State on reassignment as Commander of the Tactical Air Forces.”… VIETNAM: AIR FORCES (Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing air craft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 July 1968…
(1) MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT FRANKLIN WORLEY and MAJOR ROBERT F. BRODMAN were flying an RF-4C of the 460th TRW out of Tan Son Nhut on a photo recce mission in Military Region I 10 miles west of Hue when hit by ground fire in the forward fuselage area. Ejection was required and initiated by MAJOR BRODMAN in the rear cockpit. MAJOR BRODMAN ejected successfully and was rescued. General Worley’s canopy failed to separate from the Phantom and the General was unable to abandon the aircraft and died in the crash. Hobson reported: “This incident prompted an investigation into the Phantom ejection system, focussing on the canopy separation. It was discovered that under certain conditions the front canopy would fail to separate following the firing of the rear seat. Several previous incidents where Phantom front-seaters had failed to survive an ejection were probably due to this phenomenon. a modification program was quickly introduced to add extra gas-operated pistons to the canopy rails, which seemed to solve the problem. Similar problems had also been encountered within U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Phantoms and a number of pilots had been lost when their canopies failed to separate. Another result of this incident was an order from General Momyer banning very senior officers from flying combat missions in South Vietnam. General WORLEY flew 120 combat missions in WWII in the P-40 and P-47 and was awarded the SILVER STAR and DFC and eight Air Medals. He was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal for service in Vietnam. He had orders to a three-star assignment at the time of his loss to enemy AAA…
(2) An F-4D of the 13th TFS and 432nd TRW out of Udorn was lost over Thailand on a combat mission due to a complete hydraulic system failure necessitating the ejection of the crew of two, both of whom were rescued by helicopter…
(3) LCDR LAWRENCE DEAN GOSEN was launched in A-4E of the VA-23 “Black Knights” embarked in USS Ticonderoga from the port catapult with adequate end speed (+16 knots above stall)– but the aircraft settled into the water 200-yards ahead of the carrier and exploded. LCDR GOSEN inexplicably did not eject and perished in the Gulf of Tonkin fifty years ago this day. Gone too soon, glory gained, duty done, to rest in peace.
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) IN THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM ON 23 JULY…
1965… NONE…
1966… MAJOR GENE THOMAS PEMBERTON, USAF… (KIA)… and … MAJOR BENJAMIN BYRD NEWSOM, USAF… (KIA)… The loss of these two Wild Weasel warriors, who were downed and killed in action 7 miles west of Phuc Yen, was reported in RTR posted on 23 July 1966, Ripple Salvo #144. The post highlighted the tales of two extraordinary Navy heroes, CAPTAIN WYNN “HOOK” FOSTER and LT DEITER DENGLER. Humble Host takes this opportunity, on the 52nd anniversary of the last flight of COLONELS PEMBERTON and NEWSOM to add COLONEL PEMBERTON’s SILVER STAR citation to the RTR archives…
AMONG THE BRAVE… GALLANTRY AND INTREPIDITY IN COMBAT… COLONEL GENE THOMAS PEMBERTON, USAF… NORTH VIETNAM, 23 JULY 1966…
“MAJOR GENE T. PEMBERTON, USAF distinguished himself by gallantry in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force near Phuc Yen, North Vietnam on 23 July 1966. On that date MAJOR PEMBERTON was the flight leader of a four ship F-105 aircraft team assigned to patrol the heavily defeated Red River Delta in search of hostile surface-to-air missile sites. Despite encountering extremely adverse weather and heavy defenses, MAJOR PEMBERTON courageously pressed the attack in complete disregard of his personal safety. By his gallantry and devotion to duty, MAJOR PEMBERTON has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”
1967… NONE…
1968… NONE…
RIPPLE SALVO… #870… WHAT IF WE STARTED TO DRAFT MILLENNIALS and GENERATION X?… Humble Host opines that American college grounds and buildings of 2019-20 would erupt with demonstrations and evolve into violent confrontations akin to the 1960s, despite the implementation of fixes to the Selective Service System of the 1960s. I wrap this up with two items. first a New York Times OpEd from 4 June 1968, then a rundown on the changes…
The OpEd: “STUDENTS AND THE DRAFT”… I quote…
“Vice President David B. Truman of Columbia University recently expressed the view that the war in Vietnam had created the current restlessness among students and that if the war did not end ‘it is debatable if the university could continue.’ That may be a somewhat exaggerated view of the role of the war in respect to students, especially in the light of similar undergraduate rebellion in France, Italy, Spain, Poland and many other countries. But there can be no doubt tht many of America’s most intelligent and articulate young people are severely shaken by their government’s Vietnam policies and particularly by the military draft, which is for them a point of agonizing confrontation with the moral and practical problems posed by the Southeast Asian conflict.
“Recent developments in regard to the draft offer no hope for an early end to student malaise on this score. Indeed, unrest among youths is likely to intensify as a result of recent actions by the courts, the Congress and the draft director. The Supreme Court has upheld a 1965 low which heaps fresh punishment on those who burn or otherwise destroy of mutilate a draft card. In doing so, the Court reaffirmed the ‘broad and sweeping’ powers of Congress to raise and support armies and ‘to make all laws necessary and proper to that end.’ The 1965 act may be constitutional, but that does not make it wise or necessary. It is neither. The law is redundant and excessively punitive, and only serves to make martyrs of young men who engage, perhaps childishly but essentially harmlessly, in an act of symbolic protest.
“The constitutional power of Congress to raise armies may be sweeping, but it does not justify the stubborn refusal of Congress to rectify glaring inequities in a selective Service Act that is widely conceded to be bad law. The Senate has killed a bill that would have granted draft registrants the right to their own legal counsel when they appeared before local draft boards–a right that ought to be self-evident. When the courts, the Congress and the Administration are so indifferent to their rights and views, is it any wonder that young people are disturbed? It is they, after all, who are called upon to bear the heaviest burden of policies not of their making with which many of them profoundly disagree.”… End quote…
THE SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM has published a one-pager that itemizes the changes made in the law since Vietnam…
(1) If a draft were held TODAY, there would be fewer reasons to excuse a man from service. It would be different from the one held during the Vietnam War. It would be the most equitable draft in history. (Before Congress reformed the draft in 1971, a man could qualify for a student deferment if he could show he was a full-time student making satisfactory progress in virtually any field of study. He could continue to go to school and he deferred from service until he was too old to be drafted.) Under the current draft law a college student can have the induction postponed only until the end of the current semester. A senior can be postponed until the end of the full academic year.)…
(2) If a draft were held TODAY, local boards would better represent the communities they serve. (The changes in the new draft law made in 1971 included a provision that membership on the boards was required to be as representative as possible of the racial and national origin of registrants in the area served by the board. Before 1971, state and local boards used a ‘quota system’ under which they assigned a certain number of men to the draft. Because the boards determined who would be drafted, there were instances when personal relationships and favoritism played a part in deciding who would be drafted.)…
(3) A draft held TODAY would use a lottery to determine the order of call. (Before the lottery was implemented in the latter part of the Vietnam conflict, there was no system in place to determine order-of-call besides the fact that men between the ages of 18 and 26 were vulnerable to being drafted. Local boards called men classified 1-A, 18-1/2 through 25 years old, oldest first. This lack of a system resulted in uncertainty for the potential draftees during the entire time they were within the draft-eligible age group. All throughout a young man’s early 20’s he did not know if he would be drafted. A draft held today would use a lottery system which a man could spend only one year in first priority for the draft–either the calendar year he turned 20 or the year his deferment ended, whichever comes first. Each year after that, he would be placed in a succeedingly lower priority group and his liability for the draft would lessen accordingly. In that way, he would be spared the uncertainty until his 26th birthday to be certain he would not be drafted.)…
(4) If a draft were held TODAY, a registrant would be guaranteed a personal appearance before his board if he wanted to appeal his classification. (Before 1971, a draftee was not guaranteed this right, and so some decisions about whether a man would be drafted were made based on paperwork. Today, if a man wanted to appeal to his Local Board for an exemption or deferment, he could speak to them directly.)
PROBLEM SOLVED? Not exactly. I wonder where the women fit into our plans? I wonder where the millions of illegal immigrants fit in? The transgenders? The “kneelers”? The deferments for the more than 50% of our youth not physically fit enough to pass a physical. Or test below the moral minimums with respect to criminal records and drug usage. How will all this get sorted out when the balloon goes up? Or do we just keep looking the other way and hope for the best? Hoping our adversaries give us a couple years notice before they broach our national interests. I wonder what the 2018 age 18 to 25 cohort will do when the next Pearl Harbor happens and the draft calls start…??? I wonder if my concerns are shared by anybody in “the swamp”… ?
RTR Quote for 23 July: PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY: “A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today’s military rejects include tomorrow’s hard-core unemployed.”…
Lest we forget… Bear