RIPPLE SALVO… #507… The USMACV VIETNAM HISTORY: 1967 (TS)… 305 MIG engagements: US vs NVN…1967 Score: 93 to 22… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SEVEN of a review of events and forgotten heroes from fifty years go…
25 JULY 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a rainy Tuesday in NYC…
Humble Host asks your forbearance. The riots and civil discord in America over the Summers of 1967 and 1968 are too important to be skimmed over in this return to the years of Rolling Thunder. Our country was torn asunder by the double-whammy of the bloody strife at home and the fighting and dying in an unwinnable war fought 10,000 miles from home. In my humble opinion, the roots of our current national discord trace to those events. My RTR posts will continue to include expanded coverage of the strife at home while we were engaged in Southeast Asia…
SUMMER in America 1967: U.S.TROOPS SENT INTO DETROIT–19 DEAD; JOHNSON DECRIES RIOTS–New Outbreak in Harlem–Tanks in Detroit–800 Injured and 2,000 Arrested–Business at Halt”… “President Johnson rushed 4,700 Army paratroopers into Detroit at midnight last night as Negro snipers besieged two police stations in rioting that brought near paralysis to the nations fifth largest city. The death toll stood at 19 and damage from fire and looting–estimated by police at $150-million–was worse than in any riot in the nation’s history. Tanks rolled into the city’s East Side to rescue more than 100 policemen and National Guardsmen trapped inside the precinct houses. Negro snipers fired into windows and doors and policemen and Guardsmen fought back with machine guns, shotguns, and high power rifles. ‘It looks like Berlin in 1945,’ said Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh, who along with Governor George Romney had met with resistance from the White House in trying to have Federal Troops put into action here immediately… Troops last used for racial and riot situation occurred in Detroit in 1943.”… Page 1: “President Calls On Nation to Combat Lawlessness”... “President Johnson in the wake of new racial outbreaks, called upon the entire nation early today to condemn and combat lawlessness in all forms. Mr. Johnson made an unscheduled television appearance after reluctantly yielding to the Michigan authorities late last night and authorizing the use of Federal troops against rioters in Detroit. ‘We will not tolerate lawlessness. We will not endure violence. It matters not by whom it is done, or under what slogan or banner . It will not be tolerated.’ Asserting that ‘the vast majority of Negroes and whites are shocked and outraged’ by rioting, the President said: “The nation will do whatever is necessary to suppress and to punish those who engage in it. Pillage, looting, murder and arson have nothing to do with civil rights. They are criminal conduct. The Federal Government in the circumstances presented here had no alternative but to respond since it was called upon by the Governor of the state and presented with proof of his inability to restore order.”…
SUMMER CONT.: Page 1: “Englewood (NJ) Police Clash With Snipers”... “…exchanged fire with snipers in predominately Negro Fourth Ward here last night in the fourth successive night of racial disorder.”... Page 1: “Johnson Accused By GOP in Rioting–Coordinating Group Asserts He Failed to Recognize Approach of Anarchy”… “The Republican Coordinating Committee said today that the United States was ‘rapidly approaching a state of anarchy’ because of racial rioting and that President Johnson must share in the blame. ‘The President has totally failed to recognize the problem. Worse, he has vetoed legislation and opposed other legislation designed to re-establish peace and order within the country… We call upon the President to face the reality of the condition which in three years has grown to crisis. Pleasant platitudes nd statements of good intentions can no longer conceal the critical state of the nation. Public order is the first business of government.”… Page 1: “SNCC Chief Shot in Cambridge, Maryland”… “H. Rap Brown, the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was slightly wounded by a shotgun blast here last night after urging a crowd of about 400 Negroes in this frequently troubled Eastern Shore Maryland city to ‘burn this town down if this town don’t turn around’ and grant militant Negro demands. He was struck in the left temple with a single pellet from one of the more than a dozen sudden shotgun blasts.”… Page 1: “East Harlem–2 Killed and 12 Hurt in Violence Here–Disturbance Worst Since 1964–Rioters Set Cars Afire and Loot Stores”... “Thousands of Puerto Rican youths swept through East Harlem streets last night and early today in renewed anti-police demonstrations that left two dead and 12 injured. The police fought several gun battles with snipers in the city’s worst disorders since 1964.”… Page 14: “Poor Schools Called a Cause of Riots”… “Concerned over the rioting in a number of cities, members of a Senate sub-committee place a share of blame today on the ‘education starvation of the ghetto poor.’…’The ghettos schools deserve a flunking grade,’ said Senator Robert Kennedy: ‘The kids in ghettos will never recover unless we do something right now. We can’t wait 10 years.’ “… Page 17: “Negro March in Louisiana Ends With Vow of Greater Militancy”… Lincoln Lynch of CORE, a Candidate for Congress: ‘We are through clapping our hands and marching. From now on we must be ready to kill.’ “
VIETNAM: Page 6: “Moscow Pledges More Aid for Hanoi–Vows Continued Political and Military Help”... “…made public a pledge to give political and military aid to North Vietnam ‘in their fight against American imperialist aggressor’…and hailed ‘the successes of the Vietnamese Army and the people who have shot down more than 2,000 American planes.’ “… Page 7: “25 Northern Soldiers Killed in Buffer Zone Battle”… “…by SVN company on a sweep and four hour battle. Own casualties were ‘moderate’… “Marines Wipe Out An 18 Man NVN Patrol... near Conthien. Seven Marines were wounded.”…
24/25 JULY 1967…The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief…SYRIA: We have a number of reports suggesting that Syria is planning to renew terrorist activities against Israel and is getting ready for guerrilla war. Some of the fire-eaters in Damascus are talking of a “Viet Cong type war.” Presumably this would only be possible in that section of Syria occupied by the Israelis…EGYPT: The only thing really new in Nasir’s long-winded speech yesterday was his call for an Arab summit conference. Nasir had been throwing cold water on the idea, pushed most avidly by King Husayn. We cannot be certain a desire to get the ball back from the hardliners–Algeria and Syria–may be part of the answer…
25 JULY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (26 July reporting 25 July ops)… Page 1: “U.S. Sea-Air Attack Blasts Power Plant”... “Jet bombers of the United States Navy and the biggest guns of the Seventh fleet fought off anti-aircraft fire and coastal batteries to knockout one of North Vietnam’s important thermal power plants…the attack staged Monday (24th) was the first such coordinated action of the war. The Ben Thuy thermal power plant had been hit for two consecutive days by war planes, but Monday was the first time warships steamed in to help. The plant is on the Song Ca River about seven miles inland and two miles south of Vinh. It supplies power as well to the Ben Thuy port. At one time the plant had a capacity of 8,000 kilowatts. It was destroyed last year but has been rebuilt. The heavy cruiser St. Paul fired on the plant with 8-inch guns. The destroyers Barney and Blue darted in and knocked out 2 coastal batteries firing on the ships then turned their 5-inch guns on the plant and nearby docks. Three ships at the docks were reported destroyed or heavily damaged and sinking. As the warships turned at the end of their offshore run and prepared to return for more broadside salvos, waves of A-4 Skyhawks, A-6 Intruders and F-4 Phantoms from aircraft carrier Constellation attacked.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 25 July 1967…
(1) LCDR DONALD VANCE DAVIS was flying an A-4E of the VA-163 Saints embarked in USS Oriskany on a night armed reconnaissance mission. LCDR DAVIS and a wingman found a truck convoy on Route 1 near Ha Tinh about 20 miles south of Vinh under their flare drop and commenced a strafing attack under the flares. LCDR DAVIS did not recover from his first run and the plane flew into the ground. It is unknown whether he was hit by ground fire or misjudged his altitude and flew the aircraft into the ground. In either case he was Killed in Action fifty years ago this day. LCDR DAVIS’ remains were recovered and identified in 1997 on the third attempt to recover his remains.
RIPPLE SALVO… #507… PART III of COMUSMACV VIETNAM HISTORY for 1967… THE MIG DEFENSES OF NORTH VIETNAM…
“The North Vietnam Air Force (VNAF), which was under the control of the Air Defense Command had some 11 MIG-21s, 78 MIG-15/17s, 8 IL-28 light jet bombers, and 38 IL-2/14 light bombers. The NVNAF maintained its inventory even though their airfields were subjected to repeated aerial interdiction. After mid-1967 the NVNAF based the majority of their aircraft in Communist China, COMUSMACV estimated the total NVNAF personnel strength at 3,700. the Air Force was modern and capable of functioning in limited air defense sorties; however, the major air defense role continued to be provided by AA air defense and SAM units.”…
“The role of MIG aircraft in the air defense of NVN continued to be tertiary when compared with the effectiveness of conventional AA and SAMs. The NVN had initiated an aggressive cycle of MIG activity late in 1966. As the MIGs increasingly took to the air, their losses rose. between 1 April and 11 June of 1967 24 MIG-17s and seven MIG-21s were shot down in operations over North Vietnam.
“This high number of kills brought total MIG losses to 75, and resulted in a reduction of MIG activity. NVN aircraft continued avoiding air combat with Allied aircraft. The Commander 7AF stated the following three possible reasons for this change: (1) there were many new enemy combat pilots introduced; (2) restrictions on targets that the US could attack tended to make it less critical that the enemy oppose US air operations; and (3) there was a general worsening of the enemy’s ability to sustain MIG activity.”
Through the Summer months there were 44 engagements with 7 MIGs downed and US losses of 3 to the MIGs. Over the last three months of 1967 there would be 90 engagements with 15 MIGs in the dirt and US losses of 12…For the year: 305 engagements; 93 MIGs downed; and 22 US downed….
RTR QUOTE for 25 July: R.G. Ingersoll, Speech 1882: “He loves his country best who strives to make it best.”
Lest we forget… Bear