RIPPLE SALVO… #87… BLOGGER DUTY… but first…
Good Morning: Day EIGHTY-SEVEN of my fantastic walkabout in the history of our country…and Operation Rolling Thunder…
25 MAY 1966…ON THE HOME FRONT…(NYT)… Cloudy Wednesday in NYC, umbrella weather…
Page 1: “Rusk Reiterates Stand On Vietnam”… Secretary of State Dean Rusk addressed a dinner at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York yesterday and used the opportunity “to reaffirm the willingness of the United States to negotiate an end to the Vietnam conflict.” But he also made clear that the Johnson Administration considers its commitment to Southeast Asia as binding as President Harry S. Truman’s commitment to Europe nearly twenty years ago. “When all the frosting is off the cake, it boils down to this–when they keep coming at you, do you get out f the way or do you meet them? We shall meet them.”… Page 1: “Johnson Panel On Rights Urges A Vast Program“… More than 2,000 /civil Rights leaders and organization delegates emerged from a White House meeting with a proposal for achieving “American Negro’s True Equality.” The President’s Panel put forth reforms in education, employment and housing. Recommended: (1) Public works projects for employment, (2) Adoption of a minimum welfare assistance standard of living, to include a health program, (3) Equalization of education efforts throughout all districts, (4) Affirmative action at every level to break down walls of segregation, (5) Large scale construction of public housing, and (6) Energize the Great society legislation currently on the books and before the Congress…
PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF… CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: Quiet day throughout SVN. Thieu says the government will not attack Hue, and plans to blockade the city and try to reduce the number of dissidents by psychological pressures…Soviet Union: We are continuing to find more ICBM silos under construction for the SS-11 system. Nearly 100 additional silos in the past month.
25 MAY 1966… ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS… NYT (dateline 26 May reporting 25 May) “Air action over the North yesterday was light. Navy pilots destroyed 10 junks and 2 cargo barges along the coast of the panhandle while Air Force pilots struck at two strategic infiltration routes to the South: Mugia Pass about 65 miles southwest of the coastal town of Vinh and Barthelemy Pass 115 miles north west of Vinh.” Also, this, with reference to the downing of CAPTAIN JOSEPH ANTHONY MACHOWSKI, the O-1F Bird Dog pilot Killed in Action 20 miles west of Pleiku: “In the central highlands the Viet Cong apparently killed a United States Air Force pilot yesterday after his observation plane was shot down.”(see post #86)… A second American pilot was rescued after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam. Three aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 25 May: Reference “Vietnam Air Losses,” by Chris Hobson. Humble Host suggestion: if you can find one of these big paperbacks and you did a tour in Vietnam, you can’t do better than this great book for leaving behind for your progeny your war story all under one cover… 25 May 1966, a sad day, 50 years ago today…. some gave all…
(1) 1LT ROBERT GERALD HUNTER was flying an F-105 D from the 354th TFS of the 505 TFW at Takhli on a strike mission in Barrel Roll when struck by ground fire and subsequently crashed without further explanation. 1LT HUNTER was Killed in Action.
(2) CAPTAIN ROBERT IRA BUSH was flying an A-1E Sandy from the 602nd ACS of the 14th ACW at Udorn with the SAR task force in response to 1LT BUSH’S downing when hit by ground fire and forced to bailout a few miles to the southwest of the Hunter crash site. He was immediately rescued by the HH-3 he had been protecting. Tragically, CAPTAIN BUSH was killed two weeks later in a mid-air collision.
(3) 1LT RICHARD HOWARD ROYAL and 2LT JOHN DAVID KRAMER were flying an F-4B of the VMFA-115 of MAG-11 at Danang crashed at sea 15 miles south of Danang without further explanation. 1LT ROYAL and 2LT KRAMER were Killed In Action…
RIPPLE SALVO… #87… HAVING FUN…I have been at this blogging business nigh on to three months, with two years and about 800 posts to go. It is time for me to convert a few of my thoughts about this undertaking into a post for the record. First of all, this is as much fun as an old book and history addict can have. I am blessed to have a daughter (Pat’s oldest, Angela Morse) who is a whiz at computers so the technical part of blogging is easy. In fact, I have a pair of nerds (Pat is my onsite savior when anything goes TU) to support my passion for this project. Total immersion in one of the great chapters of my naval career is my current good fortune. In addition, this project provides me the opportunity to forego election year dribble and the mess the Boomer Generation progressives have made of our country and the world. It appears that we are about to put our fourth Boomer in a row (Bush, Clinton, Obama, and now Clinton or Trump, for a total of 24 years going on 32 years) in the White House. Doesn’t anybody learn from history or read David Victor Hanson? I can’t watch it anymore. And that is good. Best medicine for a curmudgeon operating on heart parts from China is to look the other way–back to the incredible journey. Like standing on the flight deck back at the round down at sundown on a no-fly day, and watching the sun slide over the horizon with one quick flash to mark the end of another day. Now I escape the present and savor the past that has been so good for my generation to do some caring and sharing. And to mark and remember the lives of those who we left behind, who perished at the end of their time. This is good duty and I am having fun. I thought you should know…
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….