RIPPLE SALVO… #569… Downed once and hit seven times, VA-34 Blue Blaster LCDR Sam Hawkins kept on tickin’… apologies to John Cameron Swayze and TIMEX… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SIXTY-NINE of remembering the events and the warriors of the air war over North Vietnam fought 50 years ago…
26 SEPTEMBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cloudy Tuesday with rain on the horizon…
FALL IN AMERICA 1967: Page 1: “52 IN HOUSE SEEK A CONGRESS STUDY OF POLICY ON WAR–BIPARTISAN SPONSORS OF CALL CITE GROWING UNEASINESS ON VIETNAM INVOLVEMENT–HAWKS AND DOVES JOIN–DO NOT CHALLENGE JOHNSON”S COURSE, BUT ASK IF IT WAS AUTHORIZED SUFFICIENTLY”… “A bipartisan group of 52 House members proposed today that Congress reexamine the Administrations policies in Vietnam in order to determine if there was sufficient authorization for the deepening American involvement in the war… join a sponsorship of a proposed congressional resolution suggesting the time has come for Congress to pass formal judgement on the correctness and constitutional authority for the President’s policies. The resolution drafted under the leadership of Representative Paul Findley, Republican of Illinois, and Representative Bradford Morse, Republican of Massachusetts would call for the House Foreign Affairs Committee to determine ‘whether further Congressional action is desirable in respect to policies in Southeast Asia.’… The initiative prompted by growing uneasiness in Congress over the course of American involvement in the war in Southeast Asia and whether the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 represented sufficient authority for the increasing military commitment.”…
Page 1: “Mayor Lindsay Steps In As Schools Face Total Collapse–He calls Both Sides To City Hall–Cancels Plan to Urge Arbitration–Supervisors Threatened–Want All Classes Canceled–Will Dismiss Pupils To Protect Them”... “Mayor Lindsay: “…one million children are made to suffer while the teachers and board dance on the head of a pin…Let the union and board begin to think about the needs of the children of our city. It has become apparent that the children have been forgotten by union leadership and the school board amid all the hostility and mistrust between them.’ “... Page 1: “House Votes To Let Washington D.C. Elect Own School board”... “…votes to give back some of suffrage that it had taken away in 1874.”... Page 26: “Senate Panel Backs Curb On Protests at Capitol–Speedy Passage Before New Peace Rally is Predicted–Move Reflects An Increasing Worry Over Demonstrations”… “A bill to restrict demonstrators at the Capitol won quick bi-partisan approval today from the Senate Public Works Committee. The action reflected growing Congressional concern over recent racial and antiwar demonstrations in Senate and House galleries and committee hearing rooms. ‘I am not an alarmist, but this is a serious situation,’ said Senator Jennings Randolph of West Virginia.”…
Page 34. “Romney Discovers Watts is Still Disillusioned and Impatient”… “The discontentments that touched off the first major race riots two summers ago (1965) was still burning in the grimy streets of Watts… The people of Watts still rejected empty promises of equal opportunity and that many of them did not write off the possibility of renewed rioting.”… Page 38: “Harlingen, Texas Flooded As the Rio Grande Rolls Into the Gulf”… “Bloated with the rains of Hurricane Beulah, the Rio Grande River smashed diversion dams flooding this south Texas town, then rolled on toward the mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. Matamoros is completely flooded… the Flooding event has been ‘one of the greatest floods on record.’ “…
VIETNAM: Page 10: ” Haiphong Termed a Troubled Port–Labor and Food Shortages Described By Ship Crew”… “Crewmen of a freighter from Cyprus, which was laid over in Haiphong harbor for 36 days this summer, have told Allied officials that an acute labor shortage in Haiphong resulted in lengthy delays in unloading ships and that city residents were short of food and were hungry…the crewmen said they were allowed to walk around the city…and that they found the streets lined with crates, trucks, wire, steel girders and cement… the people are subsisting on a diet mostly of rice and sugar-water and most were dressed in ragged clothing…they reported that seamen on Communist Chinese ships in Haiphong fired weapons repeatedly at United States planes attacking the port. ‘Some of their shots went wild damaging vessels nearby. None of the other ships from Communist countries fired at the Americans,’ the crew of the Avafiali out of Famagusta, Cyprus said.”… Page 11: “FOE AGAIN RAIDS BASE AT CONTHIEN–BARRAGE SAID TO TAKE LIGHT TOLL OF SLEEPING MARINES”... “Struck with 300 rounds of artillery this morning the reported casualties were light… Elsewhere, 3 Marines were killed on the 24th and 76 wounded when 46 rounds hit the Marine artillery base at Camp Carroll, 12-miles west of the Marine forward headquarters of Dongha…In the last 13 days Marine casualties at Conthien have risen to 45 killed and 691 wounded…B-52s have responded with 3 attacks in the last 24-hours on the enemy artillery positions. B-52s have now struck 83 times along the DMZ since August 13.”
26 September 1967…The President’s Daily Brief (TS by CIA)… NORTH VIETNAM... .An order was issued on 25 August for all people except those engaged in essential activities to evacuate Hanoi because of the increasing frequency of air raids… most government offices had only skeleton staffs, with the rest dispersed outside Hanoi. Other signs of dispersal included the lack of animals at the zoo, the dilapidated condition of children’s playgrounds, and the removal of original works from the art museum…(Humble Host: Recall that on August 9 as the Stennis hearings got underway, SecDef released an addendum to Rolling Thunder 57 that added sixteen new targets and squeezed down the radii of circles restricting bombing close to Hanoi and Haiphong… This news in general was published in the NYT loud and clear, so Hanoi issued the order… or…it could be: SecState called his Swiss embassy friend to give him the new targets…who knows?) HANOI COMMENTS ON SOVIET AID AGREEMENT: a North Vietnamese editorial of 24 September was effusive over the “valuable, great, sincere, and efficacious” support of Hanoi and the Viet Cong…
State Department Office of the Historian: a 26 September 1967 “Memorandum From Acting Secretary of State Katzenbach to President Johnson… FRUS, 1964-68, Volume V, Vietnam, 1967… Subject: Negotiations With North Vietnam. This is a two pager. It’s worth a read. The complexities of waging a war at the same time you are trying to get the other guy to come talk about a way to end it is tricky business. This document brings a little clarity to the connection between the tempo of our bombing and the sensitive positioning of the diplomats at a conference table, or just trying to get there. In this case, the expanded bombing — adding targets to RT 57, for example– was taken by the NVN as an intensification of the air war that decried any U.S. intention of ending the war through negotiations… Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d337
26 September 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (27 Sept reporting 26 Sept ops)… Page 8: “American pilots flew 124 missions against the North, but heavy clouds over the Hanoi-Haiphong area forced the pilots to seek targets in the Donghoi and Vinh area in the southern panhandle…The weather lifted somewhat this morning and the pilots from USS CORAL SEA and USS Intrepid struck targets within 2 miles of the center of Haiphong. Air Force pilots struck railroad sidings on the northern rail lines 20 to 40 miles from Hanoi. Many sightings of enemy MIGs but only one clash occurred and no hits were recorded by the participants.”…
Page 8: “U.S. Planes Battle MIG’s During Raid On Rails in North”…”United States pilots striking deep in North Vietnam yesterday (26) and today (27), met stiff resistance from enemy jets and ground-to-air missiles. Although North Vietnam said that five American planes had been downed in the North. A United States spokesman said today (27th) that one plane had been lost in the demilitarized zone. The two pilots of the plane, a Marine Phantom jet, ejected. One was rescued and the other is listed as missing. Flying in clear skies after a week of poor weather, American pilots concentrated on rail road facilities north and northeast of Hanoi. A spokesman said that the pilots had met heavy surface-to-air missile fire and had clashed three times with MIG-17s and the newer MIG-21s, which are armed with both cannons and missiles… ‘The MIGs closed fast from directly behind us at about 300 knots,’ said Major William T. McAdoo of Bakersfield, Calif., the commander of a tactical fighter wing that conducted bombing runs over the Thanhquang railroad siding 34 miles northeast of Hanoi. ‘We immediately broke off and, as we did, two air-to-air missiles whizzed past, and detonated out of range.‘ In the next six to eight minutes, MIGs and Phantoms exchanged fire, but no hits were reported. A spokesman said that the bomb damage to the rail road siding was difficult to assess because of the MIG scramble. Military sources said that at least half of the 35 operational enemy jets estimated to be in the North were in the air. While the Air Force concentrated on the northeast railroad, which is a link between Hanoi and China, Navy pilots struck the two bridges within two miles of the center of Hanoi. The bridges were damaged in naval airstrikes last Thursday. The bombing of the bridges is part of an effort to cut off supply routes from the port.”…
Notes From the 34 TFS and F-105 History Compilation of Howard Plunkett… Page 134 of 300: “Due to generally poor weather during the 13-day period 18 to 30 September, Air Force strike sorties managed to penetrate the northern areas on only 5 days.”… “On 18 September, three scattered cloud layers in RP-5 and RP-6 prevented strike flights acquiring primary targets, however, these missions were successful against alternate targets.”… “During the period 18-30 September, Air Force and Navy planes flew a total of 2,696 Rolling Thunder (57) sorties over North Vietnam, 2,120 of which (79%) were USAF missions.”… “On 28 September, weather conditions unexpectedly improved over North Vietnam during the afternoon, however, strike forces had already been rescheduled or diverted based on weather observations and the continued forecast for poor weather in the northern area.”… “Fri (29th)–Weather cancelled mission near Hanoi.”… Thanks, Howie…
RIPPLE SALVO… #569… From the New York Times of Thursday, 28 Sept, Page 4, with a story dateline of Sept 26… Humble Host figures this post under the headline “INTREPID’S PILOTS BRAVE FLAK AND WIN ATTABOY” is for action on 26 September… Humble Host is awed by the disclosure here that LCDR Sam Hawkins took hits on seven separate strike missions in his trusty A-4C Skyhawk. Here, you read what the “Special to the Times” reporter had to say…
“Aboard USS Intrepid in the Gulf of Tonkin, Sept. 26– “We got an ‘attaboy,’ and that means we did a good job of flak suppression,’ the Navy commander said with a broad grin.
“Commander Thomas Brown of Long Island, the executive officer of the carrier Intrepid was talking about twin air strikes against the Haiphong railroad and highway bridge, one of the key transportation links our of the port city.
“Clearing weather permitted air strikes in the Haiphong area for the first time in five days. Navy pilots from the carriers Intrepid and Coral Sea, steaming side-by-side in the Gulf of Tonkin, coordinated the attack. The Intrepid’s planes struck antiaircraft artillery and surface-to-air missile sites and the Coral Sea pilots followed to drop bombs (on the bridges).
“The congratulatory message was sent to the Intrepid by the commander of the air group aboard Coral Sea (Commander Jim Linder). Using rockets and bombs, the Intrepid’s pilots reported silencing two missile sites and hitting 13 antiaircraft artillery sites.
“It was the fifth attack on the bridge since air strikes began two weeks ago to attempt to isolate the port by cutting its road and rail routes.
“According to the first reports, the superstructure of the bridge was damaged, but none of the spans were down.
“Pilots reported that the flak over Haiphong was the heaviest they had ever seen. They said that the five days of heavy rain since the last strike might have allowed the North Vietnamese to restock their ammunition and perhaps add new guns.
“Lieut. Comdr. Sam H. Hawkins, 32 years old of Sarasota, Fla., one of the Intrepid pilots had a hole punched through the wing of his A-4 Skyhawk by antiaircraft fire. This was the seventh time his aircraft had been hit since June.
“‘It wasn’t too serious,’ he said. ‘I guess maybe I’m getting used to it, but I can tell you about how big the hole will be just from the feel of the impact.’
“No MIG’s were sighted around the Haiphong area.
“Monsoon rains fell on North Vietnam last Thursday reducing carrier flights sharply. With the break in the weather, pilots flew in sunny skies dotted with fleecy clouds. Over Haiphong, however, there was another kind of cloud layer. ‘They have so many guns protecting Haiphong they throw up flak in barrages, setting fuses to go off at a certain level,’ Commander Hawkins said. ‘When we came in, there was a wall of black bursting shells at about the 5,000-foot level. Our pilots had to dive through the wall of flak to hit their targets.’
“Gunfire was so heavy,’ he said, that he could see the muzzle flashes ‘shimmering like lights on a lake.’
“‘Their antiaircraft fire is radar-controlled,’ he continues. ‘as they track, you can see the flak puffs following behind you as the shells burst. It’s a little disconcerting to see it puffing along behind you,’ he added, ‘but you know you had better keep moving without worrying about it.'”…. OOHRAH, Sam…. Hit seven times in four months… did anybody beat that in Rolling Thunder?
RTR Quote for 26 September: CERVANTES, Don Quixote: “Good fortune is not known until it is lost.”
Lest we forget…. Bear