RIPPLE SALVO… #328… A SPEECH FOR ALL GENERATIONS FOR ALL TIME by LGEN JOHN KELLY on 13 November 2010… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT of a return to the air war over North Vietnam–Operation Rolling Thunder–fought 50 years ago…
27 JANUARY 1967… HOME TOWN HEAD LINES from The New York Times–“All the news that’s fit to print.”– on a cold and cloudy Saturday in NYC…
Page 1: “Incentives to Work Urged for the Poor”…”Changes in the public assistance laws designed to give people on welfare an incentive to do whatever paid work they can were proposed today in President Johnson’s Economic Report. Mr. Johnson said he intended to ask Congress to ‘put an end to present legal requirements that public assistance payments be reduced one dollar for every dollar of income earned.’ He called this a 100% tax on the earnings of those on welfare. The poor cannot be expected to work without pay any more than the rich, the Economic Report said.”… Page 1: “McNamara sees China ICBM Gains, Communist China may be in a position to test an intercontinental ballistic missile this year according to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. ‘On the basis of recent evidence it appears possible that they may conduct either a space or long range ballistic missile launching before the end of 1967.”… Page 1: “Air War College Chief Ousted After Talks on Bomb Shortage”… “A secret military discussion of bomb shortages in Vietnam and of Administration security policies has led to the summary relief of a senior Air Force officer as commandant of the service’s top school–The Air War College. Major General Jerry Page, commandant since August has received orders to Okinawa as a result of remarks he made in a secret seminar for Reserve Officers held at the War College last December. General Page will command the 313th Air Division.”…
Page 1: “War Aim Questions by Rhodes Scholars”(London dateline) “American Rhodes Scholars sent President Johnson a letter today questioning United States policy in Vietnam. The letter followed a similar but more generally formulated open letter addressed to the President by student leaders from 100 colleges and universities in the United States on December 29 (see RTR 30 Dec). The Rhodes Scholars letter, handed to an American Embassy official, says the scholars ‘have found that their feelings of conscience and national obligations counsel skepticism and concern, not active support, of the Government’s Vietnam policy.’ They find it difficult to justify American policy to themselves and to foreign students, they said. The letter covers three aspects of the war: the role of China in the aggression against South Vietnam; strategic alternatives available to the United States now; and possibilities of a negotiated settlement.
“Noting the cost of the war in lives, in frustration of foreign policy objectives, and in economic strain, the students ask the President whether in view of the Administration’s stated objectives of stopping Communist aggression there is a ‘precise analogy’ between China today and Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. They also question whether the National Liberation Front and Hanoi are controlled directly from Peking?
“Three courses are examined in the letter. Conceding that nothing would be gained by suddenly abandoning United States responsibilities in Vietnam, the scholars point to three courses open to the United States: to try to gain a conventional military victory; to seek a stalemate; or to devote all resources to bring about negotiation. The third course they suggested could be pursued by maintaining increasing pressure or relaxing it. What they ask is: what’s the Administration’s choice? Could it give the American people an estimate of the wars duration more precisely that present estimates of 2 to 15 years? They also ask whether Secretary of State Dean Rusk would recognize the National Liberation Front, the Vietcong political arm, as an independent participant rather than make criticisms or recommendations.
“In conclusion, they explain that, because of lack of access to vital information, they chose to ask questions rather than make criticism or recommendations. Nonetheless, they offer the thought that many in their generation fear that positions on both sides have ‘frozen’ and that the real test now is not only one of will or patience but of imagination and flexibility in seeking a negotiated peace.”…
State Department Historical Document: 27 January 1967… The North Vietnamese responded to the United States Government’s January 10 message …That response stated that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam would only exchange views with the United States when the latter ended “immediately and unconditionally the bombing and all other acts of war against North Vietnam.” President Johnson subsequently commented at a press conference on 2 February: “I have seen nothing that any of them have said that indicates any seriousness on their part. I am waiting any offer they might care to make. They know that we are in contact with them. I cannot speak for them. But I am very anxious for them to make any proposal. And we will give it very prompt and serious consideration.”…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d29
27 January 1967…The President’s Daily Brief …CIA (TS sanitized) SOUTH VIETNAM: There will be a serious shortage after the New Year Celebrations in February unless the Saigon government moves quickly to import more. Prices are rising now as Vietnamese lay in extra stocks for the holidays, 8-15 February, and the supply is at a very low level…COMMUNIST CHINA: We see more signs that Mao may be having trouble getting the army 100 per cent behind him. Posters in recent days have strongly criticized some key military officers once in the Mao-Lin camp. Criticism of these officers could indicate that their support–essential for implementing Mao’s recent directive for the army to support his faction–has been something less than wholehearted. There are also some hints that certain local military units are not vigorously supporting the pro-Mao forces.
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…CAPTAIN CHARLES GRAHAM BOYD, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE…AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to CHARLES GRAHAM BOYD, Captain, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force as a combat strike pilot of an F-105D Thunderchief of the 421st Tactical Fighter Wing, Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, SEVENTH Air Force, in action approximately 35 miles northwest of Hanoi, North Vietnam, on 22 April 1966. On that date, CAPTAIN BOYD volunteered to participate in a flight with a mission of destroying Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) sites posing a threat to flights striking a bridge in the Phu Thos area. While attacking a hostile SAM site, CAPTAIN BOYD saw two missiles streak toward his aircraft. His superb airmanship and instant reaction enabled him to evade the missiles, which burst very near his aircraft. Without hesitation, CAPTAIN BOYD continued his attack on the hostile missile site. As he made a second pass through the intensive flak which filled the sky around him, CAPTAIN BOYD’s aircraft received a direct hit by antiaircraft fire and he was forced to eject himself in a heavily populated, hostile area. The selfless act of making repeated attacks through intense ground fire after barely avoiding two missiles was far beyond the normal call of duty. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, CAPTAIN BOYD reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”
CAPTAIN BOYD was shot down on his 105th mission. He had been shot down and rescued on an earlier strike mission on 26 February 1966. He was released from POW duty in March 1973 and resumed his Air Force career, retiring in 1995 as a four star general…… oohrah…oohrah
27 January 1967… Operation Rolling Thunder… New York Times (28 Jan reporting 27 Jan ops) Page 3: “Bad weather persisted over North Vietnam but United States squadrons managed to carry out 68 missions yesterday. Pilots said they had hit four gun positions in the demilitarized zone. Thirty-eight barges were reported destroyed or damaged.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) One fixed wing aircraft was lost in Southeast Asia on 27 January 1967…
(1) MAJOR J.A. HARGROVE and 1LT I.D. PETERSON were flying an F-4C Phantom of the 480th TFS of the 366th TFW out of Danang on an armed reconnaissance mission across and into Route Package 1 along the coast pursuing water borne logistic craft–WBLCs– when struck in the wing by ground fire. They turned seaward and were forced to eject when the aircraft was unflyable. They were rescued by an Air Force helicopter to fly and fight again.
RIPPLE SALVO… #328… Our nation’s new Director of Homeland Security General John Kelly is of the right stuff. Humble Host suggests a perusal of his incredibly moving and inspirational speech of 13 November 2010 to the “Semper Fi Society of St Louis” is an appropriate introduction to the General if you have any question about where he stands and what he stands for. His “SIX SECONDS TO LIVE” speech and an article covering the speech by the American Legion is at:
https://www.legion.org/magazine/101297/six-seconds-live
Humble Host quotes the second paragraph of his remarkable oration to introduce another application of “SIX SECONDS TO LIVE”…
“The comforting news for every American is that our men and women in uniform are as good today as any in our history. As good as their heroic, underappreciated and largely abandoned fathers and uncles were in Vietnam, and their grandfathers were in Korea and World War II, they have the same steel in their backs and have made their own mark, etching forever places like Ramadi, Fallujah and Baghdad in Iraq, and Helmland and Sangin, Afghanistan, that are now part of U.S. military legend and stand just as proudly alongside Iwo Jima, Normandy, Inchon, Hue City, Khe Sanh and Ashau Valley, Vietnam”… end quote…
To which, I boldly add: and the skies over North Vietnam in the longest air war in world history… Fought tenaciously for more than eight years by warriors on both sides who never said quit… “Heroic, underappreciated and largely abandoned,” sayeth General Kelly. Unfortunately, the warriors of ROLLING THUNDER, LINEBACKER and the years in between remain unrecognized and forgotten, passed over in the history books.
General Kelly’s speech is among other things, the story of the two Marines who stood their ground facing a terrorist in a bomb-laden truck firing and fighting even as death was within seconds. General Kelly’s speech accords these heroes deserved admiration and cites their character as both worthy of emulation by all warriors already on duty throughout our military today. (I hope so–a lot has changed in the last nine years)…
“SIX SECONDS TO LIVE”… Faced with the enemy truck bearing down on them, the thought that they only had “six seconds to live” never entered their minds. They saw their duty and did it unto death. The warriors of Rolling Thunder and Linebacker and the entire air war in the north never thought “six seconds to live or die” as they rolled in on the defended targets of North Vietnam, either. Well, maybe they did after they delivered their bombs on target with enemy fireworks all around them as they fled away to fight another day, week, month, year… Six seconds from roll in to pickle– straight down into the guns we went… Not once, not a hundred times, but hundreds of times (if we were lucky)… Denny Weichman- did it more than 600 times… Air Force Cross awardee, General to be, Charles Boyd: (see Extraordinary Heroism above) downed and rescued in February, back in the saddle to roll in many more times, more than his share (105 x six seconds or as long as 20 minutes) before he was downed again, this time to do seven years in prison, a prison like no other. Captain Boyd didn’t think about “seconds to live” while the North Vietnamese were shooting at him. But you better believe he thought about the prospect every time he entered “Indian country,” every time. So did we all… And that is what Rolling Thunder Remembered is all about… On this 50th anniversary of that great and historic air campaign there is much to be remembered with respect, admiration and appreciation for a band of warriors who remain “underappreciated and largely abandoned.”…
CAG’s QUOTES: NAPOLEON: “Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day.”… PATTON: “Our strategy seems to be based on votes, not victories.”…
Lest we forget… Bear.