RIPPLE SALVO…#90… IN MEMORIAM III…but first…
Good Morning: Day NINETY of a review of the “air war” with North Vietnam–Operation Rolling Thunder…
28 MAY 1966… ON THE HOME FRONT…(NYT)… A cloudy, rainy Saturday in New York…
Page 1: “Ousted General Confers With Ky On Ending Crisis”… General Thi, popular with the dissidents, hopes for agreement and cites his close friendship with Ky as grounds for optimism. However, the situation is tense. The U.S. consulate was abandoned after the Buddhist extremists threatened to storm the American compound. The last of the Americans left Hue and joined the Consul in Danang. It is planned for Thi and Ky to meet in Chu Lai. Ky said, “Thi told me he is not against me.” Thi said, ‘I hope to come to some agreement with the government,” and condemned the sacking of the American cultural center and library in Hue yesterday by Buddhist students. He suggested broadly that he no longer held any hope of overthrowing the Ky regime… Page 1: “Hilton Hotel In Chicago Accused Of Rebuff Of Vietnam Wounded”… “Friends of 50 veterans at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital charged that the Conrad Hilton Hotel refused to let the veterans attend an ice show because their presence would depress other guests. The hotel said there had been a misunderstanding about what was involved in the hotels swank Boulevard Room restaurant last night…The hosts of the group, which included 35 veterans recovering from wounds suffered in Vietnam, said the manager rejected them on the grounds that their presence would ‘depress paying customers.’ The VFW national office threatened to move the 1966 annual convention from Chicago to New York…VFW Commander: “It seems unbelievable anyone would not accede to the most minute wish to put our fighting men, who, maimed in combat in Vietnam, have been returned to their country for hospitalization and treatment, would be denied a night on the town.”…
Page 1: “Dr. King Disputes Negro Separatist”… “The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. disassociated himself today from a ‘black nationalist’ stand taken by the new chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, Stokely Carmichael, who refused to participate in the White House Civil Rights Conference.” Carmichael: “We see integration as an insidious subterfuge for white supremacy in the United States. The goal of integration is irrelevant. Political and economic power are what Black people have to have.”…King: “What I can’t agree with is the move toward a kind of Black Nationalism which seems to be enveloping S.N.C.C. It is an indication of deep discontent, frustration, disappointment and even deep despair in many segments of the Negro community.”…King: “Black Nationalists, including the Black Muslims, have never attracted large numbers of Negroes. Negroes ar trying to get in the mainstream of American life and isolationist theories lack appeal…A 10 per cent minority in a pluralistic society, Negroes could not talk realistically about going it alone.”…
Page 36: Editorial: “Anti-Americanism in Hue”… “The evacuation of American and other foreign civilians from Hue, following the sacking of the U.S.I.A. library by Buddhist students, marks an ominous turn in the political struggle in South Vietnam.” and the question: “What if Ky uses military force against Hue?”
PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEFING…28 MAY 1966…CIA (TS sanitized) South Vietnam: Ky gave the embassy his version of meeting with Thi. Thi will meet with his supporters. Ky says no deals promised. Concentrate on isolating Tri Quang. Both Hue and Danang quiet today...Iran: Prime Minister has declared Western oil consortium decision to raise prices by only 9-11% is unacceptable and further evidence the West is turning its back on Iran. The Shah is insisting on a 17.5-20% increase is necessary to finance needed economic and military programs.
28 MAY 1966…ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS… Rained out… No aircraft losses in Southeast Asia, and the air war news was so light that the NYT skipped the brief. Monsoon rains persist. Time to “check for light leaks.”
RIPPLE SALVO… #90… IN MEMORIAM III… continuing to honor and remember the sacrifice and service of valiant aviators who gave their lives in the fight for the freedom of the South Vietnamese people and the national interests of their country… Today RTR remembers:
(1) 5 November 1962… CAPTAIN ROBERT DAVID BENNETT and 1LT WILLIAM BOYD TULLEY and an unidentified VNAF observer were Killed in Action while flying a B-26B from the 1st Air Commando Group at Bien Hoa. They were shot down executing a napalm attack on a VC target at the southern tip of South Vietnam. A VNAF A-1 was also downed during this operation controlled by a C-47 flare aircraft. No further information on the status of the recovery of these three warriors remains. They died facing the enemy.
(2) 3 February 1963… CAPTAIN JOHN F. SHAUGHNESSY and CAPTAIN JOHN PETER BARTLEY and an unidentified VNAF observer were Killed in Action while flying a B-26B from 1st ACG at Bien Hoa. They were downed while executing a strafing pass on a concentration of Vietcong in the Mekong Delta.
(3) 6 February 1963… MAJOR JAMES RAYMOND O’NEIL was Killed in Action while flying a B-26B from the 1st ACG at Bien Hoa. the aircraft was hit by AAA while under FAC control near Pleiku and lost an engine. Two of the crew, including 1LT E. Johnson, were able to parachute from the disabled aircraft but MAJOR O’NEIL rode the aircraft into a mountain before he could escape.
(4) 8 April 1963… CAPTAIN ANDREW C. MITCHELL and CAPTAIN JERRY ALAN CAMPAIGNE and an unidentified VNAF observer were Killed in Action while flying an B-26B from the 1st ACG at Bien Hoa. The aircraft was on a close air support mission, was hit by ground fire in a strafing run, and crashed as a wing parted from the aircraft 20 miles west of Kontum.
(5) 12 April 1963… 1LT RAYMOND E. DOYLE, 1LT RICHMOND L. HALSTEAD and SSGT STANLEY E. TRUESDALE were Killed in Action while operating a C-123B at Nakhon Phanom on a logistics mission. The aircraft crashed into a house at the base and killed three Thai civilians. The aircraft was assigned to the 777 TCS and the 464 TCS at Don Muang.
(6) 27 June 1963… CAPTAIN CONDON HUNTER TERRY and an unidentified VNAF observer were Killed in Action while participating in a close air support mission. No details available to me. They were flying a T-28D assigned to the 1st ACG at Bien Hoa.
(7) 16 August 1963… CAPTAIN JOHN HOWARD McCLEAN, CAPTAIN ARTHUR EUGENE BEDAL and an unidentified VNAF observer were Killed in Action while flying a B-26B from the 1st ACG at Bein Hoa. The aircraft crashed when a wing separated from the aircraft in the recovery from a dive attack on a target in Quang Ngu province.
(8) 2 September 1963… CAPTAIN HOWARD PHILIP PURCELL, 1LT NEIL BERNARD McKinney, SSGT RAPHAEL CRUZ and an unidentified VNAF observer were Killed in Action while flying a B-26B from the 1st ACG at Bein Hoa on an escort mission near Kontum. The aircraft was relieved by another aircraft and cleared to return to Danang. The aircraft never showed. The crash site and wreckage were discovered in 1992 and the remains of the crew returned to the United States. DNA testing identified the three Americans.
Young aviators, old aircraft (really old aircraft), hostile territory, lethal opposition, and a profession that is un-merciful and un-forgiving of human error. This is “the arena” Teddy Roosevelt described, where a man who dares, goes. These men knew what they were doing. They were there because they wanted to be there. They knew the dangers, accepted the risks and paid the last full measure in the service of their country. Today, fifty-three years after their passing, they are remembered as courageous warriors who died in a war zone, the ultimate arena, doing what they chose to do. They rest in peace on Memorial Day weekend 2016.
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….