Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #967… HUMBLE HOST on station on a Saturday Night for a short post… While the air campaign was still pounding North Vietnam at the rate of about 130 missions/day its days were numbered–five days to go. Concurrently, the year of a General Election in the United States, which was waged for the entire year and included innumerable protests, demonstrations and punishable behavior was on final with a Tuesday, 5 November Presidential election date. Nixon had the lead but Humphrey was closing. Meanwhile, the elusive details of setting up peace “meetings” in Paris were receiving the full attention of the President and his men in the Cabinet Room at the White House. The three historic events–Rolling Thunder, peace negotiations and the 1968 Presidential election– were all one big can of worms for President Johnson. Humphrey and his campaign boss, George Ball, were pushing LBJ to “stop the bombing”–even if the U.S and SVN got nothing for it. The South Vietnamese (Thieu and Ky) wanted assurances the U.S. would stay the course on the three considerations demanded before the the bombing stopped–a reestablished and honored DMZ, no bombardment of SVN cities and a seat for them at the “meetings”. The Russians and North Vietnam wanted the National Liberation Front (Vietcong) to sit at the table with equal status to of the elected South Vietnamese Government (RVN)… In addition, the schedules of all players were resisting integration and agreement. In short, LBJ was herding cats…. This brief summary reflect’s Humble Host’s understanding of what was transpiring in the White House on 28 October 1968. Draw your own conclusions, if you will, by digesting some or all of the nine State Department, Office of the Historian Documents (131 through 139–15 pages) dated 28-Oct-68 pertaining to the Cessation of Rolling Thunder. Start reading at Document 131, a memo from Walt Rostow, the President’s Special Assistant, to the President. Access to subsequent documents by mousing the faint carrot at the right hand margin of #131 to access #132, etc…
Doc 131. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d131
Good Morning: Day NINE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN of a remembrance of the air war called Rolling Thunder enhanced with the addition of documents earlier historians and authors were denied by classification…
Head lines and the top of the news will be included with the news of 29 October in the post for 29 Oct 68…
28 October 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NEW YORK TIMES: No coverage of air operations north of the DMZ.. VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 28 October 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN CHARLES R. CONNER, USMC and LT WILLIAM ERNEST RICKER, USN were flying a TA-4F of MAG-13 on a Tactical Airborne Controller, “spotting mission,” and failed to return to Chu Lai after reporting completion of their mission. Call Sign Love Bug 50. Hobson reported the area of the mission and possible downing as “south of Hue, South Vietnam… and were over the sea and flying down the coastline to return to Chu Lai.” Another reference reported the mission area as “North Vietnam.” The Navy reported that there was no further transmission after the “coastline’ call, the Marines reported that there had been an emergency beeper indicating one or both of the officers had ejected. Search and rescue operations were curtailed when no further evidence of a crash or man on the ground was found to pursue. They were listed as Missing in Action until the return of the POWs in 1973. They remain where they fell 50 years ago today and are classified as “XX”–Presumptive Finding of death… Both were promoted while MIA; Conner to LCOL and Ricker to LCDR. LCDR RICKER was a Navy flight Surgeon on duty with MAG-13. They are remembered with deep regret that there is so little hope that they will ever be found and returned to their respective families.
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON THE FOUR 28 OCTOBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965, 1966 and 1968… NONE…
1967… COLONEL THOMAS H. KIRK, JR, USAF… (POW)… AMONG THE BRAVE… refer to the RTR post for 28 October 1967 and Ripple Salvo #601. COLONEL KIRK was awarded the AIR FORCE CROSS, three SILVER STARS, two LEGION OF MERIT with Valor V, two DFCs, three BRONZE STARS with Vs, a box full of AIR MEDALS, and the PRISONER OF WAR MEDAL, among his many awards…. He was Commander of the 356th Tactical Fighter Squadron when downed while leading a 24 aircraft strike on the Paul Doumer bridge near Hanoi…. oohrah…
RTR quote for 28 October: PRESIDENT JOHNSON: “A burnt child dreads fire.”
Lest we forget… Bear…
