RIPPLE SALVO… #150… PATTERN DOESN’T… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED FIFTY of a long remembrance of the Vietnam air war called Rolling Thunder 1965-1968…
29 July 1966… FRONT PAGE NEWS IN THE UNITED STATES… New York Times…Friday morning showers then fair for Happy Hour…
Page 1: “President Shifts Air Service Strike Talks to White House”…”President Johnson summoned negotiators in the 22-day old airline strike to meet with him today at 9AM at the White House in what could be the first major break through toward a settlement. The White House announced the meeting at 2:30 AM after six and a half hours of separate meetings with labor and management attended by Secretary Wirtz and James Reynolds, Assistant Secretary of Labor. Mr. Reynolds said this morning that on the basis of the activity surrounding the all night session it would be logical to assume that some progress had been made in talks for the first time in several days…Page 1: “U-2 Misses Florida Turn, Flies To Panama, Vanishes” “A high flying U-2 reconnaissance plane disappeared today after the pilot apparently lost consciousness and failed to make a scheduled turn off the Florida coast. The plane, apparently guided by the automatic pilot continued southward and was last reported over Panama. It was believed to have crashed somewhere between Panama and the Peruvian-Chile border. The plane took off from Barksdale, Louisiana on a routine SAC mission…”
Page 1: “Threat Of Invasion Protested By Hanoi”…”The call by Premier Nguyen Cao Ky for an invasion of North Vietnam brought a sharp protest from North Vietnam to the International Control Commission. The Commission set up in 1954 at the end of the French-Indochina War consists of representatives of Canada, Poland and India. Hanoi’s protest: ‘Over the past few days Nguyen Cao Ky, head of the Saigon administration, insolently stated that troops should be sent to invade North Vietnam. This bellicose statement by Ky has laid bare the U.S. imperialists scheme to intensify and expand the aggressive war in Vietnam. The Vietnamese people sternly warn the United States and their agents that any acts of theirs to extend the aggressive war is bound to be smashed.”.. ….Page 1: A summary of the war on the ground in the south. Operation Hastings ongoing in the area in and below the 17th parallel. Today Marines called in air and artillery to hit the enemy force of 2oo. When the fight was over the Marines counted 65 North Vietnamese dead. More than 750 enemy have been killed thus far in Operation Hastings. For the week ended July 16, 65 Americans were killed in action and 368 wounded in action. For the week ending 23 July, 123 Americans KIA and 578 WIA. South Vietnam lost 195 KIA during the week of July 23. Enemy losses during the week ending July 23 were 1,272 KIA, and 120 captured. Total United States deaths in Vietnam since 1961 have now risen to 4,440. This figure exceeds the total in four of the eight previous wars in which Americans have fought. The four were: the American Revolution (4,435 KIA); the War of 1812 (2,260); and the Spanish American war (385)…”
Page 12: “Police Attacked in suburb Of L.I.”…”The Suffolk County police blocked the main roads leading into a predominantly Negro community last night after a series of street incidents following an outdoor rally whose aim had been to improve community relations. Rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails were thrown at patrol cars in scattered incidents. A total of four persons were arrested and the police sent reinforcements to the suburban area that covers two square miles…”… Page 12: “White Youth Gangs Harass A Baltimore Negro Area”…”Gangs of white youths surged into an east Baltimore Negro district tonight following an anti-Negro rally outside Patterson Park. The police scuffled with a number of white youths and took five of them into custody. Members of the Maryland National States Rights Party had addressed the crowd of 1000 from a sound truck. The scene was one of real hate.”… Page 12: “6 Teen agers Shot as Negro Gang War Resumes In Chicago”… a truce had been called on June 21, but since then two have been killed and thirteen wounded in the rumbles between the 1200 members of the Blackstone Rangers versus by the 1200 members of the East Side Disciples…. Page 1: “Carmichael Plans Black Unity Talks With Muslims”…” Stokely Carmichael, national chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, said today his organization would join hands with the Black Muslims leader, Elijah Muhammed and with the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). The purpose would be to define a common philosophy on the controversial phrase ‘black power’. The second organization RAM has been linked to is the Castro regime in Cuba…”…A national black power conference has been scheduled in Washington in September…
29 JULY 1966… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized)… South Vietnam: During a recent conversation with US officials, Tran Van Tuyen, a former deputy premier, showed some interest in the subject of negotiations to end the war. He said he felt the main responsibility for settlement should rest with the Vietnamese, albeit with the agreement of the US. He suggested that Vietnamese be used more extensively in sounding out both Hanoi and the Viet Cong. Tuyen is an astute politician and he may be reflecting the views of other civilian politician in Saigon… Communist China: Mid-July photography of the Chinese missile test range shows continued rapid construction on a new launch facility that clearly appears deigned ultimately for a developmental program for very large missiles. For the past year, construction on this site has gone ahead at a pace extremely rapid, even by US and Soviet standards…
29 JULY 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (30 July reporting 29 July ops) Page 1: “Bombing In North At Record Level”…”American war planes attacked North Vietnam yesterday in record numbers. One hundred ten missions were flown each involving more than one plane. The principal targets were petroleum depots, highways, bridges, shipping routes, and two sites for surface-to-air missiles. On Wednesday American pilots set a record for aerial attacks in South Vietnam by flying a total of 542 sorties. There appeared to be no particular significance to the number of attacks launched yesterday… More than half of the missions flown against North Vietnam were flown by planes based on Oriskany, Constellation and Ranger, which are off the coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea. The Navy pilots attacked 12 petroleum depots and 2 missile sites along the coast from Haiphong to Thanh Hoa. They also struck at an unloading point one mile from Vinh and a radar site two miles out. In the vicinity of the southern North Vietnam coastal city of Donghoi and the Mugia Pass, one of the most important infiltration routes to the south. Air Force pilots bombed 12 bridges, numerous sections of road, and several barges…Marine pilots again struck targets above the DMZ. An ammunition dump and a truck park were their targets. Three SAMs were fired at American planes but all exploded harmlessly. The Air Force spokesman also announced the loss of two jets and an Army helicopter in action today. One jet, a Navy A-4 Skyhawk, was shot down 20 miles north of Vinh while attacking a group of barges. The other, an Air Force F-100 Super Saber, was brought down by ground fire 35 miles southwest of Saigon….
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson): Four aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 29 July 1966… ELEVEN FATALITIES….
(1) LTJG VIRGIL KING CAMERON flying an A-4E of the VA-155 Silver Foxes embarked in USS Constellation was shot down and Killed in Action while executing an attack on barges in a waterway 20 miles north of Vinh. LTJG CAMERON’s A-4 was hit in a wing root in the dive and rolled out of control before the young pilot could eject. In 1990 the North Vietnamese turned over the remains of a number of pilots with a rough location of each find. However, it wasn’t until 1998 that LTJG CAMERON’s remains were identified by DNA testing. LTJG CAMERON died facing the enemy, on the attack, with his visor down and his boots on. He came home on his shield, duty done. He died fifty years ago this day and is remembered with admiration and respect as a brave warrior…
(2) CAPTAIN WILLIAM RAY GOWER flying an F-100D of the 615th TFS and the 366th TFW was Killed in Action while diving on a Vietcong target 25 miles west of Saigon in his fifth strafing pass. He was hit by ground fire and flew into the ground at the target…CAPTAIN GOWER is remembered on this day 50 years after he laid down his life in the cause of freedom for others…
(3) CAPTAIN BERNARD CONKLIN, CAPTAIN ROBERT EUGENE HOSKINSON, 1LT VINCENT AUGUSTUS CHIARELLO, 1LT ROBERT JOSEPH DI TOMMASO, MAJOR GALILEO FRED BOSSIO, TSGT JOHN MICHEN MAMIYA, TSGT HERBERT EUGENE SMITH, and SSGT JAMES SHREVE HALL were Killed in Action while flying an RC-47D of the 606th ACS and 606th CSG, Call sign Dog Patch 2, was on a surveillance mission over northern Laos (Barrel Roll) when downed by a North Vietnamese MIG-17 executing a bold, long range surprise hit and run attack. The remains of five of the eight in the crew have been returned to the United States and identified for final burial. CAPTAIN HOSKINSON, 1LT DI TOMMASO and MAJOR BOSSIO remain where they fell in the jungles of Laos. This day we remember Dog Patch 2 and eight bravc American aviators who gave the last full measure for our country fifty years ago today…
(4) LTJG DONOVAN EWOLDT was flying an A-4E of the VA-164 Ghost Riders embarked in USS Oriskany and practicing in flight refueling. He apparently became disoriented and flew into the water. His death is carried as “killed while flying.” A non-combat, operational loss, but a tragedy nevertheless. LTJG EWOLDT perished fifty years ago today and is gone but not forgotten…
RIPPLE SALVO…#150…”SCENES CHANGE, PATTERN DOESN’T”… In my ongoing association with the New York Times microfilm library from fifty years ago I ran across a history lesson in the form of a short essay in the Sunday, 24 July 1966 NYT that is worthy of another look…here it is….
“On summer nights it always seems hotter in the slums than anywhere else. Tempers grow short, particularly among the teenagers with nothing to do–out of school, out of work, no place to go. The spark can be trivial–an exchange of words with a policeman, a minor arrest. A crowd gathers. The crowd becomes a rampaging mob–burning, looting, destroying.
“This has been the pattern that has marked the last three summers in Negro ghettos in city after city across the United States. In 1964, rioting and racial strife erupted in Harlem, the Bedford-Styvesant section of Brooklyn, the Dexmoor suburbs of Chicago, North Philadelphia, Rochester, the New Jersey cities of Jersey City, Patterson and Elizabeth. In 1965 it was Danbury, Connecticut, Chicago’s Fillmore district, and in the worst uprising of all– the Watts area of Los Angeles. Thus far this summer the wave of rioting has hit Omaha, Des Moines, Chicago, Cleveland Troy and east Brooklyn.
“In Chicago recently, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., arranged a meeting on nonviolence with teenage gang leaders. They were shown a movie on the Watts riots to demonstrate how the rioters destroyed their own neighborhood and accomplished nothing. When police officers appeared on scene, they were hissed. When Negroes were shown attacking policemen they were cheered. The incident illustrates the difficulty in rationalizing with persons under long standing tensions. Patterns earlier in the century are recurring now. Sociologist Alen Crimshaw found between 1900 and 1949 there were 33 ‘major’ inter-racial disturbances. Twenty-three of them came around during the World Wars I and II where demand for Negro labor was greatest and Negroes were making their best economic gains. Emboldened by their limited success Negroes demanded more and rioted or fought when whites resisted…..
“In the northern ghettos then the calls of the civil rights leaders and of the spokesmen for black power and black nationalism often go unheard by the masses. The problems are not those of legal discrimination and segregation, and for most Negroes the answer to frustration and deprivation is not separation. Most experts, Negro and white, are convinced that what the ghetto dweller wants above all is an equal share of the society around him. He feels he is not getting it…”
“And that’s the way it was,” in the words of Walter Cronkite. And as we live another hot summer fifty years later, what’s changed? It is fair to conclude that whatever we were doing fifty years ago and every year since has failed to find a way to ensure “the ghetto dweller gets a fair share.” In fact, as I listened to the Democratic candidate for the Presidency last evening, I heard the same oaths from the nominee “that a vote for me is a vote for social justice and I will get you an equal share” that we hear every election cycle. The “pattern” repeats. Promises made, promises broken. Expectations are raised then crushed. Then the summers get hot and the evermore bitter have-nots take their frustration and perceived deprivation to the streets. The “scenes” are carbons of more than 100 years of summers of discontent. And that is the way it is…
I am too old to fix it… over to you Millenials. You are the next Great Generation… The Boomers have had 24 years of fumbling and appear on the threshold of assuming 4 or 8 more years of Boomer rule. Unless you young ‘uns, with all the votes, wake up, you will pay a dear price in peace, prosperity and happiness…
Now, where was I?…Ah, 29 July 1966… NYT microfilm, great books and war stories, old memories, refreshed… “There I was…”
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….