RIPPLE SALVO… #876… ON 29 JULY 1967 DISASTER STRUCK THE USS FORRESTAL … For 29 July 1967 Rolling Thunder Remember posted two columns detailing the tragic event that took 134 Sailors and Aviators, injured 161, and destroyed 21 aircraft. Humble Host refers you to the RTR archives for those posts including Ripple Salvo #511 and a succinct historical essay by Dr. Richard Hulver of the Naval History Center…A comment from Bruce Herman subsequent to the two posts a year ago is reposted here as an appropriate prayer for this Sunday, 29 July 2018, the 51st anniversary of the USS Forrestal fire of 29 July 1967… The Bruce Herman post of July 30, 2017…
“That night Skipper Beling offered the following prayer over the 1MC (Ship’s General Announcing System)
“Our heavenly Father, we see this day as one minute and yet, a lifetime for all of us. We thank You for the courage of those of us who gave their lives in saving their shipmates today. We humbly ask You to grant them peace…and to their loved ones, the consolation and strength to bear their loss. Help us to renew the faith we have in You. We thank You for our own lives. May we remember You as You have remembered us today. From our hearts, we turn to You now, knowing that You have been at our side in every minute of this day. Heavenly Father, help us to rebuild and reman our ship, so that our brothers who died today, may not have made a fruitless sacrifice.”…Offered by John K. Beling, Captain, USN, USS Forrestal (CVA-59) 29 July 1967, Yankee Station, Tonkin Gulf, South China Sea…. We remember and will never forget…
GOOD MORNING… Day EIGHT HUNDRED SEVENTY-SIX of a journal for the years of Operation Rolling Thunder, the air war fought on and over North Vietnam during the Vietnam war.
HEAD LINES from The NEW YORK TIMES on Monday, 29 July 1968… (and a few from the 28th from the Ogden Standard-Examiner…
THE WAR: 28th S-E: Page 1: “YANKS CLAIM HEAVY RED BOAT LOSSES–Carrier-Based Jets Catch Craft in Panhandle Area”… “Navy warplanes, flying from three carriers off the coast of North Vietnam sank or damaged 232 enemy supply boats Saturday in what a U.S. spokesman described today as the ‘largest bag of boats for the war.’ The nearly 200 Navy aircraft ‘pursued the enemy boats and barges on rivers, canals and coastal waterways through the southern panhandle of North Vietnam sinking 132 boats and damaging another 100… Ranging from the carriers Intrepid, Bon Homme Richard, and a third unnamed ship (America), the U.S. planes caught the supply boats in a wide area stretching from the 19th parallel, the boundary for bombing in the North, to Cape Mui Ron, 75 miles to the south. The spokesman said bomb damage to bridges and roads in the southern panhandle below the 19th parallel had forced the enemy to depend increasingly on boats to move the supplies southward. The heavy attack was in response to this change in strategy. The raid followed announcement Saturday that two more American planes have been downed in the air war over North Vietnam, raising to 872 the total of aircraft lost on combat missions there. In a delayed report, U.S. spokesmen said a Navy F-4 Phantom and a Marine A-6 Intruder were downed by enemy ground fire Thursday. Three of the four crew members are listed as missing, and a fourth was rescued after surviving 20 hours in enemy territory (Major Curtis Lawson)…. Page 4: “OUTLOOK DIM ON LENGTH OF WAR LULL”… “Paralleling the pace of ground fighting in the Vietnam war have dropped off since early June. But U.S. officials refused to predict that the lull will last. One obvious reason that the enemy has not chosen to fight, General Creighton Abrams, u.S. commander, has summed up the current situation this way: ‘he is trying to make himself hard to find. He’s devoting his energy to it and there’s lots of country out there.’… Qualified authorities give different reasons for the lull. Some say enemy forces were so badly battered during the lunar new year and May offensives that they are not now able to mount major assaults. Some see political factors related to the Paris peace talks and calls for de-escalation of the war.”…
29th NYT: Page 1: LOSS OF U.S. BOAT LAID TO U.S. JETS–RADAR ERRORS ARE BLAMED IN RAIDS OFF BUFFER ZONE”… “An official investigation has disclosed that United States planes sank an American gunboat and hit two other allies ships last month during night raids in which pilots misinterpreted radar blip as having been caused by enemy aircraft. At least seven American and Australian sailors were killed. At one point, allied ships in waters near the demilitarized zone exchanged gunfire with United States jets diving on them. At the time there had been reports that North Vietnamese helicopters had been sighted in and around the demilitarized zone. Informants said that the fighter-bombers were Air Force F-4 Phantoms based at Danang.They said that the planes had been ordered to attack what had been described as ‘enemy helicopters’ and they launched their rockets against radar targets considered to be enemy helicopters….The confusion was compounded by the fact the allied ships in the area were reporting that the PFC19, the Boston and the Hobart were under attack from ‘enemy helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.”…
29 JULY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NEW YORK TIMES… 29th, Page 7: “U.S. REPORTS RISE IN LOST AIRCRAFT–OFFICIALS IN SAIGON UNABLE TO EXPLAIN RECENT INCREASE”… “…aircraft losses have increased in the last few days and military spokesmen cannot explain why. ‘It may be just chance or because some targets are better defended than others,’ an American source said. ‘It’s too early to say that it is a new pattern, so I guess we’ll just have to wait.’ In the last six days, eight American aircraft have been lost in North and South Vietnam. In recent months, only one or two planes a week have been reported downed on both sides of the demilitarize zone. Today the military command said that a Navy A-4 Skyhawk had been lost because of “unknown causes’ southeast of Vinh, in North Vietnam. The pilot was reported as missing. The loss of the fighter-bomber brought the unofficial total of fixed wing aircraft lost in the war in North Vietnam to 873. The total number of planes lost to hostile action and to mishaps connected to the war in North and South Vietnam stands at 2,266….A total of 1,889 helicopters have been lost in the war.”…. “There were a total of 130 missions flown over North Vietnam yesterday (27th) by Navy, Air Force and Marine fliers. Antiaircraft fire in the area north of the demilitarized zone was moderate to heavy.” … NYT on 30th reporting 29th: “Over North Vietnam, American warplanes continued their daily raids against targets between the DMZ and the 19th parallel with 118 strikes. No aircraft losses were reported.”…
VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 29 July 1968…
(1) and (2) Two C-130P Hercules of the 39th ARRS and 3rd ARRG out of Tuy Hoa were destroyed when Vietcong guerrillas raided the base and placed and activated explosive charges among several aircraft on the ramp. Two C-130s were destroyed and five more were damaged. Nine of the guerrillas were killed. This was one of the rare success at Vietcong penetrating into base aircraft parking ramps during the war…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON JULY 29 DURING THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION IN NORTH VIETNAM…
1965… CAPTAIN JACK WILSON WEATHERBY, USAF… (KIA)…
1966… LTJG VIRGIL KING CAMERON, USN… (KIA)…
1967… NONE…
1968… NONE…
“Leave a Remembrance”…at the “Wall of Faces“… type in the “name on the wall’ of an old squadron mate, and follow the instructions… Also VVMF is doing a GREAT JOB and makes a good case for expanded support and membership…
RIPPLE SALVO… #876… Humble Host previously included the last flight of CAPTAIN JACK WEATHERBY in the RTR post for 8 April 1966. It is repeated here to complete the story of Operation SPRING HIGH…
CAPTAIN JACK WILSON WEATHERBY, USAF laid down his life on 29 July 1965 as the final page in the tragic story of Operation SPRING HIGH. Humble Host focused on in RTR 27 July 1968, Ripple Salvo #874. You recall? Six Thunderchiefs in the dirt and five warriors KIA of POW from a strike force of 44 F-105s attacking two empty SAM sites, as ordered and authorized by the President as a punitive retaliatory strike (SAM sites No. 6 and No. 7 were occupied and shooting with success–downed an F-4 Phantom– on 24 July). Unfortunately, three days later on 27 July, the strike force discovered SAM sites 6 and 7 were empty of SAMS and instead, heavily defended by 37/57/87 and 100-mm antiaircraft guns galore. Neverthelesss, post-strike BDA was required to confirm the conclusion of 39 returning strike pilots and to locate the missing SAM battalions for a follow-on attack. ‘Tis not mine to reason why, ’tis mine to do or die. So, into the Valley of Death rode the unarmed Photo Voodoos. It is an interesting tale … Chris Hobson tells it…
“Two days after the initial strike against the North Vietnamese SAM sites (No. 6&No. 7), two RF-101s were dispatched from Tan Son Nhut to photograph SAM sites west of Hanoi. Captain Jack Weatherby had obtained photographs of another SAM site two days earlier and on the 29th he and Major Jerry Lents were returning from a mission over South Vietnam when they learned of the plan to fly another SAM mission. Weatherby and Lents immediately volunteered to fly the afternoon mission. Weatherby lost his UHF radio shortly after takeoff and Major Lents led the way to a tanker over northern Thailand. After taking on fuel, Weatherby indicated he would resume the lead and the pair set course for North Vietnam. Thunderstorms impeded their progress but they finally accelerated to 600 knots as reconnaissance pilots reckoned that was the best way to survive their mission was to fly as fast and as low as possible. As they were approaching the target Captain Weatherby’s aircraft was hit by an anti-aircraft shell that did not explode but which left a gaping hole in the mid-fuselage section. Major Lents then saw flames from the damaged Voodoo and told Weatherby to eject. Instead of escaping, Captain Weatherby maintained his course for the target and had passed over it and had turned for home when his aircraft suddenly exploded. Jack Weatherby was awarded the Air Force Cross, posthumous, for his courage and determination to obtain photographs of a target of great importance.”
In an essay titled “One-O-Wonder, the F-101 Voodoo” by E.R. Johnson, AVIATION HISTORY MAGAZINE, 22 May 2018, Humble Host found this … I quote…
“Major Jerry D. Lents described a mission our of Tan Son Nhut in search of surface-to-air missile sites with Captain Jack W. Weatherly that resulted in one such loss. Lents recounted: ‘We let down to 200 feet and crossed into North Vietnam at our redline speed of 600 knots… Suddenly Jack came up on the radio…and announced ‘I’ve got a hit. I’m breaking off to the north!’ I saw a hole in his aft fuselage section, slightly above and forward of the afterburners. I crossed over him during our turn and replied, ‘Yes, Jack, you’ve got a hole through the fuselage.’ Then I saw a little fuel start to come out of the fuselage. I called, ‘There’s a little fuel coming out but its not bad.’ Then I saw a little flame start to come out of the hole, and I yelled, ‘Jack! You’re on fire! Get out! Get out! It blew up–the whole tail section came off and tumbled back. The fuselage was one big fireball! We had only been at 200 feet, but his whole airplane and 13-14,000 pounds of fuel was consumed in the air by the fireball. Very little of it hit the ground. No black smoke. Nothing. ‘Captain Weatherby was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross.”…
Between 1965 and 1970, 33 RF-101s were lost to enemy anti-aircraft and surface-to-air missile fire, and one to a North Vietnamese MiG-21. Captain Weatherby’s Voodoo was one of the 33…..
Humble Host wonders. The courage of Captain Weatherby was recognized by the award of the Air Force Cross. The equally heroic actions of Major Lents, who completed the mission, are not discernible from my panning on the internet…. (Note twist in Captain Weatherby’s reaction when hit? … “break off to North” …or…”pressed on, crossed the target, then exploded?”) Anybody know the rest of the story?…
RTR Quotes for 29 July: “Pilots who flew the Voodoo were impressed by the performance, dubbing it the ‘One-O-Wonder’, but they also considered it very unforgiving. Colonel C. Robert Osborne, Jr. said: ‘The F-101 was a lady–a fantastic airplane, but touchy, very touchy. It had to be flown properly.’ Air Force test pilot Richard Baird echoed that sentiment: ‘It’s the biggest-by-the book fighter I’ve ever flown–the Vood00 would bite you! You really had to fly it strictly by the book.’ And reconnaissance pilot Colonel Jonathan Gardner noted that ‘the first ride, you didn’t fly it–you hung on to it!’ “…
THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT for your success this week in bringing the first 54 MIAs of the 5,000+ left behind in North Korea…
Lest we forget… Bear…
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