ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 29 MAY 1966

RIPPLE SALVO… #91… IN MEMORIAM IV… but first…

Good Morning: Day NINETY-ONE of the long look back– fifty years –to the air war over North Vietnam…

29 MAY 1966… ON THE HOME FRONT…(NYT)… Sunday showers then a clear afternoon in NYC…

Page 1: “Nuns Fiery Death In Hue Sets Off Clash In Saigon”… “The protest suicide of a 55-year old Buddhist nun in Hue led to a march of 20,000 and a battle with government troops and marines in Saigon. Marines used tear gas to turn back the marchers to prevent them from reaching the center of the capital. “The self-immolation, the first since the current political situation began almost eleven weeks ago, was carried out as the government demonstrated a new determination to restore order to this rebellious university city 400 miles north of Saigon.” The split between the Buddhist “struggle movement” and key military men moving toward a reconciliation has led the students and militant monks to grow more obdurately opposed to Premier Ky….The self-immolation took place n the courtyard of the Dieu De Pagoda and was witnessed by a large crowd of 2000 Buddhist nuns and monks. The last Buddhist self-immolations were in November 1963… Page 1: “U.S. Warns Cuba On Guantanamo”…”Sees Grave Consequences For Further Incursions”… “The United States and Cuba exchanged charges of provocation today while Premier Fidel Castro was moving his armed forces toward a ‘state of alert.'” Castro announced that he may soon order a combat alert and appealed to the world for volunteers to fight against Yankee aggression. Castro also appealed to the Soviet Union for increased aid due to a poor sugar harvest, tightening food shortages and political dissent in the armed forces. The U.S. promised stern consequences if Cuba made any further intrusion into the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo.

Page 1: “New York is revising Its Liberal Arts,” stating that the traditional general education is in decline, and change is required. “The standard curriculum required such study courses as history, economics, English, mathematics and science has increasingly been considered irrelevant both by students and faculty members who are more concerned with their own specialized interests.” The changes are to infuse relevance and studies that relate to specific problems in our society.

Page 2: “Rusk Asserts U.S. Won’t Back Down” and says foes should not count on internal divisions to alter that fact. “That will not happen,” said the Secretary of State at a speech in Williamsburg’s “Prelude to Independence Ceremonies.”…”Professional diplomacy requires a certain amount of temporary secrecy — secret information, secret discussions and negotiations. Public discussion of certain situations are at certain times may be distorted by a lack of knowledge of facts that are available to the President and Secretary of State, yet which they cannot at the moment divulge. there must also be consideration for the practical fact tht shows of division among our people can complicate the conduct of our foreign affairs. For example, there is danger that a foreign government may miscalculate our intentions. There are strong reasons to believe militant Communists of Asia have been sustained by the conviction that world opinion or internal dissention within the United States will cause us to withdraw from South Vietnam. That will not happen. But it is not easy to convince Hanoi and Peiping.”

Page 12E: James Reston…..  “Washington: The Vending Machine Psychology”…

“Some puckish citizen produced a bumper sticker this week reading, ‘I am a Nervous Nellie,’ but otherwise the mood in Washington this Memorial weekend is unusually solemn. The American casualties last week–146 dead and 820 wounded– were the heaviest of the war and the political news out of Saigon was almost gloomy enough to make a man welcome the singing commercials.

  “A kind of weary trance has settled on the capital. The speeches, protests and news conferences continue, but nobody has anything new tosay about the war and nobody can think much about anything else. The critics make their points and the officials repeat their familiar replies, but neither side convinces the other, and the steady almost forgotten flow of men and machines to the battlefield dominates everything else.

     “Nobody can really overestimate the damage done to American influence in the world by this insistence that world order somehow depends on an American victory in Vietnam, that Vietnam should have priority over everything else, and that the future depends largely on a nation with so much power and so little perspective.”

29 MAY 1966…ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS… NYT (on 30 May reporting 29 May ops)…”The weather improved over North Vietnam and the Air Force and Navy pilots flew the highest number of sorties in two weeks. All their strikes were in central and southern coastal regions of North Vietnam. The Air Force pilots said they had destroyed three bridges and five fords. The Navy’s biggest strike was on the Ben thuy port facility three miles northeast of Vinh, the southernmost North Vietnam port serving both river and ocean cargo traffic. The spokesman said four to six flights of fighter-bombers hit the port with 500-pound bombs.” There were no reported losses of a fixed wing aircraft in Southeast Asia this date.  ooohrah

RIPPLE SALVO…#91… IN MEMORIAM IV… On this Memorial weekend I continue to honor and remember the warriors who went first to fight for American interests and support South Vietnam in the Vietnam War.

(1) 8 October 1963…CAPTAIN DEAN AMICK WADSWORTH and an unidentified VNAF observer were Killed in Action while flying a T-28D of the !st Air Commando Squadron based at Bien Hoa… Chris Hobson (“Vietnam Air Losses”) tells the story…”A T-28 radio call sign Grad OK2, went out of control and crashed when it was diving on a target near the Laotian border about 40 miles southwest of Da Nang. The wreckage fell in a swollen stream which fed the Buong River in mountainous jungle terrain. The USAF mounted a major SAR mission led by MAJOR A.W. SAUNDERS. In the first attempt to reach the wreck two UH-34s of HMM-361 were shot down with the loss of 10 crew in an area known as ‘VC Valley.’ Later, against considerable enemy opposition, two ARVN infantry companies supported by Farm Gate strike aircraft. The search party reached the wreck site on 11 October but was soon forced to withdraw due to enemy fire. Another USMC UH-34 was lost during the recovery of the SAR party in the evening, fortunately without further loss of life. Three days later MAJOR SAUNDERS led another mission to the wreck, again encountering much enemy opposition. The party, escorted by US Green Berets and South Vietnamese Rangers, found no sign of the crew and little to indicate the cause of the crash. In 1993 a Vietnamese villager handed in remains he claimed were from the T-28 wreck site. this was followed up by three digs at the site in 1994 and 1995 and during the latter excavation human remains and identification tags were found identifying CAPTAIN WADSWORTH.” It is an understatement to say that this effort to “leave no man behind” rates an A++…

(2) 24 October 1963… CAPTAIN WOODROW MELVIN FITZGERALD, CAPTAIN GORDON RICHARD BROWN, SSGT CHARLES BERNARD LANKFORD, SSGT WALTER KENNETH MORRIS, and a crew of four VNAF observers, were Killed in Action while flying a C-123B on a flare ship mission south of Saigon and was probably shot down by ground fire during a flare drop.

(3) 24 November 1963… CAPTAIN HOWARD RUDOLPH CODY and 1LT ATIS KARLIS LIELMANIS were Killed In Action while flying a B-26B from the 1st ACS at Bien Hoa and participating in what was the largest air operation flown in a single day up to that point in the war. Vietcong and ARVN forces were engaged in battle at Cha La on the Ca Mau Peninsula. CAPTAIN CODY and 1LT LIELMANIS arrived in the area at mid-battle and immediately commenced bombing and strafing attacks on the VC position. Their aircraft was damaged by ground fire on their first attack on the entrenched VC, but they continued to make runs forcing the VC to reveal their positions. They were shot down, but other aircraft destroyed the position. CAPTAIN CODY was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross for his heroic sacrifice… 1LT LIELMANIS?…

These brave warriors of the 1st Air Commando Group are at peace, and today RTR remembers them with highest respect and admiration…

Lest we forget……                 Bear                     ……….  –30–  ……….