RIPPLE SALVO… #424… a WARRIOR named HOBLIT or a FIGHTER named CLAY… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE of a day-to-day revisit of the 1000-day air war called ROLLING THUNDER…
3 MAY 1967… HEADLINES at home from The New York Times on a cool and cloudless Wednesday in NYC…
Page 1: “Westmoreland Reported Seeking Force of 600,000”...”The General back in Saigon, is said to hope a build-up can be completed by January 1. Need to be reassessed because of foes pressure and slowdown in Delta. Informed sources reported today that General William Westmoreland…has asked President Johnson to increase American fighting strength here to at least 600,000…reinforcements to be sent as soon as possible…hoping to dispatch another division of 15,000 men to the northernmost of the country’s four regions, the I Corps area.”…Page 1: “U.S. Will Cut It’s Forces In Germany By 35,000; ’68 Shift Will Involve 2 Army Brigades and 9 Squadrons of Air Force–First Major Pull-out In 16 Years”…”…the redeployment plans…will mark the first substantial withdrawal of United States forces in Europe since six divisions were committed to NATO in 1951.”…“Page 1: “Marines Take Hill 881 After 3-Day Fight”... “…after three days of fighting at close quarters United States riflemen stormed to the summit of a shell-scarred hill today. The enemy was longer there…the Marine unit lost 50 dead and 150 wounded in the bitter battle. The total for the entire series of battles for Hill 881 was 96 Marines killed in action and 277 wounded with 7 missing in action since April 24. Confirmed North Vietnamese troops killed and left on the battlefield put at 274.”… Page 1: “Vietnam Policy Divides GOP”…”Senate Republicans split sharply today on whether their party should begin to disassociate itself from the Administration policy on Vietnam in preparation for next year’s Presidential elections. Democratic mistakes are Republican responsibilities and whether politics should stop at water’s edge on an issue so great as involvement in an Asian land war? Senator George Aiken, Vermont, said he had become convinced ‘that the present Administration cannot achieve an honorable peace in Vietnam. The President predicates peace on the capitulation of the enemy and that seems far in the distance, if at all.’ “…
Page 1: “Columbia Charters Homosexual Group”…“Columbia University has issued a charter to a student group that seeks equal rights for homosexuals. The organization is called the Student Homophile League and contends that it is the first such group ever chartered by a university. Charters will also be sought at Stanford, California (Berkeley), Chicago, Connecticut, Bucknell and Maryland.”… Page 1: “Kenya Warns Somalia to Stop Aiding Guerrillas or Face War”... ” ‘There comes a time,’ the Kenyan government warned, ‘when hostility, de facto if not de jure, is so blatant that hopes of possible conciliation, backed by the weight of all regional advice must fade, and when terrorism is so enhanced that it may no longer be confined within a policing operation and it can no longer be tolerated.’ The warning was given to all member governments of the United Nations. Somalia assistance to guerrillas in Kenya’s Northern Frontier has prompted the warning– quit helping, or face war.’…”…
Page 4: “Sarte Indicates Tribunal Will Score Johnson”... “Condemnation of President Johnson and other American officials by the so-called ‘International Tribunal of War Crimes’ was foreshadowed by Jean-Paul Sarte in his opening remarks… ‘it will ask for penalties for Vietnam criminals.’ “… Page 2: “Thousands To March on 5th Avenue In Support of Troops in Vietnam”...to be held May 13, a Saturday…”… Page 6: “Johnson’s Draft Lottery Plan Assailed In House”...”The House Armed Services Committee reacted with considerable hostility today to testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas D. Morris in favor of President Johnson’s plan to draft eligible 19-year olds by lot.”… Page 24: “Armed Negroes Enter California Assembly in Gun Bill Protest”... “A group of young Negroes armed with loaded rifles, pistols and shotguns entered the Capitol in Sacramento today and barged into the Assembly chamber during a debate. Members of the group said they represent the Black Panther Party of the Oakland area and they had come to protest a bill restricting the carrying of loaded weapons in the city. Policemen seized the guns in a wild struggle...Twenty-six men age 17 to 25 were booked on suspicion of several charges. It was one of the most unusual incidents in California legislative history.”…
The Rolling Thunder Rambler Report #3… Another great…”There I was…”…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…FOR EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… CAPTAIN JERRY N. HOBLIT, USAF… the AIR FORCE CROSS… 23 APRIL 1967…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to JERRY N. HOBLIT, CAPTAIN, U.S. Air Force, for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in military operations against an opposing armed force as an F-105F Pilot of the 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, Tuy Hoa Air Base, Vietnam, SEVENTH Air Force, in aerial action near Thai Nguyen, North Vietnam on 23 April 1967. On that day CAPTAIN HOBLIT and his Electronic Warfare Officer flew the F-105F Wild Weasel in support of a strike force of fighter-bombers targeted upon the Thai Nguyen steel mill in North Vietnam. Once the flight separated, CAPTAIN HOBLIT set his element up as a decoy to draw fire from a surface-to-air missile site. After outmaneuvering three missiles, CAPTAIN HOBLIT led his wingman into a dive bomb run to destroy the complex. As he fired his anti-radiation missile at a second site, yet another site launched a missile and severely damaged the Wild Weasel leader’s aircraft. CAPTAIN HOBLIT diverted attention from the wounded aircraft, narrowly evading missiles fired at him. Despite having expended his bombs and missiles, CAPTAIN HOBLIT pressed the attack, leading his wingman into a high angle strafe pass in the face of fierce automatic weapons fire; he continued the attack until assured his team leader had safely egressed the area. CAPTAIN HOBLIT remained behind to assist in the successful rescue of an RF-4C Phantom reconnaissance jet aircrew that had been shot down earlier. When CAPTAIN HOBLIT finally landed at a forward air base, maintenance personnel confirmed high explosive incendiary rounds of ground fire had damaged his aircraft. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of the enemy, CAPTAIN HOBLIT reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.” oohrah!!!
3 MAY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (4 May reporting 3 May ops)… Page 21: “MIG Base Is Bombed”...” United States planes from bases in Thailand bombed the Hoa Lac airfield 20 miles west of Hanoi yesterday destroying four to six MIG fighters on the ground… MIGs were also sighted in the air but there were no reported engagements…The attack was the seventh against MIG bases near the North Vietnamese capital since approval was given on April 24. The Hoalac field has been hit four times. F-105 Thunderchiefs from Korat Air Force base concentrated on revetments, the concrete and steel structures that shield the MIGs on the ground. They dropped 750-pound bombs and fragmentation bombs called canister bomb units. The devices throw jagged metal pieces around the impact area and are mainly anti-personnel weapons, although they are said to be effective against targets like aircraft. It appeared that some aircraft on the ground damaged in a previous raid were destroyed.”… (Bear#66cheneAlpha)…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 3 May 1967…
(1) MAJOR CHARLES C. VASILIADIS was flying an F-105D of the 333rd TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli on an armed reconnaissance mission about 100 miles west of Hanoi and was hit by ground fire while strafing trucks. He was forced to eject and was seriously injured in the ejection. He never-the less evaded North Vietnam troops and was rescued. MAJOR VASILIADIS was on his second combat tour, having served in 1964/65 flying AD-1 Skyraiders with the 1st and 602nd ACSs. HE LOGGED 560 MISSIONS and 1,141 hours of combat flying…oohrah… That is Extraordinary Heroism, too!!!
(2) MAJOR CHARLES EDWARD ROGERS was flying an A-1E of the 1st ACS and 14th ACW out of Pleiku on a strike on a truck park on Route 111 near Attopeu in Southern Laos. He was on a napalm run at 500-feet when hit in the tail by AAA and was unable to abandon the aircraft as it rolled into the ground. MAJOR ROGERS perished 50 years ago today and remains, on his shield, where he fell, on the attack. Inexplicably, his remains have not been recovered (as of 2/2015) … He is remembered with admiration…
(3) VMA-121 and MAG-12 out of Chu Lai lost an A-4E during an in-flight refueling accident over South Vietnam. The pilot survived the ejection.
RIPPLE SALVO… #423… NEWSWEEK, May 8, 1967 Cover Banner: “The Home-Front War”… Periscope column, page 26: “THE FACE ON THE PEACE ARMY POSTER”… “Strategists for Martin Luther King’s ‘Peace Army’ plan to update an old Uncle Sam recruiting poster. In the new version, heavyweight champion Cassius Clay, who’s rather be jailed than fight in Vietnam, would be pictured pointing a finger and declaiming: ‘I want you.’ “… BLASPHEMY!!! (“blasphemy: irreverence toward something sacred”)
NYT, May 2, 1967, page 46. Editorial by Tom Wicker on the decision of Muhammad Ali to refuse to be drafted… I quote…
… In fact, whether he knows it not, Ali has raised one of the sharpest and most difficult questions to answer in a democratic society. What happens when enough citizens simply refuse to obey positive commands of government and of the national majority? That is what Ali is doing since Selective Service is clearly legal act of Congress that provides certain exemptions, as well as administrative processes through which a citizen may claim one of these exemptions…Through these processes, Ali has made the claim that he is a minister of the Black Muslim religion and therefore entitled to a clergyman’s exemption from Selective Service. He also has charged that he is a victim of racial discrimination. Both administratively and in the courts, all claims have been dismissed without merit, and Ali’s induction has been ordered… Refusal is the ultimate position of civil disobedience… Ali is refusing to obey the law on the grounds of personal beliefs…
Tom Wicker asks:
What would happen if all young men of draft age took the same position?
What would happen if 100,000 young men took the same position regardless of legal position or the consequences?
The Editorial included this legal definition of Conscientious Objector: “…is one who can clearly establish that he is opposed to all wars and all killing either because of religious teaching or ‘a given belief that is sincere and meaningful’ and occupies a place in the life of its possessor parallel to that filled by the orthodox belief. “
Wicker concludes:
“Muhammad Ali is not trying to inspire such a movement (of civil disobedience); given the difficulties of organization and the personal and social dangers to all involved, it is unlikely to develop at all.”
“Yet this strange, pathetic Negro boxer, superbly gifted in body, painfully warped in spirit, has shown far more intelligent and knowledgeable men the logical outcome of a dissent that does not finally concede the right of a majority government to govern as well as the ultimate danger to a government that outrages a powerful and passionate minority.”
President Johnson: NYT, 3 May 1967…”The debate will go on as long as some will shoulder their packs and face not hostile placards and debating points, but the bullets and mortar shells of aggressive armies. The debate will go on, and it will have its price. It is a price our democracy must be prepared to pay, and that the angriest voices of dissent should be prepared to acknowledge.”
Humble Host: The home front war with “The Peace Army,” with or without Ali, was just beginning…
Lest we forget… Bear