RIPPLE SALVO… #186… TUCKER, TEAGUE AND VERMILIA in the news… great story!…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX of living in the past–fifty years ago in the air over North Vietnam…
3 SEPTEMBER 1966…FRONT PAGE NEWS FROM THE HOME FRONT…NYT… A sunny Saturday for a visit to the Empire State Building…
Page 1: ‘ DeGaulle Insists That Acts of War Halt in Vietnam”…”President DeGaulle called on the world powers today to join in a pledge of nonintervention in the internal affairs of Vietnam. In a joint communication with Prince Norodum Sihanouk of Cambodia, the French President also asked for the cessation of all acts of war on the territory of Vietnam. The communique stated that this implies that all foreign powers that have introduced troops should first of all take the commitment to withdraw them within a set period of time and cease all intervention…French diplomats are suggesting that a period of two years from the time the United States issues a unilateral statement of withdrawal might be acceptable to North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front, the parent body of the Vietcong. In the French view such a declaration is essential because the Vietnamese Government remains convinced that the United States does not intend to leave South Vietnam and that therefore there is no point opening peace talks.”… Page 1: “DeGaulle Stand Irks U.S. Officials”…”The Johnson Administration showed considerable annoyance today over what it took to be an unfair appeal by President DeGaulle for United States concessions in Vietnam. Officials made no public comment on the French leader’s speech and communique from Cambodia, but they rejected as useless his suggestion that the United States issue a promise to withdraw from Vietnam by a given date…The United States is prepared to begin negotiations on reciprocal withdrawals at any time…”… Page 1: “DeGaulle Believed Seeking Role As Future Moderator on Vietnam”…”The visit of President DeGaulle to Cambodia is viewed here (Washington) now as an attempt by him, albeit one conceived in considerable pessimism, to play a future role as a mediator in Indo-China.”…Page 1: “U.S. And Soviet Meet at U.N. On Problem Of Thant Successor”…”Arthur Goldberg, the United States representative to the U.N. went to the Soviet Mission to meet with the Soviet representative Dr. Nickolai Fedorenko, who is the President of the Security Council this month. The meeting was an hour long private talk. The meeting was one of a series of moves in the wake of U Thant’s decision not to offer himself after his five year term ends November 3. Most delegates were disappointed Mr. Thant removed himself from consideration.”…
Page 1: “Employment Up But So Is Number Of Negro Jobless”…”Joblessness among Negroes and the unskilled has risen this summer, the Labor Department reported today. This occurred even though overall unemployment continued to rise rapidly. Total employment including agricultural was 76,369,000 last month, up 2.1 million from a year earlier. Payroll employment, at 64,580,000 was up 3.3 million from a year earlier. However, a steady improvement in the unemployment situation among Negroes that lasted for almost five years has come to an end. An August rate for jobless among non-whites, 90-per cent of whom are Negroes, was 7.9-per cent., considerably higher than the rate from January through April. For unskilled laborers including both whites and Negroes the jobless rate is at 7.6, up from 7.1.”… Page 1: “Leary Denies Police Turn Backs On Trouble, But Others Disagree”…”Charges that New York City police ‘walk away from trouble’ were termed ‘unfair’ yesterday by Police Commissioner Howard Leary. But other policemen said they were true. ‘As much as we preach from behind the desk,’ said one Brooklyn precinct captain, ‘we always hear the young men saying the same thing: don’t get involved. The cops learn early in life that if you make a mistake the department won’t back you up.’ Interviews with policemen disclosed that many policemen shun involvement and that they fear rocking the boat. Some will not even arrest Negroes because of cries of possible ‘police brutality.’ Commissioner Leary however angrily denied the charges made in Washington by the authors of a six year study of New York’s west side. Mr. Joseph Lyford appearing before the Senate sub-committee hearing on urban problems observed that the city’s policemen were ‘afraid to get involved, that patrol cars were often parked side-by-side with patrolmen ‘gassing’ with each other for two or three hours, and that parts of Harlem were left uncovered while the police protected the Beatles.’…”…
3 September 1966…The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized)…Soviet Union: Moscow has finally reacted to President Johnson’s Idaho Falls speech (Suggesting a mutual approach to limiting nuclear arsenals and proliferation). Prava yesterday carried a long editorial which acknowledged the importance of the subject matter of the speech, but then went on to say that it also contained “further anti-Soviet, anti-Vietnamese, and anti-Communist statements,” all of which only proves that the speech was intended mainly for its vote getting effect. (Humble Host note: This PDB is a five pager and all but wshat I have quoted remains redacted after 50 years… this document is only available to three people: the Prez, SecState and Sec Def)…
3 September 1966…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER …New York Times (4 September reporting 3 September ops)… Page 3: “Rainstorms held American pilots to 96 missions over North Vietnam Friday (2nd), all concentrated in the panhandle…two planes were shot down raising to 357 the official total of air losses in North Vietnam. The pilots of both an Air Force Thunderchief and a Navy Skyraider were rescued. Bomb damage reports catalogued 11 breaks in a 20-mile long section of one of North Vietnam’s main supply roads, Route 101, and they started many fires, and heavily damaged five buildings at the Bien son army barracks…”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson): Two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 3 September…
(1) CAPTAIN E. R. SKOWRON was flying an F-105D of the 13th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on an armed reconnaissance mission in the panhandle area south of Vinh. While orbiting at 4,500-feet off-shore of Cap Mu Ron, awaiting his opportunity to go truck hunting when he was nailed by AAA forcing him to eject a few miles at sea, where he was picked up by an Air Force helicopter…
(2) CAPTAIN CLIFFORD S. HEATHCOTE and CAPTAIN WILLIAM PRESTWOOD SIMMONS were flying an F-4C of the 557th TFS and 12th TFW out of Cam Ranh Bay were returning from a strike mission and flew into a mountain on an instrument approach to Cam Ranh Bay. Both aviators were killed in the accident incident to combat operations… There are no easy days… They rest in peace and are remembered on this day fifty years after they perished fighting for their country…
RIPPLE SALVO… #186… MORE ON “THE MOST REMARKABLE RESCUE OF THE VIETNAM WAR”… The NEW YORK TIMES’ Charles Mohr interviewed “the Terrible T’s”– Tooter Teague and Tom Tucker — and the HS-6 Commanding Officer Commander Robert Vermilya, who plucked Tucker out of the Hiphong Harbor on 31 August in Saigon on 3 September. Here is the NYT story from page 1 on 4 September…
“Copter saves U.S. Pilot At Haiphong” by Charles Mohr…”A United States Navy helicopter crew told today how it had rescued a downed American pilot from the harbor at Haiphong, right on the outskirts of that Vietnamese city. It was a spectacular and heroic feat and the rescued pilot Lieutenant Commander Thomas Tucker of Long Prairie, Minnesota, told the helicopter crew: ‘If you guys need a favor come to Tom Tucker and I will do anything. You saved my life.’
“The incident began late Wednesday morning when Commander Tucker’s RF-8 photo reconnaissance jet was struck by heavy gunfire while on a mission near Haiphong. He headed for the sea and radioed that he was losing control. By the time he was able to eject he was in a steep dive. After momentarily blacking out, Commander Tucker found that ground fire was being directed at him as he dangled in his parachute. ‘I just could not believe they were really shooting at me.’ The ground fire missed and he ‘fell’ in the river leading to Haiphong, which was about two miles away. Factory smoke stacks and buildings were visible in the distance. Commander Tucker landed only 100 to 150-yards from the bank. His efforts to swim out so exhausted him that he inflated his life raft and got aboard despite the shooting.
“Sampans that normally ply the harbor waters set out to capture the American. Some were about 150-yards away when his wingman Lieutenant Commander Foster Teague strafed them. They turned away and began to flee. Meantime, a United States Navy air-rescue helicopter had been hovering, as usual, in the Gulf of Tonkin off Haiphong… The helicopter, piloted by Commander Robert Vermilya of Chula Vista, California, heard Commander Tucker’s distress signal and headed for the area. Normally he would have waited for fighter planes to provide him cover before attempting a rescue. But the wingman was circling over the downed pilot and radioed, ‘If you wait, he will never make it.’ ‘So without further thought, we decided to go in right away and give it a try,’ said Commander Vermilya, today (3 Sept).
“Smiling, he said: ‘We came in very low–we helicopter pilots don’t wear parachutes, so we feel better down low.’ Machine gun and anti-aircraft fire reached up at, but failed to hit, the four man helicopter as it flew up the river toward Haiphong looking for Commander Tucker who had fired an orange flare. ‘We almost missed him when we saw him to the starboard and behind us about a 100-yards off the beach, ‘ the helicopter pilot related. ‘There was rifle fire all around him.’
“The helicopter pilot who joked that he was about to end up in downtown Haiphong, made a sharp turn back and came in over Commander Tucker’s life raft dangling a steel cable. In a stroke of luck, the horseshoe collar fell right into Commander Tucker’s lap and Commander Vermilya was able to pull away after only 10 seconds of dangerous and stationary hovering.
“Chief Petty Officer Tom Grisham tried to help the rescued man. ‘I feel fine, man your damn gun,’ Commander Tucker said. Chief Grisham said, ‘ Commander Tucker also tried to feed a belt of bullets into the machine gun hoping it would plaster the beach.’ The helicopter crew was furious because the North Vietnamese gunners had fired at him while he was descending in his parachute–something he felt was dirty pool. But the helicopter did not fire at the shore, and headed safely to sea.
“Commander Vermilya, who has rescued 13 downed aviators in only two months of duty off Vietnam said: “You feel grateful when you get out of a situation like this.”…”
It is called intrepidity …”characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude and endurance.”
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….