RIPPLE SALVO… #156… READINESS… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-SIX of looking back at the war that tore US apart…the air war over North Vietnam…
4 AUGUST 1966…PAGE ONE OF THE HOME TOWN PAPER… NYT… A fair and pleasant 78-degree Thursday on Wall Street…
Page 1: “Exemption Of 60% In Open Housing Voted By House”…”By a margin of one vote the House of Representatives approved today a bipartisan amendment that would exempt most individually owned homes from the open housing section of the Administration’s civil rights bill. The action removed 60% of the nation’s housing units from anti-discrimination provisions of the bill, but it may also have saved the housing section from being killed outright. Thus it was a crucial, if narrow, victory for Democratic leaders who had seen their ranks thinned by the defection of militant liberals who refused to vote for anything but a strong housing section and of former civil rights supporters who are now opposed to any kind of open housing bill… Page 1: “Compromise Bill on Airlines Gains”…”Senate leadership worked out today compromise legislation under which both congress and the President would share the responsibility for ending the 27-day old airline strike. But these were signs of growing caution within the chamber about enacting any law. The compromise bill calls for Congress to order the striking machinists back to work for 30 days and puts responsibility on the President to order any extensions of that period up to 150 more days”…
Page 1: “City Ends Fight With Port Authority On Trade Center”… “The city and the Port of New York authority agreed yesterday on terms that will permit early construction of the $52.5 million World Trade Center. After six months of wrangling and bitter statements the principals involved in the bargaining smiled at one another frequently at a joint press conference at City Hall in which they described the settlement (Twin Towers oked)…
Page 2:…”Kosygin Attacks U.S. And Red China”…”Premier Aleksei Kosygin declared today that the Soviet Union was determined to help the Vietnamese people drive the American occupiers from Vietnamese soil as quickly as possible. Speaking at the closing meeting of a two-day session of the Supreme soviet or parliament, the Premier charged ‘American aggression, which is beginning to spread to Laos and Cambodia as well, poses a direct threat to world security. Policy remains peaceful coexistence however. We will display restraint and calmness and we will not be taken in by the provocations of those who would like to warm their hands at the hotbeds of international tensions, the hot beds of war.”… Page 14: “Pathet Lao’s Radio Broadcasts Appeal By an American Flier”…”The Pathet Lao, the pro-Communist forces in Laos, have broadcast over their clandestine jungle based radio an appeal for freedom and a criticism of United States policy from a person said to be a captured American pilot. The flier was introduced as Captain David Louis Hrdlicka, ‘a US aggressor pilot captured on May 18, 1965.’….
4 August 1966… THE PRESIDENT’s DAILY BRIEF… CIA (TS sanitized)… Vietnam: U Thant feels thatif Brezhnev is indeed running the show in the Soviet Union, “more serious developments” in Vietnam may follow. In giving US officials a rundown on his visit to Moscow, Thant said that while both Kosygin and Brezhnev spoke in bitter terms about Vietnam and US policy, Brezhnev–whom he classified as a hawk–was much more militant. Thant noted that only Brezhnev referred to “hundreds of thousands of volunteers ready to go to Vietnam at a moment’s notice,” and added the danger of a widening war. Otherwise there was “actually nothing new” in his conversation with the leaders…. United Nations: The Soviets seem to have done some arm twisting during U Thant’s trip to Moscow in an attempt to get him to stay on as secretary general. Both Kosygin and Brezhnev urged him insistently and persistently…
4 AUGUST 1966…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (6 August reporting 4 August ops)…Page 3: “The United States command disclosed that in raids Thursday, planes attacked a regional military headquarters 25 miles northeast of Haiphong’ Pilots reported that they had destroyed four large buildings and damaged seven others. After attacks on other targets in North Vietnam, pilots reported they had destroyed or damaged 38 storage buildings, 59 barges, 9 bridges and 20 trucks. Other pilots dropped 3.3 million propaganda leaflets showing the skull of a North Vietnamese soldiers killed in the South. The leaflets said that thousands of North Vietnamese were killed in South Vietnam, while the government denied sending troops there. Other pilots striking targets in the South said they had destroyed or damaged 600 enemy huts, 21 bunkers and 20 sampans…”… “Vietnam: Aircraft Losses” (Chris Hobson)...Two aircraft lost (in the same incident) in Southeast Asia on 4 August 1966…
(1) CAPTAIN JOHN ROBERT BURNS was flying an A-1E of the 602nd ACS and 14th ACW out of Danang was shot down while executing a strafing attack on a target 20 miles east of Sam Neua close to the Laos-North Vietnam border. CAPTAIN BURNS’ wingman observed his flight leader dive into the ground at the target in the presence of active ground fire. CAPTAIN BURNS’ remains were returned to the United States at some time prior to 1996. He was Killed in Action while engaged in close combat with the enemy. He gave up his life 50 years ago today for our country–the supreme sacrifice… RIP, warrior…
(2) 1LT ALLEN V. ROGERS was flying an F-105D of the 357th TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli as part of a flight of four Thunderchiefs providing cove for the rescue attempt for Captain Burns, (1) above. the F-105D flight was diverted to another target in the area when the rescue mission was terminated. 1LT ROGERS was hit by ground fire while conducting strafing attacks on the alternate target and was able to fly the damaged aircraft to within 40 miles of Udorn before having to abandon the stricken aircraft. He was rescued to fly and fight again…
RIPPLE SALVO… #156…. THE ASSOCIATION OF NAVAL AVIATION...I am a proud Life and Charter Member of ANA and wingman of ADMIRAL LOBSTER FITZGERALD, who is the ANA Chairman. Today he messaged the following:
“As you have seen in the newspapers…our Naval Aviation leadership has testified that they have significant risk in their budgets due to uncertainties in the anticipate fiscal year 2017 Continuing Resolution as well as chronic underfunding of the readiness accounts. We need to do our part to help our deployed forces and those who go in harm’s way, be trained, equipped and manned properly by education the public and community leaders of the importance of a robust naval aviation commitment for our national security.”
Readers of RTR are respectfully requested to consider the following…
(1) Dial up: https://www.anahq.org/articles/index.htm
(2) Read and digest the essays of Admiral Scott Swift, Rear Admiral Matt Moffitt, Vice Admiral Walt Massenburg, Vice Admiral Dunn, and Rear Admiral Dave Philman, the President of ANA.
(3) Make copies of one or more of these “essays from the heavies”…Markup/underline one or more highlighting a few key points you feel comfortable talking about…
(4) Make an appointment with your Member of Congress or his/her Military staffer to talk about “The Defense Budget and My
concern about Naval Aviation”… (especially Readiness)… tell the scheduler you only need ten minutes of the MC’s time…
(5) Go for it…use the marked up essay(s) as your pointy talky point paper…have about four copies for your ten minutes of opportunity…
(6) September is the season for town hall meetings as the incumbents and wannabes make their pitches for your vote…use the ANA essays to frame an appropriate question to get the candidate to talk national defense…leave an essay with a staffer at the meeting…
(7) Somebody is taking up the time of your Congressman/woman… probably suggesting that Defense funding is available as an offset for their pet rock… So go get your ten minutes of time with Him or Her…
Air Force RTR readers: Same goes for you…in fact, a great case can be made that the Air Force is in deeper trouble than the Navy…ditto Marines…
The message of Lobster and Dave from Headquarters is clear… Now is the time for “all hands on deck.” Go see your Members of Congress…it is a fun thing to do… and the right thing as well….
Lest we forget… Bear ……….. –30– ……….