RIPPLE SALVO… #577… Nothing good happens if you hide your good work under a bushel basket… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SEVENTY-SEVEN of a remembrance of an air war fought fifty years ago in the skies of North Vietnam by courageous warriors imbued with the “spirit of attack.”…..
4 OCTOBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a nice Wednesday in St. Louis where the Cards host the Red Sox in game ONE of the World Series–Gibson vs. Lonberg…
Page 1: “House Unit Votes to Delay Action On Tax Surcharge–Unusual Move Holds Up Bill Until Johnson and Congress Agree On Spending Cuts–Defeat of Johnson Follows Rebuff of 2nd GOP Bid To Make Him Slash the Budget”...The House Ways and Means Committee abruptly set aside the Administration’s proposal for a 10% surcharge… Page 1: “Cleveland Negro Carl Stokes Won the Democratic Nomination for Mayor Tonight Over the Incumbent”... “Mr. Stokes collected more than 95% of the black vote and 10-15% of the white vote to win over Mayor Ralph Locker”… Page 1: “Swedish Social Philosopher Gunnar Meyrdal Warns U.S. to Aid Poor Whites as Well as Negroes”... “…or run the risk a policy of racism comparable to South Africa…Negroes are only part of the American ‘underclass’ that forms the urban and rural slums.”... Page 3: “4,534-MPH Record Set By Rocket Plane”… “Major William J. Knight of the Air Force set the record in an X-15 rocket plane…Peak altitude was 99,000-feet.”… Page 26: “Johnson Hails Last Six Years as Age of Education”… Page 26: “Negro Votes Sought in Mississippi Race for Rubel Phillips”… Page 34: “Hurricane Fern Weakens and Nears Mexico, May Spare Texas”…
VIETNAM: Page 1: “Dirksen rebukes GOP War Critics–Defends Johnson’s Policies–Clashes With Fulbright On Issue Of U.S. Security”… “…sets off a major escalation of debate on Vietnam in the Senate today by calling upon dissenting Republicans to moderate their ‘demeaning’ criticism of the Johnson Administration…he was caught in a cross-fire from across the aisle from Senator William Fulbright, who protested that Administration Vietnam policy is undermining the long-term security of the nation. The Dirksen-Fulbright exchange provided an unusual free-wheeling extemporaneous debate on the Vietnam war of the sort the Senate has not heard in many months. For nearly two hours the principal defender and the principal critic of the Administration’s policy in Vietnam, standing only three desks apart, clashed in a sometimes bristling argument over whether United States security was at stake in Vietnam.”... Page 1: “Hanoi Turns Down Offers, Vows to Fight On–It Says Washington Cannot Expect any Reciprocity If The Bombing Is Halted–Reply Held Definitive–American Planes Fly Near Chinese Border to Bomb Vital Targets ion the North”... “North Vietnam rejected today the Johnson Administration;s offers of peace talks and vowed to continue the combat in the South unabated. The official Communist Party newspaper, Nhan Dan, said the United States had no rights to expect any lessening of military actions in return for a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam. ‘The United States must put an unconditional end to all war acts.”… Page 1: “Rockefeller Turning Away From Johnson On Vietnam”… “…no longer able to support whole-heartedly.”…
Page 1: “South Vietnam Ground Action is Light–American Casualties in War Now Exceed 100,000–Toll For Week Rises”... “American casualties were up last week over the previous week, mostly as a result of heavy shelling of the Marine outpost at Conthien, just south of the demilitarized zone. A United States command spokesman said 150 Americans were killed last week and 1,758 wounded, against 128 dead the previous week and 1,434 wounded. Unofficial killed-in-action totals for the entire war were announced in Saigon as 13,643 and 86,635 wounded with 756 listed as missing in action. In Washington the Pentagon listed 141 killed in action for the week. Official Department of Defense figures often differ slightly because the Pentagon delays listing a death until paperwork is completed. In two incidents reported from Danang, 38 South Vietnamese civilians were killed today when busses ran over mines. One struck a mine near the Haivan Pass, 13 miles northwest of Danang. All 20 people aboard were killed. A second struck a mine 15 miles south of the ancient capital of Hue. A total of 18 civilians were killed and nine wounded… The only significant ground action reported was in Binhlong Province, 37 miles north-northeast of Saigon, where United States troops reported killing 42 Vietcong yesterday. Three American soldiers were killed in the clash.”…
4 October 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (5 Oct reporting 4 Oct ops) Page 1: “U.S. JETS ATTACK 2 ENEMY BRIDGES AND 2 MIG BASES–Important Rail Targets Near Hanoi are Also Hit in Day of Heavy Air Activity”… “American pilots attacked two bridges near the Chinese border, blasted two MIG air bases and hit important rail targets near Hanoi yesterday in one of the heaviest days of the air war. A spokesman announced that two planes were lost, a Navy A-4 Skyhawk and an Air Force F-105 Thunderchief the day before, raising the total to 687 United States planes downed in the North….Air Force fighter-bomber pilots reported scoring direct hits on the Langson railroad bridge along the northeast rail line from Hanoi and only 10 miles southwest of the Chinese border. This was the third time the bridge had been hit since August 13.
Navy pilots from the carrier Constellation attacked the Chienchiang highway bridge, 15 miles from China in the northeastern corner of the country above the port of Haiphong. A spokesman said both approaches to the bridge were cut but that a complete assessment was not available. This was the first time this bridge had been attacked. Navy pilots today struck areas near the center of Haiphong, hitting a petroleum storage area two miles northwest of the center of the city as well as the Haiphong highway bridge, half a mile northwest of the heart of the city. A spokesman said that the center span of the bridge was dropped. Three anti-aircraft sites were also hit.
“Marine pilots flying A-6 Intruder jets bombed the Hoalac MIG air base, 20 miles west of Hanoi, and the Kienan MIG airfield, five miles southwest of Haiphong.
Air Force Thunderchief pilots from bases in Thailand pounded Kep railroad yard and a nearby siding 38 miles northeast of Hanoi, reporting 25 boxcars destroyed or damaged.
“Hanoi Radio declared North Vietnamese armed forces shot down six United States planes today, three of them downed near Haiphong.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 4 October 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN DAVID HARTZLER ZOOK was flying a U-10B Courier of the 5th ACS and 14th ACW out of Nha Trang on a leaflet drop 20 miles north of Saigon when he was involved in a mid-air collision that disabled and caused his aircraft to crash killing CAPTAIN ZOOK. He was listed as missing in action, then later presumed to have been killed in action until his remains were recovered in June 1992 and was identified in May 2008. He was buried with Colonel honors in West Liberty, Ohio…He perished fifty years ago today…
(2) MAJOR MORRIS LAROSCO McDANIEL and CAPTAIN WILLIAM ALLEN LILLUND were flying an F-105F of the 13th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a night strike on the Lang Con railway bridge northwest of Hanoi. The aircraft was refueled airborne from a KC-135 and proceeded on mission, but was never heard from again after the aerial refueling. MAJOR McDANIEL and CAPTAIN LILLUND perished 50 years ago this day and they rest where they fell and remain listed as Presumed Killed in Action-Bodies Not Recovered… Left behind…but remembered…never to be forgotten…
(3) LCDR PETER Van RUYTER SCHOEFFEL was flying an A-4C of the VA-15 Valions embarked in USS Intrepid and was shot down on his 125th mission while providing flak suppression for a strike on a ferry one mile north of Haiphong. He had fired his rockets at an active AAA site and was pulling off his target when ground fire forced him to eject from a rolling and uncontrollable Skyhawk. LCDR SCHOEFFEL was immediately captured and interned for the duration of the war as a prisoner of war. LCDR SCHOEFFEL was released in March 1973 to resume his active career. He would go on to command carrier based A-7 light attack squadron, VA-82. He retired in 1982 in the rank of Captain… Among Captain Schoeffel’s combat awards are two Legion of Merit medals with Combat V. Humble Host posts the citation for LOM #2…
“For exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from October 1967 to March 1973. By his diligent efforts, devotion and loyalty to the United States, and under the most adverse of conditions, he resisted all attempts by the North Vietnamese to use him in causes detrimental to the United States. While maintaining daily contact with the North Vietnamese guards and officers, he performed duties in staff positions resulting in the maintenance of good order and discipline among the prisoners. Further, as an educator he provided diversion and constructive rehabilitative thinking to his fellow prisoners during their long internment. Despite harsh treatment and lack of material aids, he devoted long hours toward improving their morale and well-being. His extraordinary skill, resourcefulness and sound judgement reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Naval Service and the United States Armed Forces.
“The Combat Distinguishing Device is authorized.”
OOHrah. Pete. On the 50th anniversary of your jump into North Vietnam, the Bear extends all good wishes with highest respect and admiration…
RIPPLE SALVO… #577… Subsequent to the Tuesday, 3 October 1967 meeting in the White House where Rolling Thunder was on the agenda, the President’s Special Assistant Walt Rostow put together a memorandum for the President that tallied up all the positives of the Rolling Thunder campaign to reduce–or slow the flow– of war supporting material to the battlefields in South Vietnam. That Top Secret memorandum was read by the President on Wednesday, 4 October 1967. It should have been made available to every Rolling Thunder aviator for use in spreading the word wide and deep to the American people. The demand for information from the returning pilots and aircrews who were home from the fight was insatiable. We had the tales and the testimony for the local papers and the groups that gathered to eat rubber chicken and hear war stories from the guys who were being shot at. What we lacked when we stood in front of the Navy Leaguers, Kiwanians , Lions, Optimists and Exchange Clubbers was the facts. In 1967 when I came home from my first cruise even the code name Rolling Thunder was still classified. The idea of providing me and every other Vietnam war storyteller a fact sheet full of the successes and talking points to inform, educate and motivate the public was unheard of… a non-starter. Returning warriors are the best spokespeople a bloody contest can field to carry the message to the home crowd. Give them the “the word” and turn ’em loose…
The Rostow memorandum #345. of 4 October 1967 is an example of a “songsheet”–the word– that should be shared widely to keep the public well informed and motivated to support Administration policy, or at least to have the facts for their consideration… the Rostow memo is at… (or should be)…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d345
RTR QUOTE for 4 October: LCDR PETE SCHOEFFEL: “My five and a half years in communist prisons taught me, as nothing had before, the value of a government system whose powers are limited by principles that are not directly political. However clear, systemic, and idealistic the basic concept of benefitting all men by common ownership of production may seem, the results as applied by communists are unbridled tyranny. An important thing we should do is not to be simply anti-communist, but to understand the difficult, turbulent, and illogical processes that self-government in a free society of diverse but accommodating interests imposes on us.”…
Lest we forget… Bear