RIPPLE SALVO… # 518… Pardon the brevity; Humble Host has been in the brandy, watched the sunset and expended all creative thought… whupped!!!
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN of a trip back to a history lesson that cost the lives of 58,000 brave American men in the jungles and skies of Southeast Asia fighting a 12-year war that was a grand mistake…
5 AUGUST 1967… The Vietnam War as reported this day in The New York Times (6 Aug reporting 5 Aug ops)…
Page 1: “U.S. Jets Meet Heavy fire in Attacks On Hanoi Area”… “United States Navy pilots encountered heavy antiaircraft fire and a number of surface-to-air missiles yesterday in attacks on two targets within 15 miles of Hanoi. One A-4 Skyhawk was shot down. It was the 636th plane lost in the north. The carrier pilots attacked a military storage area at Kesat, 12 miles southeast of Hanoi and another 15 miles southeast of Hanoi. ‘I felt like Custer going into Indian country,’ said LCDR Robert Arnold, 35 years old, Schenectady, New York, who led the strikes. He said, ‘The defenses were the heaviest I’ve encountered, but we still got good hits.’ The Navy strikes were among the 145 missions flown by United States pilots against a wide range of targets from Hanoi and Haiphong in the north to the demilitarized zone in the south…The number of missions was lower than the record of 197 flown the day before, but is above average for periods of good weather.”…
Page 4: “Pilots from the carrier Constellation reported damaging 11 buildings and touching off an explosion in an attack at Kesat military storage area near Hanoi. ‘They were awake today, there were plenty of SAMs and lots of flak,’ said Commander Robert Dunn, 38, of Chicago. LCDR Phillip Shannon ,33, of Closter, N.J., one of the pilots, said,’As my section approached the target, I saw three SAMs lift off, one at a time and head for the strike group.’ He said he fired a missile at the launching site, but was not sure of the result.
Page 4: “Air Force pilots from the land bases in Thailand attacked a string of antiaircraft artillery sites with 3000-pound bombs at the Kep airfield and railroad yard 38 miles northeast of Hanoi. Pilots, who encountered intense ground fire, reported at least 17 gun positions destroyed. Thunderchief pilots reported damaging 20 boxcars in a railway siding 30 miles north of Hanoi and ripping up 300-feet of track at another siding. In the days attacks Air Force pilots set off 140 fires and 35 explosions, while 39 trucks and 36 barges were destroyed.”… Page 4: “An F-4 Phantom caught fire Saturday after landing and started a blaze that destroyed five other airplanes.”…
Page 1: “In South Vietnam only minor clashed were reported. A South Vietnamese spokesman said 469 Vietcong were killed in three operations last week.”… NYT, 5 August, Page 1: “While ground fighting remained light, two major operations ended, one in the Mekong Delta and the other near Danang. Troops of the Ninth Infantry division and the Navy’s Mobile Riverine Force ended Operation Coronada II, which swept an area of the Delta 40 miles southwest of Saigon for 7-days…285 Vietcong were reported killed. American losses were 8 killed and 33 wounded.”
Page 2: “Senate Panel Pares Billion For Defense”… “A Defense money bill providing more than $70-billion–including more than $20-billion for Vietnam war costs–was recommended to the Senate today by its Appropriations Committee. The total was $9.4 billion below President Johnson’s budget request and about $139-million below the House approved bill passed June 13. Senate committee bill at $70,156,420,000…the allotment for the services: Army $22.7-billion; Navy/Marine corps $19.7-billion; and Air Force $24-billion…Navy ship construction (SCN) a major reduction of $166-million.”… Page 3: “Gavin Quits Post With Democrats–Leaves Massachusetts Unit in Protest Over Vietnam”… “Lieutenant General James Gavin, long a critic of White House policy in Vietnam, has resigned from the state Democratic Advisory Council. ‘I simply will not support President Johnson for reelection in 1968 and obviously anyone on the council should be ready to do so.”…
Page 1: “Johnson Selects Navy Secretary–Paul Ignatius Is Named to Pentagon Job–Succeeds Victim of Plane Crash John McNaughton”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 5 August 1967… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #518… Humble Host appreciates the forwarding of my open letter to LGEN Owens (RTR for 21 July–RS #503), the leader of the Order of Daedalians by some of the RTR’s regular readers to their respective Congressional delegations. Great idea. I encourage others to do the same…Take the basic letter do a little editing to fit the Member of Congress and then let ‘er fly… go stir up interest in doing something to make the 50th anniversary of Rolling Thunder and its warriors something for Americans to think about for a day or two…
August 6 and 9, 1945=Hiroshima and Nagasaki… 72-years without a nuke in anger… Plato: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”…the next big one promises to be a doozy… How can we keep the fingers off the triggers?…
RTR QUOTE for 5 August: William Pitt… “Where law ends, tyranny begins.”…
Lest we forget….. Bear