RIPPLE SALVO… #457… “ISRAEL-EGYPT BATTLE ERUPTS” and Vietnam war goes to the back burner and the back pages on the home front… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY-SEVEN of a return to yesteryear and the air war over North Vietnam…
5 June 1967… Head Lines from page 1 of The New York Times on a bright and sunshiny Monday in NYC…
The New York Times announced the Middle East war with an eight column 36-point headline that went like this: “ISRAELI-EGYPTIAN BATTLE ERUPTS; PLANES AN TANKS ARE IN ACTION; CAIRO REPORTS ATTACKS FROM THE AIR; FIGHTING IS HEAVY; EACH SIDE ACCUSES OTHER OF MAKING FIRST ASSAULT”… “Since the early hours of this morning heavy fighting has been taking place on the southern front between Egyptian armor and aerial forces which moved against the Israeli forces which went into action to check them…. “JOHNSON IS TOLD OF MIDEAST CLASH”… “QUICK WITHDRAWAL OF MIDEAST PEACE FORCE DEFENDED BY UN’s THANT”… “THE ISSUE IN CAIRO; ISRAEL IS A U.S. BASE”… “FOR JORDAN WAR IS A CHANCE”… “ISRAEL IN JERUSALEM”... Humble Host suggests you google the Israeli-Arab Six-Day War of 1967 for the details… Or is it an ongoing 50Year War???
5 June 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (6 June reporting 5 June ops)… Page 1: “U.S. Planes Down 3 MIGs Near Hanoi in Raid On Bridges”…United States planes bombed North Vietnam’s war industry and shot down three MIG interceptors near Hanoi. Military spokesmen said that the North Vietnamese had put up heavy air defenses. F-105 Thunderchiefs flew into the heart of North Vietnam’s industrial triangle and bombed railway bridges around the Thainguyen manufacturing complex near the Phucyen air base… Other United States planes bombed a manufacturing complex about 20 miles north of Hanoi. Officials said that all three MIGs had been shot down by Phantoms flying protective cover for the Thunderchiefs. The enemy losses bought the total number of MIGs shot down by American aircraft over North Vietnam to 77….The Soviet press reported two American aircraft were shot down over the North but there was no confirmation from the Americans. MAJOR DURWOOD PRIESTER of Hampton, S.C.; CAPTAIN JOHN PARKHURST of Midland, Mich. were credited with one of the MIG kills…”…(bear#s91&92RPIIIbridge/RPIItrucks)
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 5 June 1967…
(1) LCDR COLLINS HENRY HAINES was flying an RF-8G of the VFP-63 Detachment 1 embarked in USS Bon Homme Richard on his 41st photo reconnaissance mission covering the railway segment near Than Hoa flying at 3,500-feet, 520-knots when hit by ground fire. Immediate loss of hydraulics and electrical systems forced his ejection. He suffered injuries to both legs in the eject and was immediately captured. He was released from Hanoi Hilton in March 1973.
(2) CAPTAIN DOUGLAS HOLMAN BUTTERFIELD was flying an O-1G of the 20th TASS and 504th TASG out of Danang and forward based at An Khe supporting the 1st Infantry Division on a visual reconnaissance mission when downed by ground fire about five miles from the base. CAPTAIN BUTTERFIELD was Killed in Action on the battlefield fifty years ago.
RIPPLE SALVO… #457… “SOME HIDDEN SOURCE”… I found this little piece while reading up on the Battle of Midway… Clipped from a Midway veteran’s letter to the Reader’s Digest back in the ’40s…
“Many of my friends are dead. To a man, each died with a nonchalance that each would have denied was courage, but simply called a lack of fear and forgot the triumph. If anything great or good has been born of this war, it should be valued in the youth of our country, who never trained for war, who almost never believed in war, but who have, from some hidden source, brought forth a gallantry which is homespun, it is so real.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear