RIPPLE SALVO… #610… A day with Rear Admiral Ralph Cousins in USS CONSTELLATION… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED TEN of a return to Yankee Station and Rolling Thunder 50 years in the rear view mirror…
6 November 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Monday in New York…
Page 1: “A 2-STAR DAY ABOARD A CARRIER ON YANKEE STATION” by Tom Buckley (see Ripple Salvo)… Page 1: “Hussein of Jordan Describes ‘Very Vast’ Shift In Jordan’s Stand–Says He Would Recognize Israel Right to Security As Part of Settlement–Cairo Concession Seen–Nasser Is Termed Ready to Allow Foe to Use Suez If Conditions Right”… Page 1: “Army Coup Ousts Yemini President–Dissident Republicans Stage Bloodless Revolt While President Abdullah al-Salal of Yemen Is In Baghdad”… Page 1: “G.O.P. Group Says ‘Thin’ Missile Net Could Split NATO–Warns That Move to Guard Only U.S. Might Result In Defensive Neutrality”… Page 1: “Wreck Kills 51 On British Train–111 On A Coach Express Injured In Derailment In Southern London Station”… Page 3: “Vietcong Step-Up Propaganda Push–Liberation Front Searching For World-wide Connections”... “The National Liberation front is stepping up its propaganda, radio broadcasts, visits and activities outside South Vietnam in an effort to move closer to other movements for national independence in Asia, Africa and Latin America.”… Page 17: “3 Soviet Leaders Honor Leningrad–Jubilee Ceremonies shift to City Where Revolt Began”… “The three highest ranking leaders of the Soviet Union paid homage today to the city where the Bolshevik Revolution began 50 years ago Tuesday 7 November.”… (The Top three: Brezhnev, Kosygin, and Podgorny)…
6 November 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (7 Nov reporting 6 Nov ops) Page 1: Air Force Jets Based in Thailand Attack Largest Storage Center in the North–Plane Downs 2 MIG Defenders”… “United States Air Force fighter-bombers from Korat Air Base in Thailand bombed North Vietnam’s largest military supply area today. It is three miles from the center of Hanoi. This was the first time that the big storage complex at Giathuong had been hit removing another of the few remaining targets from the Pentagon’s restricted list. A United States Air Force spokesman said an F-4 Phantom jet flying protective cover for F-105 Thunderchiefs during the raid had shot down two MIG-17’s.
“The two MIG’s were credited to Captain Darrell D. Simmonds, 33 years old, of Vernon, Texas and 1LT George H. McKinney Jr., 24 years old, of Bessemer, Alabama. The MIG’s were downed by 20-mm cannon fire from the Phantom jet. The pilots saw their bombs hit the numerous buildings in the storage complex, a spokesman said, but there was no immediate damage assessment available today. (The United States command in Saigon reported an F-105 Thunderchief was downed on this raid, the 727th American plane lost in the North, according to the Associated Press. North Vietnam said five United States planes had been downed.)
“The storage area is a half-mile north of Gialam Airport at Hanoi, which is used for international flights. Gialam is only one of six MIG bases that has not been attacked. The spokesman said that it was believed that was a backlog of military supplies at Giathuong supply area since the main bridges were cut in previous raids. The storage area is alongside the rail line and highway between the Longbein Bridge (Paul Doumer) and the bridge over the Canal des Rapides, five miles to the northeast.
“The raid followed another major attack yesterday against a MIG base at Phucyen, 14 miles north of Hanoi, in which pilots estimate at least two MIG’s were destroyed on the ground. Pilots reported having cut the main runway in 36 places. He said a taxiway and parking revetments of protected parking areas, also had been damaged. The United States Navy cancelled all carrier flights yesterday because of an approaching typhoon, but Air Force and Marine pilots struck at roads and rails in the southern part of North Vietnam. They reported nine cargo boats off the coast destroyed or damaged.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 6 November…
(1) MAJOR ROBERT WARREN HAGERMAN was flying an F-105D of the 469th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a major wing strike of the Gia Thuo (Giathuong) storage area. A volley of SAMs was launched at the flight and MAJOR HAGERMAN was unable to completely evade one of the surface-to-air missiles that exploded close aboard his port wing. The Thunderchief crashed a few minutes later about 20-miles east of Bac Ninh. There was no parachute observed or voice or beeper communication heard. It was assumed that MAJOR HAGERMAN perished in the crash. His remains were recovered in December 1984 and identified in March 1986. Today, 50 years after his final flight and gallant service for his country, he rests in peace and is remembered…
RIPPLE SALVO… #610… “A Two Star Day Aboard USS Constellation”…Byline: Tom Buckley…Dateline: Aboard U.S.S. Constellation, off North Vietnam November 1, 1967…
“From the stumpy mast of this 90,000-ton aircraft carrier, lost among the spinning steel radar webs, flies a small blue pennant with two stars. It is the flag of Rear Admiral Ralph Wayne Cousins, the commander of Task Force 77, whose warships range the shallow milky waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Even to the 5,000-man crew of his flagship the admiral is a distant personage, a discreet guest who leaves the running of the ship to her skipper On the rare occasions when he does manifest himself, he is surrounded by the aura of naval glory–the fluttery wail of a boatswain’s pipe, immaculate marines and aides and orderlies who wear blue-an-gold braid on the left shoulder of their starched khakis.
“For the most part, Admiral Cousins spends his days without fuss, making fast decisions that make the difference between life and death. It is a long day, too, and he says it makes up for all those Wednesday afternoons and weekends free for golf in peacetime. At 6:30 A.M. Admiral Cousins is awakened in his large well-furnished cabin one level below the flight deck. While dressing and drinking a cup of tea, a watch officer brings him the messages that have arrived by ‘flash net,’ the Navy’s high-speed Teletype, in the six hours the admiral has been asleep. Then accompanied by his Marine orderly, Admiral Cousins takes the message folders and climbs five steep narrow flights of stairs–ladders, is naval terminology–to the flag bridge.
“The Connie, the admiral says, was to have had an elevator from the cabin to the bridge. But it was eliminated to reduce costs after the fire that swept the Constellation while she was under construction at Brooklyn Navy Yard in December, 1960. Admiral Cousins settles into his white upholstered revolving chair embroidered with two stars. He first opens the manila folder containing the top-secret messages, printed on red paper.
“From time to time he gazes through the inward sloping armored glass, which circles the bridge, to watch activity on the flight deck below. The bridge is one of the few enclosed areas on the carrier from which the sky and the sea are visible. There are only three portholes on the entire ship and they are in the captain’s cabin.’Great loss to the Navy, portholes,’ he says.’
“Only the men who tend the Constellation’s 80 planes get out-of-doors regularly. The engine gang and the hundreds of technicians on board spend weeks at a time in the cool echoing steel walled labyrinth of compartments far below.
“Admiral Cousins commands 30 ships. Twenty or more at a time are at sea while the others are in port in the Philippines or Japan. Radar picket ships and fast rescue boats hover within 20 miles of the port of Haiphong. To the south the American heavy cruiser Canberra and her destroyer escorts shell the coast of North Vietnam. The antisubmarine carrier Kearsarge guards the entrance to the gulf. But the heart of the Task Force 77 is the carrier striking force, cruising in endless circles on Yankee Station, an area of the gulf about 50-miles in diameter between the mainland and Hainan Island of China. The area is divided into three wedges, one for each carrier. From there they launch their aircraft against North Vietnam. Three of the five carriers assigned to the task force are usually on Yankee Station, but for a few days this week there will be only two, the Constellation and the smaller and older Oriskany. Admiral cousins must juggle schedules and targets to make do with the fewer planes available.
“He looks up from his papers again, a soft-spoken, clear-eyed man of 52, his black hair beginning to silver, and lets his eyes rove over the deck. Planes are being hooked to the four catapults for launching. Red-jersey ordnance men trundle dollies loaded with fat olive-drab bombs and slim white missiles across the deck. The day’s missions will soon begin. ‘As many times as I’ve seen it,’ he says, ‘I never get tired of watching the launchings and the recoveries.’
“There may be more take-offs than landings today. The Constellation’s planes will be attacking in ‘Route Package 6 Alpha,’ which includes Haiphong and runs to the outskirts of Hanoi. This area and 6 Bravo to the west bristle with missiles and antiaircraft guns. The loss of planes, always high in such raids, has been unusually severe lately, the admiral says. The Oriskany’s A-4 Skyhawk squadrons have been bearing the brunt.
“‘I’m going over there after breakfast to see how they are doing,’ he says. ‘Anyhow, Fred Michaelis, has some ideas he wants to talk over with me.’ Rear Admiral Frederic H. Michaelis commands the carrier division that comprises the Oriskany and her accompanying destroyers. The 10-mile helicopter trip takes less than 10-minutes. And the two admirals discuss the weather, but not idly, because winter is closing in on North Vietnam, cutting down the number of missions that can be flown. Then, they turn to the subject of targets for the coming week. ‘There’s only so much we can do,’ says Admiral Cousins. ‘After all, the attacks have been going on for more than two and a half years, but we still keep trying to fool them.’
“Commander Elbert D. Lighter, just back from a mission and still in flying coveralls, comes in. As executive officer of the Skyhawk squadron, he has been up since long before dawn and still has two missions to go. His eyes are sunken and there are hollows above the long, stubby jaw. ‘We thought we could fake them out,’ he says with a wry laugh. ‘We did all right got 13 SAMs before we’d reached the target. Didn’t any of them hit though.’
“The Admiral, who won the Navy Cross as a Navy pilot in the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, and survived the sinking of his carrier, the Lexington, asks about the men. ‘We’re doing fine, admiral,’ Commander Lighter says. ‘Real fine. We got the best damn squadron in the Navy.’
“On the way back to the Constellation, Admiral Cousins, who graduated from Annapolis in 1937, describes how the younger fliers are often the ones who feel the strain of the relentless attacks. ‘It’s the experienced men like Ed Lighter,’ he says, ‘who really hold those squadrons together. I don’t know what we’d do without them.’ The messages have piled up again. Many from Saigon, from Subic Bay, the Philippines and from ships of the task force. Some have already been dealt with by the 40-man staff, but the admiral must be familiar with their contents. Other, high priority target orders, come from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, and from Pacific headquarters in Hawaii’
“‘They order the strike,’ he says, ‘and then my people have to figure out the best way of getting the job done–the number and type of planes we will use, the ordnance they’ll carry, the timing and the rest. We have to coordinate with the Air Force. Often, as at the airfield at Phuc Yen, where we had to avoid getting to the same target at the same time.’ When the messages have been reviewed, there are the reports and memorandums that are continually being requested by the Pentagon, by Pacific headquarters and by Admiral Cousins’ direct superior Vice Admiral John J. Hyland, commander of the Seventh Fleet.
“Admiral Cousins had been asked for his views on the fire aboard the Forrestal, a sister ship of the Constellation. The fire, on Yankee Station, destroyed or damaged nearly all her planes, and knocked her out of action for at least six months. Carriers are floating warehouses of oil, aviation fuel and tons of explosives. Fire is their greatest enemy. Admiral Cousins writes carefully, avoiding military jargon. Close at hand lie a dictionary and Fowler’s ‘Modern English Usage.’
“Ashore, the admiral plays squash and golf, snorkels and collects seashells. On a table in his office two cigar boxes contain luminous cowrie shells he collected during his latest breather in the Philippines. At sea, he does 10 minutes of calisthenics in the morning and reads for pleasure in his spare moments. Current issues of The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Fortune and the news magazines are piled on his coffee table, along with yellow-backed mysteries by Georges Simenon in French.
“At 2 P.M. the daily briefing takes place in the wardroom on the other side of the mess. A young intelligence officer begins. The arrival of a Soviet freighter at Haiphong, carrying flour from a Black Sea port has been noted, he says, bringing to 12 the number of foreign flag ships in the harbor. He is followed by the staff meteorologist, who says that the clouds and rain that will blanket the Red River Delta in the months ahead have not yet closed in. The admiral nods. The staff officers pause every few minutes as the crash of catapults on the flight deck echoes against the bulkheads. Constellation has begun launching the Phantom and Skyhawk jets against Haiphong. Her tankers and radar planes are already in the air. In 30-minutes or less they will be over their objectives.
“When the briefing ends, Admiral Cousins goes to the Constellation’s combat-operations center one deck below. The big room is darkened to enhance the radar images and lighted maps and chilled to 60-degrees to protect the batteries of computers. A burly chief petty officer sits in front of a radar console. Its circular screen glows red relaying images picked up by planes and picket ships, it follows the jets to their targets all across the North Vietnam heartland.
“Afternoon faded into evening. Still the planes are catapulted into the sky, the Phantom’ twin tailpipes shooting orange flame. And still they return, smashing onto the deck at 120 miles an hour and stopping within 200 feet as their tail hooks engage spring mounted cables that stretch across the deck.
“After supper, the Admiral and his staff watch a movie titled, ‘Don’t Make Waves.’ It is about the decline of civilization in California–which except for San Fransisco, Admiral Cousins does not think is possible. At midnight the last of the day’s missions have been completed. This day all the planes have returned.
“On the horizon the destroyers wink their red signal lamps under a bright moon. The Constellation, steaming easily at half speed, 15 knots, continues to circle on Yankee Station leaving a broad, deep wake in the placid gulf.”
Humble Host… ah, those were the days… (except for that typhoon on the horizon…no fun that…
RTR Quote for 6 November: Robert L. Stevenson, Lay Morals: “It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting sea shells than to be born a millionaire.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear