RIPPLE SALVO… #945… ON 6 OCTOBER 1967 A GREAT WARRIOR, THE SON OF A GREAT WARRIOR–LT. GEN. FRANK ALTON ARMSTRONG, JR., USAF– WAS DOWNED BY ENEMY GUNFIRE. HE REMAINS WHERE HE FELL ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN LAOS. HE IS CLASSIFIED AS “BB–KILLED IN ACTION, BODY NOT RECOVERED.” Major Frank Alton Armstrong, III, was flying an A-1H of the 1st ACS out of Pleiku and leading a strike in Steel Tiger, Southern Laos. He was hit in his dive on the enemy target and did not recover from the dive or eject from the doomed Spad. He perished in the explosion of his aircraft fifty-one years ago today. His famous father, WWII B-17 Group and Wing Leader, Lt. Gen Armstrong, Jr., whose story is told in the most famous flying war story of all time–TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH, starring Gregory Peck (BGEN FRANK SAVAGE) in the role made famous by Lt. Gen. Armstrong– died of a broken heart waiting for the return of his son’s remains. MAJOR ARMSTRONG’s loving wife, Vera, authored a letter ten years ago (September 2008) that deserves an annual reading at POW/MIA Day remembrance ceremonies throughout the nation to remind our countrymen and women of the agony suffered by waiting families. Lest we forget… The letter is quoted in it’s entirety below… But first…
GOOD MORNING…Day NINE HUNDRED-FIVE of a remembrance of the 44-months of the great air war (second only to the 1943-45 Allied Bombing campaign in Europe) called Operation Rolling Thunder…
HEAD LINES from the Ogden Standard-Examiner on Sunday, 6 October 1968…
THE WAR: Page 1: “YANKS SEEK RED SURVIVORS OF BLOODY MEKONG BATTLE–FEW ESCAPE UNSCATHED”… “U.S. infantrymen probed through canals and hip-deep, paddy mud today for surviving stragglers of a Vietcong battalion crippled in a two-day fight. The enemy battalion–with some 400 men–lost 138 known dead after being trapped in its Mekong Delta base camp 58 miles southwest of Saigon. Since the normal battle ratio is two or three wounded for each man killed, that would indicate few guerrillas got away unscathed. The command had earlier reported 169 enemy killed in the Friday-Saturday action, but the figure was lowered to correct duplication of some casualty reports. American losses were put at one killed and 25 wounded… In Saigon the nightly curfew was eased from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. for the first time since the Tet offensive last February. Residents filled the streets and parks, gaily lighted with holiday lanterns to celebrate the eve of Tet Trung-Thu, the mid-autumn festival… The official Vietnam Press announced Saturday that the South Vietnamese Cabinet is discussing amnesty for the more than 52,000 government soldiers who deserted this year. The desertion rate has increased over the 40,000 total for the same period last year, and the government is known to be apprehensive that it may be apprehensive that it may be approaching the level of 1965 when 110,000 government soldiers went over the hill. The apparent purpose of the amnesty measure is to attract deserters who fear punishment if they returned. Evidence indicates most deserters return to their villages rather than join enemy forces.”…
PEACE TALKS: State Department. Office of the Historian. Historical Document. D. 51. Telephone conversation Between President Johnson and Secretary of State Rusk. This is a long read of five pages. Very interesting. The President is very upset with the presence in the press of a peace proposal that stops the bombing, which is counter to his orders for all concerned. He and Rusk try to sort out where the breakdown, leak and confusion originated. They are very unhappy with George Ball and Averell Harriman. (Pres: “I think it is a dirty trick that George Ball is not to tell us what he’s done (send a Humphrey man to Paris and pump Harriman). He was talking to me all the time and sending his men across the ocean to talk to our people. And it’s all going to turn up. Nixon is going to expose it all and I think we’re going to look pretty bad if we’re not careful–appearing to be neutral and saying that we don’t want to get political and the Secretary of State is not going to make any political observations, the president wants him to speak with one voice beyond the water’s edge, and all the time we’re conniving around here with a speech trying to trap somebody. And the very day it happens”– the press tells it all.)… Be a fly on the Oval Office wall for fifteen minutes… read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d51
HEAD LINES: Page 1: “HASSLES FOLLOW WALLACE TALKS IN NORTH CAROLINA–Violence Is First of Campaign”… Page 1: “SENATE COMMITTEE ASKS FOR NEW AIR SUPERIORITY AIRCRAFT”… Page 1: Guards Use Tear Gas To Quell Riot in South Carolina Prison”… Page 2: ‘NEW DEMOCRATIC COALITION DOESN’T ENDORSE HUMPHREY–McCarthy Supporters Rule”… Page 4: “Opinion Poll–Humphrey View On War May Aid Drive” ( He suggested he might cease the bombing with right conditions, contrary to President’s harder line, which Humphrey had signed up to support during the campaign) …
6 OCTOBER 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… Ogden Standard-Examiner (7 Oct reporting 6 Oct Ops) Page 2: “In the air war, North Vietnamese gunners threw up a wall of moderate to heavy anti-aircraft fire and a surface-to-air missile in their efforts to drive off United States jets that carried out 131 multi-aircraft bombing missions Saturday.”…
VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 6 October 1968…
(1) LTJG G.M. BIERY was flying an A-7A of the VA-27 Royal Maces embarked in USS Constellation on an Iron Hand mission in support of a night wing strike on an active SAM site 15 miles north of Vinh and lost a shoot-out with the site. When LTJG BIERY’s Shrike missile failed to fire and an SA-2 chased and caught him as he maneuvered to avoid it. The missile exploded two hundred behind his A-7 Corsair sending the aircraft out of control forcing an ejection close to the shoreline. An on-duty SAR helicopter aboard the USS Richmond K. Turner made the night rescue ahead of the enemy boatmen.
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KOA/MIA/POW) FOR THE FOUR 6 OCTOBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM
1965, 1968… NONE…
1967… MAJOR FRANK ALTON ARMSTRONG, III, USAF… (MIA… 51 years and counting…Carried as “BB, killed in action, body not recovered)… LEFT BEHIND…
1966… CAPTAIN LOUIS FRANK MAKOWSKI, USAF… (POW, 2,342 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY)… and … 1LT EUGENE MATTHEW PABST, USAF… (MIA for 52 years…Carried as “XX, presumed finding of death) LEFT BEHIND… and LT MICHAEL GILCREST, USAF… (MIA for 52 years…Carried as “XX, presumed finding of death) LEFT BEHIND…
RIPPLE SALVO… #945… THE VOICE AND EXPERIENCE OF A “MISSING-IN-ACTION WIFE”… I quote…
From: Vera Armstrong
Subject: Bio of Major Frank Alton Armstrong, III
Date: Tuesday, 23 September 2008
To whom it may concern
I am the wife of Major Frank Alton Armstrong III, a USAF pilot.
He went to Viet Nam in early 1967, was shot down in late Spring of the same year and was wounded, was rescued, came home for a brief R&R, before retuning to Viet Nam a couple of weeks later. He has been missing since October 6, 1967.
My Father in Law, Lt. Gen. Frank Alton Armstrong Jr. USAF, and I, were given several different versions as to WHERE, how and what has happened that day, by various Government Officials at that time, during the ensuing weeks and months, and for the first few years. One thing has been consistent and clear from the beginning, however, in all of the early official accounts, namely, that, ‘They let him go in there ALONE!’ My Father in Law died of a broken heart in 1969.
At some point, MANY years later, the records were revised at least once more, to say, that my Husband’s plane actually went down in LAOS on that day, during the Secret War there. In this version, for the first time, the mysteriously unnamed ‘wingman’ is being mentioned who supposedly was an eye witness to the incident.
Never mind, that no one has ever officially notified us, his family of that fact!!! The Bio of Major Frank A. Armstrong III also says his Bio is also based in part on interviews with his family members. Well no one has interviewed me, his wife!!!!
Before my Husband left for Viet Nam, he gave me a standard Power of Attorney drawn up by the Judge Advocate Office at Hurlburt Field AFB. That Power of Attorney directs me that should he become a Prisoner of War or Missing in Action, to find him and/or cause him to be found. I tried to do that and continue to try to do that, EVERY DAY, to the best of my ability, in spite of some extreme hardships my family and I had to endure as a result, details of which are available but which I will not go into at this point. Needless to say, as you can imagine, the past 40 years have been most difficult, and going on with out lives in a normal fashion has been all but impossible.
We, the (remaining) Family of Major Frank Alton A. Armstrong III, we do love him and we do care, want him to be brought home, are still waiting….for we know that the REAL TRUTH shall set us free. The book “AN ENORMOUS CRIME” by Bill Hendon and Elizabeth Stewart says it all!!!! It is a Definitive account of our ABANDONED Heroes!!!
Sincerely, Vera Armstrong
A.K.A. Vera Armstrong Cherry…. End quote…
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Activity reports 183 unaccounted for Air Force personnel left on the Laos battlefield. Frank Armstrong III is not alone awaiting recovery and repatriation. DPAA considers the individual cases of 268 of the total (all services) of 291 personnel missing in Laos to merit “further pursuit.” Only 11 cases are considered “non-recoverable”… They are pursuing 1,016 of the 1,594 MIAs in Southeast Asia as of 24 August 2018… DPAA has labeled a total of 488 of the 1,594 as non-recoverable: 223 are Navy, mostly lost at sea; and 247 are Army, missing in South Vietnam. The hunt for MAJOR ARMSTRONG, 51 years in execution, goes on. Slowly. The families of the missing deserve the best effort to find and recover our fallen that our nation can provide. The issue then is: Is DPAA fully funded and turning and burning at 100%?… It appears from here, on the mountain, that DPAA and the recovery/lab folks are doing the best they can with what they are provided to get a monumental task accomplished. Humble Host notes that DPAA announced today, the identification of Navy RF-8 pilot Commander Charles B. Goodwin, who was lost on 7 September 1965 just north of Dong Hoi, North Vietnam. He will be buried on 12 October in Abilene, Texas, ending a 53-year wait by a proud and greatly relieved family, who waited, and waited, and waited….
When your Member of Congress says she/he understands and supports the “never forget–POW/MIA–leave no man behind” requirement, does he/she know how long the families are being asked to wait for the “active pursuit” of their fallen warrior? Visit them while they are home with the current DPAA Newsletter and a few of the stories from the POWNETWORK in hand to leave with their respective staffs. Something to stir their interest… make them sweat. There are more than 1,000 MIAs waiting in line for dedicated pursuit, including Frank Armstrong III, who has been on the ground in Laos 51 years today… and the family waits…
RTR quote for 6 October: LAURENCE BINYON: “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.”…
Lest we forget… Bear