RIPPLE SALVO… #340… A DFC the hard way: BULLPUP … but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED FORTY of a look back of fifty years to the air war America wants to forget…
8 FEBRUARY 1967… The New York Times HEAD LINES on a sunny and very cold Wednesday with snow up to the knees…
Page 1: “Blizzard Cripples East Coast”...”A 12.6-inch snow buffeted the city; Schools will be closed; Shops are closed,; Hotels are full; and Traffic is stalled. A mid-winter blizzard struck with paralyzing fury yesterday along the east coast from Washington to Nova Scotia, turning New York City into an arctic desert of blinding snow and freezing temperatures. The howling storm snarled traffic, grounded aircraft, disrupted harbor shipping, temporarily shutdown subway services, sent millions of workers home at mid-day, and filled the hotels as predicted weather warned of subzero temperatures…The snow at 12.6″ is the most to fall on New York since a 15″ storm of 1961. Most snow of all time–26.4″ on 26 December 1947.”… Page 1: “Panel is Reported Supporting Draft of Youngest First”… “The President’s commission on the draft will recommend the drafting of the youngest men first instead of the oldest and will propose that the gradual abolition of student deferments be given serious consideration. The commission will also recommend that those youths classified 1-A or fit for service, be chosen for military duty by a random selection process.”… Page 2: “April Draft Call”… “The Defense Department called today for a draft of 11,400 men into the Army in April. The quota was 500 fewer than the 11,900-man call for March and 500 more than the 10,900 inductions called for in February. The January draft was 15,600.”…Page 1: “Soviet Arms Deal Signed With Iran”… “The Soviet Union has signed a military aid agreement worth nearly $100-million with Iran, a member of the Central Treaty Organization. American officials said this was the first time that a member of a Western alliance had agreed to buy Soviet arms.”…
Page 2: “4-Day Cease-fire Begins In Vietnam”... “The pop of firecrackers replaced the roar of high explosives as combatants in the war put down their arms and began to celebrate Tet, the lunar New Year…two hours after the truce had begun the Vietcong opened fire twice on U.S. paratroopers…No other incidents were reported in the first five hours of the truce.”… Also: “Hanoi Notes Anniversary”–this day marked the second anniversary of the start of United States bombing with a statement– “Despite the bombing, North Vietnam is growing ever stronger as it fights and has now become steadier than before.”…Page 2: “3 Sailors in Capetown”… “The police early today found three sailors from the USS FDR who were reported missing when the ship left Capetown yesterday. The three sailors were all white and under 21.”… Page 3: “Wilson Says Misunderstanding Arose on Talks”… “Prime Minister Wilson said today that he thought ‘a very considerable two-way misunderstanding broke up efforts in December to arrange talks between the United States and North Vietnam. He spoke of ‘the Polish discussions.’ (MARIGOLD –see RTR for mid-December 1967) This gave substance to recent reports of a move by Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Ambassador in Vietnam to arrange contacts with Hanoi through a Polish diplomat. According to these reports some measure of a meeting between Americans and North Vietnamese representatives in Warsaw. But this collapsed when American planes bombed near Hanoi on December 13 and 14.”…
8 February 1967… The President’s Daily Brief… CIA (TS sanitized)… VIETNAM: During the first 20 hours of the ceasefire there were 14 major and 31 minor incidents reported. A major incident is defined as one resulting in casualties or a heavy volume of weapons fire. This represents an increase over corresponding periods during the Christmas and New Year truces. Not unexpectedly, coastal shipping in the southern part of Vietnam increased greatly following the Tet stand-down… NORTH VIETNAM: Soviet shipping to North Vietnam during January was slightly higher than the monthly average of last year. The number of Soviet ships arriving or en route so far this month indicates that the higher volume will continue into March. The over-all figures on imports to North Vietnam by sea during 1966 were up by 34%, mainly because of stepped-up aid deliveries from the Russians. Free world shipping dropped off last year…
8 February 1967…U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT Office of the Historian... The Tet cease-fire brought a flurry of interesting memos, letters and conversations that are worthy of including in this review of the air war– the bombing of North Vietnam. First there was a letter from President Johnson transmitted to the Pope on 8 February that explained the American position, reviewed all of LBJs attempts to get peace talks going, and thanked him for asking… The document also includes a similar letter from Ho Chi Minh to the Pope … Both letters in their entirety are at
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d42
A second document dated 7 February is a memo from Rostow to LBJ bucking a telegram from the British in London detailing the ongoing conversations between Prime Minister Wilson and Soviet leader Kosygin concerning a viable plan to get peace talks going. This document explains the “A-B form” or approach that was part of the conversation: A: Americans stop bombing, then B: both sides make simultaneous cessation of adding troops to South Vietnam forces. Exchanges at...
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d41
A third document worth a look by RTR readers is the 8 February 1967 “Summary Notes of the 568th Meeting of the National Security Council” that sums up a discussion of “Bombing of North Vietnam,” including comments by CJCS Wheeler, and Secretaries Rusk and McNamara… “General wheeler: A North Vietnamese promise to talk is not enough to lead us to halt the bombing.”…Summary Notes at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d43
I am including here a “Telegram from the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State” dated 8 February as indicative of Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge’s weekly reports from Saigon. Very little in these weekly reports that mention of concern the bombing of the North. Included solely for information… Telegram at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d45
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… COLONEL NORMAN SCHMIDT, USAF… the AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS (POSTHUMOUSLY) to NORMAN SCHMIDT, COLONEL,United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 1 September 1966 to 28 august 1967. Through his extraordinary heroism and willpower in the face of the enemy, COLONEL SCHIMDT reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”
Among COLONEL SCHMIDT’s combat awards: the Air Force Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross (2), Air Medal (5), Purple Heart, Air Force Commendation Medal with Valor “V”, and the Prisoner of War Medal.
Colonel Schmidt was downed while flying an F-104 on a strafing attack on a truck park about 25 miles northeast of Dong Hoi on 1 September. An extensive rescue effort failed and COLONEL SCHMIDT was imprisoned in Hanoi. The following is quoted from “Honor Bound” by Rochester and Kiley...Page 105: “Major Norman Schmidt… would be killed by the Vietnamese or die in prison–the circumstances are not clear–a year after his capture. All told…eight of the 1966 group (of POWs) would die in captivity, evidence of the return of hard times (intense torture) following the Christmas 1966 Tet lull… Page 305: “Although there is no evidence of any outright execution at Vegas (one of the POW prisons) in 1967, at least one prisoner appears to have died from mistreatment, Norm Schmidt was last seen by his Desert Inn companions being led off to interrogation one day in late August; from their own anxious encounter with “Greasy” (an NVN interrogation officer) cellmates of Schmidt …concluded that Schmidt had angered the unpredictable “Greasy” and suffered a fatal beating. Others narrowly survived.” Colonel Schmidt’s remains were returned to the United States in March 1974. …some gave all…
8 February 1967…Operation Rolling Thunder... New York Times (9 Feb reporting 8 Feb ops) Page 3: “Unarmed air reconnaissance over North Vietnam is continuing to patrol for security purposes because of asserted previous enemy truce violations. The U.S. lost an RF-101 that was downed 15 miles north of Dong Hoi, just north of the DMZ. In addition the U.S. Destroyer Stoddard received hits from shore batteries in an exchange of gunfire. There was little damage and no casualties.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) One Fixed wing aircraft was lost on 8 February 1967.
(1) CAPTAIN J.H. ROGERS was flying an RF-101C of the 45th TRS and 460th TRW out of Tan Son Nhut was on a coastal reconnaissance mission and hit by ground fire in the area of Dong Hoi. He turned his burning aircraft seaward and ejected about eight miles off shore to be rescue by a U.S. Navy ship…
RIPPLE SALVO… #340… THIS ONE IS FOR ALL OF ROLLING THUNDER’s hundreds of AGM-12 B/C BULLPUP MISSILE SHOOTERS… In a 6 February 1967 New York Times article Hanson Baldwin had this to say about the Bullpup: “The Bullpup, a missile with a conventional warhead intended for use against bridges and hard point targets has two liabilities. It‘s warheads is not heavy enough to destroy some heavy bridges or concrete and steel installations, and its short range and guidance system expose the pilot to intense enemy ground fire. No accurate standoff missile which would enable the attacking plane to deliver ordnance beyond the range of enemy ground fire has been developed…as a result, the iron bomb of World War II and Korea, modified with low drag fins and streamlined shapes, are still the principle item of ordnance.”…
The following is a “Summary of Action” submitted with a recommendation for an award. I enter the whole document as a testimony to the administrative justification for every medal recommended during Operation Rolling Thunder. No shortcuts. I have chosen a Distinguished flying Cross recommendation for a squadron mate then and a dear friend ever since…Bill Bowes, a savvy Lieutenant in 1967 and a retired Vice Admiral now… I quote from a CVAN-65 letter to the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet dated 30 March 1967, Subject: Distinguished flying Cross; recommendation for…
In accordance with the provisions of references….. it is recommended that Lieutenant William Charles Bowes, United States Navy, attached to and serving with Attack Squadron ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN aboard USS ENTERPRISE (CVAN-65), be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and extraordinary achievement in aerial flight.
On 4 February 1967, Lieutenant BOWES, pilot of an A-4C aircraft on a flak suppression mission, participating in a highly successful twenty-nine plane coordinated attack against the Thanh Hoa, North Vietnam, railroad yard complex as part of a three carrier strike also involving USS TICONDEROGA (CVA-14) and USS KITTY HAWK (CVA-63).
The Thanh Hoa railroad yard is the largest railroad classification yard south of Hanoi and is a vital strategic link in the North Vietnamese supply route to the South. It consists of five tracks, two bypasses and one spur.
The Thanh Hoa target area is one of the most heavily protected sectors of North Vietnam. Thanh Hoa and its environs are defended by thirty-five Photo-Interpreter-Identified 37/57mm antiaircraft sites and ten radar controlled 85mm anti-aircraft sites. In addition, the strike group was well within the effective range of fourteen photo and elint confirmed SA-2 surface-to-air missile sites.
Briefed to select an active antiaircraft site in the target area, Lieutenant BOWES, armed with a AGM-12C proximity fuzed Bullpup missile, maintained tight formation integrity until the strike group approached Than Hoa. then detached from his division, he climbed to optimum attack altitude of 15,000-feet, which increased his vulnerability to surface-to-air missile attack, and searched out his target. As the strike group initiated their dive bombing attack on the key railroad facilities, Lieutenant BOWES observed eight flak sites commence firing. Establishing himself in a stable thirty degree dive, he selected a 37/57 site southeast of the Thanh Hoa bridge from which seven guns were firing intensely at the vulnerable attacking aircraft. As he fired his missile, Lieutenant BOWES was also taken under fire by the site and their accurately aimed fire followed and burst in close proximity to his aircraft. He continued his (“six to ten second”) attack and expertly guided his missile into the weapon site. A large fireball enveloped the well revetted gun position silencing the several weapons at the site. Recovering at a dangerously low altitude and slow airspeed in an area of intense opposition over the Thanh Hoa bridge, Lieutenant BOWES successfully maneuvered to ovoid the intense enemy barrage of fire and cleared the area to sea.
Lieutenant BOWES extraordinary airmanship, perfect missile attack on a major enemy defensive position and his valiant actions in the face of enemy antiaircraft fire contributed substantially to the success of this and other missions in the Thanh Hoa area on 4 and 5 February 1967. …The two-day, three carrier attacks produced devastating damage to the targets take under attack in the Thanh Hoa area and was accomplished without the loss of an aircraft. COMMANDER SEVENTH FLEET message the following to the carriers and air wings of COMMANDER TASK FORCE SEVENTY-SEVEN at Yankee Station: “Well Done. Your Devastating attack on the Thanh Hoa rail complex yesterday was most impressive. My congratulations to all concerned with the planning and execution. VADM John J. Hyland.”
Lieutenant Bill Bowes, VA-113, was awarded his first DFC after more than 130 dives (“six seconds of do or die or both”) through fields of fire to strike military targets in North Vietnam… oohrah…
CAG’s QUOTES for 8 February: “VON CLAUSEWITZ: “No other feeling, however more common it may be or however more highly it may generally be regarded…can make ambition and thirst for glory unimportant.”… PATTON: “It is the unconquerable soul of man and not the nature of the weapon he used which insures victory.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear