RIPPLE SALVO… #429… CURIOSITY SATISFIED: LBJ does barbecues while Grizzly 1 does Route Pack IV…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE of a Rolling Thunder journal 50years after the fact…
8 MAY 1967… HEAD LINES and leads from The New York Times on a showery Monday in NYC… Page 1: “U.S. Crime Panel Finds Inequities in Lower Courts”… “The President’s National Crime Review Commission said today that inequities caused by the overloading of the nation’s lower courts were hindering crime-prevention efforts…it suggested that laws concerning gambling, prostitution, abortion and homosexuality and narcotics might well be modified ‘to bring the written laws in closer conformity to the law as it is in fact.’ “... Page 1:”Maoists Say Foes Force Wide Fight to Control China”…”Fresh displays to opposition and of disunity in revolutionary ranks appear to have jolted Maoist leaders in Peking…The Cultural Revolution has yet to achieve victory in-depth. Jenin Jih Pao declared that an extremely profound and widespread struggle lay ahead before final victory could be claimed by the Cultural Revolution.”... Page 1: “Foes Fire Pounds Marine Positions”... “Enemy forces made four coordinated mortar attacks on United States Marine positions just south of the demilitarized zone today and followed up one barrage of 250 mortar rounds with a heavy ground assault. Heavy fighting was in progress in the area of Conthien, a new Marine camp 2 miles south of the buffer zone. At least 200 of the enemy were reported killed in the action…In scattered areas of South Vietnam over the weekend four United States helicopters crashed killing 12 Americans and injuring 44 South Vietnamese.”... Page 1: “Bonanno Regains Power In Mafia Gang”… “Joseph (Joe Bananas)Bonanno hs returned to a position of influence and profit in the Mafia gang from which he was forced at gunpoint two and a half years ago. They say the 62-year old underworld ‘chieftain’ comeback was maneuvered by his eldest son and heir apparent Salvatore, sometimes called Bull.”…
Page 8: “Genocide Laid to U.S. At ‘Trial’ “... “Ralph Schoenman, secretary to Bertrand Russell and secretary general of the so-called International War Crimes tribunal here in Stockholm charged the United State with attempting genocide in North Vietnam. Seventeen members of an unofficial ‘court’ are hearing charges against the United States in Vietnam. ‘It is not possible to drop four million pounds of bombs every day on a country the size of New York and Pennsylvania without exterminating the population–that is genocide. Whenever there are habitations and within those areas, especially whenever there are particular psycho-social achievements such as schools and hospitals around, which the lives of many people circulate, that is where the bombs are falling and the weapon most in evidence is the pellet (anti-personnel canister) bomb.’ “…
8 MAY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (9 May reporting 8 May ops)… Page 1: “In air action, American warplanes attacked the Hoalac MIG airbase for the fifth time yesterday, blowing up taxiways and revetment…and blasting huge holes in the runway. Air Force F-105s from Thailand attacked the jet fighter base 20 miles west of Hanoi. It was the eighth attack against MIG airbases. The first was made on April 24… American pilots flew through cloudy skies to hit targets in North Vietnam on 113 missions. The targets were mainly in the south with emphasis on roads, bridges, rail lines and trucks.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 8 May 1967...
(1) CAPTAIN MICHAEL K. McCUISTION was flying an F-105D of the 333rd TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli as #4 on an armed reconnaissance mission in the Mugia Pass area. The flight attacked rolling stock on a siding and CAPTAIN McCUISTION was hit hard by 37-mm ground fire on his tailend-charlie pass. He was forced to eject a few miles from the target area. A quickly organized RESCAP package was unable to reach CAPTAIN McCUISTION ahead of the North Vietnamese troops and he was captured, interned as a POW and in due course released in 1973.
(2) LTJG THOMAS JACK STEIMER and LTJG M.I. TUFT were flying an F-4B of the VF-114 Aardvarks embarked in USS Kitty Hawk over-rotated on the cat shot, stalled and fell into the sea head of the carrier. LTJG TUFT was able to eject, LTJG STEIMER failed to successfully ejected behind his RIO and was killed in the accident. His body was not recovered and he rests where he fell in the service of his country 50 years ago today…
RIPPLE SALVO… #429… Humble Host spent the summer of 2002 on the road and in the great archives and libraries of our great country. The coast-to-coast search for raw material for “the book”–working title: “The History of Dive Bombing”– included the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library in Austin. My inquiries in the LBJ library included a look at his daily diaries, including the month of May 1967. I wanted to know what the President was doing while nearly a half million guys were fighting–with growing numbers dying-, 10,000 so far — in Vietnam, and I was logging 29 2-pointers over North Vietnam from my bunk on Enterprise. I satisfied my curiosity despite the fact that at that time -2002- the tapes of LBJs conversations were not yet available to the public.
The President was at his ranch on the Pedernales River about 42 miles west of Austin and down the road from the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg from 4 to 8 May 1967. I was at Yankee Station and flew my 66th through 71st strike missions during the long weekend. Included were an alpha strike on the NVN Army barracks at Che Ne south of Hanoi; an armed recce mission that settled for some barges in the Song Ca river; another set of barges in the river south of Vinh near the ferry crossing; a great night mission that found a set of trucks with lights on in Happy Valley west of Ha Tinh to bomb before I also flared Highway 1 and lit up a lone truck with four MK-24 flares, then flew under the flares to chase him into a rice paddy with my 35-rounds of 20mm; led a division of A-4s to hit a storage area near Ninh Binh; and, dove a rack of bombs into the bridge at Dong Phong Thoung a little north of Thanh Hoa.
On 7/8 May I flew the missions to Happy Valley with the extracurricular activity under the flares (#69), Ninh Binh (#70) and Dong Phong Thoung (#71).
Here is what the President was doing according to his Office Diaries… From my LBJ Library notes…
Sunday May 7 at the Ranch…“At 8AM the President was in the den reading local morning papers and having melon balls…8:45…To the dining room to have breakfast with Mr. and Mrs Clark Clifford…10:02…The President departed the Main House with Mrs J. and Mr and Mrs Clifford and Mr. and Mrs McHugh, who were departing the ranch airstrip by Kingair for San Angelo… 10:13 President riding around the ranch…10:50 Johnsons and Cliffords depart by helicopter for John Hill Ranch, met by Hills… 11:15 Arrive at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cypress Mill, Texas…11:55 Depart Church for Hills residence…12:02 Lunch at Hills…1:42 Depart Hills by helo… 2:01 LBJ Ranch…2:05 Main house drop Cliffords at Cedar House; President goes to office, desk, worked mail which had come from Washington on May 6 plane…2:45 President to his bedroom for anap…2:50 Calls for a NYT… 3:55 Awake. Asked Jim Jones if all the people were here for 4PM meeting. Jones to President’s bedroom. 4:15 to 5:50 Met on front lawn of the Ranch House called together by Jake Jacobsen and Arthur Krim (strictly OTR) plan for a fund-raising dinner in near future…16 + Pres at meeting… Met with three wives… 5:50 President in office… 6:05 Departed the Ranch by helo with Mrs J., the Cliffords, Mr. Krim, Dr. Sanders and the McHughs… (6:05 to 11:03 in the company of Krims, an hour in a boat for an hour of cruising the river, and dinner at Haywood ranch) 11:03 Depart Haywood Ranch via helo “The President slept the entire trip.”… 11:18 arrive LBJ ranch… 11:22 In Main House and to bed…
8 May… LBJ Ranch… 8:15 The President was in the dining room with Luci and Pat for breakfast...9:00 The President went to his bedroom to dress in ranch clothes… 9:30 Back to dinning room to join the Clifford and McHughs… 9:48 Depart house by car with Cliffords and Mr. Killan 10:01 On Reagan Property… 10:11 At his birth place… 10:17 return to Cedar House for Cliffords to pack… 11:02 Back at Main House: signed a copy of “The President’s Country” to be auctioned off to benefit KLRN, Austin educational TV station…11:10 Joined Mrs. J to discuss hiring more carpenters to complete addition to the house…11:30 Back to office to check the ticker…11:45 Bedroom…12:00 riding around in convertible with Cliffords and Killians…12:40 Helo departed LBJ Ranch with McHughs, Williams’, Jim Jones, Jerry Kivett, Major Smith en route to Randolph… !:40 President’s Jetstar departs the Ranch with Pres and Mrs J, Cliffors, Krims, Dr. Sanders, Mrs Melechek, Mrs Hunter, Mrs Weinheimer, Paul Glynn and Dr Voss… 1:15 Jetstar at Randolph. President went to fences to shake hands and to try to divert the press interest from his other guests and passengers… 1:20 To Air Force One and immediately to bedroom with Mr and Mrs McHugh… 1:25 Wheels up en route to Andrews (full passenger list in the diary including 17 White house staff and 16 Secret Service) … 1:29 Jake Jacobsen and McHugh with President for lunch in bedroom…1:50 President asleep… 3:30 President awake, Clark Clifford joins… 4:57 Wheels down at Andrews. President still dressing as the plane landed and still talking to Clifford. Colonel Cross came to President’s compartment as soon as wheels were down and asked him to wait for five minutes because there was a severe thundertorm between Andrew and the White House and it could be a bumpy helo ride. (Short delay then helo to White House ) … 5:57 President to East Room for Reception for Participation in The Conference on Women on the War on Poverty…Remarks… 6:40 Oval Office with Marvin Watson 6:45-55 Chairman John Macy… ( to 7:30 several phone calls) 7:30-9:00 Working night reading in lounge… 8:33 Honorable John Macy re. White House Fellows just appointed Doris Kearns (Teaching Fellow from Harvard) to program. Kearns article: “How to Remove LBJ in 1968” is coming out on May 13 issue of New Republic… 9:16 to Mansion… 9:30 Dinner with Mrs J. and three ladies… 11:30 Retired…
Humble Host’s curiosity –“I wonder what the President is doing while I’m bagging traps at Yankee Station?”– was fully satisfied with the results of my inquiry. Back to Rolling Thunder… a better briar patch… that’s what the President and the Bear were doing 50 years ago on this date… what were you doing?…
Lest we forget…. Bear