RIPPLE SALVO… WBLCs…..but first…
Good Morning: Day FORTY of a return to 1966 and Operation Rolling Thunder… “the air war with North Vietnam.”
9 APRIL 1966 (NYT)…ON THE HOMEFRONT… a cloudy Saturday for the whole east coast…Page 1: “U.S. PRESIDENT ASSAILS BUDDHIST LEADER IN SAIGON AS DESPOTIC.” Report states misgivings about Tri Quang while praising his rival as “more moderate.” Another headline: “Hope for Truce is Erased in Saigon–Anti-American Demonstrations Go On.” Article states that the Johnson Administration is berating prominent Buddhist leaders as a divisive element and that President Johnson is discouraged by their hasty judgments of Ky’s attempts at compromise…Mid-page 1: Large picture of retrieved H-bomb off Palomares on the deck of the recovery ship Petrel. Unusual publicity in order to reassure the Spanish and the world that a recovery had actually occurred after 80-days of searching and failing…On page 2: “3 New Army Training Camps” planned for Fort Lewis in Washington, Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Training at Fort Benning geared up with addition of 4500 troops to staff and at Fort Bliss in Texas weekly output of 1000 troops increased to 10,000 per week… the Air Force also announced a speedup in training by reducing boot camp from a 5-week curriculum to a one month program…Furor over Draft deferment test leads to agreement to allow non-college technical training students to take the test for a 2-S deferment…Page 3: a war report from Saigon: “U.S. Bombers Sink 12 Junks Supplying the Viet Cong.” The boats were caught by Enterprise and Hancock pilots who sank 12 and damaged 32 … The Air Force operations were limited to route package 1…B-52s pounded a target 65 miles southeast of Danang… LBJ was in San Antonio to sign an extension on time to enroll in Medicare…a note on Social Security: folks were paying 4.2% on the first $6,600 of income… and Minimum Wage was up from 8cents per hour to proposed 25cents per hour…Sports: Masters underway and first round leader Nicklaus dropped back with a 76 on the second round. Leaders; Peter Butler and Paul Harney with Arnie Palmer and Doug Sanders a stroke back…Al Davis named Commissioner of AFL…
9 APRIL 1966…ROLLING THUNDER… The VFP-63 Detachment on Hancock lost an RF-8A, and the pilot, LTJG THOMAS GAVIN WALSTER…The young aviator’s RF-8 was hit and damaged by ground fire during a photo reconnaissance run near Vinh but he was able to keep the aircraft flying on a divert to Danang. Unfortunately, when LTJG WALSTER lowered the landing gear he was unable to control the aircraft. He immediately raised the gear, regained control of his aircraft, flew the aircraft out over the Gulf of Tonkin, and ejected well clear of the beach. He had a good chute and was alive in the water but unable to get free of his chute. Although a rescue swimmer entered the water from the attending recovery helicopter to assist the pilot, the jumper was unable to save LTJG WALSTER before he was pulled under by the chute. LTJG THOMAS GAVIN WALSTER Killed in Action 50-years ago this day…We remember while he rests in peace…
RIPPLE SALVO… WBLCs…. Coastal recce was a regularly scheduled mission for the Gulf of Tonkin carrier attack pilots. These missions were flown at about 2000-feet or below the cloud base and the aircraft were armed with forward firing rockets or 20mm strafing ammo for shallow diving attacks on the water borne targets. The mission was not without hazard since every surface contact was assumed, with reason, to be armed and shooting. No exceptions. The New York Times report above credited “Navy pilots with sinking 12 Junks and damaging 32.” Junks, barges, fishing boats, motorized barges, or boats all fit the collective title “water borne logistic craft,” WBLCs. They were targets. However, from my experience, our strike pilots used utmost discretion and common sense in separating out the fishermen from the loggies. If the observed WBLC was medium to large in size it was a legitimate target and got shot at. If it was motorized it got shot at. And the final test– if it is headed north or south as opposed to east or west, it was shot at. The logic here: fishers were coming or going from the beach or dead in the water and working their nets; the north/south traffic was packing more than fish, and were why we were there. Unfortunately, the 600-foot tankers and freighters doing business with our enemy got a free pass. Hardly anything more discouraging for an attack pilot than to make a low pass on a freighter headed north to Haiphong and spy a deck full of road graders. Finding a road grader hidden in the trees along highway 15 in Happy Valley was like looking for a praying mantis in a six-foot hedge. LIMITED WAR CHALLENGES COMMON SENSE. Stanley Karnow, writing in “Vietnam: A History:” …”Even though the U.S. bombing campaign escalated drastically during the period, imports reaching North Vietnam BY SEA more than doubled to about 1.4 million tons between 1965 and 1967. ” Now, how do you suppose that happened?….
Lest we forget… Bear ……………………………………. –30– ……………………………………..