RIPPLE SALVO… #161… IN SO MANY WORDS…but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE of a review of the air war fought over North Vietnam fifty years ago…
9 August 1966… PAGE ONE OF THE HOME TOWN NEWS… NYT…A partly cloudy and humid Tuesday in New York City…
Page 1: “Communist Force Batters U.S. Unit In Highlands”…”About three companies of Communist troops severely mauled a company sized unit of the United States First Cavalry Division in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands yesterday. Casualties were described as heavy. Observers speculated that of the 200 men in the unit taking part in Operation Paul Revere II, 10-percent had been killed and 15=percent wounded (i.e., 20KIA/30 WIA). There was no estimate of Communist casualties in the two hour battle. The Communists, estimated at about 600, retired after Allied reinforcements arrived on the scene in Pleiku province about 180 miles north of Saigon. Two American helicopters crashed in the area…”… Page 1: “Politicians See War Issue Hurting Democrats In Fall”…”Glenn Carney whose work as a lobbyist and public relations man…has made him an astute and experienced analyst of Montana politics was asked what effect the war in Vietnam would have on Democratic Senator Lee Metcalf’s reelection chances. “The better the war goes, the more it helps the Democrats…political analysts, candidates, reporters and strategists across the country tend to agree with Mr. Carny’s assessment. They also agree that as yet the war isn’t going well enough to help the Democrats, in fact most politicians agree that if anything, the Vietnam war issue will likely be a damaging issue for Democrats in this election.”… Page 1: “Fuel Leak Hinted In Crash of Jet“…”Turbulent weather and the possibility of a fuel tank leak preceded the crash of an airliner in which 42 persons died Saturday in Nebraska. Witnesses said the plane fell almost straight down in a ball of flames from a cloudy midnight sky. What can envelope an all metal plane in flames?…fuel.”…
Page 20: “Welfare Groups To Organize Poor”… “A movement to organize the nation’s poor into a cohesive force against Federal, state and municipal bureaucracies will be started next month according to Dr. George Wiley, director of the Poverty action Center in Washington. reporting today on the first national meeting held in Chicago over the weekend by more than 100 representatives from 24 cities, Dr. Wiley said the drive would culminate with a nationwide demonstration in January to dramatize the presence of the organized poor as a new force in American public life. According to official reports there are almost eight million Americans living on public assistance–an increase of 42-per cent since 1950. However, only one out of five Americans classified as poor by the Federal government receive public assistance.”…Page 2: “Dr. King Proposes Annual Incomes”… “Senator Edward Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called tonight for billions of dollars in Federal spending for American Negroes. Dr. King said he would open an intensive campaign for a guaranteed income law. Senator Kennedy outlined a more conventional spending program for swimming pool/recreational parks in Ghetto areas and massive educational programs to upgrade the skills of Negroes and to keep Negro youth off the streets. King: ‘If society does not provide a job for a man, then it must not strip him of an income. I would prefer getting an annual income through providing jobs–massive public works and job training programs–but if this is not done then society should provide people with enough money to live.’ Kennedy: ‘We are spending two billion dollars a month to defend the freedom of 14 million people in South Vietnam. Why shouldn’t we make the same kind of effort for the 20 million people of the Negro race right here in America, whose freedom and future are also at stake.’ These remarks were made at an annual conference of the southern Christian leadership Conference attended by 1,200. The Jackson police force found 50 to 100 pounds of carpet tacks along the route Senator Kennedy took from Jackson’s airport to the convention at Hotel Heidelberg.”…
Page 1: “Mississippi Negroes Say Police Used Gas”…” Civil rights workers in Grenada, Mississippi charged that policemen and state highway patrolmen had used tear gas, night sticks and gunfire to disperse a peaceful Negro street rally this evening. Twelve hundred Negroes had complied with police orders but police employed tear gas anyway.”… Page 20: “2 Rights Rallies Set Near Chicago”…”Civil rights leaders said tonight that they plan two demonstrations this week in white communities that have not experienced such protests before. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, an aide to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, told a rally that the demonstrations would be held in Bogan, a Chicago neighborhood nine miles southwest of the Chicago downtown area. Cicero is the other area to be marched on.”…
9 August 1966… The President’s Daily Briefing… CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: the Buddhists are mounting a new effort to get international attention and make next month’s elections as difficult as possible. On Saturday the Buddhist association fired off a letter to the UN complaining of government oppression and mistaken US policy. Next came a communique from the association demanding a civilian government now and calling on all the faithful to boycott the elections for a constitutional convention. The Buddhists probably do not have the strength to risk summoning up the street mobs again–their political line is getting a little threadbare, even for Vietnam. But their malice runs deep and they clearly intend to contribute any disruptive background noises possible as elections draw near…. South Vietnam: Malaria appears to be a major problem among Communist troops. Prisoners, defectors, and captured documents all point to a high incidence with some units reporting almost every guerrilla ill. Of 20 prisoners captured on 6 August at least half had malaria… North Vietnam: The skipper of a Chinese Communist merchant ship in Haiphong harbor last month was stopped by the North Vietnamese when he fired on US aircraft overhead. A European merchant officer who watched the episode through binoculars reports that port officials told him later they had ordered the Chinese to knock it off for fear US pilots would return fire and endanger other shipping in the harbor….
9 AUGUST 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT: not a single word in print reporting on RT ops for 9 August. In addition, there were NO fixed wing aircraft lost in all of Southeast Asia on this date….oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #161… “The Spirit of Attack”… is the paramount quality in the heart of a warrior. One warrior so endowed is a national asset. A nation can’t survive without legions of these brave and bold fighters. When we organize these special humans imbued with the “spirit of attack” into fighting units, the synergistic effect of one among many can produce an unbeatable frontline combat ready, willing and able team to engage an enemy. A carrier Air Wing melds as many as nine squadrons into one powerful fighting unit, embarks them on a carrier and deploys them forward in Harm’s Way… the fighting quality of that carrier-air wing team in combat will be determined by the level of fighting spirit they bring to the battlefield.
During the Vietnam War more than 20 Light Attack squadrons were home based at NAS Lemoore in California’s Central Valley. One of those squadrons stood above all others during the period of Rolling Thunder, or at least the “World Famous Golden Dragons” of VA-192 believed and acted as if that was so. And the “Golden Worms,” as the other squadrons knew them, were indeed very good and won more than their share of operational, administrative (especially Public Information), maintenance, and safety awards. And they exuded, individually and collectively, the “spirit of attack.” “Gang way, Golden Dragon.”
I was pawing through Jeffrey Levinson’s “Alpha Strike Vietnam” (1989) Sunday as I watched my guy Jim Furyk apply the “spirit of attack” links-style in the fourth round of a PGA tourney (and score a record low 58), He was the embodiment of “fighting spirit”. What I seized on was Ed’s contribution to Stevenson’s excellent history of the carrier Navy’s role in the Vietnam air war. My understanding of the source, mystique and aura of superiority (“spirit of attack” ??) of the VA-192 Golden Dragons benefitted from the following few paragraphs of Ed McKellar’s explanations… Ed McKellar?… one of the GREAT ones!!! Ed: Luvyaman, Rest in Peace …. (pgs 144-145)……..
“At this time (1966) there were some eighteen or so squadrons at Lemoore and the Navy had set up this competitive system for the Battle E (Efficiency) Award and the Safety Award. Whether or not those particular elements accurately measured a squadron is not important, the fact was they were being awarded by the Navy for the best battle efficiency, based on numerous measures, and the best safety record, those honors were available to win, and so I figured we’ve got to be the best on the mountain in our community. Once you get to be the best, cram it down the other guy’s throat. This way you get all the other squadrons to hate you, and it’s competitive hate, because you’re the king of the mountain. It’s my guys against everybody else.
“By getting this syndrome going, and first you had to be the best–you can’t be lousy and say you’re good because everybody laughs at you–then every time you go to happy hour, you go in a glob. We never went to happy hour unless all of us were there except the duty officer. I felt nothing could be worse than to walk in at happy hour at Lemoore and have people ignore you. We’d walk in and everybody would say, “Here come the Golden Worms,” and that type thing. Super, we fed on it. They noticed us. To be ignored was unacceptable, and the JO’s felt it. You against the world, because when you get over there, to Vietnam, and got feet dry, it was you against the world. So we just used the other squadrons as training vehicles, and there was one helluva lot of leadership at Lemoore in those days. We were just an element of it.
“In combat we were better than everybody else out there. Whether we were or not is immaterial because each one of those guys in the ready room were convinced we were Gxx damn good. We were good at winning Es, we were good at safety awards, we were good at every competitive measure, so we had to be good out there. It’s all up in your head, and we, the squadron leaders, kept reinforcing this by saying the other squadrons just can’t wait to knock you guys off. Quit screwing around at the ramp. Tighten up the landing intervals, pay attention over the beach. Its not the Vietnamese, it these other squadrons just waiting to knock us off. You couldn’t beat the Vietnamese under the frigging rules and guidelines coming down from Washington, D.C.; you couldn’t win that war. So let’s fight this one, and that was part of the motivation.” end quote.
The Golden Dragon formula for pumping fire into the bellies of their extraordinary lineup of weapons delivery warriors, senior and junior, was effective. Whether or not their collective and readily apparent fighting spirit was derived from Ed’s master plan or not, they had it, and they employed it. The VA-192 Golden Dragons of the Rolling Thunder years were a fighting unit manned from top to bottom by warriors full of fight…and the “Spirit of Attack… oohrah….
Final note…Jeff Levinson’s “Vietnam Alpha Strike” is a superb read for the grandkids of anybody who flew in the Vietnam War… Good story-telling by 23 guys with stories worth reading… brilliantly edited by Jeff, a real pro writer/editor…and there is this: this “old”(1989 ed.) book is available at abebooks.com dirt cheap and probably free delivery…
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….