ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 23 MARCH 1966

Good Morning: Day TWENTY-THREE of our look back at Operation Rolling Thunder…Fifty Years Ago…

23 MARCH 1966 (NYT)… ON THE HOMEFRONT … LATE ADD: Several items of note from March 22 NYT come first (your Humble Host misplaced a page of notes)… March 22 page 6…”In a copyrighted interview published in U.S. News and World Report, Admiral Ulysses S. Grant Sharp, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, said that hitting targets around Hanoi and Haiphong ‘would facilitate the job we have.'”

Also: General Matthew Ridgeway, Army Chief of Staff, writing in Look Magazine, was quoted: “The Korean War…taught us that it is impossible to interdict the supply routes of an Asian army by air power alone…it remains easy for the civilian mind to be seduced with talk of easy conquest through air power.” General Maxwell added that it is not enough to justify or have as the goal…”…to provide freedom for the people to choose their way of life, or standing up to the communists.” He said: “we must define our aims to ever expanding war.”…

LGEN JAMES GAVIN also commented: “US forces in Vietnam should limit themselves to holding coastal enclaves while pursuing peace efforts.”…

23 March 1966 … THE HOMEFRONT… A rainy day in New York and cloudy day in Washington… Page 13 headline: “War Funds Voted in Senate 87-2.” The $13.1 billion supplemental appropriation now goes to conference with the House. “The only dissenting votes were cast by Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska.”…. The Senate took full opportunity of the LBJ request for more War Funds to debate and discuss the Administration Southeast Asia policy. The bill was discussed in both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and on the floor of the Senate. Policy also came under fire at the University of Connecticut where Senator William Fulbright gave a speech. He charged that the President’s vision of a Great Society would remain an empty dream as long as the United States is engaged militarily in Southeast Asia. He said: “There is a kind of madness in the facile assumption that we can raise the many millions of dollars necessary to rebuild our schools and cities and public transport and eliminate the pollution of air and water while also spending tens of millions to finance the open ended war in Asia.”….Several column inches on page 14 covering the air war in the North. Headline: US Bombers Pound 50 Truck Convoy in North. it was called “a rare find” and BDA was 10 of the enemy vehicles wrecked and 17 damaged. It wasn’t a turkey shoot–the site was defended by 14 gun positions. The stalled convoy was spotted by an Air Force F-105 fighter-bomber armed recce mission on Highway 15 (Happy Valley) 60 miles south of Vinh. No aircraft were lost in the mission, but an RF-F101 was downed on a photo recon mission 40 mile north of Vinh, The pilot was reported as MIA. The Navy flew 38 missions against transportation system targets. The Marines lost an A-4 and one Helicopter in operations in South Vietnam… Also on page 14, the little one inch box item that reported that the United States lost 21 more troops Killed in Action… LBJ hosted a reception at the White House for Chief Justice Warren…

23 MARCH 1966… ROLLING THUNDER … Intense tempo of operations in the lower route packages by Air Force and Navy. The Air force lost an F-100F Wild Weasel Detachment of the 6234 TFW at Korat. The aircraft was crewed by MAJOR CLYDE DUANE DAWSON and CAPTAIN DONALD E. CLARK and attacking a SAM site 20 miles northwest of Vinh when gunned down by ground fire. the aircraft crashed five miles away killing MAJOR DAWSON and CAPTAIN CLARK, Killed In Action…

Two F-105s were downed by 37mm anti-aircraft fire in North Vietnam above the DMZ while conducting armed reconnaissance and strafing attacks on trucks in the Annamite Mountains. Both pilots ejected and were rescued by helicopter after flying their respective aircraft away from the target area. Surviving to fight again: MAJOR R.A. HILL and 1LT KENNETH DEANE THOMAS. …USS Enterprise lost an A-4C and pilot from VA-93 returning from a night mission during recovery in bad weather. LCDR JOHN BETHEL TAPP flew into the water on an; instrument approach final eight miles short of the carrier. Debris was found at the impact point but there was no recovery of LCDR TAPP’s body… No easy nights, either.

RIPPLE SALVO…. FLEEING FORWARD…..Your Humble Host always considered tailhooking to be all fun by day and all work by night. But a conversation with a Navy Flight surgeon in 1959 almost grounded me forever  — that was his recommendation to my Commanding Officer. The conversation was casual and the Doctor asked me how I liked flying off the carrier. I told him that it is all fun during the day and all work at night. He said, you mean you are afraid to fly off the carrier at night. I responded with a casual comment that I think everybody feels apprehension and a little fear before that night cat shot, but you “just flee forward.” Two weeks later I picked up my medical record to go take a requal of my survival swimming (including the famous Dilbert Dunker). While awaiting my turn for a dunking, I noticed a pink strip of paper in my medical record that was filled out and signed by the Flight Surgeon. Bottom Line: “Recommend LTJG Taylor be grounded. He is afraid to fly off the carrier at night.” I lost it. I ripped the page out of the record and tossed it. Then realized it was part of an official record and retrieved the wadded slip. The following Monday I took the crumpled page and my medical record to see my Commanding Officer. I stood in front of the CO and XO and told them what I’d done in reaction to the Flight Surgeon’s recommendation. The two senior officers looked at each other as the CO put out his hand for the pink slip, which I handed him. He took it, crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash. And said: “Bear, the Doc came to see us last week and told us you were afraid to fly off the carrier and should be grounded. We threw him out and told him, if we ground Bear we will have to ground the entire squadron.” With that I was dismissed. And that was the last time I ever talked to a Navy Flight Surgeon. The fact is, night flying off a carrier is a very demanding trade and a little adrenalin goes a long way in assisting a tailhooker rise to the demand for a flawless performance getting off, and getting back aboard a moving deck hundreds of miles away from an alternative landing site. The tragic event summarized above, LCDR TAPP’s last flight, is indicative of the demand for a top performance every time, all the time you salute the Cat Officer and go for a ride. Tailhooking is fun in the daylight, all work at night, and mercilessly unforgiving of error at any time. And it is also the greatest job in the world, especially when combined with the additional shot of adrenalin that sucks the moisture out of your mouth as you go feet dry and start jinking toward the guns….I call it “fleeing forward.”

Lest we forget…Bear

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