Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #675… A DAY TO REMEMBER AN OLD SHIPMATE… CAPTAIN DENIS R. WEICHMAN, USN…and… PART II of the COMUSMACV 1967 Command History (TS declassified in 1984)…but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE of a remembrance of the service and sacrifice of the men who carried the Vietnam war to the heartland of North Vietnam in an air war called ROLLING THUNDER…
11 JANUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cold Thursday in New York City…
Page 1: “JOHNSON APPEARS ADAMANT ON RAIDS–HE SEEMS DETERMINED NOT TO HALT BOMBING UNTIL HANOI OFFERS TO REDUCE ACTIONS”… “President Johnson is now in his third week at his ranch and, besides getting a lot of work done on his new year’s legislative and budget proposals, he has been screened off by the Texas hills from the agitation in Washington about the value or another gesture for peace in Vietnam. The indications now are that he will head back to the capital this weekend determined to resist the pressure for a pause in the bombing of North Vietnam if, as most Administration officials believe, Hanoi has nothing else to offer in return. Behind this resolve is a realization that North Vietnam may well score some propaganda points around the world with its offer to talk if the bombing of its territory stops. But the Administration calculates that a long bombing pause while the war in the South dragged on would hurt even more among most Americans than a resumption of bombing while the talks dragged on would lead to an even worse propaganda setback around the world. All this rests on the belief that the talks North Vietnam is offering would not quickly yield a satisfactory settlement. So that is the private estimate of the President and all of his top advisors, though they are as they have said in public, asking Hanoi for evidence that their suspicion is wrong.”… Page 1: “HANOI SAID TO REAFFIRM STAND”… Page 1: “Sihanouk Agrees To Seek Build-Up of Border Guard–Cambodian Leader Asserts Bowles Assured Him U.S. Plans No Hot Pursuit–Talks Continue Today–Prince Favors Investigation By Geneva Control Group of Territorial Violations”… Page 3: “Cambodian Talks Gratifying to U.S.–Officials Say the Talks Have Gone Well So Far”… Page 1: “Israel Builds Boats to Counter Egyptians’ Missile Firing Craft”… Page 18: “U.S. Concerned Over Missile That Sank Egyptian Ship Elath–After Study Officials Stress Soviet Weapon Could Peril Warships Off Vietnam”…
Page 5: “VIETCONG PRESS DRIVE FROM HIGHLANDS TO DELTA BASE AND TOWNS SHELLED–CIVILIAN DEATHS REPORTED”… “The Vietcong continued their new year’s offensive today with a series of attacks from the central highlands to the Mekong Delta. A 25th United States Infantry Division and battalion command post 24 miles northwest of Saigon was assaulted. In the highlands infiltrators slipped into an American airfield at Kontum and blew up a number of helicopters. Just after sunset the Vietcong attacked a company of marines 24 miles southeast of the Third Marine Division headquarters at Phubai, between Hue and Danang. A United States spokesman said that the enemy fired mortars and recoilless rifles wounding 12 marines. With artillery support the marines beat back the Vietcong force.”… Page 2: “Pentagon Identifies Men Killed IN Vietnam”… 45 American servicemen were killed in action in Vietnam….
11 January 1968…The President’s Daily Brief… NORTH VIETNAM: Vietnamese Communist propoganda has again endorsed the idea of a coalition government in South Vietnam and simultaneously condemned Saigon for seeking to block avenues to peace. In doing so, Hanoi seems more interested in fanning the unrest in the South over this issue than in spelling out what it means when it calls for a coalition government…… NORTH VIETNAMESE RAILWAYS: Comments on the North Vietnamese railway system…along the major rail lines are stockpiled at two kilometer intervals materials to facilitate rapid bomb damage repair. Bridge repair crews normally consist of about 16 men augmented by as many locally recruited civilians as are necessary, sometimes in the thousands, to complete the repairs. Repair work on a damaged rail or railroad bridge section may begin a soon as two hours after a bombing raid. Often temporary bridges are constructed that are not strong enough to bear the weight of a locomotive. In such cases, the railroad cars are pushed across the bridge by one engine and hooked up to another on the other side. As a rule trains move at night, are about one kilometer long with either two engines at the front, or one at either end. Passenger cars also usually move at night and are mixed with cargo cars. The majority of the trains traveling from Hanoi to Lang Son on the Chinese border are armed with antiaircraft artillery and/or machine guns.
11 January 1968… State Department, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations, Vietnam 1964-68, Volume 6… Two documents are referenced for reading. Document 8. is a telegram from Assistant Secretary of State Bundy to the President at his ranch in Texas that provides the details of discussions with the Romanians in Washington concerning the Romanians offer to provide middleman duty attempting to get the US and DRV together for a start on peace talks. Good reading that includes the specific messages between NVN and the US… A second document, “9.” is the “Memorandum of Conversation” in Washington with the Romanians that is Secretary Rusk’s final brief of the Romanian minister before he takes off for NVN..
Document 8. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d8
Document 9. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d9
11 JANUARY 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (12 Jan reporting 11 Jan ops)… Page 6: “In the air war, enemy surface-to-air missiles were fired at B-52 bombers during attacks inside the demilitarized zone. The disclosure of missile firing sites within a few miles of South Vietnam brought retaliatory attacks by United States Air Force and Marine jets. The American spokesman said that none of the B-52s had been struck. One site was four miles north of the DMZ and the other five miles north. There were no immediate damage results. Farther north pilots used radar to bomb through cloud layers in attacks on the Hoalac air base 20 miles west of Hanoi and Caonung railroad yard 55 miles northeast of Hanoi… “VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES” (Chris Hobson) There were two fIxed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 11 January 1968…
(1) COMMANDER DELBERT AUSTIN OLSON, Executive Officer VO-67, LTJG PHILLIP PAUL STEVENS, LTJG DENIS LEON ANDERSON, LTJG ARTHUR CHARLES BUCK, PO2 DONALD NELLIS THORESEN, PO2 KENNETH HARRY WIDON, PO2 MICHAEL LAND ROBERTS, PO2 RICHARD MICHAEL MANCINI, and PO3 GALE ROBERT SIOW were flying an OP-2E Neptune of VO-67 operating out of Nakhon Phanom on a daylight sensor delivery mission in Steel Tiger in bad weather. The aircraft failed to return from the mission. An extensive search was conducted and the crash site was found 45 miles northwest of the demilitarized zone. The wreckage was found 150-feet below the ridge of a 4,580-foot mountain. The condition of the wreckage and the circumstances of the crash in hostile territory precluded a search for bodies and all nine members of the crew were reported as killed-in-action. The remains of all nine warriors were recovered on 10 July 2001 and positively identified for burial at home on 20 May 2003… Our thoughts are with their families as they mark the 50th year of the tragic loss of their respective VO-67 airman… Leave no man behind…
(2) LCDR DENIS R. WEICHMAN was flying an A-4E of the VA-164 Ghost Riders embarked in USS Oriskany and leading a Steel Tiger mission to strike a bridge near Ban Dong Pang in southern Laos. On his third run he felt the impact of antiaircraft fire and set a course for home–USS Oriskany. LCDR WEICHMAN stuck with his rough runner until it burst into flames over the Gulf of Tonkin. He ejected about 25 miles short of Oriskany and was rescued by a Navy helicopter from HS-6. It was thir third pick-up in two days. Peter Mersky tells the story of this flight in His book; “US Navy and Marine Corps A-4 Skyhawk Units of the Vietnam War 1963-1973“… “…on 11 January…Lt. Cdr Denis Weichman attacked a bridge in Laos and was hit by small arms fire as he pulled up from his run. With his engine vibrating and the temperature gauge rising, he headed for the water, some distance away. Finally over the China Sea, but still several miles from Oriskany, Weichman ejected after the A-4 started to burn. (He suffered a broken leg in the ejection sequence). Picked up by a helicopter, he later told his wife that it seemed forever before he was rescued. Enemy boats were coming for him, but they were kept away by members of his flight, who dived and strafed the oncoming vessels. When she asked him if he was afraid of sharks, he replied that he was more concerned about the venomous sea snakes that swam in those waters.
“Denis Weichman had received his wings in March 1957 and had flown Skyraiders with VA-25. After a shore tour as a flight instructor, he went to Vietnam in 1964 as an advisor to the VNAF. Standing nearly 6 ft. 6 in. he towered over his pupils, but Weichman’s easy smile and piloting skills quickly helped him establish himself. During this time, he began flying night combat missions in the C-123 cargo aeroplanes, dropping and supplying saboteurs in North Vietnam. Thus, when he returned to the Navy and moved to the A-4, he had already seen some action. Weichman made two combat cruises with VA-164 in 1966-67. In fact he had just launched from Oriskany when the disastrous fire broke out. ‘My room was destroyed,’ he remembered. ‘It was very demoralizing and very sad.”…
Denny returned to fly additional combat tours flying the A-7 and commanding an A-7 squadron in Linebacker. He completed his Vietnam war experience with more than 600 combat missions… Denny, who started out as a Nav Cad in Class 34-55 passed in March 1995 at age 60 “covered in the greenest of garlands;” he was among the bravest of the brave…
RIPPLS SALVO… #675…COMUSMACV Command History 1967: “THE ENEMY SITUATION AT YEAR’SEND”…PART II…
(S) “The advent of good weather in late May permitted a concentrated strike effort against all of the northern rail lines and within the Hanoi and Haiphong complexes directed toward reducing the flow of material. Strikes during the three months from June-August accounted for over 56 percent of the total trucks and rail rolling stock repaired as damaged and destroyed; 30 per cent of imported material was being destroyed by air strikes in-transit. Strikes against large military storage depots in the Hanoi and the Thai Nguyen area destroyed additional supplies which had arrived in NVN by rail and sea.
(S) “The overall effect of our effort to reduce external assistance has resulted not only in destruction and damage to the transportation systems and goods being transported thereon, but has created additional management, distribution, and manpower problems. In addition, the attacks have been creating a bottleneck at Haiphong where an inability to effectively move goods inland from the ports has resulted in congestion on the docks and a slowdown in all off-loading ships as they arrive. By October, road and rail interruptions had reduced the transportation clearance capacity at Haiphong to about 2,700 STON per day. An average of 4,400 STON per day of imports had arrived in Haiphong during the year.
(S) “Although men and material needed for the level of combat now prevailing in RVN continue to flow despite our attacks on LOCs, we have made it very clear to the enemy in terms of material, manpower, management and distribution. Attacks against the NVN transport system during the past 12 months resulted in destruction of carriers, cargo carried, and personnel casualties. Air attacks throughout North Vietnam and Laos destroyed or damaged 5,261 motor vehicles, 2,245 railroad rolling stock, and 11,423 watercraft from 1 January through 20 December 1967.
(S) “Through external assistance, the enemy has been able to replace of rehabilitate many of the items damaged or destroyed, and transport inventories are roughly at the same level they were at the beginning of the year. Nevertheless, construction problems and delays have caused interruptions in the flow of men and supplies, caused a great loss of work hours, and restricted movement, particularly during daylight hours.”… Part III tomorrow…
RTR Quote for 11 January: JOHN F. KENNEDY, Profiles in Courage: “Everyone admires courage and the greenest garlands are for those who possess it.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear
