Bear Taylor 
GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, 11 February 2019. Humble Host remembers: COMMANDO HUNT Week ONE of 177… 12-17 November 1968…
HEADLINES from THE NEW YORK TIMES (12-17 Nov)…
THE WAR: Two weeks before Thanksgiving 1968 one hundred-fifty Americans perished in combat in South Vietnam. Another 1,214 were wounded in action. (12 Nov) “U.S. SAYS HANOI IMPERILS ACCORD THAT ENDED RAIDS–DENOUNCES MILITARY ACTIVITY IN BUFFER ZONES AS THREAT TO NEGOTIATIONS IN PARIS”… “The United States charged North Vietnam today with distorting and failing to live up to the terms of the agreement that led to the end of American bombing of North Vietnam 12 days ago….The statement said that Hanoi’s representatives in Paris had been told ‘forcefully’ about the ‘serious view’ the United States took of North Vietnamese military action in the demilitarized zone this week.“…(15 Nov) “FOE LOSES 287 MEN IN ATTACK ON BASE–Allied Casualties Up”… “A thousand North Vietnamese soldiers attacked an allied camp 60 miles north of Saigon but were beaten off in a battle that raged from midnight to dawn today. The enemy left 287 dead, the United States command said, including 120 who had broken through the barbed-wire defenses of the camp, manned by 500 South Vietnamese Rangers and some United States soldiers. Four SVN Rangers were killed and 223 wounded. No Americans were injured. The battle, the fiercest in recent weeks, took place near the Cambodian border in an area where 15,000 to 20,000 enemy troops are believed massed. Allied forces are sweeping the area…. THE UNITED STATES COMMAND REPORTED THAT 166 AMERICANS WERE KILLED LAST WEEK AND 1,253 WERE WOUNDED the previous week. The South Vietnamese command said that 200 Government troops were killed and 798 wounded last week compared with 129 killed and 684 wounded the week before. THE LATEST CASUALTY REPORTS BROUGHT TO 29,350 THE NUMBER OF UNITED STATES SOLDIERS KILLED SINCE JANUARY 1, 1961. THE TOTAL OF WOUNDED ROSE TO 184,602. American non-combat deaths last week were 43, bringing the war’s total to 4,850 deaths from such causes as disease or accidents….enemy battle deaths since the beginning of 1961 had reached 413,558.”… (16 Nov) “ENEMY INCREASES CONVOYS IN NORTH–U.S. Pilots Find Big Rise in Troops and Supply Activity”…”Enemy troops and supply movements have quadrupled in North Vietnam since the halt of American bombing two weeks ago, according to reports by reconnaissance pilots. Highly placed American military officers said that reconnaissance pilots were now reporting a daily average of more than 400 enemy trucks ‘on the move’ between the 17th and 19th Parallels, as compared with slightly less before the bombing stopped…. they also said that North Vietnamese work crews had repaired all bombed-out bridges between the 17th and 19th Parallels and that they had done enough work on the roads to make them passable. ‘They’ve been busy,’ a well informed officer said.”… (17 Nov) “ENEMY BUNKERS IN DMZ DESTROYED–Hit by Artillery and Planes–Foe Shells Villages”… “A United States military spokesman said yesterday that aerial observers had found–and artillery and bombers had destroyed–three enemy-occupied bunker complexes and a five-truck convoy in the southern part of the demilitarized zone…. Only allied artillery and planes, never troops, have been used in the 12 actions in the zone. Besides destroying bunkers and trucks, the bombardments also have suppressed enemy artillery, mortar and antiaircraft fire.”…
THE PEACE TALKS… With the election of NIXON, the LBJ diplomatic team of Clark Clifford, Averell Harriman and Cyrus Vance began the turnover of American foreign policy and the Peace negotiations in Paris to Secretary George Rogers, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. Nixon’s new Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird began the turnover in the Pentagon relieving Clark Clifford… (13 Nov) “HANOI DENIES ANY ACCORD ON RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS”… “North Vietnam denied today that there was a tacit agreement allowing the United States to continue reconnaissance flights over the country. The NVN Army newspaper …said that American press reports of North Vietnamese ‘tacit acceptance of spy flights’ were a fabrication. The paper added that the United States had no right to rescue pilots who came down in North Vietnam, and it repeated an allegation it made on Monday that the United States was intensifying military operations in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.”… (14 Nov) “SAIGON IS CLINGING TO POSITION ON PEACE TALKS–But Thieu May Change Positions”… “The South Vietnamese Government clung to its formula for the Paris peace talks today amid some signs that President Nguyen Van Thieu might soon make another shift in policy… The Thieu regime is standing on its most recent proposal–direct talks between North Vietnam and South Vietnam with the United States and the National Liberation Front, or Vietcong, in secondary roles.”… (14 Nov) “WORRY IN WASHINGTON”… “The Johnson Administration is worried, authoritative sources here say, that the ‘Paris understanding,’ under which the bombing of North Vietnam was stopped and broadened peace talks scheduled, seems to be falling apart.”… (15 Nov) James Reston: “PARIS: HARRIMAN, VANCE TRAPPED”… “In the long history of U.S. negotiations over the Vietnam war, no American diplomats have had a more difficult task than Ambassador Averell Harriman and Cyrus Vance here at the peace talks in Paris. They are literally trapped between the Johnson Administration that is losing power and the Nixon Administration that has not yet assumed power, and between the two separate opposition negotiating teams and the
South Vietnamese.”… (16 Nov) “HANOI AIDE IN PARIS CHARGES INTENSIFIED AGGRESSION”… “North Vietnam charged the United States today with ‘intensifying it’s aggression’ in South Vietnam and continuing reconnaissance flights as far north as Hanoi behind a ‘smokescreen’ of false charges that North Vietnam had violated the DMZ.”…
OTHER HEADLINES: (13 Nov) “ASTRONAUTS ORBIT OF MOON SCHEDULED FOR NEXT MONTH–Three in Apollo 8 To Circle Moon 10 Times At 70-Mile Altitude Before Return–Shot to Precede Manned Landing In 1969″… “LEMNITZER URGES MORE NATO TROOPS–Asserts Anew That Power Balance Is Unchanged”… “McNAMARA DENIES SECRET MISSION–Says No Message Was Given During Kosygin Meeting”… (15 Nov) “WARREN FIRM ON RETIREMENT FROM SUPREME COURT–Leaves Date To Nixon–Is Said To Deprecate Talk Of Ill Feeling Between Him and President-Elect and Expects To Swear Him In If Asked”… “SECOND SOVIET CRAFT CIRCLES THE MOON–Zond 6 Is Believed On It’s Way Back to Earth”… (17 Nov) “NATO BIDS SOVIET AVOID STIRRING UP A CRISIS IN EUROPE–Communique Also Enjoins Disruptive Intervention in Mediterranean–Navy Vigilance Is Urged–Alliance Is Said to Widen Its Interest to Dissident Red States In Eastern Bloc”... “SOVIETS PUT 17-TON CRAFT INTO ORBIT“… “APOLLO CREWS CONFIDENT ON MISSION TO ORBIT MOON–Astronauts Discount Soviet Fears of Space Radiation”…
COMMANDO HUNT I OPS: Week One… Reconnaissance Missions into North Vietnam. No enemy ground fire reaction occurred against these operations in North Vietnam until the night of 7 November when a Navy RA-3B received ground fire in RP III. On 8 November ground fire reaction occurred against aircraft in RP I, II, and III. No reaction was reported on 9 November, but on the 10th the enemy fired at reconnaissance aircraft and continued to fire from the 10th through the end of the month. Beginning on 8 November reconnaissance aircraft were accompanied by fighter aircraft escort… Interpretation of photos gathered by the photo reconnaissance flights and condensation of this information permit a reasonable factual assessment of the enemy’s rebuilding, repair and resupply effort. As early as 4 November the truck traffic on road route 15–the prime route between Vinh and MuGia called “Happy Valley”–indicated it was carrying heavy traffic. Convoys of 5, 9, and 40 trucks were sighted moving south/southward. Some were towing 37/57mm AAA guns. The photos confirmed the repair and replenishment of POL areas as evidenced by rail and truck movements. The Vinh Airfield was under repair on 10 November with an estimate of being jet capable by 24 November. By mid-November convoys of up to 150 trucks were sighted just north of the MuGia Pass headed south on Route 15. Large quantities of POL were moved into an area as evidenced by 55-gallon POL drums and storage area build-up. Meanwhile, truck activity just north of the DMZ increased. Barge traffic became very heavy. The existing rail segments in RP I were used with modified truck prime movers pulling rail cars. (Clipped from USAF, Southeast Asia Air Operations Summary for November 1968)
AIRCRAFT LOSSES 12-17 NOVEMBER 1968…Reference: VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES by Chris Hobson. THERE WERE ELEVEN (11) FIXED WING AIRCRAFT LOST IN SOUTHEAST ASIA DURING THE SIX DAYS…
(1) On 12 November an F-100D Super Sabre of the 306th TFS and 31st TFW crashed during an attack mission in South Vietnam due to engine failure. The pilot was rescued to fly and fight again, and again…
(2) On 13 November an F-4C crewed by MAJOR JOSEPH W. BUCHANAN and 1LT JOSEPH C. SANTOS of the 559th TFS and 12 TFW out of Tuy Hoa was lost on a close air support mission near the Cambodian border in the area of Katum. They were making a napalm run at 200-feet when hit by automatic weapon fire and the aircraft rolled into the ground before the two warriors could escape the aircaft. Friendly troops arrived on the scene and confirmed that the crew had been killed. MAJOR JOSEPH W. BUCHANAN’s remains were recovered and he rests for all eternity at Elizabeth Cemetery in Saltville, Virginia…LT SANTOS’s remains were recovered and he rests in peace at the Laredo Catholic Cemetery and is memorialized on the Texas A&M University Corps Memorial Plaza… They have been gone 50 years. They are remembered here…
(3) On 14 November an O-1E Bird Dog of the 19th TASS and 504th TASG out of Bien Hoa, piloted by CAPTAIN WILLIAN HILLRIC FABIAN with observer CAPTAIN C.B. GANAWAY, was downed by ground fire while orbiting at 1,500-feet on a CAS mission near Phuc Vinh, 35 miles north of Saigon. The aircraft went down close to enemy troops and although CAPTAIN FABIAN was killed, CAPATIN GANAWAY survived and was rescued. CAPTAIN FABIAN’s remains were found after the war and returned to the United States for burial in Arlington. He is not forgotten… Here is a remembrance left at Arlington (VVMF, Wall of Faces) in 2014 by a grandson, William Fabian Lutch… “My mom named me after her father and what would be my grandfather. I really appreciate everyone’s kind words about what he did. Sometimes it’s weird knowing that the person I am named after can never see or talk to me or do what grandfathers do. All I can do is remember what he did and I hope everyone will remember, too.”…
(4) On 15 November an F-8H Crusader of the VF-211 Checkmates embarked in USS Hancock piloted by LT P.R. SCOTT hit the ramp on landing and he ejected. He was rescued to fly and fight again. He was returning from a combat air patrol mission over the Gulf of Tonkin…
(5) On 16 November an F-100D Super Sabre of the 615th TFS and 35th TFW out of Phan Rang piloted by MAJOR C.R. HOLLIS went down after delivering napalm on a night close air support mission in bad weather near the town of Vi Thanh in the southwestern tip of South Vietnam. MAJOR HOLLIS ejected as the aircraft burst into flames and was rescued by an Army helo…
(6) On 16 November an O-1F of the 21st TASS and 504th TASG out of Nha Trang failed to return to Pleiku from a visual reconnaissance mission 20 miles southwest of the base. The aircraft, piloted by MAJOR CARL FREDERICK KARST with a VNAF observer, CAPTAIN NGUYEN X QUY, was not found after an exhaustive three day search. A few months later a Vietnamese villager reported that he had heard from an NVA propaganda team that MAJOR KARST and his Vietnamese observer had been shot down by small arms fire. According to the North Vietnamese, CAPTAIN QUY had been killed and MAJOR KARST had been captured and then executed in a village in northern Phu Bon province. The truth of the story could not be checked but in December 1983 a Vietnamese refugee in Malaysia handed over two bone fragments and an identity tag bearing MAJOR KARST’s name… In 1989 the Vietnamese turned over some human remains that were eventually identified in September 1993 as being those of MAJOR KARST. He rests in peace on this day a little more than 50 years after he perished in the sevice of our country… COLONEL CARL KARST was buried with full military honors at Arlington on 2 October 1993 with his wife and three grown children in attendance. Senator Robert Dole was among those attending from Kansas. A remembrance of that day left by Michael Robert Patterson includes this conclusion: “Military funerals have not greatly changed in the past 25 years, but feelings about Vietnam have. When Karst died 25 years ago, this country was bitterly divided about the costs and value of the war. And if some division remains, there is little dispute about the honor due the men and women who served their country in Vietnam, and for those who did not return.”… Amen…
(7) On 16 November a second F-100D Super Sabre of the 615th TFS and 35 TFW out of Phan Rang was lost. The aircraft was piloted by MAJOR ROBERT CHARLES WIECHERT and was inexplicably lost at sea. It is presumed MAJOR WIECHERT suffered a health problem or crashed as a consequence of spacial disorientation. MAJOR WIECHERT lies where he fell fifty years ago. In his honor a military stone has been placed at Memorial Gardens of the Valley in Sandy, Utah. He rests in peace, remembered always in his homeland…
(8) On 17 November an F-4B of the VMFA-115 Silver Eagles of MAG-13 out of Chu Lai piloted by CAPTAIN PAUL D. DERBY, USMC, and RIO 1LT THOMAS A. REICH, USMC, was downed by ground fire while executing a close air support mission 25 miles southwest of Chu Lai. The aircraft was hit in the cockpit on the initial run at 500-feet while dropping napalm and the aircraft crashed in the target area killing both CAPTAIN DERBY and 1LT REICH. CAPTAIN DERBY remains where he fell, “Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered.” He is honored with a stone marker at the Rock Island National Cemetery. 1LT REICH rests in peace at Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania…
(9) On 17 November an F-105D of the 34th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat lost oil pressure on a strike mission requiring the pilot to eject when the engine seized. The pilot was rescued.
(10) and (11) On 17 November an F-100D of the 309th TFS and 31st TFW out of Tuy Hoa and an O-2A of the 23rd TASS and 504th TASW out of Nakhon Phanon collided in mid-air over South Vietnam. Both pilots survived the incident and were rescued by Jolly Green 15, an HH-3 piloted by LCOL Royal Brown….
RIPPLE SALVO: From the pages of The New York Times on 10 November…
“CARRIER PILOT FINDS WAR EASIER SINCE BOMB HALT”…Byline B. Drummond Ayres Jr. aboard U.S.S. Constellation off South Vietnam, Nov 8–
“Bill Marr’s war has changed. Ten days or so ago, it seemed that almost every time he climbed into the sky in his F-4B Phantom jet, someone tried to shoot him down. That was before the bombing of North Vietnam stopped.
“Now his missions are all over South Vietnam or neighboing Laos, where the targets are less plentiful and the flak spotty, even on bad days. For the first time in almost two years of combat, Lieutenant Commander William Marr, age 32, of Osage, Iowa, and his fellow pilots in Fighter Squadron 143–‘Best in the West’–are beginning to relax. He told a friend to relax. He told a friend the other day, after an uneventful bombing run near Hue: ‘Many more of these milk runs and I may ace this war out.’ For example, take Mission 1622. It began as they all begin, in the ready room. The flight briefing was conducted in the usual jargon of pilots, with talk of Tacans (Tacan, a navigation device), Taproom One (a code name), Mark 82s (500-pound bomb) and RIOS (the electronics specialists who sit behind the pilots). There was only one thing missing–tension.
“The reason became clear at the end of the briefing when Commander Marr said, almost off-handedly: ‘Remember, if by chance one of us gets it and goes down, we’re just about always within reach of good guys these days. So try to delay your punchout until you’re over a populated area and–see you back on the Connie.’
“Twenty minutes later, Commander Marr’s plane hurtled down the deck in a tremendous burst of energy that distorted his face and slammed him back into his seat. In a second and a half, the F-4 was airborne. As the plane broke through a thick layer of clouds at 10,000-feet, another F-4 snuggled up under his right wing. The two aircraft sped toward the South Vietnamese coast and Hue at more than 400 miles an hour.
“Terse, almost toneless radio chatter filled the air. It seemed as if a hundred pilots and ground stations were trading information. Patches of dark greeen appeared below. The two F-4s contacted a ground controller at Phu Bai, just south of Hue. This was where the changing nature of the war became apparent. Flying over North Vietnam, Bill Marr and his RIO had always had to go in low, guide themselves and find their own targets, ducking flak and anti-aircraft missiles. Now from 18,000-feet below, a detached voice, reciting computer and radar figures, told them where the target was, how to get there, when to drop the bombs. Outside, the sky was clean, a brilliant blue, unmarred by any black puffs of exploding cordite.
“‘Taproom One, Taproom Two,’ said the voice. ‘Come two points to a two seven zero heading, drop 100-feet.’ More instructions followed. Then, ‘You may release when I say ‘mark.” A few seconds passed, the voice came back. ‘Three, two, one, zero, mark, mark.’ A dozen olive-drab bombs slipped from the two F-4s. They plunged through cloud cover below and out of sight.
“The Phantoms banked sharply and headed out to sea and home. As they sped away, they rocked gently from explosions that could be neither seen nor heard.”… End of article…
The transition from ROLLING THUNDER to COMMANDO HUNT was a welcome change for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Yankee Air Pirates accustomed to rolling in on the heavily defended bridges and SAM sites of North Vietnam.
Lest we forget…. Bear
