Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #684… and high-lighted in the New York Times… IN THE VAN: “FOREMOST PART OF A GROUP MOVING FORWARD, ESPECIALLY THE FOREMOST DIVISION OF AN ADVANCING MILITARY FORCE.”… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED-EIGHTY-FOUR of a remembrance of the heroically fought battle in the skies over North Vietnam and the destruction of military and industrial targets by the last of the iron-sight dive bombers…
20 JANUARY 1968… HEAD LINES in The New York Times on a bright and sunny Saturday in New York City…
Page 1: “JOHNSON NAMES CLARK CLIFFORD TO HEAD DEFENSE–AN ADVISOR TO THREE PRESIDENTS–LAWYER IN CAPITAL WILL SUCCEED McNAMARA–APPOINTEE FIRMLY BACKS WAR POLICY–OPPOSED BOMBING PAUSE TWO YEARS AGO”… “President Johnson announced today (19th) that he had chosen Clark M. Clifford, his friend and in intimate advisor to three Democratic Presidents, to succeed Robert S. McNamara as Secretary of Defense. Mr. Clifford is expected to get quick confirmation from the Senate. If so he will take over before March 1. Mr. McNamara will assume the presidency of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development–the World Bank–during February as soon as he completes the Defense Department’s budget presentation to Congress. His release from the Cabinet became known seven weeks ago. under circumstances that suggested the President had chosen the time more than had Mr. McNamara.”... Page 1: “CAMBODIA SAYS U.S. UNITS AND ALLIES CROSSED BORDER”... “The Government said today that United States and South Vietnamese forces intruder 200-yards into Cambodia at 5 A.M. yesterday, killing three Cambodians and wounding two…. the attack was supported by four planes as they entered Cambodian airspace…. Page 1: “ENEMY PURSUING ROUTED LAOTIANS–2,000 are Reported Fleeing North Vietnamese Troops After Defeat at Nambac“…”The Laotian Army, which now appears to have had close to 5,000 men in the Nambac area instead of the 3,200 as preciously reported, may have suffered 20-per cent casualties in the action in the mountains around Nambac”… Page 1: “PRESIDENT TO ASK FOR TAX RISE APRIL 1 FOR INDIVIDUALS–WILL URGE 10% SURCHARGE ON CORPORATIONS BE MADE RETROACTIVE TO JAN 1″…
Page 1: “GOALS IN VIETNAM DISPUTED BY SENATOR GEORGE AIKEN--He Rejects Fantasy of War Against Communism And Says Public is Duped”... “Senator George D. Aiken accused the Johnson Administration today of resorting to Vietnam to camouflage its ‘political ineptitude.’ The Vermont Republican who is the second ranking minority member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he had steadily maintained ‘that we made a huge military commitment in that part of the world simply because we did not have the wit, the imagination or the courage to devise a political strategy to suit the political problem. The Problem, he said, involved an internal conflict over the direction of nationalist intentions. ‘We are fighting nationalists first in Vietnam,’ he said. “That some call themselves Communists is important but not vital. It has been amply demonstrated by students of communism here and abroad that even in the Communist world, nationalism is the prevailing force today. To make out that the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong, even today are integral parts of a unified and monolithic world communism is simply self-destructive fantasy.’ “….
GROUND WAR: Page 1: “VIETCONG ATTACK TWO U.S. OUTPOSTS–59 GIs Are Wounded in Raids at Pleiku and Cuchi Bases”... “The Vietcong attacked two United States headquarters last night and this morning with rockets and mortars… 14 Americans were wounded in the 50-minute barrage of mortars at Pleiku and 45 in the battle at Cuchi, 13 seriously. Damage at both bases was light… Members of the United States Third Marine Regiment fought for more than six hours yesterday with North Vietnamese regulars near the coast… 23 of the enemy were killed and 3 marines were killed and 25 wounded….Not far from the western end of the DMZ, an aircraft fired a rocket at American-led militia camp yesterday, temporarily arousing fear that the enemy had attacked with MIGs. The plane was identified as a US F-4. There were no reports of injuries….”
20 January 1968: THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF: SOUTH VIETNAM: The attack on the Pleiku airbase yesterday is one of many signs pointing toward an early enemy offensive in the western highlands… (redacted: 6 lines of type) The Communists consider Kontom and Pleiku as a single command, “The B-3 Front”…There are two major troop concentrations involving at least five North Vietnamese infantry regiments plus extensive combat support units… There have been several bomb incidents in Danang this week and leaflets have been scattered about town warning the population to stay away from Americans. US officials in Danang have taken precautions….NORTH VIETNAM: Red Cross Visit Turned Down: Hanoi has informed the International Red Cross that it will not be able to accept the visit of Andre Durand, the IRC’s delegate in Phom Penh. Durand has been trying to get to Hanoi for some time in an attempt to secure Geneva Convention coverage for US prisoners in North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese used their standard excuse for rejecting the visit– “intensification of the war.”…
STATE DEPARTMENT, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, foreign Relations, 1964-68 Vietnam. 2o January 1968, Document 21 is a Memorandum from the Chairman of the JCS (General Wheeler) to the Secretary of Defense. General Westmoreland was requesting a 36-hour extension of the Tet stand down. The Joint Chiefs squelched the idea–they make the case that the enemy gains more from the pauses than we do…good reading. The memo provides excellent insight into the thinking of the main players and the U.S. posture on the eve of the enemy’s Tet offensive… read at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d21
20 JANUARY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… The New York Times (21 Jan reporting 20 Jan ops) Page 1: “In the air war, 128 missions were flown against the North, mostly against transportation targets in the southern panhandle. A total of 567 sorties were flown against enemy troop movements and fortifications in South Vietnam.”…. 20 Jan Page 3: “U.S. ANTI-RADAR PLAN ALTERED IN VIETNAM”... “A change in United States radar-jamming techniques apparently has overcome an increase in the effectiveness of North Vietnamese antiaircraft missiles, it was reported today. The loss of nine American planes to surface-to-air missiles in four days last November prompted a study of the causes. As a result it was disclosed here an adjustment was made in the electronic countermeasures technique used by American aircraft against the Soviet made radar guided missiles. Details of the improvement are secret. Since November 19 only three United States warplanes have been listed as victims of surface-to-air missiles. Three losses this week were attributed to unknown causes.”…
“VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 20 January 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN TILDEN S. HOLLEY and 1LT JAMES ALAN KETTERER were flying an F-4C of the 389th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang on an armed reconnaissance mission in Route Pack I on Route IA northwest of Donghoi and were downed while attacking several trucks. They were hit by 37mm antiaircraft fire and went down before the two aviators could eject from their aircraft…. Chris Hobson reports that there were Defense Intelligence Agency reports that CAPTAIN HOLEY did escape the aircraft before the crash and died in an exchange of gunfire with North Vietnamese troops.… Whatever the case, the remains of the two valiant warriors remain in North Vietnam where they fell… Today, admired, respected and remembered fifty years after the fell in the service of their country… but, left behind…(?)… Let the search continue…
RIPPLE SALVO… #684… New York Times, 20 Jan 68, Page 3… “LEADER OF FIRST RAID ON NORTH VIETNAM RETURNING TO U.S.–I Thought It Was A Drill, He Says of Air Strike At Vinh in August, 1964″… by Bernard Weinraub, Aboard U.S. Kitty Hawk off North Vietnam, January 14.
“On that chilly morning in August 1964 Commander Henry Urban, Jr. was sitting in the wardroom starting breakfast when a duty officer walked over and whispered: ‘Start planning an attack on Vinh.’ Commander Urban recalled the moment today. ‘I thought it was a drill,’ he said. ‘We went to the ready room and were briefed and I still thought it was a drill until the intercom announced, ‘This is no drill. You’re going to Vinh.’ As the pilot who led the first bombing strike into North Vietnam, Commander Urban recalls the now historic moment with awe and nervousness. ‘I was full of apprehension,’ the hefty slow-speaking officer said. ‘I was a little scared.’ Commander Urban , who is from South Bend, Indiana, is leaving Vietnam after three four-month (??) combat tours on carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin. On this 82,000-ton vessel he has commanded Attack Carrier Air Wing 11, which made many of the early strikes near Hanoi and Haiphong as well as against the industrial city of Vinh.
HE LED SIX JETS
“On the first strike–in retaliation for reported North Vietnamese torpedo attacks on the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy–Commander Urban led six Navy A-4 Skyhawk jets in a 20-plane attack on the oil-storage area in Vinh and a PT-boat dock at Donghoi. ‘I was just in the right place at the right time,’ said the 42-year-old pilot, sitting in the wardroom hours before a change-of-command ceremony and his departure to a Pentagon assignment. ‘We left at 12:25 and saw PT boats of the harbor and hit them hard. We hit some heavy fire, too.’ Six months later in February, 1965, the United States began concerted bombing of Vietnam. ‘I don’t see how he (North Vietnam) can take it, day in and day out. I don’t see how he does it,’ said Commander Urban. ‘I didn’t expect it to last this long.’
WANTS TO BOMB DOCKS
“Commander Urban, who has been in the Navy for 25 years believes that the air war on the North should be extended to attacks on the docks at Haiphong, a major supply base for the North Vietnamese. ‘It’s one hell of a busy port,’ Commander Urban said. ‘You can see the trucks and equipment being unloaded. You can see the barges moving in and our. I’d like to hit that port. There are also a lot of nice buildings in Haiphong. What their contributions are to the war effort, I don’t know, but the desire to bomb a virgin building is terrific. But we don’t do it. A lot of people at home feel we’re bombing buildings, but that is not the true at all,’ he added. ‘I’ve seen bombs fall short, yes I have, but it happens when you’re getting triple A (antiaircraft fire) shot at you and so accidents are bound to happen.
“The Commander said that he decided to join the service after hearing a Naval aviator speak at a high school senior class meeting. ‘He accomplished his mission,’ Commander Urban said, ‘He got me. I was fascinated with the Navy and flying ever since I was a kid,’ he went on. ‘I was always a big fan of Charles Lindbergh and I saw ‘Dawn Patrol’ with Errol Flynn at least eight times.'”…
Commander Hank Urban, Jr. commanded Attack Squadron 55 before his CAG tour as Commander Carrier Air Wing ELEVEN on Kitty Hawk. He was awarded the SILVER STAR for leading — in the van– a wing attack on targets in the Haiphong area, six Distinguished Flying Crosses, eleven Air Medals and four Navy Commendation Medals with the “Combat V,” among his many awards. Hank Urban passed in 2011 and rests in Arlington National Cemetery… glory gained, duty done…
RTR for 20 January: ST. AMBROSE, 4th Century: “The wise man, before he speaks, will consider well what he speaks, to whom he speaks, and where and when.”…. (Humble Host e-mailed this one to the White House–no response to date) …
Lest we forget… Bear
