Bear Taylor 
Good Morning…Day THREE of our long look back to Operation Rolling Thunder. Fifty years ago when we were young and part of a great war machine doing our duty in support of our troops fighting in South Vietnam. Where were you 50-years ago? Here’s my log on what was going on in our beloved homeland AND where the action was for “Yankee Air Pirates” and “Red River Rats.”….
3 March 1966 (NYT)… ON THE HOMEFRONT… It was a rainy, miserable Thursday in Washington. And so was the mood as the Secretary of Defense announced that 30,000 more troops would be going to join the forces in Southeast Asia. He said the force would reach a total of 235,000 with the additional troops, 50,000 of the total stationed “offshore with the Seventh Fleet based out of Pearl Harbor.”His report also carried the news that in the first two months of 1966 the U.S. suffered 4300 casualties (636 Killed in Action/3618 Wounded/36 Missing in Action) compared to the 1965 annual tally of about 7000 casualties. The “good news” was that 7300 Viet Cong had been killed so far in 1966 with another 100 captured. In the last week of February 1966 our troops suffered 109 killed in action and 747 wounded in action. The effectiveness of the bombing campaign to reduce the flow of men and supplies from the North was discussed. It was estimated that while our forces in the South required 24,000 tons of material every day, the Viet Cong only required 12-20 tons per day to wage their guerrilla war in the South. SecDef said that …”the raids in Southern North Vietnam at least hindered the flow of men and supplies and at least made support for the VC a more costly adventure.” The President accepted this and stated that requests for increased operations against the North, including the mining of the Haiphong harbor, as suggested by many, was not required. He said to do so would involve greater risk of a direct military clash with the Soviet Union with marginal effect on the fight in the South. All this was part of a review of the war effort conducted during a 38-day bombing pause of the North that began in late December 1965 and ended on 31 January 1966 with no progress on the diplomatic front.
3 March 1966… ROLLING THUNDER … Monsoon weather covered the rice paddies of North Vietnam and it was tough roading for the trucks taking the tons of material south through the passes at Mugia and Ban Karai and on down the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos. Rolling Thunder air forces remained on the ground and tied down. Operations against the North were limited to weather and coastal recce missions. As a consequence, it was a zero/zero day – no bomb damage and no aircraft losses, However, the Marines at Danang lost an F4 Phantom that took automatic weapon hits on the seventh napalm run on the same target. The crew ejected and were rescued unhurt. Seventh pass on the same target? So it was a slow day “up north, which provides me the opportunity to take a look back into February 1966 to recognize the sacrifices of four Naval Aviators…USS Enterprise lost an F-4 from VF-92 that was escorting a Big Look EC-121 on 18 February off the coast of Thanh Hoa. The surviving Radar Intercept Officer/Navigator thought it was an SA-2 SAM that blew off the tail and put the VF-92 aircraft into a steep uncontrollable dive. Both the pilot, LTJG JAMES THOMAS RUFFIN, and the RIO, LTJG LARRY HOWARD SPENCER, ejected. Both parachutes opened. Neither aviator was seen again until SPENCER was welcomed home with the returning POWs on 12 February 1973. RUFFIN’s remains were returned to the United States on 3 June 1983. … USS Kitty Hawk lost an A-6 Intruder from VA-85 that same day. The aircraft was conducting an armed reconnaissance mission in the mountains 70 miles west of Hanoi armed with lay down Snakeye bombs. The pilot failed to recover from the attack on a truck and flew into the ground. LTJG JOSEPH VAUGHN MURRAY and LTJG THOMAS ANTHONY SCHROEFFEL perished, killed in action. It was a bad, sad day at Yankee Station.
Ripple Salvo: Participation in Rolling Thunder, taking the war to where the enemy lived, was demanding and unforgiving duty. Thousands of us went into one of the most perilous battlefields in history—the skies over North Vietnam. The integrated enemy defenses (IADS) included communication nets, early warning radar, tens of thousands of anti-aircraft guns, surface to air missiles, and MIG fighter aircraft. In my view, only the operations of the Eighth Air Force strategic, daylight formations of B-17s and B-24s taking the fight to Germany in 1943-45 were more dangerous than the Rolling Thunder ops we conducted against military and economic targets in the NVN IADS. Our ranks include hundreds of “Yankee Air Pirates” and “Red River Rats” who logged hundreds of missions over North Vietnam. We carried out our assignments as warriors bravely, efficiently and relentlessly. It was our duty. For the next three years we will be living through the 50th anniversary of an historic bombing campaign that many in our country would rather not acknowledge ever happened. Surely, I am not the only one to note that our government and the leading provider of medals and awards in the United States have failed to recognize Operation Rolling Thunder with a single ribbon, medal or commemorative medal. The Medals of America company catalog is chock full of ribbons and medals recognizing lesser events in our military history. Shucks, we didn’t even get a V for Valor on our dozens of Air Medals. Our government and society have turned a blind eye to the Vietnam War vets, including the “Yankee Air Pirates” and “Red River Rats” of Rolling Thunder.
We have gotten used to cold shoulders over the past 50 years, all Vietnam Vets have, but the last ten years have been a little sour for many of us. Why? When the President, the Congress, and the society had an opportunity to rectify the recognized cold shouldering of the Vietnam War cadre, they passed us over, again. Have you noticed the stark dividing line created by POST 9/11 legislation and that applied to the PRE 9/11 veterans? Across the board, PRE 9/11 vets (Vietnam) have been excluded from the increased opportunities, retired pay, education benefits, and allowances made available to the Post 9/11 vets by our government. Ostensibly, the continuous duty required of a smaller all volunteer force run ragged in the “longest continuous war in American history” justifies the two level approach to benefits. But Tommy ain’t dumb. Tommy knows. Tommy sees. Make the cut line at September 2001 and you can avoid the inclusion of any of the warriors who fought in the 1950s in Korea and the 1960s and 70s in Vietnam. Not much acknowledgment for all the Cold War warriors who deployed back to back during a relentless stare down with the Soviet Union on many fronts and oceans from the 1940s through the 1980s. I am not the only guy who lived at sea and away from home for fourteen years of his career. Sour grapes? No. But those responsible for initiating two tracks, a high road for POST 9/11 vets and a lower road for PRE 9/11 veterans, need to know: we aren’t dumb, just disappointed, and that we will continue to do what we have been doing for the last 50 years plus: grin and bear it, and if we can’t grin, we will just bear it.
Here is my request for readers of this blog. Get your legislator interested in recognizing that the 50th anniversary of a great American air campaign is in progress. How about striking a Commemorative Medal for Operation Rolling Thunder and taking a few moments to invite the POWs who were downed and returned in the course of the Rolling Thunder campaign to the White House or something. Our Rolling Thunder air war in the skies over North Vietnam was three years of continuous, intensive and brutal combat. Hey, Senator, do you have a few minutes to think about the second most great air campaign in American history. Keep your money and benies, but at least show us that you remember the air war that we “Yankee Air Pirates” and “River Rats” will never forget, or the squadron mates who paid the max for their country and never got to live these last fifty years as Vietnam and Rolling Thunder veterans.
How am I doing Pirates and Rats…got you fired up yet? Get in your congressman’s face, with a smile and a message. Let’s party…it is our fiftieth anniversary.
The website will be up and running in a week or two… check out the dummy now and add this call-up to your favorites list/line…. https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/ … “Lest we forget”…… Bear
