Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #737… NYT, 11-MAR-1968, PAGE 40: “SUICIDAL ESCALATION”… “If events of the past six weeks in Vietnam prove anything, they demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that the policy of military escalation in Southeast Asia which President Johnson and the Pentagon advisors have followed for more than three years is futile–and worse.”… but first…
Good Morning: Day SEVEN HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN of a remembrance of a page in world history written in the blood of 58,200 bold, brave Americans who died in the service of our country. A day–12 March– to pause and remember two great warriors–COMMANDER GLENN KOLLMAN and LT JOHN GRIFFITH of VA-35–who flew their last flight 50 Years Ago Today…”glory gained, duty done:…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Tuesday, 12 March 1968…
Page 1: “SECRETARY DEAN RUSK TELLS PANEL OF ‘A TO Z’ REVIEW OF VIETNAM WAR–CONCEDES SERIOUS SETBACKS BUT SAYS U.S. AND SAIGON ARE REGAINING INITIATIVE–SENATORS SCORE VIETNAM POLICY–SECRETARY ASSAILED IN FIRST PUBLIC VIETNAM QUESTIONING BY COMMITTEE IN TWO YEARS”… “The Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed Secretary of State Dean Rusk today (11th) to disclose whether the Administration was planning to expand the war in Vietnam. The Secretary, however, would go no further than the statement that the Administration was re-examining its policy from “A to Z” and considering ‘all alternatives.’ Among the alternatives, Mr. Rusk indicated, is an increase in the American military strength in Vietnam. In a day-long nationally televised defense of the Administration policy, Mr. Rusk acknowledged that the United States and South Vietnam had suffered some ‘serious setbacks’ in the recent enemy offensive. He contended, however, that the military picture was becoming more encouraging because the United States and its allies were ‘returning to the initiative.’ The war, he declared, has reached a significant ‘turning point,’ with the outcome dependent upon which side most quickly sizes and retains the initiative. At the same time he cautioned that heavy fighting lay ahead, fighting that would test the will and determination of the United States.”…Page 17: “THE BIG PEACE BATTLE–Senate Hearing A Standoff With Rusk and Fulbright As Far Apart As Before” (James Reston)…
Page 1: “SOUTH VIETNAMESE DEFEAT A BATTALION, SAY THEY KILLED 102”... “A South Vietnamese regiment killed 102 North Vietnamese soldiers during an eight-hour battle just south of the demilitarized zone… The battle in which the South Vietnamese Second Regiment defeated an enemy battalion , usually consisting of 600 men, was joined just north of Dongha, the headquarters of the United States Third Marine Division… Allied casualties were listed as 3 killed in combat and 37 wounded….In other action,…The First Cavalry Division (Air Mobile) destroyed eight heavily camouflaged enemy trucks Friday in a mountainous area 15 miles southwest of Hue… they were the first enemy trucks reported in the Hue area. Just north of Hue, U.S. Army units reported having killed 35 enemy soldiers on Saturday with the aid of air strikes and subsequent support from armed helicopters. American casualties were reported as 3 dead and 15 wounded….In the Saigon area two companies of 25th Infantry Division came under fire from an enemy force of undetermined size just northeast of the Tansonnhut Airfield. Three Americans were killed and 17 wounded. Enemy casualties were not listed.”… The 25th Division also officially ended a three-month operating period of operations centered in an area 25 miles northwest of Saigon. Enemy deaths during the drive, which began Dec. 8 were listed as 3,863. A total of 647 suspects were detained… American losses were said to have been 382 killed in combat and 1,252 wounded.”…
Page 17: “CHEWING ON OURSELVES IS DEPLORED BY PRESIDENT JOHNSON”… “President Johnson said today that the United States had the power, potential and resources to ‘deal with any foe, anywhere except within our own country.’ He said one of the nation’s weaknesses was ‘pitting our strength against each other and chewing ourselves.’ “…
Page 1:”SENATE APPROVES CIVIL RIGHTS BILL BY 71-TO-20 VOTE–Sweeping Measure Outlaws Discrimination in Housing–Riot Curbs Included–House Outlook Unsure–Leaders of Both Parties Map Strategy–G.O.P. Support Seen As Key to Passage”… Page 1: “NEW HAMPSHIRE SET FOR PRIMARY”… Page 1: “Thousands of Poles Fight Police As Protests Mount”… Page 11: “Antiwar Boycott Set At Columbia University–College VP To Take Part In Protest”… Page 14: “Heart Surgery At Khe Sanh Saves ‘Dead’ Marine Hero”… Page 1: “South Koreans Plan to Put Key Defenses Underground”…
12 MARCH 1968…The President’s Daily Brief: LAOS: There are a number of signs pointing to a new round of Communist attacks in the southern part of the country. A significant enemy build-up in the Bolovens Plateau region is apparently under way, and there may be as many as four North Vietnamese regiments currently in the Saavane-Sedone valley area. The Communists are also stepping up pressure near Thakhek… POLAND: Student rioting in Warsaw resumed yesterday and now there are signs that the unrest is spreading to other elements of the population… NORTH VIETNAM: Hanoi Official Agrees To Discuss POW Issue. The charge of the North Vietnamese Embassy in Vientiane has agreed to meet with US Embassy officials to discuss the prisoner of war issue. Efforts to contact the charge’ on the same subject last year were rebuffed. In a conversation at a reception on 8 March, the deputy chief of the US mission informed the charge’ of US plans to release three North Vietnamese sailors in reciprocity for Hanoi’s release of three pilots. When the charge was told of earlier US efforts to contact him, he invited the US official to meet with him to discuss the POW issue. When asked about his remark to Ambassador Sullivan last month implying that Hanoi might release additional prisoners, the charge’ replied that he personally believed that further releases could be expected in line with the “humanitarian’ policy of the Liberation Front.
STATE DEPARTMENT, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Relations, 1964-68, Volume 6, Vietnam. Two documents of note dated 12 March 1968. Document 121 is the notes of the Tuesday “Targeting” Lunch bunch to pick and choose targets in North Vietnam for the attention of Red River Rats and Yankee Air Pirates. General Wheeler cut it short by saying “the weather (in North Vietnam) was so bad that there was no need to consider targeting.” It is a short meeting with a half-page for the record. Good read. Document 122 is a telegram from General Wheeler to General Westmoreland with some advice. An interesting line from the half-pager: “Leaks to the press have resulted in a rash of stories, reflected in debate in Congress, that you have asked for an additional 206,000 troop augmentation.” Read at:
121. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d121
122. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d122
12 MARCH…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (13 Mar reporting 12 Mar ops) Page 15: “As the air assaults raged on, Navy jets from the carrier Enterprise blasted an enemy bunker complex near the encampment with 2000-pound bombs, a type rarely used in South Vietnam ‘The bombs were on target,’ the Navy said in it communique, but the big block-busters kicked up so much dust and smoke that the forward air controller was unable to assess the damage immediately. In all, jet fighter-bombers flew 250 individual raids in the area. The Air Force’s B-52 bombers swarmed over Khe Sanh, in the northwestern tip of South Vietnam six times. ‘Our bombs set off one of their rockets,’ said one of the fighter-bomber pilots, LIEUTENANT JULES HARPER, of Fort Myers, Fla. ‘It squirmed along the ground shooting a tail of fire about 15-feet long. Another fighter-bomber pilot, LIEUTENANT DOUG CUTTER of Atlanta, said he saw numerous fires from previous strikes as he flew into the area to attack a mortar site with 500-pound bombs…United States pilots over North Vietnam broke through overcast skies to bomb the Hanoi radio’s receiving station, a thermal power plant near Thanh Hoa, a transformer station near Campha and three army barracks. The military communique said the raids also silenced two missile sites and touched off numerous secondary explosions near Phuly. An Air Force F-4 Phantom jet was downed in the southern part of North Vietnam. The crew is listed as missing in action. (MAJOR ERNEST OLDS and 1LT ALBERT RODRIGUEZ were killed in action as reported in 11 March RTR). The number of American planes downed in North Vietnam is now 808.”….
Page 15: “Hanoi Describes Raids”… “Officials said that American planes had attacked the market town of Donthu 20 miles south of Hanoi. They said 28 persons had been killed and 58 wounded.”… Page 15: “Air Strikes Near Hanoi”… “United States planes pounded antiaircraft, missile and radar installations around Hanoi and Haiphong yesterday (12th). United States fighter-bombers from Thailand and the Gulf of Tonkin hit four radar sites in Hanoi and missile emplacements near Kep airfield as well as the airfield itself, some 35 miles northeast of the capital. United States pilots claimed neutralization of five missile sites and six antiaircraft installations around Haiphong.”…
“VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES” (Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 12 March 1968…
(1) An O-1G of the 19th TASS and 405th TASG out of Bien Hoa was badly damaged by an enemy mortar attack on the base at Song Be. As it was being lifted out by helicopter for a return to Bien Hoa it was dropped and destroyed…ooops…
(2) LT JERRY WEBER was flying an F-8E of the VF-53 Iron Angels embarked in USS Bon Homme Richard and assigned a BARCAP mission before being diverted to Danang due to deteriorating weather at the carrier. The weather at Danang was not much better requiring an instrument approach. LT WEBER made the approach as a wingman since his TACAN and navigational aids were inoperative. In the approach his aircraft hit the top of trees on a ridge line and he ejected. LT WEBER was rescued by helicopter after a few hours on the ground waiting to be located and picked-up to fly and fight again…
(3) COMMANDER GLENN EDWARD KOLLMAN, Commanding Officer, VA-35, and LT JOHN GARY GRIFFITH were flying an A-6A of the VA-35 Black Panthers embarked in USS Enterprise on a night strike on a JCS target in the heartland of North Vietnam and crashed a few seconds after their catapult shot. The heavily loaded A-6 Intruder was seen to pitch up and roll off on a wing and into the sea. Neither aviator escaped the crash and they both perished 50 years ago this day. Humble Host honors this day and these shipmates with the inclusion of JOHN GRIFFITH’s NAVY CROSS citation (which is a near duplicate of that of COMMANDER KOLLMAN)…
“For EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in aerial flight on 24 February 1968 as a naval flight officer in Attack Squadron THIRTY-FIVE embarked in USS ENTERPRISE (CVA(N)-65). As leading bombardier/navigator, Lieutenant Commander (then Lieutenant) GRIFFITH flew on a night air strike against a vital and heavily defended port facility in the heart of North Vietnam. Navigating his aircraft at perilously low altitudes in the monsoon weather, he successfully penetrated intense and accurate enemy defenses en route to the target. Disregarding the threatening surface-to-air missiles and antiaircraft artillery defending the target area, Lieutenant Commander GRIFFITH maintained a steady radar tracking of the target until bomb release, thereby ensuring an optimum bombing solution. Because of his daring and highly professional navigation and radar-bombing skill, his bombs found their mark, inflicting heavy damage upon the port facilities. By his technical competence, courage, and loyal devotion to duty in the face of intense enemy opposition, Lieutenant Commander GRIFFITH contributed materially to United States efforts in Southeast Asia and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Rest in Peace, Skipper Kollman and John Griffith…. “Where do we get such men???”….
Read an article written by Johnny Griffith shortly before he and Glenn Kollman were killed, published posthumously in Naval Aviation News.
(Webmaster note: Kollman and Griffith catapulted from Enterprise for a night mission. Immediately after launching the nose of their Intruder pitched up sharply, resulting in the aircraft stalling, nosing-over and plunging into the sea. Consensus among their squadron mates was that a leading-edge slat that had been problematic on the aircraft caused the tragedy. Today, nearly sixty years later, Kollman and Griffith sit side-by-side in their aircraft at the murky depths of the Tonkin Gulf, gone but never forgotten)
From the Compilation “34thTFS/F-105 History” by Howie Plunkett for 12-Mar-68: “…four pilots in Simmer flight from the 34 TFS bombed a road in Laos… This was Major Sam Armstrong’s 86th combat mission.” From LGEN Armstrong’s 100-mission combat log: “The primary reason for my flying this a.m. was to try the new configuration of 4 x 750# bombs on the inboard stations and a centerline 650-gallon tank. This swaps 1500# of fuel for 1500# of explosive and would make our configuration more standard. It worked pretty well. The fuel flow was the same as the old configuration and the bombs came off cleanly. Our target was a road down in Laos just west of Khe Sanh, South Vietnam. We got four road cuts.”…
Humble Host flew #119 to work with a FAC in Steel Tiger on a truck park, 5 MK-82s on each of two A-4Fs on target with unknown BDA… Weather was OK over the beach but nasty at the ship…
RIPPLE SALVO… #737… New York Times Op Ed 11 March 1968… As Secretary Rusk is raked over the coals before Senator Fulbright and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The New York Times published this as the lead editorial… I quote:
SUICIDAL ESCALATION
General Westmoreland has reportedly requested more than 200,000 additional American troops–a 40 per cent increase–in order “to regain the initiative” in Vietnam. Old soldiers’ illusions, it appears, never die.
If events of the past six weeks in Vietnam prove anything, they demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that the policy of military escalation in Southeast Asia which President Johnson and his Pentagon advisors have followed for more than three years is futile–and worse. General Westmoreland and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have asked for and received additional men and resources, and each time with the promise that there was “light at the end of the tunnel.”
Time and again they have been proved wrong. The tunnel turned out to be a bottomless pit, going down toward nowhere. Every time the United Sates has sent more men and arms to Vietnam, American escalation has been matched by more men, more arms and more determination on the other side. Instead of victory, each escalation has produced a new stand-off at a higher level of death, destruction and despair for the Vietnamese and at mounting costs in lives, money and respect for the United States. Meanwhile, increased military activity in Vietnam has tended to undermine Washington’s side of the vital political struggle, which is the heart of the problem there; it has weakened the United States both domestically and in its foreign relations. Each escalation has raised the risk of a suicidal International conflagration.
The enemy in Vietnam still has substantial uncommitted reserves plus the possibility for additional arms and manpower from the deeply committed communist allies. There is every reason to fear that a further escalation of the kind General Westmoreland has proposed will create new problems of unprecedented proportions for the United States both at home and abroad. The effect will be to push-off negotiations, not advance them.
The time has come to abandon this bankrupt policy. the American people have been pushed beyond the limits of gullibility. Searching questions about the escalation doctrine are at last being raised by significant numbers of private citizens, members of congress and even by officials of standing in the Administration itself. These questions must now be pressed at every level. The fate of the nation depends upon it. End quote…
RTR Quote for 12 March: ARDANT du PICQ, Battle Studies: “Man does not enter battle to fight, but for victory. He does everything he can to avoid the first and obtain the second.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
