Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #410… title: “THE VIETNAM AIR WAR: FIRST PERSON” and “The Cool Bear”… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED TEN of a look back to fifty years ago in the skies over North Vietnam…
19 April 1967… HOME TOWN HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cool,clear Wednesday in NYC…
Page 1: “France Assailed at SEATO Parley”... “The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization opened its annual ministerial meeting today, with differences over the conduct of the war in Vietnam underlined by unusually outspoken addresses by Australia and Thai delegates. Although a majority of the alliance members endorsed the firm United States stand on Vietnam, Australia’s Minister for External Affairs Paul Hasluck, abandoned the usual reluctance to discuss differences in public. He noted that France was boycotting the meeting and accused her of taking an isolationist attitude toward Asia. He also chided Britain for moving to reduce her military positions in the Middle and Far East…In quiet, almost scholarly tones, the Thai diplomat charged that the alliance had broken down into two categories–‘the fully active members and the selective ones. If such are the circumstances, how can an organization based on unequal rights and obligations continue to function? This probably will be the crucial question which we will have to answer sooner or later.’ “… Page 1: “Saigon Widening Amnesty Appeal”... “The Government announced today, after months of hesitation, a new amnesty program, known as National Reconciliation, had been unceasingly advocated by American diplomats here for more than a year. Only Cao Ky and his fellow generals in the governing military group to accept it…amnesty is tantamount to being granted full liberty.”… Page 1: “Brezhnev Appeals Anew for Red Unity At Berlin Congress”… “Leonid Brezhnev pleaded again today for unity of the world Communist parties, directly to aid the Communist struggle in Vietnam and indirectly to make common cause in Europe against the West German government. Absent from the meeting: Communist China, Albania and Yugoslavia.”…
Page 1: “Kennedy Declares Building Unions Fail to Hire Negroes”... “Senator Robert F. Kennedy confronted the leaders of the nation’s building trade unions in a Senate committee room today and told them that their efforts to open union ranks to Negroes had failed. The New York democrat predicted new racial turmoil stemming in part from job discrimination in the cities this summer. ‘I think we’re going to have more difficulties this coming summer,’ he said. ‘One of the reasons is that Negroes and members of the minorities are having difficulty finding employment. They feel bitter, frustrated, estranged from our society–from business, government and labor organizations.’ “… Page 3: “Admiral McCain Honored on USS Wasp”... “Vice Admiral John s. McCain, Jr. turned over the command of the Eastern Frontier to Vice Admiral Andrew McB. Jackson, Jr. at a ceremony on the USS Wasp yesterday. Vice Admiral McCain will take command of U.S. Naval Forces, Europe on 1 May, relieving Admiral John Thach.”…
Page 5: “Peace Group to Try to See Johnson”...”Leaders of the anti-war group that sponsored Saturday’s protests in New York and in San Francisco said yesterday they would send a delegation to Washington to ‘demand an end to the Vietnam war.’ The Rev. James Bevel, national director of the ‘Spring Mobilization Committee to the War in Vietnam’ said the delegation would seek a meeting with President Johnson on 17 May. ‘We are going there with a clear message that the American people are against genocide and if he doesn’t take steps to stop if, we will take steps to stop it — stop this war of aggression and bring American troops home.’ “... Page 5: “Card Burnings Deplored”... “The Senate Democratic leader Mike Mansfield deplored today the burning of draft cards and flags during antiwar demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco last Saturday. ‘Our people have the constitutional right to assemble and protest peacefully, but I thoroughly disapprove of draft card and flag burning.’ “…
Page 44: “The Challenge of Civil Rights”... “The most significant development in civil rights in the past two years has been the growing recognition that race relations are not the unique problem of the South. Several Federal laws culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1965 have abolished the visible and offensive forms of Jim Crowism below the Mason-Dixon Line, and the steadily rising number of registered Negro voters and elected officials has begun to transform southern political life. In the cities of the North and West meanwhile, de facto segregation, resistance to open housing legislation and unrest among Negro populations in the slums have aptly demonstrated that the entire nation still has far to go to achieve an integrated and just society.”
19 April 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized 8/2015) SOUTH VIETNAM: Ky has just come up with another device to avoid a showdown inside the military over the presidency. He had a group of some 300 students polled on their preferences for president. The survey just completed, showed that about 80-per cent in Saigon and 60 percent in Hue preferred Ky to Thieu. They felt Ky was more open and dynamic… NORTH VIETNAM-LAOS: A large increase in truck traffic from North Vietnam toward the Plaine des Jarres in northern Laos. this traffic is till heavy, but our road watchers deeper in Laos have not seen comparable increases. We cannot yet determine what is going on... COMMUNIST CHINA: Militant Red Guard factions in Peking are now, for the first time, clawing at one another. The rivalry among these groups–all of them believed responsive to the most militant elements in the party leadership–apparently resulted in violent clashed at Peking University last week… It could just be youthful enthusiasm.... GREECE: Ambassador Talbot fears that the brewing political storm may well bring the country to a fateful choice between two evils; rightest dictatorial government basically hostile to the monarchy and probably also to Greece’s present foreign alignment… (A coup is coming)…
STATE DEPARTMENT Office of the Historian…FRUS, 1964-68, Volume V, Vietnam 1967.
On 19 April 1967 the American Ambassador (Cooper) sent a telegram to SecState Rusk in Washington with his ideas on how to handle the impending visit of Britain’s Brown to the Soviet Union with reference to Brown’s interest in reviving the peace initiative Sunflower. Cooper weighs the options and suggests to Rusk that the better choice is for everybody to give up the peace initiative at this point… Cooper’s conclusion: “It is against the foregoing background that I would suggest that rather than have George Brown continue to make peace noises when he comes to Moscow, he should convey to the Soviets a sense of our determination to see this through.” The full telegram is at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d137
19 APRIL 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (20 April reporting 19 April ops) Page 1: “U.S. Jets and MiGs in 17 Dogfights”... “Swarms of enemy jets pounced on United States fighter-bombers during a massive raid yesterday on a troop training center and storage area 37 miles south of Hanoi. Initial reports indicated no American airplanes were shot down but the Communists lost their 39th jet, a MIG-17. The number of MiGs involved in the clashes was not immediately determined, but Air Force F-105 and F-4 pilots reported at least 17 dogfights. ‘It was one of the most active days since we have been going up there.’ said spokesman. United States Air Force pilots reported that numerous buildings in the Xaun Mai army barracks and storage area had been destroyed. Smoke was visible 40 miles away. ‘This was supposed to be a training center for insurgency and we feel a lot of infiltrators are trained here.’ The raid compared closely in intensity with the attack on the Thainguyen steel and iron complex the day before. MiGs were seen but there were no engagements. In other strikes against North Vietnam American pilots attacked in the vicinity of Haiphong, along the coast and in the panhandle region, the southern part of North Vietnam. The spokesman said that a United States Marine A-6 Intruder crashed near Vinh two days ago and that both crewmen (McGarvey and Carlson, see 17 Apr) were missing. It was the 506th American plane lost over the North.”… Page 2: “Power Station Bombed”... “United States Navy planes attacked a power transmission station at Mongduong, 44 miles northeast of Haiphong yesterday. Navy planes also attacked bridges and storage areas near Donghoi. It was the first time the Mongduong targets had been hit. A North Vietnamese broadcast said that two United States planes had been shot down over the Hoabinh province in today’s air action southeast of Hanoi and that one pilot had been captured.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses”(Chris Hobson)... There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 19 April 1967… (1) An F-105F Iron Hand aircraft from the 357th TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli and (2) An A-1E of the 602nd ACS and 56th ACW. The story is well told by Chris Hobson (page 96)…
“An F-105F was lost on an Iron Hand mission , the 10th since the aircraft first deployed to Southeast Asia. Carbine flight was led by an F-105F flown by Major Leo Thorsness and Captain Harry Johnson with MAJOR THOMAS MARK MADISON and MAJOR THOMAS JAMES STERLING flying the other Wild Weasel in the flight. The flight supported a raid on NVA barracks at Xaun Mai, 37 miles southwest of Hanoi. Two SAM sites near the target were attacked but MADISON and STERLING’s aircraft was shot down, probably by a MIG-17. The other two aircraft in the flight were also engaged by MiGs and had to return home with battle damage leaving just the leader’s aircraft over the target. Thorsness circled the parachutes as MADISON and STERLING floated down but then a MiG made a fast pass and Thorsness set off in pursuit and destroyed it with cannon fire. Captain Johnson called for a SAR task force to attempt a rescue and Thorsness flew south to find a tanker to refuel before returning to where MADISON and STERLING had landed. As he briefed the Sandy pilots on the situation Thorsness saw more MiGs and headed towards them. He damaged another of the MiGs with the last of his ammunition and then tried to decoy the remaining MiGs away from the Skyraiders. Eventually another flight of F-105s arrived and the MiGs retired after losing three more to the Thud drivers. As Thorsness was leaving the area he heard one of the F-105 pilots radio that he was lost and short of fuel. Instead of refueling himself, Thorsness sent the tanker north to rendezvous with the other F-105. Thorsness and Johnson landed at Udorn with their fuel tanks reading empty. For his action on this mission Leo Thorsness was awarded the Medal of Honor and Harry Johnson was awarded the Air Force Cross, although they were unaware of the fact as they were shot down and captured on 30 April. MAJOR MADISON and MAJOR STERLING were captured, interned as POWs and released from captivity on 4 March 1973.
“The rescue forces moved into high gear as soon as the Wild Weasel crew went down during the raid on Xuan Mai. Within less than an hour a pair of Skyraiders were approaching the location of the downed crew. However, MiGs were still in the air and the slow, heavily laden Skyraiders were vulnerable. When the Spads were almost 25 miles southwest of Hanoi they were intercepted by four MIG-17s. Despite Major Thorsness’s efforts to draw the MiGs away, MAJOR JOHN SMITH HAMILTON’s aircraft was hit by 37mm cannon fire from a MiG. MAJOR HAMILTON‘s wingman saw pieces of his leader’s outer wing being shot off and the Skyraider roll over and crash into a mountain. No parachute was seen or SAR beeper heard. The MiGs then turned their attention to the remaining Sandy and repeatedly attacked it until a flight of F-105s arrived and shot down three MiGs and drove the rest away after a hard fight. MAJOR HAMILTON was posted missing in action and declared Killed in Action in 1979.” Major Hamilton’s remains were returned 26 October 1995 and identified 11 June 1997. On this day MAJOR HAMILTON is remembered as a heroic human who died putting the lives of others ahead of his own. He rests in peace but his deeds on 19 April 1967, fifty years ago, live on…
RIPPLE SALVO… #410… Colonel Dennis M. (Mike) Ridnouer is the author of “The Vietnam Air War: First Person” that is a great round-up of tales from fifty years ago in the skies over North Vietnam. about sixty of them are from the Rolling Thunder years, but all 100 of his selections of first person accounts are good reading. I would like to relate one of them here to add to the 19 April 1967 action recorded above, but Colonel Ridnour’s fine book includes a warning that to do so requires the “permission of the individual author.”… So be it, but here is a taste of one anyway… Lew Chesley was in the air with Major Thorsness and the group of F-105 warriors who went after the barracks at Xuan Mai on 19 April 1967 and he tells his story in Colonel Ridnour’s book, among other places in the nation’s Vietnam archives…
I quote a few words and names pertinent to today’ RTR post from Lew Chesley’s “Remarkable Mission”…
“On April 19, 1967, a strike force of twenty-four F105Ds and four F-105Fs took off from Takhli Royal Air Force Base…to attack North Vietnam’s army barracks at Xaun Mai (JCS22) thirty miles southwest of Hanoi… Captain Arnie Dolejsi, pilot, and I the EWO, were flying in an F-105F as Kingfish 4, a ‘Wild Weasel’ SAM suppression aircraft…
“The protocol for the Wild Weasel was to be the first aircraft into the target area three minutes before the strike force and to be the last flight out of the target area. Their job was to suppress the SAMs before and during the strike. MiGs were to be avoided if possible and engaged only when necessary for self-protection.
“Many remarkable things happened on this mission. Major Leo Thorsness, Kingfish 1, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during this mission. His EWO, Captain Harold H. Johnson, was awarded the Air Force Cross. Major Thomas Madison, Kingfish 2, and his EWO, Major Thomas Sterling, were shot down on their ingress to the target area and became POWs. Arnie and I in Kingfish 4, after our afterburner failed to light, were attacked by eight MIG-17s, and we escaped without damage. Major John Hamilton, piloting an A-1E, Sandy, was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross. Later in this mission, Major Hamilton was shot down by MiGs and killed. Major Thorsness shot down two MiGs. Captain Harold Johnson, Major Frederick Tolman, Major Jack Hunt and Captain William Askew were each credited with one MIG kill.” end quote…
For a whole bunch of LCOL PAUL LEW CHESLEY, USAF (re) words, here is his tell-all on line in an oral history interview–“that’s another story.” … good stuff…
http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.27118/transcript?ID=sr0001
The 19 April 1967 F-105 mission from Takhli to Xuan Mai and back, really was a remarkable mission and a worthy six page entry into Mike Ridnouer’s 2016 478-page anthology from the air war…. good summer reading…I found my copy on abebooks.com…
CAG’s QUOTES for April 19: GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR: “Men will not fight and die without knowing what they are fighting and dying for.”…. PATTON: “The only hope for a peaceful world is a powerful America with adequate means to instantly check aggressors.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
