RIPPLE SALVO… #775… In 1997 WILLIAM STRAUSS and NEIL HOWE published “THE FOURTH TURNING, An American Prophecy: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny.” Americans have had more than 20 years to ponder the prophecy of “THE FOURTH TURNING” as our rendezvous with destiny has evolved. Unfortunately, the dire warnings of STRAUSS and HOWE have been ignored as their predictions have unfolded right on cue… For the next week Humble Host will post excerpts. About 80 copies of the book are available at abebooks.com for $8 & free delivery to a signed copy at $4,500… but first…
GOOD MORNING: Day SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE of a return to the years of the Vietnam war and the skies of North Vietnam to remember the great air battle called Rolling Thunder…
HEAD LINES from the OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINER on Friday, 19 April 1968, FIFTY YEARS AGO…
THE WAR: Page 10: “363 KILLED AS WEEKLY TOLL CLIMBS”…”The number of Americans killed in the Vietnam war climbed to 363 last week, the highest number in five weeks…An increase also was reported in the number of enemy killed, while south Vietnamese casualties dropped from the previous week. An increase of 5,000 also was reported in the number of military personnel in South Vietnam, raising the total to 522,000 as of midnight last Saturday. There was no official explanation for the increase in American battle deaths in a week when fighting generally was described in communiques as light and scattered. U.S. officials said, however, there were tens of thousands of men in the field in widespread operations and the toll in many sporadic actions naturally could mean increased casualties. The week before 279 Americans were killed in action. American wounded last week totaled 2,694 compare with 3,190 the previous week.
Page 1: “JETS RAKE NORTH, BOOST ATTACKS ON RED TARGETS”…” U.S. Warplanes made their heaviest raids of the year on North Vietnam Thursday (18th)…see RTR for 18th… One of the worst helicopter crashes of the war occurred in South Vietnam. Two U.S. Army UH-1 choppers collided in flight 59 miles southwest of the coastal city of Qui Nhon while on a combat operation. Eighteen South Vietnamese civilian irregulars and eight American military personnel were killed. There were no survivors. Over South Vietnam, Air Force B-52 bombers made six more raids late Thursday and Friday on the North Vietnamese in the A Shau Valley west of Hue. The eight-engine jets dropped an estimated 1,000 tons of bombs on troop concentrations, bunkers, truck parks and gun positions in the stronghold where U.S. officers think the North Vietnamese may be readying another big drive against Hue.”… Page 1: “SENATOR KENNEDY RIPS LBJ: ‘STALLING ON TALKS’ “… “Senator Robert F. Kennedy says the latest conditions imposed by President Johnson on selection of a site for preliminary Vietnam peace talks are ‘unforgivable’ and ‘badly undermine our condition in the United States and throughout the world.’ “… Page 1: “HANOI DISCARDS SITE PROPOSALS”.. “North Vietnam in effect rejected today the latest U.S. proposal on the site of preliminary peace talks on Vietnam. It described the proposal listing 10 countries as ‘tortuous maneuvers’ to delay contacts.”… Page 3: “FOREIGN INTEREST SOARING IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION–CONCERN OVER VIETNAM WAR, OVERSEAS POLICY STIRS WORLD”… “Foreigners appear more interested in this year’s U.S. presidential election than in any in many years. Their interest is registered in a reliable barometer: the increasing number of foreign newspapers, other publications and radio and television stations for credentials to cover the Republican and Democratic conventions in August.”… Page 3: “OREGON CAPITOL TO LOWER FLAG FOR VIETNAM WAR DEAD”… “Secretary of State Clay Meyers: ‘Lowering our flags in front of the the Capitol one day a month is a small thing to do, but it may serve to remind Oregonians of the great sacrifices our boys are making in Southeast Asia.’ “…
Page 1: “U.S. DISCOUNT RATE HIGHEST SINCE CRASH OF 1929–ATTEMPT AIMED AT INFLATION”… “Americans face the prospect of harder-to-get loans at higher interest rates following the second increase in little more than a month in the Federal Reserve system’s discount rate. In what is termed an attempt to beat back accelerating inflation, the Federal Reserve Board stepped harder on the economic brakes in approving effective today a discount rate of 6.5 per cent fee for 3 of its 12 banks…It had been 5%.”… Page 1: “SEARCH FOR KING ASSASSIN — GALT– SPREADS; FBI SILENT”… “The nation’s police agencies intensified a nationwide search today for Eric Starvo Galt, the elusive fugitive sought in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”… Page 11: “ARMY ADMITS NERVE GAS TESTS IN UTAH MAY HAVE KILLED 6,400 SHEEP”… “Senator Bennett Asks Damage In Utah Flock Losses”…
19 APRIL 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… Ogden Standard-Examiner (20 Apr reporting 19 Apr ops) Page 1: The curtailed U.S. air war against North Vietnam again concentrated on southern panhandle supply lines. The deepest penetration Saturday was 168 miles into the North, two miles south of the 19th parallel…the attacks followed a 1968 record of 160 missions flown Friday by Air Force, Navy and Marine fighter-bombers attacking enemy supply lines in North Vietnam’s panhandle below the 19th parallel. The day before the American warplanes flew 145 missions in the area. The attacks were within the geographic limits set by President Johnson in his efforts to start peace talks with Hanoi.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 19 April 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN K.E. COOK, USMC, was flying an A-4E of VMA-211 and MAG-12 out of Chu Lai and on his seventh run on a ground target near Hue was downed by small arms fire. After being hit CAPTAIN COOK was able to get the failing Skyhawk over the Gulf where he ejected and was rescued…
Humble Host flew #146, a night armed recce on Highway 15 (Happy Valley). Weather Dark/VFR and looked for lights. None found going south. Reversed and going north dropped paraflares then bombed (45-degree dive, in at 12,000, pickle at 5 out at 2,500– flares burning at about 3,000 for the run) the highway for good road cuts on the main road into Mugia Pass. Wingman also got good hits with his string of 6 Mk-82s. No opposition, or at least no tracers. He who bombs and runs away lives to bomb another day, or night…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES ON 19 APRIL IN PRIOR YEARS OF THE AIR WAR OVER THE NORTH…
1965… LTJG JAMES PATRICK SHEA, USN, of VA-215 was flying an A-1H on a night armed recce and while engaging trucks about 30 miles north of the DMZ was downed by AAA and or flew into the ground. LTJG SHEA was killed in action and to date his body has not been recovered…Left behind?
1966… CAPTAIN JOSEPH ORVILLE BROWN, USAF, was flying an O-1F of the 505th TACG and controlling strike ops just south of the Mugia Pass when hit and downed by enemy ground fire. He was killed in action. CAPTAIN BROWN’s remains were recovered and he was buried with honors in Arlington in 1999…
1966… 1LT LEE AARON ADAMS, USAF, was flying an F-105D of the 333rd TFS out of Takhli and went down while strafing trucks 40 miles north of the DMZ. There ws no ejection. He was killed in action. His remains were recovered in October 1993 and identified in 2005. He rests in peace in his homeland…
1966… CAPTAIN RICHARD JOSEPH ROBBINS, USAF, was flying an A-1E Skyraider of the 602nd ACS in the SAR team responding to the downing of CAPTAIN BROWN when hit by enemy ground fire near the border of North Vietnam. He was killed in action in the ensuing crash. The wreckage of the aircraft was discovered in 1995 and the remains and personal effects of CAPTAIN ROBBINS were recovered and identified in September 1996…
1997… MAJOR THOMAS MARK MADISON and MAJOR THOMAS JAMES STERLING were flying n F-105D Iron Hand/Wild Weasel of the 357th TFS in support of a strike on an NVA barracks target 37 miles southwest of Hanoi when hit and downed by a MIG-17. Two other F-105s in the flight were damaged by the MiGs and retired leaving only MAJOR LEO THORSNESS and CAPTAIN HARRY JOHNSON to deal with the MiGs while covering the downed aviators and the rescue aircraft, including MAJOR JOHN SMITH HAMILTON in a 602nd ACS A-1E. MAJOR MADISON and MAJOR STERLING were captured and imprisoned by the North Vietnamese for the duration of the war. They were released in 1973. MAJOR THORSNESS and CAPTAIN JOHNSON would down one MiG and damage others while controlling the air over the rescue scene. MAJOR THORSNESS was awarded the MEDAL OF HONOR for this extraordinary mission. CAPTAIN JOHNSON was awarded the AIR FORCE CROSS. MAJOR HAMILTON was downed by anti-aircraft fire and killed in action attempting the rescue of his brother aviators. He ws listed as missing in action until reclassified as KIA in 1979. His remains were recovered in 1995 and positively identified in 1997… He rests in peace in his homeland for which he gave his life while attempting the rescue of others.
RIPPLE SALVO… #775… THE FOURTH TURNING by Strauss and Howe …CLIP I… “WINTER COMES AGAIN”… I quote (pages 1-2)…
“AMERICA FEELS LIKE IT’S UNRAVELING…
“Though we live in an era of relative peace and comfort (1997), we have settled into a mood of pessimism about the long-term future, fearful that our superpower nation is somehow rotting from within. Neither an epic victory over Communism nor an extended upswing of the business cycle can buoy our public spirit. The Cold War and New Deal struggle are plainly over, but we are of no mind to bask in their successes. The America of today feels worse, in its fundamentals, than the one many of us remember from youth, a society presided over by those of supposedly lesser consciousness. Wherever we look, from L.A. to D.C., from Oklahoma City to Sun City, we see paths to a foreboding future. We yearn for civic character but satisfy ourselves with symbolic gestures and celebrity circuses. We perceive no greatness in our leaders, a new meanness in ourselves. Small wonder that each new election brings a new jolt, its aftermath a new disappointment.
“Not long ago, America was more than the sum of its parts. Now, it is less. Around World Wr II, we were proud as a people but modest as individuals. Fewer than two people in ten said yes when asked, Are you a very important person? Today, more than six in ten say yes. Where we once thought ourselves collectively strong, we now regard ourselves as individually entitled.
“Yet even while we exalt our own personal growth, we realize that millions of self-actualized persons don’t add up to an actualized society. Popular trust in virtually every American institution–from businesses and governments to churches and newspapers–keeps falling to new lows. Public debts soar, the middle class shrinks, welfare dependencies deepen, and cultural argument worsen by the year. We now have the highest incarceration rate and the lowest eligible-voter participation rate of any major democracy. Statistics inform us that many adverse trends (crime, divorce, abortion, scholastic aptitudes) may have bottomed out, but we’re not reassured.
“Optimism still attached to self, but no longer to family or community. Most Americans express more hope for their own prospects than for their children’s–or the nation’s. Parents widely fear that the American Dream which was there (solidly) for their parents and still there (barely) for them, will not be there for their kids. Young householders are reaching their mid-thirties never having known a time when America seemed to be on the right track. Middle-aged people look at their thin savings accounts and slim-to-none pensions, scoff at an illusory Social Security trust fund, and try not to dwell on what a burden their old age could become. Seniors separate into their own Leisure World, recoiling at the lost virtue of youth while trying not to think about the future.
“We perceive our own civic challenge as some vast, insoluable Rubik’s Cube. Behind each problem lies another problem that must be solved first, and behind that lies yet another , and another, ad infinitum. To fix crime we have to fix the family, but before we do that we have to fix welfare, and that means fix our budget, and that means fixing our civic spirit, but we can’t do that without fixing moral standard, and that means fixing schools and churches, and that means fixing the inner cities, and that’s impossible unless we fix crime. There’s no fulcrum on which to rest a policy lever. People of all ages sense that something huge will have to sweep across America before the gloom can be lifted–but that’s an awareness we suppress. As a nation, we’re in deep denial.
“While we grope for answers, we wonder if analysts may be crowding out our intuition. Like the anxious patient who takes seventeen kinds of medicine while pouring over his own CAT scan, we find it hard to stop and ask, What is the underlying malady really about? How can we best bring the primal force of nature to our assistance? Isn’t there a choice lying somewhere between total control an total despair? Deep down, beneath the tangle of trend lines, we suspect that our history or biology or very humanity must have something simple and important to say to us. But we didn’t know what it is. If we once did know, we have since forgotten.
“Wherever we’re headed, America is evolving in ways most of us don’t like or understand. Individually focused yet collectively adrift, we wonder if we’re heading toward a waterfall. Are we?… “… End quote… In the next RS…”It’s All happened Before”…
RTR Quote for 19 April: ALBERT EINSTEIN: “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”…
Lest we forget… Bear