Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #930… CAPTAIN DUANE WHITNEY MARTIN, USAF (2 JAN 1940–3 JULY 1966) was presented the Air Force Cross, posthumously, “for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force as Pilot of an HH-43B helicopter of Detachment 3, 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam, in action 40 miles south of Vinh, North Vietnam on 20 September 1968.” He and his three crew mates in “Dutchy 41” (Captain Thomas Jerry Curtis, Sergeant William A. Robinson and Airman First Class Arthur Black) were downed attempting the rescue of F-105D pilot Captain Willis E. Forby. All were captured. Curtis, Robinson and Black by the North Vietnamese and spent 2,703 days confined as POWs in Hanoi. (See RTR for 20 Sept 68). Captain Martin was captured by the Pathet Lao, and therein lies the story. POWs in North Vietnam came home. POWs in Laos? Hardly ever. See Ripple Salvo below… But first…
Goode Morning… 21-SEPT is NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY–break out your flag and let it wave… Lest we forget…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times for Saturday, 21 September 1968…
THE WAR: Page: “MARINES LANDED IN DMZ–PUSH SOUTHWARD–110 OF FOE REPORTED KILLED IN SECOND DRIVE OF WEEK AGAINST ZONE BUILD-UP– Operation Marks Departure In American Tactics–500 Rifles Uncovered”… “A force of 2,000 marines airlifted to a site at the North Vietnamese border swept southward today and reported killing 110 enemy troops in a drive against an enemy build-up in the demilitarized zone. It was the second thrust into the southern area of the six mile-wide DMZ in a week and the fifth this summer, underscoring the determination of United States commanders to protect the string of allied outposts just south of the DMZ. Allied intelligence reports said that a full division of North Vietnamese infantry, as many as 7,000 men, was massing in the buffer zone, posing a threat to the American bases at Camlo, Camp Carroll and the Rockpile…. DRIVE BEGAN TUESDAY… United States headquarters said that the new offensive began when fleets of helicopters dropped the Marine assault team from the 4th and 9th Regiments of the 3rd Division at the southern banks of the Benhai River, the boundary between North and South Vietnam in the center of the DMZ…United States casualties were described s light…”… Page 11: “AMERICANS INJURE 14 AUSSIES”… “Fourteen Australian soldiers were wounded yesterday when cannon fire from an American warplane cut them down during an assault on an enemy position in a jungle southeast of Saigon. Only one was seriously injured. The offending aircraft was an F-100 Super Sabre following up a bombing attack with 20-mm strafing…”.
PEACE… On 21 September 1968 the “OSLO CONNECTION” popped open and in the back channel through Oslo, Norway it appeared that the North Vietnamese were proposing a slight give of some of their offensive operations. A series of four long telegrams and letters were delivered to the White house while the President was in Texas. Walt Rostow has saved us all a lot of reading by boiling the eight pages down to two for the President. Humble Host links to Document 25, which references the other four historical documents which you can access from 25 by keying the small carrot at three-o’clock on each document to get to the next. I recommend a quick read of 25 to get to the bottom line where Rostow writes: “Most interesting aspect of conversation was definite North Vietnamese statement tht they would stop their artillery fire across DMZ if U.S. stopped all bombing of North Vietnam and its artillery fire across DMZ. Hanoi has thus indicated its readiness to pay a specific price (although not a very high one) for the stopping of the bombing.” Read Document 25, Rostow’s summary telegram to the President, and access the other four documents at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d25
Humble Host notes that this series of formerly Top Secret, Eyes Only sensitive documentation is akin to the flow of documents in the State Department, White House channels at the present time concerning ongoing negotiations with Iran, North Korea, Russia, et.al. Those documents won’t be seen by the public for the next fifty years, but D25 (and four more) are a good history lesson for scholars and students. This is what goes on in the back channels every day in Foggy Bottom and the West Wing…
Page 1: “RUSSIANS CONFIRM FLIGHT OF ZOND 5 AROUND THE MOON”… Page 1: “HUMPHREY PRODS NIXON TO ENGAGE IN DIRECT DEBATE– He accuses His Opponent Of Compromise and Evasion On Human Rights Issues”… Page 1: “NIXON IS HAILED IN PHILADELPHIA–Reception Turned Greater By Far Than Humphrey’s–Candidate Is Elated”… Page 1: “DUBCEK PUTS OFF VISIT TO MOSCOW–Postponement Of New Talks Ascribed To Disagreement Over Neutralization”… Page 8: “Tension In Mexico City Produces A Dialogue of the Deaf”… Page 9: “Students Battle Mexican Police–Several Hurt On 2nd Day of Clashes At Institute”… Page 10: “STUDY FINDS DEFOLIANTS CHANGE VIETNAM ECOLOGY–But No Permanent Damage By”… Page 16: “AGNEW CHARGES A CREDIBILITY GAP–GOVERNOR VOWS POLICY OF TRUTH–In San Francisco, He Says The Public Is Misled” …Page 16: “HUMPHREY EXTOLS THE VIRTUES OF RUSTIC LIFE IN PLEA TO FARMERS–Scorns City-Bred Rival”…
21 SEPTEMBER 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times/AP…No coverage of operations north of the DMZ…VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 21 September 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN ROBERT F. CONLEY, JR., USMC and 1LT STEVEN R. MAJOR, USMC were flying an F-4B of the VMFA-115 Silver Eagles and MAG-13 out of Chu Lai and went down on a close air support mission. Chris Hobson tells the story: “The Marines lost another Phantom while attacking troops during a close air support mission near Phu Bai south of Hue. Both crew were killed when the aircraft was hit by ground fire during the first pass on the target. The pilot was the son of Brig. Gen. Robert F. Conley, a well known Marine aviator who had shot down a MiG-15 at night during the Korean War and who had commanded VMF(AW)-312 at Danang in 1965 and MAG-11 in 1966.”…
(2) LCOL D.D. KLEIN and 1LT R.P. ERICKSON were flying a B-57B Canberra of the 8th TBS and 35th TFW out of Phan Rang on a night strike on a truck park in southern Laos when downed by 37-mm ground fire. They were on their fifth attack when hit. LCOL KLEIN headed for and made it to the Gulf of Tonkin 100 miles away where the two night flyers ejected. They were rescued by a Navy SAR to fly and fight again, at night…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) FOR THE FOUR 21 SEPTEMBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965, 1968… NONE…
1966… CAPTAIN GLENDON LEE AMMON, USAF… (KIA)…
1967… LCDR WILLIAM JAMES VESCELIUS, USN… (KIA)…
RIPPLE SALVO… #930… NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY… No better incident during the Rolling Thunder Operation to illustrate the what the day of remembrance is all about. When “Dutchy 41” went down under the guns of a massive flak trap, four fearless aviators joined an equally brave fighter pilot on the ground. The fickle finger of Fate brought five American warriors to an unplanned fork in their individual paths of life: a sudden stop, followed by a change in their respective destinies. For four of the men Fate moved them into the cruel hands of the North Vietnamese to be interned as POWs for the next 2,703 days of their lives. CAPTAIN DUANE W. MARTIN, on the other hand, was pulled in a different direction by “a quirk of Fate,” and would instead become a prisoner of the Pathet Lao. He would be Missing-in-Action for the rest of his life.
From Wikipedia… “Curtis, Robinson, and Black (and Forby) were all captured by the North Vietnamese Army and taken to a POW camp in North Vietnam. they were later released in Operation homecoming. Martin, on the other hand, was captured by the Pathet Lao and taken to a POW camp in Laos. There he joined fellow prisoners Eugene DeBruin (American), Phisit Intharathat, Prasit Promsuwan, Prasit Dhanee (all Thai), and Y.C (Chinese). They were joined in February 1966 by United States Navy Lieutenant Dieter Dengler. On 29 June 1966, while the guards were eating, the group slipped out of their hand and foot restraints and grabbed the guard’s unattended weapons. The Pathet Lao guards spotted some of the other prisoners trying to escape. Dieter fired at a machete wielding guard and Phisit Intharathat killed the other guards. Phisit, in his own account said he killed one guard as he reached for his rifle and the other three in total were killed and the rest ran away. The seven prisoners split into three groups: Phisit, and the other Thai prisoners; DeBruin stayed with To, who had been too ill to continue with the escape; Dengler and Martin headed for the Mekong River to escape to Thailand.
Several days after the escape, Martin and Dengler were hiding out near an Akha village. Martin had a bout of malaria and was severely weakened. He was further demoralized when an attempt to signal a C-130 flareship that came over them produced no results (in another account it was a Huey helo that overflew the pair of evaders). He told Dengler that he was going to die. Later that day he told Dengler that he was going to try to steal some food from the village. Dengler told him it would be suicide but accompanied him on the venture. As they neared the village, they encountered a boy playing with a dog. The boy alerted the village of their presence and a villager came running toward them with a machete. Martin knelt down on the trail with his hands clasped before him in supplication, but the man swung at Martin, first hitting him in the leg. His second swing struck Martin in the back of the neck, killing him. Dengler managed to escape back into the jungle and was rescued several weeks later (20 July 1966). Other than Dengler, Phisit Intharathat was the only known survivor. The rest of the prisoners are still unaccounted for.”
Read the Task Force Omega file on Duane Martin…
On this Day of National Recognition of POWs and MIAs, Humble Host encourages a visit to the DEFENSE POW/MIA ACCOUNTING AGENCY web site… browse it… draw your own conclusion…mine?…The search for the missing is in good hands. There are 82,000 American fighting men still missing to find, recover and return to the country and families they died for… The goal remains… “the fullest possible accounting of our missing.”
This is as good day to “Leave a Remembrance” for one or more of the guys left behind. There is an open log for every fallen or missing warrior whose name is on the wall…Wall of Faces…
Lest we forget… Bear
