Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #655… …and sends a clue to what’s on his mind: The end to be pursued in Vietnam is NOT victory… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE filling in some blanks on the air war fought fifty-years ago over North Vietnam by the forgotten warriors of “the Silent Generation.”…but remembered here…
22 DECEMBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a Friday of thunder showers of snow…
Page 1: “Johnson Australia Meeting With Thieu Heals Rift on Vietcong–Joint Statement Backs Talks With Members of National Liberation Front–Vietcong–But Rejects Recognition–Chiefs Confer For Two Hours–President Then Joins Rites for Prime Minister Holt Then Leaves For secret Destination”... Page 1: “Draft Resolutions Were Ready Before Gulf of Tonkin Incident”… “The Senate Foreign Relations Committee made public today testimony confirming that the Administration prepared contingent drafts of the Southeast Asia Resolution before attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on American destroyers in August 1964.”… Page 16: “SANE Offers 4-Point Plan for Peace in Vietnam”... “Leaders of the National Committee For a Sane Nuclear Policy proposed a four-step plan yesterday in response to President Johnson’s challenge to produce a ‘workable solution’ to the conflict. It is ‘imperative,’ they said that the United States and the Saigon Government deal with the National Liberation Front–the political arm of the Vietcong–as a ‘major political force in its own right. This recognition, SANE said, is the first and ‘most important’ of the four proposals. The others of these: (2) Cessation of the bombing of the North; (3) De-escalation of military operations in South Vietnam; and (4) An unambiguous commitment’ to withdraw all American military forces from Vietnam, along with all other foreign troops, after the end of hostilities.… The SANE statement said: “A cessation of the bombing North Vietnam could clear the path to talks with the Hanoi Government. But the overriding question of the war–the political future of South Vietnam–will remain unsettled until the South Vietnamese of the National Liberation Front, who are doing most of the fighting on the other side, are assured their goals can be pursued in the future through legal, political means and that Vietnamese solutions to Vietnamese problems will not be blocked by an American military presence or an American dominated regime in Saigon.”… Page 17: “Cambodia Pledges Fight If U.S. Invades”… “The Cambodian government warned today that 35,000 soldiers and the entire civilian population would fight U.S. troops if they invaded Cambodia.”… Page 16: “Hanoi Rejects Parcels for Captives, U.S. Says”… 234 parcels for known POWs held in Hanoi are held up… U.S. notes total of 635 Americans missing as the year ends.”… Page 17: “500 At City Hall Assault Policy and Vietnam”... “About 500 demonstrators staged a quiet rally at City Hall Park yesterday in protest against the Vietnam war and what they termed excessive police force used during antiwar and anti-draft parades two weeks ago…”
22 Democrat 1967… The President’s Daily Brief… NORTH VIETNAM: Anti-war Protests in America: Hanoi, in an English language broadcast on 20 December, reported a series have been critical of the administration’s Vietnam policy. The broadcast reported that some 1,000 Americans in Torrance, California, held a mile long march on 17 December to protest the war, and that on the same day in New York, senator Vance Hartke ‘condemned the US war in Vietnam and demanded the immediate withdrawal of US troops from the South.’ Protests by American Quaker groups and Negroes, as well as disruptive activities at draft induction centers around the country, were also reported without comment.” Also reported by Hanoi broadcast: numerous antiwar activities taking place around the world. Demonstrations against US policy and involvement in Vietnam were reported in West Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Mali, Yemen, and Australia. All this again was carried without comment by Hanoi.”…
22 DECEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (23 Dec reporting 22 Dec ops)… Page 1: “The monsoon weather limited American pilots to 90 missions over North Vietnam, A spokesman said that all were in the southern section of the country. The United States command in the weekly aircraft summary, reported that 767 planes had been lost in combat over North Vietnam. The figure was one higher than had previously been reported.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were four fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on December 1967.
(1) LCDR WILLIAM P. COOK was flying an A-4E of the VA-155 Silver Foxes embarked in USS CORAL SEA and leading an armed reconnaissance mission 15 miles south of Vinh when downed. His wingman observed LCDR COOK’s Skyhawk on fire subsequent to his first bomb run, leading to a supposition that he suffered an early detonation from one of his own bombs. The wreckage of the aircraft was found two miles from the coast and a Navy helicopter confirmed that LCDR COOKS body, still strapped in his parachute, was lying about 300-feet from the wreckage. The helicopter was unable to recover the body due to heavy ground fire. The North Vietnamese returned the remains of LCDR COOk in September 1989.
(2) LCDR JAMES MARTIN HICKERSON was flying an A-7A Corsair II of the VA-147 Argonauts embarked in USS Ranger and providing Iron Hand support for a wing strike on a Firecan Radar site eight miles southwest of Haiphong when downed by one of three SAMs fired in his direction. The lethal missile exploded 200-feet below his A-7 and LCDR HICKERSON was forced to eject and captured. He was released more than five years later in March 1973… This was the first A-7 lost in the war.
LCDR HICKERSON and his family resided on Crusader Avenue in the Lemoore Naval Air Station housing across the cul-de-sac from Humble Host. His downing a few days before Christmas, along with the loss of LCDR COOK, also of the Lemoore family, put an especially dark cloud of real-world over the Light Attack community at Lemoore for the 1967 Christmas season. For my family, there was little joy since I was in my last days at home before deploying on Enterprise for another go from Yankee Station.
(3) CAPTAIN GARY HENRY FORS, USMC, and 1LT GUY K. LASHLEE, USMC were flying an F-4B of the VMFA-122 Crusaders and MAG-11 out of Danang on a Steel Tiger mission striking a road through heavy jungle about 40 miles southwest of Hue when hit by automatic weapons fire and downed. Chris Hobson reports: “Capt. Fors and 1Lt Lashlee were on their second pass over the target when their Phantom was hit in the wing by 23mm anti-aircraft fire. The aircraft started to burn and the crew ejected almost immediately. One report claims that as 1Lt Lashlee was descending in his parachute he saw that Capt Fors had landed near the crash site but was already surrounded by enemy troops. Lashlee drifted away and was rescued about 30 minutes later by a Marine Corps UH-1E from Khe Sanh. Despite tantalizing but unsubstantiated reports that Gary Fors had been captured and was seen in captivity, he was never returned from the jungles of Laos.”… Left behind, fifty years ago this day… Killed in Action… We will never know the rest of this tragic story…
(4) CAPTAIN ROBERT LYNNE LONG was flying an F-100D of the 531st TFS and 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa on a close air support mission supporting friendly troops in contact with Vietcong about 30 miles northwest of Saigon when downed by automatic weapons fire on his second strafing pass at very low altitude. The Super Sabre crashed before CAPT LONG could eject… a warrior death, with honor… on the battlefield, on the attack…
From the “compilation” of Howie Plunkett “34 TFS/F-105 History“… 22-Dec-67… “The four pilots in ‘Cookie’ flight were from the 34 TFS. The four-ship took off at 7:05 for a TOT of 08:00. They refueled from Brown Anchor 72…The flight met FAC Nail 49 and was over the target at from 08:10 to 08:20…No BDA…”…. Captain Earl Henderson of the 469th TFW “was another Korat pilot who bombed a target in Laos. It was his 54th combat mission. ‘Target: Road cut in southern Laos. Armament 6X750. Led two-ship airborne spare flight. Right before drop off from main strike force, we broke into flight of F-4Cs that looked like attacking MIGs. Then drop bombs 200 miles south. Got road cut. No flak. Long, boring mission. Sneaked into Pack V for counter.'”
RIPPLE SALVO… #655… NYT, 23 December 1967…Page 1: “POPE ASKS PEACE WITHOUT VICTORY; OFFERS OWN AID”…
“Pope Paul VI called for peace without victory in the ‘dolorous and menacing’ war in Vietnam and again offered his own services in any effective form requested that would help bring peace. By linking this offer with an assertion that all offers of mediation had been rebuffed which he deplored, the Pontiff seemed to be suggesting a role for himself as an active mediator rather than as a mere exhorter to peace. He recalled that he had asked both for suspension of United States air bombardments and for ‘a sign if a serious will for peace’ by the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese. The Pope said that he had many requests to ‘exhort one party in the conflict’ to suspend the bombing. ‘We have done this and we do it again, in the name of the defenseless ones who, quite involuntarily, are victims of such military actions.’ He added: ‘but at the same time we again invite the other party in the conflict to give a sign of serious desire for peace.’
“At the United Nations, Secretary General Thant endorsed the Pope’s appeal to the United States to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. The Pope Spoke on Vietnam in the course of a wide-ranging address to the College of Cardinals that covered his own and the Roman Catholic Church’s activities in the last year. It also reviewed the international situation, touching on the Middle East, troubles in Nigeria and problems in Latin America.
“The Pope’s remarks on Vietnam apparently were an indication of those he would make to the President if Mr. Johnston decided to seek a Christmas Eve papal interview in Rome on his return from Australia, as has been strongly rumored. The Pope said he was certain that the end to be pursued in Vietnam was not ‘victory which oppresses, but security, peace and liberty for all.’ ‘Loyal and frank’ negotiations obviously the way to achieve it, he added.
“‘We have been saddened and amazed to see how every disinterested offer of mediation has been rendered vain, every effort for honest and peaceful negotiations repulsed, while there still seems possible an honorable settlement of the dolorous and menacing affairs,’ the Pope said. ‘Foreign to any interest of one only impassioned for the human values at stake, we have dared to offer our unarmed collaboration, disposed to cooperate in the most efficacious way, which might be permitted and requested for the re-establishment of true peace.’ “…
Popes always have their heart in the right place. Their principal sermon is a plea for world peace. Their work will never be done.
RTR Quote for 22 December: MATTHEW v.9: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”…
Lest we forget… Bear…
