Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… “POLICY IN A PARAGRAPH” … but first…
Good Morning: Day FIFTY-THREE of the long look back at Operation Rolling Thunder…
24 APRIL 1966 (NYT)… ON THE HOMEFRONT… Clear day, rainy night in New York …Page 1: “U.S. Planes Down 2 MiG-17s in Duel in North Vietnam”…Air Force F-4Cs downed two MiGs in a five minute clash 65 miles north of Hanoi. These were the sixth and seventh MIG kills of the air war and first since August 1965. F-105s attacked the bridge at Bacgiang, 25 miles north of Hanoi and drew the attention of six MiGs. Four F-4s responded and shot down one MiG with an AIM-9 Sidewinder and a second with an AIM-7 Sparrow…the other four MiGs “bugged out” for home. Unfortunately, two F-105s were downed by AAA in the attacks on the bridge. CAPTAIN JAMES R. MITCHELL (of Ogden, Utah) outmaneuvered a SAM in his F-105 to avoid being the third victim of the intense defense in the area north of Hanoi. The Bacgiang bridge constitutes a major JCS target on the LOC between Hanoi and Kunning, China. The Air Force also lost an RF-101 photo recce aircraft in the same area northeast of Hanoi… Page 3: “Anti-Americanism Grows in Vietnam”…American troops affluence and cultural differences are identified as negative factors and responsible for gap in relations. The military build-up of 1965-66 “caused a powerful economic and cultural shock wave.” Cited as specific points of rancor were the use of base exchanges by Americans, but not South Vietnamese, and the attraction of the Vietnamese women to the bars and prostitution….Also page 3: “Catholics in Saigon Protest Cowardly Ky Regime”… Ky’s compromise with the Buddhists to get an agreement to write the rules for a Fall election led to Catholic protests…Page 4: Shortage of precision guided munitions reportedly resulted in curtailment of some bombing missions. a total of 18,000 bombs have been reacquired from several allies to help resolve the shortage…”Gov Brown Opens Fire on His Foes” in the California Governor’s race. Brown is seeking reelection for a third term and facing Reagan, Christopher and Yorty…Page 56: “Computers Held Inferior to Man’…”Man’s complexity will forever serve to make him master of the computer…the computer is good at math but cannot readjust to a change of subject,” is the conclusion of group of computer experts meeting in New York. …”Man has 1 trillion computing neurons that bring together two million separate erological components all at once. I don’t know any computer that can do that ,” said one…. Editorial page: “Senator Barry Goldwater said that LBJ is trying to keep the war at the lowest possible level in order to save as many members of his congress as he can.”…Page 59: “Jet Age Arrives at Capital Today,” with first operations at National Airport by American Airlines Boeing 727 departing for Chicago, where three big jet airports are expected to be in operation by 1980: O’Hare, Midway and Meigs…
24 APRIL… ROLLING THUNDER… On 23 April the 421TFS lost two F-105Ds in two strikes on the bridge at Phu Lang Thuong 30 miles northeast of Hanoi. The restrike on 24 April lost two more. LCOL WILLIAM EARL COOPER, Commanding the 469thTFS out of Korat was leading the first of two 469th attacks on the bridge and as he approached the target area at 6,000-feet he was struck by a Direct SAM hit and the aircraft disintegrated with no ejection. LCOL COOPER was Killed in Action, doing what warrior leaders do–attack, attack, attack. Five minutes later the second flight rolled in on the bridge. 1LT JERRY DONALD DRISCOLL’s F-105D was hit by large caliber AAA and 1LT DRISCOLL ejected just before the burning aircraft hit the ground. He was immediately captured. He would spend the remainder of the war in several prison camps and in July 1966 would be among those POWs paraded through the streets of Hanoi and assaulted by the people of Hanoi. He was shot down on his 112th combat mission. He returned to America 21 February 1973 and continued his Air Force career retiring as a Colonel. His second career was with American Airlines. The Phu Lang Thuong bridge is in a class with the Thanh Hoa bridge when it comes to AAA and integrated defenses…
RIPPLE SALVO… KISS… Keeping it simple and straightforward describes author Ed Rasimus’s writing and explanation of the policy and execution of Operation Rolling Thunder. This short passage from his book, “When Thunder Rolled,” should be in every kid’s American history book…(page 151-2 of my dog-eared Ballentine paper back edition– nobody gets to touch my like new hard back copy)…
“At the end of May (1966) we had conducted a huge strike on Yen Bai. For nearly three hours, more than one hundred airplanes had bombed the town’s barracks, marshaling yards, and transportation points. Takli had lost two airplanes, but Korat came through unscathed. Then most of June had reverted to pattern. One or two major targets per week, tasked until hit, and then routine interdiction. (ditto for the Navy)
“But that wasn’t the ‘rolling’ of Rolling Thunder. ‘Rolling’ meant that we would gradually increase pressure on the North Vietnamese to achieve our national political objectives. We’d start on the edges and roll slowly into the heart of the country, making it hurt a little more each week until they finally capitulated. In the process we would gain the support of lesser nations around the world, which would applaud our restraint, and we would assuage any Soviet or Chinese fears that we were bent on imperialist conquest that might endanger their sovereignty. Little by little we would tighten the grip, until, like a submission hold in wrestling, the North Vietnamese would cry, ‘Uncle.’ We would force the North to stop supporting the Viet Cong insurgency, we would demonstrate our political, moral, and military superiority to the rest of the world, and we would succeed without a nuclear war. When you write policy in a paragraph it sounds ridiculous, but if you write a whole book espousing it as a theory of postnuclear international diplomacy you’re liable to get a White House fellowship.”
Lest we forget… Bear …………………….. –30– ……………………
