ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 26 AUGUST 1967

RIPPLE SALVO… #538… Read the Chris Hobson account of the incredible adventure of MAJOR BUD DAY on this day 50 years ago in the Rolling Thunder Ops section…Then in RS… STENNIS HEARINGS: GRILLED SecDef… The Interdiction Campaign… “PLUGGING THE FUNNEL–OR NOT”… but first…

Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT of savoring the great military history of the Vietnam air war one day at a time…

26 AUGUST 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a Saturday full of clouds and rain in NYC…

VIETNAM ON PAGE 1: “McNAMARA DOUBTS BOMBING IN NORTH CAN END WAR–DIFFERS WITH MILITARY CHIEFS ON ESCALATION IN TESTIMONY BEFORE PANEL OF SENATE–OPPOSES NEW TARGETS–BUT SECRETARY EXPECTS MORE ATTACKS TO BE AUTHORIZED–REACTION TO TESTIMONY IS CRITICAL”... “Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara said today that, on the basis of ‘past reaction’ there was no reason to believe North Vietnam ‘can be bombed to the negotiation table.’… He argued vigorously against recommendations of Congressional critics and military commanders who have urged that the air war be widened with attacks against such new targets as North Vietnamese ports and air defense and control centers in populated areas, or a sweeping air offensive against North Vietnam’s entire industrial infrastructure. Such attacks, he declared would ‘not materially shorten the war in Vietnam…testimony to the Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee brought a broadside of sharp criticism from both Democrats and Republicans indicating that they sided with military leaders against McNamara on the conduct of the air war…After six hours of hearings in closed session, Mr. McNamara told newsmen that he expected ‘additional targets’ in North Vietnam to be authorized in the future.”... Page 1: “New Evacuation of Hanoi By North Vietnam–Declaration Says U.S. Intends to Bomb Center and Outskirts–All Civilians Except Vital Workers Included”... “The Hanoi authorities announced measures today for the evacuation of all civilians except those vital to the city’s production and defense. The plans were announced in a six point declaration…they were markedly more strict than those adopted here in recent months. …’The enemy has the present intention of bombing the center s well as the outskirts of Hanoi.’ …’The army and the people must remain vigilant and ready to punish the American pirates as they deserve.’ “… Page 6: “On the ground United States Marines were mortared near Camp Carroll 10 miles south of the demilitarized zone. The Marines countered and lost eight Marines while killing 8 North Vietnamese… twenty-two Marines were wounded…. Troops of the 4th Division were fighting on the coastal plains and killed 23 enemy troops in the Ducpho area.”… Page 1: “Thieu Announces Purge of Officers”... “Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu announces plans for a major purge of corrupt and inefficient military officers included some generals–five have been marked for removal.”….

SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: Page 1: Three column picture of George Lincoln Rockwell’s body laying in a pool of blood in a parking lot in Arlington, Virginia… “Rockwell, United States Nazi, Slain; Ex-Aide Is Held As
Sniper”... “George Lincoln Rockwell, founder and leader of the American Nazi party was killed by a sniper today while backing his car out of a parking place at a shopping center in Arlington, Virginia. An expelled member who had been a captain in Rockwell’s Storm Troopers was charge with his murder. Arrested was John Patler, 29, of New York. He was dismissed from the Nazi party by Rockwell last March…he had been in charge of the Nazi printing plant in nearly Spotsylvania, Virginia… Page 1: “Gun Curbs Backed By Rifle Expert–Representative James Sheuer, Medal Winner, Tells City Hall Hearing, Protection Is Urgent”… “A Bronx member of Congress who has won four national championship medals from the NRA offered support today for city legislation to control the sale of rifles and shotguns. ‘It is insanity to believe my civil rights are being violated by having to have a pistol permit. No responsible citizen can in good conscience deny the urgent need to protect the public from arming the destructive, deranged, dangerous and irresponsible persons around us.”… Page 1: “Inflation Trend Feared As Prices Rise in Two Sectors–Wholesale Industrial Index Climbs After Record Five Months of Stability–Consumer Costs Soar–Economic Events Expected to Strengthen Johnson’s Case For A Tax Raise”… Page 1 : “Negroes Win Gains In Atlantic City–Rent Controls and Curb on Police Are Pledged at a Meeting With Officials.”… 

Page 26: Editorial Page: “Cult of Violence”…

“George Lincoln Rockwell was an American aberration. He founded and led an American Nazi party, preaching the racist doctrines of Adolf Hitler throughout the country with zeal and occasionally with eloquence. But he found few to listen and fewer to follow. His alien philosophy found no roots in the American polity’

“But the aura of violence in which Rockwell lived –and died– is not wholly alien to the American tradition. Today, it appears to be spreading, fed by extremists like Rockwell of both right and left. ‘Violence,’ said H. Rap Brown recently, ‘is as American as cherry pie.’

“The irreverent quip contains too much truth to be ignored. Unless the American tendency toward violence is checked by the substitution of social solutions based on reason and good will, it will destroy not only those who preach it but all of us.”

26 August 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief: NORTH VIETNAM: “Railroad traffic in and out of Hanoi is now  dependent on ferries; all but the most essential rail shipments will probably be seriously delayed…

26 AUGUST 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (27 Aug reporting 26 Aug ops) Page 2: “…clearing weather permitted United States pilots to hit rail yards and lines near Hanoi yesterday after a one day layoff Friday, the first break this week. Air Force Thunderchiefs attacked the Motrang railroad bridge and rail lines leading to the bridge, 39 miles north of Hanoi, and the nearby Quangkien railway causeway. Other Thunderchief pilots hit the Huaongvi railroad yard, 37 miles northeast of Hanoi. Air Force Phantom jets bombed a truck depot eight miles north of the demilitarized zone, touching off fuel and ammunition explosions that set fire and scattered debris over a half mile area.”…

“”Vietnam: Air Losses”(Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 26 August 1967…

(1) LTCOL BRUCE ALLAN JENSEN and CAPTAIN FRANCIS EDWARD SMILEY were flying and A-26A of the 606th ACS and 64th ACW out of Nakhon Phanom and perished on a night armed reconnaissance mission in Laos. LCOL JENSEN was commander of the squadron and it is thought that he and CAPTAIN SMILEY were downed by AAA and killed in action 85 miles northwest of NKP. This tragic loss has no ending?… Left behind?… 

(2) MAJOR VLADIMIR HENRY BACIK and CAPTAIN PASCHAL GLENN BOGGS, USMC, were flying an A-6A of the VMA(AW)-533 and MAG-12 on a night Rolling Thunder strike on the storage facilities at Hongai when hit and downed by AAA. Neither aviator ejected and both are listed as Killed In Action 50 years ago… Left behind?…

(3) MAJOR GEORGE EVERETT DAY and CAPTAIN CORWIN N. KIPPENHAN were flying an F-100F of 612nd TFS and 37th TFW out of Phu Cat on a forward air controller mission just north of the demilitarized zone… Chris Hobson tells the tale this way:

Major Bud Day, with Captain Corwin Kippenhan in the rear cockpit, was flying as Misty 3 and leading a flight of F-105s in a search for a suspected SAM site just north of the DMZ near Thon Cam Son. This was an area where several aircraft had been shot down by SAMs in recent weeks, but the North Vietnamese were very adept at moving SAM batteries between sites and building dummy sites that were surrounded by AAA guns. As the F-100F came in over the target at 4,500 feet it was hit in the right engine by AAA and burst into flames. The aircraft turned towards the sea but the crew had to eject about two miles short of the coast. Captain Kippenhan, who was on his first mission as a FAC, was rescued by an Air Force HH-3E, but Major Bud Day, on his 139th mission, was captured before he could be picked up. During the ejection sequence Day’s left arm was broken in three places, his left knee was dislocated and he was blinded in one eye by a blood clot. He was captured by North Vietnamese militia but after a short while he managed to escape from the captors. Despite his injuries he walked throughout the night and covered about 20-miles before resting as daylight broke. He was awakened by explosions all around him, either artillery or bombs, which further injured him. When he felt better a couple of days later he set off walking again but after several days he was starving and hallucinating, he eventually walked into a Viet Cong patrol near Quang Tri have unknowingly crossed into South Vietnam. He tried to escape but was shot twice, recaptured and eventually taken to Hanoi. He had been free for almost two weeks and was the only American to escape across the DMZ into South Vietnam from North Vietnam. Once in Hanoi, Major Day suffered many severe torture sessions… He was released from Hanoi on 14 March 1973.” In due course Bud Day was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor… Colonel Day is one of the most highly decorated aviators to include duty in the skies over north Vietnam in his logbook… Utah considers Bud Day to be a native son and has inducted him into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame located at Hill AFB in Roy, Utah…

RIPPLE SALVO… #538… PLUGGING THE FUNNEL… The mouth of the funnel was located in the Hanoi and Haiphong area and the flow of men and material for fighting a war in South Vietnam entered the funnel there. The war fighting materials poured out of China down two modern and well maintained rail lines of over 100 miles. The material came from Russia, Eastern Europe and China. Additional material came into the ports of Haiphong, Hongai and Campha in the ships of many nations. The funnel conformed to the geography of North Vietnam and the entire nation was a web of roads, rails, waterways and paths, all heading from north to south, and to the southwest to pass through the Mugia, Ban Karai and Napi passes into Laos and onto the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was the job of Rolling Thunder to impede the flow through the funnel, recognizing that it was impossible to plug it completely.

At the August 1967 Senate Armed Services Committee Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee hearings, chaired  by Senator John Stennis, Secretary of Defense McNamara’s identified the primary objective of the air war: “… to reduce the flow and /or to increase the cost of the continued infiltration of men and supplies from North to South Vietnam.”

Pentagon Papers: The secretary had this to say in his testimony concerning infiltration.“The Secretary said, military leaders never anticipated that complete interdiction was possible. He cited the nature of combat in SVN, without ‘established battle lines’ and continuous large-scale fighting which did not require a steady stream of logistical support and which reduced the amount needed. Intelligence estimated that VC/NVN forces in SVN required only 15 tons a day brought in from outside, ‘but even if the quantity were five times that amount it could be transported by only a few trucks.’ By comparison with that amount, the capacity of the transportation network was very large.”

McN: “North Vietnam’ ability to continue its aggression against the South thus depends upon imports of war-supporting material and their transshipment to the south. Unfortunately for the chances of effective interdiction, this simple agricultural economy has a highly diversified transportation system consisting of rails and roads and waterways. The North Vietnamese use barges and sampans, trucks and foot power, and even bicycles capable of carrying 500-pound loads to move goods over this network. The capacity of this system is very large–the volume of traffic it is now required to carry, in relation to its total capacity, is very small…. Under these highly unfavorable circumstances, I think that our military forces have done a superb job in making continued infiltration more difficult and expensive.”

Tomorrow: McNamara on targeting…

RTR QUOTE for 26 August: CICERO, De Legibus: “The man who commands efficiently must have obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys dutifully is worthy of being some day a commander.”…

Lest we forget…     Bear