Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #692… REMEMBERING LCDR NORMAN E. EIDSMOE and LT MICHAEL E. DUNN of the ATTACK SQUADRON 165 “BOOMERS”… Lost…killed-in-action: 1968; Found: 1998; Interred, Arlington: 2000; and Remembered 2018– fifty years after their last flight in the service of our country… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED NINETY-TWO of a return to the air war fought over North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder…
26 JANUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny, cold Friday with snow underfoot…
(1) Page 1: “U.S. CALLS 14,787 AIR RESERVISTS–ASKS URGENT U.N. COUNCIL TALKS ON ‘GRAVE SITUATION’ IN KOREA–28 Reserve Units Involved–Steps Held As Precaution–North Korea Calls For Punishment”... “President Johnson ordered 14,787 Air Force and Navy reservists to active duty today as a military backdrop to determined diplomatic efforts to recover an American ship seized Tuesday by North Korea.”… Page 1: “Leaders In Capital Not Told By Johnson”… “…the leaders expressed surprise, but there was no open show of resistance”…
HUMBLE HOST suggests a perusal of two documents from the State Department, Office of the Historian, dated 26 January 1968, that go beyond the NYT page 1 Pueblo coverage into the White House for what was Top Secret at the time. Document 228. is an extensive summary of a meeting whose agenda covered: A CIA intelligence situation report; a diplomatic summary; a summary of military movements and options; the merits of a Presidential address to the nation; and “more discussion on the question: How best to secure the return of the Pueblo if diplomacy fails? (Note: Pueblo is still in Wonsan 50 years later)… The second document (229.) summarizes “On the Diplomatic Front”… Read at:
Document 228… https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p1/d228
Document 229… https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p1/d229
Page 1: CLIFFORD OPPOSES ANY HALT IN VIETNAM BOMBING NOW”… “Clark M. Clifford emphasized today that as Secretary of Defense he would oppose any cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam under present political and military circumstances. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr. Clifford defended the military effectiveness of the bombing and made clear that he believed it should continue until Hanoi retreats from its present ‘intransigent attitude.’ “… Page 2: “Israel Agrees To Plan To Raise 2 Sunken Vessels In Suez Canal”… Page 2: “Law Suit by 12 In Jersey Challenges Draft Revision On War Critics”... “Twelve young New Jerseyans filed suit in Federal District Court …today to challenge the constitutionality of a memorandum issued on October 26 by General Lewis B. Hershey, Director of Selective Service. The memorandum recommended that local draft boards reclassify and subject to immediate induction any who interfered illegally with draft operations or with military recruiters.”… Page 4: “Pilot’s Body Found”... Keams Canyon, Arizona…”Lieutenant Commander Thoma A. Brownsey of the Navy, 30 years old, was found dead today by searchers who combed a snow blanketed area on the Hopi Reservation, where he had ejected last night from his disabled A-4 jet fighter…”…
GROUND WAR: Page 3: “218 AMERICANS DIE IN WEEK”... The United States command reported today that 218 Americans were killed in action last week and that allied troops killed 1,842 of the enemy. The report said 198 South Vietnamese had been killed and that other allied forces had lost 19 men.”...Page 1: “KHESANH SHELLED UNDER FOG COVER–Aircraft Unable To Support Embattled Marine Base Near The Buffer Zone”… “Last night’s savage shelling of the United States Marine outpost here was carried out under a protective cover of fog and clouds. Ten Americans were killed in four attacks Thursday and Friday. Khesanh has been relatively quiet for two days, although there had been sporadic fire on the airfield and marine trenches and bunkers. At about 4:40 yesterday afternoon the fog rolled down from the surrounding mountains near the Laos border and soon covered the outpost. At 5:10 powerful 140mm rockets of Soviet design began to crash into the camp…. For about five minutes the only sound was the din of North Vietnamese rockets and mortar and artillery rounds hitting the camp. Then the Khesanh marine batteries began counter-fire. ‘Where’s the jets?’ marines asked, listening for the whine of jet engines and the thump of exploding bombs. the answer was that Air Force and Marine fighter-bombers could not come to the help of more than 5,000 marines in and around Khesanh because of the weather. Pilots could not have seen the fiery traces of rockets of the flash of guns and mortars. the enemy had waited for this bad weather to attack with virtual impunity.”…. Page 3: “ENEMY FORCE AT KHESANH IS FOES LARGEST– BUILD-UP INDICATES GENERAL GIAP SEEKS A NEW DIENBIENPHU”…
26 JANUARY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (27 Jan reporting 26 Jan ops) Page 1: “The war activity in the critical Khesanh sector, in the northwest corner of the country was reported as relatively light. But the United States Air Force, Navy and Marine pilots maintained an round-the-clock campaign to hamper the North Vietnamese build-up against the reinforced United States 26th Marine Regiment in that area. Fighter-bombers flew 400 sorties and B-52s made three attacks in support of the Khesanh stronghold.” (Most of the drops were radar controlled through the clouds)…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 26 January 1968.
(1) LCDR NORMAN EDWARD EIDSMOE and LT MICHAEL EDWARD DUNN were flying an A-6A Intruder of the VA-165 Boomers embarked in USS RANGER and executing a night strike on the airfield at Vinh and failed to return from the mission. Chris Hobson’s report: “The Intruder’s navigation and attack system was by now more reliable than it had been in the early days of the aircraft’s service and it was common for single aircraft to be sent on low-level strike missions at night. LCDR EIDSMOE and LT DUNN were flying just such a mission to bomb Vinh airfield which is situated three miles north of the city. Two Skyhawks and two Corsairs were also airborne to provide (Iron hand) support if needed. The Intruder was tracked in on radar until it descended to low-level shortly before it reached the target. The aircraft failed to reappear on radar and did not respond to radio calls. A search the following day found no sign of the aircraft but it was later discovered that the A-6 had crashed a few miles north of the target. The cause of the crash was undetermined.”… The intrepid Intruder aviators perished fifty years ago this day… They died taking the fight to the enemy in his homeland…
RIPPLE SALVO… #692… There is more… The search for the downed aircraft and the two “Boomers” continued the next day, 29 January 1968, including aerial photography obtained by RA-5C Vigilantes and intensive photo interpretation. The extended effort found nothing significant and the two warriors were listed as missing-in-action and assumed, hopefully, that they had been captured and were alive in captivity. Unfortunately, when our 591 POWs were released and came home in February and March 1973, neither LCDR EIDSMOE and LT DUNN were among the living. While in MIA status both men were promoted and in 1973 listed as killed-in-action. LEAVE NO MAN BEHIND? Not in this case.
“In 1992 and 1993 four separate investigations led a U.S.-Vietnamese team to a Vietnamese farmer who described the crash, gave investigators a pilot’s flight bag with Dunn’s name inscribed, and described his burial of some remains in an unmarked grave. Then in 1997, a joint team conducted an excavation in a flooded rice paddy, where they recovered remains and pilot related items. Another team continued the excavation in 1998 where they recovered additional materials.”… “Analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii confirmed the identifications’ of both these fallen warriors. (Humble Host uses “Task Force Omega” (TFO) summaries to obtain information on MIA/POWs from the Rolling Thunder era. In absence of TFO summaries Humble Host uses the “Vietnam POW Network”. For additional info on CAPTAIN EIDSMOE and LCDR DUNN read at:
CAPTAIN NORMAN EDWARD EIDSMOE http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/e/e013.htm
LCDR MICHAEL EDWARD DUNN https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/d/d044.htm
Lost on 26 January 1968, found and recovered by 1998, remembered and interred in 2000, and remembered this day 50 years after their fatal Rolling Thunder mission near Vinh, Vietnam… They rest in peace in Arlington among the bravest of the brave. Humble Host suggests a perusal of the ARLINGTON NATIONAL MEMORIAL WEBSITE entries for CAPTAIN EIDSMOE and LCDR DUNN… read at…
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/neeidsmoe.htm
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/neeidsmoe.htm
Read the Seattle Post Intelligence 11 December 1999 article by Ed Offley titled: “Finally, Closure for Flier’s Family” at the Eidsmoe address. You will be glad you did…
RTR Quote for 26 January 2018: CHRISTOPHER DUNN, Arlington, 14 Jan 2000: “My hero (brother) comes home to rest where he belongs, in a field of heroes. He was lost, but now he is found.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
