Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #661… Air Force and Marine C-130 Hercules were assigned a wide range of missions in Vietnam including many incredibly dangerous and demanding flights into the heartland of North Vietnam. The Air Force Combat Talon, Special Operations mission flown by Crew S-01 on the night of 28/29 December 1967 is a tale for retelling and remembering… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE of remembering the service and sacrifice of men and the events of fifty years ago in the skies over North Vietnam…
28 December 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a Thursday of heavy snow through the night…
Page 1: “U.S. PILOTS STAGE HEAVIEST STRIKES ON NORTH IN MONTH–Break in Monsoon Weather Allows 150 Missions Over Roads and Supply Sites–On The Ground: Quangtri Battle Ends–Quangtri Battle Ends–Vietcong Losses Put at 203–U.S. Paratroopers Fight Enemy Force On Coast”… “American airmen took advantage of a slight break in the weather yesterday (26th) to launch the biggest air strikes on North Vietnam in more than a month…Concentrating on lines of communication and storage areas, Navy, Air Force and Marine pilots flew 150 multi-aircraft missions and destroyed six bridges and military storage facilities and damaged wharves, a boat yard, trucks and supply boats…Air strikes over North Vietnam had been curtailed in recent weeks because of heavy monsoon clouds. They lifted slightly yesterday and pilots had their most active day above the 17th parallel since November 21. …. Flying 67 missions over North Vietnam from the carriers Ranger and Kitty Hawk, Navy pilots of A-4 Skyhawks, F-4 Phantoms and A-6 Intruders blasted targets near Vinh, and a seaport and road junction 160 miles south of Hanoi. “They reported destroying five bridges and damaging four others, damaging six wharves in cargo transfer points and destroying 24 supply boats and 20 trucks. An Air Force spokesman said four Phantom crews of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing cut one northeast span of a five span bridge 19 miles south of Donghoi and cut eight roads in the area. In another Air Force strike Phantoms crew from the 12th TFW reported destroying four barges and one truck eight miles south-southeast of Donghoi. Six fires and one secondary explosion were touched off when F-105 Thunderchief pilots from the 355th TFW struck at a bunker complex and storage area seven miles southeast of Donghoi. Marine Intruder planes from Danang and Chu Lai struck at truck traffic from Donghoi to the demilitarized zone, a ferry complex in the same area and a boat yard 22 miles northwest of Hanoi, reporting six secondary explosions and several fires. In the air war in the South Air Force fighter-bombers bomb and strafed enemy targets in 343 sorties. Close air support for ground forces accounted for 139 of these. Army helicopter crews reported killing 22 enemy soldiers in scattered actions, sinking sampans and destroying 59 fortified positions…
VIETCONG BREAK CONTACT… In the ground war, the Vietcong’s crack 416th Battalion broke contact this morning after a day of pounding by South Vietnamese troops and Armed helicopters near Quangtri, just below the demilitarized zone. The Vietcong losses were reported to be 203 dead. About half that number of bodies of soldiers were left on the battlefield. The South Vietnam Government reported 15 soldiers killed and 59 injured. Other injured included three American helicopter crewmen, one American and one Australian advisor…. PARATROOPS IN BATTLE… United States paratroops dropped into the center of two companies of entrenched enemy forces yesterday and fought a fierce nine-hour battle. Troopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade made a helicopter assault along South Vietnam’s central coast, 24 miles northwest of Tuyhoa and landed almost on top of the two companies, about 330 men. The enemy opened up with heavy small arms fire and the paratroops dived for cover. They called for artillery barrages and helicopter gunships to try to push the enemy out of the stronghold. American war planes dived in to hit the enemy with bombs, napalm, rockets and cannon fire…the enemy broke off contact at dusk, leaving 31 bodies and 18 weapons on the battlefield. Twelve paratroopers were killed and 31 wounded.”…
Page 1: “Federal Reserve Curtails Money Banks May Lend–$550-Million frozen By Rise In Proportion of deposits That Must Be Held–Tightening is Modest–Designed to Have Minimum Effect on Interest Rates–Bankers Criticize Move’… “…this is the first move away from ‘very easy money’ followed for most of 1967.”… Page 1: “President Risks Negroes’ Anger–Signs Crime Bill For Washington, D.C.”…Page 1: “Pope Is Said To Plan a Mission to Hanoi”… Page 1: “New Red Pressure is Feared–U.S. Voices Concern Over Laos, Cambodia, Thailand”… Page 1: Harrison Baldwin’s #3 of 3 reports o Vietnam: “Sanctuaries Viewed as A Major War Factor”… Page 3: “Soviet Asserts U.S. Harasses Its Ships”… “The Soviet Union charged today that American ships had maneuvered ‘dangerously’ close to a Soviet submarine tender on duty in the Mediterranean…American destroyer Davis once tried literally to shoulder aside a submarine taking on supplies– a 4,750-ton ‘Don” class submarine– from the submarine tender Magomet Gadzhiev.”…. Page 13: “Vietcong Expect New U.S. Drives–National Liberation Front’s Chief Says War is Now At a Critical Stage.”…
28 December 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times…See Page 1 above… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 28 December 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN R.W. COBURN and CAPTAIN H. ALTMAN were flying an F-4D of the 435th TFS and 8th TFW out of Ubon on a night strike in Southern Laos and attacking a convoy of trucks on Route 911 near Ban Sopping when hit by 37mm ground fire. CAPTAINS COBURN and ALTMAN ejected and were successfully rescued by helicopter…
(2) A C-130E Combat Talon Hercules of Detachment 1 of the 314th TAW at Nha Trang was lost on a special mission in northern North Vietnam. Killed in the crash were the eleven brave warriors of Crew S-01 while carrying the fight deep into the enemy heartland and beyond… Killed-in-Action 50 years ago on this date… CAPTAIN EDWIN NELMS OSBORNE; CAPTAIN CHARLES GORDON VAN BUREN; MAJOR CHARLES PETER CLAXTON; MAJOR DONALD ELLIS FISHER; CAPTAIN FRANK CLAVELOUX PARKER; CAPTAIN GORDON JAMES WENAAS; TSGT JACK McCRARY; SSGT WAYNE ALVIN ECKLEY; SSGT GENE PRESTON CLAPPER; A1C EDWARD JOSEPH DARCY; and A1C JAMES RANDALL WILLIAMS… REST IN PEACE… The final flight of Crew S-01 follows…
RIPPLE SALVO… #661… During the Vietnam war the Air Force and Marines lost 64 (60+4) C-130s and 474 (395+79) airmen. In 1967 the Marines lost one C-130 and the Air Force lost 14, one of which was from the 314th TAW and flown by Crew S-01. Chris Hobson is the storyteller (“Vietnam: Air Losses”, page 130):
“Shortly after midnight on the 28th a Combat Talon C-130E flown by Crew S-01, took off from Nha Trang and headed at low-level towards Hanoi on a special operations mission. The aircraft was to make a leaflet drop west of the city followed by a diversionary resupply drop in the Song Da valley in North Vietnam. Diversionary drops were sometimes made by the Combat Talon aircraft to fool the enemy into thinking that a clandestine team was working in a particular area. The aircraft made a radio transmission about four hours later indicating that the mission was progressing normally. After that message there was no further radio contact and the aircraft was posted as missing on the morning of the 29th. It was presumed that the aircraft had either been shot down by ground fire over North Vietnam or had flown into the ground as it was returning at low-level in the dark. A two-week search along the aircraft’s planned track failed to reveal any sightings of wreckage. Investigations at a crash site in mountains in the Lau Chau Province of North Vietnam in 1992 and 1993 failed to provide conclusive evidence of human remains. The aircraft had crashed about 32 miles northeast of Dien Bien Phu and the site had already been scavenged by villagers. However, a subsequent investigation did discover some scant remains, but these are still awaiting positive identification. The wreckage was found just below the summit of a high karst cliff indicating that the aircraft had probably been flown into high ground as it was returning from the mission.”…
Gangway, Combat Talon crew S-01 rules the day…. and is remembered with great admiration and respect… Eleven brave night hawks perished in the heroic service of our country fifty years ago…
In addition, the persistence of the Joint Recovery searchers and scientists not only resulted in the recovery of the remains of all eleven of the S-01 crew, on a variety of dates in 2000 the recovered remains of all eleven of these warriors were positively identified and released for burial in our homeland by their respective families… LEAVE NO MAN BEHIND…
RTR Quote for 28 December: SHAKESPEARE, King Lear: “Things that love night Love not such nights as these.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear
