Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #330… BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARDS… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED THIRTY of remembering the air war fought in the skies over North Vietnam fifty years ago…
29 January 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a mostly sunny and cold Sunday in NYC…
Page 1: “Board of Inquiry Begins Review of Apollo Blast”… “A seven-man board to investigate how and why the nation’s first three Apollo astronauts met death while testing their space craft on the launching pad has been convened.”… Page 1: “Moon Plans Face 4-Month Delay”… “NASA said today that American space flights would be delayed at least four to six months by yesterday’s fire aboard the Apollo capsule at Cape Kennedy. A redesign is being considered.”… Page 1: “G.O.P. Moderates Consider Revolt”… “Moderate Republicans in Congress are quietly planning their own legislative alternatives for use in event the party leadership fails to develop what the moderates consider to be reasonable minority opinions.”… Page 6: “House Democrats Face Hard Time”…”‘I’m discouraged,’ one second term Democrat Congressman said this week, ‘I guess I was just spoiled.’ This is the prevailing view of Democrats in the House, their two-year hayday of shaping important social legislation abruptly ended with the Republican gains in the last November election.”… Page 5: “Canadians Advise Foes of U.S. Draft”… “More than 1,000 pamphlets telling Americans how to escape the draft by immigration to Canada have been mailed to the United States by two Canadian groups in the past few months…various organizations have estimated the number of draft evaders in Canada at several hundred. They cannot be extradited…and they cannot return without facing imprisonment or induction. The pamphlets are 12-page printed guides to immigration.”…
Page 1: “Pro-Mao Troops on way to Sinkiang…most of the turmoil in China is taking place in provinces where Communists party leaders have been able to build power bases they can use against the Central Government. In five of these areas–Chekiang, Hupei, Inner Mongolia, Kiangsi, and Sinkiang–one man was party secretary for the last ten years.”… Page 3: “Rallies In China Denounce Soviet”… “The massive demonstrations outside the Soviet Embassy in Peking continued into the fourth consecutive day and now involves millions.”… Page 1: “Counter Charges in Moscow…the behavior of the Chinese in Red Square had been unprecedented in Soviet-Chinese relations… Page 4: “Tet Truce Feb 8-12 For Luna New Years…remains a 4-day standdown. Hanoi rejected a proposed extension to 7-days or longer.”… Page 1: “Soviet Spending on Anti-Missiles Put at $4-Billion”… “The Soviet Union has spent $4-billion to $5-billion on the development and deployment of the anti-missile defense that is being set-up around Moscow and possibly other locations…by contrast the United States has spent $2-billion on the development of its Nike X systems of missile defense.”….
Page 1: “Incendiaries Rain On Vietcong Area”… “Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses dropped hundreds of tons of incendiary bombs today on a dense forest known as War Zone C, a traditional sanctuary believed to house the Vietcong’s supreme headquarters…this was the third raid of the war involving the use of incendiaries to reduce forest foliage.”... Page 6: “Hanoi Again Insists Halt in Bombing Must Precede any Talks”… “North Vietnam gave unusual prominence today to an interview with Foreign Minister Nguyen Duy Trinh in which he reiterated Hanoi’s insistence that if the United States really wanted talks, it must unconditionally end its bombing of North Vietnam, and other warlike acts against it. The text of the interview given to Wilfred Burchett, an Australian journalist, was made public.”…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) BRIAN EDWARD WESTIN, UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVE… NAVY CROSS…
“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the NAVY CROSS to LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) BRIAN EDWARD WESTIN, UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVE, for extraordinary heroism on 27 April 1966 while serving as a Bombardier/Navigator in Attack Squadron EIGHTY-FIVE (VA-85) during a combat mission over North Vietnam. When his pilot was seriously wounded and partially incapacitated during a daylight bombing run, LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) WESTIN by calmly coaxing and physically assisting him in the control of the aircraft, succeeded in reaching open sea where he made sure that the semi-conscience pilot ejected safely before he, himself exited the plane. The first to be picked up by rescue helicopter, LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) WESTIN directed the crew to the estimated position of his pilot. When the latter was unable to enter the rescue sling because of his injuries, LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) WESTIN re-entered the water to assist him despite the fact that a shark was spotted near the bleeding victim. Following the rescue of the pilot, and before his own retrieval, the hoisting device aboard the helicopter malfunctioned. Realizing the urgency of immediate medical attention for the now unconscious pilot, LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) WESTIN waved the helicopter off and remained in the shark infested water until the arrival of a second helicopter five minutes later. Through his quick thinking, cool courage, and selflessness in the face of grave personal risk, he was directly responsible for saving the life of his pilot, His heroic efforts were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.” oohrah…
29 JANUARY 1967… Operation Rolling Thunder… New York Times (30 Jan reporting 29 Jan ops)…Page 6: “The weather over the North improved slightly, permitting 86 attack and armed reconnaissance missions against lines of communication, anti-aircraft sites and storage areas in the southern part of the country.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 29 January 1967…
(1) MAJOR LARRY WILLIAM BIEDIGER and 1LT CLAUDE ARNOLD SILVA were flying an F-105F, Wild Weasel of the 354th TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli supporting a Takhli Wing strike on the Thai Nguyen railroad yard. Hobson writes: “Only one aircraft was lost during the raid, a two-seat F-105F from the Iron Hand flight. According to Ken Bell in his book “100 Missions North,’ the aircraft was lost as it jettisoned its fuel tanks, one of which hit the tailplane and knocked it off. The aircraft crashed near the northern extremity of Thud Ridge, about 30 miles northwest of Thai Nguyen and, although two chutes were reported, neither of the crew survived.”… MAJOR BIEDIGER and 1LT SILVA were killed in action fifty years ago this day and apparently remain where they fell. They are remembered, but have been left behind, or have they?…
RIPPLE SALVO… #320… Think of Operation Rolling Thunder as having a half time in January 1967 to regroup and adjust to turn a scoreless first half into a rout. The first 22-months hadn’t made a very significant difference in the war by most accounts. In fact, here is the way the History of the Defense Department records 1966…this from The Defense Department Historical Series, Volume VI, pages 81-82, I quote:
“Despite 81,000 attack sorties, 48,000 other combat sorties, $184 million in economic costs and damage to North Vietnam, destruction of 80-percent of the enemy’s POL, and the loss of 280 aircraft (1966 total only), Rolling Thunder operations ended 1966 without substantially reducing Hanoi’s military capability or will to continue the war and with many Americans, not least the secretary of defense, questioning their worth.
“It had taken the inner circle three months to decide to launch Rolling Thunder in February 1965, four months to initiate a meaningful bombing pause in December 1965, and seven months to agree on POL attacks in June 1966–a pattern of hesitation and indecision stemming from having to choose between several palatable alternatives but owing to administration miscalculations and plain mismanagement. Tentativeness and ambivalence contributed to false starts and delays that undermined the timely achievement of goals and confused allies and enemies alike.
“The largely civilian direction of the air strategy failed the test of both conception and execution. From the very first Rolling Thunder missions it became apparent that the bombing precision demanded during White House luncheon meetings exceeded the capacity of pilots flying against heavily defended targets. Aircrews had to contend with a landscape laced with antiaircraft guns and missiles and with abysmal flying weather over North Vietnam during the northeast monsoon season lasting from mid-October into mid-March. Severe weather conditions could prevent scheduled attacks for two or three weeks at a time. There existed, indeed, a fog of war. But military leaders shared the blame, with an inflexibility and lack of appreciation for the political dimension of the conflict and with their own miscalculation–overstating the efficacy of airpower in an unconventional circumstance and hence reinforcing civilian mistrust of their judgment.
“Lacking an integrated and coherent political-military strategic foundation, the air campaign preceded by fits and starts, sputtering most of the time. despite the great courage of the aviators and the expenditure of enormous resources, Rolling Thunder proved inconclusive.” … end quote…
The Department of Defense historical account of the McNamara years begins Chapter VIII, “The Air War Against Vietnam: Escalation to Cessation:1967-1968,” with this short review of the years 1965-1966… I quote… (Page 202)…
“Two years of a stop and start air war had proven as ineffective as the ground war in persuading North Vietnam to forsake its support of the insurgency in the South. It had become an open secret that the president and secretary of defense reviewed and approved all targets nominated by the Joint Chiefs, that they firmly controlled the air campaign, and that months of deliberation by civilian advisors preceded any bombing escalation; yet for all the micromanaging, the civilian directed air policy had achieved little in the way of decisive results. Advocates for intensifying the bombing took Johnson and McNamara to task for ignoring ‘the counsel of military professionals’ and running the war ‘with a risky civilian dilettantism.’ Doves were equally impatient. McNamara, though he may have privately sympathized with them, believed that Washington could not unilaterally end the bombing without corresponding concessions from the other side; yet Hanoi repeatedly rejected negotiations while bombs were falling on the homeland. By early 1967, with his earlier self-assured confidence long gone, a frustrated and anguished secretary of defense found his efforts to reorient bombing strategy hindered by few palatable options, diminished credibility, and open disagreement with his military advisors.” end quote…
AND THAT IS THE WAY IT WAS on 29 January 1967, fifty years ago… with a second half of Rolling Thunder to go… Second Half Game Plan tomorrow…
CAG’s QUOTES for 29 January: SUN TZU: “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will not be in peril.” … PATTON: “Don’t forget revenge belongs to God.”…
Lest we forget… Bear.
