Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO…#336… LIEUTENANT COMMANDER BOB MAIER and LIEUTENANT LEW DUNTON, VA-144 Roadrunners, on the attack fifty years ago on 4 February 1967… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX of remembering, recognizing and re-respecting the warriors of Rolling Thunder who carried the Vietnam War to the enemy in his homeland…
4 FEBRUARY 1967… Humble Host confesses to a senior moment yesterday— he combined The New York Times headlines for 3 and 4 February into the 3 Feb post…so… skip the NYT for the 4th…
4 February 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) CHINA: The most striking thing about Mao’s reappearance yesterday was Lin Piao’s failure to show up too. It was a reception for the visiting Albanian defense minister and Lin Piao should have been there… (portion redacted) Chou En-Lai, now third ranking in the leadership, would be the man most likely to benefit if Lin Piao should fade from the scene. Chou En-lai is relatively more pragmatic and flexible than his principal colleagues, however, and for this reason Mao probably does not regard him as an acceptable successor... SINO-SOVIET RELATIONS: The tough police foray on the Chinese Embassy grounds in Moscow yesterday is just one more sign that Soviet patience is wearing thin. In Peking, the evacuation of Soviet dependents got under way today. The Soviet women and children were treated to qa wild and lurid anti-Soviet demonstration at the airport where the mob carried a big bloody effigy of Kosygin swinging from a gallows and shouted such slogans as “Crush the dog’s head of Brezhnev.” There will be some interesting stories circulating around Moscow in the coming days. The Soviets are not the only foreigners being given the Mao treatment. The Czechs, Hungarians, East Germans, Mongolians and the French have also gotten it….
4 February 1967… U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: Memorandum Rostow to the President... The President’s Special Assistant Walt Rostow sent a short memo to the President summarizing a two pager from Ambassador Goldberg to the President dtd 3 Feb…I quote…
“Herewith Amb Goldberg suggests that: (1) for the time being we not undertake new or additional targeting in North Viet Nam, (2) Following the Tet cease-fire we further reduce bombing in the North; inform Hanoi; and express our expectation that North Viet Nam undertake some corresponding de-escalatory action.” To which Rostow added: “Comment: Although I remain skeptical (sic) that mutual de-escalation is the likely route to peace, we ought to develop better thought on: (1) what action by them would be escalatory and (2) how we should monitor it and measure it…” Full memo at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d35
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… MAJOR PETER TSOUPRAKE, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… AIR FORCE CROSS… (With Major William Robinson, USAF, see RTR post for 3 February 1967)
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to PETER TSOUPRAKE, MAJOR, United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force near Hanoi, North Vietnam, on 5 July 1966. On that date, MAJOR TSOUPRAKE, an F-105F Electronics Warfare Officer in the lead aircraft of a flight tasked to support a large strike force, detected hostile surface-to-air missile sites which threatened the other strike force. With complete disregard for his personal safety, MAJOR TSOUPRAKE responded professionally in the face of continuous heavy and intense ground fire of all types and directed his pilot in attacks against four separate missile complexes. Three of the four sites were completely destroyed, and the remaining site sustained extensive damage. This courageous and aggressive action considerably reduced the missile threat against the other strike force. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, MAJOR TSOUPRAKE reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force… oohrah…
4 February 1967…Operation Rolling Thunder… New York Times (5 Feb reporting 4 Feb ops)… Page 3: “In the air war over the North American pilots reported having sighted eight MiGs near the Thai Nguyen army Supply Depot 38 miles northwest of Hanoi. an American pilot fired at one MIG but haze prevented any damage estimate. Carrier based United States Navy fighter-bombers from Kitty Hawk, Enterprise and Ticonderoga bombed the Thanh Hoa railroad complex and reported heavy overall damage estimates.”… (Bear#24/Thanh Hoa/siding/engine/6-MK-82s)… also see Ripple Salvo below…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Two fixed wing aircraft were lost in Southeast Asia on 4 February 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN JOHN FER, MAJOR JACK WILLIAMSON BOMAR, MAJOR WOODROW HOOVER WILBURN, CAPTAIN HERB DOBY, CAPTAIN RUSSELL ARDEN POOR, and 1LT JOHN OWEN DAVIES were flying an EB-66C of the 41st TRS and 432 TRW out of Takhli supporting strikes on targets northwest of Hanoi in an orbit at 30,000-feet when hit by an SA-2 surface-to-air missile. MAJOR WILBURN, CAPTAIN DOBY and CAPTAIN POOR were Killed-in-Action. CAPTAIN FER, MAJOR BOMAR and 1LT DAVIES were able to eject and were captured. All three survived six years of torture and captivity as POW of the North Vietnamese and were released in 1973 (Operation Homecoming). The remains of CAPTAIN DOBY and MAJOR WILBURN were recovered and returned to the United States. Only CAPTAIN POOR remains unaccounted for… (but not forgotten)… All are remembered on this 50th anniversary of their fateful day in February 1967…
(2) LIEUTENANT DONALD EARL THOMPSON and LIEUTENANT ALBERT PHILIP COLLAMORE were flying an F-4B of the VF-213 Black Lions embarked in USS Kitty Hawk on a night road reconnaissance mission 30 miles northwest of Thanh Hoa executing an attack on truck headlights. The flight lead observed a large explosion and it is presumed that LIEUTENANTs THOMPSON and COLLAMORE flew into the ground during a dive attack on the target… Two young, brave warriors perished forever, Killed-in-Action in the service of their country… Left behind forever???
RIPPLE SALVO… #336… On 4 February 1967, fifty years ago, all three carrier air wings at Yankee Station had a go at the Thanh Hoa rail yard complex. The Light Attack Squadron 144 Roadrunners embarked in USS Kitty Hawk had a division of four A-4C Skyhawk flak suppressors included in the Kitty Hawk and Carrier Air Wing Eleven 30-plane Alpha Strike group. The VA-144 flak suppressor weapon loadout was two big AGM-12C Bullpups each. It didn’t get better than that for an A-4 strike mission (at least I thought so).
Pre-strike intelligence for the Thanh Hoa railyard complex indicated that the manned defenses of the target included about four dozen 37/57/85mm anti-aircraft gun sites with multiple barrels at each site, many radar controlled. Three active SAM sites existed fifteen miles north of the target complex and another one two miles east of the city to defend the Thanh Hoa area, including both the railyard complex and the Thanh Hoa Bridge to the northeast. The VA-144 Flak Suppressor element of four A-4s was assigned specific 57 and 85 mm sites corresponding to the A-6 and F-4 strike element roll-in points for their respective attacks on the primary target complex. LCDR BERNIE WHITE led the division with LTJG JOEL GINGISS on his wing. LCDR BOB MAIER led the second division with LT LEW DUNTON on his wing. Here’s the way it went:
Departing the main strike group at the coast-in point, the division turned north, closely paralleling route 1A, climbing to 14,000-feet. In the heart of the effective SAM envelope LCDR WHITE turned his division to arc around the target objective at optimum Bullpup range waiting the strike group. Rolling in approximately one minute prior to the first strike aircraft, LCDR WHITE launched the first Bullpup and guided it toward the 57mm site southwest of the Citadel. The three other shooters launched Bullpups in rapid succession. LTJG GINGISS’s missile went ballistic. LCDR MAIER and LT DUNTON guided their missiles into the pre-planned western sites. Bullseyes–direct hits as witnessed by the strike leader. The Bullpup requires the delivery pilot fly straight at the target while guiding his missile. The aircraft is in a steady and predictable dive that inevitably recovers low, not very fast and well inside the gun range of every barrel in the area. It is that “six (to ten) seconds to live” period of extreme and unavoidable vulnerability that comes with the Bullpup weapon delivery “maneuver.”.
The four Bullpup shooters were quick to rejoin as the strike elements delivered their bombs on target. LCDR WHITE noted that the enemy guns remained silent as the strike group cleared the target. The Bullpup shooters weren’t done. Three of the four had another Bullpup ready to fly and they were only a few miles from the most lucrative target in North Vietnam south of Hanoi and Haiphong. LCDR WHITE did what any Light Attack warrior worth his salt would do–he turned his flight toward the Mouth of the Dragon, the Ham Rong Bridge, and roared in for the attack.
The bridge was defended by 52 37mm and 25 57mm and 85mm guns in addition to countless automatic weapons and the SAM site. As three of the four VA-144 Roadrunners took a little interval and rolled-in on individual runs, the enemy guns around the bridge opened up. Committed to the attack, with “seconds to live,” LCDR WHITE’s missile narrowly missed at twelve o’clock. LCDR MAIER and LIEUTENANT DUNTON both guided their Big Bullpups to score direct hits with the impact of 2000-pound bombs on the center support and the eastern girder support section of the bridge. They recovered from their stable dives below 3,000-feet amid a torrent of enemy ground fire, and escaped to fly and fight another day.
The Bridge???…”Substantial damage,” said the post strike photography…
BOB MAIER and LEW DUNTON? Well deserved Distinguish Flying Crosses…oohrah…
CAG’s QUOTES of 4 February: KARL VON CLAUSEWITZ: “War is an act of force to compel our adversary to do our will.”… PATTON: “There will be those now and later who will vilify and misrepresent me.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear
