Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #305… Air Intelligence (Photographic) Officer LCDR JOHN J. DOTHARD… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED FIVE of remembering and recognizing the warriors who went to an unwinnable war…
4 JANUARY 1967… HEAD LINES IN THE HOME TOWN PAPERS from the New York Times on a cloudy winter Wednesday…
Page 1: “Thant Finds Hanoi Views Bomb Halt as a Key to Peace Talks”… “Secretary General Thant’s preliminary soundings of North Vietnam’s attitude toward peace talks have disclosed that progress hinges on an unconditional cessation of bombing by the United States…After two weeks of intense secret diplomacy, Mr. Thant was described as having hopes, based on what was described as hard facts, of a positive response from North Vietnam once the United States ended the bombing. The response is expected to take the form of a de-escalation of the North’s military operations…Mr. Thant considers that the first and essential step in the plan is the cessation of the bombing in the North. This he is convinced, must be unconditional.”... Page 1: Harrison Salisbury in Hanoi. “Hanoi Premier Tells View”… “Some in U.S. detect Shift”… “In a detailed discussion of North Vietnamese views on the war in Vietnam, Premier Pham Van Dong emphasized that once hostilities were brought to an end, it would be possible to speak ‘of other things… the moment the United States puts an end to the war, we will respect each other and settle every question. Why don’t you (the United States) think that way?’ The Premier stressed that the four points were not to be considered as ‘conditions’ for peace talks. He described them as providing a basis for settlement of the Vietnam problem.”… Page 1: “4 Points Not Condition to Talks, Aides Note; Others Doubt Change” …”American officials saw signs tonight of a possibly significant shift in Hanoi’s position toward Vietnam peace talks in the remarks of Pham Van Dong. Other officials took a more cautious view. They noted that diplomatic intermediaries as well as European critics of the Johnson Administration, had long maintained that the four points program had never been intended as a condition to peace talks but merely as the Communist proposals to be laid before the peace negotiators.”
Page 1: “Three Car Makers Say They Cannot Meet Safety Deadline”…”Ford, Chrysler and American Motors joined GMC announcing they would be unable to meet between 8 and 10 of the Federal Government’s 23 proposed safety standards for the 1968 models.”… Page 1: “Ruby, Oswald Slayer Dies of a Blood Clot in Lungs”…”Jack Ruby, who shot President Kennedy’s assassin before a nationwide television audience, died today…in the same hospital in which President Kennedy and the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald died…” Page 1:”Sheen Appoints a Vicar for the Poor”… “Bishop Fulton J. Sheen named a young priest associated with a militant Negro group as the special vicar today to minister to the poor in this industrial city (Rochester, N.Y.). Sheen: ‘The church must be where problems are. Where hunger is, where rooms are cold and where difficult decisions have to be made.’ The Immaculate Conception Church, situated in the decaying predominantly Negro Third Ward…The parish belongs to the group called FIGHT (The letters stand for Freedom, Integration God, Honor–Today). The group was organized by Saul D. Alinsky, a Chicago based community organizer who terms himself a ‘professional radical.’ He was brought here a year and half ago by Rochester churches.”
4 JANUARY 1967… President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) COMMUNIST CHINA: The din against chief of staff Liu Shao-chi and party secretary Teng Hsiao-ping is getting so loud that it sounds like the prelude to the third act (purge). Their removal from power, we believe, could come at any time. Along with this, we see more signs that the Chinese economy is being threatened as the cultural revolution expands. With the whole area of economic management starting to come under attack, utter chaos is in prospect… SOVIET UNION: The Russians have announced signing a five-year agreement with the French in the field of oil and gas prospecting. The effort here is said to be toward joint development of new instruments and equipment–including special computers–for handling prospecting data. Moscow will surely get the better of this deal. The French, through their contacts with US oil companies and their licensing agreements with manufacturers, not only can give the Soviets valuable information about US techniques, but can also sell them the most up-to-date equipment for finding petroleum… NORTH VIETNAM: Soviet shipping to North Vietnam picked up in December after a slackening of deliveries in September through November. This increase may reflect deliveries under new aid agreements concluded with Moscow in September. (The rest of the note remains redacted 50 years after the fact.)…
4 JANUARY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times… Report of air war in the North for January 3, page 4: “U.S. Navy Planes Set North Vietnamese Torpedo Boats Afire Off Haiphong”…”United States planes attacked a North Vietnamese torpedo boat off Haiphong yesterday (Jan 3) and set it afire with rockets. U.S. Navy Phantom jets from the Seventh Fleet carrier Kitty Hawk heavily damaged the boat in an attack 25 miles east of Haiphong. In other action over North Vietnam United States pilots flew 26 missions and attacked an oil storage area and other targets in the southern Panhandle.
NYT (5 Jan reporting 4 Jan ops) Page 3: “U.S. Planes Attack Vessels”… “U.S. Navy pilots said they had destroyed or damaged a total of 111 cargo junks and barges today in attacks on more than 200 vessels along the North Vietnamese coast. The Navy pilots flew 54 of 80 strike missions of at least 2 to 5 planes each in North Vietnam during the day. Air Force pilots hit hardest at two convoy staging areas within five miles of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Vietnam. A U.S. military spokesman correcting earlier report that none of the more than 50 F-4 Phantoms engaged in the biggest air battle of the war over North Vietnam on Monday was damaged or lost said that one of the F-4s sustained damage when it flew through the debris of a disintegrating MIG-21… (Personal note of Humble Host: On Jan 2-3-4 I flew four sorties in the hunt with rockets for WBLCs off the coast and in the inland waterways of Route Pack III. Log book says: Good hits, no fires or secondaries).
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Three fixed wing aircraft lost in southeast Asia on 4 January 1967…
(1) LTJG JIM HAYS was flying an A-4C of the VA-22 Fighting Redcocks embarked in USS CORAL SEA on a strike mission on a bridge at Thu Diem 20 miles south of Haiphong when hit by ground fire in the wing. Losing fuel and then afire LTJG HAYS was able to fly the aircraft 20 miles to sea before the aircraft flames out, among other difficulties, and eject to be rescued by a Navy helicopter… to fight many other days and nights…
(2) LT ALLAN M. VANPELT and ENSIGN R.A. MORRIS were flying an F-4B of the VF-154 Black Knights embarked in USS CORAL SEA on a strike to the same bridge target ninety minutes later. During recovery from a shallow delivery of MK-82 bombs LT VANPELT observed and responded to a fire warning light and turned toward the sea. As the aircraft burned and parts were falling off the doomed aircraft the two Naval aviators ejected two miles off the coast to be rescued by a Navy helicopter…
(3) A C-123B Provider of the 19th ACS and 315th ACW out of Tan Son Nhut with a crew of five crashed on a landing and was destroyed at a South Vietnam field. The crew survived…
RIPPLE SALVO… #305… Among the many “unsung heroes” who toiled tirelessly in the dark spaces of the carriers at Yankee Station were the “staff pukes” of the embarked Carrier Division Commanders. RS #305 is purloined from an award letter to the Commander Carrier Division NINE from Commander SEVENTH FLEET approving the award of the Navy Commendation Medal to the Staff Assistant Air Intelligence (Photographic) Officer LCDR JOHN J. DOTHARD. LCDR DOTHARD’s sustained performance is indicative of the incredible burden of planning and directing the strike efforts of the embarked air wing by the staff officers of our Intelligence Corps at every level of command. Here is the “summary of action,” slightly abbreviated, for LCDR DOTHARD’s well deserved NCM…
“During the period May 1966 to January 1968 Lieutenant Commander DOTHARD served as Assistant air Intelligence (Photographic) Officer on the Staff of Commander Carrier Division NINE. This period encompassed two Southeast Asia deployments when Commander Carrier Division NINE was assigned as a Carrier Task Group Commander under Commander Task Force 77, including assignments as CTG 77.0 (Yankee Station Commander) for approximately one-third of the total deployment time. In the later capacity Commander Carrier Division NINE was responsible for preparation and execution of attack carrier strike operations in support of United States national policy in Southeast Asia. During that period, the nature and complexity of Yankee Station operations were significantly expanded as the efforts of the attack carrier striking forces were directed against major targets throughout most of North Vietnam. This, in addition to the impact of the use of concentrate air defenses by the enemy, resulted in special complexities in planning, executing and reporting of the operations. Simultaneous missions by other United States forces complicated the task of coordinating and accomplishing assigned missions successfully and without interference with the operations of friendly forces. Commander Carrier Division NINE planned, directed and executed the following major attacks on military and logistic installations in North Vietnam during 1966: Thanh Hoa railroad yard on 21 and 22 August; Nam Dinh railyard on 24 August; Bai Chay naval base on 5 September; Ninh Binh railroad yard spur on 12 September; Phu Ly railroad yard and bridge on 9 October; Ninh Binh railroad yard on 11 November; Can Thon (Kep Airfield) POL re-strike on 2 December. Commander CARDIV NINE also planned, directed and executed the following strikes in 1967: Phu Ly railroad bridge on 16 July; Ninh Binh railroad and highway bridge on 17 July; Co Trai railroad and highway bridge on 19 July; Loi dong army barracks on 29 July; Cam Pha railroad and highway bridge on 1 August; Hanoi thermal power plant on 21 august; Haiphong highway bridge (SSE) on 4 September; Haiphong highway and railroad bridge on 11 September; Kien An airfield on 8 October; Do Xa railroad station and yard and Haiphong army barracks (SE) on 16 October; Haiphong army barracks and Haiphong shipyard (Loch Tray) on 18 October; Phuc Yen airfiled on 14 and 25 October; Hanoi thermal power plant on 26 October; Song Bi thermal power plant on 27 October; Ngoc Kuyet railroad siding (10 miles east of Hanoi) on 29 October; Uong Bi thermal power plant on 30 October; Kien An airfield on 27 November; Haiphong railroad and highway bridge and Haiphong railroad yard west on 28 November; Haiphong railroad yard west, Haiphong highway bridge and Kien An highway bridge on 15 December; Hai Duong railroad and highway bridge east on 3 January; Hai Duong highway ferries #1 and #2 on 4 January; and Thanh Hoa transshipment points and motor maintenance area on 5 January 1968. In addition to these major strikes, constant pressure was maintained on enemy lines of communication by an almost continuous succession of reconnaissance and interdiction missions flown day and night from the attack carrier. This concentrated series of major air attacks, interdiction and close air support missions resulted in extensive and severe damage to the enemy.
Lieutenant Commander DOTHARD, serving as Assistant Air Intelligence (Photographic) Officer was responsible for the collection, evaluation, and dissemination of all photographic intelligence. He was exceptionally effective in supervising the photographic, infra-red and side looking radar reconnaissance programs of the task group. During these periods when this command was functioning as YANKEE Station Commander he was responsible for coordinating the reconnaissance efforts of all task groups assigned. As a result of his persistent efforts in collecting and evaluating all available photographic materials, LCDR DOTHARD’s contribution to the selection of tactical targets in North Vietnam proved most productive. He was the task group authority on the complex and changing rules of engagement for naval and air operations in Southeast Asia. LCDR DOTHARD developed several imaginative and functional photographic displays portraying comprehensive data concerning both friendly and enemy forces. These visual graphics were extremely useful in informing the Task Group Commander of the current operational situation and provided the target planning board with an immediate source of information. Through his untiring efforts and initiative, LCDR DOTHARD significantly improved the quality and quantity of photographic target materials available to the operating forces, particularly in the area of Strike Still Pictures and motion pictures taken by attack aircraft camera pods. An exceptionally dedicated and conscientious naval officer, LCDR DOTHARD willingly worked unusually long hours to ensure that the best possible photographic intelligence was available to the Task Group Commander.”
Humble Host salutes LCDR DOTHARD and all the AIs who supported the air crews that needed all the help they could get to find and kill the right targets. The pictures were vital to survival and getting the job done.
4 January Quotes: “We study strategy as a science: the application of that knowledge is an art.”…REHKOPF “Being a soldier and being a member of an army in time of peace are two different things. I would accept the latter only as a means to the former.”…PATTON
Lest we forget…. Bear -30-
