Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #338… of FIVE YEARS OF TOE-TO-TOE… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT of a drop back of fifty years to dig out some things missed while living the dream…
6 FEBRUARY 1967… HOMELAND HEAD LINES from the New York Times on snowy Monday in New York…
Page 1: “Hanoi Said to Give Kennedy a Signal It’s Ready to Talk”… “A message from North Vietnam indicating a willingness to negotiate on ending the Vietnam War was reported to have been given Senator Robert Kennedy in Paris last week…no comment from Senator Kennedy until he had a chance to confer ‘with the Executive branch of Government.’ The asserted ‘peace signal’ was said in a current issue of Newsweek magazine to have been given to Mr. Kennedy and a United States Embassy official by the Director of Asian Affairs in the French Foreign ministry. The French official said it came from Mai Yau Bo, Hanoi Chief representative in Paris… North Vietnam has a willingness to negotiate a war settlement in three stages following a cessation of American bombing in the North…In the first stage there would be a discussion of a resumption of relations…The second stage would enable Hanoi to retreat without loss of face from previous positions which demanded the barring of all foreign troops on Vietnamese soil and the requirement that re-unification be carried out without foreign interference…The third phase would be negotiations aimed at an overall settlement in Vietnam.”…
6 February 1967 U.S. State Department Office of the Historian…A very interesting take on this Kennedy story is found in a memorandum from Walt Rostow to the President on the morning of 6 Feb 67 titled “Hanoi Proposal Through Senator Kennedy” and starts out : “I have not seen the full text of the Newsweek report on this matter. However, news stories, for example, the Washington Post piece on page 1 today (and the NYT), indicate that Newsweek went well beyond the true facts. We have a copy of the Kennedy interview with a French Foreign Ministry official which is clearly the basis of the story. The text of the conversation is attached”…”At no point did (the French official) profess to be speaking for the North Vietnamese.”….. The full memo with notes is at https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d38 Humble Host note: The President called for and had a meeting with Robert Kennedy for an hour later that day. LBJ made sure that the meet was witnessed and recorded, believing that Kennedy was jumping in and stirring up the peace issue for political purposes as the 1968 election was on everybody’s mind. Politics!
NYT Continued…Page 1: “Soviet Dependents Harassed in Peking”...”Hundreds of slogan chanting Chinese demonstrators delayed for hours today the departure of a Soviet airliner carrying 30 women and 50 children home…they surrounded the Russian embassy to prevent the bus from taking the Russians to the airport… Page 1: “Bias In State Seen at Critical Level”...”The state of New York NAACP announced today it was raising $500,000 for ‘an all out war against racism and discrimination’ in New York in the next nine months…the action is being taken because the situation in New York State was more and more serious than any time since the civil war. Dr. Eugene Reed, president of the state conference of NAACP said, ‘we will have to do anything, no matter what it takes, to get democracy to work in one state before it can work in the rest of the country.”
6 February 1967…The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) COMMUNIST CHINA: It now appears that the army is siding with anti-Mao forces in the Western Province of Tsinghai. (two lines still redacted)…the army has been used against Maoist elements in Kwangtung Province. Further north, Shensi Province gives the appearance of being in turmoil. On the economic front, Japanese interests, responsible for about one-third of the foreign ships calling at China, are beginning to complain about delays and confusion regarding Chinese export cargoes. We presume this reflects disruptions in the internal transport system… SOVIET UNION: Within the next few days the Soviets will probably conduct a second test of their new spacecraft for manned missions. The fist orbital test of this capsule took place in November–the two-day flight of Cosmos 133. SOUTH VIETNAM: Continuing consultation between the government and the constituent assembly is preventing serious controversies on the draft constitution from boiling over. Now we have word that a compromise has been reached regarding the powers to be granted the legislative branch. Hopefully, this will calm military fears that the future executive could be hog-tied by an uncooperative legislature. At the rate it has been working, the assembly could complete action on the constitution by this April…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…AIRMAN SECOND CLASS DUANE D. HACKNEY, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to DUANE D. HACKNEY, AIRMAN SECOND CLASS, United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while serving with the 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, 3rd Air Rescue and Recovery Group, Danang Air Base, Vietnam, SEVENTH Air Force, as a Paramedic (Pararescueman) on 6 February 1967. On that date, AIRMAN HACKNEY flew two sorties in a heavily defended hostile area. On the first sortie, despite the presence of armed forces known to be hostile, entrenched in the vicinity, AIRMAN HACKNEY volunteered to be lowered into the jungle to search for the survivor. He searched until the controlling Search and Rescue Agency ordered an evacuation of the rescue crew. On the second sortie, AIRMAN HACKNEY located the downed pilot, who was hoisted into the helicopter. As the rescue crew departed the area, intense and accurate 37mm flak tore into the helicopter amidships, causing extensive damage and a raging fire aboard the craft. With complete disregard for his own safety, AIRMAN HACKNEY fitted his parachute to the rescued pilot. In the moment of impending disaster, AIRMAN HACKNEY chose to place his responsibility to the survivor above his own life. The courageous pararescueman located another parachute for himself and had just slipped his arms through the harness when a second 37mm round struck the crippled aircraft, sending it out of control. The force of the explosion blew AIRMAN HACKNEY through the open cargo door and, though stunned, he managed to deploy the unbuckled parachute and make a successful landing. He was later recovered by a companion helicopter. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, AIRMAN HACKNEY reflected highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Among AIRMAN SECOND CLASS HACKNEY’s combat awards are the Air Force Cross, Silver Star, four Distinguished flying Crosses, the Airman’s Medal, 17 Air Medals, 2 Air Force Commendation Medals with Combat V, and the Purple Heart… ooohrah…
6 FEBRUARY 1967… Operation Rolling Thunder… No coverage in the New York Times... (Bear#25/Milky/night/DMZ)… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) One fixed wing aircraft was lost in Southeast Asia on 6 February 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN LUCIUS LAMAR HEISKELL was flying an O-1F Bird Dog of the 23rd TASS and 504th TASG out of Nakhon Phenom on a visual reconnaissance mission with a companion Bird Dog in the area of the Mu Gia Pass where they encountered heavy 57mm ground fire. CAPTAIN HEISKELL’s aircraft was hit in the fuselage and crashed near the Mu Gia Pass in the Annamite mountain range 60 miles east of NKP. The second O-1F pilot saw CAPTAIN HEISKELL successfully bail out of his aircraft before it crashed and CAPTAIN HEISKELL radioed that he was on the ground but surrounded by the enemy and said rescue was not feasible at that time. Later in the day an HH-3E flown by MAJOR P.H. WOOD and his crew, including AIRMAN SECOND CLASS DUANE HACKNEY (see Air Force Cross above), flew two sorties to locate CAPTAIN HEISELL. AIRMAN HACKNEY found CAPTAIN HEISKELL and the pickup was made. However the helicopter was hit by 37mm ground fire on the lift out, exploded and crashed on the top of a 900-foot karst ridge. The explosion killed all in the craft but AIRMAN HACKNEY and CAPTAIN HEISKELL. The Airman put his chute on the Captain, shoved him out of the burning craft, grabbed another parachute for himself and jumped holding on to the UNBUCKLED straps for dear life. Both the Airman and the Captain landed on the karst ridge. Unfortunately, CAPTAIN HEISELL succumbed before another helicopter could make it to the scene. Only AIRMAN HACKNEY survived that tragic incident on Monday, 6 February 1967, 50 years ago today. Killed-in Action: CAPTAIN HEISKELL, MAJOR P.H. WOOD, CAPTAIN R.A. KIBBEY and SSGT D.J. HALL… So many men died trying to save others: no greater love… Lest we forget…
AIRMAN HACKNEY was rescued and would become the first living enlisted recipient of the Air Force Cross and one of the most decorated airmen of the Vietnam War. He would rise through the ranks to retire as a Chief Master Sergeant. He died in 1993.
RIPPLE SALVO… #338… New York Times correspondent Hanson Baldwin published a column in the NYT on 6 February 1967 that included the five year score card for our war in Vietnam… The page 1 headline:
“U.S. Plane Losses at 1,750 in Five Years of Vietnam War”
“The United States has lost more than 1,120 fixed wing aircraft and 630 helicopters from all causes in Southeast Asia in five years of war up to 31 December 1966. These figures were made available for the first time last week…some losses had been withheld until last week , such as operational or accidental losses.
“The combat losses from 1962 through 1966 varied from 600 to 700 fixed wing aircraft and about 260 helicopters. Different figures in Washington and Saigon were reconciled last week…In 1966 losses exceeded 1965 by more than 350 planes and helicopters…the heaviest losses have been among the Air Force’s Republic F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber, the Navy’s Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, and the Army’s Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, which have been the workhorses in combat…the losses in Vietnam have been smaller on a percentage basis than loss rates in World War II and Korea…figures show that loss rates over North Vietnam are five times greater than over South Vietnam…if the war continues for several more years at the present tempo or if the loss rate increases, shortages of planes and pilots might become more serious, the Air Force is already facing a shortage of pilots…
“In the three years of the Korean War 2,347 losses were reported, 1,466 of them in combat…and 698,000 tons of bombs were dropped. Allied planes dropped 3,356,000 tons of bombs during World War II–including 1,360,000 on Germany. About 300,000 German civilians were killed by allied bombs and 780,000 were wounded. The British lost 60,447 civilians to German bombing.
“Extensive anti-aircraft defenses of North Vietnam have taken their greatest toll by gunfire–not by missiles. About 30 planes of a total of 550 fixed wing aircraft have been shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles and probably more than 700 missiles have been fired to achieve this toll. Ten planes have been lost to MiGs and 36 MiGs have been shot down by United States aircraft.”
I will pick this up tomorrow with a Times editorial head-lined “What Has Bombing Accomplished”…
CAG’s QUOTES for 6 February: HERBERT HOOVER: “Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.”… PATTON: “If we again believe that wars are over, we will surely have another one and damn quick.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
