Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #220… (1) Retraction and apology for RS #211…(2) HANSON BALDWIN ON PLANES AND PILOTS…but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED TWENTY of a return to the air war over North Vietnam fought two and a half generations ago…
7 OCTOBER 1966… THE HOMETOWN NEWS FROM THE PAGES OF THE NYT… A mostly sunny Friday for Happy Hour…
Page 1: “Johnson Expands Trip To Far East; To Visit Six Nations”…”President Johnson announced today that his trip this month to the Manila Conference of the allies fighting in South Vietnam later would be expanded to include visits to five other Asian and Pacific nations. In addition to the Philippines, the President will visit the other Asian countries aiding the struggle in Vietnam–New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and South Korea– and Malaysia, which it said to be considering assisting. There was widespread speculation here that at some point in the trip the President would arrange without notice to stop in South Vietnam, probably at a well protected military base.”… Page 1: “Hanoi Is Said To Insist U.S. End Bombing Before Talks”…”North Vietnam will not accept a pause in United States bombing as an inducement to negotiate peace, according to a representative of an unaligned government represented in Hanoi. The source said his government information was that the North Vietnamese demand a complete cessation of bombing as a condition for the talks. They would not be satisfied with a temporary halt, he said, or with an American decision to spare certain areas, such as the southeastern section of the demilitarized zone–actually south of the border itself–which is not now being attacked. Hanoi’s position on bombing accords with the first of Secretary Thant’s three steps to peace: The cessation of United States air attacks on North Vietnam. The general impression of governments that have recently sounded Hanoi and Communist China on peace talks is pessimistic as far as early acceptance is concerned.”…
Page 1: “U.S. Loss In Week Is Twice Saigon’s”…”Combat casualties for United States forces were more than twice as high as those of South Vietnamese government troops last week…American casualties numbered 741 and South Vietnamese 355. Deaths reported for the week ended last Saturday were 99 American and 87 South Vietnam. The enemy lost 1,104 dead. Last week’s casualties brought to 5,401 the total number killed in the war and sent the total number of wounded to 20,014. The fighting in the first nine months of this year accounted for 3,523 of the American deaths. In the same period 6,859 South Vietnamese were killed. The North Vietnamese/Vietcong death toll so far this year was put at 40,169.”… Page 1: “Record Grain Crop Expected In Soviet”…”The Soviet Government announced today that it expected the grain harvest this year to be the largest in the country’s history.”… Page 1: “President Sees Strong Economy Continuing In ’67″…”The Administration sought today to calm fears that the declining stock market might be signaling an eonamic recession. President Johnson at his news conference, called 1966 a good year saying: ‘There has never been a better one, and I believe that ’67 will be equally as good.’…”…
Page 1: “Orioles Win 6-0 On Dodgers Errors”…”The Los Angeles Dodgers, normally the most urbane team in baseball, committed three errors in one inning and six in the game today and lost their second straight decision of the 1966 World Series to the Baltimore Oriaoles. The series resumes Sunday in Baltimore.”… oohrah…
7 OCTOBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (8 Oct reporting 7 Oct ops) Page 11: United States pilots flew 57 strikes in support of the South Vietnamese and during one of them a B-57 Canberra was shot down by ground fire. One crew member was rescued, the other is missing in action…( CAPT G.D. RIPPEY recovered, CAPTAIN LOUIS MAKOWSKI, POW) This morning Air Force B-52s bombed what was suspected to be an enemy base camp and headquarters west of where the allied ground forces had been fighting in the buffer zone. This morning B-52 bombs struck North Vietnam just above the DMZ for the fourth time. The target were truck parks and other staging areas.”… nothing on fighter-bombers… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson)…One fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 7 October 1966…
(1) CAPTAIN JAMES ALLEN TREECE and 1LT LARRY DALE KNIGHT were flying an RF-4C of the 12th TRS and 460th TRW out of Tan Son Nhut on a night reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam and failed to return from the mission. CAPTAIN TREECE and 1LT KNIGHT were Killed in Action and perished fifty years ago on this date. Left behind??? but remembered…
RIPPLE SALVO… #220… (1) Mea Culpa… RIPPLE SALVO #211 of 28 September inaccurately described the last flight and death of LCDR Dick Perry and the original post has been retracted. A corrected version of Dick Perry’s final moments on 31 August 1967, forwarded by a member of the flight and an eye witness, will be posted this weekend … RTR and this old Admiral regret the error and appreciate the correction for the record…
(2) New York Times writer/author Hanson Baldwin published a lengthy essay in the NYT on October 9 entitled…
“Plane And Pilot Shortage Grows As War Loss Rises” I quote…
In one month’s operation over North Vietnam and Laos last summer an Air Force squadron at Takhli, Thailand lost 15 of 18 aircraft and nine pilots. The loss rate was extraordinary not typical. But severe shortages of aircraft and pilots have been created by the steady and slightly increasing attrition of the air war over North Vietnam, plus operational losses all over the world, and failure of the services up to now to retain many of their skilled young pilots. Navy sources say that except for the squadrons operating from the three carriers at Yankee Station off North Vietnam, virtually all the rest of their combat squadrons are below strength in either planes or pilots or both.
The shortage in aircraft of the types used in Vietnam is so acute that the Navy says it is taking Lockheed T-33 jet trainers out of storage to supply Naval Air Reserve units. In turn the Douglas A-4 models of the light attack aircraft flown in the Naval Reserve–a model first flown in 1956–are being transferred to regular Navy squadrons. The A-4B had been virtually out of the regular inventory and had been largely replaced by A-4Cs and A-4Es and A-4Fs, which are much better and improved aircraft. The later models have been described as a Navy “workhorse” in the air war over North Vietnam.
The Air Force is feeling a similar strain. Except for two squadrons scheduled to be deployed to Southeast Asia, the Tactical Air Command in the United States is a training unit, officers say. All of its available squadrons have been sent to Southeast Asia, or are committed elsewhere in the world. The shortages have occurred because the losses of certain types of aircraft from combat as well as world wide operations have been larger for many months than the production rate of comparable replacement aircraft and because casualties and the resignation rates of pilots have exceeded readily available replacements. The imbalance is attributed in both cases by some officers in the services, to the refusal of the Defense Department to authorize expansion and improvement of production and training facilities soon enough. In turn, some civilians in the Pentagon believe the services themselves did not for-see the increased need soon enough. Results, in any case, have been a drawdown on inventories, the assignment of pilots from other duties or other types of aircraft to combat flying, and a strain on personnel…a recent increase in production rates of Navy aircraft will not exceed the loss rate until sometime next year. The Air Force does not expect to reach its full inventory of aircraft until July 1, 1968.
The overall loss rate since the beginning of the bombing of North Vietnam to the present–that is, combat losses as a percentage of total sorties–is not that much higher than the Korean War. In Korea the overall rate averaged about 3 1/2%. Over North Vietnam and Laos…it has been somewhat more than 4%…There is no doubt the overall rate has slowly increased…the losses…have increased for a number of reasons: (1) More and more United States squadrons are being committed to the air war and hence more sorties are being flown over North Vietnam and Laos, (2) Harder and more heavily defended targets are being attacked, and (3) The North Vietnamese air defense system–particularly its complex of radar-controlled guns and larger numbers of automatic weapons–has been tremendously strengthened and has improved efficiency.
The pilot situation is comparable to the aircraft problem–lower inventories than the demand requires…The Navy had a shortage of 1,660 pilots and Marines had a shortfall of 650. In both the Navy and Air Force a “comb-out” of aviation from other assignments resulted in a temporary slowing of the rate of loss of pilots. A Navy officer said: “The combat pilot has to have a break. He can’t fly all the time; there have to be non-combat jobs he can assume.” The normal requirement for a naval pilot is a six month tour in Vietnam. Usually he may fly as many as 100 missions in this time. After that, he may pull a second tour. Theoretically, at least the Navy hopes to limit the average pilot to these two tours, approximately 150 to 200 missions. However, the resignation rates of young pilots who have completed their tours is high. In one recent month 73 Naval Aviators resigned. The Navy is increasing the Pilot Training Rate to 2,200 and is asking for 2,625. During the current fiscal year the actual PTR of new pilots was 1,089.
The Air Force, which assigns its pilots tours of 100 missions over North Vietnam says…its current rate of pilot training will meet its requirements…nevertheless the Air Force is increasing its PTR to 2,760 from the 1966 total of 1,965. However, it is concerned about pilot resignation rate– 704 resigned last year. About 70 percent of resignees are hired by the airlines…Another reason for resignations…there is some frustration over the many restrictions that govern air operations over North Vietnam and Laos and a feeling that the full story of the air war is not being presented to the public…(Baldwin references and quotes a letter printed in the September 19, 1966 Aviation Week and Space Technology headlined “Pilot Report From Vietnam”…”The war here has become a political football…an exercise in glowing reports…outstanding new records and promises of turning the tide.”)
The services fear that if the war drags on and pilots have to be sent back for two or three more tours of duty…this feeling of dissatisfaction may spread. Unquote…
Lest we forget… Bear ……… –30– ………..
