Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #742… “ATTACKS PRESSED DAILY… Despite continuously bad weather that has kept the outpost obscured from the air much of the time, scores of fighter-bombers and large B-52 bombers have attacked daily in the vicinity of Khe Sanh in the heaviest sustained bombing in history.”… but first…
Good Morning… Day SEVEN FORTY-TWO of a remembrance of an air war fought by thousands of brave American warriors fifty years ago that was secretly called Operation Rolling Thunder, but the entire world knew it as “the bombing of North Vietnam.”…..
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Sunday, 17 March 1968…
The GROUND WAR & KHE SANH: Page 1: “G.I.s IN PINCHER MOVE; KILL 128 IN A DAYLONG BATTLE”… “American troops caught a North Vietnamese force in a pincer movement on the central coastal plain yesterday, killing 128 enemy soldiers in daylong fighting. Two American soldiers were killed and 10 wounded…the fighting erupted six miles northeast of Quangngai in an area of sand dunes and scrub brush between Highway 1 and the South China Sea. At the time, South Vietnamese rangers backed by a company of United States armor from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment were reported to have killed 95 of te enemy using a six-and-a-half-hour fight 16 miles northwest of Saigon… The action was part of a vast operation under way in five provinces around the city of Saigon to eliminate the enemy threat against the capital…. Meanwhile, American and South Vietnamese troops continued wide-ranging sweeps near Saigon in Operation Quyat Thang. The Vietnamese term means ‘determined to win.’ The operation has been described as the largest of the war by American headquarters, involves more than 50 battalions of United States and South Vietnamese troops–a force of about 50,000 men… In the latest clash today, the toll raised to 569 the total losses since the operation began last Monday. American casualties are at 28 killed in action and 221 wounded. 97 enemy troops have been captured... ERROR KILLS 7 AMERICANS: Seven Americans were killed and 29 wounded by three bombs dropped from a United States Marine fighter-bomber. The plane dropped the bombs short of the intended target onto a United States Army artillery battery 7 miles southwest of Hue.”…Page 6: “Highland Troops See Little Of Foe–Pattern of Actions Similar to Those of a Year Ago”… “Allied forces in the Central Highlands are engaged in the kinds of actions that were typical of the war in South Vietnam more than a year ago. They are searching diligently with helicopters, radar and riflemen–sometimes catching a trace of the enemy, but seldom drawing him into battle.”… Page 7: “FOE DIGS DEEPER OUTSIDE KHE SANH–DIRT PILES UP AS MARINES HEAR MACHINERY WHIRRING UNDERGROUND”... “The piles of dirt rise higher every day beside the trenches of North Vietnamese soldiers encircling this American base. United States marines say the dirt comes from the enemy tunnels burrowing closer to the American positions–some as close as 100 yards away…. So far the Americans have been lucky. No tunnel has surfaced inside the base.”… Page 7: “NORTH VIETNAM’S COMMENTS STRESS NEW ATTACKS NEAR KHE SANH”… “The North Vietnamese, in a surge of statements about Khe Sanh, contend that ‘preparations for new attacks’ in the area are now under way and that the embattled Marine camp ‘will become a real graveyard ‘ for American troops.”…
Page 1: “MORE U.S. TROOPS GOING TO VIETNAM–35,000–50,000 MEN MAY GO–RESERVISTS FACE ACTIVE DUTY”... “The Johnson Administration has decided to send more troops to Vietnam. Reliable sources said today that the number would be moderate, compared with the 206,000 men requested by General William C. Westmoreland. The President was reported to have made no decision on the exact number. But military observers speculated that pattern of past increases indicated that he might approve the dispatch of one more division with supporting units, about 35,000 men, over the next several months.”…
Page 1: “PRESIDENT READY TO CUT BUDGET TO GAIN TAX RISE–DROP OFF $8-BILLION–PRESIDENT IS YIELDING TO CONGRESSIONAL PRESSURE–Budget Chair Wilbur Mills Undecided”… Page 1: “Ten World Central Bank Leaders In Washington For Parley to Solve Gold Crisis”… Page 1: “Robert Kennedy To Make 3 Primary Races–Attacks Johnson–Challenge Issued–Senator Says Only New Leaders Can Change Divisive Policies”… Page 1: “McCarthy Bars Any Deal With Kennedy and Will Continue Drive.”… Page 1: “Kennedy Parades In New York To Mixed Chorus–Draws Boos And Cheers In St. Patrick’s Day March”… Page 1: “Survey Shows College Students Back McCarthy Over Kennedy”… “Kids aren’t going to Fort Lauderdale this year, they are going to work for McCarthy.”…
17 MARCH 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (18 Mar reporting 17 Mar ops)… Page 2: “An Air Force F-4 Phantom jet was lost in North Vietnam raising the total of planes downed in North Vietnam to 810. Both pilots were reported to have been saved.”… Page 3: “Hanoi Reports U.S. Jet Is Down and Crew is Held”… “The North Vietnamese press agency said that a United States A-6 jet was shot down north of Hanoi today and that its crewmen had been captured. The agency identified the men as Lieut. Comd. Dale Walker Doss, 32 years old, and Lieut. Comd. Edwin Arthur Shuman, 36. The report did not give the home towns of the men or mention their physical condition. It gave Commander Doss’s service number as 591159 and Commander Shuman’s as 584738. The plane was said to have been shot down while attacking a populated area north of the capital city.”… Page 3: “F-111’s IN THAILAND FOR TESTS IN AIR WAR”… “The United States Air Force brought six F-111 fighter-bombers to Thailand today for test flights under combat conditions in North Vietnam. The $3-million planes landed at the airbase at Takhli, 100 miles north of Bangkok, and are expected to start single combat trials over North Vietnam before flying missions in squadron force. The swing-wing planes, capable of 1,500 miles an hour, flew from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada with a stop in Guam.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 17 March 1968…
(1) MAJOR P.D. LAMBRIDES and 1LT J.L. TAVENNER were flying an F-4 Phantom of the 390th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang on an armed reconnaissance mission two miles north of the DMZ when hit by automatic weapons fire. They turned to sea and ejected when the aircraft became uncontrollable. They were rescued by unspecified means to fly and fight again…
(2) CAPTAIN THOMAS TRUETT HENSLEY was flying an F-105D of the 469th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat and part of a wing strike on the Pathet Lao headquarters at Sam Neua. CAPTAIN HENSLEY was hit by AAA at 5,000-feet in the recovery from his diving attack. No ejection or parachute was observed nor beeper or radio heard. The aircraft crashed near SAm Neua and no SAR was attempted... CAPTAIN HENSLEY’s body has not been found or recovered and the young warrior remains where he fell fifty years ago today…Remembered, but sadly, left behind… Why? find the crash site, you find the Captain… but it’s not mine to reason why, this one is for the joint recovery folks to keep working on… No man left behind…
(4) COMMANDER DONALD RICHARD HUBBS, LTJG LEE DAVID BENSON, AX2 RANDOLPH JOHN NIGHTENGALE, and ADR2 THOMAS DAVID BARBER were flying an S-2E Tracker of the VS-23 Black Cats embarked in USS Yorktown on a night sea control patrol mission off the coast of North Vietnam. The last known position of the aircraft was over the Gulf about 25 miles southeast of Hon Me Island. The only contact with the aircraft was one hour after launch to report the failure of the aircraft’s radar. A search found a right-wing panel of the Tracker on the third day of the search, but the cause of the loss with all four crew aboard remains unknown. The bodies of COMMANDER HUBBS, LTJG BENSON, PETTY OFFICER NIGHTENGALE and PETTY OFFICER BARBER remain where they fell on their last flight in the service of our country fifty years ago this day.
From the compilation “34TFS/F-105 History by Howie Plunkett and the 100-mission log of AGEN Sam Armstrong: 17-Mar-68: “This was Major Armstrong’s 88th mission”… Armstrong: “Gary Durkee and I were the airborne spares today. I put myself on as a spare because I didn’t think they would take-off and it wasn’t my day to fly. But they had us off as a flight of two. We were carrying 6 CBUs apiece. We worked with an o-1 FAC in middle Laos and got one good secondary out of our drops. After that we went over to recce Pack I and didn’t see anything although the weather was clear.”…
Humble Host flew #124, led a 2-ship armed recce in Route Pack II. Weather was scattered and 5-7 miles. Went feet dry a mile north of Hatinh and flew southwest to drag Highway 15, Happy Valley, looking for trucks. Cupboard was bare but we did a good job blowing out a little bridge –near Tan Ap where the road forks and heads into Mu Gia Pass–with our load out of 3 MK-83s apiece. No opposition noted. Exit east and feet wet over Cap Mui Ron. A 1.8 round robin. Next stop Subic Bay…
RIPPLE SALVO… #742… Short article by New York Times writer Joseph B. Treaster, 14 March, Page 3:
THROUGH HEAVY CLOUDS….
“From the cockpit of a fighter-bomber, the United States Marine outpost at Khe Sanh, 7,000 feet below, was invisible today. But seven and a half miles to the southwest, Major Robert C. Ward of Los Angeles found a ragged hole in the thick cloud cover. He snapped his F-4C Phantom jet over on the left-wing and dived in on a hilltop a mile east of the Laotian border, crisscrossed with paths and roadways. ‘I see that son-of-a-gun,’ said Major Ward, firing a burst of 19 rockets with a squeeze of his left thumb. As he swept away from the target, Captain Roger Woodworth of Spokane, Washington, and Lieutenant Ronald Gieleghem of Detroit, in another Phantom, plunged in with more rockets.
ATTACKS PRESSED DAILY
“Despite continuously bad weather that has kept the outpost obscured from the air much of the time, scores of fighter-bombers and larger B-52 bombers have attacked daily in the vicinity of Khe Sanh in the heaviest sustained bombing in history.
“Many fighter-bombers have used radar for pinpoint bombing from 10,000-feet. The hills and ridges around the 6,000-man Marine garrison are scarred and burned, but intelligence officers continue to estimate the number of North Vietnamese in the area at 20,000.
“This afternoon, a Marine forward air controller found what he thought was an enemy truck park and directed the fighter pilots toward it through a break in the ceiling. As the first rockets exploded, he circled in his light spotter airplane. ‘Real good coverage,’ he radioed Major Ward, the commander of the flight of two Phantoms. ‘On target. Right on target. Hit it again.’ When no enemy guns opened up during the first attack from 7,000-feet to the leveling off point at 1,000-feet, Major Ward decided to work lower.
LOWER AND FASTER
“On the next tow passes, he stayed below 3,500-feet while maneuvering and dived at 600 miles an hour within 500 feet of the ground. ‘I don’t know what’s in there, but you are in deep trouble now,’ he said as if speaking to the jungle hilltop while releasing another pod of 19 rockets. The trails were barely perceptible through the jet’s plexiglass windows and there was no sign of movement. ‘We’re really hammering the hell out of them,’ he said to his passenger.
“On his third and last pass, major Ward sent off three pods of rockets and yelled again at the target, ‘Take that!’
“The marine in the spotter plane came on the radio with an evaluation of the attack. ‘That was an outstanding display of ordnance delivery,’ he said. ‘You were 100 per cent on target.’ The marine said the rockets had started six fires and had destroyed a building in the underbrush.
“Major Ward and the others had hoped to get closer to the Khe Sanh outpost and had brought smoke bombs to block the enemy’s view of transports swooping in to drop supplies. But a spotter directly above the outpost told them that the weather was giving good cover to the transport and that rocket runs would be too dangerous.
“For a brief period late in the afternoon the scattered clouds and fog lifted to 800-feet and visibility rose to five miles. But the conditions deteriorated rapidly.
“For close air support, which has brought rockets and cannon fire within 100 yards of the wire barriers at Khe Sanh, fighter-bomber pilots like to have at least a 1,000-foot ceiling. In combat emergencies, however, they will fly lower.
“‘These people need help and they need it bad,’ Major Ward said. ‘We’ll do everything we can to get in there and give it to them.’ “… End quote..
RTR Quote for 17 March: NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI: “Although intelligence, courage and knowledge of military science may help, Goddess Fortuna remains the decisive factor.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
