Posted on 07/10/2022 8:31:02 AM PDT by Retain Mike
President Nixon was determined to come to the aid of America’s ally and to demonstrate to the leaders of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China that even in the post-Vietnam era, the United States would be a global power to be reckoned with. For Operation Linebacker, the May-to-October interdiction campaign, he ordered the deployment to the combat theater of massive naval and air forces. By 15 May 1972, an unprecedented six aircraft carriers and 95 other warships and support vessels buttressed the naval power of the Seventh Fleet. During the same period, the B-52 strategic bomber forces based on Guam and in Thailand grew to 210 aircraft. As these resources surged to the western Pacific, the Seventh Fleet’s carrier attack squadrons, cruisers, destroyers, and amphibious ships stepped up to the challenge. These naval forces would prove key to the defeat of the enemy’s Nguyen Hue offensive in MR I.
(Excerpt) Read more at usni.org ...
By the way, my last memory of Yankee Station is as OOD steaming through it on the way back to Yokosuka at the age of 25. Do any of you have any idea who is responsible for all these events suddenly becoming something that happened fifty years ago?
LOL. I have a suspicion that it is the same guy who sneaks in at night and paints my hair gray and makes my bones weary.
. I have a suspicion that it is the same guy who sneaks in at night and paints my hair gray and makes my bones weary.
It wasn’t sudden; it took 50 years. I know what you mean, though. My 50th high-school reunion is this summer, but I’m not going, because I don’t want to see how old everyone has become.
Interesting history of a bygone era with many of the participants still alive. However as demonstrated by the Ukraine War and the Armenian-Azerbagani conflict the new technologies made possible by the silicon chip have made armored fighting vehicles and virtually all sufface naval combatants obsolete death traps. Wonder how many brave young Americans will die horrible deaths before our woke pole climbing generals and admirals appreciate the new realities.
I was in the USAFSS back then (USAFSS was Air Force Intelligence in those days). We identified targets for both Linebacker I and Linebacker II.
Fifty years ago, we (three DEs) were chasing then-Soviet subs back and forth though the Med, and never lost one. Even when they sent their freshly painted cruisers after us (they weren’t very effective sailors). But they had to cross through the Med to get to and from the Black Sea and the Atlantic.
My 50th HS reunion was last fall. I went. It was a great time. Three days before Captain Kirk/william shatner went into space with Jeff Bezos. Great! Then someone mentioned that Shatner is 90 years old. 90 years old! Well everyone was 68 last year. What kind of body sustains those G’s to get into space?
So a couple of US vowed to stay in shape so that in 15-20 years or so when Musk’s space ships move from carrying 100 people to 1000 people and prices drop from 200k to to 5k or roughly cruise line prices —then we would be in shape to make the journey.
That is a proper goal for old age and bucket list topper for the new age.
I think it happens to anyone over 40. I “celebrated” 20 years since I graduated from college as an undergrad. My wife’s 30 year HS reunion is this year. I swear it’s still 2004, I can run a 10 minute mile, bench press 285, and rock music is still resurgent.
Stationed at a NAVSECGRUACTY Base near Yokohama, and having my own car, I usually rode down to Yokosuka on my duty breaks....except times when the fleet was in port there. 1959-61.
Can’t forget the cruise of 72, that’s when my ears started ringing.
A good goal indeed. I forgot to mention that another reason not to go to the reunion is that it’s in Portland (The High School Formerly Known as Wilson).
I served in the Engineering Department and as Main Propulsion Assistant (MPA) on an LST. As part of my duties as MPA I inspected the engine rooms each day. The ship was powered two 16-278A Diesel engines in each of two engine rooms. The engine rooms also contained an eight-cylinder in line diesel engine to generate electricity. They were unmuffled and to speak to the duty engineman, I would have to shout into his ear from an inch or less away and he would have to do likewise.
When I returned to our homeport of Yokosuka after my first deployment to the Delta, I went to Tokyo to visit a family I had met. After I departed the train and entering their quiet neighborhood, I noticed a ringing or buzzing in my ears. That was the first time I had noted the phenomenon and it has never left me. I do not remember noting a hearing loss, but I could have either ignored or denied it, which is in keeping with my behavior. After leaving the Navy in1972, I worked in accounting and finance, where the loudest noise I heard was a calculator.
Anyway, I filled the claim and qualified for 10% disability and a small check.
This is quite a change in attitude from the Eugeneans of any importance. As an example, a motel I drove by on the way to work put out their flags when the coalition went into Kuwait. They were gone that evening, because it was reported to me by people I knew at the city where I had worked that it was an illegal display of the American flag. They were on the public easement. When our National Guard unit came back I went to the airport to greet them and could not enter the terminal until I put my small American flag back in the truck. The police said I might use it as a weapon.
Portland is so much worse, and I have sworn off going there for decades now.
I was born and raised in Portland and went to school in Eugene for a few years in the mid-70s (though I finished my B.S. in Corvallis years later). I worked four fire seasons on the Ochoco NF, including three on the Prineville hotshot crew, so I have spent some time around Redmond too. (Was the Mexican restaurant El Juan still in business when you moved there?)
I miss Oregon sometimes, though I know that I’m really missing the times of 40 or 50 years ago. Now that all of my family has died or moved away from Portland, I’ll probably never see the place again. I never did stay in touch with any childhood friends, and I don’t do Facebook at all, ever.
You still have hair???
Paraphrasing: Trump said in his recent rally in Alaska that General Mattis said it would take 3 years to defeat ISIS. Trump did not think it should but Mattis said it would. When Trump visited Iraq he asked the general in charge there how long as he knew the people there knew what it would really take. The general answered 3 weeks or less. Trump said he would call him soon. He did after getting back to the White House and made the call and asked again how long. He was told 3 weeks or less and Trump gave the go ahead.
It took less then 3 weeks to kill I think Trump said around 98% or there about. He was told where the remaining ones were hold up and was asked permission to kill the rest and Trump said he was hesitate and said do we really need to kill them, maybe ask them to surrender and he was told they do not surrender. Back and forth a bit but he finally said go ahead and ISIS was defeated.
Now you know why the backstabber Mattis hates Trump.
As for Operation Linebacker, it was the the people in the know knew what to do to defeat the communists and showed just how quick it could be done.
The democrats and the rinos back then and the backstabber military officers in the Pentagon threw it all away which led to the South Vietnam being defeated and the killing of millions of people all over ego and pride and vindictiveness.
So that all the massive military effort at great cost of lives and money would end with the Communists obtaining their goal. Not that I necessarily think the US should have been involved, but the political power of the Communists proved to be more decisive than any military effort. With the MSM acting as its ally.
Vietnam 1965: The Day It Became the Longest War
http://extendedremarks.blogspot.com/2006/12/vietnam-1965-day-it-became-longest-war.html
“The bold measures they would propose were to apply massive air power to the head of the enemy, Hanoi, and to close North Vietnam's harbors by mining them. The situation was not a simple one, and for several reasons. The most important reason was that North Vietnam's neighbor to the north was communist China.”
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