Bridges

Keith Ferris has always been one of my favorite artists.  The fact that his subject is aviation certainly helps in that regard, but I think it's mostly because the painting are so realistic that one thinks they are actually photographs.  I came across one of my favorites Saturday over on "This day in Aviation", a frequent stop of mine on my internet meanderings.

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The painting depicts the egress of a flight of F-105s after they had dropped their bombs on the Paul Doumer Bridge in North Vietnam.  Just looking at that painting, it becomes very obvious what they are doing.

Getting out of Dodge!

But why was this painting on "This Day in Aviation"?  So, I read the article and realized that Saturday was the 51st anniversary of this attack.  Many years ago, I had read about this attack in Air Force Magazine  and wondered why it was such a big deal.  I mean, the Air Force is supposed to be able to knock down bridges.

The fact that they were successful and that was significant puzzled me.   (Naive I was at the time, because a significant number of my Dad's colleagues and students went over there for eternity.)

The Paul Doumer Bridge is, officially, the Long Biên Bridge.  It was named after the Frenchmen in charge of French Indochina when it was built.  It is the only bridge that connects Hanoi and Haiphong, meaning any supplies that arrive in the port of Haiphong such as SAMS, has to cross that bridge to resupply Hanoi.  Ergo, a very important target.  So the US expended a lot of effort to destroy it. 

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This attack managed to destroy one of the spans. (There are several spans, 1800 meters is 5905.5').  This took it out of commission for a while, but it was quickly fixed and would be reattacked many times for the rest of the war, finally being put out of commission in 1972 by Laser Guided Bombs for a year.

All of this I knew.  So once again, why did Mr Ferris paint a picture of this attack?

Well, I've discussed in posts as well as commentary my belief that the only difference between the Medal of Honor and the Air Force Cross (or the Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross) is the writing skills of the person submitting the recommendation or the politics involved with the attack.

I've come to learn that this attack resulted in the Awarding of 5 Air Force Crosses.  You may recognize some of the names.

Colonel Robert White Deputy Commander for Operations of the 355TFW at Takhli AB

Colonel Robin Olds Commander of the 8th TFW at Ubon (future home of juvat and Sarge).

Colonel James McInerney, Commander of the 13TFS and the flight lead of the Wild Weasels.

Captain Fred Shannon, Colonel McInerney's EWO.

Lt. Colonel Harry Schurr, Commander of the 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron.

Lest anyone think they received the medals because they were in command of the units doing the fighting, that does not seem to be the case.  Col White had been a P-51 pilot in WWII, then flown the X-15, prior to becoming the Deputy Commander for Operations of the 355TFW at Takhli AB.  On completion of this mission he took a blown up copy of the picture below and walked it around the flight line showing it to all the personnel working there.  He wanted them to know and appreciate how important they were to the overall wing mission.

I believe that's called "Leadership".

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Col White retired as a Major General and was the Commander of Air Force ROTC while I was a cadet.

Col Olds requires no introduction to this crowd.  And, as can be seen below, he didn't have any problem commanding respect in his wing.  People were still talking about him as the Wing Commander in 1980 when I got to the Kun.

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 Col Olds retired as a Brigadier General.  He came to talk to a Dining in at Webb AFB while my Dad was an IP there.  He and Dad got into a friendly wrestling match and Dad ended up with a cracked rib.  Yes.....alcohol was involved.  He also spoke at a Dining in I attended.  Fascinating man.  No....I didn't wrestle him.

Col McInerney flew 101 missions as a Wild Weasel over North Vietnam.  "First in...Last out."  That's not a job for a shrinking violet.  During his tour, the squadron lost no pilots in combat. 

Capt Shannon was 5 feet behind him and, as a crew, they destroyed 17 SAM sites. Interestingly, he entered the Air Force as an Aircraft Electrical Systems Technician, served an assignment as such at Westover AFB MA, then went to OCS and was commissioned.  Now...Ain't that some coincidence right there!

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Col McInerney went on to retire with 2 stars.  He comes from a long family of folks who "Walk the Walk" and don't just "Talk the talk"

Plaque at the Thayer Hotel near West Point

Col Schurr would continue his career and eventually command the 3rd TFW and the 8TFW both at Kunsan.

As I was researching this post, I came across this post, that although technically about building a model airplane, contains some interesting data.

 

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 This gentleman was #4 in Col White's flight and is credited with one of the hits on the Doumer Bridge.  In the post, he talks about the attack from his point of view.  Yes....Some folks missed, the bridge, He didn't, and some of the folks shooting at him didn't either.  Fortunately the Thud is a tough bird.

He would later be an Ops Officer at Holloman where he uttered the immortal words to a young 2Lt fighter pilot to be, "Go Get Him, Tiger!"  The rest, as they say is history.

These were the kind of people that made me want to join the Air Force and emulate.  I hope  there are still some like them out there.  It's been quite a while since Leadership was a sought after trait in commanders.  (The small c denoting title, not ability.)

I couldn't work it into the post, but the first source below is a conversation with someone else I have a deep and abiding respect for,


Sources
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.aviation.military/YXryWgVwYTU
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/11-august-1967/
http://peteralanlloyd.com/us-air-strikes-on-bridges-during-the-vietnam-war/
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol13no4/html/v13i4a01p_0001.htm
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197485/strike-at-the-doumer-bridge-lt-col-james-mcinerney-and-capt-fred-shannon/
https://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=196
http://usafocsalumni.org/class-pages/63a-bios/piowaty
https://www.thethayerhotel.com/mcinerney.html