By the summer of 1965, just months after the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade landed at Da Nang, the intensity of the Vietnam War was surging. Ramping up, too, were the rules of engagement.
President Lyndon B. Johnson was reportedly quoted as saying American pilots could not bomb an outhouse without his approval. Frustrated pilots found themselves “flying into heavily defended areas on predictable flight paths that exposed them to great risk while yielding often token results,” Stuart I. Rochester wrote in “The Battle Behind Bars.”
It was in this environment that then-Capt. Harlan Page Chapman and his fellow Marines of Fighter Squadron 212 found themselves during the opening months of the war. More than 30 American aviators had already been killed or presumed missing in action, while more than a dozen were captured.
After six frustrating and challenging months, Chapman was soon to discover that Johnson’s outhouse quip was, in reality, all too real.
-Alemaster
Semper Fi, Jarhead! May God wrap you in His loving arms.
ReplyDeleteHe won't be seeing LBJ.
DeleteIf there was one major contributor to why the U.S. failed to protect South Vietnam, it was LBJ
ReplyDeleteBut a lot of money was made after LBJ got in.
DeleteWhat, you don't think that "Winning hearts and minds [with napalm]" was a viable strategy?
DeleteAnother thing we have Johnson to thank for.
ReplyDeleteYou are in my thoughts brother.
ReplyDeleteLyndon B Johnson seriously screwed over our country and the people who served during his administration, the list is too long but this is one prime example of what kinda shithead he was... Sending our guys to a " police action " without any thought of what happens to them.
ReplyDeleteHope you're rotting in hell LBJ
Rest in Peace Captain Chapman, we thank you for your sacrifices in serving our country
Semper Fi Marine
JD
It's a bird, it's a plane it's a man insane. It's my president LBJ. I hated that son of a bitch. Semper Fi JD
DeleteAny SOB who would pick his Dog up by the ears (like LBJ) has a reservation for hell in my book!
DeleteLo, there do I see my father.
ReplyDeleteLo, there do I see my mother,
and my sisters, and my brothers.
Lo, there do I see the line of my people,
Back to the beginning!
Lo, they do call to me.
They bid me take my place among them,
In the halls of Valhalla!
Where the brave may live forever!
LBJ deserves all the crap said about him, worse than what y'all saying here. But don't give a pass to McNamara. No kind words for those two.
ReplyDeleteLast night I watched a doc on USAF pilots who flew the F-105 Titled simply, Thud Pilots, it was written and produced by a Thud pilot. It is very good. Unlike other documentaries on VN this one doesn't hold back on the contempt for the aforementioned.
The book "Thud Ridge" is an excellent account of flying F-105s in Vietnam and it holds nothing back as to the evil and stupidity of the Johnson administration.
DeleteOne pilot blew up a SAM site that had waxed one of his fellows, totally against what Johnson and McNamara wanted, and he was going to get severely punished. The punishment came while the pilot was being shot out of the air by yet another SAM site.
LBJ was and always will be a fucking piece of shit. And he openly jacklighted deer on his ranch.
LBJ holds a tie with FJB for the most corrupt Son of a Bitch to ever hold the Presidency. It was with him that this country started down the long spiral of decline.
ReplyDelete