This Day in History ~ Rolling Thunder ~ Mar 2, 1965:First Rolling Thunder raid conducted…

This post is so close to home for me, actually, it is home for me. My dad was Rolling Thunder Air Force Vietnam, RIP…

A few years back I scored the music for the trailer of a featured film documentary titled “Road to Thunder” and it’s up for your viewing pleasure at IMDB.me/MichaelMulholland

Great film about the long motorcycle ride across country in honor of the fallen, MIA POW and fortunate ones still alive, riding thousands of miles on thunderous Harley’s Rolling their way to the Great Wall in Washington DC…in honor and respect of those who served and fought to pave the way for our freedoms and to free other countries from tyranny we all know we do not tolerate.

This was an exciting yet emotional experience for me being a vet and revisiting experiences through others experiences as described throughout the featured documentary film by my dear friend and colleague Jason Frizado.

Mar 2, 1965:First Rolling Thunder raid conducted…

Operation Rolling Thunder begins with more than 100 United States Air Force jet bombers striking an ammunition depot at Xom Bang, 10 miles inside North Vietnam. Simultaneously, 60 South Vietnamese Air Force propeller planes bombed the Quang Khe naval base, 65 miles north of the 17th parallel.

Six U.S. planes were downed, but only one U.S. pilot was lost. Capt. Hayden J. Lockhart, flying an F-100, was shot down and became the first Air Force pilot to be taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. Lockhart was released in 1973 when U.S. POWs were returned under provisions of the Paris Peace Accords.

The raid was the result of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision in February to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that he and his advisers had been considering for more than a year. The goal of Rolling Thunder was to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and the slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities as targets and in the spring of 1967 it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area.

The White House closely controlled Operation Rolling Thunder and President Johnson occasionally selected the targets himself. From 1965 to 1968, about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total of nearly 900 U.S. aircraft were lost during Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson halted it on October 31, 1968, under increasing domestic political pressure.

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This Week in History, Mar 2 – Mar 8

Mar 02, 1965 First Rolling Thunder raid conducted Mar 02, 1967 Kennedy proposes plan to end the war Mar 03, 1965 U.S. jets bomb Ho Chi Minh Trail Mar 03, 1971 U.S. 5th Special Forces Group withdraws Mar 04, 1968 Task Force sends memo to the president Mar 05, 1964 U.S.A.F. advisory team sent to Laos Mar 05, 1971 “Blackhorse” departs South Vietnam Mar 06, 1965 U.S. is sending Marines to South Vietnam Mar 06, 1971 Operation Lam Son 719 continues Mar 07, 1966 U.S. jets launch heaviest air raids of the war Mar 07, 1967 Republic of Korea forces operation launch Mar 07, 1972 Jets engage in aerial combat Mar 08, 1965 U.S. Marines land at Da Nang Mar 08, 1975 Thieu orders force withdrawal.