Silver Star
Awarded for actions during the Vietnam War
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 8, 1918 (amended by act of July 25, 1963), takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Specialist Fifth Class Wayne Carl Simmons (ASN: RA-11369471), United States Army, for gallantry in action while engaged in military operations against an armed hostile enemy while serving with the 57th Medical Detachment, in action on 1 April 1965, in the Republic of Vietnam. On that date, Specialist Simmons was serving as Crew Chief aboard a UH-1B helicopter ambulance participating in an air evacuation of critically wounded personnel. Upon landing, the aircraft came under intense enemy fire, and without regard for his own personal safety, Specialist Simmons leaped to the ground and raced to the wounded personnel, firing as he assisted the wounded in reaching his aircraft. As the helicopter took off, Specialist Simmons remained exposed in the open doorway, delivering suppressive fire on the enemy positions, which allowed the helicopter to make a safe departure. During the next medical evacuation his aircraft landed in the battle zone barely 20 yards from the line of fire to evacuate a seriously wounded U.S. Advisor. Although enemy fire was very heavy in the area and mortar rounds were exploding near the helicopter, Specialist Simmons dashed across the open terrain to administer aid to the wounded soldier. It was during this unselfish act that he lost his life. Specialist Simmons’ conspicuous gallantry was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Army and reflects great credit upon himself and the military service.
Wayne is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, Springfield, Massachusetts. He is honored on the Wall at Panel 1E, line 99.
During two days of National Security Council meetings, President Johnson agrees to send more U.S. ground forces to Vietnam and to allow them to take offensive action. In statements to the public at this time, no mention is made of this change to offensive assignments. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson authorized a change in the U.S. Marines’ mission in South Vietnam, a month after the first units had been sent to protect installations at Đà Nẵng from attack. For the first time, American ground troops were scheduled to move into the surrounding area and to engage Việt Cộng and North Vietnamese forces in combat.
In one of the largest battles since early February, ARVN troops clash with Việt Cộng forces 25 miles south of Đà Nẵng. South Vietnamese Government forces and the Việt Cộng were locked in battle today 25 miles south of the air base at Đà Nẵng. It was the biggest clash since the regular bombings of North Vietnam began February 7. The government troops fought all night, but broke off contact with the Communist guerrillas in the morning to regroup. By early afternoon the fighting had resumed. The government troops in the Đà Nẵng area were supported by 12 strikes by F-100 jets against gatherings of insurgents.
Fifty guerrillas’ bodies have been found so far near the landing zone where helicopters yesterday carried in elements of two government battalions, more than 500 men. The pilot of an observation plane said he had counted 200 Việt Cộng bodies in the area but his report has not been confirmed. South Vietnamese losses have been given as 9 killed, 61 wounded, and 20 missing. The troops transported by helicopter had joined the ranks of 2,000 soldiers in the Quảng Nam and Quảng Tín Province area. Intelligence estimates have put the number of “main-force,” or full-time, Việt Cộng in the area at more than 800.
Two of the three armed American helicopters downed by ground fire in the operation yesterday have been recovered. One Marine helicopter remained in the rice paddy where it had fallen. The losses were the heaviest taken by United States helicopter crews in one engagement, with two Marine officers killed and 17 Army and Marine officers and enlisted men wounded.
In an unrelated incident today, a United States helicopter gunner was killed by ground fire 20 miles west of Saigon. A second machine was forced down but the crew escaped.
A bizarre weather phenomenon has ended inconclusively an action undertaken yesterday in a forest area 25 miles northwest of Saigon. United States Air Force weathermen said the intense heat of the fires that spread over the Việt Cộng base area from incendiary bombing caused a thundershower that put out the flames early today. Major John D. Neet of the 30th Weather Squadron at the Salgon military airport explained that the heat’s intensity had caused “what we call a thermal convective condition.” About 2,000 Vietnamese left the area before the attack, by more than 70 United States Air Force planes, as a result of leaflet and loudspeaker warnings. Heavy ground fire in the area today indicated the attack had been less effective than hoped.
In response to the supplies that continue to come down from the North, a blockade of the coast is established under control of the 7th Fleet in an operation codenamed MARKET TIME. Its main assignment is to monitor the movement of junks, of which some 1,000 per day ply the coastline. Thus it is all but impossible to locate clandestine craft carrying supplies to the Việt Cộng. The U.S. Navy assigns some six picket destroyer escorts (released from duty in the North Atlantic and Pacific) to this task.
British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart told the House of Commons today that there was “more ground for hope” of negotiations on Vietnam “than even a day ago.”
Indications increased today that U Thant might be willing to undertake a direct role in trying to negotiate peace for Vietnam.
The heads of state of 17 nonaligned nations, in an appeal to the UN, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, North and South Vietnam, and several other bodies, call for a “peaceful solution through negotiations.” President Johnson will formally respond on 8 April, saying that the United States agrees with the goals but cannot negotiate until North Vietnam ceases its aggression against South Vietnam.
The Soviet press continued today its denunciation of American actions in Vietnam. But many Western diplomats thought they detected an air of embarrassment or even indecision behind the barrage of harsh words.
The Soviet Union has asked Japan to work for a peaceful solution in Vietnam but has not suggested any specific moves, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tokyo declared today.
The Chinese Embassy in Kabul denied today that Peking was obstructing Soviet efforts to send aid to North Vietnam overland through China.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejected today President Johnson’s request for authorization to use any amount of military-assistance funds that might be required for South Vietnam beyond the basic program.
Jean-Paul Sartre, who canceled a lecture tour in the United States two weeks ago for what he described as political reasons, has amplified his attacks on American policies in Vietnam and has linked them to racial upheavals in the United States.
The Turkish Cypriot leadership was understood tonight to be preparing a strongly critical response to a report on Cyprus by Galo Plaza Lasso, the United Nations mediator. The response was expected to echo the sharp criticism leveled last night by Turkey against the report, which asks for early talks between the hostile Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. Ankara charged that Mr. Plaza had exceeded his mandate by expressing opinions on the substance of the Cyprus dispute. Some reports also said Turkey had indicated that he would no longer be acceptable as mediator.
Reacting to the Ankara reports, the Greek Government said today that the continuation of Mr. Plaza as mediator would be an essential condition for solution of the Cyprus problem. A spokesman said this stand had been communicated to Secretary General U Thant.
Turkey has charged that Greece has begun a military build-up on the Dodecanese Islands off the Turkish coast, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said today.
Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker gave President Sukarno today a personal letter from President Johnson at the first of several meetings over the deteriorating relations between the United States and Indonesia.
Prime Minister Harold Wilson and President de Gaulle tomorrow will begin two days of talks aimed at restoring some warmth and meaning to one of Europe’s oldest alliances.
The visit by Premier Chou En-lai to Albania has — according to reports from Belgrade — turned into a daring Chinese-Albanian military pact, which will give China her first military foothold in Europe.
In Santiago, Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva said tonight that Chile urgently needed emergency assistance from abroad, particularly the United States, to help her overcome the suffering and destruction caused by last Sunday’s earthquake.
Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of West Germany paid tribute today to a famous predecessor — Prince Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor of the Second German Reich.
Leading businessmen in this industrial region of western Japan are impatient with the cautious policy of Premier Eisaku Sato on trade with Communist China. They want to expand trade with the mainland.
In the United Kingdom, the Greater London Council came into power, replacing the London County Council and greatly expanding the metropolitan area of the city.
A heavy force of riot policemen cut off the Lisbon University center today after 600 students held a meeting to protest against a government ban on Student’s Day.
The information media of Premier Fidel Castro’s regime gave prominence today to a statement that it was “ready to reestablish diplomatic and commercial relations with the United States.”
Kenya’s House of Representatives was thrown into an uproar today when a member demanded that the government put a stop to the smuggling of weapons into the country lest it be drawn into a revolution or be cast into an external war.
South Africa worker’s union leader and Henry Fazzie member Henry Fazzie was convicted under the Sabotage Act and sentenced to 20 years in prison on Robben Island, though his sentence was later reduced to 12 years on appeal.
Michael Chaplin, 18, son of Charlie Chaplin, and his wife and child are living on relief payments of $28 a week from the British government, the London Daily Express said.
Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), established on April 26, 1940, changed its name to Air New Zealand.
Terrorists planted three more dynamite bombs in the tense city of Birmingham, Alabama early today. One exploded and injured a Black teenager, not seriously. Unexploded time bombs large enough to have leveled a house were found outside the homes of Mayor Albert Boutwell and City Councilwoman Nina Miglionico after the explosion in the Black neighborhood. Just 11 days ago, six unexploded time bombs were found in the Black neighborhood. Governor George C. Wallace interrupted a flight to Washington at Greenville, South Carolina, this morning and flew to Birmingham to survey the damage. He offered a $5,000 reward.
Governor Wallace said that the bombers were dastardly and anti-American. He noted that bombings had occurred in other places, specifically in Chicago and Youngstown, Ohio, but, he added, “there is no excuse for it in Alabama.” “We are not used to this,” he said. “We are not going to tolerate it.” Officials and concerned citizens of the city poured money and pledges into a reward fund. It had reached $50,000 by this afternoon. The Birmingham News, in an angry editorial on page one, demanded an end to “terrorism.” It called on the leaders of the city and state to assert themselves. City police are working around the clock to find the bombers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and state investigators have entered the case.
The police believe that the terrorists are more interested in shattering the city’s nerves than in killing. All of the bombs found on March 21 were well away from their targets. The one that exploded today was in an alley several feet away from the nearest house. However, the bombs outside the officials’ houses probably would have killed everyone inside if they had exploded, the police said. Mayor Boutwell was not at home. He was in Washington on official business.
The police believe they are up against a conspiracy, its dimensions unknown but probably involving only a few persons. Today’s incident came during a relative lull in the state’s civil-rights activity. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his advisers are in Baltimore planning the next move in their fight against racial discrimination in Alabama. Birmingham has had 23 bombings or attempted bombings since 1956. The most serious was September 14, 1963, when four Black girls were killed in the dynamiting of the 16th Street Baptist Church. More than 30 bombs have been planted in the city since 1951.
Canden, Alabama Mayor Reg Albritton and a group of police officers and volunteers blocked a Black march on the Wilcox County Courthouse for the second day today but the mayor promised to meet Monday with one of the civil rights leaders.
President Johnson indicated today that he would oppose Dr. Martin Luther King’s plan for an economic boycott of Alabama if such action punishes innocent people. But the President said he could not take a public position on the civil rights leader’s proposal until he has studied it in detail. At an impromptu White House press conference, the President reported that he had heard Dr. King outline the boycott conception television last Sunday. Mr. Johnson said also that he intends to “follow with concern any developments in that area.”
Attorney General Nicholas D. Katzenbach and congressional leaders began revising the administration’s voting rights bill to broaden its coverage. Congressional leaders and Justice Department officials reached tentative agreement late today on changes in the Administration’s voting-rights bill to expand the measures coverage.
Former Senator Barry Goldwater taunted President Johnson with charting his current Vietnam course from the GOP platform of 1964.
The national unemployment rate dropped last month to its lowest point in more than seven years, the Labor Department said today.
Henry H. Fowler, the corporation lawyer from Virginia, was sworn in today as Secretary of the Treasury, to succeed Douglas Dillon.
House Republican leaders agreed to support a medical care proposal substituting a broad GOP-initiated voluntary insurance plan for the Democrat-backed Social Security proposal.
The $1.3 billion school-aid bill cleared a Senate subcommittee without change today, marking another major victory for President Johnson.
A bill to extend the manpower Training and Development Act until 1968 and liberalize its training programs and allowances was passed by the House today. The vote was 392 to 0.
The House Appropriations Committee urged that the Secret Service be given an extra $3.9 million to expand its protection of the President.
President Johnson jokingly disclosed today that, like many other Americans, he had had to borrow money to pay his current income taxes. President Johnson disclosed he recently borrowed money to help pay about $100,000 in federal income taxes.
The tiny, peppery queen of a $100 million worldwide cosmetics empire, Helena Rubinstein, died in New York. She was 92.
Commander Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Major Thomas P. Stafford are expected to be named on Monday as the flight crew for Gemini 6, the first scheduled rendezvous and docking mission in the Gemini program.
The last of the Titan I intercontinental ballistic missiles were taken off alert, as the United States began reliance on the new Atlas missiles.
Syncom 3, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, passes from civilian to military control.
An attempt to put a nuclear reactor into orbit for the first time is planned for Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
“The Man with the Golden Gun,” Ian Fleming’s thirteenth James Bond novel, was first published by Jonathan Cape, being published eight months after Ian’s death.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 890.33 (+1.28)
Born:
John “Jumbo” Elliott, College Football Hall of Fame and NFL tackle (University of Michigan; NFL Champions, Super Bowl XV-Giants, 1990; Pro Bowl, 1993; New York Giants; New York Jets), in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York.
Mark Jackson, NBA point guard (NBA All-Star 1989; Rookie of the Year 1988; New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets), and NBA head coach (Golden State Warriors), in Brooklyn, New York, New York.
Brad Berry, Canadian NHL defenseman (Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota North Stars-Dallas Stars), in Bashaw, Alberta, Canada.
Peter O’Toole, Irish pop bassist (Hothouse Flowers – “People”; “Thing Of Beauty”), in Dublin, Ireland.
Died:
Harry Crerar, 76, Canadian WWI and WWII general (First Canadian Army).
Helena Rubinstein, 92, Polish-American cosmetics entrepreneur and businesswoman.
More photographs here: https://www.facebook.com/mark.olivares.71
History Diaries 