PFC John E. Ehrmentraut Jr. (nicknamed “The Trout”) was a Shore Party Marine, a designation for Marines who are among those who are in the first wave of an amphibious landing as well as working with helicopters to deliver material and weapons further inland. On a beachhead they establish supply dumps and handle incoming supplies. They are kin to the Navy’s Beach Masters and the Sea Bees. They are the only Marines in the Fleet Marine Force that wear red patches on their uniforms so that they will stand out and be recognized by their officers and others. PFC Ehrmentraut was assigned to B Company, 3rd Shore Party Battalion, 1st Marine Brigade, 3rd Marine Division. On the evening of April 24, 1965, Ehrmentraut was in a fighting hole near the beach in Phú Bài in Thừa Thiên Province, RVN, where his unit had come ashore. He was taking his turn providing nighttime perimeter security manning an M60 machine gun. While at his position, Ehrmentraut reportedly pulled the pin on a fragmentation grenade. When the spoon flew off, he froze. In a moment of indecisiveness, the grenade detonated in his right hand. Ehrmentraut died after receiving the brunt of the blast. A second Marine, LCPL Stanley Tieman (nicknamed “Ty”), in the fighting hole with him, was injured, knocked unconscious by the concussion of the explosion. It was speculated that Ehrmentraut may have thought he had reached for an illumination grenade, and after realizing his mistake, paused while the 5-second fuse ran down.
John is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester, New York. He is honored on the Wall at Panel 1E, line 108.
U.S. and South Vietnamese planes continue to raid bridges and ferries in North Vietnam in a concentrated effort to destroy supply routes to the South. In a raid against North Vietnam this morning, United States Air Force planes destroyed the Kom Thai Xa highway bridge on Route 111, west of Vĩnh, about 135 miles south of Hanoi. Thirty-five F-105 fighter-bombers, supported by 25 other jets, also hit a ferry area on the Vĩnh Sơn highway, where Route 7 crosses the Cổ Chiên River (Sông Cổ Chiên), near Vĩnh. About 100 tons of 750-pound bombs were dropped on the two targets. In a late-night raid, six United States B-57 jet bombers destroyed an anti-aircraft site and hit a truck convoy during a reconnaissance flight over Routes 7, 8 and 12 in southern areas of North Vietnam.
Four United States Marines were wounded in sniper attacks and crude traps. Another marine was killed by the accidental explosion of a grenade in his foxhole near Đà Nẵng. The blast wounded his companion.
Another 5,000 American ground troops will be landed in Vietnam, probably next month, to bolster airfield defenses — and, if necessary, to take the offensive against the Việt Cộng.
The United States is not ruling out the use of nuclear weapons in Asia, it was learned, but it does not plan to use them in the existing circumstance.
President Johnson does not now intend either to halt the United. States air attacks on North Vietnam or to move American combat troops into the forefront of a stepped-up anti-guerrilla war in South Vietnam. Mr. Johnson does intend to keep open his offer to enter into “unconditional discussions” in the hope that the combined pressures in North and South eventually will produce negotiations for a settlement. High Government sources list these as the ingredients of what the President calls his “three-D” policy determination, deliberation and discussion. “Determination,” in his view, requires the continuation of the attacks on North Vietnam, both to demonstrate the United States’ intention not to give up the struggle and to keep heavy military and diplomatic pressure on the Hanoi Government.
“Deliberation” requires calculated action rather than sudden escalation to meet the situation, Thus Mr. Johnson plans to build up the ability of the South Vietnamese ground forces to cope with the Việt Cộng guerrillas rather than introducing American combat units. The Administration has decided to send several thousand more troops to South Vietnam to support the build-up, a move that probably will raise the total of United States forces to about 35,000. Despite widespread speculation that many more American soldiers would soon be shipped to Vietnam, high officials here insist that no decision along these lines has been made. A further aspect of the second “D” is that the President will seek the continued restriction of air-raid targets in North Vietnam to military objectives, and to those least likely to provoke a strong response. “Discussion” remains the President’s goal, but he believes the North Vietnamese are still so sure of victory that negotiations are not immediately obtainable.
A Buddhist monk burned himself to death today at a crematory a few miles south of Saigon. The monk was discovered only after he was dead. He could not immediately be identified. On Wednesday a 16-year-old novice monk burned himself to death at Buddhist headquarters here, and the next day a 25-year-old nun tried to burn herself at the same spot but was stopped by monks.
President Johnson issues an executive order designating Vietnam a “combat area” for income-tax purposes, retroactive to 1 January 1964. President Johnson granted more than $25 million in tax relief today to members of the armed forces in the Vietnam area. He did so by issuing an Executive order designating Vietnam and adjacent waters as a combat area for income-tax purposes. The order is retroactive to January 1, 1964. Pay of enlisted men and warrant officers in combat areas is wholly exempt from taxation. For commissioned officers, $200 of each month’s pay is exempt. Under the retroactive Executive order, the exemptions are applicable to pay for all service after December 31, 1963, in Vietnam and waters extending roughly 100 miles, from the coasts of North and South Vietnam.
They also apply to pay received during any period of hospitalization resulting from service in the area. Defense Department officials estimated that about 75,000 officers and men would be immediately affected. These include 32,500 now in South Vietnam, about 18,000 assigned elsewhere after service there and roughly 25,000 in fleet units that have been in and out of Vietnamese waters since the beginning of 1964. Treasury officials estimated the initial tax savings at $25 to $50 million. The average tax benefit for a full year’s service in the area was put at $400 to $500. Anyone who had military duty in Vietnam last year is entitled to a refund on his 1964 income tax.
Communist China warned today that United States expansion of the war in Vietnam would “lead to the gates of hell.” The Peking radio repeated the Communist demand for the withdrawal of United States forces from South Vietnam, saying that peace in Indochina was possible on no other terms.
Young people supporting the Administration’s Vietnamese policy did some friendly picketing in front of the White House today and called for victory in Vietnam in leaflets handed to passers-by.
Premier Eisaku Sato has told Henry Cabot Lodge, President Johnson’s special representative, that Japan “strongly desires” further efforts by the United States Government toward a peaceful settlement of the Vietnam conflict, Government sources said today. Mr. Lodge met with Mr. Sato today after arriving from Taipei on an Asian tour aimed at winning understanding for American policies in the Vietnam conflict.
Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s chief of state, said today that there was no need to invite the United States, Thailand, or South Vietnam to the proposed conference to guarantee Cambodia’s neutrality. Prince Sihanouk said yesterday that his country would refuse to take part in any conference on Cambodia if it were convened as a pretext to discuss the Vietnamese crisis. Diplomats in the East and the West have suggested that talks on Cambodia might offer a means of bringing the Vietnam issue to a conference table. Prince Sihanouk declared that if Cambodia was to attend, the meeting would have to be limited to discussing her borders and her neutrality, which he considers threatened by the war in Vietnam. He said there was no need to invite the United States because it did not sign the 1954 Geneva agreement that created Cambodia and North and South Vietnam. Invitations to Thailand and South Vietnam, allies of the United States, would only bring the East-West conflict into the meeting, the Prince said. In any case, he added, South Vietnam’s Government “does not represent anything.”
The Dominican Civil War began when Colonel Francisco Caamaño Deñó and Manuel Ramon Montes Arache led more than 1,000 supporters of deposed Dominican Republic President Juan Bosch, in a mutiny against the right-wing junta led by Donald Reid Cabral. General Marco Rivera Cuesta, the Army Chief of Staff and Caamano’s commander, was seized by the rebels, along with key military installations. Jose Franco Pena Gomez, the civilian leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (the PRD) called for a popular uprising, and thousands of people surged into the streets of Santo Domingo. General Elias Wessin y Wessin would say later that he had warned President Reid for three weeks of a conspiracy within the Dominican Army “but he did not pay any attention to me.” Although he was aware that a coup was imminent, the U.S. Ambassador, William Tapley Bennett, Jr., had left the country the day before, and “other members of the embassy were either off on assignment or vacation.”
India charged that a Pakistan army force of at least 3,000 men supported by tanks thrust almost seven miles into India’s, western territory near the Arabian Sea before being repulsed. Indian officials charged tonight that Pakistani troops, including an infantry brigade of 3,000 men, attacked Indian positions along a 50-mile stretch of disputed border in the desolate Rann of Cutch region last night and this morning. The Pakistanis were reported to be using tanks in the area for the first time. In Karachi a Pakistani spokesman denied that tanks had been used in a new attack in the Rann of Cutch, according to Reuters. In New Delhi defense sources said the fighting was continuing Sunday, United Press International reported.
One Indian official described the situation as “very, very serious.” Another described the attack as “a Pearl Harbor” because it came while the two countries were talking about ways to avoid such clashes. But all the officials present at a specially summoned press briefing refused to term the assault an act of war. By all accounts, however, it was the most serious fighting in the Rann of Cutch since hostilities broke out near the ruined mud fort of Kanjarkot in the marsh area on April 4.
In a major attack this morning, a Pakistani force estimated as an infantry brigade of 3,000 men, supported by tanks, was said to have struck a post about six miles south of the line that India claims is the international boundary between the state of Cujart and West Pakistan. The post, described only as Point 84, is 30 miles east of Kanjarkot. According to officials, Indian troops who have taken over from the border police at Point 84 repulsed the Pakistani attack and destroyed three tanks. No casualty figure was given by either side. Elsewhere on the disputed frontier, officials said, Pakistani troops fired at Indian posts with what was called medium artillery. Shelling was reported at the Sardar Post, three miles southwest of Kanjarkot; Vigokot, six miles southeast of Kanjarkot, and Chhad Bet, 45 miles east of Kanjarkot.
President Sukarno announced the nationalization of all foreign companies in Indonesia. President Sukarno signed a decree today ordering the seizure of all foreign-owned enterprises in Indonesia. Chairul Saleh, Third Deputy Premier, said that the decree took effect immediately and that it placed all foreign enterprises “under the control and supervision” of the Indonesian Government, The decree in effect ended independent foreign investment in Indonesia, he added. The enterprises principally affected were rubber and palm oil plantations owned by Belgian, French, Swiss, and Danish interests. The plantations constituted the bulk of foreign-owned concerns in Indonesia that had not yet been seized by the Government.
Indonesia has already seized almost all British, Dutch and United States-owned enterprises. Mr. Saleh said that the decree did not spell out the details of the seizures and that these would later be decided by the Cabinet presidium. The value of the plantations affected by the decree is unknown but it is estimated to exceed $15 million. Most of the plantations, covering thousands of acres, are situated in North Sumatra and are under French and Belgian ownership. Several are in central Java. A few are apparently owned by Danish and Swiss interests.
Most attempts by Indonesians to infiltrate Malaysia have failed, Christopher Mayhew, Britain’s Minister of Defense for the Navy, said today.
The long-controversial draft declaration on the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward Jews and other non-Christians again is under convergent attack by two powerful forces — reaching up to the highest levels of the church. According to scraps of information filtering through the wall of silence imposed early this year on the issue, powerful conservative forces are attacking on doctrinal grounds the draft given preliminary approval by a huge majority of the church hierarchy in the Ecumenical Council last fall, which exonerates the Jews for the killing of Christ. At the same time, Arab diplomacy and the pressure of Catholic bishops in Arab lands have been applied steadily either to eliminate the declaration, on the ground that it would serve Israeli political ends, or so dilute its message as to make it meaningless.
The bodies of Portuguese opposition politician Humberto Delgado and his secretary Arajaryr Moreira de Campos were found in a forest near Villanueva del Fresno, Spain. Both had been kidnapped and killed on February 12.
A top Cuban diplomat and his wife have defected to the United States, denouncing Premier Fidel Castro for having turned Cuba over to the “Communists in Moscow and Peking.”
South Korean President Chung Hee Park’s Government faces a crucial political test when the controversial treaties with Japan come before the National Assembly for ratification, possibly within the next few weeks.
A group of 100,000 Armenians gathered in the Armenian SSR capital of Erevan, after the Soviet government had given a permit for official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian genocide. What started as a peaceful gathering in the Armenian capital’s Lenin Square quickly turned into a protest for recovery of Armenian lands from neighboring Turkey, and independence from the Soviet Union, giving the team of Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin their first test of managing the various nationalities. When the protests threatened to become a riot, the city’s firemen were ordered to break out fire hoses and drive the demonstrators away, and militia volunteers then moved in to clear the streets, but the Soviet Army was ordered by Moscow not to intervene.
The Pennine Way, a 267-mile (430 km) long walking trail along the Pennine hills, was officially opened, as the first National Trail in the United Kingdom. Tom Stephenson, a reporter for the Daily Herald, had suggested the walkway in 1935 after being inspired by the Appalachian Trail in the United States, and was present for the dedication.
The stalemated steel talks were resumed but little progress was made toward heading off a May 1 nationwide strike by 450,000 steelworkers. The United Steelworkers of America offered today to cancel its May 1 strike deadline for any minor steel company that agreed to accept the terms of a national agreement reached with the 11 major producers.
Vice President Humphrey stepped in at the request of Governor John J. McKeithen to help avert a potentially explosive racial situation at Bogalusa, Louisiana, this week. The efforts of the two men seem to be paying off. A team of mediators announced early today that city officials had agreed to meet with the leaders of a militant Black organization for a discussion of grievances. Although Black picketing is continuing, no major demonstrations are planned for the weekend, and the city is quiet. Neither man is talking about it, but it is known that Governor McKeithen telephoned the Vice President Thursday to ask for help.
Southern federal courts are accused of hiring discrimination and protection of segregation by the Southern Regional Council. The Federal courts in the South have remained almost lily white while serving as the chief instrument of federally ordered racial integration, according to a study just published. It places some of the blame at the door of the White House.
In a brilliantly lighted football stadium under a starless sky tonight, the Rev. Billy Graham began a crusade in Dothan, Alabama that he hopes will promote interracial understanding. An integrated crowd of 5,500 attended the rally.
After an hour of debate today, the Southern Presbyterian Church voted to keep in effect a speaking invitation this summer to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Southern Presbyterians endorsed the use of demonstrations, sit-ins and civil disobedience in the civil rights drive but rejected the idea of boycotts.
The century’s worst flood on the upper Mississippi smashed through dikes and chewed through highways, spilling into city streets and farmyards along a 200-mile path.
Long-awaited U.S. reports on sonic booms as they relate to the proposed supersonic transport were released by the Federal Aviation Agency.
Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach praised today citizens who chance being called “finks” or “stool pigeons” by reporting illegal activities to law enforcers.
President Johnson crowned his 17-year-old daughter, Luci, Queen Azalea XII at the annual azalea festival at Norfolk, Virginia.
Two children were killed, and three others seriously injured, at a shopping center in Taylor, Michigan when a carnival ride collapsed and threw them to the ground. Sharon Hawks and her brother Grant Hawks had been among the kids who climbed aboard the “Flying Comet”, a spinning ride using centrifugal force to rotate ride vehicles at a height of 10 feet (3.0 m) above the ground.
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s retirement as director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey was announced today.
Owen Vincent (Owney) Madden, whose blazing underworld career terrorized two states in the Prohibition era, died in a hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas early today. He was 73 years old.
“Comedy in Music-Opus 2” closes at John Golden NYC after 192 performances
Major League Baseball:
Houston’s Bob Aspromonte is the first to set off the Astrodome scoreboard’s home run display for its intended purpose during a 5-0 shutout of the Pirates. Vern Law is the victim. Jim Wynn adds another blast two innings later to delight the crowd. Dick Farrell scatters seven hits.
Casey Stengel wins his 1,900th game as a manager when his Amazin’ Mets score three runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat the Giants at Candlestick Park, 7-6. Danny Napoleon’s two-out, bases-loaded triple provides the winning runs.
Dean Chance hurled a six-hitter and the Los Angeles Angels downed the New York Yankees, 6–3, at Yankee Stadium.
Boston Red Sox 7, Baltimore Orioles 5
Milwaukee Braves 1, Chicago Cubs 3
St. Louis Cardinals 3, Cincinnati Reds 6
Kansas City Athletics 1, Cleveland Indians 4
Minnesota Twins 4, Detroit Tigers 7
Pittsburgh Pirates 0, Houston Astros 5
Philadelphia Phillies 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 9
California Angels 6, New York Yankees 3
New York Mets 7, San Francisco Giants 6
Chicago White Sox 6, Washington Senators 2
Born:
Mike Blowers, MLB third baseman and first baseman (New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland A’s), in Würzburg, West Germany.
Jeff Jackson, Canadian NHL left wing (Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Quebec Nordiques, Chicago Blackhawks), in Dresden, Ontario, Canada.
Died:
Louise Dresser, 86, American actress (“State Fair”, “Ship Comes In”, “Mammy”).
Owney Madden, 73, British-born American mobster, boxing promoter, and operator of the Cotton Club nightclub in Harlem.
History Diaries 