Thursday, December 29, 2005

Red Chinese Get Pasted on Own Territory by Former UTEP Student!

"Air Force Maj. Kenneth H. Bell, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss B. Bell, 1137 Baltimore Drive, graduated from El Paso High School, and attended the University of Texas at El Paso."

This we read on page 178 of the fascinating book, 100 Missions North, by Kenneth H. Bell, New York: Brassey's(US), 1993.

Pages 145, 146: Day after Christmas, 1966.

"Our first mission after the [holiday] pause was directed against targets in Route Package Five northwest of Hanoi.

"Our flight was assigned to bomb a railroad bridge over the headwaters of the Red River just south of Lao Cai on the Chinese border. The target was close enough to Red China to warrant extraordinary care to avoid navigation errors. A dispute with Hanoi was one thing, but incurring the wrath of Peking was quite another -- the analysts in Washington would be livid.

"We intercepted the Red River north of Yen Bai and turned northwest toward Lao Cai.

"I glanced down at my Doppler. Damn! We were only 10 miles short of the 23d parallel and [already] across the Chinese border. I started to say something [to his flight leader] but didn't, hoping that my Doppler was in error.

"We rolled in on a short railroad bridge spanning the narrow gorge below us. Ours bombs hit their mark, the bridge dropped, and we left quietly and unceremoniously. We didn't encounter any defenses but I felt like Chairman Mao was looking over my shoulder.

"We held our breath for a couple of days, waiting for the big Red shoe to drop. But apparently the Chinese government just chose to not make an issue of it. In any case, the bridge in China was my last mission flown in 1966 -- the next day was New Year's Eve."

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