Gull One Down

    
At 0746 Zulu (Z) (14:46 p.m.) on 25 February 1966, a surface-to-air missile (SAM) struck and crippled RB-66C serial 54-0457 "ËœGull One’. The engagement occurred 10 miles northwest of Vinh, 
North Vietnam, while heading 270 degrees at 28,000 feet. The following best-case scenario details 
the mission and "accidental" rescue of its crew.  

     In 1965, continued communist attacks against U.S. troops and facilities in the Republic of South Vietnam forced president Lyndon Johnson to order a retaliatory bombing offensive against enemy targets in the southern panhandle of North Vietnam. The air strikes were directed at fuel depots, ammunition dumps, railroads, and highway supply routes within a narrow corridor between the Demilitarized Zone to a demarcation line below Vinh. Johnson refused unrestricted bombing and imposed constraints on targets attacked. On February 25, he authorized Operation ROLLING THUNDER to forcefully persuade Hanoi to halt its
insurgency.
     The air strikes began March 2 and continued until May 8, when the president ordered a bombing halt to offer Hanoi truce terms. However, communist attacks killing U.S. troops continued unabated. On May 13, 1965, he resumed the bombing
attacks.
     President Johnson opposed halting further air strikes without a reciprocal move by the communists to decrease attacks. He therefore pledged to withdraw U.S. troops within six months if North Vietnam withdrew its troops and ceased infiltration of South
Vietnam.
     Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, believed, "…the previous bombing pause too short and too hastily arranged to be effective. The conditions
t
. . . .