Rolling the Thunder

"He is the greatest tactical air technician, and knows more about the operations of tactical air forces than anyone the Air Force has ever produced." That rare encomium from Air Force Chief of Staff General John P. McConnell was directed at the man who is running the air war in Viet Nam: General William Wallace Momyer, 51. As commander of the Seventh Air Force and the "coordinating authority" for all air strikes by any service, the trim, soft-spoken Momyer (pronounced Moe-meyer) is the officer responsible not only for rolling the thunder over North Viet Nam but for directing all air operations in South Viet Nam in his role as deputy commander of MACV in Saigon. An Oklahoman who was a World War II fighter ace, Momyer has done so well at his job since he arrived in Viet Nam 18 months ago that President Johnson personally asked him to extend his tour of duty for at least another six months. Only last month, Momyer won his fourth general's star, and it was he who last week greeted Johnson on his surprise trip to Thailand and acted as host for the President's Christmas visit with U.S. pilots at Korat airbase there.

Under Momyer, the number of tactical air sorties over both North and South have doubled, and the general keeps track of them all with a Mc-Namaran touch for thoroughness and detail that constantly awes his subordinates in Saigon. They insist that Momyer knows where every allied unit and road--friendly or enemy--is in South Viet Nam and where every bridge and truck park is in North Viet Nam. His pilots credit him with uncanny in sight into the best flight pattern to avoid flak on their missions north, an insight gained in part through his own participation in at least one of each of the 30 types of missions, from reconnaissance to rescue operations, that are flown over North Viet Nam. He has also made it a point to fly in every kind of U.S. aircraft in use in Asia, from little Cessna spotter planes to the fleet F-4 fighter-bomber. Only Momyer himself can call off a search-and-rescue effort for a downed U.S. pilot, and he refuses to leave his combat center until he has made that grim decision, even if it means pacing the floor through an entire night.

The Glass Cab. Momyer's operations are housed in three closely guarded, windowless buildings on the Tan Son Nhut airbase. He arrives at 7 a.m. every day to read the reports on the previous night's raids, then assembles his staff in his war conference room to plot the day's operations, using weather and intelligence reports and checking reconnaissance slides projected on an 8-ft.-by-10-ft. screen. He has authority on his own to strike at some 200 existing targets in North Viet Nam. When his intelligence turns up new ones he would like to hit, the request goes up the chain of command to CINCPAC in H waii or, if it is a particularly sensitive target, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense or even the White House. In any case, the yes or no comes back within hours. Momyer makes no secret of the fact that he would like some of the targeting restrictions lifted, notably on Haiphong harbor and the Gia Long airfield. Of the handful of remaining major taboo targets, Gia Long has been spared because of its use by commercial planes, but it has also become the last safe haven for Hanoi's remaining 14 MIGs. Momyer has little use for the upcoming holiday bombing pause, noting that last year the three-day pause for the Vietnamese New Year enabled Hanoi to move supplies equal to 47 days traffic under his raids.

At 5 p.m. the targets for the next day are chosen and orders flashed to the assigned units, whether Air Force planes based in Thailand, Marine planes south of the DMZ or Navy fighter-bombers floating on carriers in the South China Sea. To follow the course of the actual missions, Momyer moves to the plotting room for Operation Rolling Thunder (a twin room plots the tactical air strikes in South Viet Nam). There, sitting in a glass "cab" in the center, he is surrounded by 23 maps and charts that rise seven feet from the floor. Any area Momyer is interested in lights up when he presses on the glass face of the map. On each is charted in grease pencil the flight path of the attackers, any weather changes, and encounters with MIGs or missiles. If he wants to alter something, Momyer can be in touch within 60 seconds with any pilot flying anywhere in Southeast Asia.

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