Dulles International Needs a name change. Joe, Many thanks for writing & publishing your story. Served in SAC during early fifties and proud of our commander. I hope to be delighted with more of your anecdotes. I then looked at myself to see if I was in one piece. Better than snakes or drowning in contaminated water, I thought briefly, before I was elevated again and dropped again. At this moment, I felt a great calm envelope me. This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member. Joe- God Bless you & Scotty and all others that served like ya`ll ! Fritz was Nape. Thank you for your bravery and endurance. I remember the 141 unloading POWs Welcome Home Sir. Its entirely, entirely because of you guys. But, I knew the SA-2 was a powerful weapon; 400 lbs. Were B-52 bombers used in Vietnam? In the solitude of my tiny enclosure, staring unfocused at the floor, I said aloud, Todays the day, thinking this was the last day of my life. God Bless America and her brave warriors! Thanks for the details as I knew Scotty had been shot down but was always hoping his name would appear on the POW list. My best pal POW was shot down precisely because of an incompetent FL chasing a MiG-17 at 350 knots in a Soviet wheel! And we were just below that weight when we left Danang AB, RVN from runway 17L on the 22ndof November 1966. My mom, as she promised my father she would, visited my fathers grave at the National Cemetery in Grand Prairie on Saturday, left an American Flag, which, regardless of whether or not the boy scouts or other volunteers do, as they sometimes do and sometimes dont, shes done for the previous 10 Memorial Days. April 16, 1968 : C-130A 56-0480, c/n 3088, of the 35th Tactical Airlift Squadron, crash landed at Special Forces Camp Bunard, 80 kilometers north of Bien Hoa, South Vietnam. Joe, Its a real shame but they ruined a perfectly good pair of nearly new, highly-polished USAF flying boots with zippers; they cut right through the damn zippers! I looked first into the rear-view mirrors and could see only orange flames and inky smoke. I quickly figured out that, because we were going to be late, our flight lead was cutting Alfa out and going directly to Bravo. The 1850 John Stuart Mill quote and your comment that you posted above is powerful and right on. It was great to learn about your time before FTL/FDX. I have four children- ages 34, 30, 11 and 8 and am Grandma to 3 ages 8, 8 & 5. Two were pilots, two Air Force weapon systems officers, and two Navy radar intercept officer; both awarded an aerial-kill claim for each enemy aircraft shot-down. After each plane was completed, two pilots (Call signs Perky01 and Perky02) would take the plane up for a check flight. When my feet hit the floor with my elbows on my knees at bedside, a feeling of total despair came over me. 3 crewmen were KIA. Theyd blow up in midair, before they ever got to the runway. After licking their wounds, North Vietnamese pilots again began challenging American aviators in late April, but as the fighting intensified in May, it became apparent that they would not succeed. After all that I suffered dont you dare tell me I had no business being there! While I never got above the Cessna 180 stage of flying, I hold you and your fellow pilots in the highest esteem. I hope some day that our government will find the courage to ask what happened to the missing pilots whose names or Escape and Evasion codes and authenticator numbers were photographed by U.S. satellites long after the war was overDavid Allinson(8888), Peter Matthes (GX2527), and Henry Serex (SEREX) to name a few. Many times not all returned from their missions. Was the F 14 used in Vietnam? Hes a real dope. I saw an F-4 fly low into Firebase Bastogne in January 1969 and pickle a few rounds on the guys that were over-running our base. 9 of the losses were parked aircraft struck by rockets. God bless you Joe, hearing the story was very touching. Fogleman became the only Super Sabre pilot ever rescued by riding out on a Cobra helicopter. Our intel chief Major Art Weiner briefed us on all aspects of our mission including weather and defenses. Richard Armstrong. Because the Director of Operations (DO) was leading a flight-of-four on MiG Cap hoping to shoot down a MiG. William Reeder Jr., who served two tours in Vietnam as a U.S. Army pilot, was shot down on May 9, 1972, while flying a mission in a Bell AH-1 Cobra . There were too many A-holes with rank putting the rest of us at risk up there especially RP VI. Barney. So glad that you made it back in one piece, and were able to continue flying. I wanted to wipe the blood away but my hands were tied behind my back. Thank you sir for your service. 2,197 of the losses were fixed-wing, and the remainder rotary-wing. April 26, 1968 : C-130B 60-0298, c/n 3602, of the 773d Tactical Airlift Squadron, shot down dropping load at A Loui, South Vietnam. While the Vietnamese and Chinese have a long history of ethnic combat, the Chinese were happy to limit both Russian and American military influence in SE Asia, by replacing every bullet fired by North Vietnam. Of all those shot-down pilots, the experience apparently only made one uniquely qualified to be President. I wanted to join you in 1969 after college graduation, but my eyes only qualified me as good enough for USAF navigator. American airmen shot down 196 MiGs137 by the Air Force, 59 by the Navy and the Marine Corpsand sustained 83 losses. Meadows My hats off to those who served. Owing to all the maintenance problems, we did not take off as a flight but departed single-ship and joined up on the KC-135 tanker aircraft over Thailand as a flight of three. Amazing story Mr.Crecca, I for one, am glad you are still here among us mere mortals, thank you for sharing your daunting experience, you sure went through hell for 6 years and yet had the courage to ask Nixon for another F-4 The pilot Lieutenant J. M. Krommenhoek is Missing in Action. I met and liked John Dremesi whose experience was the same as yours. There were no J-79s! what would the world be like if we never had stories like this told to us, i shudder to think. Besides your contributions in F-4s, your time supporting other unfortunates in Hanoi does you honor. Pilots lost control in low clouds during a night flare mission. Fogleman became the only Super Sabre pilot ever rescued by riding out on a Cobra helicopter. It was another scene of temporal distortion. Sir, the airplane was in a SAM break two days ago. I could see small hooches (straw huts) on the ground. I received my draft notice right after I joined the USAF. Iwo Jima. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he values above his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of men better than himself.. Only loss: 51-15565 (432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing) which crashed in Thailand 28 December 1966, both crewmen survived, Only loss: 63-13102 (5th SOS, 14th SOW) shot down 14 August 1969 near Bien Hoa, killing 1/Lt Roger Brown, Final loss: 600282 (38th ARRS) crashed Cam Ranh Bay 7 August 1969, crew rescued, Last losses: four CH-53s (68-10925, 10926, 10927, 701627, all from, C-1A 146016 (Composite Squadron Five VC-5), operational loss (non-combat) 8 August 1967, 3 passengers and 2 crew rescued, Final loss: C-1A 146054 (Carrier Air Wing 11, USS. I knew from some of the other Tigers that you had been a POW, but never heard the details of your harrowing tale. Since we were shot down well before reaching our target and also because most of the strike flights had declined to enter the target area due to decidedly unfavorable weather, my story had to deny the Vietnamese any foreknowledge of the real target. The Communistss claimed 19 B-52s shot down to date. Scotty yelled, GET OUT! With the OUT still echoing in my ears there was a BOOM!, then the air noise of the jettisoned canopy. Final loss: EC-47Q 43-48636 (361st Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, 56th SOW) shot down in Laos on the night of 04/5 45 February 1973, killing all 8 crewmen. The door gunner Bobby Harris was KIA during the shoot down. I do not think that you are a hero.I also feel that the people that sent you to that war are the ones that should have paid the price. The F-105 was one of the primary attack aircraft of the Vietnam War; over 20,000 Thunderchief sorties were flown, with 382 aircraft lost including 62 operational (non-combat) losses (out of the 833 produced). After that, I was blindfolded and transported two miles by motorcycle sidecar to another village and locked in a small building made of large stones. I later learned that this controller had served many months in Saigon. by propeller-driven A-1 Skyraiders of Attack Squadron 25 (VA-25). I have the greatest respect and admiration for you and other Vietnam POWs for your courage and what you had to endure. They would persistently be trying to attack me while the militia men unemotionally fended them off. I think there was supposed to be a moral to that story probably along the lines of smoking is always a bad idea but the way my father told the story, emphasizing how frightened the Marine was, and that he, my father, was only sitting with the other Marine to try to help him with his nerves, and to get him to calm down, well, it was obvious that this was another living, breathing, human being. This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 11:53. Gary, this was like Vietnam all over again!. I completely agree with everything Jim D. (below) writes. Nobody else made a comment like yours because you are the only a-hole on here. Takeoff in a heavily-loaded Phantom requires some explanation. Having won WWII by the application of enormous industrial power including saving the largest socialist entity in the world from the ravages of the second-largest socialist entity in the world we continued to view the world in wartime terms of us versus them and we prepared for the next war by preparing for the past war with near-total reliance on atomic weapons to win the next war. Hes my hero. I dont know that back in 1973 I was all that appreciative of the Scotty Wilsons, or even the cigarette-smoking Iwo Jima Marines, but as Ive grown and aged during the past 47 years, I cant help but feel enormous gratitude, and sorrow, for those men and women who, but for the grace of God and President Nixon, went where I didnt. Id pulled the lower ejection handle and was away from my burning Phantom. Did you know that most of the articles at Air Facts are written by readers like you? Sharing your story forward. First loss: 560937 (476th TFS, 497th TFW) shot down by enemy ground fire during CAS mission near Tri Dao, Vietnam, on 29 June 1965, pilot Capt. Hap. Scotty was probably hit by shrapnel from the missile. At first it seemed to be right below me. Thank you for your sentiments. The clouds were reported to be at 10,000 ft. All I was aware of was a short, sharp ringing sound and my white, silk parachute billowing above me. Having been a teenager in Vietnam years, I had a Vietnam map on my bedroom wall and marked bombing missions that Cronkite would report that night. I was concentrating on Scotty and my eyes were focused only on him. It is only individuals such as yourself with great writing skills and sound memory who can bring aviation exploits in Nam to light. I replied that I still had a positive lock to a radio nav-aid and if he could get us through the clouds I could get us to the target. In that instant, I realized how I would die; they were going to slice my head off. Ill never understand your sacrifice, but want to thank you for it! Of course, I had changed tacan channels nearly an hour before; I knew where we were, but I could not disclose the secret tacan base over the radio. Your comments and wisdom are much appreciated. We had been taught to respect and trust the higher-ups that won WWII, Little could we conceive that the USMC and the USAF began the conflict with almost total ignorance of what was required for this exercise in power projection. Im an alumnus of the 480th TFS myself ( USAFE, 78-80) and wish you all the best . 12,000 helicopters I looked for an escape route. This is known as temporal distortion. Phew III! Flight lead arrived and took his fuel after we were finished. 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