Ive raised all my children to, regardless of whether one agrees with our government or not, we as U.S. citizens always owe a debt of gratitude to those who signed that contract to protect our lives with risk to theirs. It suddenly dawned on me that he would not surrender his place on the controllers list and lose the chance for his Silver Star! What was the first C-47 plane shot down in Vietnam? The man who had less than an hour ago cautioned me against premature ejection had ejected. Flight lead replied, Dogwood 2, you have the lead. So that it is crystal clear to the reader, this means that two 1stLieutenants were leading a flight of Phantoms to a JCS target on the outskirts of Hanoi referred to as Bullseye by those of us who flew over the north. Others had knives and were, to my complete surprise, cutting the clothing and equipment from my body. May God bless you. Youre the best and always will be with me when I go flying. Thank you for your bravery and endurance. Lost contact with you shortly after you were so kind to make comments at my FedEx retirement party. Charge of the Light Brigade. It was very kind of you to drive the 40 miles and spend the time to honor the memory of my brother, your fellow employee at Flying Tigers and FedEx. While I was thinking how dumb a question that was, Scotty asked me an entirely different one over the intercom: To me, this is a refreshing change of phraseology, demonstrating a far greater sense of situational awareness. God bless them! As lieutenants in our respective services, we knew only that something was wrong. In addition to all of your other talents, you write very well. When naval aviator Porter Halyburton deployed for Vietnam, he left behind his young wife and five-day-old daughter, Dabney. Knowing you were handled so badly by your bosses has to be a tough thing to take. As I learned about him, I remember more of him lecturing rather than delivering the news. The intercom was intermittent. His first pass was- G D- Chief, 200 long. I was way back in trail, tree top, plenty of time to do 2 football fields short. God Bless them all. Thank you for your sentiment. Its not from the How did you survive? The story of an immortal pilot who fought on biplanes against the Japanese in the 1930s in China, but also shot down American jets not only in the Korean but also in the Vietnam War. Days later the main cabin section washed on the beach, a short distance south of Chu Lai. Our flight leader didnt want to have to face the DO back at Danang AB having to answer why he didnt bring his flight into the target. May God continue to bless you. October 26, 1967: A-4E Skyhawk BuNo. All of a sudden, they stood me up. Following the release of all the POWs we met President Nixon at the State Department in May, 1973. I then looked at myself to see if I was in one piece. Always amazed how well you remembered the tap code. Some US fighter pilots had actually scored aerial kills in WWII, and were fighting again in the sky's over North Vietnam; Colonel Robin Olds had shot down German aircraft in aerial combat,. 1850 Lockhart is still alive, although. Scotty hadnt regained consciousness. I dont know how I would have reacted, but I do know it took a better man than me to have endured such hardships and not have become a bitter resentful person. By now it has been a long while since the conflict in Viet Nam. Our birds were the E series and had the internal 20 MM and made good Mig.CAP birds. Thanks for telling our story Joe. It was proving a good day for Navy Lt. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, and his back-seat. I later learned that this controller had served many months in Saigon. Since 366thTFW maintenance was overtaxed having to do all of its around-the-clock 24/7 functions, the flight leader had to turn down two airplanes before he found one that was combat ready and airworthy. Summer-67- Lost an engine to one but miraculously survived blast suffocation and stupidly re-started the J-79 after safely- feet wet. Republic F-105 Thunderchief. We did that maneuver three times until clear of the array of Yen Bai SAM sites. I even remember glancing around the cockpit at the throttles and the control stick. As for Mr. Fearn, Politics aside, we probably did back the wrong side. He did what he had to do, did what he was asked to do by his country. Good lives were wasted for what? Day after day intel would ask us to listen up for Buick 4, or Chevy 4, or whoever Number 4 who had been shot down while lead worked on getting his Mig. Sad to hear that your Dad didnt tell you much about his missions. Our brand-new LtCol had dreams of a DFC or Silver Star, so we drove 250 miles or so North, with marginal weather at Chu Lai, to volunteer our (his) effort. They fixed it. 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. The Republic of Vietnam lost 1,018 aircraft and helicopters from January 1964 to September 1973. I am proud of you Joe and Scotty for your service and to be part of a community which recognises and should be proud of your example. I flew the airplane to a point in space below the beautiful Stratotanker where I judged the contact position to be. The ONLY bright spot is that so much sacrifice led to a new generation of officers who learned that the half-assed politically-correct application of military power accomplished nothing. Every year on the 18th of December I start an eleven day ritual of emails to the Vietnam air warriors on the anniversary of the first night of Operation Linebacker II lest we forget the courage and sacrifices of all those who risked all from that first night until the 29th both tactical air and especially the B-52 crews. Muhammad Mahmood Alam was a Pakistani Air Force jet fighter pilot in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. I was falling towards the Earth and still attached to my Martin-Baker (made in England) ejection seat below a four-foot drogue chute to stabilize my rapid descent. Spooky came in after that and made a few passes. Ha! Section leader had one Dud flash by just as we started to Split S from Control Warning. Thank you Sir for your service. Upon arrival at the Hoa Lo prison, I was placed in a dimly-lit room with light green, uneven walls. No one shot at him. On July 24, 1965, an SA-2 shot down an Air Force F-4C, the first of 110 USAF aircraft lost to SAMs in Southeast Asia. In fact, there is no way you may be honored equal to what you gave. It was the determination of President Richard M. Nixon to mount Operation Linebacker II, sending B-52s to attack the capital city of Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong, forcing the communists back to the peace conference in Paris that resulted in the end of the Vietnam War and the release of the prisoners-of-war. It is hard to imagine just surviving. How many a4 Skyhawks were shot down in Vietnam? In burner, diving out of 20, didnt take long to head toward So China Sea. Takeoff in a heavily-loaded Phantom requires some explanation. Rescued Misty Pilots . bombs and eight Air-to-Air Missiles while I inspected the Phantom. Its a tough story to take. I thought to myself, Im dead. I just didnt know what the moment of death would be like. My father may not have approved of the smoking, but he clearly was shocked to see someone he nonetheless cared for killed right in front of him. The United States loses its first B-52 of the war. Scotty Wilson and I were classmates in Pilot Training at Willie Air Patch, Class 64-C, Raindance and Schatzi. Scotty preflighted the weapons: six-M117, 750 lb. Pair of scanning Navy A-6s. The lone horse jumped the fence and hadnt been seen. You were a great morale boost when we needed it the most. I am grateful to him for that, beyond measure. 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. Have not seen him since 1962. 1st Lieutenant Scotty Wilson, the best stick in [the squadron].. After each plane was completed, two pilots (Call signs Perky01 and Perky02) would take the plane up for a check flight. Final loss: C-130E 72-1297 (314th TAW) destroyed by rocket fire at Tan Son Nhut AB on 28 April 1975. You and your fellow POWs were and are the best of this nation. Im still honored to have flown a 10 day trip with you around Asia with FedEx. Thank you for your expressions of gratitude, sir. A SAM damn near got me and another my section leader. I confirmed this by dialing in Bravos coordinates and the needle pointed straight ahead. We accomplished the weapons checklist just as we entered enemy territory: Centerline station, Bombs ripple, Intervalometer set, Master Arm. The former fighter pilot, who was shot down over Vietnam in 1967, went on: I am proud to call Joe a friend and to have been a colleague of his at FTL and FedEx. Youd make a grand Socialist. We were to be a flight of four F-4C Phantoms. By that point the airflow over the isoclinic horizontal stabilizer was sufficient to start the nose up. Black Hills just changed So. You also draw a conclusion that isnt at all clear-cut, which is why no one else has commented on it. I imagined the instrument of death: a bullet, a knife, a shovel, hammer, pick, axe At that moment, I felt a long, cool piece of steel slide between my throat and my helmet strap. Pavlovs Dog reaction to his Cmon Back, Chief, I got em spotted. (Im a Sioux Indian, Born on a Dakota Rez.) I still know where the CB is. 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. In total, the United States military lost in Vietnam almost 10,000 aircraft, helicopters and UAVs (3,744 planes,[3] 5,607 helicopters[2] and 578 UAVs[1] ). 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. God Bless you F-4 drivers! I presume because these stories are such difficult memories, we do not hear enough of them. Reading yours was dismal, doom and gloom. On 3 January 1969 Light Attack Squadron Four (VAL-4) was commissioned at NAS North Island, California and after an intense period of training was transferred to Vietnam. So Scotty did the same check with a roll to the right with the same result. At 10,000 ft, the automatic man-seat separation features operated exactly as advertised. Subconsciously I probably realized I was sitting alone in the back seat of a burning airplane. !Cheers my friend. But, knowing this might be my only chance to talk before the fun and games began anew, I concocted a mission scenario that I hoped would be accepted as truth. 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