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Thud Pilots (2018)
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Fighter pilot UHF radio transmissions Ready to defend the free world It was called the world's most powerful one man airplane Setting a world record of 1,216 miles per hour in 1959, The THUD was the largest single seat, single engine combat aircraft in history It could exceed the speed of sound at sea level and reach twice that speed at high altitude weighing in at approximately 25 tons. Entering the service in 1958, the F-105 represented Americas advances in applied science and engineering. Named Thunderchief, this technological marvel could deliver a greater bomb load than American heavy bombers used in WWII My name is Hank Goetz and I flew the F-105 at Bitburg, Germany, in the 53rd Tactical Fighter Squadron where our primary mission was one way nuclear alert My first introduction to the Thud was in 1961. Just loved it from the moment I saw it, of course everybody wanted to get their hands on it and fly it It's unique design was tailor made for nuclear delivery Carrying a single nuclear weapon internally, the high speed low altitude penetration guaranteed its delivery deep into the threat NEWS REPORTER VOICE The Thundercheif is capable. Yet everyone hopes it never has to perform the mission for it was designed The growing geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and the Communist Bloc countries were viewed as a clear and present danger The F-105 was the deterrence to that threat and neither the Soviets nor China had anything comparable. The missions we sat were one way nuclear missions. Headquarters decided that since we were so close the the East German border, that, if we were lucky enough to get off in the 15 minutes that they said we all had to get off, chances are the bases wouldn't be there much longer. So there was no reason to plan return fuel because the bases probably werent going to be there. So everything was one-way missions. Enough fuel to get to your target, deliver the weapon and then get out to what they called a safe zone, where we told there would be people there that might help us. I always figured the safe zone it was someone elses target and it probably was. We had these little kits that they gave us when we went on alert pad. We used to go on for 24 hours. but these little kits they had everything from maps, to gold coins, and a bunch of other stuff, of course your target material, and everything else but it was probably going to be useless I didnt think my safe zone was gonna be very safe when I got there if I got there In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis sprung up JFK fade in - go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. This nation is opposed to war. Hank - And the brass over in Europe decided that due to that blockade, that the Russians would probably start harassing our airplanes going in and out of the Berlin corridor. And so, in anticipation of them, the Russians, harassing airplanes or causing some trouble, they took my particular squadron and we downloaded the nuclear weapons and uploaded sidewinders. And instead of Victor alert, which was 15 nuclear, we set Zulu alert, off the end of the runway, sitting in the cockpit with guns and sidewinders. Just in case something happened, we were never told what we were allowed to do if we could ever get airborne. After a few days of that, everything kind of cooled off and we went back to normal. The situation had resolved itself. Thud pilots would soon realize their primary mission was about to change, and the F-105 would be forever etched in history. A red storm was rising on the horizon. Far off, in the once French colony of Indochina. First, the United States only provided limited air operations in South Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese army forces against Viet Cong insurgency. I flew L-19s on the Mekong Delta in 1962. I probably got 50 missions, but you couldn't call it combat because we weren't in battle so I forget what you called it, but we would fly low enough that were were looking in the doors of the huts. And then I remember a guy came running out and he's pointing a rifle at me and hes tracking and the gun, and I can see it jump...oooh, and it didn't hit. He missed. So we would go back and get a ranger company of about 100 irregular, some of them were Chinese, some of them were Vietnamese, and go back up and kill them all I remember one night they set off grenade next to this two story hotel I was in, in Can Tho, and so I ran down. We all carried guns. And uh... There was a toddler, lying on the ground, just a baby. I picked him up. And he didn't move but his mouth kept opening and closing. I ran out into the street, and there was a taxi, I said, "We're going to the hospital" and he said, he's not gonna get involved. I had a gun. So he got involved. We went to the hospital and I delivered the little kid but that was it. So I was there for flying the L-19. And then we went back in '64 and '65 for TDY bombing and then I went back in '67, '68 for the 100 missions. Soon, the U.S. resolve to contain Communist expansionism would be tested by relying upon gallant Thud pilots. Given their unchallenged ability and capacity to carry a 14 thousand pound weapons load, the Thud was sent to be the primary aircraft to deliver the heavy bomb loads to the targets in North Vietnam. On March 2nd, 1965, the United States launched Operation Rolling Thunder. It was no surprise it was code name Rolling Thunder. After all, the Thunderchief operating out of bases in Thailand flew 75% of all Air Force bombing missions during this campaign. This marked the first sustained American offensive on North Vietnam and signaled a major expansion of U.S. involvement in the war. Voice of LBJ on the phone: We're off to bombing these people, and over that hurdle. And I don't think anything is going to be as bad as losing, and I don't see anyway of wining. The massive bombardment was intended to only last six to eight weeks and bring North Vietnam's Communist regime to it's knees. It didn't. As you know, we have lost about 500 aircraft. Attacking lines of communication to other targets in North Vietnam Hi, my name is John Casper. I was fortunate enough to fly the 105, the Thud. It was the greatest airplane I've ever flown and guys ask me, they say, "Well what's your favorite airplane," and I go, "Well, it's the 105," and they'll say, "Why," and I say, "It's the airplane I went to war in." And it was a delight to fly. And I might add, I managed to fly the F-5, the F-4 for a little while. I flew the A-10 for a long time. I flew the F-16. The last thing I flew in the Air Force was the F-15. And of all of those airplanes, and it had a lot more capability than the Thud, the 16 and the 15. The Thud was still the jet that I really loved flying. So there I was, 23 years old, a jet fighter pilot and my first assignment was Korat Air Base, Thailand to fly combat. So that was my initial training. We got to Korat and lieutenants were in short supply, I found out. Most of the reason was, everybody was busy getting shot down. And little did I know that I was going to get to do it not once, but twice. I mean by doing it, I mean getting shot down. On my eighth mission, we were up basically trying to drop bombs singly into a cave in southern North Vietnam. When all of a sudden somebody yelled that they were shooting at us, and the next thing I heard was a big explosion, fire lights came on, all the warning lights came on, and shortly there after, the airplane basically started going end over end on me. So I ejected. And the funny part about the ejection was, about two days before, one of the lieutenants in the squadron had gotten shot down and he said when he ejected, when the canopy came off prior to the seat firing, he said, holy cow you can really see good with the canopy gone. Funnily enough, that's exactly what went through my head when the canopy came off and it's just micro seconds from the canopy leaving til the seat fires, but that went through my mind. Not I'm in trouble their made at me, we just dropped bombs on them, I said, I can really see well out of this airplane. So what was I worried about, was I worried about the people on the ground that we just dropped bombs on, no I was trying to remember, do I put my legs together when I go into the trees or do I cross my legs. Cause the last thing I wanted to do was split a tree branch right in my crotch. Well I managed to come down through the trees, I got hung up for a little bit, and then broke free and hit the ground. Doing so I managed to bite my tongue, so I had blood all over me. But I wasn't hurt at all. For that one, it lasted about three and a half hours I was on the ground.I could hear people looking for me Fortunately enough I went and hid. I remember my flight lead talking to me right after I got on the ground and he said, "We gotta go to the tanker the rescue forces are coming, stay calm, and call us in an hour." So I waited what I thought was an hour, he came up on the radio, and he said, "That's five minutes. You need to call us in another 55 minutes." In training they tell you when a the tree penetrator comes down, do not touch it til it hits the ground. So what did the lieutenant do? Well, I had to try to jump on it before it hit the ground. Due to static electricity, it knocked me right on my butt. I mean it was incredible. So I finally got in it, got strapped in the tree penetrator, and tell them Im on the hoist you can haul me out. Well, about that time, as Im coming up through the trees, the helicopter had some kind of a problem and he had to break his hover and start going. So he dragged me through the treetops for about a quarter mile. As far as I was concerned, he could have dragged me all the way back to Thailand. When they got me on the chopper, finally, and then the next problem they had was, they're trying to leave, and I'm trying to hug and kiss everybody in the helicopter. Which is a common thing for guys whove been rescued. So they finally got me to settle down, gave me an airline miniature booze, of some kind, which they carry and dropped me off at another base in Thailand for the evening. Believe it or not, the next day after the flight surgeon looked at me, I was back in the the airplane, flying in the exact same area I went down the day before. So they didnt give me any rest at all. They said, you're good to go. I felt like there was nothing in that airplane that I couldn't get out of. It could pull all the G's you could pull, it could run as fast as you could run it, it was just a good airplane. And, you looked good on the ladder. It's been said that a dog is the only thing on earth that will love a fighter pilot more than a fighter pilot loves himself. In 1966, after tours to Takhli, Major Merrill Ray Lewis loaded up man's best friend on a C-130 to accompany him on another tour at Korat. He'd raised Roscoe as a pup, and had named him after his friend, Captain Roscoe Anderson, who'd been killed earlier in an F-105. Roscoe never left Ray Lewis's side, would sit and wait for his return when he flew off on his missions up north. One day, Major Merrill Ray Lewis did not return, and Roscoe nearly died from a broken heart. He wouldn't eat, and just sat, waiting for him to return. Major Merrill Ray Lewis was declared missing in action, and soon the 34th tactical fighter squadron adopted Roscoe Or maybe it was the other way around. Roscoe, now the official mascot, quickly rose to the honorary rank of colonel. And pretty much owned Korat Air Force Base including the officers club, and mission briefs. He had his own chair, next to the Wing Commander, where Thud pilots would observe Roscoe's response to the brief. If he instinctively sat up, poised and alert, the pilots braced themselves for what awaited them over the target. If he was asleep or bored, the mission was gonna be a piece of cake. In 1975, Roscoe died in one of his favorite spots, the Korat Officers Club. I'm Giles Gainer, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, who've been retired about 42...3 years ago. The F-105 was the greatest airplane in the world. When... we first had the missions going up North Vietnam, we were not allowed to bomb half the targets that we ended up getting later. But we could go to the air fields and bomb them, we couldn't go to forts and bomb them. There wasn't hardly anything we could drop bombs on except maybe a a bridge. And then every time they said to drop the bridge you could see on the side of the bridge there was a road already taken care of. They had already had every one of them worked around. The fear of the Soviet Union and China entering the war paralyzed the U.S. military. For U.S. pilots, compounding this threat were the insane rules of engagement and targeting decisions coming directly out of Washington The skies over North Vietnam became a shooting gallery, with the hunters becoming the hunted. I'm Gary Barnhill. I flew the Thud out of the 562nd Tactical Fighter Squadron at Takhli, Thailand in 1965. My tour of bombing missions in North Vietnam was the last half last half of 1965. And at that time we could not touch the SAMs. We saw the SAMs being unloaded in Haiphong. We saw them being set up, we had to over fly them we couldn't touch em. Then when they finally proliferated, and were all over the place, then they said, oh, okay now you can get the SAMs. So that was the biggie. We had to over fly the MiG bases, we saw them down there. We couldnt touch them. We should have bombed their air fields. Those two things cost us dearly, later on. Contrary to the skies over Berlin, Tokyo, and even Korea, the battle space over North Vietnam was nothing like anyone had ever experienced in aerial warfare. For the target planners, North Vietnam was divided up into six sectors, which they titled Route Packages. The impregnable Route Pack Six soon became second only to Moscow, in anti aircraft defense. The 1000 to 1100 mile round trip required the Thuds to be refueled airborne by KC-135 tankers, prior to entering their intended intended route pack. At designated tracks, over northeastern Thailand and Laos, Thud pilots rendezvoused with their flying gas stations to get the fuel needed to strike their targets deep into North Vietnam. Sometimes it proved deadly Our targets up in North Vietnam were about 7-800 miles away from our base in Thailand. So we needed to get on a tanker every single mission. This day, I was Dodge 2. I was tucked under the tanker taking on fuel at a very high rate. The wing man, Dodge 3, John Bets was waiting to get on and he called out in a very authoritative voice, "Dodge 2, you're gushing fuel, you're gushing, back off, back off, you're on fire, eject, eject, eject!" I backed off. I punched out, it's what we call ejection. What had happened was the tanker which is pumping in fuel very high rate automatic shutoff valve didn't work, and so it ruptured the internal tanks and they vaporized around the body of the 105, that went into the engine and it ... all that fuel blew up. That fuel that was vaporized had been sucked into the engine. A jet engine is just a suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Anyway, the time from being on the tanker to the aircraft blowing up into two big fireballs was six seconds. And John Bets, who saw the whole thing, reckoned that I beat the explosion by one second So I went from going about 425 miles an hour over the ground to, bam, zero. Opening shock. Everything opened automatically. I now find myself three miles above the ground, 14,000 feet, hanging in a parachute. My first reaction was, was, "I can't believe this is happening to me, this is supposed to happen to the other guy." It was about a ten minute ride down from 14,000 feet and awaiting me was a menacing forest. In fact, one pilot had been impaled on a tree limb in the area of his testicles, landing in that forest. The parachute is not like what you see in the movies where they guide it around. The parachute is stable. It's literally like riding the elevator down, you're just along for the ride. You can not steer it. Yet, I needed to find an open spot, there were a few, in the trees, to land safely. We were taught in a lecture in survival school that if you take the little hook shaped knife, which you have in a pocket, and you reach back here and you cut these risers, and you cut these risers, one of your panels will blow, and you'll get a little bit of momentum, and you can steer the shoot modestly. Im hanging in the chute. I look down at that menacing forest. I take the knife, and I cut the risers. With the risers cut, I now had a little bit of steerage and I was able to find a spot in the forest and basically land on my feet, uneventfully. So now Im on the ground, the other members of the flight had aborted their mission and they were now directing a a helicopter from Thailand to come and pick me up. But they got low on fuel and so the Dodge leader said, we're Bingo fuel, we're out of here, but you're golden. The helicopter is inbound, and he's reading your emergency beacon from the little hand radio, so you're okay buddy, see ya. So great news, the chopper is inbound, he's reading my emergency beacon, but what the heck. I thought I would have a little fun. In the survival vest, we had smoke bombs, we had roman candle kind of flares. So just for fun, I shot all this stuff off. Big orange smoke bloom, whatever, the helicopter came in, he landed, I jumped in we shuttered, we took off. I learned later, he'd had radio failure. He couldnt find me. And the only way he found me was that little Fourth of July display I was putting on down there. So we landed back at Naked Fanny, Nakhon Phanom, which we had a hard time pronouncing, we called it Naked Fanny. I was rushed off the meet some General, and then after I got released, I didn't get a chance to thank the helicopter crew. There were 183,000 aerial refueling in the Vietnam war. I was the only guy that blew up on a tanker. So now I'm a TWA copilot. We're on a layover in Philadelphia. I'm having breakfast with the flight engineer, who I didnt have a a chance to talk to earlier in the day, and he asked me, "What did you fly in the Air Force," and I told him, "Thuds." He said, "You flew Thuds?" He said, "I was a helicopter pilot." I rescued five Thud pilots He said, "There was this one crazy guy that blew up on a tanker one second before it exploded. This was Bill Worstrum, the pilot that rescued me. Air refueling was an integral part of the missions up north. The KC-135 crews were indispensable to the Thud, and on many occasions enabled pilots to return home safely. Due to the fortified air defenses within North Vietnam, KC-135's would have to penetrate into North Vietnamese air space to rescue Thuds short on fuel or suffering from battle damage. Technology was changing aerial warfare. radar controlled antiaircraft artillery, new MiG fighters, and Surfaced Air Missiles known as SAMs made it lethal. Soviet Union and China ensured the North Vietnamese had one of the most sophisticated air defense systems possible in the world. It was effective. North Vietnam shot down over 2500 U.S. aircraft On April 4th, 1965, the first Thud pilots of the war were killed in action at the vital target Thanh Ha Bridge, known as Dragons Jaw. The road and rail bridge was a strategic passage for supplies and reinforcement for the Viet Kong. Losing three aircraft at Dragons Jaw was an ominous indication to what lay ahead for the Thud pilots. It was clear it was going to be politically fought. The first Thud pilots killed in action were a result of MiG's and lay at the feet of Washington's nonsensical policies, which gave the MiG's free reign. Their irrational and downright dangerous orders, that all air bases were prohibited targets, meant the MiG's could only be destroyed in the air. News Reporter- They're saying our failure to bomb the North Vietnamese airfields are costing you hundreds of planes and hundreds of airmen Its based on our desire to avoid widening the war. We seek to obtain our political objective, which is a very limited objective, the smallest possible cost of American lives. We think the present tactics are best suited to those two objectives. It quickly became evident American airmen would be nothing more than sacrificial pawns in a massive political chess game between the U.S. and two Communist super powers. Crucial targets that would have ceased North Vietnam's ability to wage war were deemed off limits by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. McNamara exacerbated the situation even further when he began to identify areas by 10 and 30 mile circles of prohibited and restricted areas of operations. North Vietnamese used the rings as sanctuary. Placing deadly antiaircraft weapons to shoot down Americans right within the edge of the circles. There were so many things at the ROE in that show that made absolutely no sense. And the guy that invented that POD formation should be executed. The idea of putting 16 airplanes together and then slowly trolling across at 18,000 feet with all kinds of stuff shooting at you, MiGs coming through missiles going through the formation, and you had to sit there. But I remember trying to change the tactics. I was a Captain and the Colonel said, "You're crazy. These tactics were written in blood and we're not changing them." So we go in and right away MiG 21's come out of the Chinese buffer zone, nail one of the F-4s, blow into our formation, nail one of the CBU carriers, the other guys dump CBUs the Weasels under the flight, he gets hit by a CBU and kills the guy in the back seat. Only two of us made it to the target. And it was the new Wing Commander, the other two had been shot down. And I don't know what happened to him on the mission but, a week later he died of a heart attack. So it was just a bad idea, But the idea that you got a spot you can't go into then you got targets you cant hit, even though you see guys coming up to get you. The whole thing was a mess. I guess the thing that's the scariest, it was one of those stupid missions. We're passing Gia Lam Airfield going to the Halong Bay storage area all the way across the delta and the missiles are just... there must have been a dozen in the air, they're just blowing through the formation right and left. I'm number four in the lead flight, so I'm stacked high and number two on the second flight is next to me, and he keeps moving in. I'm watching him, I'm watching him. But I'm also looking down at the ground and there's a gun site. It looked like a ring of fire. Every time that thing fired, there was a big ring of fire on the ground and there would be a delay, then all explosions in the formation, I thought, I'm getting that guy on the way out. So about that time, I'm watching this missile come up at 10 o'clock and I think, uh-oh that looks like me. So I pushed over, I went down maybe 1000 feet, and it didnt change. So I pull back in formation and it's still coming. But as it went under, I rolled and it went under me and when I rolled back it hit the guy next to me. And it was an enormous fire ball Bigger than the airplane and I thought, wow, I didn't know it would be that big. But pretty soon the airplane comes out still looking like a 105. The wings are still on it But pretty soon the nose dropped, and he was gone. And it was interesting, he was one of those there were a few guys like this, that knew they were gonna die. Just scared to death, but they went. They gritted their teeth, they stepped to that airplane, and this guy was one. He knew he was gonna die and that was the day he died. So anyhow, that mission I always used 60 degree dive and Id release at Mach 1 and 6000 feet. And then full back stick. And I figured dropping at Mach 1, the bombs would be subsonic, by the time they got to the ground, the guide said they might not go off, if they were supersonic. So I didn't know. So I'm full back stick and I can see the wings curl way up on the airplane. And I say, well Im sure it wasn't oh, it was as hard as I could pull, And then a couple jinks score the bombs, now I lowered the nose and lit the wick and I'm at one point two six. And I'm headed for Gia Lam Airfield cause I know what I want to do. I got the gun armed, sites all set and it was on the east side of Gia Lam, so I rolled over, pulled in, max power. I must have been one point two, one point three. And I'm gonna empty the gun. Now I know they said don't fire for 600, but I figured, if I fired them all, what could happen. So I'm laying on the trigger, and it just, imagine this, full power, burner going everything's roaring, the guns barking out 100 rounds a second, and suddenly there is this absolutely enormous explosion. All the panel lights up, the nose pitches way up and hard left. And that was probably just me jerking on the stick. Unfortunately this is when I got on the radio and said I'm hit. And I shouldn't had said a thing because now I'm coming around, I'm over Hanoi thinking, I've got a crippled bird, but the air turbine motor restarts. I'm going, wow. So, the generator restarts. Pretty soon everything's back on, I'm back in burner, lowered the nose, kicked it up to Mach 1 Im headed out. And I get on the tanker, the other guys say, "what are you doing here? laughing I said I don't want to talk about it. laughing The Rolling Thunder campaign now in it's second year had reached a new phase. In 1966, with no hint of diplomatic progress, President Johnson began to take the gloves off. The first petroleum oil and lubrication storage site four miles from Hanoi was cleared to strike. Thud losses continued to mount to levels where pilots began to wonder if they were strapping into their cockpit or their coffin. Over 100 Thud Pilots would spend close to seven years in nocuous Vietnamese prisons. My name is Murphy Neil Jones. I'm retired Air Force Colonel. In 1966, I volunteered to go back TDY and finish up my 100 missions, and on June 29th, 1966, I was one of the handful of us that were selected to hit Hanoi for the first time and we had bombed all over North Vietnam for all those years, but on this particular day, President Johnson had personally approved an attack within the 30 mile radius of Hanoi, and our target that day was the Hanoi POL. There were 24 F-105s taking part in this raid. I happened to be in the last flight, flying the number two position that day and we were carrying eight 750 pound bombs. When we crossed into North Vietnam from Laos in the last 50 miles in, it was nothing but anti aircraft fire and suddenly I took a direct hit just in front of the cockpit. I was in a slight right bank and the round hit just under my feet coming up into the cockpit. The whole bottom of the airplane disappeared and I squeezed the triggers and went through the canopy, parachute opened. I never swung. I hit the ground and about 100 yards away were about 30 North Vietnamese soldiers with AK-47s running toward me. Pull my trusty 45 automatic that I had on my right hip and looked down to my left side and my arm was completely broken about three inches below the the shoulder. Shoulder was dislocated and I cocked it leveled down on him and when I did that, they all dropped on the ground and level their AKs towards me and I guess at that point I decided that I wasn't John Wayne Raised my hand over my head of course couldn't raise the left one. One of the other soldiers came running up and grabbed the left arm and he put it in a hammerlock. I'm a big guy and I was in a lot better shape back in those days, having played football, played center and linebacker at Tulane. And I hit this guy harder than I've ever hit anybody in my life and I shattered his face. They put a rope around my neck. They stripped me of all my clothes, left me standing in a pair of white under shorts and a white tee shirt. Nobody spoke English. As it turned out, I had six broken vertebra, both my ACLs and my knees were knees were torn, shrapnel on both legs, dislocated shoulder with a broken arm and lots of cuts and bruises. That time I said, "I'm badly injured." He said later, "What is your name?" I gave that to him. He said, "What is your rank?" I said, "Captain." Then he said, "What bases did you take off from?" I said, "I can't tell you that. I can only give you my name, rank, serial number, date of birth" And they grabbed the broken arm dragged me out in the middle of the floor and when they did that, they least relocated the shoulder put the arm in a hammerlock, tied my ankles tightly with ropes, put my arms behind my back tied the wrists very tight with ropes. Then pull the elbows together and tied at the elbows till the elbows till touching and then they put another rope but from the ankles up to the rope that was around the elbows and pull me up backwards, and they started kicking and beating. This went on, I'm guessing two or three hours. They untied my arms, led me outside with a rope around my neck made me kneel on the ground. One of the soldiers walked up behind me and he stuck his rifle to the back of our head, stood there a couple seconds and pulled the trigger on the empty chamber, now what do you think when you think you're going to die? I really didn't care at that point. I was hurting so bad. This is over about five hours And then I said, "You know yeah they're not going to kill me?" But when I heard the click, the funniest thought went in my went through my mind. I said, "damn, that's a slow bullet." I didn't know whether I was dead or just waiting for something to to feel. And then three photographers came out of the building, took some pictures and movies of me there, took me back inside afterwards retied the arms, the same way, retied or put a blindfold on me this time they swung me up into the back of the truck. I really hurt when I came down on the broken arm and we will take about an hour ride through part of Hanoi that was filled with a Vietnamese that lived there, throwing bricks, rocks, whatever they could. We ended up at the International House where they're having this huge press conference. They kept me out in kind of a court yard, and I hadn't had anything to drink since I had been shot down and I was thirsty, and I said, "I need some water, and he said "later." And I said, "I'm not going anywhere until I get some water." Well, I ended up getting a large glass of water with ice in it, which I drank and that would be the last water for two days, and then they took me in. My thoughts were, don't embarrass my country. I felt that I had already failed by giving them any information whatsoever and all it was was name, rank and so forth, but I just felt like I had let my country down and I wasn't gonna do it in front of these cameras. So, I walked in, stood up as straight as I could and saluted, and I guess this film was later used and our jungle survival school in the Philippines and they were, people that saw it, were told as they see this is the way you should conduct yourself even the Vietnamese appreciate military bearing. Well, that wasn't true because I had the devil beat out of me that night and for the next 10 days at the Hanoi Hilton. On the ninth day, I really broke. I gave up totally physically, spiritually, mentally because I finally signed the confession they put it in front of me. I still remember it word for word. I condemn the United States government for its aggressive war against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Two, I've encroached upon the airspace of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Three, I'm a war criminal, and four I have received humane and lenient treatment from the Vietnamese people in government. I signed that. They put me in a cell in the Hanoi Hilton in a little section we call heartbreak hotel. I was in cell four, 90 inches by 90 inches, two concrete bunks, leg irons embedded in the bunks. My right leg had become badly infected from the shrapnel. No medical attention. Maggots were starting to form on it and was turning black and on that ninth day, a female guard came in and she looked at the leg and she pull something off. Stuff shot out of it. She screamed and left, came back with the interrogator, and they talked with me said, "Your leg is very bad we must cut it off," and I said, "No, you're not cut my leg off. I'd rather die." So, Neil Jones gave up and I wanted to die. That night. They put a guy in the cell next to me in cell 3 No sooner had the guard left when the voice came out, "Where is Neil Jones?" And I tell you what, just hearing my name by another American, I must have bounced the foot off that bunk and I said "Right here, who's that?" And the voice came back said, "Neal, this is Dave Hatcher." And Dave Hatcher was a good friend, a captain, F-105 pilot. Dave was shot down, oh, at least 30 days before I was, and we didn't know what had happened to him, whether he was alive or dead. And I said, "My God, Dave, you don't know how good it is to hear your voice. How did you know I was here?" He said, "Well, I was in a camp near here called the zoo and we have loud speakers in each cell and every morning and every night they play the voice of Vietnam or Hanoi Hannah, as we call it. It was the 30 minute propaganda broadcasts in English aimed to the soldiers in South Vietnam." He said, "The same day you were shot down, they announced it that night." So, at least I knew my family knew I was alive. I asked Dave how he was, and he said he was fine. And then he asked me how I was, and I said, "Dave I think I'm going to die." He said, "There's only one thing to do and that's to pray a lot. I pray all the time." Well, I prayed that night, not for why me God, but give me the strength to to do what I have to do, and I finally slept a little that night, and I woke up the next day and I knew I was going to get out of there and never gave up after that. I found out four years later that Dave had just been tortured when he told me that. He happened to be in the large group that was paraded through Hanoi and the crowd got out of hand and a lot of guys were beaten in that, but my raid had precipitated the other march, but he'd never said anything to him, but I had the opportunity to tell Dave thanks in Washington DC at the White House. He had his daughter and I told her how her Dad had saved my life that night. But I go back and I look at the guys that I flew with the guys that I was in prison with a bunch of band of brothers He who shares his blood with me shall forever be my brother Theyre the best friends I've ever had. One thing I learned, one of my dearest friends in my whole life is a guy named Vic Vizcarra. Vic and I checked out in the Thud together, were in Japan, same squadron, flew combat together and he escorted my wife and two young kids back to the United States and I never forgot forgot that appreciate it more than anybody knows but a band of brothers. Jet noise... For Thud pilots, flying missions over North Vietnam came down to beating the odds. Logging the combat missions was the easy part. radio and combat sounds Thud pilots either survived or got shot down. It was the being brought down part where it became the roll of the dice. They would either be killed, captured or rescued. They were betting on the latter. Well, I'm Denny Jarvey went through training at Nellis and prior to that, I had been flying the F-101B in Charleston chasing Russian bears that were going down to Cuba, laughing and prior to that I flew the F-102. So, when I transitioned in the F-105, I already knew I could fly the airplane, that was not an issue. It was learning how to fight with it. That's a whole nother story. The F-105 was really well suited for the mission that we had in the Hanoi area that we could carry very heavy bomb load. It could take a really beating and still bring it back. I was lucky. I didn't have a scratch. I never, ever, I didn't have a hole in the airplane. Nothing. Not even scratched paint. Not True for the guys I was flying with. The Thud was terrific for this particular mission. It was fast. Matter of fact, there's a fellow named Byers that had been hit by a MiG-21 and Atoll that hit him was still stuck in the fuselage of the aft end of the airplane just underneath the rudder, and with this great big gaping hole, and there's pictures that are around of people standing, well, the Thuds a pretty big airplane, youve gotta be up on a ladder to be able to get your body up into the wing, but with huge holes, and it brought you home. I happened to be at Korat and we learned that President Johnson was coming to town. Well, it is a big deal, you know, and so they kicked everybody out of the club. So I had my scotch in hand, and General Momyer looked on the bar and he pointed at me and said, "You, you big guy get over there and you tell the President what you just did." Well, it turned out it happened to be the mission right after the Dormer Bridge raid. So, I told him about that and I happened to be the last guy that rolled in on the target on that particular sortie and it was an active day, but when I looked down at the bridge, I could already see several of the spans were already in the water. So it turned out to be quite an event. Thuds continued to be shot down as the war escalated with no end in sight, and to add insult to injury, a new war had emerged and it wasn't in Vietnam. Americans back home suddenly began to side with the enemy and began to protest. Pilots, risking their lives were suddenly being labeled as child killers. But for the pilots, the war went on. I flew another 20 missions and on the 14th September we were going up to hit a railroad bridge north of Hanoi. Interestingly enough, there was also a MiG base right near the bridge. I was number four in the flight. We raced along a low altitude, actually came right over the top of Hanoi that day at low altitude. About three surface to air missiles came through the flight That scared the crap out of me. So, I broke one way and I guess the rest of the flight went the other way. So I rolled in and, I dropped eight, 750 pound bombs and as I pulled off, I actually saw them hit the bridge luckily enough, and I watched the span that dropped into the river. So, I said, "Man, that's great", and I called, I said, "Four is off" and the flight lead says, "You're where?". I said, "Four is off". He said, "Well, we're 20 miles away. We'll come back and get you," and just about that time there was a MiG-17 probably 1500 feet from me, and it looked like he was shooting at me. So....he was here. I'm here, he's here, about to shoot my watch off, and I remember the guys in training told me about this maneuver that we never did. It was called a High G roll underneath, and I said, "Well this might be the time to try this." Well I did that and now Im pointed straight down, no airspeed in about maybe 4,000 feet above the ground. So, now I light the afterburner, and I probably pulled out at about 500 feet. When I got enough speed going, and I decided it was time to leave the afterburner in and get the hell out of Dodge. So, I turned east because we're gonna go out over the Gulf of Tonkin and then come back. So they just said, "Head for the coast, we'll rejoin out over the water." So, now I'm a singleton running along, and we were actually, I thought it was further south. We were about 20 miles south of China. At least that's where I was. Shortly thereafter I saw it, you know, as I'm heading for the coast, going about five-fifty and not in afterburner, and I saw this little glint of a spark or something. And I looked over and here comes a MiG-21. So, I said, "Well, I'll give him a turn". I turned a little bit and I said "This is not gonna work out well at all", and I could just see the coast out in front of me. And I knew that MiG wasn't with me cause there's no way he could hang with me. So, I came out of afterburner, and started to climb and as I crested the ridge line all hell broke loose. I mean I've watched part of my wing come off fire light came on again and as I was told later by the guys the in flight, I didnt hear this because I think I was breathing so hard and I was scared. totally scared at this point because I'd been here before and I'm going not again and then I just crossed the waterline and about 500 feet I said, "It's time to get out of this thing." Did the normal ejection the canopy didn't come off. So, I just squeezed the ejection triggers and went through the canopy and I remember tumbling very, very violently, and then I hit the water. I have no idea what happened and the flight lead said he went in with the airplane. So they actually started heading for the tanker and I went down in the water. I was all tied up in the parachute. Fortunately I carried a knife on my left side. I got that knife and I started cutting away. So, I started sawing away and I remember I looked up, it was late afternoon and I could, I kind of looked up and I said, "Wow, I'm gonna drown what a crappy way to go." Finally got to where I could get to one water wing. I opened I deployed it and that was enough to bring me back up to the surface. So, I got the other one and then I cut my way out of the parachute. They said that from when the airplane hit little over a minute then he heard the distress beacon come on. So they figured I was in underwater for about a minute. Got into my life raft, which I still had and pulled up my trusty radio, but at that point then I carried two radios instead of just the normal one. Call my flight lead and told them I'm alive and I'm in my life raft and come get me and he said, "We gotta go to the tanker and we'll get the rescue forces coming." Well, when they said forces, I thought it'd be an Armada like I saw the first time. Well, it turned out the rescue Armada was gonna consist of one Navy helicopter and two Navy A-1s because we were so far north, it turns out I was, I had managed to bail out in a major shipping lane that they ferried supplies from China down to North Vietnam So the islands were heavily defended. There were guns everywhere and I guess they thought I had gone in with the airplane because not much went on for about the first 45 minutes to an hour All of a sudden I started hearing gunfire and I'm going, oh oh, maybe they know I'm here and now I see boats starting to come and I'm going this is not gonna to be a good day for me. It's a long haul from here to prison and I really didnt want to play that game. A little bit later. I hear a lot of gunfire. And my flight lead said that the rescue forces are trying to get in the Navy helicopter and I learned this later when I met the guy who flew the helicopter and one of the A-1 pilots. They tried three different routes to get in to get me, and that was when I started hearing a lot of gunfire and they had to turn around each time because of the severity of the gunfire and in fact the helicopter crew took a vote to see if they wanted to try it again. Well, they did. They found another way in. Im exhausted, you know, the adrenaline and the excitement and maybe I'm going to get outta here and of course Im looking. I said there's two A-1s and that's it. And this chopper and everybody's getting a crap shot out of them. So, here we go the helicopter. I'm in the hoists underneath, they're bringing me up and the two A-1s are flying around out in front of us strafing beaches as we go along because they're getting shot at the whole time. So they get me about, its kind of like the first time about 40 feet from the helicopter, from the door and the hoist breaks. So now, were getting out of there theyre getting shot at and I'm swinging around underneath the helicopter going, "Oh man, this is gonna be a long trip." When they finally figured out how to get me up. So, they get me up into the helicopter. Now it's the same deal. I want to go hug and kiss everybody. and say thanks. They're busy. They had two guns in one on each side of the helicopter. and they're blazing away with these machine guns and I want to hug them. So, they actually let me shoot one of the guns for a second, and then they finally said that's enough of that and they strap me to the floor to get me out of the way. So, I was saved and they too have booze on the helicopter, so they gave me a couple of miniatures to calm me down. Then I got to thank everybody And then now now the adrenalines gone. I'm exhausted, which was which was really, really great. Hollywood has always portrayed fighter pilots as fearless, steel cold men with a fixation for flying women and booze in no particular order, but in actuality they've just been Americans with a deep love of country and diligence to unsheathe the sword of freedom kept sharp by their willingness to live on its edge. Karl Richter knew he would be a fighter pilot at a very young age by 18 months old, he was already climbing a ladder to the top of their barn to join his dad on the roof. His infatuation with heights persisted, and his family would spot him at the top of the trees and the windmill on their property. By age 18, he was already a pilot. Was living his dream at the U.S. Air Force Academy. By the time he was 22, he was flying the Thud. Didn't take long for him to make military history. By 23, he'd become the youngest pilot, in the U.S Air Force to shoot down a MiG. UHF pilot radio transmissions As operation Rolling Thunder intensified and dragged on well past its initial eight week plan, More Thud pilots were needed. A short temporary duty cycling of pilots from Thud squadrons based in Japan and the U.S. to Thailand wasn't working. Military orders, we're now going to have to be permanently assigned to pilots to complete 100 combat missions one counter...one for the month ninety-nine hard ones to go Extraordinary times require extraordinary gallantry and faith. A faith not only in country and family, but a power greater than themselves with a here I am, send me conviction Men like Karl Richter. How are you gonna explain to the wife that, you put in for concurrent tour you know, you going to take flying over her? Yeah, it wouldn't happen Yeah, that's why I'm sticking around. You know that's why I guess. The flying is good and its it's the kind of deal like everybody says, yeah that I'm waving the flag, but I'm not. At the same time, you know, where are going to where are you going to stop at? You know where is...where's communism? You going to wait until there're in the Philippines? Or in Australia or San Fransisco or the Hawaiian Islands? You know. Do we stop it here or wait untl somewhere later on? I don't think most the people think about that. By the age of 24, hed already completed his 100 combat missions. He volunteered to stay for another hundred. His request was approved. When I went to Korat. Karl was in the same squadron that I was in the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron and so I got to fly with him for about six months while we were there, and of course he went on and finished a 100, then went on to try, try to do another 100. I mean he was fearless, totally fearless, and he was a dedicated American. I mean he really believed in what he was doing. He could fly the airplane really well and he was just a fun, good guy to be with. Karl Richter had survived the thuds worst year on record and he dared to look death in the face to do it all over again. On his 198th mission over North Vietnam while bombing a bridge, Lieutenant Richter's Thud was was shot down. Battled damaged by anti-aircraft fire. He ejected over a sharp karst terrain. His wingman observed a good chute and ordered in the combat search and rescue team. Near death from multiple injuries sustained due to the studied karst formation, they recovered and extracted him from North Vietnam. Karl Richter, the young man who proudly stood and lived the essence of here I am, send me. Died on July 28th, 1967 aboard the rescue helicopter. An American hero and World War Two Ace was about to change everything. Colonel Robin Olds had had enough and as a gesture of defiance, began to flaunt a non-regulation mustache to the leaders in his chain of command. Like him, other fighter pilots began to sport the bulletproof mustaches as their secret middle finger to the policymakers. After all, men were dying and the targeting orders were so insane, they began to question why they were even there. Considered the best combat con in the history of modern air warfare, Colonel Robin Olds' Operation Bolo turned the tide on the MiG threat. Disguised as bomb laden Thuds using F-105 strike routes, flight profiles and callsigns, Colonel Olds lured MiG 21s right into the fangs of his F-4 Wolf Pack He and his men were ready to fight and fight they did. Close to half of Vietnam's MiG 21s were demolished. North Vietnam immediately put a price on Robin Olds' head and grounded their Air Force for months to devise new tactics The commander-in-chief personally asked Robin Olds what should be done about Vietnam. He didn't sugar coat it. Good Lord...you got the best armed services you've ever fielded. Why don't you use them? one way to stop the darn thing. It's very simple from my own humble point of view, win it. That's easy. What we're doing is the hard way and the worst way of all is to get out once you got your foot in it. LBJ was startled. The American fighting spirited had bypassed Washington shackles in dealing with the air menace, and now it was onto the SAM threat. My name is Ben Fuller. I retired from the Air Force in 1977 as a full colonel. I had been flying the F-105 for quite a while. Primary mission, of course in Europe was a tactical nuclear delivery of an atomic weapon against the Soviet Bloc Nations. I spent a little over, I guess two and a half years of that tour when all of a sudden the war in North Vietnam got hotter and they started pulling all of the F-105s out of Europe and sending them over to a to bases in Thailand. I, somewhere around December 1966, I received orders to go to ah Takhli Thailand as a Wild Weasel pilot. Nobody knew what a Wild Weasel was. We thought everybody was the same. We just were fighter pilots. And so, we went up to Wing Headquarters to read the secret orders and see what the definition of Weasel was and it says it that they were aircraft that were equipped with special electronic equipment to seek out and destroy surface to air missile sites by trolling for them. And I said, "what the hell is trolling for a SAM?" And they said, "That's where you fly around and hope they'll shoot at you and that way you'll know where they are. I've got my PCS orders to Nellis first for a twelve sortie training flight and where we married up with our electronic warfare officer to fondly be called a Bear later on A trained bear. I'm Stan Goldstein. At the time I became a Wild Weasel I was a major and I got to fly in the 105 and become a Wild Weasel. The best thing that ever happened to me. The key to flying Wild Weasel missions is to have good crew coordination. And of course the question is how do you figure out who you're gonna crew up with? Well, the marriage dance is quite interesting. They finally figured out to leave it up to the crews themselves. So there were some I think eight eight pilots and eight EWOs, backseaters, GIBs, Bears, whatever you want to call us. And we all meet up in Vegas and of course there several hours at the bar where the big determination is made. That was quite an experience because most of the Bears had come from SAC Strategic Air Command where they flew in the middle of a bomber somewhere and were lucky if they had a small window to look out of So when we got our bears in there for the first mission or two, it was mostly getting them used to what it was like flying upside down and doing rolls and everything with a total plexiglass window to look out of and...to... to concentrate on what they were supposed to be concentrating on and that was the black boxes that were in the back seat. As my first time wearing a G-suit, I had flown in B-57s before so I had some experience. I also had jet time in the front and back of B-66s which I'm glad I avoided by getting into the Thuds. We go through Weasel school. We learn how to drop bombs. We learn how to maneuver, how to recognize the signals. The Wild Weasel aircraft were developed because of a high threat from surface to air missiles. that were plaguing the 105s and other aircraft over North Vietnam. I used to try to describe this pretty much as how this all worked like the people who carry fuzz busters in their automobiles to detect where the highway patrol is up ahead trying to determine your air speed or your speed of your car. And it emits a signal and then the fuzz buster in the car picked up the signal and that way you knew that you had a threat. It was the same idea with the Wild Weasels. We picked up a various number of threats which a Bear can explain to you much better, but mainly the threat we were looking for was the SA-2 Surface to Air Missile. Got this patch here, Wild Weasel patch. It says, YGBSM. Jack Donovan who is one of the Weasels on Wild Weasel 1 - the F100s. And he and Gary Willard as some of you may know, great Thud pilot, great Hun pilot. Anyway, they go to a secret place out in Long Beach and they go into the North American hanger and the Secretary of the Air Force is sitting on the side smoking a pipe with his arms crossed. And they explain to everybody what the mission of the Wild Weasels is going to be. And then, Donovan tries to summarize this. "Let me get this straight. Youre gonna put me in the back seat with some crazy ass fighter pilot and you want me to patrol and be a target for SAMs? You gotta be shitting me." So, YGBSM has become the motto of the Wild Weasels and one we try to live up to. And it's on all our gear. I was leading a flight. It was Carbine flight. I was Carbine 1. Carbine 2, another Weasel pilot, Joe Ritter, and his back seater, McGuken, John McGuken. Number three was Leo Thorsness and Harry Johnson. Carbine 4, was Lieutenant Bob Abbott. We were approximately 30 miles so as routine for the Weasel Flight to be out front of the strike force and there were twelve other F105's behind us. Off to my right, Leo Thorsness in number three was just almost a beam me off to the right side. I caught his plane exploding. And It was almost totally engulfed in fire. And my of course reaction is, "Get out, get out!" I'm screaming like duh...you know. I'm sure he knows that he's got a problem. And he did call, "Mayday, mayday, mayday This is Carbine 3" And he immediately ejected. We saw parachutes from both people. And Leo, bless his sole, he was my mentor over there, heard their beepers. So right after those transmissions, I'm calling a channel change and I can't raise number four. And we assume and then, number 2 comes back and advises me that he thinks that he saw number 4 hit also just within seconds of Leo. We're talking in the aircraft between us, what did this? Nobody had said anything about MiGs. We knew it could have been anti-aircraft fire, but we weren't over places that would have a lot of anti-aircraft, so we didn't know what had hit them at this time So all of the sudden in the middle of this, Tomahawk, who is flying top cover up there and relaying messages, he gets hit. Tomahawk 4 is shotdown by another MiG. And number 3 is hit by either his explosion or a separate missile they dont know which. But, Tomahawk 3, Al Linski, he managed to keep his plane together and make it back to emergency landing at Udorn Air Force Base in Thailand. Captain Joe Abbott was the was the Tomahawk 4 who was also shot down. And nothing is going the way we want it to go at this point in time. We've got you know another guy on the ground. And a lot of MiGs in the area and things are beginning to look pretty grim. But then the next thing we know is the lead chopper is aborting. He's had hydraulic problems. So chopper number 2 aborts with him as is their procedure according to their protocols. So now, Crown says were just gonna have to call everything off and come back tomorrow, and so we all gathered up and went home. And the last thing I remember from the ground was Leo on the radio survival radios saying get me out of here. And so all the way home I had a lot of tears. And I that was a four hour and fifteen minute mission that accomplished nothing. And that was the worst mission of my one hundred. And I'm glad I didn't have to repeat it again. Thud combat operations out of Thailand developed an unspoken bond among the officers who flew them and the non-commissioned officers and enlistees who maintained them. Their one goal? Put bombs on target. For each Thud pilot assigned to the squadron had an F-105 with his name on it during his tour. It was in name only. He would fly whatever Thud that he was scheduled for on that day. For Thud Crew Chiefs and their team on the other hand, it was a true relationship between man and machine. Their assigned aircraft became their child that they would care for and nurture. In actuality, Crew Chiefs only let the pilots borrow "his" personal aircraft. My name is Jeff Puras. I arrived in Korat Thailand in May 1967 and I was assigned to a Wild Weasel aircraft. Life on the flight line was day after day of almost exactly the same routine. launch, recovery, count them when they were coming back. There's a gap. The Weasels The Weasels seem to be stragglers because they were first in, last out. They would be It's always nervous time. You see the strike force you know come back there's one there's one watch them land. And then you wouldnt see yours then oh, there it is. You'd be relieved. And ugh, I went up the front ladder and who's ever helping me do the back seater. And... his hands were shaking so bad he couldn't hook his harness up. And...ugh...he...and I just watched and said relax sir, I'll get it for ya. So I helped him with his with his straps and stuff. And I wondered what in the heck were they tasked with that day? My name is Larry Henlsey. I was a Crew Chief on the F-105 at Takhli, Thailand in the year 1967. It was always a sad deal to see three airplanes in the sky coming back as opposed to the four that took off and one of those days, my plane that I had launched didn't return. and they didn't tell us much about what happened other than they just came and got the forms binder for the airplane that the plane was lost and the pilot didn't survive. He was lost as well. And I think they recovered his remains sometime in the '80s and finally got to return them back to his family. I couldn't have made any difference other than making sure the best airplane in the world leaves. Make sure it's perfect. But, it was, I was sick for three, I was just sick sick when it happened. It's just more than, it's almost more than you can bear. Some of the Crew Chiefs had horrible problems after a shoot down of their plane and it happened a lot. Something that you...just...its a hard thing to deal with when you lose the plane, but you lose the man that you had just strapped in that airplane. And... that was a proud time when you taxied that airplane out and gave that pilot a salute And you were one of the last ones that talked to him on the ground because you were hooked up with a headset. And you tell him you'll see him when he gets back and he didn't return. For Thud Crew Chief, he was the one responsible for the air worthiness servicing, launch and recovery of this incredible piece of metal. F-105 availability in Southeast Asia was the highest for the entire Thud fleet, a testament to the dedication and hard work of the maintenance core of Crew Chiefs, Line Chiefs and behind the flight line maintenance shops. A multitude of maintenance specialists in engines, hydraulics, avionics and electronics supported the Crew Chief along with the armors and munitions personnel who assembled, delivered and loaded the weapons. It was an all out team effort to get that Thud to complete it's assigned mission. Outside of maintenance, there were other organizations supplies, transportation, security. Took a lot get the pointy end of the spear to the target. As losses mounted, a painful personal bond between maintainers and pilots developed. Crew Chiefs had to live with the fact that their face only inches away from the pilot's during the strap-in process had the potential to be the last close human experience for that pilot. Their emphatic thumbs up signaled to the Thud pilots that everything was okay and his Thud was ready to fight. Gathering at the edge of the ramp facing the runway, the maintainers would watch their aircraft take off nudging the man next to him when he'd spot it take to the air They would prepare their spots for recovery optimistically expecting their aircraft to return. Sadly, some would not. I'm Vic Vizcarra and I flew the Thud and did three combat tours to Southeast Asia. On six November, 1966, I was flying in a two ship Iron Hand mission. We were searching for three new suspected SAM sites above the DMZ. While searching for these targets, I started having engine problems which I thought I could save the aircraft and nurse it back home. The further we got into the flight, the more serious my situation got where I was no longer able to maintain air speed or altitude. And I informed Clipper 1 that I was having to eject. Okay...Clipper 2's got his lanyard hooked up, I must get out of this thing I've got no airspeed left at all hardly Roger Clipper 2.... The seat did a huge somersault where I could see my feet above the blue sky and came back around. The parachute ride down was very serene, peaceful, very quiet. Looked down and saw I was going to land in very dense jungle so I prepared for that. Once on the ground, I established contact with Clipper lead who informed me that search and rescue assets were on their way. And he instructed me to go off the air and save the battery. May Day, May Day, May Day Crown, do you read? Ill show Vic this tape here when we get back My name is Bob Cooper. Late in the afternoon, we were launched on my birthday We heard from Red Crown that a 105 pilot had punched out due to compressor failure I think. That's all we knew. My boss on Halsey, Captain Le Bourgeois said, "hold in that position", because I was just off coast. Red Crown then said that no, the Air Force couldn't get there before sundown. Send that poor little H-2 in after him, so, in we went. I went to look for a place to hide meanwhile and found a cave in which I entered. It was the first time I thought of the family. My boys were only six and five at the time. I was sure that if I did not get rescued they'd at least still be able to remember me, but I was concerned. I had a daughter that was less than a year old and she would never know me if I didn't get rescued, so I said a little prayer. And... As I finished my prayer, I heard the aircraft returning into the area. I went back out from the cave. and made contact. And... it was the The Sandy rescue that was trying to make contact with me. I have to give it to those guys. They have big brass ones. While I was in the cave, the weather conditions had changed abruptly from when I bailed out and now we had a huge overcast with one sucker hole. And hear, Sandy Lead, tell his wingman he says, "I think I can spiral down through that hole and get beneath the stuff." And here I'm looking at these karst mountains, the tops of them disappearing into the clouds That took guts for him to do that. He flew directly over me and I got all excited and I informed him he had just flown over me. He did not acknowledge or rock his wings or anything. Later on, in reading the transcripts from the command post of this rescue, I found out that he actually did hear me, but he was smart and he's playing the game. Making sure, he didn't want to give my location away in case there were bad guys around the area. You could see in the distance where the coastal plain started to rise. At about 2,000 feet, the cloud deck started and it was solid. So we climbed up to about 8,000...I think We usually went in pretty high anyway, keeps you out of the ground fire ...small arms fire, because they love to shoot at people. Anyway, we got above it. We joined up with those two Sandys. One of them had managed to get below the clouds which was amazing. And he was, must have been having some difficulty maneuvering in those valleys because all the peaks were shrouded in clouds. He said, "there's a hole, I'm coming up". Sure enough, there was a hole there. I could see all the way to the jungle canopy. Couldn't see the ground. He came up, I went down. Got under the clouds in a valley running North and South Nothing was in it. I... was so disappointed I couldn't stand it by then. We searched up and down there. The Sandys were talking to Vic. I couldn't hear Vic. I could hear them. One of them said, "I think I'm on top of you right now." I switched my radio to ADF and got a lock on him. I went to the East over a low ridge As soon as I crossed that I saw a hazy red smoke. Aha...the right valley At last. We went up and down that side of the valley for quite awhile, but then we came across the wreckage. And shortly after that, we saw the chute. Then, I got talking to Vic. He said he's about, I don't know, 100, 200 yards one way or the other of the chute. North I think. So we slowed down and he talked us right over the top. Never did see him, ever. These guys were good. I couldn't believe it. When they dropped the tree penetrator through the trees, I only had to take one step to reach it. I folded down the blades, jumped on it. Now the only thing left to do was to secure the safety line around. I couldn't hook it up. Anyway, we sent the penetrator down and waited and waited and waited. And I was running out of fuel and I said come on. Finally, I switched the loud hailer and I think he heard me. Said, you've got to get on that seat because I'm running out of gas. Next thing I hear through this megaphone is, "Hurry up, let us know when we can pull you up. We're low on fuel." That made me even more nervous and I tried harder without any success. So finally out of desperation, I didn't want them leaving without me, so I finally out of desperation on the radio said, I was gonna say, okay, I'm ready. As soon as they heard okay, they jerked me up which made me lose the grip on my radio. I lost it. Dropped it in there. But the good news is now I at least had two hands to hold on to the cable. Shortly after that, the crewman that was running the hoist, Meyer I think his name was said, I think I got him. And sure enough, he started reeling the cable in. We were really in a high hover, about 180 feet. That's big time. And... shortly after that, he said, "We do, we do we have him, we have him" And I looked down and there hugging that post baby. And I took off. I started climb up. We didn't get the guy until we were in the middle of the clouds. I had to get out of there. They pulled me up through the trees. They had to use my shoulder as a battering ram to get through this one branch. But finally, I felt somebody grab the nap of my collar and pulled me into this chopper as it tilted down and it sped away I checked my tacan. I knew Da Nang was impossible. I could not get near Da Nang. Nakhon Phanom was also too far away. And that's where I'd always intended to go if we managed to get out, but it was too far away. One of the Sandys just gave me a head bearing and distance to Halsey and be darn it was about 50 miles away. I'm Curtis Venable, I was a Senior Rescue Crewman on Helicopter Combat Support Squadron One. Captain Le Bourgeois called me to the bridge and he told me he wanted to know what the fuel load was for my helicopter. And I told him. And then I found out where the helicopter was at. I decided at that point that they weren't getting back So... that's what I told him. And he went full blast. He went full bores online and we run about 45 minutes down stream. I later was told that we were doing 42 knots. Captain Le Bourgeois, God bless him, he turned that ship South flank speed all the way down that coast. And he was right off the coast about 20 miles by the time we got there...but but that's where I went. I wasn't sure I was gonna get there, but I knew if I could get to the water, we'd had a good chance of getting picked up. I couldn't go down in North Vietnam. That never crossed my mind Or Laos for that matter that wasn't a whole lot better That's why I like, go to the water. You know...Navy. What else can you do? Got to head for the water and that's what we did. In the chopper it was so noisy we could not talk to each other. But this young looking gunner kept on looking over at me and kept on giving me the old thumbs up sign. I acknowledged back so I was feeling really good that everything's fine. Pretty soon, he hands me a Mae West to put on. I think Im heading West towards Nakhon Phanom where the rescue Air Force rescue units came from. So I need a life vest just to cross the Mekong River? But then, he opens up the door and starts dumping things out. The machine gun, all the ammo cans. I'm thinking to myself what the heck's going on? And then I remember their dramatic call, hurry up let us know when we can pull you up, we're low on on fuel. Started a slow, a low powered descent just to keep some fuel in the tank. And we managed to get to the water. A friend of mine was flying an H-3 off the coast Apparently someone had stationed him there and I don't know which carrier he was from, but... I knew we were home free at that point even if I had to go in the water. But the thing kept flying. Not a hiccup. I couldn't believe. The H-2 has a two hour endurance capacity. I was two and half hours at that point. I said, keep going as long as it will fly. And sure enough by golly, I got to Halsey, put it down and the picture was taken. laughing Surprise...surprise. When the helicopter landed aboard, I did the refueling myself and we had about five gallons of usable fuel on board. We almost lost it. And there's an iconic photograph of me with big bug eyes. And everybody that sees it says man, you must have been scared. I really wasn't. I was shocked. I was shocked to find out I was on a ship. Of course the joke in the family is that this was the most expensive Navy rescue ever and that I had to give them my first and second born because both sons went into Navy Air. On October 31st, 1968, one of the most controversial military campaigns in United States history came to a halt. There was no fan fare or or ticker tape parades. Thud pilots would go on to fight an unwinnable war run by politicians for another five years. Senior officials in the Johnson Administration facilitated more Thuds being shot down than any enemy gunner, MiG pilot or SAM site operator. One of the greatest casualties of the air war in Vietnam was loss of trust of the US government by the very men defending it. Thud pilots are a testament to extraordinary heroism, determination and sacrifice of men willing to serve their country at whatever cost. Too many of their names are forever inscribed on a polished black granite wall, resting solemnly at the nations capital. The long list of the 58,286 names of America's best etched in the order they were taken from us honors them and silently serves as a deafening reminder. 50 years after Rolling Thunder, these names set in stone serve as a warning. A warning to the political class who order America's sons and daughters in to harms way. Disfunctional strategies with no intention of winning will not stand. Never again. |
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