From the refueling track exit over northern Thailand, our route took us over northern Laos and into North Vietnam. May God bless you, your family and all our vets. We were to be a flight of four F-4C Phantoms. No one shot at him. He is someone that I have always respected and admired. Of course, things were beginning to wind down in Viet Nam by this time, but it was still mega impressive to see the F-4s light em up and blast off the runway like angry rocket-powered birds of prey searching for their next meal! Dinh . U.S. Marine Corps aircraft lost in combat included 193 fixed-wing and 270 rotary-wing aircraft. Knowing you were handled so badly by your bosses has to be a tough thing to take. Thank you for your service Joe. I was a flight engineer in the Air Force and National Guard. Jim witnessed the other pilot CW2 Richard Bauman and crew chief Craig Dix being captured. !Cheers my friend. 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. Im sorry that you had to suffer so much but you had no business what so for ever being there. MiG-21 Units of the Vietnam War. Shot down. Between January and July, U.S. Air Force fighters flying air-to-air missions shot down 29 MiGs while losing just two of their owna 14.5-1 kill ratio. God Bless all who serve. Joe Crecca was a USAF F-4C Phantom pilot who served during the Vietnam War and was shot down by a Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) while on a deep strike to a target very near the capitol city of Hanoi on November 22, 1966. Thanks for your service and sacrifice! Im glad you made it home. Only those who were there truly know! Just recently back from the Academy F-4 Phantom ceremony. 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. Get it? Ha! Reading yours was dismal, doom and gloom. I would not change a thing; glad I was able to serve. Lockhart is still alive, although. There, I waited for about five hours, during which time it seemed that everyone in the village, save the oldest and youngest, came to visit the new arrival. Permission was granted and I promptly made a big hit with the youngsters in attendance. Several of our birds went to Nam. It was a bittersweet event and Im so grateful I was able to attend. God Bless you, Joe, and all those who flew and fought in Vietnam. God bless them! You willingly took huge risks, knowing that that mission could be your last. NOTE: Misty numbers listed here were assigned after the war and relates to the order the pilot was assigned to the unit. Scotty compensated nicely and kept us in formation while I was continually checking six. During the left, 270 degree turn, the flight leader must have been having problems with his navigation system because he asked if our own nav equipment was operating normally, saying, Dogwood 2, hows your inertial?. Meadows I dont know if they ever found the horse. And all of us should remember them every day because we are we enjoy the freedoms their sacrifice every, single day. The soil was mercifully soft, loose and moist. There will always be those who dont get it. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do & die.. 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 . 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. Richard Armstrong. Fortunately, my background as a briefer and operations duty officer enabled me to tell my accusers that the base they spoke of was still 250 miles from Chu Lai, and the runway was not suitable for F4s. Yep. I was at a loss for words. Both Aircrew members ejected and were rescued; 155394 was shot down on 29 October 1971. [23] 2 Mi-4, 5 An-2, 5 Il-14, 1 MiG-15UTI, 1 Il-28, 1 L-29, 1 Lisunov Li-2 lost through all causes[24] Total: 159 aircraft and 2 helicopter lost. 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. Did a Korea tour also when enlisted. But that's exactly what happened to Bill Arcuri when he was forced to bail out of his damaged plane over Vietnam. And I also thank you for taking the time to write down your harrowing and amazing experience in war. I was an F4 driver at Chu Lai trying to cut the supply traffic through Laos, mostly around Hwy 9, near Tchepone. When Nixon ended the draft in early 73, having not yet been required to sign on the dotted line, I marched into the ROTC office, turned in my uniform, and that was it: my military obligation was over. He called me to come back coming out of a Split S spin. A total of 17 four-ship flights were to hit a vast complex of oil and munitions storage and NVN troops. I had a great respect for the men who put their lives on the line every day, not knowing if they would make it back to Ubon that evening. 2013. I slipped off the right wing of the tanker into a spot 50 feet aft of where Id have to be for the boomer to plug into my receptacle. Russian source: 65 MiG-21s, 5 MiG-19s, 75 MiG-17s lost through all causes. It was moving and changing shape ever so slowly. First loss: Canberra A84-231 disappeared on 3 November 1970 on a night bombing mission in the northern 1st Corps Tactical Zone region of. Secondly, everybody else all the other strike flights, 15 of them, one after the other were calling, Outbound for weather meaning the target area was socked in and it would be just plain stupid to drop into the clouds where it would be hard to locate the target and easy to get nailed by a SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile). I received my draft notice right after I joined the USAF. If your anti-Vietnam War feelings are still that strong, I dare you to walk up to a highly-decorated Vietnam combat veteran, preferably a Marine or Soldier and vent your anti-war feelings to him, face-to-face! Im an alumnus of the 480th TFS myself ( USAFE, 78-80) and wish you all the best . I was too young for Nam, but spent 20 years in the Navy under the water. He said hes sorry I feel that way. Then, I was pushed face down to the floor and blindfolded. Its Memorial Day, 2020. Not in honor. Following the release of all the POWs we met President Nixon at the State Department in May, 1973. Scotty hadnt regained consciousness. Crash Location: Into Sea off southwest coast of Vietnam near Rach Gia and Ca Mau. My brother got spit on when he landed in Atlanta on his way home. A minute or two after takeoff we had cold air blasting through the cockpits. More aircraft would be shot down and pilots killed or captured. 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. Two years ago I walked through the front door of Hoa Lo. I looked around me to see hundreds of people, mostly villagers, including old folks and children. Thank you Mr. Meadows, And we who flew the mighty Phantoms were in your debt,too. I am forever beholding to you on so many fronts. Crash Location: Near Ap Bac, Chau Doc Province, South Vietnam. Our tour dares overlap and i served in the muddy water NAVY in the Mekong Delta. Encountered SAMs Finger Lakes area. One night I flew #2 to a newly crowned pentagon prince. Enroute, we learned USAF had discovered a major truck convoy up near the Plain of Jars, wanting help. John Stuart Mill Wasnt much left for my remaining Six. I yelled on the intercom, Deep six check! 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. Theyd be shot up to hell. There are plenty of other places to rant and vent. Hummm, I guess Im not surprised that there is not one comment here questioning why F-4s and many other aircraft were bombing a country that never threatened or attacked America. But then, the blood began to run down from the breaks in the skin on my head and into my eyes. Ho and Giap both wanted to meet with him. I looked first into the rear-view mirrors and could see only orange flames and inky smoke. And the plane that carried them, a commercial jet . Reeder is being held behind the middle window. GlobalSecurity, South Viet Nam Air Force VNAF Aircraft Deliveries. I cannot express my admiration for you and others who went thru what you did. God bless you and may you enjoy a much well deserved retirement. Fighting against such a cruel political regime didnt seem that bad an idea after all, did it? There were no J-79s! Dak Harney Peak who did far less than Dulles. Don Ward, came up to me and said words that someone in operations never, ever hears from anybody in maintenance. Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified. We lost him in 2012. Lt. Wilson and his family paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. I last read he is in the state of Washington. Thank You for your service. The USAF sustained approximately 0.4 losses per 1,000 sorties during the conflict, which compared favorably with a 2.0 rate in Korea and a 9.7 figure during World War II. Call signs for each mission were based on time of day. But that didnt keep the Triple Nickel (555th TFS) from calling themselves the Largest distributors of MiG parts in Southeast Asia. Not as of 05NOV66 they werent. 3 Enclosures included: COMUSMACV MSG DTD 050023Z and Evaluations. They were in absolute frenzy. Your comments and wisdom are much appreciated. He didnt understand that we were mixed in a huge gaggle competing for time on target, lugging 10 X 500# bombs, 400 miles from base, with marginal weather, fuel hungry, not in sight with each other? And I still think of that crash not itself something that caused a loss of life, but something that reminds me of how significant the memory of wounded F-4 pilots, limping back to base in badly-damaged airplanes, was, and is, to those who served during the Vietnam war. We would have to fight if not listened to. Overcome with his Ivy League false sense of academic Superiority, he stupidly turned them down, not even a crucial, critical, disastrous war saving meeting. 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 am most grateful for the hero status conferred upon me by the predominance of commenters. And when the pressurization system failed we were freezing our butts off! Life saver: Severely damaged in combat, this Douglas A-1E was flown by Maj. Bernard Fisher on March 10, 1966, when he rescued a fellow pilot shot down over South Vietnam. USAF/ Air National Guard (Retired). YGBSM!. I then looked at myself to see if I was in one piece. What? Hes taking us direct to Bravo and right over Yen Bai! Without hesitation Scotty rolled smoothly to the left into a near 90 degree bank and applied right (top) rudder and held it for a few seconds while I looked for the SAM that was certainly coming for us. For the briefest moment I contemplated that a right 60 degree turn would take me via the shortest route out of NVN. If the MiGs didnt come up, he couldnt have a chance to shoot one down. They would persistently be trying to attack me while the militia men unemotionally fended them off. Just then, the crew chief, SSgt. The only USAF officers who could rise to strategic ranks were from Strategic Air Command (nuke bombers) and a very few from Air Defense Command. The result was the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on 27JAN1973 and the release of 591 POWs. I, for one, will welcome additional tales of courage and flying on these pages. It was -55F at 32,000 feet for over two hours and pressure breathing 100% Oxygen in a summer flight suit. Thanks for the details of this mission. It was the darkest moment of an amazing three weeks in Vietnam and I was quite happy to leave that place. Soviet General Fesenko, the main Soviet adviser to the North Vietnamese Air Force in 1972, recorded 34 MiG-21s destroyed in 1972. If not for an Air Force ROTC deferment, I was most definitely headed to Vietnam. I was a young 23 year old J-79 Engine Mechanic at Homestead AFB in 1972,sent toThailand in late Summer of that year to participate in LinebackerII Our F-4s along with McDills flew Mig CAP for the B-52s of which several were lost.Homestead lost one Phantom,I believe McDill lost one. 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