Invader Crew Comes Home



Air Force Majors James Sizemore and Howard Andre were laid to rest, side by side, at Arlington National Cemetery today.  Their remains were recovered from a hillside in Laos, where they perished over 44 years ago.

Sizemore and Andre were flying B-26K 64-17646 on a 'Barrel Roll' night interdiction mission on the evening of July 8, 1969.  Their target was troop concentrations in central Laos.  During a strafing run, their aircraft was hit by enemy fire, and crashed into a hillside. 

This was the third B-26 lost by the 609th SOS in 1969.  Operating out of Nakhon Phanom AB in Thailand, the Invaders were very effective at attacking targets on the Ho Chi Minh trail at night.

The B-26s were rebuilt A-26s that had been manufactured during World War II.  Fast (for propeller aircraft), heavily armed, and with long loiter capabilities, they were ideal aircraft for the mission, and were widely regarded as the best night interdiction aircraft during the Vietnam conflict, with the exception of the AC-130 Spectre gunships.

30 B-26Ks served in the SEA theatre, with 12 being lost to enemy fire or in operational accidents.  They were retired from combat in November of 1969.

A Flight of Heroes Comes Home

On December 24, 1965, an AC-47D gunship took off from Da Nang for a daylight mission over southern Laos.  45-1120, assigned to the 4th ACS, 6250th CSG didn't have a specific target, it was searching for 'targets of opportunity'.  A mayday was heard from the aircraft after it arrived over Laos, and then nothing more.  The aircraft was lost, with no trace of it or the crew.

In 2010, a USAF MIA search team located the wreckage, and recovered remains from the 6 crewmen on board.  These heroes will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetary on July 9:

Major Derell Jeffords

1Lt Dennis Eilers

Major Joseph Christiano

MSgt Larry Thornton

TSgt William Colwell

Ssgt Arden Hassenger

God speed, gentlemen ... Welcome Home

As a side note, this was the second 4ACS AC-47D lost  in December of 1965.  The unit had deployed to SVN on November 14, equipped with 20 'new' AC-47s.  These were gunship conversions of the venerable Gooney Bird, sporting 3 7.62mm mini-guns firing through windows on the left side of the aircraft.  43-49492 was shot down on December 17, while on a cargo run between Tan San Nhut and Phan Rang.  All aboard were lost:

Major Robert Abbot
Major Robert Abernathy
1Lt Francis Buckley
MSgt Joseph Cestaric
TSgt John Chappell
TSgt Thomas Sloan
SSgt Ralph Hinson
A1C Claude Matthews
A1C Johnson Meade

The AC-47s were known as Dragon Ships, Puff the Magic Dragon, or simply by the 4th ACS squadron call sign : 'Spooky'.

A Hero Comes Home

Capt. Clyde William Campbell will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetary on June 21.

Campbell was shot down on March 1, 1969, while flying A-1J 52-142023, assigned to the 602nd Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing.  He was based at Nakhon Phanom AB, Thailand.  He was on an armed recon mission near Na Khang, in central Laos.  He was attacking enemy forces in support of a US radar installation at the time.  His aircraft was seen to crash, and he did not get out of it.

Campbell was born in Longview, TX, and graduated from Texas A&M in 1967. 

His remains were found by a USAF search team in in 1997, and recovered by another team in 2009.

Welcome Home, Capt. Campbell ...

A Hero Comes Home

Navy LCDR William Patrick Egan returned home yesterday, after a 45 year absence.

LCDR Egan was flying A-1H BuNo 137576 while assinged to VA-215, flying off the USS Hancock. On April 29, 1966, he was shot down while on a road recon mission in Laos. His ultimate fate was not determined. (some sources show the date as April 19, but the official record shows April 29.)

In 1996, a recovery team found pieces of his aircraft, but no sign of remains. Nearby villagers indicated that Egan's body had been pulled form the wreckage and buried, but the locaiton was unknown. In 2009, a farmer turned over a couple of bone fragments he had unearthed near the crash site. DNA matching was used to identify them as Egan's remains.

LCDR Egan will be buried in Houston this weekend with full military honors.

Welcome home, sir.

My Enemy, My Friend

I had an interesting weekend afternoon. The University of Texas at Dallas hosted a lecture. The focus was a series of events over North Vietnam in 1972 that linked 3 men and an airplane into a circle that closed in 2009.

Dan Cherry, assigned to the 13TFS/432TRW, flying out of Udorn AB, Thailand, shot down a NVAF MiG-21 on April 16, 1972. The engagement was southwest of Hanoi, and has been documented in the History Channel's "Dogfights" series (episode "Hell Over Hanoi"). Cherry was flying F-4D 66-7550 when he scored the kill. The enemy pilot was able to eject from his burning aircraft.

Dan Cherry found that same F-4D in 2004, sitting in a state of disrepair outside a VFW post in Ohio. Cherry, a retired BGeneral and MiG Killer, was able to convince the USAF to let him move the aircraft to his hometown of Bowling Green, KY, where it was painted in the scheme and markings it carried at the time of the kill. It has become the centerpiece of an aviation historical park.

Along the way, Cherry had wondered what ever happened to the pilot of that MiG, the one he saw hanging in his parachute. In a roundabout series of events, Cherry ended up in Vietnam, participating in a TV show where he was introduced to that same pilot, Nguyen Hong My. Mr. Nguyen had survived the war, was a successful insurance salesman in Hanoi, and was in very good shape.

During their time together, Cherry noticed that Nguyen wore a decoration that indicated he had shot down an enemy aircraft. Answering the inevitable question, he said that he had shot down an American RF-4C recon aircraft. He asked Cherry for a favor. He had always wondered what happened to the crew of that RF-4, would he mind seeing if they were still alive, for Nguyen would like to meet them.

After returning to the US, Cherry was able to locate the RF-4's backseater, John Stiles. The pilot had passed away a few years ago. Nguyen traveled to the US and met Cherry and Stiles in Washington. The circle closed when Nguyen traveled to Bowling Green to attend the dedication of 66-7550 in its new place of honor. In what may be the only time this has ever happened, a pilot (Nguyen) sat in the cockpit of the very plane that had shot him down 37 years before.

Cherry, Stiles, and Nguyen spent two hours telling us their story. Two very emotional hours. The coincidences were amazing. Stiles account of his shootdown was harrowing - it is frankly incredible that he and his front seater survived. Another piece of the history puzzle, Bob Noble, was in attendance. Bob, in an Air America Huey, rescued Stiles from the jungle 8 hours after his plane went down.

The auditorium was packed, extra seats had to be brought in, and there were still people standing along the walls. Cherry asked for all Vets in attendance to stand. A third of the people there stood up, most appearing to be of Vietnam service age. The fellow sitting next to me, wearing a River Rats polo shirt, and I visited a bit. He was a RF-4C pilot, in the same unit as Chiles - though not at the same time. He had been cornered by two MiGs during one of his missions, but they inexplicably did not shoot at him. During Chiles' account, this fellow was gripping the arms of his chair, and you could see tears appearing.

The auditorium was deathly quiet as Cherry recounted touring the Hanoi Hilton during his Vietnam visit, and showed pictures of it. It was visibly difficult for some of the people there to watch that.

All in all, the presentation was very well received, with several standing ovations.

The men were going to do a Q&A afterwards, but some a*hole stood up and rambled on in an incoherrent political statement about the war. They stopped it at that point. I was upset - I had several brilliant (I thought) questions thought up for them.

Cherry wrote about all of this in a book, "My Enemy, My Friend". The proceeds are helping fund the memorial in Bowling Green.

Thank you, gentlemen, for sharing this story with us.

www.aviationheritagepark.com

Two Heroes Come Home

Major Robert Tucci and Colonel James Dennany will be buried on Friday, Jan. 14th, at DFW National Cemetary.

On November 11, 1969, Major Tucci and Colonel Dennany were flying F-4D 66-8718, assigned to the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Recon Wing, out of Udorn AB in Thailand. During a night attack against truck targets on the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos, their aircraft was hit by AAA fire. Both men perished when the aircraft crashed into the jungle. Then Capt. Tucci was on the 32nd mission of his second tour, having flown 181 missions of of Da Nang on his previous one.

Efforts to locate the men began in 1995. Fragmented remains were recovered in 2003. The painstaking work by the US Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command culminated in a positive identification of the remains on September 8, 2010.

Welcome home, gentlemen.

A Hero Passes

Lt. Col. Dalton Leftwich (USAF Ret.) passed away on Jan. 9, 2011, one day short of his 83rd birthday. Nicknamed Lefty, he initially joined the USMC from 1946 to 1948. He then joined the USAF in 1951 after attending SMU.

In 1967, Col. Leftwich flew 100 missions over North Vietnam in F-105s, while attached to the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Korat AB in Thailand.

Col. Leftwich was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Silver Stars, and multiple Air Medals during his Vietnam tour.

Lefty will be laid to rest on Saturday, Jan. 15th, in Dallas.

Godspeed, Colonel ...

Dec. 2, 1966

December 2nd, 1966 was another bad day for US aerial forces flying in SEA.

RF-4C 65-0829, 11TRS 432TRW, flying out of Udorn, was lost on a recon mission north of Hanoi after being hit by groundfire. Both crew members, pilot Capt. Robert Gregory and WSO Lt. Leroy Stutz, successfully ejected and were captured. Gregory was injured during the ejection and died shortly after being captured.

F-105D 59-1820, 34TFS 388TFW, based at Korat, piloted by Capt. Monte Moorberg, was lost on a raid on the Phuc Yen airfield. The aircraft was hit by groundfire, Moorberg did not eject and perished.

F-4C 64-0753, 480TFS 366TFW, Da Nang, was lost on the same mission, hit by a SA-2. Pilot Capt. Hubert Flesher and WSO Lt. James Berger ejected and were captured.

F-4C 64-0663, 389TFS 366TFW, Da Nang, was hit by another SA-2 during the same raid. Maj. Ray Burns and Lt. Bruce Ducat both ejected and became POWs, but Lt. Ducat died in captivity.

A-4C 145143, VA-172, flying from the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, and A-4C 145116, also from VA-172 were both lost on a night mission near Phuc Nhac. The exact circumstances were not determined, but it was thought that they were downed by SAMs. Pilots Cdr. Bruce Nystrom and Ens. Paul Worrell were both killed.

F-4B 151014, VF-154, based on the USS Coral Sea, was lost while flying a mission to Kep airfield in North Vietnam. It was hit by groudfire, which blew off the entire left wing. Pilot Lt. David McRae did not eject and died. RIO Ens. David Rehmann did successfully eject, and was captured.

4 Phantoms, 1 Thunderchief, and 2 Skyhawks were downed on this day, resulting in 6 aircrew members dying, and 5 being captured. Another crappy day in a crappy war .....

Oct. 20, 1966

US aviation forces suffered a bad day in Southeast Asia on this day. One incident shows with clarity the lengths to which Search and Rescue efforts for downed aircrew would go.

F-4C 63-7518, 433TS 8TFW, was lost during an attack on a truck park in southern Laos. The crew, Maj. Breckenridge and Lt. Merrick, were able to eject about 10 miles south of the target.

HH-3C 65-12778, 38ARRS, flown by Maj. Youngblood was hit repeatedly by automatic weapons fire while trying to hoist one of the Phantom's crew aboard. It crashlanded about a mile away, with no casualties. The crew and the Phantom pilot were picked up under heavy fire by a second HH-3C, which then found and picked up the second Phantom crewman. The downed HH-3C helo was destroyed to keep it from falling into enemy hands.

A-1E 52-132410, 602ACS 14ACW, was lost to enemy fire while involved in covering efforts during the rescue of the Phantom's crew. The pilot, Capt. Wagener, did not make it out of the aircraft before it crashed, and died on the scene.

In other action:

A-4C 147775, VA-172 USS Roosevelt, was lost on an armed recon mission over North vietnam. The pilot, Lt. Purrington, successfully ejected and was captured.

A-4C 148592, VA-153 USS Constellation, was shot down after dropping its bombs on a railway bridge in North Vietnam. The pilot, Lt. Edwards, rode his aircraft down and was killed on impact.

F-104C 56-0918, 435TFS 8TFW. Another Stafigther lost during the type's miserable SEA performance, Capt. Tofferi's jet was shot down by automatic weapons fire while on an armed recon mission in northern Laos. He did not eject, and was killed.

September 1, 1966

Three USAF aircraft were lost on this day in SEA, all on the same mission. The lunacy of using the F-104 Starfighter for missions it had no business being sent on claims another casualty.

F-104C 57-0913, 435TFS 8TFW, flying out of Udorn AB, Thailand. Maj. Norman Schmidt was flying an armed recon mission in North Vietnam, when his aircraft was hit and downed by AAA. Maj. Schmidt successfully ejected, was captured, and subsequently beaten to death by his captors.

A search and rescue effort was mounted to try and recover Maj. Schmidt. Two A-1E Skyraiders were lost during the effort.

A-1E 52-132648, 602ACS 14ACW, Udorn AB. Maj. Hubert Nichols was shot down by AAA, and died at the scene.

A-1E 52-132624, 602ACS 14ACW, Udorn AB. Capt. A. Minnick was also hit by AAA, but managed to nurse his stricken aircraft almost back to base. He successfully ejected and was recovered.

Search and Rescue for downed aviators was one of the most dedicated and sacred missions flown during the Vietnam war, and ever since. Of all the things that were done wrong in the Vietnam war, SAR was a shining example of what was done right. Every man flying a mission over hostile territory does so with the knowledge that his fellow US military personnel will do everything within their power (and many times above and beyond) to find and recover them. Search and Rescue operations picked up hundreds of aviators, many times very deep inside North Vietnam. Many SAR aircrew and aircraft were lost on these missions.

August 1, 1966

Another long day in a long air war, during the year the US should have won the Vietnam War ...

Four US aircraft were lost in SEA:

F-104C 56-0928, 435TFS 8TFW, flying out of Udorn AB, was lost to a SAM while flying CAP for an Iron Hand mission over North Vietnam. The pilot, Capt. John Kwortnick, was killed.

F-105D 62-4380, 13TFS 388TFW, Korat AB, was lost to AAA fire eroute to attack the Thai Nguyen rail yard. Pilot Capt. Ken Walter, ejected and spent 7 years as a POW.

F-104C 57-0295, 435TFS, 8TFW. The 435th had a run of bad luck on this day, losing two of its Starfighters. This one was was also lost to a SAM while covering the Thai Nguyen rail yard attack. Lt. Col. Arthur Finney was killed instantly.

O-1E 56-2550, 20TASS 505TACG was downed by groundfire near the DMZ. Pilot Lt. Col. E Abersold was recovered with light injuries.

A side note - the F-104's deployment to the Vietnam theater was nothing short of a disaster. the aircraft was useless for ground attack. It was used primarily as an anti-MiG defender for air strikes, and as point defense for airbases from attack from the North Vietnamese Air Force (a threat that never materialized). Every mission it was used on in SEA was a testament to the aircraft's inability to perform any of those missions.

July 1, 1966

On this day in 1966, four US aircraft were downed in Southeast Asia by enemy fire.

F-105D 59-1722, 354TFS 355TFW, flying out of Takhli was shot down over North Vietnam. The pilot, Capr. Lewis Shattuck, was lucky enough to eject and was picked up by a USAF HU-16 Albatross amphibian. Capt. Shattuck's luck ran out 10 days later, when he was again shot down, this time being captured and becoming a POW for 7 years.

F-105D 62-4354, 13TFS 388TFW, flying out of Korat, was also lost over North Vietnam. The pilot, Lt. Burton Campbell, was captured and spent 7 years as a POW.

A-4E 150017, VA-155, flying off the USS Constellation, was shot down over North Vietnam while attacking a POL site. The pilot, Navy Cdr. Charles Peters, ejected from his stricken craft, but did not survive.

A-1E 52-133890, 602ACS 14ACW, based at Udorn, was lost during a SAR mission. The pilot, USAF Maj. Robert Williams, did not make it out of the craft before is crashed.

One day in a long air war ....