Phew! My draft number was 27. As the nose rises, pitch attitude must be controlled to achieve a nose-high attitude of 10 to 12 degrees. Always amazed how well you remembered the tap code. [10] Estimates of North Vietnamese losses range from 131, as documented in North Vietnamese records; to 195, as claimed by U.S. It was the darkest moment of an amazing three weeks in Vietnam and I was quite happy to leave that place. My mom, as she promised my father she would, visited my fathers grave at the National Cemetery in Grand Prairie on Saturday, left an American Flag, which, regardless of whether or not the boy scouts or other volunteers do, as they sometimes do and sometimes dont, shes done for the previous 10 Memorial Days. Since we were shot down well before reaching our target and also because most of the strike flights had declined to enter the target area due to decidedly unfavorable weather, my story had to deny the Vietnamese any foreknowledge of the real target. I flew Phantoms until leaving to fly transports for Flying Tigers and then Federal Express. I completely agree with everything Jim D. (below) writes. Peering over Scottys shoulders into the front seat, I could see we were done for. According to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, a total of 11,846 helicopters were shot down or crashed during the war, resulting in nearly 5,000 American pilots and crew killed. The American aces flew as members of two-man crews on F-4 Phantoms, reflecting the emergence of air-to-air missiles as the primary weapons of aerial combat. VS-41 at NAS North Island retained four of the borrowed Broncos to be used for training replacement pilots and maintenance personnel. Did you know that most of the articles at Air Facts are written by readers like you? Fritz was Nape. There are 58,267 names on The Wall in our nations capital and thats why you are free to voice your misguided opinion, Mr. Walker. 31 DEC 71. Youre the best and always will be with me when I go flying. It was noon. 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. Wed had it. Well written as you brought each of us along with you in the cockpit as your descriptives of that entire mission were intense. Asia time after time. I remember their faces were not contorted with anger or hatred but rather with kind expressions of understanding almost bordering on a smile. MiG-21 Units of the Vietnam War. When all the politics are done when hostilities have ceased those who represented their country should be honoured. Mr. Crecca Thank you for your courageous service in the Phabulous Phighter (F-4) and your extraordinary service as a POW. They would persistently be trying to attack me while the militia men unemotionally fended them off. We held a mass intelligence briefing at wing HQ. Better than snakes or drowning in contaminated water, I thought briefly, before I was elevated again and dropped again. All told, the U.S. Air Force flew 5.25 million sorties over South Vietnam, North Vietnam, northern and southern Laos, and Cambodia, losing 2,251 aircraft: 1,737 to hostile action, and 514 in accidents. Having won WWII by the application of enormous industrial power including saving the largest socialist entity in the world from the ravages of the second-largest socialist entity in the world we continued to view the world in wartime terms of us versus them and we prepared for the next war by preparing for the past war with near-total reliance on atomic weapons to win the next war. Btw, Uncle Walter was an anti-American, extreme lefty. Maximum allowable gross takeoff weight in an F-4C was 58,000 lbs. He told me to find him. Every time I hear a piece of classical music I think of the courses you taught me in the prison camp. Mr. Crecca was a POW for the next six years and three months until his repatriation on February 18, 1973. He makes us tell a war story that we have heard. Both Fire and Overheat lights were illuminated and all the amber and red indicators on the telelight panel by Scottys right knee were lit. The NVA never admitted to capturing them! The aircraft banked sharply to the left, then to the right. Thank you for the heads-up on the article. So Scotty did the same check with a roll to the right with the same result. Crash Location: Into Sea off southwest coast of Vietnam near Rach Gia and Ca Mau. My brain raced to imagine all the possibilities: A snake pit? Hope you sre enjoying the golden years. It was late November, the temperature was 40F, and all I had on were my underwear. I was a classmate with him in 64-C but the other flight. All this took no more than one second. Thank you for your service! The ONLY bright spot is that so much sacrifice led to a new generation of officers who learned that the half-assed politically-correct application of military power accomplished nothing. Its a tough story to take. Theyd blow up on the runway. Owing to all the maintenance problems, we did not take off as a flight but departed single-ship and joined up on the KC-135 tanker aircraft over Thailand as a flight of three. At the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Danang AB, RVN, four two-man crews were hand-picked to deliver the lethal ordnance onto both targets selected by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). God Bless you, Joe. Richard Stephen "Steve" Ritchie and Weapons System Officer Capt. So why were we going in anyway? In this MGTOW case, you had to have the stick in your lap before attaining 140 knots. (I would have loved to get into the left seat of a C-130, but if theyd assigned me to an O-2 Skymaster, that would have been fine too.). Every year on the 18th of December I start an eleven day ritual of emails to the Vietnam air warriors on the anniversary of the first night of Operation Linebacker II lest we forget the courage and sacrifices of all those who risked all from that first night until the 29th both tactical air and especially the B-52 crews. I turned that down, and promptly got drafted into the USArmy 31 days later! One source reported that the North Vietnamese claimed to have shot down 218 U.S. manned aircraft in air to air combat in Vietnam, of those kills, 85 are not supported by U.S. records, while another 37 were attributed by the U.S. to surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft fire. I am proud of you Joe and Scotty for your service and to be part of a community which recognises and should be proud of your example. I met and liked John Dremesi whose experience was the same as yours. They all worked too. Thanks for telling our story Joe. We had been taught to respect and trust the higher-ups that won WWII, Little could we conceive that the USMC and the USAF began the conflict with almost total ignorance of what was required for this exercise in power projection. I was the mouse. Hes a real dope. The SA-2 brought down many American pilots over North Vietnam. Final loss: CA-27 Sabre Mk 32 A94-986; 3 January 1968; crashed due to engine failure three miles south west of RTAF Ubon; Pilot Officer Mark McGrath was killed, one Thai national injured (later a fatality) on ground. NOTE: Misty numbers listed here were assigned after the war and relates to the order the pilot was assigned to the unit. I was concentrating on Scotty and my eyes were focused only on him. How many MiG-21 shot down in Vietnam? By the time of the American involvement in Southeast Asia communism, by moderate estimates, around the globe had murdered 110 million people! By The Associated Press. I was a bit young to be drafted for Vietnam but as a flying geek and guy who likes to learn about military history, Ive had conversations with many people involved in that conflict, including soldiers, marines, airmen and my brother, a draftee who walked point in the US Army in Vietnam. 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?. And all of us should remember them every day because we are we enjoy the freedoms their sacrifice every, single day. Dickens rescued) Final loss: 70-0945 (354th TFW) shot down in Cambodia on 25 May 1973 (Capt Jeremiah Costello KIA) First loss: B-26B 44-35530 (Detachment 2A, 1st ACG) shot down in IV CTZ on the night of 4-5 November 1962, killing the 3 crew In fact, there is no way you may be honored equal to what you gave. 17 apr 1966: arab 511, an a-1h (buno 135398), lt (jg) william l. tromp, va-115, went down following a night attack on coastal targets, near approximately 1818'n, 10610'e. arab 506, his wingman,. Before I could muse over any more unhappy endings, I was dropped onto the floor. On 3 January 1969 Light Attack Squadron Four (VAL-4) was commissioned at NAS North Island, California and after an intense period of training was transferred to Vietnam. He also stated that there were no MiG-17 aces. I will tell the story of Scotty and you and will encourage my son to never forget! I have the greatest respect and admiration for you and other Vietnam POWs for your courage and what you had to endure. I later learned that this controller had served many months in Saigon. Don Ward, came up to me and said words that someone in operations never, ever hears from anybody in maintenance. I was starting to get the idea. Final loss: EC-121R 67-21495 (554th RS) crashed on approach to Korat RTAFB on 6 September 1969, 4 of the 16 men were killed. More aircraft would be shot down and pilots killed or captured. God Bless you, Joe, and all those who flew and fought in Vietnam. Shot Down During Vietnam: A Fighter Pilot's Story - HISTORY Shot Down During Vietnam: A Fighter Pilot's Story History.com Editors TV-14 2:42 In 1966, an American fighter pilot took off. Knowing you were handled so badly by your bosses has to be a tough thing to take. It suddenly dawned on me that he would not surrender his place on the controllers list and lose the chance for his Silver Star! Vietnam War pilot tells his story of being shot down over enemy territory and his time as a POW. claimed to have shot down 215 planes. The last known photo of F-4C 64-0755, the Phantom flown in this article. When I was shot down I weighed 157 lbs. He was the last fighter pilot to become an ace in a day, shooting down five Indian Hawker . And when the pressurization system failed we were freezing our butts off! His wingman was Paul Reyes. Good or bad we all contributed and finally got the job done.May all our brothers and sisters that made the ultimate sacrifice, rest in peace. Have not seen him since 1962. 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). 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