French-Indo China had been an imperialist hot bed for years, not to mention part of the communist domino effect after WW 2 that everyone was paranoid about. As a 110 F4 combat mission Vet, Id like to know. . Joe could have saved lives and saved 6 years of his own if had just stayed home. And all of us should remember them every day because we are we enjoy the freedoms their sacrifice every, single day. Crecca/Wilson International would be my recommendation in honor of a deceased F4 pilot and a 6 year POW since the F4 was the most numerous of Vietnam War aircraft casualties. List of aircraft losses of the Vietnam War. Glad to see you made it home, I remember that in 1972, 3, 4 & 5 most of America was oblivious to the fact that there was still a war going on & had moved on. God-Speed to our brothers in arms, where ever they may be! He told me join up. All of a sudden, they stood me up. Thank you Mr. Meadows, And we who flew the mighty Phantoms were in your debt,too. It was you who were suffering in the oppressive heat & humidity. Don Ward, came up to me and said words that someone in operations never, ever hears from anybody in maintenance. 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? u-6 losses need added all are army fixed wing aircraft, 5,195+ (which include not in addition to the above statistics)[2], North Vietnam captured 877 South Vietnamese aircraft at war's end. Thank you again Sir and God bless. The session finally came to an end after midnight. 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. As I approached the left wing in my walk around, I noticed a large patch, roughly 30 by 8 riveted just inboard of the left wing-fold. Despite being a first lieutenant, Scotty Wilson was in my opinion, the best stick in the 480thTactical Fighter Squadron. Then, I was pushed face down to the floor and blindfolded. I would spend the next six years and three months in five different prison camps around the city and countryside in North Vietnam; the farthest very near to the Chinese border. And when the pressurization system failed we were freezing our butts off! Joe Crecca would spend more than six years in various prison camps. They did not want to lose their Skin in this deadly game while other Americans bravely went to war. Col. Jack Broughton had stated in THUD RIDGE that a few days of bombing Hanoi set them back 6 months in ammo and people coming down the Ho Chi Minh trail which we were shelling every night with 8 inch artillery. I cried like a baby. At 10,000 ft, the automatic man-seat separation features operated exactly as advertised. 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. Glad you made it home safe after 6 years in the north. At the very least, he had just been knocked out. God bless you and may you enjoy a much well deserved retirement. He makes us tell a war story that we have heard. Scottys arms seemed to be at his sides and head slumped forward. You willingly took huge risks, knowing that that mission could be your last. It was -55F at 32,000 feet for over two hours and pressure breathing 100% Oxygen in a summer flight suit. Nose wheel liftoff speed was calculated to be over 170 knots and liftoff at nearly 200 knots or 230 mph! Id pulled the lower ejection handle and was away from my burning Phantom. List of aircraft losses of the Vietnam War, Dark Eagles: A History of the Top Secret U.S. Aircraft (1999). When I was shot down I weighed 157 lbs. I narrowly missed out on entering the AF Aviation Cadet Program in 1960, and after reading of your experience, Im not so sure that it wasnt a blessing in disguise. Well, at least you tried. records. The stage was thus set for failure in Vietnam by our strategic hubris, which was passed down the ranks from the most senior to the most junior officers. We lost him in 2012. 1LT ALDRICH ROBERT HENRY BNR 12/27/1971154013 HMM-165 WO1 ALEXANDER BARRY KENNETH KIA 09/22/196968-513/68-23 71 AHC CPT ALEXANDER DAVID LEE KIA 02/06/197170-20 67-18493178 ASHC Im sorry for the ignorant and ungrateful ones who are so foolish and disrespectful to you on this thread. The United States loses its first B-52 of the war. April 26, 1968 : C-130B 60-0298, c/n 3602, of the 773d Tactical Airlift Squadron, shot down dropping load at A Loui, South Vietnam. North Vietnam, pre-1975: Killing of Two American Pilots Shot Down Over North Vietnam IIR Casualty files | William A. Ott. Peebles Curtis. After all that I suffered dont you dare tell me I had no business being there! Galand himself would be shot down two months later. My father was lost in 64-0771 out of Cam Rahn 9/3/66. I would have done the same thing. Get it? The political strategy of Rolling Thunder was absurd from the git-go. Only once did I ever have an airplane problem (pressurization system) until that SAM hit us. Phew! Sign up for our free email newsletter, packed with tips, tricks and news for pilots. 4 of the combat losses were parked aircraft. He took off the next several days. I reported I wasnt sure which (if any) was his. How many F 105s shot down in Vietnam? Joes epilogue sums it all up. Source for F-4 losses is Phantom with U.S. Marine Corps (Joe Baugher), others are unsourced, Production of a total of 380 Mohawks ended in December 1970. At 0600, I awoke to the annoying buzzer of my Telechron alarm clock. Hes a real dope. Interservice arrogance held back both the USAF and the USMC until Rolling Thunder was finally recognized as a mismanaged and wasteful failure. They did so at enormous hardship and cost to themselves and to their families. It was moving and changing shape ever so slowly. The lone horse jumped the fence and hadnt been seen. I put off law school acceptance for a year to volunteer for the combat tour instead. We were going to make it. Did a Korea tour also when enlisted. At this point I could only pray he would revive by the time he reached the ground. On Oct. 26, McCain would fly his 23rd run over North Vietnam, joining a 20-plane mission to bomb a power plant in the capital city of Hanoi, which had been off-limits to U.S. attacks . Thank you for your expressions of gratitude, sir. I hope the AFJ editor will exercise more discretion in the future. But with no guarantee to get the slot you wanted you made the right choice to bail out. At this point, because of the unexpected turn, our formation was too bunched up; we were too close to each other to be able to provide mutual look-out support. Soviet General Fesenko, the main Soviet adviser to the North Vietnamese Air Force in 1972, recorded 34 MiG-21s destroyed in 1972. God Bless all who serve. 532 aircraft were lost in combat and 329 more to operational causes, resulting in the deaths of 401 naval aviators, with 64 airmen reported missing and 179 taken prisoner of war. Thank you for your bravery and endurance. He did what he had to do, did what he was asked to do by his country. My brother got spit on when he landed in Atlanta on his way home. The Douglas A-1E Skyraider (U.S. Navy BuNo 132649) at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (Dayton, Ohio, USA) is the airplane flown by Maj. Bernard Fisher on 10 March 1966, when he rescued a fellow pilot shot down over South Vietnam in the midst of enemy troops. 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! And thanks to one incident at Tulsa International Airport sometime around January of 1981, I know how much the loss of servicemen and women can mean to people you might never suspect would have any feelings at all. Charles Barbin DeBellevue successfully shot down a North Vietnamese-flown Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 from their McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II. 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. Its entirely, entirely because of you guys. I am grateful to him for that, beyond measure. I recommend . I wanted to wipe the blood away but my hands were tied behind my back. And they did so with knives having little concept or knowledge of zippers, snaps or the technical difficulties associated with releasing parachute risers. In that instant, I realized how I would die; they were going to slice my head off. Well written as you brought each of us along with you in the cockpit as your descriptives of that entire mission were intense. Thus ended my first day as a POW in North Vietnam. The Royal Australian Air Force also flew combat and airlift missions in South Vietnam, as did the Republic of Vietnam. Both Aircrew members were Killed In-Action, Last VAL-4 loss: 155461 crashed on 9 February 1972. Hayden Lockhart was the first Air Force pilot to fall into North Vietnamese hands. Cliff, I am very sorry for the loss of your Dad. During the tour at NKP Thailand, I had opportunity to go TDY to Ubon Air base. Subconsciously I probably realized I was sitting alone in the back seat of a burning airplane. 83rd Arty 101ABN DIVARTY The clouds were reported to be at 10,000 ft. "Kos" and "Daily Kos" are registered trademarks of Kos Media, LLC. The former fighter pilot, who was shot down over Vietnam in 1967, went on: Our flight should never have been going into the target. Never regretted. There will always be those who dont get it. Here is how I replied to another anti-war zealot two years ago, 2/17/2017 in the AFJ Comments section: War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. Mr. Crecca was a POW for the next six years and three months until his repatriation on February 18, 1973. Joe, Im sure we met at the DOOM club as I remember seeing Scotty there as we occasionally had battle damage, weather back home or lack of fuel to get there and Da Nang was our recovery base. 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. Crash Location: Into Sea off southwest coast of Vietnam near Rach Gia and Ca Mau. Have not seen him since 1962. 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. I flew Phantoms until leaving to fly transports for Flying Tigers and then Federal Express. It was a moving story. 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. Fritz came in with the rest of his nape and sent a SAM across the tree line like a horizontal Roman candle. SGT Sam Tenorio [G] 2 injured. I last read he is in the state of Washington. 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! It was people! I lost mine 5 years before I was released. I found out what its like to be a zoo animal except nobody threw me any peanuts. But I dont think they fixed it right. Just as we were positioning ourselves for the right-hand turn at Bravo, the lead aircraft unexpectedly turned to the left. (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.). On Sept. 12, 1968, F-100D pilot Capt. Global Security, "A War too Long: The USAF in Southeast Asia 19611975", http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/virtual_disk_library/index.cgi/1025775/FID1977/NAVY/Chap_3.pdf, USMC HELO LOSSES(19621973) by aircraft type, "The OV-1 Mohawk Remembered Firsthand: Piloting the Mohawk in Vietnam", "SE Asia and Vietnam: Royal Australian Air Force", "Image Galleries 2009 - Department of Defence", " - - www.skywar.ru", U.S. Air-to-Air Victories during the Cold War, Wars in Yugoslavia, and Anti-Terror War, Widow travels to Vietnam after 40 years and finds her MIA husband's Marine Corps F-4 jet crash site in Que Son Mtns, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_aircraft_losses_of_the_Vietnam_War&oldid=1133364112, First loss: A-1E 52-132465 (1st Air Commando Squadron [ACS], 34th Tactical Group [TG]) shot down during night training mission on 29 August 1964 near, Final loss: A-1H 52-139738 (1st Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing) which was shot down 28 September 1972 (pilot was rescued by an, First loss: 710310 (355th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 354th TFW) on 2 December 1972 shot down on a, Final loss: 700945 (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 45 November 1962, killing the 3 crew, Final loss: A-26A 64-17646 (609th SOS, 56th SOW) lost over Laos on the night of 78 July 1969, killing both crewmen, First loss: AC-119G 52-5907 (Det.1, 17th SOS, 14th SOW) which crashed on take-off from, Final loss: AC-119K 53-7826 (18th SOS, 56th SOW out of, First losses were operational (non-combat) mid-air collision 2 B-52F 57-0047 and 57-0179 (441st Bomb Squadron, 320th Bomb Wing), 18 June 1965, South China Sea during air refueling orbit, 8 of 12 crewmen killed, Final loss: B-52D 55-0056 (307th Bomb Wing Provisional) to SAM 4 January 1973, crew rescued from Gulf of Tonkin. 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