GUNFIGHTER AIRLINES -PART 1

PRODIGY(R) Service Personal Message 01/31/96

To: AFWA58C From: AFWA58A

Subject: GUNFIGHTER -PART 1 Date: 01/29/9609:34 PM

* * * * * * * * * * GUNFIGHTER AIRLINES -PART 1

The time was July 1967. I had just completed the Armed Forces Staff College (AFSC), the Joint Services professional education school at Norfolk, VA. It was a wonderful five months of relaxed study of how joint staffs were supposed to work and it was described as the last of the "gentlemen's" schools. That was because they had no tests. That may sound a 1ittle loose, but actually, I think I learned more from that school than any other that I attended. (More on that in another segment.)

All of us at AFSC had grown more and more restless as we went through our training, because we each knew that the likelihood of an assignment to Southeast Asia was almost certain. The war in Vietnam was at it's peak and we daily read and heard news of the air war and the progress of the troops on the ground. In the easy camaraderie of the seminar groups we trained in during our five months together, we couldn't escape the fact that many of our friends were going to be "in harm's way" soon. And yet, in the way of most warriors in every era, we were "ten-feet tall and bullet-proof" in our own minds.

About half-way through training, I had orders for an EB-66 assignment to Thailand. Knowing that the mission of the EB-66 was to provide Electronic Countermeasure support for striking U.S. aircraft over North Vietnam, I had mixed feelings. Coming from a Strategic Air Command background, I had been on a Combat Crew for over 10 years with constant readiness to fly nuclear missions deep into the Soviet Union. In a very real sense I had been "at war" for those ten years, but I had never been physically shot at. Professionally, I looked forward to doing what I had been trained for...air combat at last. But, I'll have to admit that the prospects of leaving my family for a full year gave me a deep sense of loss months before I would really have to leave. I'd also have to admit that I didn't know whether I could "cut the mustard" in an actual combat situation, day after day for a year. But like many others before me, I gritted my teeth and pressed on to complete my AFSC training and planned to take both combat and separation one day at a time.

In our briefings each week, we got many of the top-brass from all levels of the Air Force and I tried often to gather information on exactly what the EB-66 was doing there. I actually got to ask a question of then Chief-of-Staff of the Air Force, General David Jones and he told me...Just two words: "ELINT and ECM". There I was, hanging on every word he might say to enlighten me and he told me exactly what I already knew and not one detail more. "ELINT", meant Electronic Intelligence and "ECM", meant Electronic Counter-measures. I could forget about more details until I actually got there. Actually, I could forget about the whole thing as it turned out. My first orders to Thailand were cancelled.

It turned out that the Air Force, in it's wonderful wisdom, thought they needed me more at DaNanq Air Base, South Vietnam in an intelligence job. I only found out a couple of weeks before graduation from AFSC, but at least it was in time to keep me from losing any baggage. I knew of several instances where Air Force personnel were already in transit to the new location and had orders changed...sometimes with 12,000 pounds of household goods going to a location 1000 or more miles from where they were then assigned.

As we graduated from AFSC, I had one month to take my family to a location where they would be reasonably well off for the year apart. Because we had pulled up roots pretty well when we left Grissom AFB, Indiana to go to Armed Forces Staff College and were in government quarters at Norfolk during school, a move SOMEPLACE was a necessity. Because we had earlier had a nice experience in Fort Worth, Texas during B-58 training and still knew friends there at church, Fort Worth became our number one choice.

We made a very direct trip to Fort Worth from Norfolk with all of our household goods that we had used at school on the road about the same time. All was sent to temporary storage in Texas until we could find a place. At the same time, all of our household goods that we had stored in Indiana when we left there, joined us in Fort Worth. It would be like "Christmas-time" as we opened boxes that had been stored for six months. We found things we didn't know were there!

On arrival in Fort Worth, we immediately set about the process of house-hunting. Incredibly, we went through ALL of the housing list available from Carswell AFB and found NOTHING! The housing market in that city was dominated by the General Dynamics plant (which built the B-58) nearby. They were in a hiring phase and houses were nowhere to be found. We then hit upon a system which worked for us. We just drove down streets in the areas we were interested in until we found moving vans. We then asked, "Are you coming or going?" When we found one "going", we asked if the house was for rent. We finally found a house in Ridgelee Hills, a very up-scale area convenient to both Carswell AFB for commissary, hospital and BX support of the family and to church for spiritual support, which was even more important.

Our landlord-to-be had not intended to rent the house, but when I asked, he gave me a price well above what we thought we could afford. When he asked, "Well, how much COULD you afford?" , I told him my meager (at that time) housing allowance. He responded, "Well, that doesn't even pay my mortgage payment, but OK, I'll do it." We almost fell over.

We were very thankful to have a place to live, for time was really short in our minds and there was much to do. We quickly moved in and in our haste, did So BEFORE we could get a lease agreement from our landlord. Only after I had moved completely in, did I question the wisdom of my haste. When I realized that he could have charged me more and even made all kinds of restrictions, I was pretty anxious to get the paperwork complete. I had to repeatedly ask him for about two weeks before he had it finalized for me to sign. When he did, I was almost afraid to look. Amazingly, not only was it exactly what we had agreed upon, but he GAVE us almost a month's free rent.

Time flew by. All of the preparations of making a home in Fort Worth and the knowledge that I would be away for one full year, seemed to move the days on the calendar at 10 times normal speed. I rehearsed all of the home maintenance things with the family that they would need to know while I was away and made arrangements with local friends to take care of my loved ones when emergencies arose. It was a very difficult time for all of us as the time grew shorter. And then the day arrived, about the 7th of August, 1967.

My flight was from Love Field in Dallas, but somehow, I had the erroneous feeling that it was located half-way between Fort Worth and Dallas. Takeoff was about 5:00 p.m. We moved like molasses all morning. It seemed like the act of putting it off until the very last possible moment would somehow keep it from happening, like you could post-pone the inevitable. We got the family in the car at the last possible moment to get to the expected location of Love Field...half way to Dallas, we thought. Well, about the time we got to "half way", it was very clear that it wasn't Love Field and the real Love Field was all the way into Dallas. Each mile found my foot a little closer to the floor and we were soon covering those Texas miles at almost 80 mph, only to get into dense traffic on the outskirts of Dallas. At my flight time, we were stuck in traffic and actually watched my plane leaving Love Field! Now what? Maybe, I wouldn't have to go!

No such luck! There was another flight two hours later to Norton AFB, California, where I was to catch a connecting military contract flight on Continental Airlines to DaNang. So, after trying everything to avoid lingering, painful delays at the airport, we got to enjoy two hours of it. In retrospect, it was wonderful to have even one minute more with the family that I was to leave for a year under very difficult conditions for all of us-

* * * Next time...the flight into DaNang..."Descent into Darkness" * * * * *

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