The Gruelling Life Of A Pilot During The Vietnam War | Battlezone | War Stories

[Music] thank you [Music] a day can seem to have no beginning and no ending it becomes a 25-hour day that blends into the one that came before and the one that is to follow [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign it is not necessary to be a military man to understand how long a day can be a shot fired at the end whole the Nang Huang tree Hai Fong or near Hanoi can strike home in any City town or Hamlet of 50 sovereign states eight thousand miles away can still be very close to home and because it could come closer still we share the conflict and the strength we also share the understanding and the courage to prove that the honor of a nation's word has greater meaning than formal letters written on a scrap of paper [Music] [Music] a man with a weapon is if he is a reasonable man a man with a purpose the range of his understanding of his purpose reaches far beyond his line of sight he knows the big picture he understands that attempts to intimidate by force must be resisted by force before intimidation becomes a way of international right and this he also notices fighting and sweating on the ground are the spearheads of our Department of Defense total effort an effort concentrated to help the men on the ground to achieve their purpose and their mission above field and jungle close air support help clear the way for the man on the ground [Music] no reinforce it return to care and safety those who have taken as well skip support those men during the long hours of daylight and the longer hours of Darkness [Music] support them with B-52s against concentrations of troops and supplies give the enemy no chance to rest support them with tactical fighter bombers to keep up the pressure and help destroy our enemies ability and desire to attack support them with hundreds of thousands of tons by Airlift the supplies come through but there are other lines of supplies that flow the other way along the Ho Chi Minh trail it winds down from the north through mountain passes and under the cover of green top jungles for North Vietnam it is the lifeline for their aggression along the flank of southern Asia the coastline of North and South Vietnam takes the form of an elongated s a demilitarized zone between the two countries along the 17th parallel at the sea was established by solemn treaty [Music] to the north is China to the west or Laos Cambodia Thailand Burma India and Pakistan moving down from the north men oil machines the tools of War are fed along the Ho Chi Minh trail to bolster the aggression in the south they move by night over the narrow roads through mountain passes and along Trails hidden by the jungle foliage trucks and pack Laden coolies by the tens of thousands usually by day they remain hidden in the jungle to venture out again at nightfall to carry their lethal burdens along their narrow Lifeline of aggression that Lifeline must be severed when it is repaired as it always is it must be severed again history hit is an award-winning streaming platform built by history fans for history fans by subscribing to history hit you can access hundreds of hours of military history documentaries On Demand follow in the footsteps of the Essex dogs with Dan Jones will discover the history of archery with Ramirez we've built up an extensive library of history programs hundreds of hours of documentaries exclusive original films interviews and ad-free podcasts made for proper history fans sign up now for a free trial and War Stories fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code War Stories at checkout foreign increases in both men and equipment has required a very sharp increase in petroleum Imports since the first of this year the average monthly Imports petroleum is North Vietnam have increased 50 to 70 percent above the comparable period in 1965. stocks on hand prior to the attack were estimated to represent about two to four months Supply The increased importance of petroleum to the enemy's military effort to further attested by his action to improve the routes of infiltration some of these routes are new some have been widened some have been upgraded for all-weather use bypasses have been built and bamboo canopies or trellises have been built over the jungle roads in many places in order to inhibit observation of them from the air a result of the greatly increased movement of men and Supplies by truck and by motor power junks has been a shift from a small arms gorilla type operation against South Vietnam to a quasi-conventional military operation which involves major supplies major weapons and heavier equipment every gallon of fuel every gun bullet even every ration of Rights destroyed north of the 17th parallel saving the life of a man on the ground south of the 17th the military call it interdiction that is the mission of those who fly to the north support the men on the ground by strangling the supply routes they fly from the decks of our Navy's carriers they fly from the surface of the land the supersonic weapons of our Air Force's tactical Fighters they turn their noses north north towards Lugia pass toward the fuel storage areas near Hanoi North to interdict the trains carrying in supplies laughs the pilots do the flying the ground Crews keep flying it's an around-the-clock operation fly to Mission maintain the aircraft repair the battle damage so that the next mission can be flown no one counts the hours in a day they keep close track of the months and weeks that they have left to sweat out to complete their 12-month Tour of Duty but they don't count the hours in a day all activity is monitored in aircraft vehicle control each operation is on a fixed time schedule often planes have to fly on paper before they can fly on missions nobody's job is easy but then nobody ever said it would be every so often fellows will ask why me why should I be here one way or another they have to find the answer for themselves usually they do find the answer then they have another question what more can we do the answer to that one is simple work your guts out for the men who fly the planes a pilot's Tour of Duty is a hundred missions 100 Nations to be [Laughter] [Music] a hundred targets still unknown but it's live in my thunder strikes are telling globe [Music] I myself have known foreign for the pilots a day can start at 2 30 a.m or earlier or anytime [Music] somebody's son somebody's father maybe everybody's hope never before has air War demanded such degrees of judgment and responsible self-discipline in Mission briefing at tactical operations information pinpoints refueling tanker locations and gives us our ordinance configurations we'll get call signs and radio frequencies to use for the f4cs and our own f-105s will be flying cover against possible Mega Tech Wing intelligence will have photos of our Target area and what to expect in way of defenses the anti-aircraft and Small Arms fire are heavy worse for us in the surface-to-air missiles the Sams and they're bad enough but destroying our targets will help cut the flow of supplies toward the South furthermore the daily printage of Supply moved Overland from North Vietnam into South Vietnam has increased about 150 percent in the past year and the infiltration of armed personnel has increased about 120 during the same period before we suit up for a strike each fight leader breached his own flight there are four in a flight plus one extra a spare in case one of the four can't take off due to an aircraft mechanical problem our flight leader details on entry into the target area and then our tactics for getting the heck out of there we listen because we respect him because he'll be leading the way in five men in a small briefing room many groups of five in many small rooms or maybe the minute and a half they'll be over the target area they'll spend hours of flight planning and briefing Pilots have always been fighting men but the courage and Dairy today you have to add the great technical skill and self-discipline demanded by their sophisticated weapons but weapons no more effective than the men who fly them or those who keep them flying Jason point combat aircraft are maintained with a dedication that results in flying hours at a rate three times normal usage the lion Crews understand how much depends on them day after 25 hour day [Music] normally the spare is a very decent fellow but now he's been through the hours of pre-flight details he can't help but hope that one of the other aircraft will show up with a minor hydraulic leak or a cut Tire sometimes that happens but not today [Music] more supersonic blasts of power in the open ocean of the air ready to play their part in the overall coordinated effort there are other flights in the sky the f4cs are on Route at the same moment in time the big choppers affectionately known as the Jolly greens are on their way with a1es for their protective escort their object is to stay as close as possible to the Target area so that if a pilot in one of the attack planes has to hit the parachute then they can move in to pick him up if there's enemy ground fire those a1es dive in into keeping the enemies gets down [Music] the boys in the kc-135 tankers have been waiting to refuel the Tactical fighter bombers and route to their targets those kc-135s will keep orbiting in case any of the boys run short of fuel on the way home the overall coordination the total plan by the Department of Defense team effort the army of the Navy and the Air Force most people will ask Pilots the same questioning over and over aren't you scared the answer is always pretty much the same sure we're scared until we button down the hatch where a one-man sort of operation we're our own Navigator radio man radar operator and Bombardier getting into the target we have to take evasive action then it's pop-up Dive In drop the bombs and get the heck out of there you'll watch your fuel you go over in your mind what the intelligence boys will want to know about the results at the Target the ground defenses all the details it might be scared when you start but after that you just don't have the time [Music] um results positive [Music] the cockpit is a pilot's office management of that office must be as precise and efficient as the complex instruments with which it is equipped one flight of many flights there isn't a combat pilot who doesn't know it every bullet every gallon of oil every mortar stopped north of that 17th parallel can mean the life of one man 10 men 100 men south of that pair [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] rescue control has picked up a radio call for help from a pilot whose aircraft was hit and who had to eject he has contacted the Jolly greens and given them a fix on the down Pilot's approximate position [Music] [Music] I didn't realize my plane had been hit until the cockpit started filling up with smoke I punched out when that parachute blossomed I took a long deep breath then I landed in the trees and I don't really remember how I managed to climb down to the ground I let out a shelf for help on my radio then scrambled up the hill to get as close to the top as I could I shot off some pin flares when I saw the a1es and the Charlie green it's hard to put into words exactly how I felt when I knew that jolly green was going to get me out let's just say I prayed a little my own account and for those guys of search and air risk admissions to phone it's good to know you're not alone oh one flight's Mission has been completed but the Long Day's Work is far from over St will come the detailed intelligence debriefing at tactical operations center after the official debriefing flight leaders hold a session for critiquing their flight's performance as a unit and as individuals was there a delay in acquiring the target did one of the men press too low did they regroup promptly after hitting the target was element Integrity maintained you can never stop learning you might get away with an error in judgment one day tomorrow you may not be as lucky one flight of many flights but operations continue Around the Clock for the ground Crews it's 12 hours or more a day six days or more a week it could be drudgery if every man on the ground didn't know and understand that they are the ones who make it possible for those who fly to complete their missions it's about 13 30 hours now half past one in the afternoon of a day like every other day their flight takes off on another mission [Music] now those who went out earlier have a couple of hours off duty 100 Missions to be flown a hundred Bridges to be alone my left and right the rest of my mind helped keep me alive in my 105. I myself have flown no matter what they do or how relaxed they seem Pilots always wonder what tomorrow's Target will be a milk run or a tough one the answer comes at about 1800 hours when Flight planning for the next morning strike starts usually flight planning takes two or three hours on a new tough Target that time can easily be doubled a fragmentary order frag for short comes to the wing tactical operations center and it's the small part of the overall order that relates to the fighter wings the orders come down from DOD and The Joint Chiefs of Staff then at Wing level they are broken down and missions assigned to the squadrons there are many pranks that make up a day's total coordinated effort [Music] South Vietnam and to save the lives of those South the Canadians Americans Australians new zealanders and Koreans who are fighting to ensure that freedom the aircraft our pilots fly are compact highly maneuverable machines they have the inherent speed and versatility to be effective in aired aware or air-to-ground combat but they are only machines they must be maintained the record of keeping flying hours at a rate three times normal use speaks loudly and clearly for the kind of men who work with their hearts as well as with their minds and hands men are brave in many ways and there are many ways in which a man can show his courage courage can't be judged by a casual glance or the sound of a voice [Music] any fighting man will tell you you must know fear in order to find your true strength want a portrait of a hero take a snapshot of a pilot or another or another move your camera out to the line for long shots for close-ups carry it inside aircraft vehicle control to watch the men who often don't even see the planes they help keep flying let your camera travel into the air to fly with the men of the Aerospace rescue and Recovery Service will never find a man who thinks himself a hero or even considers himself as particularly Brave but they all share a common Bond and a common prize they are all working members of the same fighting team fighting each in his own ways try to slow down and if possible to break down the flow of supplies to the South and to adversely affect the will of North Vietnam for carrying on their aggressive operations uh the total task is large and yet as it always is each small fragment of that total is very personal men may live 3000 miles or more apart back home in the States but here there are no state lines no county lines no country boys or City Boys no one asks their social position or who their ancestors might or might not have been nor do we as a nation know what we as a nation have done to have deserved men such as these perhaps they reflect the courage and the strength instilled in them by their mothers and their fathers Perhaps it is the heritage of men who came before men who stood at Concord Bridge men who walked through Chateau chieri through the Arden forest and the undergrowth of Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima arranged the Skies over Pacific [ __ ] and over Africa and Europe half a world away we do not know what we have done to produce men such as bees but we do know these are our men our fathers our sons our brothers it is only right that not only should we be proud of them [Music] thank you foreign [Music] this is [Music] we've got three lieutenants coming in behind this f and they're they just finished 100 hundredth mission actually they got cycled through to go back up to rest cap one of our other Pilots that was shot down earlier so they they've just got 100 ones vicious and uh we're real proud of them because uh first of all not many lieutenants fly the 105. and secondly to get out admissions in it is outstanding we think all right we're going to meet him here at the end of the runway and take them on up to the uh parking space get a bottle of champagne and I imagine that three happy boys when all is said and done you really cannot adequately relate a war is too potent too personal war is living and laughing and crying and dying it has always been the man who fights who can best report a war if he will true his story may be confused sometimes harsh sometimes boisterously non-committal but it is real this is one segment one small insight into our present world this is the 105 story the story of fighter bomber pilots flying daily over the arms hands of North Vietnam during the month of November 1966 these are the men of the 388 tactical fighter wait and in particular the men of the 421st the fighting Cavalier Squadron [Music] what are they doing he said well how do I tell if they're friendly he says well if they come up with their hands over their heads they'll be friendly he said no one of these guys he's got a gun and I said well how far are you from him this is we're standing right here by me he said well it must be friendly oh [Music] three times [Music] [Music] [Music] dude I didn't know where he was all right that's two and he just lost the radio remember the instructor pilot t-38 Williams Air Force Base Arizona I'll be real quiet um all that and I'll go in and all the students will nudge each other and when they meet me and I'll be their instructor and they'll fly with me and they'll love each other and say whatever set of Rasmus do before he came here you know you know it'll be all cried no one will know until Friday will be graduation in mess dress and then I'll be with my hair metals and my DFCS and my silver star and my Commendation letter and my Vietnam service medal and all this stuff all the way across and I'll walk in with a slight limp and they're they'll say tell me about it oh it's just an old war injury 45 44. right 45 44 14. yeah well I was 42 43 now okay [Music] so you're gonna get two today huh foreign [Music] 27 number 90. let's swing even though we're roughly 100 miles from any sort of civilization morale is high here I've noticed that men know what they're doing and why they're here well if we still have to be over here I'll come right back to me you come right back and do another hitch to be here as you read uh [Music] our backyard enjoy some of the things I've been over here for such guys steam right away alive I served in World War II in the Southwest Pacific so they're doing Korea but when I leave here I still have some time [Music] here we sit out here in the middle of a strange country and away from uh everything that's familiar to us and I'm not speaking if I understand I'm talking to you for the maintenance people but uh there is a Pilots that couldn't have a morale Brown there's always something going there's always something going there's never a dull moment if there is a factor involved with a morale problem it's fatigue yes uh I personally try to discussion the man has put in 100 Mason's over North that's nice to go home to get arrested and come back however I have one pilot here that's just insisted and he's here his name is uh Lieutenant victim yeah I want to come back down how come you get to stay here it's a space we're exciting you could have stayed here already yeah Molly wouldn't have any part to do with that yeah okay there's there's the deal you know here very uh in we're spacing you know if you like if you like somebody well enough to be married with them no you don't want to be away from them for a year or eight months or anything like that how are you going to explain to the wife that you've put in for a concurrent story you know that you're going to take flying over her and it wouldn't happen that's why I'm sticking around so if that's where I go nothing going for me back in the states and the flying's good you don't have all the little nip pecking rules and regulations that you have to put up with it since we did it two months ago uh it's still a lot better than his back then I just you know I enjoy him and uh Jimmy it's the kind of deal like everybody says yeah I'm waving a flag but I'm back but at the same time you know we're gonna uh we're gonna stop it you know where's where's county is he's going to label her and uh the Philippines or in Australia or San Francisco or Des Moines Iowa you know you just stop it here or wait till summer or later on I don't think most people think about that they're like me you know what what happens you know if uh if I get shot down that to me now never give me anyways you're pretty mean to shave your mother I couldn't stand it anymore our bombing objectives I believe can be very distinctly divided into two phases our interdiction program conducted in the southern portion of North Vietnam in an attempt to deny movement of the enemy into South Vietnam and are strategic if you will objectives in the northern portion of North Vietnam in terms of attacking principal lines of communications the Northeast and the Northwest railroads which comprise the two most major railroads in North Vietnam also Pol installations and other military supply and storage areas located in the Delta regions of North Vietnam I just spared this right here that's uh getting ready to Big angle to take off is uh we've got over 50 airplanes involved in this Strike Force and it was uh going to be a big raid up near the Hanoi area but the weather's bad now they're going to various other areas a spare shop for every four airplanes we launched we launched one spare off the yellow runway in case well the airplanes were having trouble with they can fill in in any four position anywhere on the floor position he can be usually a leader so in case the leader aboard sneaking uh do you see this bike taking off now and then the airplane standing by is the spare he'll be uh coming back up like me probably pretty soon Bear's not a bad job because uh you do want quite a minute [Music] they like to try and fight the floor that's why we have a spare out there because if we didn't we'd never get another airplane up in time [Music] thank you foreign [Music] perfect [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] they are located up here in the I call a quadrangle the 469th here on your right fighting bulls to the left here 421st you're 34th and affecting it's about 26. aircraft 148 marks the beginning of a 421st tactical Fighter squatter area which uh I spend most of my time they have 20 aircraft assigned to the output as you can see uh they're all painted up and in different ways it's a primary identification feature is the red GCA deflector on the military strut here it's a matter of the window By the Light particular place so the doggone thing first associations I guess from a number of years back I care less about the airplane it doesn't make much ever made well I am and certainly from the maintenance standpoint was very reliable [Music] southeast Asia on the left here is uh age and proud support equipment we have about 300 pieces of it here and it's worth six million dollars the 105 is a very complicated weapon system and it's got radar gun sights Electronics uh all sorts of uh complicated electronic equipment in its Best Equipment here supports the the operation of the 105. this is uh thinking back at the complication of this weapon system you'd like to know that it takes 30 million hours of Maintenance people who uh support one hour of this airplane in the air that's how complicated it is average effects uh the back they're playing in the air force over here today to do the job this white line at night is a pretty active place there's more work done at night actually than there in the daytime so the daytime is is completely taken off with the launching and Recovery net I don't have much time than anything else plus there's a turnaround there's a lot of ball molding uh for the second Dome around noon but nothing like uh at night and put it on one airplane it doesn't come if it makes you have to take it off and put on another one it's pretty fussed in it they get it done somehow I don't know how but they do they we have a remarkable uh delivery rate here I can't remember the last time I got a maintenance non-delivery we're always getting out they do a real pain [Music] they said sport shirts not sporty shirts yeah [Music] no one Aaron's getting no mail darling around here taking place [Music] there [Music] was some friends [Music] what San Francisco [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] remembers most that's where the adrenaline starts to pump up the airplane's working all right use that container yeah get accepted again that means you're going yes that's your last chance the first flight goes through detector we stay with the paper you know before Christ and everybody and he stayed there and he stayed with a safer area after everybody gets full you explore your head up to your drop off point [Music] you go through and compound and it takes uh 1500 2 500 pounds and the point is that you can get four airplanes through the top off just uh and nothing takes a couple of minutes per airplane whereas for the original big brief joint why it takes quite some time it's a classic one if you put four flies on the camera and you extend immediately you get to the drop off point where the tanker has to turn back before you get to specify four plus advantages that everybody leaves four or close to four a lot of our mission is to uh observe what's going on in the ground what they're moving while they're moving to how to build bridge is the kind of conditioner and this sort of thing so we do need a lot of area that cloud cover is [Music] pretty you can't operate in a say around cumulus buildups where you're going around the tiles because the sun will come right straight through them and hit you incidentally there things we have lost to Sands has been in these conditions so we have to avoid it 25. [Music] [Music] [Music] okay now this is a CBU flight this is uh what's your second flight uh and then drive up there slow so you hit the red yeah [Music] indicates a small high pressure area Center just about over Hanoi which should make for Fairly good weather except for restricted visibilities in Haze crack your restaurant beta the weather on Fredericks tomorrow the last five minutes into the target just that went just to the Northwest and West is going to be the real pretty boy but we're just the same way yeah if everything works the same way tomorrow we'll get it get the water breaks sir tomorrow's Target is the Yen Ben Railroad it's the largest Railroad in all of North Vietnam function control all the traffic coming in from the North East Railroad in the Northwest railroad into Hanoi it then controls all traffic going south it's located five nautical mile north of annoy its defensive food a heavy concentration of AAA and there are 26 known Sam sites in the area Roscoe is brought here by a pilot from kadena who is temporarily assigned to the wing when the pilot was shot down up north Rosco sort of became everybody's dog the only tourism ride on base is a free agent and goes everywhere sorry about a [ __ ] with a big heart lots of guys for instance don't feel right unless he's saying they're in a Commander's chair during the mission briefing they say if he sleeps it's going to be an easy Mission if his ears perk up watch out the wind's there from the surface to five thousand feet along the coast are going around about 25 knots out of the Northeast get out of an aircraft report right over the mountain there you say this morning just about at mcgear pass at 5 000 feet he had a wind of zero three zero at 49. nobody dares say anything against someone outside and then you hear you hear stories and wild tales and so forth and uh I've learned a lovely Soul bird it uh it really does a job now there's not enough airplanes we've got they can do with this one well they just use as much they can be used and very successfully very successful the speed and the power even get there and get you out we hear an awful lot about surface-to-air missiles they're called Sam's are referred to as sa-2s this is a picture of an sa2 site situated in the immediate Hanoi area a close-up of this particular Target would look something like this very clearly you can observe the presence of sa2 missiles and in this area we find the radar van which controls the firing of the missiles and also tracks the aircraft along with providing guidance to the sa-2 missile our recently faced in flying in a North Vietnam with missile firings along with extremely heavy anti-aircraft I kind of call it the dry throat Mission myself usually I come out bouncing the target I'm just kind of sucking that water bottle dry throat but the only thing I can really say about the annoy area is about time you start cleaning off the tanker on the way after you begin getting butterflies and in your stomach naturally and uh then you begin settling down to the task at hand of navigating and finding your way up there and then once you arrive in the area you're generally pretty busy and although at times a thing you're still pretty scared when you have to roll in on something up there especially when you look down and see nothing but a black cloud or a white cloud down below yeah it's uh it's about as hysteria Mission as I've ever gonna I think it tries you to just about the maximum uh the missions if you can get between the ridge between the United radar sites they can't kind of missiles the city of annoyance isn't there because it's flat you have no protection and uh I don't know how true it is but it says the most heavily defending places in the history of warfare I've been there and I believe it everybody wear your black belt today guys no way you got those flags you're gonna Tire between the Rings yes sir now first of all I was on my bus is the radio which is the most important item we have a second item I would say in flares the bird is your weapon you have a compass and mirror for singling and find direction the most important one upon burrow out is the beeper I hear your ears too yeah [Music] okay I won't take it first way up there thank you foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there's a valley [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] time automatic equipment about 35 miles from our turnpoint s yeah [Music] wow [Music] let's go get it [Music] in front of him [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] everyone again [Music] endless days [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you Mr Magoo [Music] um there's another one [Music] [Music] [Music] ABC [Music] [Music] our train command as long as they go through one of the Tactical schools and uh a lot of 105 student attack their command back in the States and received a roughly 70 hours and 105. they did a good job here of course we don't start them out as flight leaders they stop either the number two or four possession and they set their own rate of progress well go to Phil yeah it's quite a fight yeah well after not flying for a couple months y'all feel good Ed we talk about a little bit yeah did you understand what we're trying to do when he was doing a wrecking how he was going back and forth on the road that was really when I was here yeah you said Oh you mean when I was uh yeah when you were wrecking earlier yeah I was flying I was trying to play recorded like this one yeah stay away from you there's no problem but you see the position that that you want you don't want to get down like this because you're getting the front you'll stay up like this you know any disappears just write it go higher and when he reverses takes all cops every time he looks out he looks right down there and see your wingman that's what you want to do when you go to the outside you don't want to get too high because it turns into that's what happened to me that one yeah don't get too high and don't get too low when you get too low and they shoot it at him and you're lower they'll probably hit you but at the same time if you get too high if he turns into you just like it says you could have walked out I've told you how complicated sorry it only can be effectively operated and utilized against the enemies by our two professionals and I promise to a professional policy where we do have a few youngsters out of the training still but most of uh our Pilots have been in the Air Force 10 to 12 years or longer and in fact we have some grandfathers here that's uh saying this world the rendezvous at 1315. well we'll have enough skill and to leave no tanks to make sure my best day was uh the 5th of July when I packed and destroyed the four sound sites and one 25 minute mission and this came about because uh in uh escorting the strike price two fam sites came up on our way in we had to uh attack these boys to turn them off the air to get into the target area all in the Target area another fam side came up threatened to strike force and of course we attacked and got him and then on the way back out to another Samsung site came up to block our exit out of the target area which was about 15 to 20 miles north of Hanoi and we only had one part of rockets and uh 20 millimeter cannon ammunition remaining but the t52 fans at us and we managed to Prime visually and put the rockets on him and machine gun him out of commission this would be the best day I've had and I don't care to go through another one of those a little too much for an old man all right [Music] I'll come up with one thing that in my own mind makes the Air Force a good organization and was one of the reasons I stayed in it after I got into Fighters and that's the people that are in it and I think this has been the most vividly demonstrated to me over here the uh I don't think you can get more Diversified type of an organization people Diversified backgrounds they have some old kids [Music] headquarters and things like that and we made a pretty good organization I think we kind of put a squadron if we could tell it to the world we put it on the map and I'm very happy to serve with each and every one of you troops so if I could if I can swing a deal to get down south with uh oh [Music] [Music] yeah but uh I think they're all paid for 16 years uh it's my job as a very bad I've got three children I've got a six-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl and a 17 year old girl so I'm just watching kids grow up so forth I don't care if they're not getting these kids they're fast or whatever I have no desire to those band villages yeah four women and children at all I've been very careful messages I'm very careful I think most of Hamilton is [Music] they don't accidentally yeah nothing goes right here [Music] it's military importance on a 13 payment we were flying a starting Mission North Vietnam we just discovered that like in Memphis on Transporters it's main shopping Arkansas and they're looking for something to restraint and found a flashlight make a pass and I took a drug test me at 37 to 57. Carl I was here leading you again they didn't hear my radio station because I was number four man thought it was a missile told me I was the same number three man said no that's two he's on fire and I got about a minute and 10 or 20 seconds flying time out of the aircraft for about 40 miles away from where I was here and they had a minor explosion lost by the expression [Music] cut my foot was getting out everything else was uneventful after the shoot open stand landed in the trees that way you're outside for the frame release [Music] 45 or 50 minutes to get to mean about five or six minutes to pick me up oh that's a good you know you get up in the 90s and you got 10 to go and you say well I'm going home pretty soon so I gotta tell these guys something wait a minute this is my speech [Music] yes besides working with all you guys and your names here [Music] I don't remember you guys you remember the guys you fought with [Music] thank you this has been the story of fighter bomber Pilots at karate Air Base Thailand for the flyer living the hell over Hanoi facing up to the odds there is a simple yet poignant phrase there ain't no way there ain't no way there ain't no way but there comes the day for most when the job is done there's no way [Music] he died together [Music]

Channel: War Stories

Views: 19,010

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, Full Documentary, Vietnam War, American History, Pilot, Battlezone

Id: damLd3s3zNE

Length: 82min 35sec (4955 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023