Some of the pilots who flew the Thud

The F-105 Thud, a legend flown by legends
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The F-105 Thud, a legend flown by
legends
Go!
August 30, 2005
Some of the pilots who flew the Thud
During the course of our research, it became obvious that the
Rolling Thunder target area in northeastern North Vietnam was
a mighty dangerous area. It is also obvious that our pilots were
flying an airplane not designed for the job for which they were
tasked. So, as is almost always the case, you are left with the
pilots and their crew chiefs and mechanics, the men and
women who have to get the job done no matter what the
challenges
We can't introduce you to all of them, but we want to introduce
you to some so you can get a feel for what kind of people they
were, and what kind of missions they flew. There is no priority
to the way we present these guys; the order simply reflects the
order in which we found out about them.
Let's start with Major Cliff
Cushman, 469th TFS, Korat.
He was shot down in roughly
the same area (Kep, North
Vietnam) as was Captain
Leetun, and he was shot
down about a week after
Leetun was lost. The date was
September 27, 1966 .
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Cushman was number two in
a flight of three F-105s targeted at a railroad bridge near the
Kep Air Base. Cushman's callsign was “Devil 2." He followed
Devil Lead into the target, dropped his load, and, after pulling
off the target was hit by enemy anti-aircraft artillery (AAA).
He reported losing stability, augmentation and aircraft power.
Devil Lead saw Cushman's afterburner light, a simultaneous
torch of flames right aft, and then Devil 2 broke apart.
Cushman did manage to eject, and there was a beeper, but
radio contact could not be made with him following ejection.
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F-105 Thunderchief, the
airplane
The F-105's targets,
Rolling Thunder in
northeastern North
Vietnam
Some of the pilots who flew
the Thud
Concluding comments
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The F-105 Thud, a legend flown by legends
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Medals of Honor
This photograph is of the limestone karst topography and rice fields in nearby
China, the same as encountered in northeast North Vietnam by our pilots.
Photo credit: provided by www.downtheroad.org The Ongoing Global
Bicycle Adventure
The area in which he ejected, populated by rough karsts, was
too dangerous for a search and rescue (SAR). Years later, an
investigation team learned from local villagers that a USAF
pilot had ejected into this area, had very bad head wounds,
probably from hitting the limestone of the karsts, died and was
buried, but the burial site had reportedly washed away. To our
knowledge, Cushman has never been found. Skeptics doubt the
story, worrying that he met his fate at the hands of enemy
forces.
You might know the name Cliff Cushman.
He was a world-class hurdler, captain of
the Kansas Track & Field Team, a
two-time All-American at Kansas (Class
of 1961) out of Grand Forks, North
Dakota, a native of Iowa, and a 1960
Rome Olympics Silver Medalist in the
400-meter hurdles, beaten by the famous
Glenn Davis. Dave Clark, his roommate at
those Olympics, a pole vaulter, described him as a gentle guy,
quiet, introverted, a "perfect gentleman." Clark could not
understand why Cushman did not try to get out of Vietnam. He
probably did not know that Cushman was in Air Force ROTC
and fell in love with jets then. Nonetheless, Clark would
comment, "He hardly seemed like a warrior." Clark, knowing
Cushman's competitiveness on the track and field, should have
known better. He would later come to learn about the magic.
On May 1, 2004, Clark wrote this:
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On Mar. 10 1967, then
Captain Merlyn H.
Dethlefsen, Greenville, Iowa
and 354th TFS was flying an
F-105F as No. 3 in a
four-plane formation on a
mission against the Thai
Nguyen Steel Mill, 50 miles
north of Hanoi. The task for
the F-105s was to knock out
surface-to-air (SAM) and
antiaircraft gun sites before
the bombing forces arrived.
When the four F-105s made
their low-altitude attack run,
the flight leader was shot
down and No. 2 was
damaged so heavily that he
had to head homeward.
Although standard tactics
called for only one attack
pass on such a heavily
defended area, or two at the
most, Lt. Col. Dethlefsen
decided not to leave the area,
but to continue his attacks.
However, a MiG appeared
and he had to fly through
heavy antiaircraft fire to
escape from the MiG; in
doing so, his F-105 was also
hit and seriously damaged.
Instead of heading for home,
he elected to carry-on and
even after the steel mill had
been bombed and the
bombing force had
withdrawn, he, along with
his wingman, stayed in the
target area looking for SAM
sites. After evading a second
MiG and then having his
F-105 hit once again by flak,
the he spotted two SAM sites
and attacked, destroying
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"Attempting to qualify for the '64 Olympics, Cushman
fell at the trials in Los Angeles. On the flight home,
responding to sympathies, he wrote newspapers in Grand
Forks, Iowa and Kansas. He told everyone not to pity
him. 'You watched me hit the fifth hurdle, fall and lie on
the track in an inglorious heap of skinned elbows,
bruised hips, torn knees and injured pride. ... In a split
second, all the many years of training, pain, sweat and
blisters and agony of running were simply and
irrevocably wiped out. But I tried!' He cited Romans
5:3-5, about the link between suffering and endurance
and character and hope. And then he dared young
people. Dared them to cut their hair, clean up their
language, honor their parents, go to church, help
someone less fortunate, get in shape, read a book. 'I dare
you to look up at the stars, not down in the mud,' he
wrote, 'and set your sights on one of them that, up to
now, you thought was unattainable.'"
You can hear the fire in Cushman's belly in those words.
Cushman is listed as number 6 of the 50 greatest sports figures
of North Dakota in the 20th century, behind the likes of Roger
Maris (New York Yankees), Phil Jackson (NBA player and
coach), and Lute Olson (Arizona NCAA basketball coach).
Then there's Ed Rasimus's book,
When Thunder Rolled. The first
line in Chapter 1 is:
“How'd I get myself into
this?”
He goes on to write:
“It's May 1966, and I'm
riding an airline into San
Francisco, on my way to
the ol' 'date with destiny.'
Flying had been a dream
since I was in the seventh
grade in Chicago. If I had thought about it a little more, I
would have figured out that a guy can get himself dead
or even worse doing this kind of thing. Now it was
getting serious. Here I was on the downhill slide into the
Vietnam air war as a fully qualified F-105 pilot. Clearly
an example of knowing exactly what you want until you
get it and then finding out it ain't so good. Now the
thought continually running through my mind is how do
I break the chain. How do I get out of this?
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them both. Only then did he
head his battered F-105 for
friendly territory.
For his valor in combat
above and beyond the call of
duty, Dethlefsen received the
Medal of Honor, the third
USAF member to receive the
award during the South East
Asian (SEA) conflict.
On April 19, 1967, then
Major Leo Thorsness,
Walnut Grove, Minnesota
and 357th TFS flew an F-105
aircraft on a surface-to-air
missile suppression mission
over North Vietnam. Lt. Col.
Thorsness and his wingman
attacked and silenced a
surface-to-air missile site
with air-to-ground missiles,
and then destroyed a second
surface-to-air missile site
with bombs.
In the attack on the second
missile site, Lt. Col.
Thorsness' wingman was
shot down by intensive
antiaircraft fire, and the 2
crewmembers abandoned
their aircraft. Lt. Col.
Thorsness circled the
descending parachutes to
keep the crewmembers in
sight and relay their position
to the Search and Rescue
Center.
During this maneuver, a
MiG-17 was sighted in the
area. Lt. Col. Thorsness
immediately initiated an
attack and destroyed the
MiG. Because his aircraft
was low on fuel, he was
forced to depart the area in
search of a tanker. Upon
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“Why the 105? It must have been an occurrence in my
formative years … Or maybe it was that July afternoon
… cruising down Route 66 just west of Holbrook, on my
way to start Air Force pilot training at Williams AFB
outside of Phoenix. Windows open on the '63 Impala, all
my worldly possessions in the trunk and the back seat,
and me wondering absently about the new world I am
about to enter. Then, with a blink of a shadow over the
car and a nearly mind-numbing roar, two Thunderchiefs
not more than a hundred feet above me blasting down
straddling the highway. That's it. That's for me. I've gotta
fly the 105. Life couldn't be better than that.”
Ned Colburn, and EB-66
Electronic Warfare Officer
(EWO), tells about Major
“Buns” Frasier, an F-105
pilot in the 333rd TFS at
Takhli RTAFB. Buns was 6'
3” tall, 250 lbs, and “had to
be lubricated and inserted
into the cockpit of the F-105
with a giant shoe horn. Once
installed, Buns was literally
an integral part of the aircraft
and flew it as such.” You can
see the budding artist here
painting an F-105 on a wall at
Takhli during one of the
bombing pauses declared by
the suits.
Colburn goes on to describe a
scene at the Officers Club, the
wing commander seated
alongside “the most beautiful,
delectable, round-eye
(American female) in an ultra short skirt that only a male in the
jungle of Thailand could dream about,” and the chaplain, a
former fighter pilot, drinking with a congressman (the
round-eye's escort) and smashing their glasses against the
teakwood paneling.”
being advised that 2
helicopters were orbiting
over the downed crew's
position and that there were
hostile MiGs in the area
posing a serious threat to the
helicopters, Lt. Col.
Thorsness, despite his low
fuel condition, decided to
return alone through a
hostile environment of
surface-to-air missile and
antiaircraft defenses to the
downed crew's position. As
he approached the area, he
spotted 4 MiG-17 aircraft
and immediately initiated an
attack on the MiGs,
damaging one and driving
the others away from the
rescue scene.
When it became apparent
that an aircraft in the area
was critically low on fuel
and the crew would have to
abandon the aircraft unless
they could reach a tanker, Lt.
Col. Thorsness, although
critically short on fuel
himself, helped to avert
further possible loss of life
and a friendly aircraft by
recovering at a forward
operating base, thus allowing
the aircraft in emergency
fuel condition to refuel
safely.
Lt. Col. Thorsness'
extraordinary heroism,
self-sacrifice, and personal
bravery involving
conspicuous risk of life were
in the highest traditions of
the military service, and
have reflected great credit
upon himself and the U.S.
Air Force.
Air Force Cross
There were some press people with the congressman, and one,
from Time magazine, stood next to Buns at the urinal, asking
about what it's like to fly the F-105 in combat over North
Vietnam. The long and short of it went something like this,
with Buns answering a question posed by the reporter:
“All we F-105 pilots fight over who gets to fly on
Sunday missions where we go to Hanoi, fire our machine
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guns to ring the church bell, and when all the little kids
come out of the houses to go to Sunday school, we drop
napalm on them.”
Shocked, the reporter responded, “Major Frasier, you are
putting me on in the most absurd fashion, trying to make me
look like an idiot!”
Buns replied:
“You don't need any help making yourself look like an
idiot, you Rufus Doofus Dunderhead! All I'm doing is
illustrating how your article in Time Magazine will read
regardless of what I tell you as the real facts of the
matter - so Buzz Off Buster!”
End of interview. You gotta love Buns!
Ray Merritt was assigned to the 67th TFS of the 18th TFW
from Kadena, and rotated in and out of Korat. He flew F-105
missions over North Vietnam between February and
September 1965, and was shot down over North Vietnam in
September. He was captured and held prisoner in and around
North Vietnam until our POWs were released in February
1973. He was interviewed by Dr. Richard Verrone as part of
the Vietnam Oral History Project at Texas Tech University.
Merritt flew the F-84 for the USAF in combat in Korea, and
the F-105 in Vietnam.
While in Okinawa, Merritt's job with his nuclear F-105 was “to
keep China in bay. We had aircraft on alert same as Strategic
Air Command (SAC), to attack targets, if ordered, on the
mainland…Southeast Asia was a blip down there where you'd
hear about it and didn't seem to be that much going on that we
knew of.”
Before he knew it, family all settled in at Kadena, Merritt's
squadron was ordered to Korat. What stands out in his
descriptions of participating in the first Air Force bombing
missions into North Vietnam and in the Rolling Thunder
operations were the restrictions placed on our pilots,
restrictions he scoffed at with noticeable contempt. We'll
provide a string of excerpts to give you the feel:
“Of course, we had all this stuff laid out on our map
where the DMZ was, where we could fly, where we
couldn't fly. It was very, very tight control on what you
could or could not do if and when we went into North
Vietnam … Now also at this time, we were cautioned
against saying that we were using Thai airbases. That
was still something going on between the US
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By our count, thirty-nine
F-105 fliers received the Air
Force Cross, the second
highest award for valor in
combat. To our knowledge,
only one man has received
three Air Force Crosses,
Colonel James H. Kasler.
During the Korean War, Lt.
Kasler flew the F-86 and
shot down six enemy MiGs
to become one of the
USAF's few jet aces, and
received the Silver Star and
three Distinguished Flying
Crosses (DFC).
On June 29, 1966, serving as
operations officer of the
354th TFS at Takhli RTAFB,
Major Kasler's actions
earned him his first Air
Force Cross while flying as
F-105 mission commander
of a perfec5t strike on the
heavily defended Hanoi
petroleum storage complex.
Five weeks later, on his 91st
mission, he led a formation
evaluating low-level delivery
against a high priority target.
His wingman was hit and
ejected, Major. Kasler
located the downed pilot,
flew cover at low altitude
until his fuel was almost
exhausted, refueled with a
tanker, and returned to direct
rescue operations. Flying at
low altitude trying to
precisely locate his
wingman, Kasler's F-105
was struck by ground fire, he
ejected, was captured, and
served over six years as a
POW.
Kasler received his third Air
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government and the Thai government monarchy saying,
'We don't want the world to know you're using our
airbases to bomb North Vietnam.' So, that was, 'Where'd
you come from?' 'Well, I don't know' …You don't piddily
bomb, use multi-million dollar airplanes and weapons
systems to bomb trucks on a trail. It's basically what we
were limited to … Unless the White House said, 'Go,'
you would have a target that again, restricted areas,
restricted locations, restricted ordnance, as to where you
could and couldn't bomb. Stupid way to run a war …
You were forbidden to attack a surface to air missile
(SAM) site unless it launched a missile on an American
airplane. You could watch it being built, you could see it
being built. You could not attack them. If it launched a
missile finally and became operational, the missile site,
the SAM site, then it could be targeted, but by now its
ringed with many layers of automatic weapons,
camouflage, much more difficult target to find and
destroy … You couldn't go within so many miles of the
DMZ. You couldn't go I think 20 miles, maybe 10 a
distance from the Chinese border. You had a 30-mile
circle around Hanoi; you couldn't fly inside of or drop
bomb expend ordnance inside of. Same thing with
Haiphong, the harbor where all the ships were coming
into; you could not attack. You could not destroy their
capability to conduct war.
“I think we all said, 'What the hell, why are we doing
this? If you're not out to win, why fight it?”
Merritt was shot down on September 16, 1965, in the morning,
and was captured almost immediately by armed peasants. He
was imprisoned for 7.5 years. Merritt, a retired USAF colonel
and now 76, commented recently to Rick Rogers of The San
Diego Union-Tribune, on his tour of duty in a Vietnamese
prison:
Force Cross for his almost
inconceivable resistance to
abuse by the North
Vietnamese, the most
notable being the infamous
rope torture. In June and July
1968 he refused to meet with
visiting delegations
sympathetic to the North
Vietnamese cause and appear
before TV and news
cameras.
Writing "Valor in three wars"
published in the November
1986 edition of Air Force
Magazine, John L. frisbee
said this about Colonel
Kasler:
"It took a particular kind of
valor to withstand torture,
deprivation, solitude, and
psychological incursions
month after month, year after
year, with no end in sight. It
also demanded a belief in
something more important
than one's own life. The
bravest suffered the most.
Tradition--the memory of
great things done together in
the past--also inspired and
will continue to inspire
airmen in combat and in
resistance to barbarism if we
again face an uncivilized foe.
Kasler, through his heroism
in the air and his unshakable
determination never to yield
to attacks on body and mind,
is one of those in whom the
Air Force tradition of valor
resides."
"In one way, (being a POW) was a positive. You know
that you can survive. You can dig down deep to find
whatever is necessary to keep going, whether it is
military training or schooling or your God ... We knew
that even if we were shot down, our job was not done.
We knew that if we could tie up the enemy's assets that
they would have to deal with us instead of shooting at
our planes."
Despite his obvious frustration and contempt for decisions
made by the suits in Washington, Merritt and his colleagues
were still fighting while roped up in horrendous North
Vietnamese prisons.
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Then Captain Jacksel M. Broughton next to his Korean war model P-80.
Presented by Snow Leopard Productions.
Colonel Jack Broughton, a Class of 1945 West Pointer, Korean
War veteran, and a Thunderbird pilot (F-84G), flew the F-105
out of Takhli and was the vice wing commander, 355th TFW
there. He, like Ed Rasimus and Ray Merritt, is highly critical
of the “suits” in Washington who mismanaged the war. That
said, he received the Air Force Cross for valor in Vietnam and
took the fall at a court martial against two of his fliers who
fired back at a Soviet ship in the Gulf of Tonkin that first fired
at them. He took responsibility for the retaliatory attack and
destroyed a tape that might have proven the two retaliated on
their own. He had been recommended for a second Air Force
Cross but that recommendation was withdrawn because of his
actions.
Robert Taylor has painted a portrait of his group of F-105s in
the raid on the Thermal Power Plant at Viet Tri in March 1967.
Due to a very clever set of maneuvers, the Thuds he led
knocked out the AAAs defending the plant and the follow-on
force destroyed it. Boughton is quoted saying this, in his
typical style:
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"Rolling Thunder," by Robert Taylor. Col. Jack Broughton leading a flight of
four F-105 "Thuds" on a low level mission to silence AAA defending the Viet
Tri power plant near Hanoi, March 12th. 1967. The target was destroyed.
Presented by Brooks Art
“I led that mission as I wanted to, ignoring all details of
altitude, airspeed, and heading given to me by some
administrator who knew nothing of Hanoi... it made
good flying sense, We flew a smooth mission, everybody
did good work... "
Air Force Magazine related a
story about Lt. Karl Richter
entitled, “Here am I. Send
me” in its December 1992
edition. Richter, a 1964
graduate of the Air Force
Academy, became an F-105
pilot with the 388th TFW at
Korat in 1966. Air Force
Magazine describes him and
his F-105 colleagues this
way:
“F-105 pilots who flew 'Downtown' into North
Vietnam's Route Package One to attack the most heavily
defended targets in the history of air warfare were
judged by their contemporaries against four standards:
courage, skill, aggressiveness, and eagerness for combat.
Lieutenant Richter entered this deadly game with
enthusiasm and disregard for his own safety. He soon
became a flight leader, volunteering for the most
hazardous missions. He believed his most important
contribution, next to destroying enemy targets, was to
pass along his growing knowledge of tactics to newly
assigned pilots.”
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Richter flew two tours, over 200 missions, and died on a rescue
helicopter after ejecting over very difficult karst terrain,
suffering multiple injuries after striking the rough rock
formations.
Memorial statue, 1Lt. Karl Richter, USAF, at the Air Park, Maxwell AFB,
Alabama. Photo credit: MSgt. Otto Ubele, USAF, Karl Richter VFW Post
10217, presented by Post 10217.
Richter Lounge at the Air Force Academy's Arnold Hall was
named in his honor, and a 10-foot tall bronze statue of him
stands at Maxwell AFB, home of the Air University. Most
recently, the Air Force Academy Class of 2008 has named
Richter has its Class Exemplar. The purpose of the Class
Exemplar Program is to provide a clear and visible attachment
to the great leaders of the past for a new generation of air
leaders who will face new challenges in the future. The Class
Exemplar serves as the honorary leader of the class, setting its
personality and character. The Class Exemplar's model of
innovative, pioneering leadership challenges cadets in each
class to look forward into the Air Force they will soon be
leading. The Class of 2000 was the first class to choose an
Exemplar to lead them in the new millennium. Exemplar
patches have been added to the cadet athletic jacket above the
class year.
Look at the company Richter finds himself in:
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Class of 2000: General James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle
Class of 2001: Brigadier General William "Billy"
Mitchell
Class of 2002: Captain Lance Peter Sijan
Class of 2003: Major Richard I. Bong
Class of 2004: Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker
Class of 2005: General George S. Patton, Jr.
Class of 2006: General Carl A. Spaatz
Class of 2007: Lieutenant Colonel Gus Grissom
Class of 2008: First Lieutenant Karl Richter
As an aside, there is a rumor that Cadet Richter was a "triple
centurion" on the punishment tour pad while at the Academy.
We understand from a graduate familiar with him that he was
indeed a character. Clearly he had spirit!
Captain John F. Piowaty and his Thud, handle-bar mustache included. This
photo almost makes one want to say, most respectfully, "Dude!" Photo
provided by John Piowaty and presented by Internet Modeler.
So did Lt.
Col. John F. Piowaty, who flew the F-105 as a
captain. He wrote the following “Reflections of a Thud driver”
for the January-February 1983 edition of the Air University
Review:
“In looking back on my experiences as an F-105 pilot in
the mid-sixties, I realize that some of my strongest
recollections involve the general frustration that we
Thud drivers felt concerning the restrictions under which
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our war against the North was fought. Our rules of
engagement (ROE) were defined with a rigid precision
that made little sense to us at the time-and which make
little more sense to me today.”
He further commented:
“I remember a protected building in Route Pack I, a
church we were told. My wingman, one day, bragged
that he got a large warehouse. 'Not a big white building
with a pitched roof?' 'Yeah. Why?' 'That was a church.
We weren't supposed to hit it.' Well, whatever it was, I
got a helluva secondary (explosion) out of it!'”
Piowaty, by the way, got credit for helping to take down a span
of the infamous Dournier Bridge on the Hanoi raiload and
highway in August 1967, arguably the most heavily defended
target in North Vietnam. The principle northern entry into
Hanoi, the bridge was approximately one mile long and was
made up of two highways and a rail line. Lt. Col. Harry W.
Schurr led the third strike element and received the Air Force
Cross for his gallantry.
Piowaty recounts his portion of the mission in Internet
Modeler. It's a fascinating read, one that sends shivers up and
down your spine, real good "pilot-speak." We are compelled to
convey the flavor. The pilots were in the briefing room, a staff
sergeant came out and broke the news: target is Joint Chiefs of
Staff (JCS) directed, its "that big bridge heading into Hanoi, oh
crap!"
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Left to right, Bob Lindsey, Nelson MacDonald, Bob White, Mal Winter
(standing). Photo provided by John Piowaty and presented by Internet
Modeler.
Piowaty was in Bear Flight. Lt. Col. Nelson MacDonald, the
squadron commander, was Bear Lead, or Bear One; Mal
Winter, Bear Two; Bob Lindsey, Bear Three; Piowaty Bear
Four. Col. Bob White, a former X-15 test pilot, was force
commander, and Shark Lead, or Shark One.
Bear Flight took off as a team, one after the other, about 20
seconds apart. Takeoff speed about 193 knots. Following
takeoff, Bear 4 had to accelerate to about 400 to catch up with
the others, then throttle back to 350. An air-to-air refueling
hookup completed after about 200 miles of flight, then in to the
target area. Approaching the Red River near Hanoi, Bear Lead
pumped them up to 520 knots, then to 540 knots, smoking
down the flight path with the sky now filled with gray and
black bursts of heavy-duty AAA. Bear Lead swivels his Thud
belly up, hits the afterburner and rolls toward the target,
followed by the other three. Each one "pickles off" his bombs
and pulls off the target to head home.
The join-up point was about seven miles away. Piowaty knew
there was a POW camp nearby holding US airmen and decided
to swing down to 4,000 feet and let his comrades in the
slammer know the hometown Thuds were there and that
someone cared about them. Following this, Bear 4 headed to
join up with his flight, jacked his Thud up to 630 knots, and all
of a sudden he and his machine are immersed in AAA fire.
Just as he was to turn to join his flight, Bear 4 got hit, his
Thud's tail struck pretty hard. Then Bear 3 was hit. Two out of
four are flying hurt. They choose Udorn RTAFB as their
emergency landing field, Bear 4's chute does not open on
landing, but the arresting cable brings him to a stop. Here's
Piowaty's aircraft, Thud 415, safe and sound at Udorn.
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F-105 tail number 415 after her mission to attack the "Big Bridge," the
Dournier Bridge in Hanoi. Photo provided by John Piowaty and presented by
Internet Modeler.
On arrival at the Udorn Officers Club with brewski opened,
Piowaty learns his 3,000 pound bomb hit the bridge and it was
down. Mission accomplished, 55th mission over the North
flown, 45 more to go to get into the "100 Club."
These photos are of Larry Guarino. We want you to meet him.
On the left, you see him courtesy of Thud Ridge Web as a
major flying with the 44th TFS at Korat in June 1965, shortly
before he was shot down, on his 50th mission over North
Vietnam. At the time he was only the 11th American to be
captured and he spent nearly eight years in captivity. The
middle photo is apparently a photo of him shortly after capture,
presented by SOFTVision. We recommend you visit this site to
read about him. He was a thorn in the side of the enemy, even
while a prisoner. His captors kept telling him they knew he
took off from Korat. After all, that's what it said on his
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parachute pack and flight suit. He insisted he took off from Da
Nang and that his aircraft "crapped out." He also told his
captors that the B-52 strikes they were enduring were
retaliation for his own shootdown and capture, even though
B-52 strikes against Hanoi had not yet begun. His captors
pretended they were MiG pilots, trying to impress him, so
Larry talked to them in fighter jock slang, lots of acronyms. Of
course his captors were not pilots and had no clue about what
he was talking, but they could not admit it for fear of losing
face. The photo on the far right is Larry in 2001 at the age of
79. He retired a full colonel in 1975.
Oh yes, and one more photo.
That's young Larry and his
bride, Evelyn. This is off the
cover of a book, Saved by
Love, written by Larry's wife,
Evelyn. Evelyn tells the
family’s side of the POW story.
Of this book, Senator John
McCain, himself a former
POW, says the following:
"Evy Guarino’s graceful
account of enduring her
husband Larry’s loss to
the prison camps of
Hanoi, and of ultimately
being reunited to lead a glorious new life together,
reminds us of the ability of patriotism and faith to
overcome even the most severe tests of human will. Set
in war and peace, their story, though tinged with
suffering, rejoices in love and timeless truths. A
wonderful tribute to the sacrifice of all POW/MIA
families and the power of the human spirit.”
From where we sit, and we know Guarino went through hell
while a prisoner, the North Vietnamese, the USAF, and the
Thud didn't change the guy much over the years --- at 79 he
was still a good looking dude.
One final note. Captain Kevin J. Cheney was an F-4E Phantom
navigator and Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) stationed at
Korat in 1970. He flew over there for two tours, and, at the
time of capture, had logged 400 missions over Southeast Asia.
His pilot was Major Paul K. Robinson. Like so many Thuds
before them, they and their F-4E were shot down on July 1,
1972 while over Kep Airfield, but now by two SAMs that
littered the countryside thanks to previous rules of
engagement. They ejected just north of Hanoi and were
captured immediately. Cheney was sent to the Hanoi Hilton,
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and became acquainted with Larry Guarino. Cheney has
written this about that:
"My most memorable moments while in captivity came
when I found and became acquainted with Col.
Lawrence Guarino who had been captured in 1965. His
oldest son and I had shared an apartment while in
college, during which time I met Col. Guarino's wife and
three other sons. The information that Col. Guarino and I
were able to exchange while in prison was a big aid to
both of us. I was very fortunate to have been put in the
same camp with him."
We could go on forever highlighting these brave F-105 pilots,
but we need to slow it down. Just two more photos:
Major Bill Vangilder of the 469th TFS at Korat RTAFB presents case of beer
to crew chief following completion of 100th Mission on 14 July 1967. Old
Vangilder sure looks like he put in a day's work for you and me. And please
take special note of the crewchief --- you got it, a two-striper and a damn
good one at that! Presented by Thud Ridge Web
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Lieutenant Dave Waldrop of the 34th TFS at Korat RTAFB gets the
traditional end-of-tour hose. Waldrop is credited with one MiG kill for sure,
some argue two. Presented by Thud Ridge Web
We've covered a lot of ground. We want to conclude with some
closing comments to sum all this up.
Concluding comments
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