JUNE 2004 SIXTY YEARS HURLBURT SOUNDSIDE … ASSOCIATION, INC. JIM BONEY, EDITOR JIM YEALY, ASST EDITOR EUGENE ROSSEL, EDITOR AT LARGE ... I had little interest in and no …

INSIDE FEATURESA-37 CORNER pg. 34ACA BALLOT pg. 16EDITORIAL pg. 2HAP’S COLUMN pg. 7LETTERS pg. 8McCOSKRIE T.F. pg. 17MEMBERSHIP pg. 4PRESIDENT’S RPT back pg.REUNION INFO pg. 20-21ROSSEL’S REPORT pg. 19

JUNE 2004

HURLBURT-BASEDAIR COMMANDOSHELPED LAUNCHIRAQ INVASION

By BILL KACZORAssociated Press Writer

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla.The AC-130U Spooky gunshipbanked to the left and started itsdeadly orbit over a petroleum com-plex critical to transferring oil frompipelines to tankers. Smoke, flameand hot metal belched from theplane's 105mm Howitzer and twosmaller guns.

That was a year ago thisweek as the invasion of Iraq began,but the secretive Air Force SpecialOperations Command only now isdisclosing details of the roles thatgunship crews and other air com-mandos played on the night of March20, 2003.

The Hurlburt based Spooky'smission was to clear enemy groundforces so helicopters could safelyland Navy SEALS and British Ma-rine commandos. Their objectivewas to capture the manifold andmetering station at the southern tipof the Al Faw peninsula before it

See HURLBURT pg. 3

See ALUMNI pg. 3

Dear Mr. Downs,

Thank you and the Air Com-mandos for sharing your precioustime with my friends in the Air ForcePublic Affairs Alumni Associationand me.

We were shocked and sad-dened by the death of Larry “Sandy”Sanborn and offer our condolenceson his untimely passing.

The discussion of the mis-

sions, airplanes, people and historyof the Air Commandos is preciselythe reason we bring our annual meet-ings to different bases around thecountry each year. There are so manydifferent things happening in our AirForce and for us to remain relevantspeakers on behalf of the Air Forceit is imperative we stay in touch. Youand all the members of the Air Com-mando team did a wonderful jobdoing just that for us. Last week I

AIR FORCE PUBLIC AFFAIRS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

SIXTY YEARSBy DICK GERONACA Vice president

This year’s ACA Reunionwill celebrate the 60th year of thefounding of the Air Commandos inthe China, Burma, India Theater dur-ing WW II.

We are attempting to contactthese WWII Air Commandos in hopethat many will join with us and be apart of ACA REUNION 2004.

The Reunion for 2004 willfollow in general the traditions whichhave been established by previousreunions. These traditions include areturn to the Hurlburt SoundsideClub (ex-Hurlburt Officer’s Club)for the Saturday night Banquet. Thisreturn to tradition is due to the timelywork by Pete Bowman who took acheck from ACA for a $500 depositto the Club at the first moment theywould accept it for our reservation.

Hotel reservations and Hos-pitality Suite are again at the newlyremodeled Quality Inn (ex-HowardJohnson) on Hwy 98 in FWB.

Reunion registration, Fridayevening Fish Fry by “Raging Cajun”Ray Bourque with his volunteers andHap Lutz’s able assistance, Saturdaymorning Business Meeting, andJerry Broadway’s BBQ Sunday af-ternoon special will all take placepoolside at “Our Hotel” if blessedwith good weather.

REUNION 2004 RETURNS TOHURLBURT SOUNDSIDE CLUB

had lunch with the military reporterfrom the San Antonio Express-Newsand an extended telephone conver-sation with the San Antonio Bureauchief for the Air Force Times and wasable to discuss weapons technologyand applications developments as aresult of our visit. This is immediateapplication of what we learned fromyour members. All the members of

Ray Brown and his Band willbe playing at the Friday Fish Fry andagain Saturday night at the Banquet.

Plan on coming to the re-union; but make your reservationsearly and rest up to have a good timewith your old buddies! We are alllooking forward to seeing you at theOctober Reunion.

The Hurlburt Soundside Club (the O’Club) will host the ACA banquet in 2004

PAGE 2AIR COMMANDO NEWSLETTER JUNE 2004

AIR COMMANDOASSOCIATION, INC.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERSPRESIDENT: ROBERT A. DOWNS 2004VICE PRESIDENT: DICK GERON 2005TREASURER: FRANK CLEMENTS 2006

DIRECTORSJOE HARRIS 2005CHARLES E. MACDANIELS 2005EDWIN “JERRY” RHEIN 2004FELIX “SAM” SAMBOGNA 2004DAVE HARRINGTON 2004GORDON H. SCOTT 2005BOB WHITE 2006FRED PLATT (FIELD REP)

CHAPLAINCHAPLAIN DARRELL BRUNINGEXECUTIVE SECRETARY

PETE BOWMANTHE BOARD OF DIRECTORS NORMALLYMEET AT 9:00AM THE LAST SATURDAY OFEACH MONTH (EXCEPT DECEMBER) AT 2502W. HWY 98, MARY ESTHER, FL.

MCCOSKRIE/THRESHHOLDFOUNDATION, INC.

DIRECTOR: HARRY C. ADERHOLTASST DIRECTOR: JOHN GROVETREASURER: RICHARD GERONFIELD ADVISOR: KAREN KRAMERMEDICAL ADVISORS: JOHN PETERS, MDAND HAP LUTZSECRETARY: FELIX SAMBOGNA

ACA NEWSLETTERPUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY: THE AIR

COMMANDO ASSOCIATION, INC.

JIM BONEY, EDITORJIM YEALY, ASST EDITOREUGENE ROSSEL, EDITOR AT LARGERIP KIRBY, LAYOUT EDITORJIMMY IFLAND, PHOTOGRAPHER

CIRCULATION: THE AIR COMMANDOASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER ISDISTRIBUTED FREE TO MEMBERS ANDOTHER INTERESTED PARTIES FOR ACOMBINED CIRCULATION OF 3,500 COPIES.

SUBMIT COPY OR LETTERS TO: THE ACANEWSLETTER, PO BOX 7, MARY ESTHER, FL 32569OR EMAIL TO [email protected]

THIS PUBLICATION IS FOR THE INFORMATION,INTEREST, AND ENJOYMENT OF OURREADERS. VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSEDARE OF THE AUTHOR OR SOURCE OFMATERIAL AND DO NOT NECESSARILYREFLECT OPINIONS, VIEWS, ORENDORSEMENTS OF THE ACA. MATERIAL INTHE ACA NEWSLETTER MAY BE REPRODUCEDPROVIDED THE SOURCE IS CREDITED.

LOCATED 4 MILES WEST OF HURLBURTON HWY 98, THE ACA HQ OFFICE ISOPEN 9AM-NOON, MONDAY-FRIDAY.MAIL: BOX 7, MARY ESTHER, FL, 32569.PHONE: 850-581-0099. FAX: X-8988.URL: WWW.AIRCOMMANDO.NET.

Printed by the NW Florida Daily News

EDITORIAL COMMENTS

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FULL PAGE $160HALF PAGE $ 90QUARTER PAGE $ 60ONE COLUMN INCH $ 7Frequency discounts available.

QUARTERLY DEADLINES ARE THE 15THOF EACH FEB, MAY, AUG, AND NOV.

Checks must accompany copy unless priorapproval.

Mail copy and disk to Ad Manager - ACA,PO Box 7, Mary Esther, FL 32569.

By ROBERT DOWNS,ACA President

Regardless of your religiousbeliefs, your party affiliation, or youropinions of judges, the followingspeech by Senator Zell Miller fromGeorgia is profound and has infor-mation and meaning that is impor-tant to each and every citizen of theUnited States.

I had little interest in and noparticular liking of Zell Miller whenhe was the Governor of Georgia.

However, as a US Senatorthe man has gotten my attention andgained my utmost respect, becausehe has the moral courage to standupand take the high ground as a Demo-crat spokesman.

It is most unusual and totallyout of character for a politician to sovisibly and boldly "let-it-all-hang-out" by standing and blatantly tell-ing his own Party that they arewrong, totally wrong...!

Senator Miller, though aDemocrat, told his party membersthat he emphaticallysupports President Bush because thePresident is taking us in the right di-rection in the war on terrorism.

Not only has Senator ZellMiller told the Democratic PartyLeadership that they are leading ourgreat nation in the wrong direction;he has forthrightly told them thatthey are so wrong in their ways thathe will stand and cast his vote forPresident George W. Bush in theupcoming election.

I would hope that SenatorMiller can be convinced to run againfor the Democrat Senatorial seatfor Georgia. I do believe that thepeople of Georgia would support andreelect him as their Senator. TheDemocratic Party as a whole has lostits way, integrity and moral prin-ciples. The "Good Guys" in theDemocrat Party have been overcomeby the "Folks from the Far Side";

See MILLER pg. 6

ZELL MILLER, U. S. SENATOR FROM GEORGIAand, I mean folks who are really wayon the "Far Side"...!

If the Democrats had a grainof smarts, they would select ZellMiller to run for President. Now thatwould bring about the presidentialrace of the century. That would be arace that a person could sink his teethinto...!

It is time to change and addsanity to our government...! The Re-publican Party is by no means madeup of a bunch of intellectuals giantseither; they badly need a good“whack-up-the-side-of-their-heads”to jar them back into reality. They aredefinitely not helping our situation;…they are timid and afraid to speakout; have gone spend crazy, also.

In fact, each and every mem-ber of Congress should be out thereexplaining to the American peoplethat we are in a struggle for survival,and we must pull together. Why, halfof the American people do not real-ize that we are in a “WAR” for thesurvival of our civilization!

Senator Zell Miller's speechis lengthy; but do read it through tothe end, ...it will be well worth yourtime!!!

February 12, 2004U.S. Senator Zell Miller, D-GAFloor Statement on 'Deficit of De-cency' in America -- Prepared Re-marks for Delivery on the SenateFloor

"The Old Testament prophetAmos was a sheep herder who livedback in the Judean hills, away fromthe larger cities of Bethlehem andJerusalem. Compared to the intellec-tual urbanites like Isaiah andJeremiah, he was just an unsophisti-cated country hick.

"But Amos had a uniquegrasp of political and social issuesand his poetic literary skill wasamong the best of all the prophets.That familiar quote of Martin Luther

King, Jr. about 'Justice will rushdown like waters and righteousnesslike a mighty stream' are Amos'swords.

"Amos was the first to pro-pose the concept of a universal Godand not just some tribal deity. He alsowrote that God demanded moral pu-rity, not rituals and sacrifices. Thisblunt speaking moral conscience ofhis time warns in Chapter 8, verse11 of The Book of Amos, as if hewere speaking to us today:

That 'the days will come,sayeth the Lord God, that I will senda famine in the land. Not a famine ofbread, nor a thirst for water, but ofhearing the word of the Lord.

'And they shall wander fromsea to sea, and from the north evento the east. They shall run to and froto seek the word of the Lord, andshall not find it.'

"'A famine in the land'. Hasanyone more accurately describedthe situation we face in America to-day? 'A famine of hearing the wordsof the Lord.'

"But some will say, Amoswas just an Old Testament prophet -a minor one at that - who lived 700years before Christ. That is true, sohow about one of the most influen-tial historians of modern times?

"Arnold Toynbee who wrotethe acclaimed 12 volume “A Studyof History,” once declared, 'Of the22 civilizations that have appeared

PAGE 3JUNE 2004 AIR COMMANDO NEWSLETTER

could be sabotaged and spew oil intothe Persian Gulf.

"If they blew that facility up,it was going to pour about 18 ExxonValdezes worth of oil into the gulfevery day," said Maj. Bill Holt, thegunship's pilot.

The AC-130U's 14-membercrew helped prevent that ecologicaland economic disaster while dodg-ing gunfire and missiles during theeight-hour mission. Before landingat daybreak, Holt's crew also sank ametal-hulled warship, something noAir Force plane had done in combatsince World War II.

His and other gunships arepart of Hurlburt's 16th Special Op-erations Wing that also flies trans-port planes and helicopters.

The wing has seen heavy ac-tion in Iraq and Afghanistan, includ-ing infiltrating special forces troopsand using airborne tankers to refuelhelicopters deep in hostile territory.The 16th had no casualties in Iraqbut lost five air commandos - a nick-name for Air Force Special Opera-tions personnel - in Afghanistan.Three died in a helicopter crash lastyear and two when a cargo planewent down in 2002.

Most of the 16th's 7,000 menand women have been deployedabout two-thirds of each year sinceSept. 11, 2001, said Col. O.G.Mannon, the wing's commander.

That has stressed their fami-lies and training schedules, but mo-rale has held up well and the air com-mandos have accepted the deploy-

ments as normal duty, said Mannon,50, of Durham, N.C.

"Our people continue to wantto defend our country in somebodyelse's backyard instead of ours,"Mannon said.

Holt, 35, of Alamogordo,N.M., returned to Hurlburt in June,went back to Iraq in December andcame home again last month. He willget a respite in May with a transferto Corpus Christi, Texas, where hewill train Navy pilots, but the hus-band and father of two young sonswants to return to Special Operationswhen that three-year tour is over.

"I don't want to slight any-one else because everyone gives agreat effort and does their part forthe overall goal, but it was nice to beon the tip of the spear," Holt said.

Many other Hurlburt airmenwere on that tip a year ago in Iraq.MH-53 Pave Low helicopters fromthe 16th flew Navy SEALS to themetering station after Holt's Spookypounded enemy positions for 17minutes.

Helicopters shuttled troopsfor the next hour or so while the lum-bering, four-engine turboprop gun-ship and A-10 Warthog jets attackedother targets in the area. The Iraqisfired back with artillery and heat-see-ing missiles. There were some closecalls, but the gunship sustained nohits.

"I've had much closer," saidHolt, also a veteran of Kosovo andAfghanistan, where a missile passedhis plane by about 75 feet and anti-aircraft gunfire was so close it lit uphis cockpit.

The gunship crew used theplane's infrared sensors to detectIraqi soldiers and vehicles.

"Almost like kicking an antpile, things started popping up," saidCapt. Terry Sears, 35, of Pensacola,the plane's navigator.

The crew kept in constantcontact with the ground troops andsometimes fired warning shots.

"If the vehicles or targetswould move away from the facility,

that would be fine," Holt said. "We'dlet them go. If they continued com-ing toward the facility, then we con-tinued to engage them."

A second gunship took overwhile Holt refueled from an airbornetanker. His plane then was assignedto attack a 90-ton Iraqi patrol boatoff the Al Faw peninsula. The vesselmay have been laying mines andcould have posed a threat to coali-tion helicopters with its 40mm and20mm guns and rocket launcher.

Iraqi sailors tried unsuccess-fully to hide the 110-foot patrol boatby coming alongside a derelict oiltanker, sunk on a sandbar during theIran-Iraq War.

The AC-130U dispatched thepatrol boat in less than three minuteswith 40mm and 105mm gunfire. It'screw had abandoned the vessel,climbing aboard the tanker or swim-ming to a nearby island, before thegunship opened up.

"They were completely a sit-ting duck," Holt said. "The center ofthe ship blew apart. It sank stern-first."

Holt's crew provided closeair support and flew armed recon-naissance until the Iraqi militarycrumbled, but nothing equaled thatfirst mission. Half of the crew mem-bers received Distinguished FlyingCrosses and the others were awardedAir Medals for that flight.

While Holt flew the plane,the rest of the crew identified targets,kept in radio contact with groundtroops, fired the guns, spotted anti-aircraft fire and directed defensivemaneuvers. The gunners also quicklyfixed two major gun malfunctions.

“There was no one just sit-ting around,” Holt said. “Everysingle member of that crew didsomething very significant to makethat mission happen.”

Submitted by:Jumping Joe Kittinger [email protected]

HURLBURTfrom front page

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our association are similarly engagedin telling the story of our Air Forceand now have even more topics toshare with the public and the newsmedia.

None of this goes togethereasily, but your teams of pros madeit come off seamlessly. Our thanksto all for their great leadership andservice to our wonderful country yougive and the example you set. Pleasepass my personal thanks to DickSecord for standing under a drippingAC-130 to talk to us, and to “Heinie’Aderholt, Jerry Rhein, FelixSambogna, and Ken Lengfield forwandering around the airplanes andtalking to the folks on the bussesmaking this a truly memorable week-end for us; the rain did not dampenour spirit nor their enthusiasm.

If I, or the Air Force PublicAffairs Alumni Association, may beof assistance to you at any time inthe future, please let us know.

Sincerely,David E. SmithChairman of the Board of Directors

President’s Note:

David, it was indeed a plea-sure for our Air Commando expertsto discuss Special Operations mis-sions and capabilities with each ofyou. Sandy Sanborn’s last mission onthis earth was enjoying time doingone of the things he did best, explain-ing Special Ops aircraft capabilities,missions and tactics to dedicatedfolks like you.

I’ll pass your kind compli-ments on to General “Heinie”Aderholt, General Dick Secord,Jerry Rhein, Felix Sambogna, JerryKlingaman, and Ken Lengfield.

You know, I detected a gleamof excitement come into the eyes andsmiles come over the faces of our ol’Warriors as they relived exciting ex-

ALUMNIfrom front page

��

periences with you guys.The rain only added reality

to the arena; it was as though theythought, if only for a moment, theywere back in combat; …fighting forthis great country of ours…!

Bill Campbell, a very specialthanks to you for getting us involvedwith your people…!


IN MEMORY OF

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

See MEMBERSHIP pg. 5

WILLIAM E. BETHEAFEBRUARY 2004

JERRY COLLIEAPRIL 2004

WILLIAM A. CONKLINFEBRUARY 2004

CLAYTON W. FREEMANAPRIL 2004

DAVID R. HORNJULY 2001

BRUCE G. KELLERFEBRUARY 2004

JOSEPH L. MAXWELLAPRIL 2003

LARRY K. SANBORNMAY 2004

RICHARD N. SMITHMARCH 2004

JOE C. VADENFEBRUARY 2004

BENNIE S. WILLIAMSOCTOBER 2003

NEW ANNUAL MEMBERS

SCOTT J. BENNETTW. J. CANNONPAUL A. CHICKDAVID DONALDSONTIMOTHY R. GRESSTIMOTHY L. HALEROBERT W. KUHNFRANK A. LEWISDONALD O. MOXLEYJACK S. PATEKENNETH V. ROBERTSDAVID R. STEPHENSONJOHN J. STEWARTROBERT F. TROZZO

NEW LIFE MEMBER

JOANNIS KOSKINAS

CONVERTED TO LIFE

RICHARD M. ATCHISONWILLIAM L. BARBEREUGENE V. BECKERNATHAN M. BERMANTOMMY L. BROWNMICHAEL A. CALDWELLNEAL E. DILLMICHAEL R. DOWNSDENNIS E. ENFINGERMIKE FRANCISCOTERRANCE H. FREGLYCHARLES D. FRIZZELLERICHARD T. HARDYCAROL LOCKETTSTANLEY C. MOOREFRED NOWAKMICHAEL E/ PACKARDEDGAR E. PARKERALAN C. PROKOSCHPHILIP J. RECHNITZER, JRPATRICK D. RODEHEAVERHAROLD M. SMITHJERRY M. SURRATTDENNIS W. VANIDESTINECHARLIE WATTSBRAD WEBB

LOST MEMBERS

ELLIE BARKLEYJIMMIE BLACKWOODSCOTT ERICKSONRAY HICKSSAMUEL R. SILVAGARY C. WASHBURN

ON THE MOVE

GERRIT JEROME ALLEN53484 WOAKA POYAHNORTH FORK, CA 93643

HERMAN C. BALDWIN133 TIGER LILLY DRPARRISH, FL 34219

OUIDA BARRINEAU1310 NE 33 AVE #COCALA, FL 34470

JOSEPH D. BECKER437 SUMMERLEA DRFAYETTEVILLE, NC 28311

JEFF BUCKMELTER2833 BAYSHORE TRAILS DRTAMPA, FL 33611

GARY CARLSON2380 HERITAGE CIRNAVARRE, FL 32566

DONALD M. CARLYLE530 E TREMAINE AVEGILBERT, AZ 85234

ROBERT M. CARNES1506 SHERWOOD CIRASHEBORO, NC 27203

ED CARRON2650 MASTERS BLVDNAVARRE, FL 32566

LAWRENCE J. CLAUSEN117 LANDINGS DRLYNN HAVEN, FL 32444

JOANNE COLLIE625 WOODVALE RDPRATTVILLE, AL 36067

REX CORBIN3607 ALAMOGORDO DR NWALBUQUERQUE, NM 87120

FRANCES J. DELANEY362 E WOOD STYOUNGSTOWN, OH 44503

NEAL E. DILL123 DEDHAM POST RDSCHENECTADY, NY 12303

RUSS DODD10806 ROCKY TRLSAN ANTONIO, TX 78249

HUGH E. DOEBRICK156 OLD BRIDGE LKHOUSTON, TX 77059

ALLEN DOUGLASHQJUSMAGTHAI BOX R 3201APO AP 96546

EDWARD M. DUNKER3001 CHESTNUT HILL DRELLICOTT CITY, MD 21043

J. DURIZZI5102 GOAVA AVELA MESA, CA 91941

JAMES R. EDWARDS1953 CEDAR ROCK MTN RDASHBORO, NC 27205

JESSE R. ENGLISHPO BOX 9314HURLBURT FLD, FL 32544

ANNE FAULKNER11742 24 ST #308NAPLE RIDGE, BC Y2X6A2CANADA

ROBERT A. FOGARTY317 N 6 STGRANGEVILLE, IL 83630

ROD H. GALLAGHER717 CREEKSIDE DRLANCASTER, OH 43130

JOHN GARGUS93 DREW AVEMANCHESTER, NH 03104

JAMES GARYPO BOX 735POLK CITY, FL 33868

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DONALD E. HARP124 E PASTIME RDTUCSON, AZ 85705

GREGORY G. HECHT1216 TAYLOR MLGUNTERSVILLE, AL 35976


MEMBERSHIPfrom pg 4

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JOHN M. HILLYER296 SARATOGA CIRKAPOLEI, HI 96707

CHARLES H. HUBBS559 MORNING STAR LNBETHLEHEM, PA 18018

RENATE JONESPO BOX 10006EORT WORTH, TX 76114

PAUL C. LEE3624 FAWCETT AVETACOMA, WA 98418

WILLIAM R. MAINORD1030 E HIGHWAY 377 STE 110GRANBURY, TX 76048

MICHAEL E. MARTIN3319 QUARRY DRFAYETTEVILLE, NC 28303

MICHAEL T. MCEWEN511 PARK PLEDMOND, OK 73034

SEAN MCPARTLAND14865 NEW FOAL TRLFONTANA, CA 92336

ANITA MESSEX718 E DALKE AVESPOKANE, WA 99208

VERN0N L. MINNICH11700 WALLSTREET #2102SAN ANTONIO, TX 78230

BARRY P. MITCHELL8971 LITTLE REATA TRLFT WORTH, YX 76126

THOMAS S. MOCHEN294 MARTIN STREAM RDNORRIDGE, ME 04957

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EDGAR E. PARKER130 W YELLOW BEE DRQUEEN CREEK, AZ 85242

CHARLES M. PARKS, JR729 ZETTLE STHUNTER AAF, GA 31409

HAROLD JOHN PEASE780 22 AVE NWNANES, FL 34120

SID E. PETTY23 PARADISE VALLEY CTHENDERSON, NV 87052

DONALD B. RALPH793 GREENWOOD MANOR CTWEST MELBOURNE, FL 32904

GUY C. RHONE14625 PENMORE LNCHARLOTTE, NC 28269

JAMES H. RHYNEPO BOX 1438ABERDEEN, NC 28315

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RICHARD E. RING320 E FRANKLIN ST #16GALLATIN, TN 37066

ALFONSO M. ‘RT’ RIVERO22531 LEMON STSANTA CLARITA, CA 91390

WILLIAM H. ROBICHAUX1588 SOLOMON CIRHENDERSONVILLE, NC 28739

DORIS SCHISM141 ELYSIAN WAY NWATLANTA, GA 30327

DAVID C. SCHLACHTER4473 TURNBERRY PLNICEVILLE, FL 32578

RONALD M. SCHWADE1036 NW 83 AVEPLANTATION, FL 33322

NATHAN SHERO6985 FLINTWOOD STNAVARRE, FL 32566

JAMES J. SIMON14100 WALTON DRMANASSAS, VA 20112

DAVID G. SMITH5427 MARANATHA WAYPACE, FL 32571

ROBERT B. UNDERWOOD, JR17 BAYSHORE PTVALPARAISO, FL 32580

EVELYN A. WATSON2529 CANYON LAKES DRSAN RAMON, CA 94583

CLARENCE G. WEISHAR3995 CAUGHLIN CREEK RDRENO, NV 89509

ROBERT E, WHELTON866 SANTA ROSA BLVD #509FT WALTON BCH, FL 32548

ISABEL WILES111 EXECUTIVE CNTR DR #3603WEST PALM BCH, FL 33401

JOHN M. WILKERSON8002 VITA CTABILENE, TX 79606

WILLIAM F.WOODARD18 CEDAR MILLTROY, IL 84494

VA XIONGPO BOX 911ABERDEEN, NC 28315

HERMAN W. YOUNGBLOOD121 CROOKED GULLEY CIR #3SUNSET BEACH, NC 28468

THE SOLDIER GIVESFrom a sermon by John Hagee of Corner-stone Church in San Antonio:

I want you to close your eyesand picture in your mind the soldierat Valley Forge, as he holds his mus-ket in his bloody hands. He standsbarefoot in the snow, starved fromlack of food, wounded from monthsof battle and emotionally scarredfrom the eternity away from his fam-ily surrounded by nothing but deathand carnage of war. He standsthough, with fire in his eyes and vic-tory on his breath. He looks at us nowin anger and disgust and tells usthis...

I gave you a birthright offreedom born in the Constitution andnow your children graduate too illit-erate to read it.

I fought in the snow barefootto give you the freedom to vote andyou stay at home because it rains!

I left my family destitute togive you the freedom of speech andyou remain silent on critical issues,because it might be bad for business.

I orphaned my children togive you a government to serve youand it has stolen democracy from thepeople.

It's the soldier, not the re-porter who gives you the freedom ofthe press.

It's the soldier, not the poetwho gives you the freedom ofspeech.

It's the soldier, not the cam-pus organizer who allows you todemonstrate.

It's the soldier, who salutesthe flag, serves the flag, whose cof-fin is draped with the flag that allowsthe protester to burn the flag!!!

"Lord, hold our troops inyour loving hands. Protect them asthey protect us. Bless them and theirfamilies for the selfless acts theyperform for us in our time of need.Amen."

When you read this, pleasestop for a moment and say a prayerfor our U.S. forces in Iraq, and all ��

around the world.This can be very

powerful.... Of all the gifts you couldgive a U.S. Soldier, Sailor, Airman,Marine, or Coast Guardsman, prayeris the very best one.....!

Submitted by: Bill Keeler - ACA #0069


in history, 19 of them collapsed whenthey reached the moral state Americais in today.'

"Toynbee died in 1975, be-fore seeing the worst that as yet tocome. Yes, Arnold Toynbee saw thefamine. The 'famine of hearing thewords of the Lord.' Whether it is re-moving a display of the Ten Com-mandments from a Courthouse or theNativity Scene from a city square.Whether it is eliminating prayer inschools or eliminating 'under God' inthe Pledge of Allegiance. Whether itis making a mockery of the sacredinstitution of marriage between aman and woman or, yes, telecastingaround the world made-in-the-USAfilth masquerading as entertainment.

"The Culture of Far LeftAmerica was displayed in a startlingway during the Super Bowl's nowinfamous half-time show. A showbrought to us courtesy of Value-LesMoonves and the pagan temple ofViacom-Babylon.

"I asked the question yester-day, how many of you have ever runover a skunk with your car? I havemany times and I can tell you, thestink stays around for a long time.You can take the car through a carwash and it's still there. So the scentof this event will long linger in thenostrils of America.

"I'm not talking just about anexposed mammary gland with a pull-tab attached to it. Really no oneshould have been too surprised atthat. Wouldn't one expect a bump-ing, humping, trashy routine entitled'I'm going to get you naked' to endthat way.

"Does any responsible adultever listen to the words of this rap-crap? I'd quote you some of it, butthe Sergeant of Arms would throwme out of here, as well he should. And then there was that prancing,dancing, strutting, rutting guy evi-dently suffering from jock itch be-cause he kept yelling and grabbing

his crotch. But then, maybe there's acrotch grabbing culture I'm unawareof.

"But as bad as all this was,the thing that yanked my chain thehardest was seeing that ignoramuswith his pointed head stuck upthrough a hole he had cut in the flagof the United States of America,screaming about having 'a bottle ofscotch and watching lots of crotch.'Think about that.

"This is the same flag that wepledge allegiance to. This is the flagthat is draped over coffins of deadyoung uniformed warriors killedwhile protecting Kid Crock's bonybutt. He should be tarred and feath-ered, and ridden out of this countryon a rail. Talk about a good realityshow, there's one for you.

"The desire and will of thisCongress to meaningfully do any-thing about any of these so-calledsocial issues is non existent and em-barrassingly disgraceful. The Ameri-can people are waiting and growingimpatient with us. They want some-thing done.

"I am pleased to be a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26 along withSenator Allard and others, proposingan amendment to the Constitution ofthe United States relating to mar-riage. And S.1558, the Liberties Res-toration Act, which declares religiousliberty rights in several ways, includ-ing the Pledge of Allegiance and thedisplay of the Ten Commandments.And today I join SenatorShelby and others with the Consti-tution Restoration Act of 2004 thatlimits the jurisdiction of federalcourts in certain ways.

"In doing so, I stand shoul-der to shoulder not only with mySenate co-sponsors and Chief JusticeRoy Moore of Alabama but, moreimportantly, with our Founding Fa-thers in the conception of religiousliberty and the terribly wrong direc-tion our modern judiciary has takenus in.

Everyone today seems tothink that the U.S. Constitution ex-

pressly provides for separation ofchurch and state. Ask any ten peopleif that's not so. And I'll bet you mostof them will say 'Well, sure.' Andsome will point out, 'it's in the FirstAmendment.'

"Wrong! Read it! It says,'Congress shall make no law respect-ing an establishment of religion orprohibiting the free exercisethereof.' Where is the word 'sepa-rate'? Where are the words 'church'or 'state.'

"They are not there. Neverhave been. Never intended to be. Read the Congressional Recordsduring that four-month period in1789 when the amendment was be-ing framed in Congress. Clearly theirintent was to prohibit a single de-nomination in exclusion of all oth-ers, whether it was Anglican orCatholic or some other.

"I highly recommend a greatbook entitled Original Intent byDavid Barton. It really gets into howthe actual members of Congress,who drafted the First Amendment,expected basic Biblical principlesand values to be present throughoutpublic life and society, not separatefrom it.

"It was Alexander Hamiltonwho pointed out that 'judges shouldbe bound down by strict rules andprecedents, which serve to defineand point out their duty.' Bounddown! That is exactly what is neededto be done. There was not a singleprecedent cited when school prayerwas struck down in 1962.

"These judges who legislateinstead of adjudicate, do it withoutbeing responsible to one single soli-tary voter for their actions. Amongthe signers of the Declaration of In-dependence was a brilliant youngphysician from Pennsylvania namedBenjamin Rush.

"When Rush was elected tothat First Continental Congress, hisclose friend Benjamin Franklin toldhim 'We need you. . . we have a greattask before us, assigned to us byProvidence.' Today, 228 years later

there is still a great task before usassigned to us by Providence. OurFounding Fathers did not shirk theirduty and we can do no less.

"By the way, Benjamin Rushwas once asked a question that haslong interested this Senator fromGeorgia in particular. Dr. Rush wasasked, are you a democrat or an aris-tocrat? And the good doctor an-swered, 'I am neither'. 'I am aChristocrat. I believe He, alone, whocreated and redeemed man is quali-fied to govern him.' That reply ofBenjamin Rush is just as true todayin the year of our Lord 2004 as it wasin the year of our Lord 1776.

"So, if I am asked why - withall the pressing problems this nationfaces today - why am I pushing thesesocial issues and taking the Senate'svaluable time? I will answer: Be-cause, it is of the highest importance.Yes, there's a deficit to be concernedabout in this country, a deficit of de-cency.

"So, as the sand emptiesthrough my hourglass at warp speed- and with my time running out inthis Senate and on this earth, I feelcompelled to speak out. For I trulybelieve that at times like this, silenceis not golden. It is yellow."http://miller.senate.gov

MILLERfrom pg 2

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BATTLEFIELDCOMMISSION

The National Order ofBattlefield Commissions istrying to locate all men, WWII,Korea and Viet-Nam, who, onthe field of battle against anarmed enemy, received a com-mission from enlisted or War-rant status to commission sta-tus. It may be you or someoneyou know.

Contact J. Angler in St. Au-gustine, FL, by phone at (904) 471-7695 or email [email protected] more details, please visit:www.battlefieldcommissions.org

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HAP’SCOMMENTS

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By HAP LUTZ

In order to meet EditorBoney's deadline, I'm writing this abit early as I'm again heading forThailand. Along with Robby andDee Roberson, Robbye Binkley. andDakota and Lori Lutz, we are goingto Bangkok, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai,and Chiang Rai. We depart on the2nd of May and return on the 15th.The trip is focused on newly wedsDakota and Lori and the rest of usare going as guides. It is a collegegraduation/wedding Thai Trip.

Dave and Liam Spurlinghave invited us to spend two dayswith them in Hua Hin in their newdigs. Their former home was gor-geous and I'm anxious to find outhow they could have possibly im-proved on it. Dave is going to meetus at the airport and take us to theAmbassador Hotel...my other homein Thailand during previous trips. Weare also getting together withMacAlan Thompson, Les Strouse,and "Specter Joe" for a mini AirCommando Reunion.

As you know by now, BillConklin passed away in Novato,California. I wasn't able to writemuch about his passing as the lastnewsletter was just going to press atthe time.

Gene Rossel and I teamed upand sent a floral arrangement. Ourvenerable Howie Pierson also livesin Novato, California and I was ableto touch base with him regardingBill's demise. From all my reports,Howie delivered a stirring eulogy asonly he can.

Along with Gene Rossel,Charlie Jones, Chuck Keeler, JoeOrr, Bill Brown, and some 120 oth-ers, I was with Bill in Bien Hoa dur-ing 1962. I flew many flare missionswith him and several evac missions.We became quite bonded friends asa result.

Those of you that knew Bill

Conklin knew of his willingness,patriotism, and "Can Do" spirit andattitude. He seldom missed a reunionand only missed the last one due tohis ultimate fatal illness. My sincer-est condolence to Gloria and otherfamily members.

ACA Member and authorWarren Trest, Air Commando One,among many other books and histo-ries, sent me a personal copy of hislatest endeavor, Missing in Paradise.It is his first fictional mystery andfrom all accounts, a thriller from thegetgo. Warren also sent Wings ofDenial, a history that he co-authoredwith Donald Dodd. It is an accountof the Alabama Air National Guard'srole at the Bay of Pigs. Author re-tired Colonel Mike Haas scribed "...asuperb account of one of the darkesttragedies of the Cold Warera...describes in chilling detail thebloody impact of JFK's personal in-tervention..."

I plan to read my copy ofMissing in Paradise on my way toThailand. For you others interestedin reading Warren's latest, check yourlocal bookstore or go online and seekthem out. If you have read Warren'sAir Commando One, I know you willnot be disappointed!

We are making a change onour newsletter masthead. Where"ADDRESS SERVICE RE-QUESTED" appeared will now be"SERVICE CHANGE RE-QUESTED." The reason for this iseconomy. You were assured that yournewsletter would be forwarded un-der the first instance. But if youdidn’t submit a forwarding address,the article was returned to us and wewere required to pay 1st class post-age for it. Under the second instance,we will receive a change of addressat the rate of $0.70, but your news-letter will not be forwarded. We willno longer have to pay the high priceof returned articles. The bottom lineis: Send us your new forwarding ad-dress immediately... if you know it!

Just talked to "Chris" Chris-tian and he is scheduled for another

melanoma surgery and angioplastynext week. "Chris" somehow main-tains a very high degree of humorand pleasantness in spite of his manyongoing disabilities.

"Cajun" Ray Bourque, RogerKlair, "Chris," John Christian,"Heinie," and I are all having lunchtogether this Thursday. Except for"Heinie" and John, we've all had cur-rent surgeries. It should be a mostinteresting get-together because the60th year of Air Commandos is up-coming!

GENO VALENTINEUPDATE

By JOHN CONNORS, L#0070

I have some sad news to re-port. Our past president and masterof ceremonies extraordinaire, GenoValentine, is now living in the Vet-erans Home in Gulfport, Mississippidiagnosed with both Parkinson’s andAlzheimer’s diseases. He was admitted on 6 Novem-ber 2003, and I had a chance to visithim on 17 April for about an hourand a half. Although he recognizedme and looked better than the lasttime I saw him, he is wheel chairbound and needs a lot of assistancegetting around.

The friendly staff enjoy himand commented on his great senseof humor, so that was good news.Still, it was not easy seeing a robustjovial, long-time friend like Geno soafflicted with these mind and bodyrobbing afflictions, with no knownmedical cure that I’m aware of.President Reagan’s long journey im-mediately came to mind. We had anice conversation, part fact and partfantasy, mostly about the ACA andits members.

The Veterans Home is inGulfport, Miss, about 11 miles westof the Casino Magic in Biloxi. It ison the north side of highway 90.Geno is in Building 41G and I’m surehe would love to see you at reuniontime, especially if you are going tovisit the Biloxi Casinos. If unable tovisit, please send him a card, Hisaddress is:

Eugene P. ValentinePatient 41G-2Gulf Coast Veterans Health CareSystem200 E. Beach Blvd.Gulfport, MS 39507

Please keep this special Com-mando in your thoughts andprayers.

��

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Rated one of America’s Best Cleaners.Continued supporter of the AirCommando’s MTF Humanitarian Mis-sion. Support the folks who support us.Drop off or delivery, same price. Savetime and money today !! Call 850-243-4556 for personal service.


See LETTERS pg. 9

LETTERSDEAR BOB CHAMBERS,

I noticed your request in theMilitary Officers April publicationfor information on Tom Deken.

I knew Tom from his workin Special Operations, he flew a com-bat tour in Vietnam in 1963, spentsome time in R&D developing spe-cial weapons for insurgency opera-tions and also had several more toursin Southeast Asia all involving clas-sified missions.

Tom lived down the streetfrom me in Ft. Walton Beach Fl. andhe was one of the finest officers Iever met. He passed away a numberof years ago from what I believe wasa brain tumor. I have sent an infocopy of this message to Col. BobDowns who is President of the AirCommando Association, should youdesire more information contact himand he may be able to find someonewho knew Tom better than I did.

Joe [email protected] Sandalwood DriveKissimmee, FL 34743-8127

Many Thanks Joe,I appreciate your email and

am saddened to hear Tom is nolonger with us mortals. He was avery dear friend even though I losttouch with him many years ago. Once a good friend, always a goodfriend regardless of geography, dis-tance, or time.

We were both in Class 57G,same barracks building at San Anto-nio, room mates at Graham Air Basein Marianna, FL and same barracksbuilding in Del Rio. Basically thesame flight/academic schedule allthe way through flight training. Hewas one heck of a guy and I regretnot being able to track him down andhave a few "brewskies" and remi-nisce before the final separation. Inflight training, I started calling himas "Sir George" rather than Tom. He

was a very courteous gentleman, theterm "Sir George" was given to himon a "double date" while we were atGraham Air Base in early 1956. Itwas used for the remainder of ourflight training.

Tom was a damned good pi-lot----had to be or you didn't getthose coveted "all weather day/night/instrument jet fighter pilot wings". The instructors at Laughlin in thelatter part of 1956 were pretty tough. The final check pilots (formation andinstrument) were very very tough. Most were ex F80/ F-84 straightwing jocks that were P.O.'d at beingstuck in ATC and wanted to makesure you earned and deserved thosewings and the commission, if youwere a cadet.

Last time I saw Tom waswhile he was flying F-86's in Okla-homa. In late 1962, after I returnedfrom an isolated Middle East assign-ment, a mutual friend and class matesaid he had gone into "Special Ops"and was in Florida. I was at MoodyAFB at the time. One time I passedthrough Eglin, tried to contact himand he was TDY, so we never con-nected. I never had the pleasure ofmeeting Vera, his wife.

I had an email response fromBill Powers which gave me moreinformation. Since you sent an infocopy of your email message to ColDowns, I have included him as aninfo copy of this email.

A salute to all you "SpecialOps" and Air Commando gentlemenand ladies. You did and are still do-ing well! "Anytime, Anyplace" saysit all!

Although I have not had achance to visit the Armament Mu-seum and the Air Commando room,I am going to do that while passingthrough the Eglin area this summer.

Thanks again for sending methe info and Best Regards,

Bob [email protected] S. 70th Ave.Tulsa, OK 74133

COMBINED FEDERAL CAM-PAIGN - Okaloosa – Walton Coun-ties #0191

Mr. Richard GeronMcCoskrie Threshold Foundation,Inc.P.O. Box 67Mary Esther, FL 32569-0067

Dear Dick,

Congratulations!! On behalfof the Local Federal CoordinatingCommittee (LFCC), the McCoskrieThreshold Foundation has been ap-proved for participation in our 2004campaign. After reviewing the nu-merous humanitarian missions thatyour fine troops accomplished, it isa true privilege to have you on board.

We are planning to have an-other agency fair in September atEglin AFB and Hurlburt Field kick-offs, so please call me if you plan toparticipate.

We have raised over a mil-lion dollars in each of the last threeyears, and let’s make this year’s CFCanother banner year.

Sincerely,Ken Winzeler, CFC DirectorOkaloosa – Walton Co’s CFC112 Tupelo AvenueFort Walton Beach, FL 32548(850) 243-0315 Fax (850) 243-6625E-mail [email protected]

DEAR ACA,

Thanks for sending the Spe-cial Operations Warrior Foundationsolicitation with my dues reminder.This is definitely a very worthwhilecharity project.

Its purpose is to “provide chil-dren of the Special Operations Forcesthe college Education their fallen par-ents would have wanted for them”.

I only wish we had some-thing like this program in force backduring the Vietnam era. I rememberone fateful day in particular, that was24 June 1965, when the two A-I E’scollided on Eglin Range during train-ing. Four pilots were killed. They

left, I believe, twelve children behindthem. One of the pilots (Maj.Robinson) lived in the same duplexas my bride of two months (Carol)and me. He had two small children.Carol and I often wonder what be-came of them. It was our first expe-rience with death of a fellow Com-mando with a family; still hurts.

In any event keep sending thesolicitation flyers with the dues re-minders. And, keepup the good work.

Bobby Bieber — ACA #1059909 BelleviewKansas City, MO 64114

Ed. Note: Thanks Bobby. These chil-dren need our assistance.

DEAR HAP,

Thanks for the call regardingthe passing of my “Hero and Friend”,Col Bulldog/Wild Bill Bethea.

He had an extraordinaryWarrior Spirit, with a rough two-fisted, hands-on leadership style; butstill he was always fair and just.

Even though he was the se-nior US military Officer (my Com-mander) at Bien Hoa, ’64 – ’65,whenever the “Shit-Hit-The-Fan”,he was easy to find. Not in the Com-mand Post, or a Bunker; but, out inthe thick of Bombs, Mortars, Bullets,Fire & Smoke. I mean like elbow toelbow with the rest of us “Grunts”.He wasn’t just our Air CommandoBoss; he was one-of-us! And, weloved and respected him for it.

Col Bethea’s passing haswounded my heart.

Marty Jester1530 SW 187th StreetMiami, FL 33157

DEAR PETE,

Bit late this year. Had mailsent up to Boston; and before I could


LETTERSfrom pg 8

attend to it, I returned to Hawaii. AirCommando correspondence is thefirst in order of responsibilities.

The last ACA Newsletter wasexceptional and the photography was‘TOP OF THE LINE’.

Recognizing some of the fin-est in the Air Commando commu-nity (while we still can) is clearly amark of wisdom.

Congratulations on a jobWELL DONE…!

Aloha,Doc KenyonP.O. Box 3253Honolulu, HI 96801-3253

DEAR ROBERT,

Kudos to Jim Boney, JimYealy, and Rip Kirby for anothergreat paper.

I really liked the article aboutSam Wilson. One of the finest guysI've had the pleasure of knowing.

A real supporter of the AirCommandos way back when thatwas not a real popular thing to do inthe DC area.

Bill Keeler - [email protected] Monahan DriveFt Walton Bch., FL 32547

Ed. Note: Bill thanks, we need allthe kind words we can get.

DEAR ROBERT,

Thank you for continuing tosend us e-mail. I enjoy readingthings from Don's friends. Did youknow that Don (Randle) passed awaylast April? His obituary was in theAir Force Times. I miss him morethan anyone can imagine.

Your mail makes me feel partof him. I never had the pleasure tomeet you - can you send me a littlehistory on how you know Don?

My daughter is writing this

for me - my English writing isn't thatgreat!

Take care,Viet Randle

Viet,I'll gladly keep you in the

loop. And, yes we Air Commandosknew that Don had passed away.

I wasn't sure how you wouldtake me continuing to send e-mailsto Don’s e-mail address. Don wasspecial to all of us, and you beinghis wife have to be equally a veryspecial person because Don was al-ways very picky in choosing hisfriends.

Thanks so much for stayingin touch. And, please don't worryabout the English; we will work pastthat. It is no big thing.

Write often, we enjoy hear-ing from old friends and their loveones. By the way, you still receivethe Air Commando Newsletter; don'tyou? Joe Holden, Al Shinkle, I andmany others remember Don well andwish you and your family the"BEST"...!

Respectfully,Robert Downs

DEAR EDITOR,

I think the following letter from EdLaughary should be in the JuneNewsletter. This is a great tribute toa very Great Guy.

Felix “Sam” SambognaACA Board Member and MTF Sec-retary

Ed. Note: Ed Laughary, a lifetimemember of the ACA, sent the follow-ing Easter greeting to GeneralAderholt along with a nice donationto the McCoskrie Threshold Foun-dation. Ed put into words what mostof us think of BG “Heinie.”

ACCOLADES FOR BG“HEINIE” ADERHOLT

Easter Sunday, 2004

Dear General Aderholt,Just a quick note to express

my heartfelt “thanks” for your genu-ine friendship these past 40+ years.My first opportunity to serve withyou was on Operation Swift StrikeIII in 1963. As a fairly new Captain,recalled during the Suez crisis, Icould hardly believe the level of re-spect and trust you had for your jun-ior officers. Not before or afterwardsdid I find that trait in a field gradeofficer. You earned that star long be-fore, and should have retired with atleast two additional ones.

My warmest wishes for youthis Easter day – as God continuesto bless us! My dad whom you metabout 5 years ago there in your of-fice is almost 98 (Sept) and speaksof you now and then. He lived alonetill end of Feb, and now lives withmy sis/family in St. Pete to have care24/7, although he is still quite mo-bile. His big wish is to make it tothe reunion with me in Oct!! Hewants to see you and meet some ofmy ol’ associates.

By the way – I devour theNewsletter upon receipt and findmyself up to the wee hours finishingevery article-!

God Bless you my Air Com-mando friend.

Respectfully,

Ed Laughary – L06327650 East Sandia CircleMesa, AZ 85207-1962

P.S. A check enclosed for Mac’sFoundation

HOWDY ROBERT,

I wanted to share mythoughts with you on this, the 35thanniversary, of the day they almostgot me in the night skies over Laos.

It was a normal 5 hour mis-sion with 3 hours over the target onthe Trails in Laos. It was dark andthe enemy AAA was no more thanusual. We always got somewhere

See LETTERS pg. 10

around 800 to 1,000 rounds of vari-ous sizes of AAA fired at us in a 3hr. period.

Suddenly our rear scannercalled, "AAA 9 o'clock." Not muchyou can do when you are banking leftin the firing circle and the call is from9 o'clock.

This means you are flyingright into the stuff.

The 37 mm AAA looks verymuch like a beer can that is red hotcoming at you in threes and fours. Ifit is moving, then you are OK. Ifitseems to be standing still, then youare going to get hit.

We got hit in the right eleva-tor at the rear of the plane. Theynearly missed us. A very lucky hit.

We felt the plane vibrate andshudder when the round hit us. Weregained control and asked for aheading to RTB (return to base).

Over the interphone we veri-fied that everyone aboard was OKand the aircraft was manageable withsome careful stick and throttle con-trol. We proceeded back to the basearriving in about 45 minutes. Thelanding was uneventful and lots ofsighs of relief were heard from all ofthe crew. We had 14 souls on boardthat night and they all were trulythankful we had been so lucky.

The hit was about 18 inchesto the right of the main hydraulicboost package located in the tail ofthe aircraft. About 6 weeks later,another AC-130 got hit 18 inches tothe left of our hit directly onto theboost package. It dumped all theirhydraulic fluid.

They couldn't lower theirgear or flaps; they had no nose wheelsteering after landing. The pilot di-rected all of his crew to bail out ex-cept for his co-pilot, the Flight En-gineer and one Navigator. The othereleven jumped out over Thailand offthe end of the runway.

Since they had no hydraulicfluid, the Flight Engineer went to thecargo compartment and handcranked the gear down. He accom-


plished that and then took a seat inthe back in the right side scanner'sseat. That position was not stressedfor a crash landing.

When the airplane toucheddown, it began to veer right and itwent off the runway. With no steer-ing, the pilot was helpless. The tipof the right wing contacted the F-4barrier house removing the wing &spilling petrol, which caught fire. The entire plane was consumed byflame to include a fire truck that gottoo close to the fuselage of the dam-aged plane.

One man was killed when theAAA hit the aircraft and our FlightEngineer was killed when the winghit the barrier house. He was thrownforward into the bulkhead and waskilled. The two pilots and the Navi-gator ran out the rear of the planesafely.

All of us on our AC-130 onthe night of 27 Mar. '69 felt verylucky that our hit was to the right ofthe hydraulic boost package. Thus,today is the 35th anniversary of thatmemorable mission when we sur-vived an enemy AAA hit.

The attachment shows mywide smile and the size of the holemade by that 37 mm round. I'll neverforget that one particular flight. Verymemorable.

Take care and FLY SAFE!!!Cheers - - -

Charlie Spicka [email protected], Thailand '68-'69 DEAR

CHARLIE,Great story, Charlie! This is

the type story we are interested inpublishing in the Newsletter. Needmore interesting stories like this fromthe Gunship folks to increase ourreadership and to round-out theNewsletter.

For your information, we areattempting to get each Air Com-mando Unit to start submitting ar-

ticles for our Newsletter. The articlesdon't have to be pilot oriented or fly-ing stories; ...just articles of interestto our readers. Maintenance, GunPlumbers, and Supply folks do it too,you know. And, they had a great timemaking our operations successful.Couldn’t have fought the war with-out their support…!

Robert Downs- President

“When once you have tasted flight,you will forever walk the earth witheyes turned skyward. For there youhave been, and there you long to re-turn."(Leonardo Da Vinci)

TO THE EDITOR

I’d like to place an ad in thenext issue of the ACA newsletter asfollows:

THIS IS AN UNSOLICITED EN-DORSEMENT

We recently sold a home inthe FWB area and were fortunate tohave had a Tampa realtor refer us toa Miss Shelley Elley of Pelican Prop-erties on Racetrack Road in Ft.Walton. Would you believe thatShelley sold the house (in recordtime) for $15,000 MORE than wethought we could get?!

If you’re in the market to buyor sell, we wholeheartedly recom-mend that you contact Shelley. Herphone number is: 850-621-7l 80.

Please let me know howmuch for the ad. Thanks!!

Robby & Dee RobersonACA Member #H004649 Timber Pond DriveBrandon, FL 33510-2936

Ed. Note: As many of you willrecall, Dee was the WingCommander’s secretary for many ayear. Dee was very special to us be-cause she had so much to do withorganizing and structuring the AirCommandos. I recall that she sure

LETTERSfrom pg 9

kept our “butts” out of an awful lotof trouble. Additionally, Dee was bestknown for her “Can Do Attitude andFree Spirit”.

There will be no charge Dee;without people like you and Robbie,Special Operations would not haveadvanced to where it is today.

COLONEL NEUPHET

Robert,I have been meaning to re-

spond to you about Col. Neuphet,GM 18 Commander. I probablyknew him better and spent more timewith him than any of the other of theRegional or GM Commanders. Mydelay in responding is that I have acouple of photos that were taken to-gether but after all these years I sim-ply can't find them.

Yes, Col Neuphet was veryfocused on what he was doing. But,when in Savannakhet together weused to go to the kick-boxingmatches, sat on the front row, ofcourse.

He built a runway for me touse for the Lao Cessna U-17 I usedand also for the O-1. Of course ev-eryone knew that Col Neuphet andGen Ma were very close and he al-most always responded to Ma's re-quests. In return, GM 18 was verywell supported by the RLAF.

One time, part of GM 18 wasmoving from one location to anotherand we were on the only road infairly woody terrain and Col.Neuphet was in the lead vehicle. Isuggested to his aid that it might bebetter for the Commander to not bein that position due to the possibilityof land mines. The next morning Inoticed he had either an armoredvehicle or a tank with troops in thelead.

Until I got an aircraft, weused to mark targets for both theRLAF and US aircraft by using WPartillery. I never thought much of thatprocedure as I could never verifyprecisely the target nor the results;but it did wonders for the troopsmoral to see lots and lots of aircraft

pounding the area where the artilleryshells were landing. Had to makesure the a/c attacks came from thecorrect direction to insure they didn'tfly through the ground fire.

We did a hell of a lot betterafter Ma gave me the Cessna andeven better yet when PappyPettigrew and the Ambassador gotthe O-1's for my use.

In addition to rockets formarking, we used to put 15 or 20hand grenades in glasses, pull thepins, and then when we found a tar-get, carefully, very carefully, throwthem out one to three at a time. Bythe way, Lt Sangat was the RLAFofficer that flew with me. I knew hisfamily and we used to ride aroundSVK on his motorbike.

We got shot up pretty goodon an attack down south one day andSangat got hit in the leg. Nothingreal serious but Gen Ma was con-cerned. What ever happened toSangat? Any idea?

I'd stay with Neuphet some-times for weeks at a time, maybegoing back to SVK for a day occa-sionally. I lived with GM 18, atewith GM 18 and got to know manyof them very well.

After going south and work-ing with other units, I believed that18 was the best trained and certainlythe best disciplined unit in the area.

One hell of a war wasn't it!To this day I feel that we should havedone more and just think what wecould have done if we'd had the com-munications capabilities then thatexists today.

Roy Dalton

ROY - GREAT STORY! I'll sendcopy of this e-mail to Prayoon,Chant, Sery, Concy, Souvanratanna,and others. I'll bet that one or moreof these guys can tell us what becameof Lt Sangat (the RLAF officer thatflew with you).

I also believe that they cancome-up with good pictures of ColNeuphet.

See LETTERS pg. 11


LETTERSfrom pg 10

How about writing an articleabout Col Neuphet and we will pub-lish it in the ACA Newsletter?

Several of the Lao pilots whoare members of the Air CommandoAssociation will enjoy reading abouthim. They may be able to add morebackground information about ColNeuphet.

I'm sure wish that I had takenmore pictures and recorded what washappening at the time I was in Laos.The Lao had some real fighters whowere tough as nails. Col Neuphetwas defiantly one tough hombre.

With better communicationsthese guys would have been awe-some to go against. Most peoplecould never imagine the conditionsunder which these guys lived andfought.

Robert Downs- President

Email to Col Phimphavong Concy

Do you recall what becameof Lt Sangat? I am enclosing an e-mail which I received from RoyDalton.

Robert Downs

HI BOB,

Wish you and fellows com-mandos had a wonderful weekend.

Very happy to give you theanswer of Lt Sangat, he was one ofthe most dangerous Intel for the PLwhile serving in the RLAF and wasthe one who led the manifestationsin the Lao Air Force during the mid1975 and become famous in the PLadministration after that....and hewas not the only one; we have a lotsof that kinds....you understand whatI mean..ok...

ConcyCol Phimphavong Concy

ROBERT,

Happened on these photos. Top tobottom. 1.With Neuphet on one of his tanksin GM 18. 2.Some captured items we re-viewed. 3.With Lt Sangat pointing out a fewholes in our aircraft.

Photos taken 13 Apr 66 af-ter a mission 2 miles south of BanLao Ngam. Sangat got shrapnel inhis leg and I got some cuts on myface from flying plexiglass.

As you know, the Ambassa-dor was so hung on us taking unnec-essary risks we didn't report it forfear of being grounded.

Hey, that's life,

Roy Dalton

Ed. Note: Sorry, Roy’s pictures werenot printable quality.

HUNTING THE JACKAL

We've been waiting for "this"for quite awhile and in just a fewweeks, 15 June, you'll be able to reada fabulous book written by the "realdeal" in Special Forces lore......CSMBilly Waugh. This is a book youwon't want to miss and will be avail-able at all the best bookstores -Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Bor-ders, Powell's, etc.

I'm very proud to be consid-ered his friend and highly recom-mend the book.

Adrian Silva (D-6625)Special Forces AssociationChapter 75 - Vice PresidentE-mail: [email protected]: www.sfachapter75.org

Hunting the JackalA Special Forces and CIA GroundSoldier's Fifty-Year Career HuntingAmerica's Enemies by Billy Waughand Tim Keown

Billy Waugh is a SpecialForces and CIA legend, and in Hunt-

ing the Jackal he allows unprec-edented access to the shadowy butvital world he has inhabited for morethan fifty years.

From deep inside the suffo-cating jungles of Southeast Asia tothe fetid streets of Khartoum to thefreezing high desert of Afghanistan,Waugh chronicles U.S. Special Op-erations through the extraordinaryexperiences of his singular life. Hehas worked in more than sixty coun-tries, hiding in the darkest shadowsand most desolate corners to fightthose who plot America's demise.Waugh made his mark in places fewwant to consider and fewer stillwould choose to inhabit. In remark-able detail he recounts his participa-tion in some of the most importantevents in American Special Opera-tions history, including his own piv-otal role in the previously untoldstory of the CIA's involvement in thecapture of the infamous Carlos theJackal.

Waugh's work in helping theCIA bring down Carlos the Jackalprovides a riveting and suspensefulaccount of the loneliness and adrena-line common to real-life espionage.He provides a point-by-point break-down of the indefatigable work nec-essary to detain the world's first ce-lebrity terrorist.

No synopsis can adequatelydescribe Waugh's experiences. Hespent seven and a half years in Viet-nam, many of them behind enemylines as part of SOG, a top secretgroup of elite commandos. He wastailed by Usama bin Laden's un-friendly bodyguards while joggingthrough the streets of Khartoum,Sudan, at 3 A.M. And, at the age ofseventy-two, he marched through thefrozen high plains of Afghanistan asone of a select number of CIA op-eratives who hit the ground as partof Operation Enduring Freedom.

Waugh came face-to-facewith bin Laden in Khartoum in 1991and again in 1992 as one of the firstCIA operatives assigned to watch theal Qaeda leader. Waugh describes his

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NEVADA SENATORWANTS FORMER CIAAIRLINE EMPLOYEES

TO GET BENEFITS

Summary of the original AP reportin the Las Vegas Review-Journal

For 20 years, Las VeganWard Reimer only suspected he wasworking for the CIA. The Taiwan-based airline that had hired him as amechanic was a cover for the CIAfrom the 1950s until Americantroops pulled out of Vietnam in 1975.Reimer's bosses at Air America Inc.never disclosed the truth to him orto many of the hundreds of employ-ees who serviced planes and flewmissions over China, Korea, Laosand Vietnam during the era.

When the CIA shuttered AirAmerica in 1975, they were unableto seek government benefits. Almost30 years later, Reimer and others areasking Congress to grant them fed-eral benefits, as is done for employ-ees of other corporations owned bythe U.S. government.

At their request, Sen. HarryReid, D-Nev., introduced legislationThursday that would make the me-chanics, the crew members, the pilotsand the widows of Air America eli-gible for federal retirement benefits.

See CIA pg. 13

daily surveillance routine with clear-eyed precision. Without fanfare, fear,or chance of detection, he could havekilled the 9/11 mastermind on thedirty streets of Khartoum had hebeen given the authority to do so.

No man is more qualified tochronicle America's fight against itsenemies - from communism to ter-rorism - over the past half-century.In Hunting the Jackal, Billy Waughhas emerged from the shadows andfolds of history to write a memoir ofan extraordinary life for extraordi-nary times.

Ed. Note: A must read book…!


By KALE DANBERG,Brooklyn Park, MN

“Tell them, tell them whenyou get home, that I gave all my to-morrows so they could have today!”

Those are the words on atombstone, far across the Pacific, ofsomeone who gave up his life for ourfuture. Were those words uttered sothat those of us who are left couldjust enjoy our lives without “gettinginvolved” or were they written toremind us that the work of freedomand liberty is never done?

Were those words written tosuggest to us that it is not our jobnor our responsibility to keep alivewhat they fought and died for or werethey written to remind us that wewere given the opportunity of life sothat we would continue to defend,and keep alive the memory of whatthey gave their last full measure for?

Let us here today, tonight,tomorrow, next months and next yearremember these gallant defenders ofour freedom. Most were not heroesas defined by the most hallowedMedal of Honor nor even as definedby the Silver or Bronze Star. But theywere ALL HEROES. Yes, they wereheroes because, without hesitationthey fought for our country whenthey were asked to defend her.

Most didn’t die throwingthemselves on a hand grenade,charging a bunker or manning a ma-chine gun until their ammunition wasgone. Most didn’t die diving theirairplane into an enemy ship ormarching in the infamous BataanDeath March, but they are heroesbecause they fought when asked tofight. They left their families, friendsand good times behind and went tofight for our freedom without hesi-tation.

Some never even fired theirweapons because they were killedbefore they ever reached the beach;but they were heroes because theywere there, ready to fight forAmerica - for family, flag and coun-try.

A MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGEMost were scared to death as

they prepared to meet, the enemy.Their stomachs were turned upsidedown and they prayed to God andwished they were with their moms,dads or sweethearts rather than be-ing where they were.

But they were where theywere fighting an enemy that wasthreatening their right to life, libertyand the pursuit of happiness. Theywere fighting an enemy because theybelieved in America, they loved Herflag and they wanted to protectAmerican’s right to worship as theychose. They were there without hesi-tation, fighting for what they be-lieved in and dying for what they be-lieved in so you and I could live theway we chose in a free country.But they did not die so that we wouldstop fighting for what they believedand died for. They fought and diedknowing that we, the living, wouldgo on fighting for that same freedom,that same country, that same flag andfor that same right to worship as wechoose.

Abraham Lincoln, atGettysburg, said: “…It is for us theliving, rather, to be dedicated hereto the unfinished work which theywho fought here have thus far sonobly advanced. It is rather for us tobe here dedicated to the great taskremaining before us - that from thesehonored dead we take increased de-votion to that cause for which theygave the last full measure of devo-tion - that we here highly resolve thatthese dead shall not have died invain, that this nation, under God,shall have a new birth of freedom andthat government of the people, by thepeople, for the people, shall not per-ish from the Earth.”

It is for us, the living, to goon defending what they died for. Itis for us, the living, not to allow his-tory to forget what they gave up alltheir tomorrows for. It is for us, theliving, to expect to get a bit uncom-fortable as we continue to tell the

truth even as the vocal minorities tryto silence us.

Good enough is not goodenough! When we open our mouthsbut once and we’re told we shouldn’tsay that, we must not say we tried,good enough! Good enough is notgood enough.

If, when we attackedGuadalcanal, and when we landed atSalerno, we found that “they” weregoing to fight back, we continued tofight because we knew our cause wasright!

When Americans rode in thelanding craft before storming thebeaches at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Sic-ily, Anzio, Normandy, Peleliu,Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Inchon,and many other places we neverheard of before and when they foughtin North Africa, the Philippines,Italy, France, Bastogne, Germany,Korea, and Viet Nam, most werescared to death. But that did not stopthem from attacking America’s en-emies bravely and without hesita-tion. They fought, and many died,but they did not give up becausesomeone shot back at them.

They did not die so that wecould become complacent; nor didthey die so that when we, the living,reached a single obstacle, we shouldquit. They died knowing that wewould go on defending their actions,defending history and defendingwhat they gave up all their tomor-rows for.

If WE don’t remember; ifWE don’t defend what they foughtand died for and what we fought for,who will remember? Who will care?

Revisionists are attemptingto change history. At the Smithsonianthey sought to tell of our supposedatrocities to our past enemies.America’s Ambassador to Japanapologized to the Japanese for uswithout getting any apology, or evenan acknowledgement of their wrongdoing. Peter Jennings had an hour-long TV special demonstrating ourinjustices and he expressed disap-pointment that the Smithsonian was

prevented from displaying all thephotographs of the results of ourbombing of Hiroshima andNagasaki. He expressed disappoint-ment that veterans blocked the truthfrom being known. And, until manyMinnesota veterans and AsianAmericans protested, a mass Re-quiem Hiroshima, was to be playedfor the dead, caused by America andAmericans, of the bombing ofHiroshima without describing theevents and atrocities committed thatled up to our having to drop thebomb.

Today, we are even pre-vented from protecting our flag bythe minority and a few in Washing-ton, D.C., even though most Ameri-cans proclaim that burning our flagis not what they consider free speech.How many of us who fought for ourflag and our country remember thefeeling as old Glory was being raisedover a piece of land we fought for,and many died for? How many re-member seeing or hearing about ourvaliant warriors, who were fightingon Iwo Jima, as they stood andcheered when they saw the flag be-ing raised over Mt. Suribachi?

Today, our flag is not presentin many classrooms across this na-tion and, if it is, there is no Pledge ofAllegiance. Today, even many ofAmerica’s houses of worship do notfly Old Glory! Is it any wonder whyAmerica and Americans havechanged so drastically?

Who in the future will evenremember what our veterans did?Who will remember our sacrifices?Take a walk down the street todayand ask people important questionsabout WWII, Korea and even Viet-Nam. How many correct answers doyou think you’ll receive? How manywon’t even answer at all and howmany will say, “All. I know is at theend of WWII we shouldn’t havedropped the bomb!” or “We werewrong to drop the bomb!”

Who would we blame forthis? The veterans and the veterans’

See MEMORIAL pg. 13


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By KARL POLIFKA

The NVA had quite a few PT-76 tanks in the PDJ area althoughthey never seemed to use them toany great effect when I was at LongTieng in 1969. The PT-76 wasn’tmuch of a tank with a 76mm maingun and one-inch armor, but thefriendlies didn’t have armor so it wasa real threat to them. Tanks, how-ever, were a big deal to 7th AirForce. The NVA knew that tankswere high on the Air Force agendaand could be used to lure the unsus-pecting into unfortunate situations.

Late on the afternoon of 20April 1969 I came across a PT-76on a road in the west central PDJ. Ithadn’t been there earlier in the dayand it was just sitting there far fromany friendly troops or possible ob-jective -- no activity, no movement,no nothing. It was possible thatsomeone had decided to take a tankfor a drive in daylight and had anengine breakdown – the NVA haddone goofier things. On the otherhand, the situation smelled funny.The weather in the immediate areahad a thin broken deck at about 2000feet. Workable for fast movers butbetter for slow movers like the T-28D A-team operating out of MoungSoui that day. What a great oppor-tunity for Bobby Downs and his in-trepid A-team!

I called Moung Soui on VHFand described the situation to Bobby.He seemed mildly interested until Isaid that “ . . . this kind of looks likeit might be a flak trap . . .”. I didn’tknow that VHF could transmit thesound of laughter so well. I thoughtBobby was going to choke fromlaughing. He finally got out some-thing between laughs, I think it wasa question regarding my mental ca-pacity. Fine, if you’re going to belike that I’ll take my business else-where!

CRICKET sent me NEW-ARK, a couple of Thuds that weredown to 20mm – which would be

FLAK TRAP ON THE PDJperfect. I climbed above the thincloud layer, made the rendezvous,and briefed the target including thepossible flak trap. I dropped througha hole and rolled in to mark. That’swhen the flak trap came true. Justas I fired a WP something kicked therudder hard. I looked just to the westand could see the muzzle flash of a37mm that had, not so cleverly, beenparked in some vegetation on the eastside of a low hill. They couldn’t fireto the west.

NEWARK made a few quickstrafe passes that clearly hit the PT-76 but there was no fire or other signof destruction. Did the bad guys towa derelict tank out there to see whobit on it? A few minutes later, at1726, I worked HATCHET, anotherset of Thuds, on the 37mm. I didn’tneed to mark the gun since they madethemselves obvious by continuing tofire. HATCHET came in from thewest and both dumped their Mk 82load on the gun and then covered thearea with CBU 24 to get any troopsin the area.

Bobby Downs and I stilllaugh about the opportunity he let theA-team miss.

Robert’s comments: The above isKarl’s version of the story, and I’msure that he is going to stick with it.

Actually, Karl has toned hisversion of the story down consider-ably. When he called me at MongSoui and explained the layout, whathe had in mind and gave me the de-tails, … there were some strongexpletives like “Crazier than Hell”,“Dumb Ass”, “SOB”, “ Sh-THead” and more that went back andforth over the radios stating that ithad every appearance of being aFLAK-TRAP. No way was the “A”Team going into that setup.

As I recall, Karl’s feelingswere really hurt bad and his nose wasplenty bent way out of shape becauseof my lack of interest in supportinghim and his new found target.

Later, we were both gladthat we had not sent the T-28’s todestroy the tank. Initially, the “A”Team was also very unhappy withme when they heard that they missedan opportunity to destroy a tank, …atank target was a rarity for them.

We were all fortunate that areal disaster was averted. The set-up was just too darn good to be true!

It wasn’t that I was all thatsmart, it was just one of those veryuncomfortable deep down gut feel-ing that tells you...NO, DON’T DOIT!

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organizations who would discouragetheir members from being involvedin defending what they gave theirlives for would be to blame. All ofus who won’t take the time to write,speak or call their representativeswill be to blame.

And if, when we’re againcalled to duty - this time to guardthe streets of Heaven - we look downand find that no one wants to defendour nation, that no one wants to fol-low our flag and even the monu-ments to defenders past are beingtorn down, we will hang our headsin shame and ask “Why?” Why didwe allow ourselves to not defendwhat we did and what they died for?

In closing, let’s rememberagain what Abraham Lincoln said:“…that we here highly resolve thatthese dead shall not have died invain,” and what President John EKennedy said in his famous inaugu-ration speech - “Ask not what yourcountry can do for you, ask what youcan do for your country” and last ofall remember that gravestone faracross the Pacific which states: “Tellthem I gave all my tomorrows sothey could have today!”

Let’s remember all of ourheroes in cemeteries all acrossAmerica and all over the world. Let’sremember that they gave all theirtomorrows so that we could havetoday. Thank you and God bless.

MEMORIALfrom pg 12

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"We'd just like to get a littlefor ourselves. There's only 500 of usleft," said John Condon of Las Ve-gas, who was an Air America flightengineer for 11 years. "It would benice and help some people that re-ally need it."

Reid said his bill would guar-antee benefits to all employees of AirAmerica and its subsidiaries and notlimit payments only to those whowent on to other government jobs.

"These are American heroes,many of whom were killed in actionwhile flying dangerous missions forthe CIA," Reid said in a statement."They deserve to be recognized assuch and at a minimum receive thesame benefits that other federal em-ployees receive."

William Merrigan, a DefenseDepartment lawyer who was AirAmerica's counsel from 1962 to1975, said congressional action isneeded because the courts and thegovernment have denied appealsfrom the airline's former employees.

Reid's office did not have acost estimate for the proposal.Merrigan predicted the cost would beminimal, given the small number ofworkers employed by the airline.

Submitted by: Peter Kessler

CIAfrom pg 11


LARRY “SANDY”SANBORN

Born 8/16/43 in Belleville,Kansas. Attended AF Academy '61-'65. Attended pilot training at VanceAFB graduating in Aug '66. Fromthere he was sent to SpangdahlemAB, Germany flying the F-4. Juneof '68 he went to Holloman AFB,NM, the 7th TAC Ftr Sq. In Sep '69,he was stationed at Chu Lai Vietnam.June 14 '70, he was sent to Laos andstayed until Aug '71.

He then taught at the AFAcademy and attended University ofDenver where he received a mastersdegree in EE. In ‘72, Larry spentthree years working on his Ph.D. atGeorgia Tech. He received anothermaster of science degree in June '77.From there he returned to PetersonField in CO. His next assignmentwas to Los Angeles AFS, CA. Heworked on very classified advanced

FINAL FLIGHT PLANS

space technology. The Pentagon washis last AF assignment. While therehe worked for NRO under PeteAldrich, Sec. of the AF.

After determining he was noton the promotion list for general,he decided to make some money andretired as a Col. from the USAF May'89. He continued his work with sat-ellites at TRW. He was a projectmanager for many systems and ex-panded his knowledge base in man-agement functions. He retired fromTRW in June 2001. In August hemoved to Navarre and Feb 2004moved into the house in Ft. WaltonBeach.

Larry received many awardsand decorations including the Le-gion of Merit, DFC with 2 OLC,Defense Meritorious service medal,Air Medal with 23 OLCs, and theAFC in addition to many other unitcitations and awards. In civilianwork he received a yearly bonus

earned for outstanding work andmany outstanding employee awards.

After retirement, he was veryactive with the Raven Associationand elected President. He sought outthe Air Commando Association andvolunteered on many projects in-cluding the back breaking load-outsof MTF containers. He was electedto the ACA Board of Directors lastyear. His positive focus and spiritwill be sorely missed by all of theAir Commandos and Ravens. Hewas ready to help anytime, anyplace.

Fred Platt

ORVIN T. “COPE”COPLAND

"Cope" Copeland passedaway recently following a losingbattle to cancer. Larry Caison, RayBourque, Fred Sanders, and I trav-eled to Headland, Alabama to attendhis services and pay our deepest re-spects.

Fred Sanders participated inthe services by presenting a mosteloquent and stirring eulogy.

“Cope" was an Air Com-mando patriot and warrior withoutpeer. His passing leaves yet anotherdark emptiness to our heritage andhistory.

I join all Air Commandos inextending our sincerest condolencesto his brave wife Anise and all otherfamily members.

Hap Lutz

JACK WESTFALL

Jack Westfall was a greatfighter pilot, absolutely fearless andwith great ability to find targets atnight. He was always ready to fly,anytime and in marginal weather.

I flew with him on many oc-casions, and he was one of the bestpilots I ever flew with.

After he left the outfit, I vis- See FINAL FLIGHT pg. 15

ited with him in Okinawa and he wasstill trying to return to combat. Jackwas a real asset to the 56 ACW andto the USAF.

I kept in touch with him un-til a few years before his death. I willalways treasure his friendship anddedication to his country.

My dear friend Jack, I andmany Commandos will miss you, butnever forget you.

So long old friend and GodBless You.

Heinie Aderholt

RUSSEL B. KNOEBEL

USAF Col. (Retired) RussellP. Knoebel, awarded a Silver Starand Purple Heart, along with othermedals, for his bravery and actionsin Vietnam died after a short illnesson 5 March 04 and his ashes wereinterned at a memorial service at FortSam National Cemetery.

As a fighter pilot, Knoebelsaw action in both the Korean andVietnam wars. It was during his sec-ond tour in the Vietnam War that al-though seriously wounded, heshowed his concern for the safety ofothers.

Flying solo in the A-37fighter, Knoebel was seriouslywounded in the leg during a bomb-ing attack on the enemy. Breakingoff the attack, he was diverted to thenearest suitable airstrip. Although hehad difficulty in controlling and stop-ping the aircraft on a short Army air-field he was diverted to, he was suc-cessful and was taken to their fieldmedical facility. While on the oper-ating table, he was advised this air-craft had attracted quite a crowd.Hundreds of people were surround-ing the aircraft and examining it.

Knoebel suddenly realizedthe danger all those people were in.“Does anyone on this base campknow how to safety the bombs still

LARRY “SANDY” SANBORNAugust 16, 1943 - April 30, 2004

Mrs. Jan Sanborn receives the flag in honor of loving husband Larry Sanbornat his memorial service at the Hurlburt Air park. Sandy was a board memberof the Air Commando Association and president of the Raven Association.His friendship, loyalty, and boundless energy will be greatly missed. Never-more, Sandy, nevermore.


Submitted by: SANDY SANBORN

A true story! This is about oneof our soldiers who died in Iraq andlived in Boonville, NY. It is sad.

It is a great story. The letter waswritten by Senior Investigator Jack Gra-ham of the New York State Police tofellow members of the NY State Policeand to the Syracuse Police who, on April17, 2003, participated in a hastilyplanned ceremonial escort for a soldierkilled in Iraq. Feel free to pass this on. These are the kinds of stories that makeus proud to be an American.

The abbreviation "SP", means"State Police", and it refers to a station.For instance, SP Loudonville, NY. Theletter follows:

On Thursday, April 17, 2003you participated in an escort detailfor GREGORY P. HUXLEY JR whowas killed in action in Iraq on April6, 2003. On behalf of the entireHuxley family and from me, person-ally, I want to say "Thank you verymuch." Your professionalism, dedi-cation and sincerity meant so muchto the Huxley family, that words can-not describe their feelings at thistime.

What most did not know wasthat the US Army had promised thefamily members that they would betaken to Dover, Delaware to bepresent when their son arrived fromIraq and there would be a full mili-tary ceremony in Dover for GRE-GORY. Unfortunately, there was acommunication problem and theywere not present during that cer-emony.

Then they were informedthat the body of their son was beingflown to Syracuse and that the fu-neral director could pick up the"fallen soldier" at the cargo area ofthe airport and that somebody wouldhelp them remove the casket fromthe cardboard shipping container fortransport to Boonville, NY.

A FALLEN SOLDIERRETURNS HOME

FINAL FLIGHTfrom pg 14

See SOLDIER pg. 16

The funeral director felt thatunacceptable for a nineteen year oldyoung man that gave his life for thiscountry and for the freedom of somany others. As a family friend hecontacted me to see if anything couldbe done. We now had six hours be-fore GREGORY arrived in Syracuse.

Phone calls were made to SPNorth Syracuse and SGT NickHarmatiuk took over from there.What you participated in and ob-served the rest of that day was trulyan outstanding display of what thisagency can do in very short time.

What happened was just vi-sually and emotionally overwhelm-ing. The procession left SP NorthSyracuse led by eight Syracuse PDmotorcycles, followed by the hearse,four cars with family members andfollowed by ten State Police andSyracuse PD cars. How ironic it wasthat when the procession was trav-eling parallel to the runway, the planecarrying GREGORY landed next toit. We were able to enter the plane’scargo area and remove the shippingcrate from the casket and drape theAmerican flag over the casket. When the casket traveled down theconveyor belt, fifteen New YorkState Troopers and the same amountof Syracuse Policemen lined the pathto the awaiting hearse - all at atten-tion. A hand salute was executed assix State Troopers proudly bore theflag draped coffin to the hearse. Af-ter a short prayer, the family wasgiven some time to welcome theirson home.

The entire airport was soquiet. I looked up at the concoursewindows and saw a hundred or morepeople. They were all standing,watching, with their hands over theirhearts, saluting a young man thatthey did not know. Somehow they

on the aircraft or the gun on it?” heexcitedly questioned. If one of thearmed bombs on it exploded or thegun capable of firing 6,000 rounds aminute started firing, it would be amajor disaster.

No one there could de-armthe aircraft; so on a stretcher andwhile suffering the excruciating painof the wound, they carried him backto the aircraft so he could safety thebombs and the gun. Such was hisconcern for others.

As one of the younger pilotswho flew on his wing said, “He wasa good Flight CO, a great Pilot, anda true friend. He took us younger kidsunder his wing and taught us the rightway to get in [to an enemy target],do an outstanding job, and then getout safely.”

Following Vietnam, Russwas assigned to Headquarters,PACAF, then later became a squad-ron commander at Webb AFB,Texas, followed by an assignment toATC Headquarters at RandolphAFB. He retired in San Antonio andhelped start the A-37 ‘Reunion’ As-sociation, an organization that wel-comes “Anyone who flew, workedon, worked with, or has a high ad-miration for the great little fighter.”(The A-37 flew more combat mis-sions in Vietnam than any otherfighter.)

Later, he and his wife, Lisa,moved to Spring Branch, Texas.

Ollie Maier

ROBERT FULTON

The United States Militaryand Central intelligence Agency suf-fered the loss of one of its most tal-ented inventors. I have known BobFulton for more than 40 years and Iam aware of his many contributionsto the defense of our country.

Robert Fulton was a patriot,inventor, great photography andaviator and made many contributions

to the defense and welfare of thiscountry.

He was the first man to ridea motorcycle around the world. Hedeveloped the Fulton Recovery Sys-tem and made other assists to theUnited States Military and the CIA.He was a great pilot and flew his ownplane for many, many years. Heserved his country in many ways.

God Bless you my friend.You will be missed by all of us.

Harry C. Aderholt

BURIAL HONORSPLANNED FOR FATHER

OF SPECIAL FORCES

One of the Army's legendaryfighters and father of the Army'sSpecial Forces died Thursday at theage of 101 in Dana Point.

Retired Army Col. AaronBank will be buried Monday after-noon at Riverside National Cemeterywith full military honors attended byhundreds of former and currentGreen Berets, as well as other mili-tary dignitaries.

Col. Bank was one of 93original men from the Office of Stra-tegic Services who parachuted intoFrance, Belgium and Holland to con-duct covert warfare against the Na-zis before the invasion of Normandyin 1944.

He trained for a mission tocapture top Nazi officers. Bank wasdischarged from the OSS after thewar and returned to the ArmyCounter Intelligence Corps.

A veteran of Korea, Col.Bank began work on developing theSpecial Forces in 1951, then as-sumed command of the 10th SpecialForces Group at Fort Bragg, N.C.There, he perfected training small A-teams of 12 people to parachute intoenemy territory and to organize in-digenous fighters to battle the enemy.

Marlowe ChurchillThe Press-Enterprise - (909) 567-2407 [email protected]

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SOLDIERfrom pg 15learned that a fallen soldier had comehome and they wanted to honor hissacrifice.

The casket was then placedin the hearse and the procession leftthe airport in the same fashion as wearrived, only this time with a younghero that our hearts will never for-get.

The motorcade was escortedto the thruway entrance by the Syra-cuse Police Department's motor-cycles. All traffic was stopped forthe procession and we headed easttowards Boonville. After getting offthe thruway, we found that every in-tersection that the procession en-countered was controlled by StateTroopers, allowing us a safe, unim-peded passage. At each intersection,the State Trooper stood at attention,saluting the fallen soldier and hisfamily, giving him and his family therespect that they deserved. Howemotional that was to see and nowto reflect on.

When entering the Village ofBoonville, the main street was deco-rated with an infinite number of

American Flags and yellow ribbons. As we approached the center oftown, all of the church bells beganto peal at once recognizing and sa-luting Gregory's arrival. Hundredsof people holding American flagslined the street, some with their handover their heart and some weepingfor GREGORY for what he sacri-ficed, for us and his country. As wedrove by the village park, the Na-tional Anthem was being played, forGREGORY, and I think, for all of us.

At the funeral home, eightveterans lifted the casket out of thehearse and into the home with thefamily. GREGORY had returnedhome. GREGORY'S family said tome later that the images I have justdescribed will always be etched intheir hearts, forever. But the onememory that will always be therefirst, was of the State Troopers at theairport, standing at attention, salut-ing, with tears running down theircheeks for their son, a fallen soldier. A hero whom those Troopers neverpersonally knew.

Our jobs take many differentavenues in life. We hope that duringour day or shift that we have made adifference, a positive contribution.

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AIR COMMANDO ASSOCIATIONOFFICIAL 2004 BALLOT

1. PROXY BALLOT (MARK HERE FOR PROXY DESIG-NATION OR VOTE BELOW. DO NOT MARK THE PROXYBALLOT SECTION IF YOU ARE VOTING BELOW. MARK-ING BOTH PLACES WILL INVALIDATE YOUR BALLOT)

❑ I give my Proxy for all my votes to:_____________________________________

2. PRESIDENT (VOTE FOR ONE)

❑ FELIX “SAM” SAMBOGNA

❑ Write in _______________________

3. TREASURER (VOTE FOR ONE)

❑ ROBERT DOWNS

❑ Write in _______________________

4. BOARD (VOTE FOR THREE)

❑ JOHN CONNORS

❑ DAVE HARRINGTON

❑ TED SAUNDERS

❑ Write in _______________________

❑ Write in _______________________

❑ Write in _______________________

PRINT NAME: _________________ ACA # _____

SIGNATURE: _____________________________

Photocopy of this ballot is valid with original signaturePLEASE RETURN BY 1 OCTOBER 2004

��

On this occasion you did just that. An entire family knows that youcared to do your very best to honortheir son. Their words and expres-sions told me just that. We made adifference yesterday, and we did itwell.

The rewards we receive fordetails like this one do not come fromanywhere but from the heart. Takepride in what you accomplished, be-cause it was distinct and withoutequal in this Trooper's eye. I havehad so many good things happensince I have been a State Trooper, butin those twenty fours years, I have

never been more proud of the NewYork State Police as I was yesterday- A fallen soldier, a hero, a son, abrother has finally come home, ingrand deserving style, thanks to allof you.

FORT WALTON AUTO REPAIR120 Racetrack Rd.Fort Walton Beach, FL32547

YourYourYourYourYourHomeHomeHomeHomeHome

TownTownTownTownTownGarageGarageGarageGarageGarage

Call (850) 863-9500

"All men dream: but not equally.Those who dream by night in the dustyrecesses of their minds wake in the dayto find that it was vanity: but thedreamers of the day are dangerousmen, for they may act their dreamswith open eyes, to make it possible.

T.E Lawrence, "The SevenPillars of Wisdom"

Call (850) 863-9500

Open 6 days a week for your convenience

Monday-Saturday 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM

Total Car Care,Repair, and Service

Foreign andDomestic


See MTF pg. 18

McCoskrie/Threshold Foundation UpdateMISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the McCosk-rie Threshold Foundation (MTF)Inc., the all-volunteer non-profit hu-manitarian arm of the Air Com-mando Association, is to provide aidand assistance locally and worldwideto those in need. The aid may be inthe form of medical teams/ supplies,identified specific needs, or bulkshipping of general humanitarianitems such as clothing, school andmedical equipment, furniture, andfood.

The MTF primary objectiveis to provide equipment and suppliesin support of U.S. Military Humani-tarian Assistance Programs (HAP)and nation building efforts, thus pro-jecting U.S. forces in the best pos-sible light.

When a military partnershipis not available, the MTF will pro-vide humanitarian aid representingthe United States of America throughother non-profit organizations.

MTF SUPPORTS OURTROOPS HERE AT HOME

The Airman’s Attic Programis a spin-off from the old FamilyServices Loan Locker Program.Most bases worldwide have a placewhere needy service members can goand obtain donated household items.Locally, eligible personnel are E-5’sand below. Needs of all ranks areconsidered on a case by case basis.The Attic’s are staffed by volunteers.

To receive assistance, themember must provide a signed Ref-erenced Request Form from his orher 1st Sergeant. Assistance is pro-vided on a first come - first servedbasis. Wish Lists are maintained foritems needed, but not on hand.

The program is extremelypopular, very effective and a greatmorale booster for all concerned.

Now-a-days all ranks canmove into base housing, but the ma-

jority of the younger troops don’thave much in the way of householdfurnishings to move in with.

We have supported the Hurl-burt Attic for some time. Eglin’s At-tic just opened in a newly upgraded5000 sq ft renovated facility and westocked them with TV’s, pot & pans,baby stuff, bedding, furniture, andtable ware.

Both Attics give us itemsthey can’t use, including adult civil-ian clothing. We pickup these itemsweekly and ship them where needed.

We have made a good andlasting impression within the ActiveAir Force Community. With youractive support, we plan to continuewith this important mission.

Items always in need are:Baby Clothes; Baby Beds; BabyCribs; Strollers; Toys; Youth Beds;Bedroom Furniture Bedding;Clothes Washers and Dryers; Living& Dining Room Furniture; KitchenAppliances; Pots & Pans; TV’s;VCR’s; etc.

NOTE: Just about anything thatcould be used in setting-up a home.

Do keep us in mind whenyou are upgrading your homes,cleaning out closets, purchasing newclothing because your children haveout grown theirs. There is alwayssomeone who desperately needsthose items you no longer use.

You can drop items at theACA Building on Hwy 98 any work-day morning between 9 AM and 12AM. Or you can call Bob White toarrange pickup (Cell phone 850 585-4623 / Home 850 581-0661).

As Command Chief EddieAlicca, 16th SOW wrote to us re-cently, …”What a wonderful way tocontinue to serve”.

MTF Airman’s Attic Coordinator - BobWhite

MTF EFFORTSRECOGNIZED

Jeremiah Denton, RADM,USN (Ret) is the Director ofTRANSFORM (Transportation forthe Relief of Mankind). John Grove,MTF VP, coordinates with TRANS-FORM representatives to acquiretransportation for the shipments theMTF sends to Honduras and Guate-mala. The article below, taken fromthe recent TRANSFORM Newslet-ter, recognizes the great effort andaccomplishments of John and thevolunteers of the MTF.

MTF Secretary – Felix “Sam” Sambogna

AFTER ACTION REPORT: HAITI - 15 APRIL 2004

The McCoskrie ThresholdFoundation Inc and the Air Com-mandos, in conjunction with the Ad-miral Jeremiah Denton Foundation(Transform), the Okaloosa CountySchool District, U.S. Southern Com-mand (SouthCom) and many volun-teers completed one of he best shortnotice support missions to date. Six-teen days from notification to ship-ping two, 20 foot, Sea-Land contain-ers.

The MTF was notified on 30March by Audra Murray of AdmiralDenton’s Foundation that SouthComwas in the process of a Humanitar-ian Assistance Mission at fourschools in the area of Port au Prince,Haiti. They needed school suppliesand equipment. They were lookingto ship out in mid April. The ACA/MTF volunteers were called and theheavy lifting began the next day.

The Okaloosa School Dis-trict board and Tommy Kranz, hadauthorized the donation of desks andchairs. To date the donations offeredare for 2000 student desks and 2000plastic stacking chairs. The Princi-pal of Walker Elementary School,

Ms Williams, had lots of excess/ outof date texts books. We had otherbooks in storage from last year’sdonations from Florosa and NicevilleSchools. Audra determined that thesebooks would be used in Haiti. Otheritems the ACA/ MTF had in storageand Haiti’s needs were a perfectmatch. The containers were ordered,loaded and shipped and the missionwas a total success. Our recent pur-chase of a forklift was a much neededaddition to our operation, it workedgreat for loading the large, one ton,boxes into the container.

The cost to our MTF was justlots of labor, all the dollar costs werepicked up by SouthCom throughAdmiral Denton’s Foundation. Thisis the second large shipment this yearthat has been paid for by the UnitedStates Government/ AdmiralDenton’s foundation. What a greatworking partnership. More goodmissions are expected in the nearfuture, Ecuador and another Hondu-ras mission are planned.

THE LOAD:

20,000 lbs (approx) 8 large plywoodcrates, and 72 smaller boxes andcrates consisting of the following:

Student desks, 264; Stacking Chairs,297; Folding & other chairs, 45;Small boxes of books, 46; Largecrates of books, 6; Display boards,4; File cabinets, 4; Teacher desk andchair, 1 set; Step stool, 1; Bags andcontainers of sheets, towels andclothing to fill all the spaces in thecontainer.

THE VOLUNTEERS:

Shipping arrangements:Audra Murray, Dave Gallardo, andMark Millard.

Packing:Doris Eaton, John Grove, TimMursch, Teddy Mursch, Ken Poole,


Dave Freeman, Bob White, RogerKlair, Sam Sambogna, ClydeHoward, and Walter Heidmous.

Loading SeaLand Containers:Roger Klair, Clyde Howard, DaveFreeman, Doris Eaton, and BobWhite.

HONDRUS / GUATE-MALA FIELD TRIP

McCoskrie Threshold FoundationMission, 28 Jan 2004

The McCoskrie ThresholdFoundation completed a large ship-ment of school items for Hondurasand Guatemala that we reported onin the last newsletter. Now we havea first hand account of the resultsfrom Audra Murray of the AdmiralJeremiah Denton Foundation. Shehad traveled to Central America toget a prospective of our combinedefforts and see what the future needsmay be. She filed an electronic re-port from down south, which I quote:

From: [email protected]: Sunday, April 18, 2004 3:00PMTo: [email protected];[email protected]: [email protected]: Honduras and Guatemala

Good afternoon!I just want to touch base with

you and all of your humanitariancompadres up there on the Hondu-ras and Guatemala school items forthe new schools down here.

Mainly, I want to confirmthat all of the crates are here, bothHonduras and Guatemala. The cratesare safely stored on the Task ForceBase Camp, which is secured be-cause it is with all of the other mili-tary equipment that is shipped down.

In Honduras, we talked withthe Civil Affairs attached to the TaskForce, who drove us from site to site.

He will oversee the coordination fordelivery to the individual schools andcoordinate with the necessary logis-tics folks with the TF. This has beenconfirmed with the Task Force EXO,too, whom I know from previousprojects.

Will share photos when I getback but just wanted to let you knowthat your work is greatly appreciateddown here and the kids desperatelyneed what is in those crates fromNorthwest Florida.

THANKS AGAIN and MoreLater,

Audra Murray

P.S. The Air Commandos of Mc-Coskrie Threshold Foundation domake a difference in the world andas you all know, for democratic gov-ernments to flourish, they must firsthave an educated population. Wealso promote the good will of theUnited States of America by havingour military do the donations to theneedy.

THANKS, JOE ROBINSON

Recently, Joe Robinson, life-time member of the ACA, sent thefollowing note with a check of $200

for the McCoskrie Threshold Foun-dation. It takes a lot of cans to cashin for $200 – what a great effort!Folks like Joe who continue to sup-port the MTF enable the Foundationto help the needy in many parts ofthe world. Although the MTF paysno salaries, there are expenses asso-ciated with storing and shipping thegoods.

Thanks to Joe and many oth-ers the MTF humanitarian effort con-tinues.

MTF Secretary - Felix “Sam” Sambogna

HONDURAS ANDGUATEMALA

Special emphasis goes to ourmany friends in Northwest Floridasuch as Mr. John Grove of the AirCommando Association and Mc-Coskrie Threshold Foundation. Hisdedication to humanitarian aidprojects and his ability to “round uptroops” is just amazing.

We are so appreciative of youas well as the countless others overthere in Fort Walton Beach, Floridawho worked so hard! They recentlyobtained 1,000 school desks from theOkaloosa County School Board and

MTFfrom pg 17

agreed to sponsor the schools in Gua-temala and Honduras that are to bebuilt soon.

The incredibly hard work ofthe Air Commando Association vol-unteers remarkably led to over 700school desks fitting into one truck.They worked hard and long for sev-eral days washing, dismantling, sort-ing, stacking, packing, crating, load-ing, etc. all the desks for this ship-ment.

TRANSFORM scheduledthe shipping of these items and paidfor the shipment to support the U.S.Southern Command humanitarianprograms.

Don Gaetz, the Superinten-dent of the Okaloosa County SchoolBoard confirmed his support andsent his regards to “Senator Denton”,letting us know that he has been along time fan of Senator Dentonwhich dates back years.

The BIG truck (a speciallybuilt, larger-than-life truck) wasloaded and on its way to delivery tothe port due to the Great Work ofMoreland Trucking!

The Air Commando Associa-tion has provided the manpower be-hind this project; we are so thankfulof this partnership.

There are over 4,000 moredesks in storage...we look forward toworking together in the future ! ! !

Audra MurrayTRANSFORM

Ed. Note:Taco Sanchez located hordes

(thousands) of school desks whichhad been stashed away in OkaloosaCounty storage facilities for ages. Heand John Grove spent weeks andmonths badgering the OkaloosaCounty School Board to releasethese desks for schools in undevel-oped countries. The County agreedto release several thousand schooldesks and in doing so, freed-up valu-able County storage facilities forother purposes. Thank you Taco andJohn…!

See MTF pg. 19


ROSSEL REPORT

Then the down and dirtyhard grungy work begun…! A bunchof tired ol’ Air Commando Warriorsworked their bums off for weeks onend cleaning, breaking down andcrating hundreds of desks located atthe ol’ Carver Hill School facility inCrestview. Needing more desks,they transported hundreds of desksfrom the ol’ Holt School to CarverHill for cleaning, crating and to laterbe loaded into large sea going ship-ping containers. This was by nomeans an easy task, I can assure you.The likes of grumbling, cursing,bitching, and griping the civilizedworld has never heard before. But,in the end these ol’ geezers got thejob done; …fatigued, high bloodpressure, bad backs, sore muscles,cramps, verbal abuse, and all; theyeach hung together till the job wascompleted. If they had been in aCombat Zone, several Purple Heartswould most surely have beenawarded.

Our champions on this ven-ture were Felix “Sam” Sambogna,Larry “Sandy” Sanborn, Bob White,Clyde Howard, Dave Freeman,Eddy Howard. Doris Eaton (John’sMother), Asa Stackhouse, RogerKlair, and of course mean ol’ JohnGrove was always hovering aroundchewing butt and griping all thetime. How you guys manage to put-up with mean ol’ John, I’ll neverknow!

Thanks to each of you guysfor the bright smiles your effortshave put on many a kid’s face whenthe results of your efforts were de-livered to their schools. You havegiven these children hope which isso lacking in many poor backwardcountries of this world! We owe eachand every one of you, and even moreimportant, our Nation and the worldare deeply indebted to you guys!

Hopefully these little tykesyou have helped will grow and ma-ture into future responsible leaders

of their countries.

DEAR JOHN LETTER

To John, the Air CommandoAssociation, its members, and theMcCoskrie Threshold Foundation.

On behalf of the school chil-dren in Guatemala and Honduraswho will incredibly benefit fromyour supply of school desks and edu-cational equipment, THANK YOU.

I can assure you that all theschool children we visited in bothHonduras and Guatemala are in greatneed of these supplies …, especiallythose who are in schools with dirtfloors, no running water, no electric-ity, (such as the small ones picturedon the front of this card…, theNances Duices School alone alongthe rough, remote mountain roads inJutiapa, Guatemala).

The need of these schoolsand your impact to make a differenceexceeds words. Your support will lastfor years to come in the areas.

Thank you,Audra MurrayTransform Transportation Coordinator

��

MTFfrom pg 18

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Hunters HouseWashing

Jim MurphyOwner-Operator850-259-4261

Commercialor ResidentialRust RemovalRoof Cleaning

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231 Long lake DriveMiramar Beach , FL 32550

There is a steady news re-porting where high schools and col-lege are not permitting military re-cruiting on campus to recruit peoplefor the future military. There was aletter to the editor in the Daily Bul-letin Newspaper, Ontario, CA on 18May 2004 entitled “Recruiters NoThreat at School Career Day” whichwas really good and it follows:

“I recently wrote my young-est son, who is stationed in the AirForce in Japan, some very basicquestions on his decision to join themilitary at the age of 18, without ourknowledge or consent.

He replied, “Mom, I woke upone day, looked in the mirror anddidn’t like the person I was becom-ing. I asked myself a lot of questionsand decided I needed someone out-side the family to help me change mydirection in life. After talking witha recruiter, I was convinced joiningthe Air Force was what I wanted todo. If I had to do it all over again, Iwould do it in a heartbeat.”

“The majority of the peoplewho choose the military as a careerare good and decent people. Theyare intelligent, they are proud; theyrespect the democracy and the free-dom this country was founded on. Men and women serving thebranches of the United States mili-tary represent our country. Theyneed our prayers and our support asmuch as we need theirs.”

Sent from his mother in Claremont,CA, a liberal and privileged commu-nity in southern California. This isvery heartening to hear with all thebad publicity the military has re-cently been receiving.

Gene Rossel

EASON’S HANGERHURLBURT FIELD, FL

The black hangar at Hurlburt,as we originally called it, was namedEason’s Hangar for one of four Det

6 of the 1st ACW Project Farm Gatepilots who was killed with threeother in crashes of two T-28s on 19Nov 1964 on a mountaintop near DaNang, Vietnam.

I received an email request-ing information of what happened toGus Albrecht and Bob Eason on the40th anniversary of their crash inVietnam. Lot of our members knewabout Eason’s hangar particularlysince he was an Aircraft Mainte-nance Officer. Gus was famous forhis university and professional ex-ploits as a football quarterback andwith Bob Schneidenbach AF footballdays in Japan. One pilot who wentto UPT training with Gus said thatwhen they went to town they wantedto be with Gus-an imposing guy.

I heard about their accidentand particularly about Gus at leastonce a year and more at the ACAreunion.

John Kerr, an O-2 FAC pilotand a classmate of Gus in pilot train-ing, asked for information on Gus’saccident. My first search was theInternet and there is nothing there ex-cept the names and some short datafrom on them on one site. I thenstarted to check all my Air Com-mando literature and could find noth-ing except the days they died in theold 1964 SAWC booklet. This wasfollowed by email and telephonecalls to Bob Schneidenbach, TomSchornak, Bill Cox, Hap Lutz, theACA, AFSOC, Maxwell etc.

The following is informationI gathered from ACA members,SAWC and 2nd AD history and fromthe book “Aircraft Losses in Viet-nam” by Hobson. There were somecontradictory stories but from folk-lore, AF history and people that werein Water Pump the following is whatI could come up with which will beput on the ACA home page:On 19 November 1964 two T-28s(tail number 57-7870 which crashedat Scott AFB in 1957 and repaired

See ROSSEL pg. 22

�� ACA 2004 REUNION

��

2004 Ticket Order FormThis ticket order form and more details about the menu are

available at www.aircommando.net

Buy Your TicketsEarly!

The 2004 banquet willfeature table service with achoice of three entrees, primerib, chicken, or amberjack.Please mark your ticket orderwith your choice.

The banquet facility hasa strict seating policy enforcedby the base fire marshal. Themaximum number of guestseats is 320...no squeeze-inseats for last minute space-Ahopefuls. Please buy your tick-ets early. An accurate, earlyhead count for planning pur-poses is very helpful. Thanks.

The good news is thatthere is plenty of space for fishfry and BBQ attendance, sobring a friend and set a spell.The agenda has lots of free timebuilt into the schedule.

Access to the base is stilltightly controlled. Don’t forgetyour ID card. If you are driv-ing a rental car, you will be re-quired to park at the front gateand get a base pass for the ve-hicle. For those without an IDcard who wish to enter the base,everyone must have a pictureID and a sponsoring party whowill act as their escort.

At Hurlburt, when youenter the gate area, the guardwill check your ID and ask youif everything is secure. Hemeans “has your car been inyour possession all day?” Theanswer is yes unless you wantyour car searched.

For those visiting Hurl-burt, an event pass is availablefor vehicles without a sticker.Everyone must have a pictureID. Check at the registrationdesk about the vehicle pass foruse on Sunday if needed .

�� ACA 2004 REUNION

Schedule of events - October 7-10, 2004

Thursday, October 71600 - Hospitality Suite open at the Quality Inn1600-2000 - Early registration and check-in

Friday, October 81000-1600 - Registration at the Quality Inn in FWB1200-??? - Hospitality Suite open at the Quality Inn0845-0945 - Golf Tournament registration

-- Hurlburt Gator Lakes Course1000 - Golf Tournament shotgun start1430 - Golf Tournament ends

-- Awards ceremony in clubhouse1600-??? - Fish Fry at the Quality Inn in FWB

-- Poolside musical entertainment-- Dancing on the deck-- Libations served and stories embellished

Saturday, October 90900-1030 - Annual Business Meeting

-- Conference Room, Quality Inn- Air Commando Seminar to follow Business Mtg

1200-??? - Hospitality Suite open at the Quality Inn1800-1900 - Hurlburt Soundside Club - Cocktail hour1845-1855 - Early entry for assisted seating1855-1900 - Doors Open to Banquet Hall - general seating1900-2130 - Hurlburt Soundside Club - ACA Banquet

-- Hall of Fame Presentation Ceremony-- Guest Speaker - TBA-- Awards presentations

2130-??? - Dance band after dinner

Sunday, October 101200-1300 - Memorial Service at Hurlburt Field Air Park1300-1630 - BBQ at the Quality Inn in FWB1430-1530 - Commando Auction in Hospitality Suite1630 - Reunion ends

��

Directions to The ACA 2003 Reunion

Refer to the approach plate on the left side. From theHurlburt Field front gate intersection on Air Commando Boule-vard (Hwy 98), head due east through Mary Esther for 4.5 miles.Upon entering the city limits of Fort Walton Beach, the speedlimit drops to 35MPH and you will need to be in the right handlane as you are on final approach to the hotel complex. You willpass Liza Jackson Park on your right. This is your final ap-proach fix. Transition to visual and sight the Waffle House atyour one o’clock. Sight the Quality Inn at your 2:30 and theRodeway Inn at your 12:30. Cross check gear down and lockedas you pass the Red Lobster at your three o’clock. You are clearedfor landing at the hotel for which your reservation was granted.

��Hurlburt Field lies 6 miles west of Brooks Bridge and downtown Fort Walton

Beach (shown above). The Rodeway Inn is the old HoJo’s motel.

��

Were you there???

60 years ago - WWII Air Commandos formed, CBI

41 years ago - June 1963, The 1stACG was con-verted to the 1st Air Commando Wing.

36 years ago - July 8, 1968, the 1st ACW was redes-ignated the 1st Special Operations Wing.

21 years ago - May 1, 1983 - Operation BAT begins.Hurlburt Field air commandos from the 20th SOSprovided rotary wing support for the South FloridaDrug Task Force.

21 years ago - October 22, 1983 - Operation UrgentFury. Gunships and Combat Talons from HurlburtField were used in the rescue of Americans fromGrenada.

11 years ago - 1993 - Operation Continue Hope, PaveHawks flew hazardous search-and-rescue missions toassist starving citizens enduring a bloody civil war inEthiopia. Again, air commandos went in harm's wayand paid a price, losing gunship “Jockey 14.”

MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS EARLY

The Quality Inn serves as headquarters for Reunion 2004. TheRodeway Inn is the overflow hotel. Room rates are $55 for bothhotels, first come, first served. Call 850-275-0300 to make yourreservation. We have 136 rooms reserved until September 15,after that, no guarantees, so make your reservation early!

Quality Inn

The 60th Anniversary of Air Commandos


and tail number unknown on 2nd T-28) took off from Udorn AB Thai-land to fly to Da Nang AB, Vietnam. Capt George Henry Albrecht and 1stLt Paul Hudson were flying in 57-7870 and Major Otis Gordon andCapt Edwin Raymond Eason wereflying the other T-28. The purposeof the trip was varied depending onwho you talked to. One story wasthat they went to Da Nang on a fact-finding trip to investigate replacingthe T-28 at Udorn with A-1-ChrisHobson “Vietnam Air Losses” page12.

Another story was the T-28swent for maintenance and anotherwas that they were going to bringback two more T-28s-the reasons forthe four pilots. The SAWC, 2nd AD,and USAF History Office did notgive a reason for the flight but didsay that the 1st ACW did not beginwriting histories until 1966 and dueto the sensitivity of Water Pump thatnot much data was preserved.

They were flying in weatherand when they failed to arrive at DaNang AB, their destination, theywere declared missing in action be-tween Udorn AB and Da Nang ABon 19 Nov 1964. The wreckages ofthe T-28s were discovered by air ona mountain top near Da Nang. Heli-copters trying to get to the crash siteran into severe resistance and aground force moved up to the 5000foot mountain 30 miles west of DaNang where the planes had crashedsome 200 feet from the top, about300 feet apart. On 2nd January 1965they were able to recover the bodiesof Maj Gordon and Ray Eason. Thesecond crash site was found but theteam had to return on 3rd January tothe crash site where they discoveredthat the second T-28 appeared to bechanged and rescue operations werediscontinued. On 29 January 1965the remains of Capt Albrecht and LtHudson were recovered. At first the

accident was classified as aircraftaccidents, however, subsequent in-formation now reveals these inci-dents as due to hostile accident.

In AF History papers I havethere is a 1965 written note that thetwo T-28s were shot down the sameday according to Hap Lutz, ACA. The aircraft crashes were changed tocombat losses and Capt Eason gotthe Distinguished Flying Cross andCapt Albrecht was awarded the Sil-ver Star.

Tom Schornak sent the followinginformation:

“Gus Albrecht was one of myvery best buddies and even now onlya short time goes by before some-thing crosses my mind and makes methink of him. He was married and Ibelieve two children at the time. Gushad played college football, thenlater with the Cleveland Browns &Canadian leagues. He was a greatfriendly, easy going guy. Just undersix foot, about 200 lbs and as solidas you imagine. His daily workoutschedule would make the average fit-ness nut pale in comparison. He andI made several parachute jumps to-gether as we were also forward aircontrollers and it is this and the T-28flying when we became goodfriends.

I knew Len Hudson from hisT-28 check-out at Hurlburt. I did notknow the other two officers verywell. Lots more stories here, but letme tell you what I recall about theloss.

The records I have mostlikely came from both official andun-official sources.

19 Nov 64-Eason, Edwin R. Capt,850th Fld Maint Sq; TDY to Det6,South Vietnam

19 Nov 64-Hudson, Leonard P.1Lt, 4410th Combat Crew Tng SqSouth Vietnam; TDY to Det 619 Nov 64-Albrecht, George H.,Capt, 4410th Combat Crew Tng Sq

South Vietnam; TDY to Det 6

19 Nov 64-Gordon, Otis, Jr., Maj,4410th Combat Crew Tng SqSouth Vietnam

The flight of two departedThailand and was flying to Da Nang. My belief is that Albrecht andHudson were in one T-28 and Gor-don and Eason in the other. It wasonly a couple hours flight time.

That day the weather was notvery good at Da Nang. More of anovercast rather than restrictions tovisibility on the ground. Radar andradio aids were either new, not thereyet, unreliable or inoperative on anycertain day.

There was an unofficial lowfrequency beacon on a mountainwest of Da Nang which was low, lowpowered and unreliable (more on thislater).

The standard procedure wasto fly well past Da Nang out, overthe ocean for several minutes andthen make a let down through theovercast. When you were VFR overthe water or saw the mountain flyVFR to Da Nang. Apparently, therewas radio communication with theT-28's indicating this was their inten-tion. They were never heard fromagain!

Some months later on thatsmall spit of land on the mountainjust west of Da Nang, a ground partydiscovered wreckage of two T-28's.

Subsequent investigation ofthe site determined that they were information when they hit themountain. The conclusion at thetime, in the heat of the ongoing war,was they either did not fly out farenough before starting the letdownand in the process hit the mountainor did make the letdown and thenflew into rain which was restrictingvisibility and then flew into themountain. Sad story, Huh?

One more footnote to thesaga of our buddies. Gus andSchneidenbach were also very goodfriends and played Canadian football

together. Perhaps Schneidenbachcould fill in more details. Jim Boggs,another buddy was over there at thetime as was Gochnauer and JoeHolden. They may recall some otherdetails surrounding the loss.

Another recollection is thatPat Doyle and I escorted Gus to beburied in Arlington National Cem-etery.

Best Regards,Tom Schornak

P.S. - regarding the Mountain and letdown: I have the WAC chart I usedback in 1963.

Here is information takenfrom my map. The Mountain westof Da Nang, is named Presqu'Ile DeSon Tra. In some 5 kilometers oflength it rises from 1148 ft. to itshighest point at 2400 ft. There wasa very 'un-reliable' low frequencybeacon at the highest point of themountain with a frequency of 248kc. It maybe even has been placedthere by the army or marines for theirchoppers.

The emergency weather letdown for the T-28's I have writtenon the chart was to fly over the bea-con, turn to heading of 154 degreesand make a tear drop letdown in de-scending turn to 352 degrees untilyou make visual contact the wateror the mountain and then proceedVFR to Da Nang some ten kilome-ters away.

THE PASSION CONTINUES

An anti-war statement by aperson kicked out of Brazil and spentsome time in jail in the US for hisanti war stand.

I am deeply disgusted bywhat I perceive as "feigned inno-cence" and denial by both militaryand civilian personnel regardingthose tortured in Iraq and elsewhere.36 years ago, I and my associate,both missionary priests in Brazilwere taken late one night from our

See ROSSEL pg. 23

ROSSELfrom pg 19


church by military police, throwninto prison and accused of beingCommunists. The accusations wereabsurd. We were being a voice indefense of the voiceless.

After our fifth day in prisonmy colleague began clamping hishands over his ears and vigorouslyshaking his head back and forth inan effort to muffle the screams ofthose being tortured 24-7 as they saytoday.

One of the torturers came tous bragging that he received his train-ing in torture methods at the Inter-national Police Academy located inWashington, D.C. That training cen-ter has moved several times sincethen and is currently located at FortBenning in Columbus, GA. wherethousands of Latin-American mili-tary continue to receive training. Thediscovery of torture manuals at thebase reddened many military facesand prompted quick denials andpromises of adding a couple ofclasses on human rights. Media at-tention was scant.

Seeing the clean-cut lookingmilitary and civilian personnel on thenews these days about torture bringsback painful memories of an angryGeneral who came to the two of usdemanding to know why we werenot "good" priests. He said that inhis frequent visits to Washington hewould recognize a priest by his cas-sock, follow him and go to Mass. Hiswords were scarcely audibledrowned-out by the screams nextdoor.

Many people throughout theworld hate us for what they know andfor what many of us refuse to see orbelieve. Meanwhile the passion con-tinues 24-7 as other Pilates rushes towash their hands of any responsibil-ity.

Father Darrell Rupiper,[email protected]

Darrell was a classmate of mine anda good friend and thought his com-ments were appropriate from some-one who has been there, seen that. His last time in prison in Illinois wasfor 9 months and at this point he de-cided he seen enough of the insidein prison. His fellow intimates didn’tunderstand why he knew so muchabout scriptures in Bible study untilhe left in his cassock. He was impris-oned in Brazil and four times in theUS. He belongs to the same orderas Fr Luke Brouchard of Laos fame.

VIETNAMESE STUDENTS

Vietnamese students at CalState Fullerton University are up inarms because the school plans to flythe flag from the Socialist Republicof Vietnam with 79 other flags rep-resenting the homelands of the Uni-versity students at the graduationceremonies on 29 & 30 May, 2004.

The Vietnamese students areagreeable to this if the Universityflies the old South Vietnamese yel-low and red flag. It hasn’t been re-solved yet but this is a big issuewhere Vietnamese live in California. It recently became common knowl-edge that Vietnamese-Americanbusinesses in Little Saigon, CA werebringing visitors to the city for busi-ness discussions.

The North Vietnamesewanted to ride through Little Saigonin a parade of cars flying their flagand the residents demanded that thisnot be allowed. With the show ofdissent and the potential of some realold fashion protesting as well as thepotential of disorder the city govern-ment decided to cancel this visiblevisit.

The Vietnamese students arethreatening to walk out if the oldVietnamese flag is not flown. Thecommencement ceremonies will behonoring more than 8,000 studentsover the two days and some 40,000family members and friends will beattending.

P-51 RESCUE in WWII

We all remember whenBernie Fisher rescued Jump Myersafter his A-1 was shot down in theAshau Valley. The obit for a River-side, CA newspaper on 21 May listeda Colonel Royce W. “Deac” PriestUSAF retired who died on 18 May2004. The paper listed him as oneof the few remaining Fighter Acesand that he received the DSC forlanding his P-51 under enemy firein occupied France to rescue hissquadron commander Capt BertMarshall who had been shot down.

It must been a snug fit forboth of them in getting out of therein a P-51.

315th AIR COMMANDOGROUP

Many of you probably neverheard of the 315th Air CommandoGroup which was activated in Viet-nam from March 65 to 8 March 66. It was a C-130 outfit which had theAustralian Vietnam Flight of C-4Caribous attached to it for trash haul-ing around Vietnam. There werethree Commanders during this pe-riod and they were Cols Thomas B.Kennedy, David T. Fleming andGeorge L. Hannah, Jr.

I needed to contact them fordecoration we are working on for theAustralian Vietnam Flight. I just re-ceived a letter from AFPC and bothCol Kennedy and Hannah have diedin 99 & 02. Col Fleming is aliveand in Melbourne, FL and he con-tacted me on 21 May. He is willingto help the Australians.

Col Fleming was in SAWCand the 605th ACS Panama.

PAUL W. KING605th ACS Panama,[email protected].

He served with the 605ACSfrom 65-67.

I also served in the 605 ACS from63-66.

CHARLIE TALIAFERRONAS Lemoore (CA),www.kitchentablegang.org,[email protected].

Great website. Thanks to allof you ACA members!

BAKERPO Box 926Lowell, Arkansas 72745,[email protected].

To a military wife. I got upthis morning not knowing what Iwould find on the web but knew itwas a gut feeling I would find some-thing that would hit home with me. Iam a Vietnam Vet and have put mypoor wife through hell the first threeyears of our marriage. She has stayedby my side all these years and I loveher with all my heart.

During the times I wouldwake up in the middle of the nightfrom having frightful dreams shewould make them all go away withher caring and understanding. I stilllook back to the dark years of mylive during the times hell was presentand all I have to do is to look at mybeautiful wife and see what I havenow is far more than I deserve.

The woman beside the vet ofany war is the only thing that keepshim in tune with now, but will al-ways remember the past in a differ-ent light.

May God bless all thewomen in the lives of the Vets pastand present. I know God has blessedme with the one I have. We have nowbeen married for over 30 years and Ilove her more than the first time Imet her.

Sorry I sometimes get carriedaway but I hope you will understandhow I have made it this far in mylife. Thanks!

I think you reached the status of mostof us on how important the other halfof the family is too a military family.

See ROSSEL pg. 24

ROSSELfrom pg 22


DON [email protected].

I was stationed in PanamaCanal Zone with the 605th Air Com-mandos as a support with munitionsand weapons (bb stacker) at HowardAFB from 1963 to 1966. Looking forany of my old buddies. Sure hadsome good times.

I was stationed with the 605ACSfrom 1963-1966. I am sure otherswill see this and will contact you. WALTER THRASHERSFC, Panama City, Florida,[email protected].

Very nice to know about thissite. I served in Udorn and NKP 1967and 1968, then onward to Cholon in1969. Looking for anyone that mayhave been there at the same time. Ire-visited NKP in 1969.

With this in the ACA Newsletter, youwill hear from some of your buddies. MINDY [email protected].

I was watching a presenta-tion of the First Air Commandos onWar Stories; hosted by Oliver North.I wanted to explore more, and that Idid! Your site was most informativeand I thank you.

Ollie North had a great show of theAir Commandos and now he needsto do one from the Vietnam era tothe present. FRED GILLETTEAugusta, Michigan,[email protected].

C-123 & UC-123 engineer'67 & 68. DENNIS R. ARNOLDMesquite Texas,

Served with the 1st Air Com-mando Wing out of England AFB inAlexander LA in 1966 and 1967.

Also in 1968 at Hurlburt Field then1969 and 1970 in Vietnam. Glad tohave found this site.

DOUG SANFORDSkandia, MI,[email protected].

It's about time we organize a603rd ACS A-26 reunion. Ed andMoose if you read this, what do youthink? It would be awesome to getthe crew chiefs together!!

Great idea-will put this in the ACANewsletter.

WALTER J. JARSKI, JR.2902 Alpine Dr.Erie, Pa. 16506,[email protected].

Just dropped in while look-ing for ACA membership informa-tion.

The membership information is be-ing sent to you.

BURT [email protected].

Hi, I’m From TURKEY andI’m ret. enlisted person TurkishArmed Forces. I’m Collector SFbadges and I’m Looking for US col-lectors. Your page is good.

Will put this in the ACA Newsletter. S. VAUGHN “SOL” BINZERLexington, KY,[email protected].

Seeking after-action reports/operation summaries of Air Com-mando squadrons for book on battlesof Duc Co and Plei Me SF camps,Aug & Oct 65.

Will put this in the ACA Newsletter. SAM “ELVIS” WEBBFort Bragg,[email protected].

ACES (RO for us old folks)came to AFSOC in 1992. Started inShadows and went to Talons in 95.Became Command SME for Air-borne Comm issues on assignmentto 18 FLTS in 96. Moved to JSOC

in Jan 2001. Retiring 1 July 04.

Thanks for the email. I will be send-ing you membership information.

NOEL VANREEDKooskia Idaho,[email protected].

I am looking for any infor-mation leading to a Carol Ray Ander-son who was born in Iowa. Pleasecontact me with any information.

Thanks for the email. I will put thisinto the ACA Newsletter.

JAMES P. HYLANDFort Collins, CO, [email protected].

Member of 606th S.O.S.,1969-1970. I'm looking for historyof the 606th and patches, where-abouts of unit members from thattime, pictures, etc. for The Candle-sticks.

Will try and get this for you.

DAVE HUSHER, ACA #3651Siloam Springs, AR, [email protected].

Does anyone have a copy ofTDY orders from the old days, (62-63) with my name on them? Theycould include orders to Det2A inearly 62 (2nd rotation) or either oftwo, 6 mo. tours to then Det3 inPanama. I would love a copy of anyTDY order that said, "Items 1 through(if I remember right) 23 on reverseapply)! If so, would appreciate an e-mail. I was an A1C in the GroundComm Shop at the time.

Will send what I have.

BILL UHL,[email protected]

I was with Jollies at Udorn65, 66. Are any more tours beingplanned to Thailand?

Watch for trips listed in the ACANewsletter.

Ed. Note: The travel agency thatarranged the last SEA tour is listedon www.aircommando.net. Theyoffer a variety of tours for veterans.

EG ADAMS, Pilatus Porter,[email protected].

I recall a famous incident [asweren’t they all] concerning a flightwhere a village chief was onboardthe Porter which was to drop somerice at the village, then proceed tothe strip to land - the reason beingthat the strip was away from the vil-lage a bit and the drop would save along walk with a heavy load of rice.

When the Porter came overthe village and popped the dropdoors, not only did the rice drop, butalso the village chief, who was sit-ting on top of the rice bags. Therewas much consternation as to theimpact this might have on our rela-tions with the village, but all waswell when a message arrived backin VTE thanking Air America for de-livering the body of the chief the vil-lage believing he had died elsewhereand we brought his body back.

Thanks. Enjoyed the story.

STEVE HENDERSON,[email protected].

My father was A1C/laterSSGRobert D. Henderson. He was anoriginal member of the Jungle Jimprogram DET 2 Bien Hoa 1961. Iwould like to hear from any of mem-bers from that detachment. Thankyou. I visit your site very often. GreatJob! Not an ACA member, but wouldlike to be.

Will put this in the ACA Newsletterand if anyone knew your father youwill be hearing from them.

JACK PATE,[email protected].

I was an AC-47 gunner. BinhThuy RVN Feb 68---Jan 69.

RONALD R. AZARCON,Carmichael, CA,[email protected].

B-26 Nav & Admin Off,1ACS Bien Hoa 8/63 - 4/64.

ROSSELfrom pg 23

See ROSSEL pg. 25


MICHAEL D. LINDHORST,Fort Walton Beach,[email protected].

I'm a lost member, how do Irenew?

Call Pete Bowman at (850) 581-0099, he will give you the info. THOMAS F. FLYNN III,Wallingford CT,[email protected].

I'm interested in researchingmy father's efforts during WWII. Heflew an L-5 in the 1st Air commandoGroup in the CBI. He passed awayseveral years ago and I'm interestedin archiving the photos he took ofBurma and India in 1944-45.

Will put this in the ACA Newsletterand we may get you some info.

GEORGE LATTIN,[email protected]. T-28 Loss - 6/12/67 – North VN.

Gene, any chance you haveany info on the T-28 loss below inNorth Vietnam on 12 July 1967,other than what is on the POW Net-work?

Capt. Jack Dove and LtCol.Boyd Squire were the crew of a606th T-28D aircraft lost while con-ducting an armed, night reconnais-sance mission over Quang BinhProvince North Vietnam, July 12,1967. Jack Dove was assigned to the497th TFG.

This excerpt from the Vietnam AirLosses by Chris Hobson, Page 108,should help. T-28D 49-1569, 606ACS, 56ACW, USAF NakhonPhanom Capt Jack Paris Dove KIA,Maj Boyd Edwin Squire KIA.

The 606th was by now wellin its role of night interdiction overthe Ho Chi Minh Trail. Occasion-ally these missions took the T-28sinto North Vietnam itself as well asthroughout the Barrel Roll and Steel

Tiger regions of Laos. Capt Doveand Maj Squire were hunting fortrucks during a night armed recon-naissance mission and were reportedmissing near Ban Katoi, just in NorthVietnam. It was thought that theywere hit by anti-aircraft fire andcrashed before either of the crewcould escape. A SAR aircraft spot-ted a wing from the aircraft but therewas no sign of any survivors. On 1June 1992 the crash site was exca-vated and remains recovered thatwere later identified as being thoseof the T-28 crew.

FRANK [email protected].

Hello, my father in law,Frank Ramsey has been attemptingto locate Merle Christy. In my searchI came upon your website and sawtheir names one after the other. Canyou tell me if you have informationon Mr. Christy? Frank lives in Gar-land, TX and also has a place inColorado. Any information you canprovide will be most appreciated.

Joni Ramsey for Frank Ramsey --Merle Christy was one of the origi-nal Air Commandos He came toHurlburt Field in 1961 from KirtlandAFB, was assigned to Engine CondCrew, went thru survival training atStead AFB in NV. He was assignedto Commandos from 61 thru 66.

SHIRLEE VOS,[email protected]

Dear Sirs,We are the publisher of the

ACA publication from 2000 entitled“USAF AIR COMMANDOS: ANYTIME - ANY PLACE.” View thebook at this link:w w w. t u r n e r p u b l i s h i n g . c o m /detail.aspx?ID=850. We have overa hundred of these books remainingin our warehouse and would love toget these beautiful history books intothe hands of those who would appre-ciate them the most, the veterans ofACA and interested others. Will youplease add this book information and

the above link to your website so thatvisitors will know the book is stillavailable? Any assistance you canoffer will be greatly appreciated!

Shirlee VosTurner Publishing CompanyPublishers of America's History412 BroadwayPaducah, KY 42002-3101Ph: (270) 443-0121 ext. 101Fax: (270)[email protected]

TOM STUMP,Yankee Ejection System,[email protected].

I have nothing good to sayabout this ejection seat. In April 1970I was on Donald Fincher's wing whenhe lost power after takeoff. Some ofyou may have been at NKP thatmorning. I watched him struggle toget out when his seat failed and endedup flying through the fireball. It wasa very hazy morning with no hori-zon and I was concentrating on himrather than the ground. Almost cutmy tour short that day.

While at Da Nang, we alsolost Otis Morgan in July of '70 whenhis seat failed, and in October JohnWilliams. All very good men whowould be with us today if the seathad worked as advertised. We flewlow and needed a seat that worked.Knowing you couldn't rely on theseat added quite a bit to the excite-ment. John Williams always told mehe would never trust the seat; but thatday in the Ashau he had no choice.However, when it did work, itworked very well. I also saw othersget out just in time because of the 0-0 ability of the seat. So I am surethose folks have a much differentview ofthe seat.

LES STROUSE,Air Commando & Air America

Comments on aircraft,evacuations can cause pilots andtheir airplanes to do superhuman

things. 130 Meo in a C-46 fromUdorn to Nam Phong, no seats!

You are correct on my flyingthe U-10 in '63. But as far as Col.Doyle was concerned, I was on theother side, TRULY! I don't remem-ber who was flying for Blue Forces. I was "covert" Red Forces, atSpartanburg, working with the Armyand Col. Aderholt. He sent me overFt. Campbell to drop 100,000 safeconduct passes the night before theycame into the Exercise. I "bor-rowed" a Blue Forces call sign andmade some practice GCA ap-proaches. Enough approaches forme to determine where the marshal-ing area and mess hall were. Afterthe last approach the tower askedwhat my intentions were. I told himto just watch the little air-plane. 100,000 leaflets floated gen-tly to earth.......well maybe somewere in the trees and on buildings;but they went out.

Glad they never found outwho did that one!

The Helio Corporation orsomeone who wants to resurrect theHelios surfaces every now and again;but never have been able to really getthings together.

Les, you always got some great fly-ing stories.

ROBERT “MO” J. MOBERGRobert was a helicopter pi-

lot with the Army flying in Laos in1970, died 31 May 2004.

The email from MacAlanThompson’s said his body will betaken to Wat Chai Mongkol in SouthPattaya and the hand washing cer-emony will be in the evening of the31 May. He will be cremated onSaturday 5 June.

Bob was well known by many AirCommandos who served in Laos. Hewas a great guy and we used to havea lot of fun with him. We will misshim and his email.

See ROSSEL pg. 26

ROSSELfrom pg 24


LOFTIN ROBERT, NSSgt 12 AF/IWF,[email protected].

I would greatly appreciate ifyou could contact me. My father,now retired TSgt, was a member ofthe 4400 CCT Sq, Hurlburt fieldfrom Jan 1960 to Aug 1963. I wouldlike to give you information so youmay contact him and add him to thehistory of the Air Commandos. Thank you very much.

SSgt Robert N. Loftin, NCOICPSYOPS12 IWF/DOO DSN 228-0695Home phone: 520-271-3472Email: [email protected]

Send me the information.

THE SHADOW SPIRIT FLY-ING STINGERS AND BUFFS

IN SEAby: Elton Fletcher Author of Shadows ofSaigon.

This is a new book by an AirCommando Association Memberand a sequel to his Shadows ofSaigon.

The book will have you riv-eted to your favorite reading spotfrom the beginning to the end. Thecontinuing adventures of AC (Air-craft Commander) Paul Knight as heis forced to make hard decisions asto his future. Each chapter is basedon a true story and described in fullcolor. With a vivid imagination youcan almost smell the cockpit.

THE FAC ASSOCIATION- submitted by Charlie Jones

The FAC Association re-cently elected the following officersto their Board:

Pres, Denny CrouchVP, Fred PumroySec, Skip SmothermonTreas, George Ferkes

Hist, Darrel WhitcombBOD, Cal Anderson, Ken

Blutt, Ned HelmNext reunion will be 2006 at

Writ-Patt AFB, or Ft. Walton Beach.Decision by July. SUE KING-MARSCALK,[email protected].

How could anyone leave SanDiego?? We're off to Bristol, Tennes-see this evening, where I will closethe purchase Monday on the house.We will retire in late July. Yes, thisJuly.

It's a quality custom builtFrench Provincial design, 3,662square feet, 5 1/2 bathrooms (his andhers master baths, ladies!) 3 bed-rooms, formal living and diningrooms, a den, an office and a bonusroom.

It is located in the middle ofSteele Creek Park on the top of thehill overlooking the park, lake andthe city of Bristol. If you want to lookup the location, the only online mapsystem it shows up on is Yahoomaps, put in the address and it willpull up the right location, but thestreet name on the map shows as"Kelly Lane".

We've decided that 2 moreyears here in San Diego is just toostressful for us both, so we are go-ing to green hills, lakes, air we don'thave to chew first, all 4 seasons anda beautiful and serene setting in east-ern TN hill country. Paul will keepand rent out the house here in SanDiego.

Yes, Tri Cities Airport is only12 miles away - so after August 1,ya'll come on down, ya'hear!- Love, Sue

PROJECT COMMANDO LAVA

I was just reading in the vol-umes of "Foreign Relations of theUnited States, 1964-1968" aboutproject Commando Lava, which wasintended to enhance and extend theeffect of the rainy season on theHCM Trail in Laos. It seems some

trials had been made dropping com-mon chemicals on the soil which hadthe effect of chelating the soil andmaking the mud even less able tobear weight than it normally would. Apparently the trials had beendeemed highly successful, and inmid 1967 Ambassador Sullivan waspushing for the go ahead to use theapproach in lieu of increased bomb-ing of the trail as a means of cuttingoff traffic.

Amb Sullivan said, “I believethis program demands immediate,high level attention in Washington.I would hope that both SecretaryMcNamara and Joint Chiefs willhave opportunity to be briefed.”

“I would like to make mudon several routes in Laos, startingfrom 19 in north, through 6, 7, and4, plus the entire Ho Chi Minh andSihanouk Trail structures. If the dropaircraft are available and if thechemicals can be shipped, I feel thatwe can close more routes more ef-fectively, and at a minute fraction ofthe current cost, than we can with ourbombing efforts.”

“I also feel that, if we couldcombine these techniques with tech-niques of Operation Popeye, perhapswithin concept of Practice Nine, wemight be able to make enemy move-ment among the cordillera of theAnnamite chain almost prohibitive.In short, chelation may prove betterthan escalation. Make mud, notwar!”

Heinie said, “it wasn’t successful.”

CECIL TRUMAN THOMPSON -AC-47, (Jan. 14, 1935 - Jan. 9, 1967)Killed in Action in Vietnam.

The following informationappeared in the Sabetha, KS news-paper on Memorial Day which wehave permission to use. PattyLocher, wife of Roger Locher, a F-4Gib credited with 3 MIGs during theVietnam War, who was shot downand survived the longest time with-out capture, wrote the article from

material the ACA was able to giveher. Patty is a retired AF Intel Of-ficer.

Roger Harris, a former AC-47 gunner provided us a list of AC-47 ACA members and lot of infor-mation for the article. There wereseveral AC-47 web sites which pro-vided information and some emailand telephone provided others. It isan excellent tribute to our fallen AC-47 warriors.

Thompson was the flightmechanic (crew chief) on an AC-47gunship, nicknamed Puff the MagicDragon.

According to informationfrom an AC-47 website, Puff's mis-sion was close air support for groundtroops. The aircraft carried 21,000rounds for three 7.62-millimetermini-guns and typically operated at3,000 feet above the ground, flyingat 130 knots, without armor and usu-ally without escorts.

Information received fromthe U.S. Air Force archives via theinternet reveals that Thompson's air-craft, tail number 43-49124, be-longed to the 4th Air CommandoSquadron which assigned to the 14thAir Commando Wing under the um-brella of Seventh Air Force inSaigon.

Thompson's crew was as-signed to the squadron's A Flight,which flew out of Da Nang, RVN.

The downed aircraft had acrew of seven men, which included- in addition to Thompson - MajorJoseph E. Wilkinson III, navigator;Captain Charles William Robertsonand First Lieutenant James DonaldGoodman, pilots; Staff Sgt RaymondMedina and Airman Second ClassLonny Leroy Mitzel, positions un-known; and Airman First Class DanaRichard Kelley, gunner.

The aircraft's mission was atarget near Duc Pho, RVN. The air-craft was hit by ground fire, caughtfire, and crashed near Quang Ngai,RVN, about 20 miles short of the tar-get. All aboard were killed and the

ROSSELLfrom pg 25

See ROSSELL pg. 27


remains of all seven were immedi-ately recovered.

The AC-47 website stated thegunship flew without escort, butRoger Locher said he escorted sev-eral of them, so we changed it to"usually without escort." It's nice tohave my own technical advisor liv-ing with me!

Send your comments and ques-tions to: Eugene D. RosselWork: 909-930-5700Home:909-591-7342Fax 909-930-5710Email:[email protected]: http://home.earthlink.net/-aircommando1/

ROSSELLfrom pg 26

Maj Gen Don Shepperd,USAF (ret) recently an-nounced the publica-tion of “Misty”, a collec-tion of personal ac-counts of the Misty FACmissions flown in Viet-nam using the F-100.

E-mail him at:[email protected] or

call (520) 299-5710.

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By GARRY MARTAS, ACA #3126

If so, you should join theCivil Air Patrol (CAP). Missionswere foreseen to fly mail and smallsupplies to army units, set up andoperate supporting radio communi-cations, search for missing planesand crews, and tow gunnery targets.Soon after America declared war onJapan, Germany and Italy, the CAPsgreatest activity quickly becamesearching for and reporting enemysubmarines, which were sinkingmany ships near our shores. This taskwas given to civilian volunteers be-cause America was so unprepared forwar that it did not have and was un-able to build enough military planesto patrol U.S. coasts until August1943. Thus, for 18 months, startingin March 1942, civilian pilots of theCAP, flying their own small planes,were primary for locating and report-ing enemy submarines.

Though contrary to the rulesof war regarding civilians, the tor-pedoing of ships was so serious thatsoon some of the larger civilianplanes were authorized to carry adepth charge and small weapons.During their year and a half of pa-trolling, CAP planes reported 173enemy submarines, attacked 57 andsunk one. They also spotted 91 shipsin distress, helped save 367 survivorsof torpedoed ships, and sighted 17floating mines.

In helping defend America,90 civilian planes did not return and26 CAP flyers perished.

On April 29, 1943, , the CAPwas transferred from the Office ofCivilian Defense to the War Depart-ment — in recognition of its braveservice and outstanding contribu-tions. On May 26, 1948, by PublicLaw 557, the CAP was made the of-ficial auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.In the 1950s, the CAP becameUSAF’s primary resource for searchand rescue over land. Currently it

flies some 85% of the hours to findmissing planes and hikers. In a typi-cal year, the CAP is credited for therescue of over 100 people.

In USAF support, CAP’s62,000 volunteer members (of which27,000 are cadets, age 12 through 20)currently fly more than 4000 of theirown planes and 530 CAP planes.This privately owned fleet is the big-gest in the world and has more air-planes than all U.S. Military servicescombined.

Not all senior members arepilots. Many volunteers operate andmaintain CAP’s communicationsnetwork which, radio wise, is thelargest privately owned one in theworld. There are 1,650 CAP unitsthroughout America.

The CAP cadet program, es-tablished on 1 October 1942, haslong been one of Americas most re-spected for youths. Besides teachingaviation and military courses, lead-ership is emphasized. The quality ofCAP training is such that former ca-dets invariably are promoted to Air-

man First Class rank upon complet-ing Air Force basic training. At theAir Force Academy, 10% of the start-ing class is usually comprised offormer CAP cadets.

Almost immediately after the9-11 terrorist attacks on buildings inAmerica, homeland security wasadded to the CAP’s roles. CAP pi-lots were the first civilians autho-rized to fly over New York City totake photos for damage assessment,and also flew in blood supplies fromnumerous locations. For several daysafter 9-11, CAP planes were the onlycivilian ones permitted to fly, butonly on government needed tasks.

With vital support so compe-tently and voluntarily provided rightafter the 9-11 attacks, national per-ception of the CAP’s value rose. In-creased awareness of the CAP’s im-portance to America resulted in therank of its commanding general tobe elevated from one star to two.

Courtesy of FLA AVIATION HISTORICALSOCIETY

ARE YOU A LICENSED PILOT?? A LICENSEDSTUDENT PILOT?? AN A&E MECHANIC??

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This edition's Raven Cornerwill be shorter than usual. As mostof you are aware, we lost our Presi-dent on May 1 due to complicationsfrom artery disease. Sandy was agiant of a man with a heart of gold. Always ready to reach out to help,always there with a smile, or as hesaid, a big SEG. Our Raven web site(www.ravens.org) contains a few ofthe many comments and emotionswe have after his passing.

Sandy, we'll miss you.Jan, our hearts go out to you.One of Sandy's final projects

was to shepherd thru the system thelatest Raven documentary, recentlyseen on Discovery Times channel. It was a superb product, produced byMica Lentz over the last couple ofyears. It follows Sandy, Cavanaugh,Platt, and PF as they return to Laos. If you missed it, you can get yourown copy. See the Raven web sitefor more details. Airings are againplanned for the last couple of daysin June.

Other news has rumors ofLloyd Duncan getting married. Cananyone confirm? Big Al Galante ishouse-hunting near Scott AFB, IL,and Growth is living at WilliamsAFB, AZ, doing some governmentcontract work. Jim Roper is off to ahigh school reunion as this goes topress. He refused to say how manyyears, but I believe they have thoseat about the 40 year point……

RAVEN REUNIONOCT 21 – 24, 2004

Our reunion is planned forOct 21-24 in Universal City &Randolph AFB. Pretty much thesame schedule as always. Schedulestarting Thurs, informally, and end-ing with a farewell brunch at theRandolph AFB O'Club on SundayAM. Rooms will be at the ClarionSuites again. Make your plans nowto attend.

Prices and a schedule will beavailable on the ravens web sitesoon.

Contact Ed Gunter([email protected] or 830-560-2522) for reunion reservations orquestions, and the Clarion Suites(210-655-9491) for room reserva-tions.

Nevermore,Ed Gunter,Raven President

Ed. Note: Sandy was special to theAir Commandos and the McCoskrieThreshold Foundation also. Whenthe call “RAVEN DOWN”…!….RAVEN DOWN…! went out, itwas indeed a shock to all who knewSandy. Sandy’s last request to theEditor was to publish the article titled“A Fallen Soldier Returns Home”;which you will find in this issue.

RAVEN’S CORNER

NATIONAL CEMETERY

Submitted By ROBBY ROBERSONACA #2

This is not the most pleasantsubject to discuss, but Dee & I re-cently had an occasion to attend amemorial for the wife of a fellow AirCommando at the Florida NationalCemetery in Bushnell, Florida,which is just 60 miles east of Tampa.I want to tell you that this is one ofthe most beautiful cemeteries I’veseen throughout the world. For thoseof you who are undecided about yourfinal resting place, you might wantto check out the details. There areadjoining gravesites for membersand spouses or crematory spacesboth below and above ground. And,like all national cemeteries, every-thing is free. You can check it out atwww.cem.va.gov or write to them atFlorida National Cemetery, 6502SW102nd Avenue, Bushnell FL 33513;phone (352) 793-7740.

Ed. Note: Thanks Robby, good in-formation for our members to know.

ATTENTION VETERANS:DON’T MISS OUT ON

BENEFITS

By Sylvester Brown Jr.Of the Post-Dispatch

"Go away. I don't need yourhelp. I don't need welfare!" That wasBill Monroe's pride talking threeyears ago. Monroe, now 58, wasn'ttrying to be rude to the social worker.The Vietnam veteran had gottensome bad news. The cancer doctorsfound in his prostate was "aggres-sive." Fortunately, they were able toremove it before the cancerspread.

Monroe gratefully acceptedhospitalization benefits from theVeterans Administration but proudlyexpected nothing more. When the

RETIREE AND VETERAN AFFAIRS NEWS

social worker came to his hospitalroom to talk about eligibility for ad-ditional benefits, it angered him.

"Bill Monroe doesn't acceptcharity," he yelled.

"Let the lady talk," hismother told him.

The advice paid off. Monroenow receives $827 per month in VAbenefits - money he had no idea hequalified for. He'll get that amountfor the rest of his life.

Many more vets are missingout. According to the U.S. Depart-ment of Veterans Affairs, 32,000Missouri veterans may be eligible foras much as $331 million in un-claimed benefits. The money repre-sents disability compensation andpension benefits. Veterans may alsobe failing to take advantage of job,education, health and business assis-tance programs.

John Eckhoff, 54, is the man-ager of veterans services in St. LouisCounty. He's worked with veteransfor 25 years. The reasons funds gounclaimed are varied and complex,he said. Many veterans who weren'tinjured while serving mistakenlybelieve they aren't qualified for dis-ability benefits.

But many illnesses have beenreclassified. For instance, Agent Or-ange was widely used during theVietnam conflict. The governmentnow associates exposure to thechemical with type II diabetes. Vet-erans with the illness may have beenexposed, even if they weren't in com-bat.

"The VA used to only recog-nize veterans who served in particu-lar areas of Vietnam. Now, all Viet-nam veterans are recognized,"Eckhoff said.

Monroe founded ThurgoodMarshall Charter School in 1999 andnow serves on its board. He consid-

See VETERAN pg. 30

LtGen Robert M. Shea,USMC, The Joint Staff(DJ6), when asked what heknew about the Haitian gun-men who took part in shootinginto a crowd, said, “I only knowtwo things about him; he shotat my Marines...and he is dead.”

Submitted by: Bill Keeler


Genuine USAF issueBlood Chits are available. Toobtain a Korean War BloodChit, all you have to do is re-cruit a new member. If that istoo hard for you to handle, itwill cost you $15.95 to purchaseone of these authentic 1951 Ko-rean War issue Blood Chits.

There are three varietiesof Blood Chits available. TheKorean War vintage was issuedin 1951. The S.E. Asia vintagewas issued in 1963 and costs$29.95. The East European andMiddle Eastern vintage was is-sued in 1951 and costs $49.95.

These authetic BloodChits are ideal for framing.Your satisfaction is guaranteedor your money back.

To order a Blood Chit,write to the following address: Blood Chit 25 Miracle Strip Pkwy SE Ft. Walton Beach, FL32548or call (850) 243-0442 and askfor Rose.

If you are recruiting anew member, make sure you

indicate on the application thatyou recruited the new memberso that Pete can give you creditfor your Korean War Blood Chit.Get busy today so you can getyour chit together!

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Official Korean War Blood Chit1951 issue from survival kits

Authentic Blood Chits

By VANESSA ADAMSPublic Affairs

When other high school se-niors were considering what collegeto attend after high school, 18 year-old James McClain III knew exactlywhat he wanted.

“It clicked one day when oneof my classmates told me how ex-cited he was to be going off to col-lege and finally doing somethingwith his life, whereas I felt life hadmore to offer than to sit in class andtake notes,” said Senior AirmanJames McClain III 16th HelicopterMaintenance Squadron.

“I wanted a challenge andwanted to experience things mostpeople only read or hear about, or inour case, what most people don’thear about,” he said.

On the day he enlisted in theU.S. Air Force four and a half yearsago, Airman McClain was followingin the footsteps of his mother, fatherand grandfather, just like many of-ten do. But unbeknownst to him,Airman McClain, who’s named af-ter his grandfather, was about to es-tablish an even closer bond with hisfather and grandfather He wouldsoon join the ranks of countless oth-ers as Air Commandos, including thetwo generations before him.

“I came into Air Force Spe-cial Operations Command with asmuch of an open mind as possible,because I knew this was my time andthat my experiences would be dif-ferent from my parents’ and mygrandfathers’,” Airman McClainsaid.

Both James McClain Senior,who worked in a supply unit andJames McClain II retired from theAir Force after each had served atleast 20 years on active duty. Theyounger McClain’s mother, alsoserved a short time in the Air Force,but separated shortly after her sonwas born.

Even though he had lost

friends in the Vietnam War, AirmanMcClain’s father never had a doubtabout joining the Air Force. Livingacross from a recovery hospital inJapan only strengthened his desire topursue an Air Force career. When hebecame friends with the troops there,he knew it wasn’t a question of ifhe’d join the Air Force, but when.“I really enjoyed my Air Force ca-reer,” said James McClain II, whoworked mostly as a loadmaster dur-ing his military career. “The best partwas the people I worked with, wewere really close, everyone kneweach other,” he said.

James McClain II’s 20 yearsof military experience has enabledhim to share more than an ordinaryfather-son relationship with his son.Now they’re also united as SpecialOperators.

“When my son is deployed,I tell him ‘here’s what to look for’and tell him to take care of each otherout there,” said Mr. McClain.

So far, Airman McClain’sfour years in the military have beennothing short of extraordinary, andit’s only the beginning.

“It’s been challenging and re-warding,” he said. “I’ve learnedmore in four and a half years than Iotherwise could have in a lifetime asa civilian.”

Airman McClain plans onmaking the Air Force a career as anAir Commando, just as his fatherand grandfather did before him, andhe’s proud to do it.

“Despite the fact my mother,father, grandfather, and I have servedin very different eras and careerfields, there is still the bond know-ing that we all served our countryproudly and are part of the best teamin the world,” he said.

“I don’t have any childrennow, but when l do, I will stand bytheir decisions to serve or not, justas my parents did.”

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FATHER, SON, GRANDSON FOLLOWAIR COMMANDO TRADITION

SPRIT OF AMERICASubmitted by: Robert Eveleigh

Daniel Henninger wrote aletter that was printed in the WallStreet Journal on April 16, 2004,describing the efforts of Jim Hake,Spirit of America's entrepreneurfounder, to raise $100,000 to repairTV stations in Iraq and allow themilitary to make ACCURATE newsavailable to the Iraqi people.

A follow-up letter was writ-ten by Mr. Henninger and publishedin the Wall Street Journal on April30, 2004. Mr. Hake reports that inthe 14 days since the first letter waspublished, they have raised $1.52MILLION, which allowed them tonot only purchase theequipment needed to get the TV sta-tions up and running, but to alsohonor a number of additional re-

quests from the military in Iraq andalso in Afghanistan.

The tremendous response tothe Spirit of America appeal appearsto be a statement that the Americanpeople understand we ARE in Iraqand the most important thing is toget the job done. We chose to be partof a helping home front and tend todisregard the media efforts to treatIraq as a political football, whosepolicy details can be dissected, re-visited and rethought on a continu-ing basis.

Despite the best efforts of themedia to focus our attention on lessimportant matters, clear thinkingpeople have not forgotten that morethan 3,000 Americans lost their liveson 9-11-01, in the most heinous actof terrorism ever. We all have a stakein seeing this effort thru to an hon-orable conclusion.

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The Montagnardbracelet, a presti-gious symbol offriendship and re-spect, was given toU.S. Army SpecialForces soldiers("Green Berets") andothers during theVietnam War.

John Wayne received hisbracelet in Vietnam from a Montagnard Strike Force led by a U.S. SpecialForces A-Team. “Duke” never took it off and now wears it eternally.

Only two of the 3,000 Montagnard refugees in the U.S. possessed the an-cient free-hand engraving skills that adorn our bracelets. In 1994 the mostelderly of the two had a stroke so there's only one left. We have not beenable to find any in Vietnam who survived the post war years.

The $40 Bronze bracelet pictured above promotes ourLonghouse Project which, except for the 1.5" stamp, bears thetraditional hand markings.

To order a bracelet, please visit our web site:www.montagnards.org

orcall Sgt Major (ret) Jack Clemens, Treasurer & Bracelet

Program Manager at (910) 428-9888 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time.

Mail to: STMP, Inc., P.O. Box 844, Star, NC 27356.

Save The Montagnard People, Inc.

The Montagnard Braceletaka

The “John Wayne” BraceletQuoth the RavenBy Jim Roper

A no-nonsense memoirof Covey nights over the Trailand Raven days aroundLuang Prabang. This greatread can be purchased on theinternet atwww.PublishAmerica.com orphone 877-333-7422.

If you want a signedcopy of his book, you can callJim Roper at 703-250-6233 oremail him [email protected]. You canwrite him at 11200 RobertCarter Road, Fairfax Station,VA 22039. The book sells for$18.95 plus $2.85 S&H.

��

ers himself an "informed man." Buteven after checking, he didn't real-ize he qualified for disability pay.

"I'm your average Americanvet," Monroe told me. "Hundreds ofthousands don't have assistance andare missing out."

When Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwelllearned the state of Missouri ranked40th out of 50 states in compensat-ing veterans, he decided to pump upthe state's efforts. Maxwell, a 21-yearveteran of the National Guard,started working with local veterangroups in 2001. They kicked off aprogram that provides numerous ser-vices to veterans and their families.

The "Supermarket of Veter-ans Benefits," modeled after similarinitiatives in Georgia and Oklahoma,is a one-stop shop offering a cornu-copia of veterans services. The statehas offered 18 events since 2002 -six have been in the St. Louis area.

Partly as a result, Missourinow ranks 35th in the nation for vet-erans compensation. Some veteransare receiving from $90 to $3,100 ofunexpected monthly payments,Eckhoff told me.

It's still tough getting a re-sponse - especially in urban areas.The largest number of veterans notreceiving benefits reside in the Kan-sas City and St. Louis areas, Eckhoffsaid.

The Missouri Supermarketof Veterans Benefits Committee ispromoting an event on June 5 atVashon High School. They've set anambitious goal of attracting 1,500veterans - the largest turnout to date.Iraq war veteran Shoshana Johnsonand comedian Dick Gregory arescheduled as special guests. Morethan 100 agencies and organizationswill be available to help veteransclaim benefits.

Monroe is actively promot-ing the event, but he wishes he coulddo more. "If I could, I'd rent an RVand drive to every major street cor-

ner in the city, announcing thisevent," said Monroe. "There's moneyout there for veterans, and every oneof them needs to know it."

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VETERANfrom pg 28

PRESIDENTABRAHAM LINCOLN“Congressmen who willfully takeactions during wartime that dam-age morale and undermine themilitary are saboteurs and shouldbe arrested, exiled, or hanged.”

AIR RESCUE ASSOCIATION, INC. REUNIONAir Rescue Association annual reunion, Seattle, Washington, September 22thru 25, 2004. Contact Sandy Gonzalez (407) 834-0105, P.O. Box 300945,Fern Park, FL 32730-0945; e-mail: [email protected] or John Holm (316)722-9484, e-mail: [email protected]. Visit the Rescue web site @ http://home.cfl.rr.con/airrescue.


Air Commando AssociationMembership Application

Membership is open to:A. Persons who served with or supported Air Force Air Commando/Special Operations Units.B. Widows of persons eligible for regular membership qualify as non-dues paying members.C. Other units/interested parties may join as non-voting associatemembers with approval of the Board of Directors.

-- Newsletter is published quarterly.-- Annual Reunion held in October

Type Membership requesting:

_____ $20.00 Annual Regular_____ $20.00 Annual Associate_____ $150.00 Life Regular _____ $150.00 Life Associate

_____ Widow (No Dues)

Name: _____________________________ Rank: _____________Address: _______________________________________________City: ___________________________ ST: _____ ZIP:_________Home Phone: (____)__________Work Phone: (____)__________E-mail:________________________________________________________Branch of Service: ❑ USAF ❑ Army ❑ Navy ❑ USMC ❑ Other

Please list: ___________________________________________AFSC/MOS: _____________ Job Title: _____________________________

Dates of Service: From ___/___/___ To: ___/___/___ Retired? Y or N

Air Commando/Special Operations Service:From ____/____/____ To: ____/____/____ Unit ____________________Location ______________________________ Aircraft _________________

From ____/____/____ To: ____/____/____ Unit ____________________Location ______________________________ Aircraft _________________



Present Occupation:__________________________________Spouse Name: _______________Permission to provide Phone Number/Address to other Members only?

____ Yes ____ NoPermission to publish Phone Number/Address in ACA Newsletter?

____ Yes ____ NoAmount Enclosed: $_____________

Signature: ______________________________ Date: ____/____/____

Return application to: Air Commando AssociationP.O. Box 7Mary Esther, FL 32569-0007

For Office use only:Membership Number: _______________ Amount Paid: __________Date: ____/____/____Entered in Mailing List: _______ Entered in Accounting Log: _______Welcome Letter: _______________ Membership File: Sponsor: _______

The CIA Case Officerswhom many of you worked with andfor in Laos held their Reunion in FortWalton Beach a few weeks ago.

Generals Heinie Aderholtand Richard Secord hosted thisgroup. As usual Jo Ann Secord, DickGeron, Jim Boney, and Jerry Broad-way and other local Air Comman-dos pitched in to make it an enjoy-able three days for these guys.

Golf, good food, a fewdrinks, awesome war stories, greatcamaraderie, jokes, and you have setthe stage for an awesome gatheringthe infamous cloak and dagger folkswho were so important to our opera-tions in Laos. Most all the Key Play-ers from the past were present.

Tom Landry and these folkswho gave birth to a small courageousindigenous group of untrained hillfarmers to do battle against unimag-inable odds on the battle field werethere. Tom and his people are to becommended for their efforts. Theyhad the little guys engaging the en-emy in some awesome firefightswith the only ragtag ill preparedpeople and grave-yard ratty warweapons taken from salvage yardsthrough out the world. It was oftentouch and go; armed only with bravehearts, strong soles, determination,and natural survival instincts, thissmall handful of hill tribe peoplemade continuous “hit and run” en-gagements; holding off a well trainedand battle tested mechanized Armyof North Vietnamese regulars.

They won the battles only tohave weak kneed and inept politi-cians lose the war. A shame, it was areal crying shame…!

Any way, war stories wereabound as the days wore into eve-nings and then on into late nights.Often reliving the past and wishingto God that they had done better bythese hill tribesmen.

Jerry Klingaman from the6th SOS gave an enlightening brief-ing to these guys on current Special

Operations capabilities. He also gavethem a tour of a Russian helicopterand a Russian aircraft that membersof the 6th SOS maintain flying cur-rency in. These 6th guys can go intocountries owning Russian aircraftand teach the guys the mechanics ofmaintaining these Russian built air-craft. Also, armed with full knowl-edge of Russian, Israeli and Ameri-can tactics; our guys can teach themhow to win in battle. This Hurlburtunit is awesome, it also possessesone of the very few turbo prop C-47’s in existence today. This turboprop C-47 is different, that’s for sure.

Topping the weekend activi-ties off with a visit to the RangerCamp on Eglin AFB was interesting.Filled with interesting briefings onwhat it takes to successfully pass theRanger Course, these Case Officerssurprised me with deep and profoundquestions directed at the Camp Com-mander. He appeared surprised also.

Many of these old Case Of-ficers have been recalled and are ac-tively participating in ongoing opera-tions throughout the world today.One had just returned from activi-ties in Mexico. Another just return-ing from training groups in the Phil-ippines to fight against Terrorist isnow on his way to Afghanistan toprovide security training there. Ofcourse, they don’t tell me squat-alland I certainly don’t ask because Idon’t have a need to know. Interest-ing conversations were continuousthroughout the three day activity.

All this was capped off witha scrumptiously delicious mealserved at the Sound Side Club (theold Hurlburt Officers Club) Saturdaynight with short and interestingspeeches. I really like these guys,they have important things to say andspit it out using very few words.They are my kind of folks, threeminute speeches were the norm.

All in all I believe these guyshad an enjoyable and fulfilling week-end.

SKY REUNION

��


Submitted by: Bill Keeler

Author chooses to remain anony-mous for obvious reasons!!! Fromthe mailbag and for all my AirForce friends:

There I was at six thousandfeet over central Iraq, two hundredeighty knots and we're droppingfaster than Paris Hilton's panties. It'sa typical September evening in thePersian Gulf; hotter than a rectalthermometer and I'm sweating likea priest at a Cub Scout meeting.

But that's neither here northere. The night is moonless overBaghdad tonight, and blacker than aSteven King novel. But it's 2003,folks, and I'm sporting the latest innight-combat technology. Namely,hand-me-down night vision goggles(NVGs) thrown out by the fighterboys. Additionally, my 1962Lockheed C-130E Hercules isequipped with an obsolete, yet, semi-effective missile warning system(MWS). The MWS convenientlymakes a nice soothing tone in yourheadset just before the missile ex-plodes into your airplane. Who saysyou can't polish a turd? At any rate,the NVGs are illuminating BaghdadInternational Airport like the LasVegas Strip during a Mike Tyson

fight. These NVGs are the cat's ass.But I've digressed.

The preferred method of ap-proach tonight is the random shal-low. This tactical maneuver allowsthe pilot to ingress the landing zonein an unpredictable manner, thus ex-ploiting the supposedly secured pe-rimeter of the airfield in an attemptto avoid enemy surface-to-air-mis-siles and small arms fire. Personally,I wouldn't bet my pink-butt on thattheory but the approach is fun as helland that's the real reason we fly it.

We get a visual on the run-way at three miles out, drop down toone thousand feet above the ground,still maintaining two hundred eightyknots. Now the fun starts. It's pilotappreciation time as I descend themighty Herk to six hundred feet andsmoothly, yet very deliberately, yankinto a sixty degree left bank, turningthe aircraft ninety degrees offsetfrom runway heading. As soon as weroll out of the turn, I reverse turn tothe right a full two hundred seventydegrees in order to roll out alignedwith the runway. Some aeronauticalgenius coined this maneuver the"Ninety/ Two-Seventy." Choppingthe power during the turn, I pull backon the yoke just to the point mynether regions start to sag, bleeding

see a Viper do that! We exit the run-way to a welcoming committee ofgovernment issued Army grunts. It'stime to download their beans andbullets and letters from their sweet-hearts, look for war booty, and, ofcourse, urinate on Saddam's home.

Walking down the crew en-try steps with my lowest-bidder,Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strappedsmartly to my side, I look around andthank God, not Allah, I'm an Ameri-can and I'm on the winning team.Then, I thank God I'm not in theArmy.

Knowing once again I'vecheated death, I ask myself, "Whatin the hell am I doing in this mess?"Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? Youbet your ass. Or, could it possibly befor the glory, the swag, and not tomention, chicks dig the Air Medal.There's probably some truth theretoo. But now is not the time to de-rive the complexities of the superior,cerebral properties of the human por-tion of the aviator-man-machinemodel. It is however, time to get outof this stink-hole. "Hey copilot, cleanyourself up! And how's 'bout the 'Be-fore Starting Engines Checklist."

God, I love this job!

TRASH HAULERS HAVE FUN, TOO

��

AMERICA NEEDSTO WAKE UP!

By U.S. Navy Capt. OuimetteXO, NAS, Pensacola

That's what we think weheard on the 11th of September 2001and maybe it was, but I think itshould have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock hasbeen buzzing since 1979 and wehave continued to hit the snooze but-ton and roll over for a few more min-utes of peaceful sleep since then.

It was a cool fall day in No-vember 1979 in a country going

off energy in order to configure thepig for landing.

"Flaps Fifty!, Landing GearDown!, Before Landing Checklist!"I look over at the copilot and he'sshaking like a cat crapping on a sheetof ice. Looking further back at thenavigator, and even through theNVGs, I can clearly see the wet spotspreading around his crotch. Finally,I glance at my steely-eyed flight en-gineer. His eyebrows rise in unisonas a grin forms on his face. I can tellhe's thinking the same thing I am."Where do we find such fine youngmen?" "Flaps One Hundred!" I barkat the shaking cat. Now it's allaimpoint and airspeed. Aviation 101,with the exception there's no lights,I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and nowtracers are starting to crisscross theblack sky.

Naturally, and not at all sur-prisingly, I grease the Goodyear's onbrick-one of runway 33 left, bring thethrottles to ground idle and then forcethe props to full reverse pitch. To-night, the sound of freedom is myfour Hamilton Standard propellerschewing through the thick, putrid,Baghdad air. The huge, one hundredthirty thousand pound, lumberingwhisper pig comes to a lurching stopin less than two thousand feet. Let's

See WAKE UP pg. 33

through a religious and political up-heaval when a group of Iranian stu-dents attacked and seized the Ameri-can Embassy in Tehran. This seizurewas an outright attack on Americansoil; it was an attack that held theworld's most powerful country hos-tage and paralyzed a Presidency.

The attack on this sovereignU. S. embassy set the stage for eventsto follow for the next 23 years.

America was still reelingfrom the aftermath of the Vietnamexperience and had a serious threatfrom the Soviet Union when then-President Carter, had to do some-thing. He chose to conduct a clan-destine raid in the desert. The ill-

fated mission ended in ruin, butstood as a symbol of America's in-ability to deal with terrorism.

America's military had beendecimated and downsized/rightsized since the end of the VietnamWar. A poorly trained, poorlyequipped and poorly organized mili-tary was called on to execute a com-plex mission that was doomed fromthe start.

Shortly after the Tehran ex-perience, Americans began to be kid-napped and killed throughout theMiddle East. America could do littleto protect her citizens living andworking abroad. The attacks againstUS soil continued.

In April of 1983 a large ve-hicle packed with high explosiveswas driven into the US Embassycompound in Beirut. When it ex-plodes, it kills 63 people. The alarmwent off again and America hit theSnooze Button once more.

Then just six short monthslater a large truck heavily ladendown with over 2500 pounds of TNTsmashed through the main gate of theUS Marine Corps headquarters inBeirut and 241 US servicemen arekilled. America mourns her deadand hit the Snooze Button oncemore.


��

REAGAN’SGREATESTVICTORIES

By ANDREW SULLIVAN

A sharp mind produced aconservatism without social intoler-ance.

All Presidents, like all humanbeings, get many things wrong.Ronald Reagan's extraordinaryachievement as President of the U.S.was to succeed in getting the twobiggest challenges of his time right:defeating the Soviet Union and re-viving the American economy andspirit. Neither of those achievementswas inevitable. Both were fiercelyopposed at the time. But he persisted— his visionary focus matched onlyby a gentleness of character and abrilliance of rhetoric.

The gentleness first. Yes, hewas known throughout the world asa cowboy. That helped. It certainlyrattled the Kremlin — and all theother enemies of America. But per-sonally, he was civil to a point. Read-ing the extraordinary collection ofhis letters to a wide variety of ornerycorrespondents — from internationalstatesmen to high schoolers — youget a sense of how easily this cameto him. "I have been informed ofyour complaint about my broadcastsand your suggestion that they betaken off the air," he wrote to oneirate listener in his days as a broad-caster. "I'm sorry you feel that wayand hope you won't mind my writ-ing a few words in my own defense."He disarmed his correspondents ascheerfully as he disarmed the Sovi-ets.

At the same time, Reaganwas unflinching in the defense of hisideas. His critics thought he was stu-pid. Nothing could be further fromthe truth. His radio talks — givenhundreds of times on a variety ofpolitical topics — are superb, intel-ligent popular journalism. They werethe reflection of a man interested

above all in ideas. In one he summedup the essence of his belief in hu-man freedom in his own idiosyn-cratic shorthand: "Our system freedthe individual genius of man. Re-leased him to fly as high & as far ashis own talent & energy would takehim. We allocate resources not bygovt. decision but by the mil's. ofdecisions customers make when theygo into the mkt. place to buy. Ifsomething seems too high-priced webuy something else. Thus resourcesare steered toward those things thepeople want most at the price theyare willing to pay. It may not be aperfect system but it's better than anyother that's ever been tried." That'sabout as acute a defense of marketcapitalism as you'll find.

His collected letters reveal anequally sharp mind. There's a de-tailed missive setting professorArthur Laffer right on gas taxes;there's a complex analysis of spend-ing trends on his watch; there's a longexplanation of the crossed wires thatled him to pay tribute to dead SS of-ficers at a cemetery in Bitburg, Ger-many. And as early as 1982, there'scandor about his strategy for defeat-ing the Soviets. He tolerated the defi-cits, he explained, for a long-termreason: "I don't underestimate thevalue of a sound economy, but I alsodon't underestimate the imperialistambitions of the Soviet Union ... Iwant more than anything to bringthem into realistic arms-reductiontalks. To do this, they must be con-vinced that the alternative is a build-up militarily by us. They havestretched their economy to the limitto maintain their arms program. Theyknow they cannot match us in anarms race if we are determined tocatch up. Our true ultimate purposeis arms reduction." A decade later,you could see how effective his long-term strategy was. And the moneysaved by winning the cold war —together with the lower tax rates hebequeathed — helped give us theboom of the 1990s.

In retrospect, the Reagandeficit of the 1980s was a long-term

bargain. But Reagan's significancewent far deeper than merely gettingthe big issues right. Americans knewin their hearts that this unlikely manunderstood the deepest meaning oftheir country in a way no one elsehad for a generation. He saw whatAmerica's promise was; he exhila-rated in its energy; he drew strengthfrom its optimism; he drew out ofAmericans what was already in themand gave it shape and words and agrinning upward nod of the head.

Sure, there was always workto be done. But the point was the es-cape — to a ranch in California, to anew world, to a constantly changingfuture. He marshaled conservatismwithout calling forth the dark seamof religious or social intolerance. Inhis personal life, he was often dis-tant and cold. But his real peers were

Two months later in Decem-ber 1983, another truck loaded withexplosives is driven into the USEmbassy in Kuwait, and Americacontinues her slumber.

The following year, in Sep-tember 1984, another van was driveninto the gates of the US Embassy inBeirut and America slept.

Soon the terrorism spreads toEurope. In April 1985 a bomb ex-plodes in a restaurant frequented byUS soldiers in Madrid.

Then in August, aVolkswagen loaded with explosivesis driven into themain gate of the US Air Force Baseat Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and thesnooze alarm is buzzing louder andlouder as US interests are continu-ally attacked.

Fifty-nine days later, a cruiseship, the Achille Lauro is hijackedand we watched as an American in awheelchair is singled out of the pas-senger list and executed.

The terrorists then shift theirtactics to bombing civilian airlinerswhen they bomb TWA Flight 840 inApril of 1986 that killed 4 and the

most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in1988, killing 259.

America wants to treat theseterrorist acts as crimes; in fact we arestill trying to bring these people totrial.These are acts of war.

The wake up alarm is gettinglouder and louder. The terrorists de-cide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents areshot and killed as they enter CIAheadquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The following month, Febru-ary 1993, a group of terrorists arearrested after a rented van packedwith explosives is driven into theunderground parking garage of theWorld Trade Center in New YorkCity. Six people are killed and over1000 are injured. Still, this is a crimeand not an act of war?

The Snooze alarm is de-pressed again. Then in November1995 a car bomb explodes at a USmilitary complex in Riyadh, SaudiArabia killing seven service men andwomen.

A few months later in Juneof 1996, another truck bomb ex-plodes only 35 yards from the US

WAKE UPfrom pg 32

ordinary Americans, whose fears heassuaged and whose hope he re-kindled. He took responsibility seri-ously but wore it so lightly. He gaveAmericans purpose again, and in re-turn they gave him love. "During myfirst months in office," he once wroteto an old friend, "when day after daythere were decisions that had to bemade, I had an almost irresistibleurge — really a physical urge — tolook over my shoulder for someoneI could pass the problem on to. Thenwithout my quite knowing how ithappened, I realized I was lookingin the wrong direction. I started look-ing up instead and have been doingso for quite a while now." Well, now,at last, he will look face to face. Andas surely as we are now grieving, hewill be smiling.

See WAKE UP pg. 35


SCRAMBLERAP

By RUSS KNOEBELPilot, AT-28’s and A-37’s

The sun was barely slippingbelow the horizon, when that damnscramble bell rang. It had been a longday and we were about to be relievedfrom alert. Both Jack Held and I werepretty tired. We had been scrambledtwice already and I was looking for-ward to getting cleaned up and fall-ing into a glass of gin at the officer’sclub.

The last scramble hadn’tbeen an easy one. We were vectoredto the Laotian border to silence a20mm anti-aircraft gun that had beenharassing the forward air controller.Not wanting to get closer than nec-essary, the FAC lobbed in a smokerocket and directed us from severalmiles south. We had less than idealordinance to take out a 20 mike-mike, Napes, CBU, rockets, and hi-drags. To be honest, we sort ofdumped our stuff in four erraticpasses and suggested they call insomeone with slicks and a mach onedelivery capability. So although thegun wasn’t firing when we left, it wasgenerally agreed that they probablywent out for rice wine. We weren’tcredited with a kill which suited mefine. At least we were still in onepiece.

This current scramble how-ever, proved to be even more excit-ing than the last. We were directedsouthwest of Bien Hoa to the

Mekong River where it turns east-ward toward the sea. We were toldto contact the forward air controllerabout seven minutes from the targetand he briefed us on the mission.

An A-1 and an Army heli-copter gunship had been shot downby a 50 cal. machine gun. Seldomdo we get anti-aircraft weapons thatsophisticated this far south. Seemswhen the A-1 was unable to take outthe gun, the Army decided that a he-licopter gun ship could do the job.Naturally the 50 ate the gun ship andno one could get in to pick up the A-1 pilot or the gunship crew. Bothcrews were alive and still in commu-nication with the FAC.

The A-1 was piloted by aVietnamese and had been flying outof an airstrip near there, but the Viet-namese Air Force decided that sinceit was getting dark, they couldn’t’scramble anymore tonight If younote the sarcasm here, be assured thatI was feeling a lot more than sarcasmthat night. There we were, facinganother heavy automatic anti-aircraftweapon and the best aircraft armoredto handle a 50 cal. hit was sitting onthe ground because it was too dark.

The FAC briefed us on theurgency of getting to the downedcrews as soon as possible. Helicop-ter gunships and rescue chopperswere standing by just out of gunrange, and it seemed it was up to usto take out the gun before the rescuecould take place. We weren’t reallytoo happy about that, since we hadthe same lousy load this trip that wehad on the last one. For the unin-formed, all our ordinance (load) wasdesigned to drop at low altitudes,

which isn’t the smartest way to takeout something as sophisticated as a50 cal. machine gun with an effec-tive range of over 5,000 feet.

Under each wing we carrieda 500-pound hi-drag bomb. They hadto be dropped below 1,500 feet foraccuracy. Otherwise, when thebomb’s large fins spread after re-lease, winds had a strong effect onthe trajectory. Next to the hi-dragwas a large napalm. Nape tumbleswhen dropped so it also requires alow release altitude. Next was therocket pod carrying nine 2.5 inchhavair rockets, which should be firedat about 1,500 feet for accuracy. Ifthe rocket is fired much higher than1,500 feet the rocket motor runs outof fuel and the damn things go bal-listic. This means they don’t hitwhere the gun sight was fixed. Fi-nally, we had CBU pods under eachwing. These pods had six tubes, eachcontaining dozens of small hand gre-nade sized bomblets that spreadshrapnel and havoc when dropped inseries. CBU should be delivered (de-livered sounds like Domino’s Pizza,but it’s not quite the same to the re-cipient) from level flight at about 200to 1,000 feet above the ground in astring a mile long. CBU are anti-per-sonnel; not anti 50 cal. machine gun.So we decided to save the CBU forlast and concentrate on getting thegun.

The guy firing the thing musthave been the one who carted it allthe way from north on his back. I saythis because as soon as I rolled in,he opened up on me like he had beendoing this for years. I could see themuzzle flash and occasional tracersstreak by my cockpit as I came er-ratically down final.

I had decided to fire my rock-ets first, and Jack was to follow inclosely with his hi-drags. The ideawas to give them something to worryabout with the rockets burning in onthem and maybe Jack could sneakin close enough to do some good.The Tracers were too damn close forcomfort, and it dawned on me that

the 50 probably had some kind ofradar tracking capability. My buttpuckered as I drove in and salvoedboth pods. I must have flinched be-cause my rockets only smoked up thearea and Jack’s bombs were a littleshort.

Pulling up off the pass, Ipushed up the throttles and immedi-ately felt a vibration in my left en-gine. I looked at my instruments, butcouldn’t see any thing in the dark, (Ihadn’t turned on my instrumentlights yet).I eased back my leftthrottle to about 85%. The vibrationsmoothed out.

I turned up my instrumentlights on base leg and except for aslight fluctuation in my exhaust gastemperature, everything seemedokay. I decided to leave the throttlewhere it was and turned down mylights. Jack cut his downwind legshort and turned inside me to makehis rocket pass as cover for me. Irolled in just after him. I was a littleworried about where he was in thedark, but soon I could tell by the 50caliber tracers that he was ahead ofme and a little to my left.

He fired both pods and pulledoff about four seconds before I re-leased my hi-drags. We were bothgiven a bull’s eye by the forward aircontroller who seemed pretty excitedabout the fact that we took out the50 cal. I was pretty excited too be-cause the vibration in my left enginecame back as I pulled up hard to theleft. Jack came up behind me. Histransmission was broken, but I heardhim call that there were sparks andfire in my left engine exhaust.

I yanked the left throttle tocutoff and asked Jack to take a look.He moved in close behind me, andsaid the sparks were gone and therewas no sign of fire. Jack’s transmis-sions were quite broken and it wasn’tlong before his transmitter wentcompletely out. Seems that he hadtaken a hit also.

The FAC asked us if we

A-37 CORNER

Ed. Note: Ollie Maier asked that the following article written by RussKnoebel be published in the A-37 Corner of this issue in memory ofRuss who passed away on 5 March 2004. Russ flew the AT-28’s and theA-37’s as an Air Commando. He was a long time ACA Life Memberand will be missed…!

See SCRAMBLE pg. 35


could dump our CBU and Nape inthe area just south of the gun posi-tion so they could get to the downedcrews. Jack was along side me andwagged his wings when I asked ifhe could read me and the FAC. Heconfirmed that everything seemed tobe okay except his UHF transmitter.We re-established the position of thedowned aircrews and Jack acknowl-edged again as I rolled in first.

I set the switches to releaseboth napalm but only one came off.Fortunately, it was the one on the left,the side with the dead engine. Onceagain I pulled up to the left with thegood engine and the remaining napeon the up-wing side. Jack droppedhis nape just behind mine and itlooked like half the delta went up inflames. Again, the FAC gave us abull’s eye.

I advised him that we hadboth been hit and that this would beour last pass. Jack and I rolled in al-most side by side and spread ourCBU where he requested. All dur-ing my pass, I was flicking the Napeswitch hoping to get rid of that also,but no luck.

We cleared the target withpraise and thanks from the FACLater we learned that the rescue wassuccessful and we did in fact take outthe gun.

With Jack on my wing, Iclimbed out over the river where itwas widened as it poked it’s way to-ward the sea. I called to Jack to jetti-son his CBU and rocket pods. Heacknowledged with a wing rock andreleased on my count. I got rid ofmy CBU and rock pods, but the na-palm stayed.

I next tried the hot button andmy tanks went and the nape almostdid, It released from the front hookand hung upon the rear. I was grate-ful that it didn’t take the flap out, butactually it only dropped down a fewinches. So there I was with a hot na-palm that may or may not drag on

the runway when I landed.Now that really gave me

something to think about on the wayhome. Should I bail out or take achance that the nape would not gooff under me on landing? There issomething so secure about that warmcockpit, especially at night, that Idecided to chance a landing.

I called ahead to Bien Hoaand told them of our mess. I advisedJack to land first from a straight-in.As we approached final, Jack con-firmed three gears down and locked.I relayed to the tower.

They were ready for us withcrash crew and medics flashing redlights in greeting. I told them to keepthe fire trucks back because of thenape. I then set up a long, single-en-gine straight-in. Now, I knew astraight-in wasn’t the smartest ap-proach to use at Bien Hoa, becausefinal approach got a little hot at nightwith the enemy shooting at you.However, I wasn’t as worried aboutthe small arms fire as I was aboutthat nape hanging under my rightwing.

Sweat trickled down my faceand the crack of my ass as I milkedthe flaps down a little. All the time Iwas hitting every pickle button andswitch that 1 could find.

I must have been living rightthat night because the nape fell offclean about 300 feet high on final. Itcame off cold and didn’t explode onimpact, but I’ll bet if Charlie was fir-ing at me from final, he did a num-ber in his pants when he saw thatnape come loose.

The rest of the landing wasuneventful, and I was really glad tounstrap and feel the ramp underfootThe left engine had taken a 50 cali-ber slug right up the intake and ev-ery row of blades was deformed. I’msurprised It held up for that extrapass, but the A-37 really was in itselement in Vietnam. As we had sus-pected, Jack had taken a hit in theUHF.

We got a nice letter from theFAC and the army on that one, but

Col. Weber had my butt on the car-pet the next day. Seems that I wasthe magnet ass of the squadron, hav-ing been hit five times so far.

I suggested rather strongly (Iwas still running on adrenaline), thatmaybe the fault was in the ordinanceon the alert aircraft. We had alreadylearned that the Raps could deliverslicks as accurately as hi-drags andwith slicks we would have versatil-ity we needed to go up against someof the heavier guns that were turn-ing up in the south. Headquarters hadalready taken us off hi-drags exceptfor alert. ��

SCRAMBLEfrom pg 34

military compound in Dhahran,Saudi Arabia. It destroys the KhobarTowers, a US Air Force barracks,killing 19 and injuring over 500. Theterrorists are getting braver andsmarter as they see that America doesnot respond decisively.

They move to coordinatetheir attacks in a simultaneous attackon two US embassies in Kenya andTanzania. These attacks wereplanned with precision. They kill224. America responds with cruisemissile attacks and goes back tosleep.

The USS Cole was docked inthe port of Aden, Yemen for refuel-ing on 12 October 2000, when asmall craft pulled along side the shipand exploded killing 17 US NavySailors. Attacking a US War Ship isan act of war, but we sent the FBI toinvestigate the crime and went backto sleep.

And of course, you know theevents of 11 September 2001. MostAmericans think this was the firstattack against the US or on Ameri-can soil: How wrong they are!America has been under a constantattack since 1979 and we chose tohit the snooze alarm, roll over, andgo back to sleep.

In the news lately we haveseen lots of finger pointing from ev-

ery high official in government overwhat they knew and what they didn'tknow. But if you've read the papersand paid a little attention I think youcan see exactly what they knew. Youdon't have to be in the FBI or CIA oron the National Security Council tosee the pattern that has been devel-oping since 1979.

The President is right onwhen he says we are engaged in awar. I think we have been in a warfor the past 23 years and it will con-tinue until we, as a people, decideenough is enough.

America needs to "Get out ofBed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the priceand make the sacrifice to ensure ourway of life continues. We cannotafford to keep hitting the snooze but-ton again and again and roll over andgo back to sleep.

After the attack on Pearl Har-bor, Admiral Yamamoto said "...itseems all we have done is awakeneda sleeping giant." This is the mes-sage we need to disseminate to ter-rorists around the world.

Support Our Troops and sup-port President Bush for having thecourage, political or militarily, toaddress what so many who precededhim didn't have the backbone to do:both Democrat and Republican. This is not a political thing to be

WAKE UPfrom pg 33

See WAKE UP pg. 36

I guess Col. Weber did hisjob, because shortly after we got ridof the hi-drags for good. That wasmy 113th mission. I also happenedto be flying aircraft 513. And I usedto think that thirteen was my luckynumber!

Actually, as I think about it,maybe it really is....

Ed. Note: This is the first of severalWar Stories about the A-37; the littlejet fighter that could…! The A-37crews claim that it flew more com-bat sorties than any other jet fighterin Vietnam.


By DANIEL HENNIGER

By now, some Americansmay feel the need for respite fromthe images of Abu Ghraib and thefive hooded barbarians standing be-hind Nick Berg. This week's columnwill try to provide some measure ofrespite.

It is the story of Americans,in and out of the U.S. government,who moved mountains to help sevenhorribly maimed Iraqi men. It is notalways pleasant reading, but thereare rewards to staying with it, espe-cially now.

Quite obviously it has beendecided, as the handling of the AbuGhraib story makes plain, that whenAmerica stumbles, we are going tohave our faces rubbed in it. Andrubbed in it and rubbed in it. As faras I can make out, the purpose of thistwo weeks of media humiliation isthat we--the president, all of us--arebeing asked to morally prostrate our-selves before the rest of the world.Some may choose to do so, but thisstory should make a few Americanswant to simply stand up straightagain.

As perfect justice, the storyin fact begins in Abu Ghraib prison,in 1995. With Iraq's economy in atailspin, Saddam arrested nine Iraqibusinessmen to scapegoat them asdollar traders. They got a 30-minute"trial," and were sentenced, after ayear's imprisonment, to have theirright hands surgically cut off at AbuGhraib prison.

The amputations were per-formed, over two days, by a Baghdadanesthesiologist, a surgeon andmedical staff. We know this becauseSaddam had a videotape made ofeach procedure. He had the handsbrought to him in formalin and thenreturned to Abu Ghraib. Oh, onemore thing: The surgeon carved anX of shame into the forehead of each

SADDAM HAD THEIR HANDS CUT OFF –AMERICA GAVE THEM NEW ONES:

man. And the authorities charged themen $50.

Last year, after we liberatedIraq, a veteran TV news producernamed Don North--who has workedfor major U.S. broadcasters--was inBaghdad with the U.S. to restore TVservice. Iraqi contacts there broughthim a tape of the men's amputations.Mr. North says dismemberment wascommon in Saddam's Iraq and thatif one walks down a crowdedBaghdad street one may see a half-dozen people missing an ear, eye,limb or tongue. He decided to seekout the men whose stubbed arms rep-resented the civilized world's lowestact--the perversion of medicine.

He found seven. Mr. Northdetermined to make a documentaryof their story and get medical helpfor them. How he found that help, ifone may still use this phrase, is anall-American story.

An oil engineer from Hous-ton, named Roger Brown, overheardMr. North's tale in a Baghdad café.He suggested Don North get in touchwith a famed Houston TV newsmannamed Marvin Zindler. Mr. Zindlerput him in touch with Dr. Joe Agris,a Houston reconstructive surgeon,who has worked in postwar Vietnamand Nicaragua repairing children.

Mr. North sent Dr. Agris acopy of the videotape of the surgicalatrocities, and Dr. Agris said: Sendme the men; I will fix them.

But flying seven Iraqi menout of Baghdad is easier said thandone. In this case, prodded by DonNorth and government friends, thefamous U.S. bureaucracy gave itselfa day off. Paul Bremer wrote a memoauthorizing their departure. PaulWolfowitz told the Air Force it couldfly them to Frankfurt. HomelandSecurity waived visa requirements.

Continental Airlines donatedpassage to Houston. There, Dr. Agrisenlisted a fellow surgeon, Fred

Kestler, to assist. The MethodistHospital donated facilities, and themen arrived in Houston in earlyApril.

Dr. Agris saw that the AbuGhraib "surgeries" were a botch.They'd cut through the joining of thewrist's carpal bones, "like carving aTurkey leg." Saddam's doctors didnothing to repair the nerve endings,which left the men with constant realand "phantom" pain. Drs. Agris andKestler had two preliminary tasks:Repair the nerves, and, alas, takeanother inch off the men's lowerarms, to leave a smooth surface forattaching their new prosthetic"hands." They worked for two daysoperating on the seven men, whothen took a week to recover beforereceiving their new hands.

Those devices were donatedby the German-American prostheticcompany Otto Bock, at a cost of$50,000 each. They are state-of-the-art electronic hands, with fingers,which respond to trained muscularmovements. The rehabilitation andtraining is being donated by twoother Houston companies, TIRR andDynamic Orthotics. The Iraqi menare in Houston now, spending fivehours a day learning to use their newright hands. And oh yes, the brandson their heads were removed.

Don North completed hisdocumentary on what happened tothese men in Iraq I watched "Re-membering Saddam" this week. Sev-eral of the men insisted on seeingSaddam's home video of the atroc-ity, and so it's in the film--a bizarre,almost dainty image of forceps, scal-pel, surgical gloves and green oper-ating-room garments. Nothing likeit since Dr. Mengele. Watching hishand come off, Baasim Al Fadhlysays: "Look at this doctor, who con-siders his career noble and swears toGod to be a noble person. Let every-one see this film."

This crime deserves condem-nation from international medicalsocieties, such as the U.N.'s WorldHealth Organization, or the RedCross. And Don North's film indeedshould be seen--but may not be. Af-ter two months of trying, no U.S.broadcast or cable network will takeit. This is incredible. TV can run AbuGhraib photos 24/7 but can't find 55minutes for Saddam's crimes againsthumanity?

On May 23, the AmericanForeign Policy Council will bring therestored men to Washington. Theywill visit maimed GIs at Walter ReedArmy Hospital. It wouldn't be sur-prising if they said something posi-tive about the U.S. soldiers who havenot been on television the past twoweeks.

Then Don North and JoeAgris will fly with the men back toIraq, to survey the rest of Saddam'sdismembered population. "The prac-tice of prosthetics is very archaic,"Mr. North says,"for a country wherethis is such an affliction." Dr. Agrishopes to survey the hospitals andbring in some modern equipment andsupplies. "If they let me, I'll do someof the kids," he says. "Let's show thegood side of what we can do."

Sure. Why not?

Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The WallStreet Journal's editorial page. His columnappears Fridays in the Journal and onOpinionJournal.com.

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hashed over in an election year: thisis an AMERICAN thing. This isabout our Freedom and the Freedomof our children in the years to come.

Ed. Note: I sincerely hope and pray that thepeople of this great nation rapidly come totheir senses and we get on with the busi-ness of expeditiously eradicating Terrorism!

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WAKE UPfrom pg 35


COUNTRY STORE ITEMS AVAILABLE

ZAP Patch ----------------------------------------------------------------$3.00Original Air Commando Group Patch----------------------------$3.00Project 404 Coin-------------------------------------------------------$10.00ACA Bumper Sticker--------------------------------------------------$2.00ACA Bronze Coins------------------------------------------------------$5.0050th Commemorative Coin (Bronze)-----------------------------$5.00ACA Ball Cap------------------------------------------------------------$9.00 (royal & lt blue, black, white, gray, & denim)ACA Ball Cap------------------------------------------------------------$9.00 (camo, black, & navy with lettering)ACA Lapel Pin-----------------------------------------------------------$4.00ACA Cloth Patch--------------------------------------------------------$3.00ACA “Air Commando” Cloth Tab-----------------------------------$3.00ACA Decal (4” X 5”)--------------------------------------------------2/$1.00ACA T-shirt (white only) L, XL-----------------------------------$10.00ACA T-shirt (white only) XXL-------------------------------------$12.00ACA Golf Shirt---------------------------------------------------------$15.00 (black or navy, with or without pocket, sizes M-XXL)ACA Golf Shirt --------------------------------------------------------$15.00 (white, red, royal blue, waffle weave with pocket)Air Commando Bush Hat (M-XL)--------------------------------$20.00Straw Hat---------------------------------------------------------------$10.0050th Anniversary Poster (full color - 20” X 24”)------------5/$1.00Jane Fonda Poster (black & white - 11” X 14”)----------------$3.00ACA Desk Clock (battery not included) -------------------------$7.50ACA License Plate----------------------------------------------------$10.00Jackets with ACA Logo----------------------------------------------$30.00 (stone, cadet blue, or tan colors only)L, XLPOW/MIA Decals-------------------------------------------------------$2.00POW/MIA Patches------------------------------------------------------$3.50ACA 50th and 55th Reunion Videos-------------------------------$5.00 (Price includes shipping and handling)Hat Bands ---( black, wine, & royal blue) ----------------------$5.00-

ORDER FORMQty Color Item Size Unit Price Total________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sub Total ______20% Shipping & Handling ______Add $2.50 for a mail tube ______Grand Total ______Please send your check or money order along with complete shipping

instructions to ACA, PO Box 7, Mary Esther, FL 32569-0007. Please under-stand that we do not accept credit cards or cash through the mail.

you can talk about it now…! And, Iknow and understand that almost noone will believe your story unlessthey were there and saw it happen.Regardless, you may think that yourstories are trivial and unimportant;but know this; our most interestingarticles come from folks just likeyou.

Get out the pencil and paperand give story telling a shot…! Keepyour stories worded just like you talkand you will do just fine…!

McCOSKRIE THRESHOLDFOUNDATION

We recently received a letterfrom the wife of the President ofGuatemala requesting that the Mc-Coskrie Threshold Foundation be-come involved again in working hu-manitarian problems and issues inher country. She particularly ad-dressed medical and health needs ofthe poor. Much needs to be done andwe can make a difference in the livesof these people.

We are working throughBobby Moore to establish medicalsupply lines to Guatemala. There area few issues which we must workbefore we become fully operational.Bobby is personally taking time togo back and forth between Guate-mala and the U.S. to coordinate thisproject.

Many thanks for your efforts,Bobby…!

JUST RECEIVED GREATNEWS….! The McCoskrie Thresh-old Foundation has been acceptedunder the local Combined FederalCampaign Fund umbrella for sup-port. If we work this right, we maybe accepted for funding from thenational CFC fund. We owe the suc-cess in this venue to Dick Geron tak-ing the necessary time to go throughtons of paperwork. Thanks a million,Dick...! John Connors knew the

PRESIDENTfrom back page

See PRESIDENT pg. 38

FORT BRAGGPREPARING

FOR GROWTHFORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Money ispouring into Fort Bragg to improvethe training grounds for the Army'sspecial operation troops.

The U.S. Army Special Op-erations Command has about $107million in construction under way orabout to begin. The command is add-ing space, updating old buildings andpreparing for the growth of some ofits units.

Plans call for adding about2,500 soldiers to the base over thenext four years.

In addition, Special Forcestrainees jumped from 350 to 450 lastyear. The goal is to increase the num-ber to 750 in 2006.

That means the commandneeds more trainers and a lot morestudents.

Stephen L. Bright of the JohnF. Kennedy Special Warfare Centerand School, says the base will haveto bring in 3,100 students to produce750 graduates of the selective pro-gram.

Submitted by:Peter [email protected]

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550 Mary Esther Cutoff,Ste. 14

Ft Walton Bch, FL 32548PH: 850-986-5555

Carry out availableCall for party reservations



right people and greased the skids forus to be accepted locally. Nice workJohn…!

Our McCoskrie guys havebeen busy as ever. John and crew arecurrently shipping more than onelarge 40 foot sea container eachmonth filled with Humanitariangoods such as school desks, cloth-ing, and school books. He is send-ing these goods to several SouthAmerican countries. I repeat, ship-ments are becoming more and morefrequent. Our hats off to John andhis crews for the Herculean effortsthey put into this worthy cause.

The U.S. Military has beenbuilding schools in impoverishedareas of several South Americancountries. We often piggy-back ontheir shipments, at no cost to us. Thismakes your MTF dollars stretchmuch, …much further.

We owe the Okaloosa SchoolSystem considerable recognition forjoining our MTF efforts. Many“Thanks” to the School Board Presi-dent, Mr. Gatez, and his staff for theirgenerous support. Their storage fa-cilities were filled to capacity withold desks and other used and dam-aged goods gathering dust, and even-tually going to the trash dump. Thisbecame a win- win situation for theOkaloosa School System, theOkaloosa County Tax Payers, Mc-Coskrie Threshold Foundation, andmany impoverished young childrenin South America.

It was the brainstorm of JohnGrove and “Taco” Sanchez to relievethe Okaloosa County Tax Payers andthe School Board of the considerableexpense for storing and salvaging.Good thinking guys…! Currently,the stored school supplies are beingpulled and put to good use in newlyconstructed schools for young unfor-tunate children in impoverishedcountries. These young kids, whotruly need educational opportunities,

do appreciate the opportunity to goto school and learn. They hardly missa day of school. Look at the pictureof all the smiling young children ex-cited about their “new” school desksthat we sent to them...great job!

Audra Murray continues tosave us thousands of dollars in ship-ping fees. Audra visited the construc-tion sites in South America andbrought back glowing reports withpictures of many happy and smilingfaces. You can see that the kids arefilled with excitement about movingfrom open shelters with dirt floorsand into dried-in weatherproofedbuildings with new school desks.Audra, these undeveloped nations ofchildren have the greatest admirationfor the outstanding work you do..!Be proud of yourself, young Lady…!

Increased work load becameso overbearing that John and hiscrews often could not meet our ship-ping requirements. John went beg-ging and came-up with some fine“young bucks” from Hurlburt whopitched-in and pulled his buns out ofthe fire on several occasions. Ourtired and worn older guys needed thisrelief badly. Thanks to each of youHurlburt guys who pitched-in, …youwere a “God Send” for John and his

we split and departed the lounge.Sandy shows up at home later thatevening and tells his wife Jan thathe had a slight heart-burn. He took acouple of “Tums’s” and went to bed.Bright and early next morning I geta call from Jerry with the shockingnews that Sandy passed away (Jerrybeing on duty the following morn-ing with the sheriff’s department).

Unbelievable, absolutely un-believable shocking bad news….!Sandy appeared healthy as a horse;vibrant and outgoing just the eveningbefore.

The following week I get thiscall telling me that Jerry Rhein is inthe emergency room at the hospital.He had some blockage in his groinarea stopping blood flow to his feetand legs. Jerry has spent some toughdays recovering from this problem,and he is finally doing better! Hangin there Jerry, we are all wishing youa speedy recovery.

SKY REUNION

More than a hundred CaseOfficers who served in Laos were intown a few weeks ago. Many of youknew of or had met these guys whenyou were in Laos. They had a fabu-lous gathering and their reunion fol-lowed along the lines of our AnnualAir Commando Association Re-union. It seems that all the impor-tant and not-so-important peoplewere there. I’m classifying me andFred Platt in the not-so-importantcategory; forgive me, Fred…! SeeSKY story elsewhere in newsletter.

Met the Case Office who in-terviewed Jane “Hanoi” Fonda on herreturn from visiting our POW’s inNorth Vietnam. Ain’t it just “goshawful” that the folks who caused suchpain and suffering for our VietnamPOW’s were able to come back andbe selected with great notoriety fortheir less than noteworthy activities.

Where has America’s senseof responsibility gone…? Have theAmerica people lost their souls…?

PRESIDENTfrom pg 37

Children sit in desks salvaged, cleaned, and repaired by the Air Commandos.The McCoskrie Threshold Foundation arranged for several schools in variousSouth American countries to receive shipments of school equipment and sup-plies. See the MTF article for details.

weary band of workers. We owe youguys “BIG TIME”…!

For all our members, yourdonations are making all the differ-ence in world. You have managed tokeep MTF afloat and healthy. Dokeep up the good work.

AIR COMMANDOMEMBERSHIP

Our ranks are rapidly thin-ning; we lost two Board members re-cently.

Sandy Sanborn (President ofthe Raven Association and ACABoard Member) after briefing agroup of newspaper reporters at theHurlburt Air Park on Friday eveningasked Felix Sambogna, Jerry Rheinand me to have a couple of beers atthe JR Rocker’s lounge on Hurlburtwith him. Sandy was all upbeat andfilled with excitement about his plansfor the future. Sam and I learned agreat deal about Sandy’s past accom-plishments, which were no smallthing; and, all good I assure you.Sandy had great and inspirationalvisions of what he wanted to do inthe future. The Air Commando As-sociation was clearly a part ofSandy’s plans. After about two hours


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PRESIDENTfrom pg 38

ADS

BANGKOK CLEANERSWe owe Bangkok Cleaners

our support, and I mean we owe thembig time. These guys clean all thedirty clothing, bed linen, blankets,and so forth for the McCoskrieThreshold Foundation; and they doit at absolutely no cost to us.

Talk about being generous,this goes far beyond just being gen-erous. We (the MTF) would spendhundreds of dollars each month forcleaning bills, were it not for theseguys. Do use the Bangkok Clean-ers; they are on our side and they arethe “GOOD GUYS”…!

FT. WALTON AUTO REPAIRAlso, I was informed by

some higher “muck-de-mucks”, youknow the authoritative types, peoplewho are in the know about the im-portant things occurring in andaround the Fort Walton Beach area,there is a very reasonable auto repairbusiness located at 120 RacetrackRoad which you may wish to checkinto the next time you need some-one to look into your automobileproblems.

Don’t blink as you drivedown Racetrack or you will miss thelocation. They are on the north sideof Racetrack, several blocks east ofthe Mooney Road turn-off.

Being inquisitive, I ran bothmy car and my truck by and had themchecked out. It is true, these guysknow their business; they are good,and they are very reasonable…!

COME 2 U COMPUTERSThere is a computer repair ad

in this issue of the newsletter youmay wish take notice of. PeteBowman’s computer rolled “tango-uniform” because of virus infesta-tions, popup problems, needing updates and so on. Pete couldn’t keephis computer up and online for any

length of time.Roy Semone came out to the

Air Commando Headquarters Build-ing, picked-up the computer, took itto his shop, corrected all the prob-lems, returned and reinstalled thecomputer at very little cost. Peteswears by this guy; not at him. Talkto Pete if you don’t believe me. I wasso impressed that I had the guy workon my computer also.

SERIOUSLY, VOTE WITHYOUR HEAD – DO NOTBASE YOUR VOTE ON

FEAR AND UNFOUNDEDEMOTIONAL ISSUES

America has been viciouslyattacked by people who declared waron you and the way you live; thefreedoms you enjoy, and the rest ofthe civilized world. Keep focusedon the real issue of rooting out anddestroying Terrorists and the hatredthey espouse in their youth.

In 1998 Osama bin Laden is-sued a Fatwa declaring a “Jihadagainst Jews and Crusaders.” He alsosaid, “the ruling to kill the Ameri-cans and their allies, civilians andmilitary, is an individual duty forevery Muslim who can do it in anycountry in which it is possible to doit."

Can you even for a momentenvision strapping explosives ontoyour young daughter and sendingher off to be blown to bits…?? Noton your life would you ever think ofdoing such a thing…! Yes, it is allabout money, hate, envy, jealousy,and greed, but you are the target; anddon’t you ever forget it…!

Look into who is giving aid,comfort and support to the widowsand mothers of the people who haveblown themselves to smithereens.You may very well be surprised.

Listening to certain promi-nent American political leaders, it ishard to do other than conclude thatthey'd rather see America lose thewar on Terror than have our presi-dent be re-elected. It has really got-

ten bad when groups are willing toengage in such anti-American pro-paganda. Surely we have a right toexpect better of the news media andof our political leaders. Yes, therehave been many mistakes made aswe learn to deal with Terrorism. And,you must understand that many moremistakes will be made as the worldtakes sides on this issue and learnsto deal with it.

Our military, has had the besttraining ever. And, they are veryhighly motivated due largely to thesupport you and I as Americans givethem. Your encouragement and sup-port is so important to these guys inthe field, who are at risk, and lettingit all hang-out; to protect you, me andour freedom…! Let’s make everyeffort to keep these special guysaware of our strong backing and sup-port for them in their fight againstTerrorism.

We do have some problemsin the upper echelons of our military.They sometime seem to lack visionand imagination; or they are afraidto speak-up for fear of missing a pro-motion. And, they and we are oftenstill fighting the last war. This canbe overcome. Terrorism is a differ-ent breed of cat and both our mili-tary, civilian leaders and we have gotto learn to deal with the reality ofhow they think and work. Pain andsuffering is their aim; our pain andsuffering is in the cross hairs of theirgun sights…!

Terrorism has been under ournoses for years on end, …and ig-nored in hopes that it would simplygo away. The objective of Terroristis to disrupt and destroy any and allcivilized forms of government; to goin and hurt people for no earthly rea-son other than to show that you andI can’t protect ourselves and our wayof life. Much of the news media andmany vocal politicians are often nofriends of our nation, too often theygive credence and support to the en-emy in their own self interest andneed for attention and notoriety.Much too often, they have passed

essential and valuable information toour enemies when they needed to tohave kept their mouths shut. GoodGenerals like Patton would havehung these sorry ass bastards forsuch goings on during World War II.

Keep your head; and God’ssakes don’t cower or give in. We asa free nation can and will overcomethese atrocities, however painful itmay be…! Stick with those whowill stand and fight for what is right,those who are willing to get bashedaround a bit, and get their nosesbusted and blooded; for they are thepeople who will make this a betterand more safe world for you, me, ourchildren and our grandchildren.

We are likely to bleed a lot;but we will win this fight. Trust me;it will come to be…! God Bless eachof you and God Bless America…!

THE LIGHTERSIDE

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I saw a woman wearing a sweat shirtwith "Guess" on it. So I said"Implants?" She hit me.

A good friend will come and bail youout of jail... but, a true friend will besitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"

I signed up for an exercise class andwas told to wear loose-fitting cloth-ing. If I HAD any loose-fittingclothing, I wouldn't have signed upin the first place!

Don't argue with an idiot; peoplewatching may not be able to tell thedifference.

Why is it that our children can't reada Bible in school, but they can inprison?

Wouldn't you know it... Brain cellscome and brain cells go, but FATcells live forever.

Bumper sticker of the year: "If youcan read this, thank a teacher.... sinceit's in English, thank a soldier."

Submitted by: Larry Ropka, ACA #0445


JUNE 2004

ACA 2004 REUNION

Plans are well under way foranother rip-roaring Reunion. V.P.Dick Geron is in charge of all the“vice” this year. If you are in needof some “vice”, call Dick. Dick hasinformed me that the food will bemuch improved at the Saturday Ban-quet this year.

Due to a great deal of AirCommando type “wheeling anddealing”, Dick secured the ol’ Hurl-burt Officer’s Club on the Sound forour Saturday Night Banquet. Don’task Dick how he managed to get theClub, he is somewhat evasive regard-ing the subject.

If you want the very bestFried Fish, Hush Puppies, Beans, andCole Slaw on “God’s Green Earth”;check with “Raging Cajun” RayBourque at the poolside Fridayevening. He will have more scrump-tious food than you can eat. And,Jerry Broadway is serving the “BestBBQ” this side of heaven, at thepoolside, Sunday afternoon. Nowfor Gosh sakes, …don’t miss out onthis awesome occasion….!

ELECTION OF BOARDMEMBERS

Felix “Sam” Sambogna aftermuch haggling and arm twistingagreed to run for president. Sam hasalways been keen on organization; Iexpect he will have us in “shipshape” in no time; you count on it.Of course, “Sam’s” Board positionwill be open for a new officer. SandySanborn unexpectedly passed awayand his position is currently beingfilled by Dave Harrington. Our Trea-surer Frank Clements had a terriblebout with cancer and asked that weelect someone to replace him. JerryRhein’s term as Board member isexpiring this year.

We will need to elect offic-ers for these four Board positions.

Seriously consider whom you wantto represent you on the Board; eachof these four positions is criticallyimportant to the well being and thefuture direction which the Air Com-mando Association will take. It isyour Association and your responsi-bility; so take an interest and get in-volved…! We need your votes…!

NEWSLETTER

Jim Boney and Rip Kirbycontinue working their “buns” offproducing what I believe is one ofthe “BETTER “; if not the “VERYBEST” newsletters around. Giveeach of them a hardy pat on the backfor their work when you see them.They deserve every bit of encourage-ment we can give them; the News-

letter production is a tough job andthese guys do take their work seri-ously. They also take a lot of unnec-essary grief from folks like me and afew others whom I’ll not name.

Jim Yealy had another strokewhich set us back terribly. Jim, wesincerely miss your support; the guysare struggling without you beingthere to assist and advise. We hopeto see you up and about soon. And,Jim, we are looking forward to yougiving us “Hell” as we put togetherfuture newsletters. Jim Yealy’s ab-sence saddled Jim Boney with manyadditional responsibilities, head-aches, and much more work; hangin there Jim and stay afloat…! Weneed you and like what you do; weare depending on you goodbuddy….!

We have been receiving in-teresting articles from our Air Com-mando members. Keep the com-ments and letters coming, folks…!We will make a better effort to getthe newsletter out on time next is-sue. Please make a note on your cal-endar that the deadline for newslet-ter stories is August 15...we’ve hadfar too many “last minute-real im-portant” requests...this is a quarterlynewsletter, not the Daily Planet.

I encourage each and everyunit to send articles to our newslet-ter. Your inputs give us variety andmakes the newsletter much more in-teresting for our readership. Storiesabout events important to you shouldnever be lost just because you are toodarned closed mouth. Know this;what most of you did is no longer“Classified”. Guys, it is a fact that

The nation mourned President Reagan’s passing recently. He is honored bythe flag at half mast at the Hurlburt Air Park. President Reagan’s vision andleadership were the consistent character traits present in every great president.His passing was even mourned by his one time enemy as Mikhail Gorbechevattended the state funeral. God speed Mr. President, may you rest in peace.

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

ROBERT DOWNS

Documents

JUNE 2004 SIXTY YEARS HURLBURT SOUNDSIDE … ASSOCIATION, INC. JIM BONEY, EDITOR JIM YEALY, ASST EDITOR EUGENE ROSSEL, EDITOR AT LARGE ... I had little interest in and no …