July 2001

There have been several medical issues brought up, but the one that sits at the top of the list this month is Spina Bifida in grandchildren. A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend a reunion of predominately WWII 82nd Airborne troops. One of the guests was Bill Mclemore. He was a Chinook pilot in Vietnam and is one of Bushes appointees to the VA in Washington DC. He is

We had a discussion about Agent Orange and it's affects on children. He had done an extensive research project in Texas prior to accepting the post in DC on Spina Bifida in Vietnam vets on their children and drew a blank in Texas.

If any of you have grand children that have this disease, I would love to know. We are on the cutting edge of research into this issue agent orange and the link to grandchildren and Spin Bifida. The gift we received that just keeps on giving.

If you have questions about what is Spina Bifida contact me, or go to this website http://www.sbaa.org/ and I will get you other links and relevant phone numbers to explore the issues further.

The only other medical issue is Hepatitis C. If you haven't been screened for it, go to the nearest VA Medical facility and have the blood work done. It is free and could save your life. Do yourself a favor and follow through with it. It is running rampant in our members and needs to be addressed.

The 2002 reunion in April Charleston S. C. If you haven't confirmed you are going to attend please do so soon. Jim and Ercie need to get together a pretty good estimate on rooms to reserve for the group.

If you are planning on attending let me know. You can change your mind later, but this far out it is good for the planning cycle. The reservations will be made individually and I will get you the packet of information when I receive it from Jim Dayton. Our list is growing, so the more help we have at this stage as far as numbers, the better. We are past 12 and climbing with many unheard from. As the weeks tick off I will put together a list of who is confirmed so far, and update it through future newsletters and regular e-mails.

There has been much history added to the after action pages of the website. If you haven't been there recently check the "What's New " pages and the entries are dated, so it will give you an idea where you are. Again I wish to thank all the people for the support, and many endless hours of work they have done in helping me with typing, phone calls, mailing cards, financial help, and much more. A special thanks Again to Julia Finch, Joe Finches mother who is 81 and does much typing for me. She has now figured

our roll in Vietnam out. "You guys have destroyed many poor villagers homes, captured all the food in the province, afew weapons, killed afew people, and put every charter Sampan owner out of business on the Van Co Dong River". .She is a sweet heart and is doing a great job.George Smith has put together and scanned all the 1968 Daily Journals onto CD for us and has been a great

asset to the organization. The 1969 Journals are in progress now.Gary Paris same thing, along with Tony Rentz who keeps the slides changing into pictures so they can make the page. Robin Lauer for running the videos off for people that want them, hmmm who else. CRS. If I missed anyone I thank you to.

The following information is for Veterans Day Weekend 2001If you plan to attend Veterans Day Weekend in Washington, D.C. We have set up Hotel Accommodations for you and a Hospitality Suite The Hilton Crystal City near National Airport 2399 Jefferson Davis Highway. When you make your Reservations contact Tracy Zahn 1-703-418-6800 Ext. 5143 Be sure to tell her that you are with the VHCMA Room rates are $99.00 + Tax up to 4 people per room VHCMA Rooms are limited so make your reservations ASAP

If you are not a member,don't worry about it. It can be taken care of there, or make regular reservations at the same number and many of us will be there anyway. For further information on the VHCMA go to this link. http://tarnhelm.blu.org/vhcma/ e-mail vhcmaed@sprynet.com or call 1-800-842-6201 We can arrange a meeting room for everyone to gather in courtesy of the

VHCMA, so it could make a fun thing for so many of us that have not had the opportunity to see each other in all these years. If you plan to attend let me know, and I will make the proper arrangements.

Next year the VHCMA has their reunion in late June in Phoenix Arizona changed From Salt Lake City Utah for unknwnst to me reasons. I am going try to put together a little Mini informal reunion in conjunction with it. If interested let me know.

Add this one; Autorotation at night, establish rotor RPM, establish best airspeed, at 100 ft. turn on landing light, if you don't like what you see,turn landing light off cause you're gonna land there anyway!

All honorably discharged veterans are entitled to a onetime, free of charge replacement set of their authorized medals and ribbons from the U.S.Government. Submit your request in writing to:

The request must contain the veteran's full name, service or social security number, branch of service, and dates of service (approximate dates are okay) Also, the request must be signed by the veteran, if deceased, the veteran's next of kin can sign the request on his/her behalf. Ensure the information on the request is clear and easy to read. It is helpful to attach a copy of

the Discharge Certificate to the request but, this is not required. It is best to use Standard Form 180 (Request Pertaining to Military Records) to send request if possible.Contact the National Archives and Records Administration's Fax-on-Demand

NOTE: You must call the system from a fax machine (using the handset) in order to receive documents. Voice instructions will guide you. There is no charge for this service except for any long distance telephone charges you may incur. The phone number to access the fax-on-demand system is as follows:

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam says it has arrested 23,000 people since the Vietnam War ended a quarter of a century ago for trying to overthrow the Communist government. The figure was announced during celebrations of the 55th anniversary of

President Tran Duc Luong, it said, praised the secret police force, under the Ministry of Public Security, for its efforts to ``preserve political security and ensure social order and safety.'' Following the defeat of the South Vietnamese government in 1975 and the

country's reunification, security forces faced more than 1 million former South Vietnamese soldiers and officials, 2 million members of ``reactionary political parties,'' and more than 1,000 reactionary groups, including 500 that were armed, the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper said.Authorities sentenced hundreds of thousands of people to terms of 10 to 20 years in hard-labor ``re-education camps'' after the war.

The official Communist Party newspaper, Nhan Dan, reported that during the 1980s, ``hostile forces'' sent spies and armed commandoes trained overseas into Vietnam for sabotage.

Between 1981 and 1987, terrorist groups made 21 attempts to invade Vietnam by ship into southernmost Ca Mau province and by land through An Giang province bordering Cambodia, the newspaper said.

During that period, security forces arrested and killed 200 reactionaries, seized cargo ships filled with 300 tons of weapons and 14 tons of counterfeit money, Nhan Dan said.

In May, a court in Ho Chi Minh City gave out sentences of up to 20 years to 37 people accused of attempted terrorism, including a plan to destroy a statue of revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh. Most were Vietnamese living in Cambodia or Thailand.

orchestrated "press conference" with American POWs in 1972. There's no denying that she defamed POWs by whitewashing the Viet Cong's treatment of them and later calling them liars when they spoke out.

He recalled a night when he and the rest of the 80 or so men he was interned with were called out into the prison courtyard, "the first time we'd been outside under the stars in 5 or 6 years." As they all stood there wondering what was in store for them, a projector started whirring in the background. Their captors proceeded to show them footage of Jane Fonda's visit to Hanoi.

wasn't able to speak with Driscoll directly, but Mike McGrath and Paul Galanti, fellow officers of the Nam-POWs organization to which Driscoll belongs, told me he unequivocally disavows the story.

Mike McGrath, currently serving as the president of Nam-POWs, has been trying for more than a month to help Driscoll and Carrigan squelch the false rumors circulating under their names.

The final anecdote in the "Hanoi Jane" message recounts the experience of a POW who agreed to meet with Fonda but announced to his captors that he planned on telling her how horrid conditions in North Vietnamese prison camps really were.

"Because of this," the narrative continues, "I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees with outstretched arms with a piece of steel placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane every time my arms dipped."

Those words were written by Michael Benge, a civilian advisor captured by the Viet Cong in 1968 and held as a POW for 5 years. When I contacted him, he confirmed that the story was indeed his, and true.

Benge's original statement, entitled "Shame on Jane," was published in April by the Advocacy and Intelligence Network for POWs and MIAs. The nameless, faceless author of the "Hanoi Jane" message evidently picked it up from a Web page or a newsgroup and combined it with fabricated stories to create the forwarded text. Some versions now circulate with Benge's name appended, others quote his statement anonymously.

ex-POWs I spoke to or corresponded with about the falsehoods in this message felt. Paul Galanti said: "None of us are members of the Jane Fonda Fan Club, but these fabrications are something she just did not do."

June 17, 1966. Thirty-five years ago. Not much of note happened that day.The murder of three people in a bar in Patterson, New Jersey, allegedly by boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, dominated the domestic newsfront. The Chief of Naval Operations approved a plan to reduce the time in overhaul for nuclear submarines (that ultimately was suspected as a cause of the sinking of the USS Scorpion several years later). It was just another "ho-hum" day for many Americans.

But several "firsts" happened to me on that day. For the first time in my life I got shot down in flames in my A-4 Skyhawk, ejected violently from the bird at almost 600 mph, made my first parachute descent, was shot on the way down, and arrived in a country whose locals didn't exactly roll out the Welcome Wagon.

At least in retrospect, the next nearly seven years seemed to go by quickly subjecting me to varying degrees of torture, solitary confinement,humiliation, harassment, intimidation, and incredibly inhumane treatment.

Volumes have been written about the experience of the prisoners of war in Vietnam, and my purpose here is not to rehash it. Contrary to what several psychologists had led our families to believe, the ordeal was not a debilitating experience for most of us - but it did provide much time for thought. And it did enhance any latent abilities to put things into perspective.

I never questioned our involvement in the Vietnam War - not before, not during captivity, not since. It was not my place as a career Naval officer to do so in the first place, nor did I have any reason to question it. The atrocities the North Vietnamese perpetrated daily on us POWs certainly convinced me that everything I'd heard and read about the Communist system and the atrocities they were committing daily in South Vietnam had to be true. And it more than justified my firm belief - then and now - that we had

The ultimate irony was being tortured to write a statement saying I was receiving "lenient and humane treatment" from my captors. It caused me to question anything I hear from Communists or their many sympathizers or copycats or dupes in America who tended then - and still tend - to distort the truth for their personal gain, or even (gasp) to lie if that will achieve the desired end.

It seemed that my life was a series of lows (that were always lower than the preceding one), followed by highs (that were always higher than the previous high). Things like torture followed by improved treatment followed by beatings followed by even better treatment . . . .Why, it was just like a sine wave from my old electrical engineering classes at the Naval Academy!

The experience taught me to question our own free press that parroted the words of the Communists while, as a debating counterpoint, casting doubt on our own system. The use of a not-so-subtle "but" is enough to ruin a story for me by giving equal weight to an often self-serving nonentity in the name of "fairness" to present a "balanced" picture.

Homecoming in 1973 was a renaissance - literally and figuratively. My marriage was intact. Indeed, my formerly shy wife was a national leader who had addressed the joint session of the Virginia General Assembly and met with President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and (in France) hundreds of Communists on behalf of all the prisoners of war. It seemed not much of substance had

Where I could see only positives, many Americans were endlessly complaining.At our first POW reunion, many of my ex-POW friends lamented their countrymen's whining. I'd heard before that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but it seemed many in the good ol' USA were convinced our country had gone to hell in a hand basket. They complained about nearly everything. To us, having a hot meal, a warm bed to sleep in, and the ability to do anything we wanted nearly any time we wanted, was the dream we had had for so many years when deprived of our freedom. Putting all those into perspective was easy.

Much of the complaining seemed to come from those who had hyphenated their Americanism. Apparently, by using the tactic of divide and conquer, many groups set forth their self-perceived grievances by hyphenating their categories and claiming some special status. It seemed much like the Communists' bragging, "Everyone in your country is opposed to this war:young people, old people, black people, white people, handicapped people," et-sickening-cetera. The motto unity over self that effectively held our POWs

What has happened since 1973? A lot - mostly good. But the omnipresent complaining persists. I went through Navy flight refresher training and spent nine more terrific years in the Navy: flying, recruiting, and earning a Master of Commerce degree from the University of Richmond. I spent my final three Navy years on the Commandant's staff at the Naval Academy. It was a magnificent

The world at large seemed to be emulating a verbal sine wave - transforming nearly everything into good news/bad news categories, often with increasing frequency and amplitude. Our first son was born in 1975, the same year the North Vietnamese violated the agreement they had signed in Paris and invaded and crushed South Vietnam, from which our Congress had pulled its support. ("You mean they lied when they said they wouldn't do that?") Gerald Ford was a caretaker President.

The next year, Jimmy Carter won the election and pardoned the Vietnam draft-dodgers - presumably including his successor four elections hence.There followed four years of frustration as the country rolled into a double-digit inflationary period with nothing done by either an incompetent though well-meaning - President or the do-nothing, often ill-meaning, Congress still self-flagellating over Watergate.

I had a great final three years in the Navy despite the devastation Carter's policies had wrought on the military. My last Navy year was under one of the finest-ever Commanders-in-Chief, who led the country out of Jimmy Carter's unlamented and self-caused "malaise." In my first few years of retirement Carter's stubborn double-digit inflation hung on and a recession ensued.

But there was very good news as well! Son No. 2 was born and somehow greatly overshadowed my disappointment with the Naval Academy grad and Georgia governor trying to play President.

I watched in awe as President Reagan rebuilt the country into one that once again was respected and respectable. President Reagan's eight years went by too quickly. Among other things his policies set in motion the greatest economic expansion in our country's history. He rebuilt our military and forced the Communist government in Russia to fold its cards and steal away from the gaming table. He was as popular leaving office as he was coming in -something not seen since the Eisenhower days. He was an anachronistic "straight-shooter" and people loved him for it.

It was another occurrence of the sine wave - the amplitude increasing from the low of Carter to the high of Reagan - and the time interval (wavelength) was decreasing between the cyclical swings. The sine wave reached its zenith in the Gulf War victory that resulted from President Reagan's defense build-up in the 1980s.

And now faster and faster, higher and lower, the sine wave continues - such as in the Clinton years . . . When things that used to be banned in Boston became dinner-table topics. When it was okay to appear to do something treasonous (take lots of money

When use of the military was considered a great way to deflect attention from things "we'd rather not discuss." But from that low has come another upward swing of the sine cycle. Will this swing go so high as Clinton's went low? If the apparent cyclical swing holds true, it just might.

A pure sine wave applied to electronics and sound equals a pure frequency or tone. But the sine waves generated by historical parallel are not pure. Like the highs and lows of my experience in Hanoi and the war in Vietnam, there were small waves residing on the big wave itself. That effect in sound is called noise. I suppose it causes much of the noise on the political landscape.

From overhead as a Navy pilot and from within a Communist prison, my perception of the war was certainly different from that of the flower children busily making love not war. Like the sound wave that has a mirror image superimposed over it, the country's valiant efforts to prevent the spread of Communism were neutralized by a shrill minority making noise out of all proportion to its size. This principle - employed in noise-canceling earphones used in aircraft - also damps down political rhetoric bycanceling out opposing views.

So for the past 35 years my experience-driven perception has been largely canceled out by the louder, noisome, efforts of the other side. I hope the slope of the overall curve is increasing slightly - the positives outweighing the negatives. Perhaps one day soon we'll start heading back up the sine wave to a time as good for this country as Ronald Reagan's eight years were.

Try again. Do you know anyone serving in the Senate who has never showed anything but contempt for our military? Do you happen to know the name of any politician in Washington who's husband once wrote of his loathing of the military?

Now you're getting warm! You got it! None other than the Queen herself, The Hildebeast, Hillary Clinton. She refused repeated requests to meet with the Gold Star Mothers.

Now --- please don't tell me you're surprised. This woman wants to be president of the United States --- and there is a huge percentage of the voters who are anxious to help her achieve that dream.

"In The Shadow Of The Blade" will be coming to an LZ near you soon. This is an excellent project to educate the public about Vietnams Helicopter war. It is touring the country, and will be a thrill guaranteed.http://www.intheshadowoftheblade.com/

Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November 1965 while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry

The unit was almost out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force. When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival, without which they would

almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing lifesaving evacuation-of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers -- some of whom would not have survived had he not acted. All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking

elements. Captain Freeman's selfless acts of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers. Captain Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself; his unit and the United States Army.

Hundreds of Vietnam veterans who served in helicopter units are receiving a special gift from William Stanley of Chico, California, who served two tours in Vietnam as a pilot/safety officer/instructor pilot. "I know their sacrifices first hand," said Stanley, who was awarded two distinguished flying crosses and "a bunch of air medals." "I did nothing out of the ordinary. Uncommon valor was demonstrated by all that served in the helicopter war," he said.

Stanley's goal with his Because We Were There project is to make a carved plaque of their unit crest for every helicopter veteran who wants one, and for families of those who were killed in action. His carvings are displayed around the world, in Arlington Cemetery and in the homes of veterans in most every state. "I really do not have words to express the meaning of Mr. Stanley's work," said Dr. Judson Dukes of Lake Waccamaw, NC.

"It occupies a place of honor in our house and I look at it every day," said Heli-Vet member Monte Olsen. "Rubbing my fingers over his fine carving brings to mind thoughts of close friends I haven't seen, but remember fondly 30 years later."

Heli-Vet member Larry Eads had spent three weeks in a hospital, one in intensive care, when he arrived home to find his carving. "Weird made my life happier," he said. "It made my lengthy recovery much brighter. He is a true artist of the first magnitude and has my eternal thanks."

Paul Spangler, city manager of Bristol, Va., displayed his carving in his office. "It was truly a work of art and faithfully recreated my unit's crest in absolute accurate and beautiful detail. It is difficult to explain the feelings this carving brought back and just how good it made me feel," he said.

The City of Bristol later arranged to give one of Stanley's carvings of the city logo to each retiring employee. All proceeds go back into Stanley's project and this has helped him to send 300 of the hundreds of carvings he has made for veterans, some who are disabled, and for the families of veterans who were killed in action.

Knowing that for the first time in many years Stanley is happy doing his carvings, his wife, Sarah, has managed to work the major cost into their limited budget, but he doesn't know how long he can continue. If you would like to help, you can reach him at 530-345-8344 and you can view some of his carvings on the Internet at http://members.nbci.com/pouvoir/weird3.htm.

Re-printed with permission from the author and "Shipmate" July-August 1997 Recently, some friends saw the movie "The Bridges at Toko-ri" onlate night TV. After seeing it, they said, "You planned and led the raid. Why don't you tell us what really happened?" Here goes.

On 12 December 1951 when the raid took place, Air Group 5 was attached to Essex, the flag ship for Task Force 77. We were flying daily strikes against the North Koreans and Chinese. God! It was cold.

The main job was to interdict the flow of supplies coming south from Russia and China. The rules of engagement imposed by political forces in Washington would not allow us to bomb the bridges across the Yalu River where the supplies could easily have been stopped. We had to wait until they were dispersed and hidden in North Korea and then try to stop them.

The Air Group consisted of two jet fighter squadrons flying Banshees and Grumman Panthers plus two prop attack squadrons flying Corsairs and Skyraiders. To provide a base for the squadrons, Essex was stationed 100 miles off the East Coast of Korea during that bitter Winter of 1951 and 1952.

I was CO of VF-54, the Skyraider squadron. VF-54 started with 24pilots. Seven were killed during the cruise. The reason 30 percent of our pilots were shot down and lost was due to our mission. The targets were usually heavily defended railroad bridges. In addition, we were frequently called in to make low-level runs with rockets and napalm to provide close support for the troops.

Due to the nature of the targets assigned, the attack squadrons seldom flew above 2000 or 3000 feet; and it was a rare flight when a plane did not come back without some damage from AA or ground fire.

The single-engine plane we flew could carry the same bomb load thata B-17 carried in WWII; and after flying the 100 miles from the carrier, we could stay on station for 4 hours and strafe, drop napalm, fire rockets or drop bombs. The Skyraider was the right plane for this war.

On a gray December morning, I was called to the flag bridge. Admiral"Black Jack" Perry, the Carrier Division Commander, told me they had a classified request from UN headquarter to bomb some critical bridges in the central area of the North Korean peninsula. The bridges were a dispersion point for many of the supplies coming down from the North and were vital to the flow of most of the essential supplies. The Admiral asked me to take a look at the targets and see what we could do about taking them out. As I left, the staff intelligence officer handed me the pre-strike photos, the coordinates of the target and said to get on with it. He didn't mention that the bridges were defended by 56 radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns.

That same evening, the Admiral invited the four squadron commanders to his cabin for dinner. James Michener was there. After dinner, the Admiral asked each squadron commander to describe his experiences in flying over North Korea. By this time, all of us were hardened veterans of the war and had some hairy stories to tell about life in the fast lane over North Korea. When it came my time, I described how we bombed the railways and strafed anything else that moved. I described how we had planned for the next day's strike against some vital railway bridges near a village named Toko-ri (The actual village was named Majonne). That the preparations had been done with extra care because the pre-strike pictures showed the bridges were surrounded by 56 anti-aircraft guns and we knew this strike was not going to be a walk in the park.

All of the pilots scheduled for the raid participated in the planning. A close study of the aerial photos confirmed the 56 guns. Eleven radarsites controlled the guns. They were mainly 37 MM with some five inch heavies. All were positioned to concentrate on the path we would have to fly to hit the bridges. This was a World War II air defense system but still very dangerous.

How were we going to silence those batteries long enough to destroy the bridges? The bridges supported railway tracks about three feet wide.To achieve the needed accuracy, we would have to use glide bombing runs. A glide bombing run is longer and slower than a dive bombing run, and we would be sitting ducks for the AA batteries. We had to get the guns before we bombed the bridges.

There were four strategies discussed to take out the radar sites. One was to fly in on the deck and strafe the guns and radars. This was discarded because the area was too mountainous.

The third was to come in at a high altitude and drop conventional bombs on the targets. This is what we would normally do, but it was discarded in favor of an insidious modification.

The one we thought would work the best was to come in high and drop bombs fused to explode over the gun and radar sites. To do this, we decided to take 12 planes; 8 Skyraiders and 4 Corsairs. Each plane would carry a 2000 pound bomb with a proximity fuse set to detonate about 50 to 100 feet in the air. We hoped the shrapnel from these huge, ugly bombs going off in mid air would be devastating to the exposed gunners and radar operators.

The flight plan was to fly in at 15,000 feet until over the target area and make a vertical dive bombing run dropping the proximity-fused bombs on the guns and radars. Each pilot had a specific complex to hit.

As we approached the target we started to pick up some flak, but it was high and behind us. At the initial point, we separated and rolled into the dive. Now the flak really became heavy. I rolled in first; and after I released my bomb, I pulled out south of the target area and waited for the rest to join up. One of the Corsairs reported that he had been hit on the way down and had to pull out before dropping his bomb. Three other planes suffered minor flak damage but nothing serious.

After the join up, I detached from the group and flew over the area to see if there was anything still firing. Sure enough there was heavy 37MM fire from one site, I got out of there in a hurry and called in the reserve Skyraider still circling at 15,000 to hit the remaining gun site.His 2000 pound bomb exploded right over the target and suddenly things became very quiet. The shrapnel from those 2000 lbs. bombs must have been deadly for the crews serving the guns and radars. We never saw another 37 MM burst from any of the 56 guns.

From that moment on, it was just another day at the office. Only sporadic machine gun and small arms fire was encountered. We made repeated glide bombing runs and completely destroyed all the bridges. We even brought gun camera pictures back to prove the bridges were destroyed.

After a final check of the target area, we joined up, inspected our wingmen for damage and headed home. Mr. Michener plus most of the ship'screw watched from Vulture's Row as Dog Fannin, the landing signal officer, brought us back aboard. With all the pilots returning to the shipsafe and on time, the Admiral was seen to be dancing with joy on the flag Bridge.

From that moment on, the Admiral had a soft spot in his heart for the attack pilots. I think his fatherly regard for us had a bearing on what happened in port after the raid on Toko-ri.

The raid on Toko-ri was exciting; but in our minds, it was dwarfed by the incident that occurred at the end of this tour on the line. The operation was officially named OPERATION PINWHEEL. The pilots called it OPERATION PINHEAD.

The third tour had been particularly savage for VF-54. Five of our pilots had been shot down. Three not recovered. I had been shot down for the third time. The mechanics and ordnancemen had worked back-breaking hours under dire conditions to keep the planes flying, and finally we were headed for Yokosuka for ten days of desperately needed R & R.

As we steamed up the coast of Japan, the Air Group Commander, CDR Marsh Beebe called CDR Trum, the CO of the Corsair squadron, and me to his office. He told us that the prop squadrons would participate in an exercise dreamed up by the commanding officer of the ship. It had been named OPERATION PINWHEEL.

The Corsairs and Skyraiders were to be tied down on the port side ofthe flight deck; and upon signal from the bridge, all engines were to be turned up to full power to assist the tugs in pulling the ship along side the dock.

CDR Trum and I both said to Beebe, "You realize that those engines are vital to the survival of all the attack pilots. We fly those single engine planes 300 to 400 miles from the ship over freezing water and over very hostile land. Over stressing these engines is not going to make any of us very happy." Marsh knew the danger; but he said, "The captain of the ship, CAPT. Wheelock, wants this done, so do it!"

On the evening before arriving in port, I talked with CDR Trum and told him, "I don't know what you are going to do, but I am telling my pilots that our lives depend on those engines and do not give them more than halfpower; and if that engine temperature even begins to rise, cut back to idle."

When we walked in and saw the pale look on Beebe's face, it was apparent that CAPT. Wheelock, in conjunction with the ship's proctologist,had cut a new aperture in poor old Marsh.

The ship's CO had gone ballistic when he didn't get the full power from the lashed down Corsairs and Skyraiders, and he informed CDR Beebe that his fitness report would reflect this miserable performance of duty.

The Carrier Division Commander, Rear Admiral "Black Jack" Perry a personally soft and considerate man, but his official character would strike terror into the heart of the most hardened criminal.

He loved to talk to the pilots; and in deference to his drinking days, Admiral Perry would reserve a table in the bar of the Fujia Hotel and would sit there drinking Coca cola while buying drinks for any pilot enjoying R & R in the hotel.

Even though we were not comfortable with this gruff older man, he was a good listener and everyone enjoyed telling the Admiral about his latest escape from death. I realize now he was keeping his finger on the morale of the pilots and how they were standing up to the terror of daily flights over a very hostile land.

The Admiral had been in the hotel about three days; and one night,he said to some of the fighter pilots sitting at his table, "Where are the attack pilots? I have not seen any of them since we arrived."

In a voice that could be heard all over the hotel, the Admiral bellowed to his aide, "Get that idiot Beebe on the phone in 5 minutes; and I don't care if you have to use the Shore Patrol, the Army Military Police or the Japanese Police to find him. I want him on the telephone NOW!"

The next morning, after three days in hack, the attack pilots had just finished marching lockstep into the wardroom for breakfast, singing the prisoners song when the word came over the loud speaker for Gray and Trum to report to the Air Group Commander's stateroom immediately, When we walked in, there sat Marsh looking like he had had a near death experience.He was obviously in far worse condition than when the ships CO got through with him. It was apparent that he had been worked over by a real pro.

In a trembling voice, his only words were, "The hack is lifted. All of you are free to go ashore. There will not be any note of this in your fitness reports. Now get out of here and leave me alone."

When writing about this cruise, I must pay homage to the talent we had in the squadrons. LTJG Tom Hayward was a fighter pilot who went on to become the CNO. LTJG Neil Armstrong another fighter pilot became the astronaut who took the first step on the moon. My wingman, Ken Shugart, was an all-American basketball player and later an admiral. Al Masson,another wingman, became the owner of one of New Orleans' most famous French restaurants. All of the squadrons were manned with the best and brightest young men

the U.S. could produce. The mechanics and ordnance crews who kept the planes armed and flying deserve as much praise as the pilots for without the effort they expended, working day and night under cold and brutal conditions, no flight would have been flown.

It was a dangerous cruise. I will always consider it an honor to have associated with those young men who served with such bravery and dignity. The officers and men of this air group once again demonstrated what makes America the most outstanding country in the world today. To those whose spirits were taken from them during those grim days and didn't comeback, I will always remember you."