vietnam

CLOSE CALL: Instead of calling it quits on the aircraft, the pilot alerted the tanker of his malfunction, and the crew escorted the jet to its base "while refueling every 15 minutes to avoid an emergency."
Posted by Air Force Times on Thursday, February 11, 2016

Back to the future: Tankers saving fighter pilots has happened before

By Oriana Pawlyk on February 12, 2016 Air Force, History

History is making a comeback when it comes to tankers lending a helping hand to some stranded Air Force pilots out there. Air Force Times’ readers applauded the news that an Air Force tanker crew from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, helped save a struggling F-16 pilot. He was flying over Islamic State group-held territory last year when a technical problem affected his fuel supply. He might have ejected over enemy territory, but the KC-135 essentially towed him back to base. “Now THAT is a wingman,” reader Sam Axe wrote on the Air Force Times Facebook page. “Teamwork at its…

First airman to receive Air Force-designed Medal of Honor dies

By Oriana Pawlyk on August 18, 2014 Air Force, Award, History

Colonel Bernard Fisher, awarded the Medal of Honor in 1967, died over the weekend in Idaho, KBOI 2News reports. He was 87. Fisher was first to receive the Air Force designed Medal of Honor, which was established on April 14, 1965 (The first Medal of Honor received by an airman was awarded to Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker for aerial combat in 1918). President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the award to then-Maj. Fisher for risking his life to save a fellow pilot shot down during action in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam in 1966. Fisher, who volunteered to go to Vietnam, “landed his Douglas…

Missing U.S. service member from Vietnam to be laid to rest

By Oriana Pawlyk on March 19, 2014 Air Force, Defense Department, History

A U.S. service member who fought in Vietnam will move to his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery this week. The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced March 18 that the remains of Army Staff Sgt. Lawrence Woods of Clarksville, Tenn., will be buried as part of group on March 21 at Arlington in a ceremony honoring the servicemen who were lost in an aircraft crash on Oct. 24, 1964. Woods and seven other service members were aboard a C-123 Provider aircraft that crashed when it was struck by enemy fire while resupplying the U.S. Special Forces camp…

Anniversary of Freedom: 40 years later, Vietnam POW reflects on spiritual journey

By Oriana Pawlyk on March 26, 2013 Air Force, History, Religion, Uncategorized

“These experiences become engrained in your mind, and never go away.” March 29, 1973, marks the day when then-Capt. Robert Certain was released from a Hanoi prison during Operation Homecoming. “Every year between Christmas and Easter becomes an anxious time for me remembering those Prisoner of War days,” Certain said in an interview with Air Force Times. This year marks the 40th anniversary of his release. On Dec. 18, 1972, President Nixon ordered a campaign against military targets in the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong during the Vietnam War, known as Linebacker II. A part of the 340th Bombardment Squadron…

Good morning, Vietnam. Good night, Fargo.

By Scott Fontaine on June 7, 2011 Uncategorized

One of the last airmen to serve in the Vietnam War retired over the weekend. Chief Master Sgt. James Clemenson served as a door gunner on an Army UH-1 Huey on two tours in the early 1970s. He left the Army in 1972 and joined the North Dakota Air National Guard the next year. Clemenson worked in aircraft maintenance and later for an alert detachment and the NGB’s counter-narcotics division. He has been the senior enlisted manager for the National Guard Bureau joint staff since 2007. It’s unclear how many Vietnam vets remain in the ranks. Clemenson was the last…

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