People
Operation Homecoming Part 7: Lady and the Flag
When Carole Hickerson’s husband was missing in action during the Vietnam War, she started a movement of families frustrated by a lack of information on their missing loved ones. RememberSky Note: Carole and Jim Hickerson are great friends. Jim was Vice Commander at Pacific Missile Test Center when I was in flight test and Bill Thomas and I did a 2-plane A-7 Corair II fly-over/departing man for his retirement ceremony. He returned the favor being the speaker at my retirement. Jim was one of the first test pilots for the A-7 and unfortunately was the pilot of the first A-7 shot down over [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 5: Always Leading and Always Will
by Orson Swindle (USMC, Ret) Prisoner of War in North Viet Nam (Orson Swindle was shot down on November 11, 1966, released on March 4, 1973) Reproduced with permission of USNI and the author … for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while Senior Naval Officer in the Prisoner of War camps of North Vietnam on 4 September 1969. Recognized by his captors as the leader in the Prisoners’ of War resistance to interrogation and in their refusal to participate in propaganda exploitation, Rear Admiral Stockdale was singled out [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 4: The Bracelets
(Note: This piece was originally published on the Project White Horse Forum for Veterans Day 2010.) In high school, Joleta McNelis was never far away from a man she had never met. She carried Lt. John “Jack” Ensch in her heart — and on her wrist. Aside from his name, the only thing McNelis knew about Ensch was the date his fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam: 8-25-72. It was etched under his name on the metal bracelet she bought when she was 14. Three months earlier, on the day Jack Ensch and Mugs McKeown became double “MIG killers” – the [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 3: Jack Fellowes
By Commander Jack H. Fellowes, U. S. Navy, with Lisa Hillman John Heaphy “Jack” Fellowes (November 22, 1932 – May 3, 2010) was the the pilot of an A-6 Intruder from squadron VA-65 operating from the USS Constellation (CV-64), on his 55th bombing mission when he and his Bombardier–Navigator, Lieutenant, Junior Grade George Thomas Coker, were shot down over North Vietnam on August 27, 1966. He was known as “Happy Jack” because of his infectious sense of humor, which he maintained even while a POW. He was awarded the Silver Star for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity” while a POW, credited with “contributed significantly [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 2: Some History
“When we got airborne and the frailty of being a POW turned into the reality of freedom, we yelled, cried and cheered.” Feb. 18, 1973, Maj. Gen. Ed Mechenbier, the last Vietnam POW to serve in the USAF. Three’s In and the Fourth Allied POW Wing From the Three’s In webpage by Paul Galanti […]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (7) A Gentlemen’s Gentleman
Linebacker II was halted on 29 December 1972. The North Vietnamese agreed to come back to the negotiations in Paris. Having enjoyed Christmas, Midway left Singapore and celebrated New Years Eve at sea on the way back to the Gulf of Tonkin to continue combat missions into both North and South Vietnam. Missions were restricted above the 20th Parallel - no flights into Route Pac 6, the Red River Valley, Hanoi or Haiphong. Still it was wartime footing and operations off of a carrier are always problematic. Within days of recommencing we were to learn that lesson twice more. On [...]
Smokey- For love of the game
This post was originally done for Memorial Day 2012. It includes a link to the eulogy to Smokey, read into the Congressional Record by another of my VA-56 pals, and another of Smokey’s great friends, Max Carey. I have brought it over from the blog on Project White Horse 084640 as part of Remembered Sky in honor of Smokey Tolbert, my great friend and fellow Champ during the Midway/CAG 5 1972 war cruise. Smokey was shot down over North Vietnam on November 6, 1972. Those of us who came home will never forget those who did not. […]
Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines: Heroes & Relics
Believe that some good thing is possible, find the principle that makes it so, put the principle into practice, there you have it - Freedom Richard Bach As related in the previous two posts, Remembered Sky certainly flows from my own personal experiences with aviation, but its future depends heavily upon the people either in or related to those stories to expand the storyline on the basis and through their own perception, and then on relating their further adventures. In a sense the site is a series of branches and sequels, but it requires firm grounding in the history [...]
Story Telling
Richard Bach -“Paradise is a personal thing.” Once taken on, flying runs deeply and permanently in one’s blood, and I find that since I can’t “do” anymore, I need to remember and to “tell” and have some fun doing it. I’ve been working on this notion since before opening the Project White Horse website and thinking about the possibility of a book. Also as you know I have occasionally posted pieces on the FORUM, particularly in light of Memorial Day, Veterans Day, 4th of July, and then throughout 2011 – Naval Aviation’s 100 year anniversary. There were also posts in regard [...]
James Tiberius Kirk, Where Are You?
Ask any pilot, why or how they got into flying and you’ll find multiple answers, many will overlap but some will be unique, but all will be a personal thing long remembered. […]
Blogroll
People
Operation Homecoming Part 7: Lady and the Flag
When Carole Hickerson’s husband was missing in action during the Vietnam War, she started a movement of families frustrated by a lack of information on their missing loved ones. RememberSky Note: Carole and Jim Hickerson are great friends. Jim was Vice Commander at Pacific Missile Test Center when I was in flight test and Bill Thomas and I did a 2-plane A-7 Corair II fly-over/departing man for his retirement ceremony. He returned the favor being the speaker at my retirement. Jim was one of the first test pilots for the A-7 and unfortunately was the pilot of the first A-7 shot down over [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 5: Always Leading and Always Will
by Orson Swindle (USMC, Ret) Prisoner of War in North Viet Nam (Orson Swindle was shot down on November 11, 1966, released on March 4, 1973) Reproduced with permission of USNI and the author … for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while Senior Naval Officer in the Prisoner of War camps of North Vietnam on 4 September 1969. Recognized by his captors as the leader in the Prisoners’ of War resistance to interrogation and in their refusal to participate in propaganda exploitation, Rear Admiral Stockdale was singled out [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 4: The Bracelets
(Note: This piece was originally published on the Project White Horse Forum for Veterans Day 2010.) In high school, Joleta McNelis was never far away from a man she had never met. She carried Lt. John “Jack” Ensch in her heart — and on her wrist. Aside from his name, the only thing McNelis knew about Ensch was the date his fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam: 8-25-72. It was etched under his name on the metal bracelet she bought when she was 14. Three months earlier, on the day Jack Ensch and Mugs McKeown became double “MIG killers” – the [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 3: Jack Fellowes
By Commander Jack H. Fellowes, U. S. Navy, with Lisa Hillman John Heaphy “Jack” Fellowes (November 22, 1932 – May 3, 2010) was the the pilot of an A-6 Intruder from squadron VA-65 operating from the USS Constellation (CV-64), on his 55th bombing mission when he and his Bombardier–Navigator, Lieutenant, Junior Grade George Thomas Coker, were shot down over North Vietnam on August 27, 1966. He was known as “Happy Jack” because of his infectious sense of humor, which he maintained even while a POW. He was awarded the Silver Star for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity” while a POW, credited with “contributed significantly [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 2: Some History
“When we got airborne and the frailty of being a POW turned into the reality of freedom, we yelled, cried and cheered.” Feb. 18, 1973, Maj. Gen. Ed Mechenbier, the last Vietnam POW to serve in the USAF. Three’s In and the Fourth Allied POW Wing From the Three’s In webpage by Paul Galanti […]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (7) A Gentlemen’s Gentleman
Linebacker II was halted on 29 December 1972. The North Vietnamese agreed to come back to the negotiations in Paris. Having enjoyed Christmas, Midway left Singapore and celebrated New Years Eve at sea on the way back to the Gulf of Tonkin to continue combat missions into both North and South Vietnam. Missions were restricted above the 20th Parallel - no flights into Route Pac 6, the Red River Valley, Hanoi or Haiphong. Still it was wartime footing and operations off of a carrier are always problematic. Within days of recommencing we were to learn that lesson twice more. On [...]
Smokey- For love of the game
This post was originally done for Memorial Day 2012. It includes a link to the eulogy to Smokey, read into the Congressional Record by another of my VA-56 pals, and another of Smokey’s great friends, Max Carey. I have brought it over from the blog on Project White Horse 084640 as part of Remembered Sky in honor of Smokey Tolbert, my great friend and fellow Champ during the Midway/CAG 5 1972 war cruise. Smokey was shot down over North Vietnam on November 6, 1972. Those of us who came home will never forget those who did not. […]
Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines: Heroes & Relics
Believe that some good thing is possible, find the principle that makes it so, put the principle into practice, there you have it - Freedom Richard Bach As related in the previous two posts, Remembered Sky certainly flows from my own personal experiences with aviation, but its future depends heavily upon the people either in or related to those stories to expand the storyline on the basis and through their own perception, and then on relating their further adventures. In a sense the site is a series of branches and sequels, but it requires firm grounding in the history [...]
Story Telling
Richard Bach -“Paradise is a personal thing.” Once taken on, flying runs deeply and permanently in one’s blood, and I find that since I can’t “do” anymore, I need to remember and to “tell” and have some fun doing it. I’ve been working on this notion since before opening the Project White Horse website and thinking about the possibility of a book. Also as you know I have occasionally posted pieces on the FORUM, particularly in light of Memorial Day, Veterans Day, 4th of July, and then throughout 2011 – Naval Aviation’s 100 year anniversary. There were also posts in regard [...]
James Tiberius Kirk, Where Are You?
Ask any pilot, why or how they got into flying and you’ll find multiple answers, many will overlap but some will be unique, but all will be a personal thing long remembered. […]