War and Remembrance
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 […]
Operation Homecoming Part 1: The POWs Come Home
The American Prisoners of War in Viet Nam began their first flight from Hanoi to freedom 40 years ago 12 February 1973. The last flight was 29 March 1973. I watched the students and their teacher’s faces closely as Jim began his talk on the Vietnam War to the Rio Mesa High School American History class. I had been the set-up man, talking about the war and being a Naval Aviator. The class was polite, they knew my son as a classmate sitting towards the back, but they were afterall teenagers, and they had all seen TopGun. Jim quickly described getting [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories, Epilogue: Linebacker II and the POWs – Prelude to Coming Home
Note this post includes two videos, the first discussing B-52 tactics and the second finishing with comments from our POWs during the days of the Christmas operations. On the third night of LB II three B-52s were shot down on the first raid. Seventh Air Force Headquarters Headquarters in Saigon and SAC Headquarters in Omaha went into shock. As a result they recalled the six B-52Gs targeted for Hanoi on the second raid, with the result that the North Vietnamese had done something that the Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans had never been able to to achieve – [...]
Gifts & Reflection – No Better Title: “These Good Men”
by John 'Shylock' Koch I still cherish the time I spent with the air wing. As I look back on it we were warriors and comrades all rolled up together. When one of us called for help, we all came, and we owe our lives to each other. If I got a call from any one of you, even now, that we had a strike to hell, I know Snake and I would be there with our 28 Mk 82’s strapped to our ass ready to deliver the payload, for we are Naval Aviators ! Warrior yes, Warlike no. Scratch [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (Final) Gifts, a Tree, and a Turkey with all the Trimmings
As the story has been told – as I noted previously- the end of the war in Vietnam is considered the result of the Christmas bombing operations of Linebacker II, and so the convention of telling this story. I’ll end the “Christmas Stories” series discussing what I choose to refer to as the gifts of Christmas 1972 – memories beyond price. […]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (8) “A-rab Beeper, come up voice.”
Professional history of war mostly addresses major battles, the dates, the generals, the admirals, tactics and technology, and then analysis of results, all for obvious reasons. But significant detail is invariably lost particularly when one event leads to a most significant occurrence -the end to the conflict. Almost without exception, this thread – the ending of Linebacker II with the agreement by the North Vietnamese to return to the negotiations in Paris on 2 January 1973, leading to President Nixon’s announcement on the 23rd and formal end of the Vietnam war on 27 January, and finally the return of our POWs – constitutes the concluding remarks of the [...]
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 [...]
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War and Remembrance
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 […]
Operation Homecoming Part 1: The POWs Come Home
The American Prisoners of War in Viet Nam began their first flight from Hanoi to freedom 40 years ago 12 February 1973. The last flight was 29 March 1973. I watched the students and their teacher’s faces closely as Jim began his talk on the Vietnam War to the Rio Mesa High School American History class. I had been the set-up man, talking about the war and being a Naval Aviator. The class was polite, they knew my son as a classmate sitting towards the back, but they were afterall teenagers, and they had all seen TopGun. Jim quickly described getting [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories, Epilogue: Linebacker II and the POWs – Prelude to Coming Home
Note this post includes two videos, the first discussing B-52 tactics and the second finishing with comments from our POWs during the days of the Christmas operations. On the third night of LB II three B-52s were shot down on the first raid. Seventh Air Force Headquarters Headquarters in Saigon and SAC Headquarters in Omaha went into shock. As a result they recalled the six B-52Gs targeted for Hanoi on the second raid, with the result that the North Vietnamese had done something that the Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans had never been able to to achieve – [...]
Gifts & Reflection – No Better Title: “These Good Men”
by John 'Shylock' Koch I still cherish the time I spent with the air wing. As I look back on it we were warriors and comrades all rolled up together. When one of us called for help, we all came, and we owe our lives to each other. If I got a call from any one of you, even now, that we had a strike to hell, I know Snake and I would be there with our 28 Mk 82’s strapped to our ass ready to deliver the payload, for we are Naval Aviators ! Warrior yes, Warlike no. Scratch [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (Final) Gifts, a Tree, and a Turkey with all the Trimmings
As the story has been told – as I noted previously- the end of the war in Vietnam is considered the result of the Christmas bombing operations of Linebacker II, and so the convention of telling this story. I’ll end the “Christmas Stories” series discussing what I choose to refer to as the gifts of Christmas 1972 – memories beyond price. […]
Christmas ’72 Stories: (8) “A-rab Beeper, come up voice.”
Professional history of war mostly addresses major battles, the dates, the generals, the admirals, tactics and technology, and then analysis of results, all for obvious reasons. But significant detail is invariably lost particularly when one event leads to a most significant occurrence -the end to the conflict. Almost without exception, this thread – the ending of Linebacker II with the agreement by the North Vietnamese to return to the negotiations in Paris on 2 January 1973, leading to President Nixon’s announcement on the 23rd and formal end of the Vietnam war on 27 January, and finally the return of our POWs – constitutes the concluding remarks of the [...]
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 [...]