After three years of flying the trails of Laos and North Vietnam, Ed Rider went home. In spite of all the Yellowbirds’ efforts, the war was no closer to being won. Ed Rider and his B-57s were part of Operation Steel Tiger, an air campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos that complemented Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam. The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia states, “the Air Force’s most effective truck killers were the AC-119 and AC-130 gunships, the B-57, a few C-123s equipped with special detection devices, and the A-26” (Berger 108).
The Magic of Flying Concluding Thoughts
Regulations Concerning Operation of Aircraft of the U.S. Air Service (1920)
Don’t take the machine into the air unless you are satisfied it will fly.
Never leave the ground with the motor leaking.
Don’t turn sharply when taxiing. Have someone lift the tail around.
Never get out with the motor running until the pilot relieving you can reach the engine controls.
Pilots should carry hankies in a handy position to wipe off goggles.
Riding on the steps, wings or tail of a machine is prohibited.
In case the engine fails on takeoff, land straight ahead regardless of obstacles.
No machine must taxi faster than a man can walk.
Do not trust altitude instruments.
If you see another machine near you, get out of its way.
Hedge-hopping will not be tolerated.
Pilots will not wear spurs while flying.
If an emergency occurs, land as soon as you can.
L. R. Carastro, comp. and ed., Of Those Who Fly
Many airmen who fought the Cold War succumbed in their youth to the lure of flying, drawn by its promise of freedom and adventure. They may have been next-door neighbors—average kids—but their imaginations were far from average, captured by passing barnstormers, by five-dollar rides in open-cockpit airplanes, by the sight of Ford tri-motors on the tarmac, by planes passing overhead, or by Lindbergh’s epic Atlantic crossing. Some watched in fascination as airliners took off from airports near their homes; others built their dreams into the balsa-wood models they fashioned at the kitchen table. But all spoke of being inspired by the magic of the airplane, the magic of flying. “I always wanted to fly,” Ralph Kuster, Sam Myers, Ed Gorski, Joe Laufer, Ed Rider, Moe Hamill, Dave Taylor, Hal Austin, and Hack Mixson told me, “just to fly.” I know what they mean. Flying was also my dream as a child living in post–World War II Germany, watching the Americans flying their heavily laden C-54 transports overhead during the Berlin Airlift. Those Cold War airmen did not see themselves as heroes or patriots. During many of my interviews, these flyers tried to convince me that their experiences were not extraordinary and that they merely did what anyone else would have done in similar circumstances. But there is no doubt in my mind that these men were patriots. There is no doubt that they achieved extraordinary things. There is no doubt that they were leaders, each in his own way.
I believe we need to continue to foster the magic of flight that captured the youngsters who became the airmen of the Cold War. We need to foster dreams of new frontiers in the minds of our youth, tomorrow’s airmen and airwomen, if we are to sustain our enviable tradition of success, often against great odds. The odds of which I speak surely will be different in the future, not necessarily the odds of greater numbers fielded by an enemy, but rather approaches to warfare ingenious and unconventional, designed to diminish the viability of the United States.
The effectiveness of the air force past, present, and future was and is dependent on a number of things—the enemy, the operational environment, information and how it is put to use, adequacy of numbers of aircraft, supporting and complementary systems, and enough of the right armaments to sustain a prolonged conflict. Maybe even more important to success is a clear understanding of political and military objectives to be attained. The bitterness many Cold War airmen took away from the Vietnam War was precisely over the absence of both. Finally, once objectives have been articulated, they then need to be implemented by a military leadership that understands airpower history and its attendant principles of employment, which were hammered out in the skies over Germany, Korea, and Vietnam.
It is the men and women of our air force who make the ultimate difference, not weapons or rules. More than fifty years ago, young men took obsolescent B-17 bombers in daring daylight raids over Germany and destroyed the Luftwaffe. Flying the leftovers of America’s World War II airpower, the same men then destroyed the North Korean People’s Army in a “come as you are” war. The following generation of flyers took the Thud, designed for nuclear war, and wrote a proud record in the flak- and missile-tainted skies over North Vietnam. The message is clear: we can prevail with second-rate equipment but never with second-rate people; nor can we prevail without conviction—conviction gained through clarity of vision, which in turn comes from doing the right thing.
I Always Wanted to Fly tells the stories of airmen who took whatever airplanes they were given and then did the best they knew how with them. These men frequently dealt with their fears and mortality as abstractions, deliberately using the rush of adrenaline to sharpen their responses—it has always been that way. Berlin, Korea, Vietnam, strategic reconnaissance, and many other armed clashes large and small were Cold War way stations. Some of those Cold War clashes were more difficult than others, some were better led than others—that too has always been that way. The courage displayed by airmen in these Cold War encounters was no accident. It was the courage nurtured by every generation of America’s military flyers and passed on to the next—that has always been that way. The challenges of the future will obviously differ from those of the past, but they will come mostly unannounced, just as in the past. Our airmen and airwomen will have to meet those challenges with whatever they have on hand—and that has always been that way, too.
The huge air forces of World War II consisted largely of aviation enthusiasts and of men so aptly described by historian Stephen Ambrose as “citizen soldiers,” many of them barely out of high school yet motivated, even inspired, by the magic of flying. Over the years of the Cold War, the flying air force turned into a relatively small, all volunteer, largely college educated professional force of officers, men and women. Air crews shrank in size as vast technological improvements in aircraft made the enlisted air crewman a rarity. Even the loss of life in training military flyers was reduced to the absolute minimum. While losing several pilots each month in training, as described by Ralph Kuster in “Hambone 02,” was not newsworthy in the 1960s, such training losses would be unacceptable today.
Not only is today’s air force much smaller, highly technology focused, safety oriented, and flown by men and women, but it also has to recruit the next generation of flyers in an environment where the airplane has become a public utility. The sight of aircraft in flight has become a common occurrence and does not necessarily arouse youngsters’ interest, let alone inspire them. For many Americans, flying in an airplane as a passenger has become as common as driving a car to the supermarket. As a result of this changed environment as well as an economy vastly different from that of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, our challenge for the future may no longer be the technology of flight but rather one of inspiring and motivating the hearts and minds of youngsters to want to be America’s future military flyers and the explorers of the new frontier—space. That is a different challenge from the past, and it hasn’t always been that way. I believe flying is still magic. And what better example do we have to inspire the flyers of tomorrow than the men who fought the Cold War?
Glossary
AAA
antiaircraft artillery
ADC
Air Defense Command
AFB
air force base aileron moveable control surface at back of wings to bank airplane
ATC
Air Training Command or air traffic control
BDA
bomb damage as
sessment bingo fuel minimum fuel to get home, plus a reserve
CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
CBU
cluster bomb unit
CFC
central fire control position on the B-29
CG
center of gravity
counter
mission over North Vietnam counting toward the one hundred missions that had to be flown before a tour of duty was over
DMZ
demilitarized zone (Korea/Vietnam)
DP
displaced person
EATS
European Air Transport Service
ECM
electronic countermeasures
EGT
exhaust gas temperature
ELINT
electronic intelligence
EOB
electronic order of battle
EWO
electronic warfare officer
FAA
Federal Aviation Administration
FAC
forward air controller
fast FAC
two-seat F-100 fighter employed as a FAC aircraft in Vietnam; call sign Misty
FEAF
Far East Air Forces
flak
antiaircraft gun
flaps
extensions at trailing edge of wing to provide increased lift at reduced airspeed
GCA
ground control approach radar
GCI
ground control intercept radar
G
force force of gravity toward center of earth
G suit
air bladders used to fight gravity
HF
high frequency
IFF
identification friend or foe
IFR
instrument flight rules
indicated
airspeed as shown on an airspeed indicator
IP
initial point
MAAG
Military Assistance Advisory Group
Mach
speed in relation to speed of sound
MiG
Soviet fighter aircraft from the Mikoyan and Gurovich design bureau, such as the MiG-15/17/19/21
Mickey
radar and communications operators or aircraft configured to conduct electronic reconnaissance—WWII term
NCO
noncommissioned officer
OCS
officer candidate school
pickle
release bombs
PSP
perforated steel planking
punch out
eject from a jet aircraft
PX
post exchange
RAF
Royal Air Force
Raven
electronic warfare officer (55th SRW)
RBS
radar bomb scoring site
RIAS
radio in the American sector of Berlin
ROK
Republic of Korea
route pack
one of six areas into which North Vietnam was divided for targeting purposes during the Vietnam War
SAC
Strategic Air Command
SAM
surface-to-air missile
Sidewinder
infrared air-to-air missile
SNAFU
situation normal, all fucked up
SRS
Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron
SRW
Strategic Reconnaissance Wing
stall
the point where the wing no longer produces lift
STANDBOARD
standardization board in SAC; selected air crews who administered flight-standardization checks to other combat-ready air crews
TAC
Tactical Air Command
TACAN
tactical air navigation system using a ground-based UHF transmitter providing bearing and distance information to the ground station from an aircraft
TDY
temporary duty
TRS
Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron
UE
unit equipment (a table of authorization)
UHF
ultrahigh frequency
USAFE
U.S. Air Forces Europe
USSR
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Viet Cong
Vietnamese communists (also called VC)
VFR
visual flight rules
Wild Weasel
aircraft modified to locate and destroy SAM sites or any other ground-based gun or missile system using radar for aircraft targeting
ZSU
zenitnaya samokhodnaya ustanovka (antiaircraft self-propelled gun); the Shilka ZSU-23-4 consisted of four liquid-cooled 23mm cannons guided by gun-dish radar
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