"Memorial Day"

[Lockheed Bob]

Lets remember all those that gave their all so we can enjoy what we have. Have a Happy & Safe weekend.

[ShermB]

Re: "Memorial Day"

Flag is up, but then it is every day. I have a new friend who is a survivor of Iwo Jima. Have spent a bit of time while he recounts stories of places and events that made the headlines and newsreels when I was a kid. Really meaninful to hear first-hand acoounts.

[MustangFan]

Re: "Memorial Day"

Lets remember all those that gave their all so we can enjoy what we have. Have a Happy & Safe weekend.

Hear, Hear to that!
To all of the men and women who have served or are serving our nation, we can never thank you enough.

[budscars]

Re: "Memorial Day"

Totally agree with previous posts. There will never be enough we can do to repay the people in our armed services. God Bless them one and all.

[Box A35]

Re: "Memorial Day"

Below are the words of a retired military serviceman, (not me), and they seem good ones to share on the topic.

Reminder for the reason for Memorial Day....

I love the fact that so many have come to pay respects to all Military Veterans on Memorial Day. But please remember that Memorial Day was started to pay respects to our warriors who have fallen (died) in our battles to keep this land free. Veteran's Day in November is to pay respect to all who have served in our nation's defense. As a 20 year retired military serviceman, I view Memorial Day not as a day to pat myself on the back and accept accolades from others, but to honor my fellow warriors who have given the ultimate sacrifice.

It makes me sick to hear, on the radio, companies taking advantage of what should be a sacred weekend. I heard a radio ad today with a DJ at a car lot saying, "Memorial Day weekend is about one thing and one thing only...SAVINGS!!!" Are you kidding me?

Memorial Day weekend should be about honoring our warriors who have been killed defending all Americans who read this.

[Air Boss]

Re: "Memorial Day"

Sure most of us have seen this in one fashion or another. Seems it never gets old...

From one Vet to all those who served and are serving. Thank You.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU1oB8sGyYM

[FuryFan]

Re: "Memorial Day"

My paternal grandfather. S/SGT Everett C. Baird, primarily a ball turret gunner, B-24 42-52738 "Wilson" , 8th AF, 34BG(H), 391st B.S., stationed at RAF Mendlesham. KIA June 7, 1944 after flying second mission of the day in support of Operation Overloard. His aircraft and two others shot down over RAF Mendlesham while in landing pattern. It was late in the afternoon and two german bomber destroyers (JU-88's or Me-410's) attacked the bombers.

He left behind an eighteen year old wife and one year old son, he was twenty-one years old.





Kevin

[Warbirds45]

Re: "Memorial Day"

hanks Ed (and your better half) for sending this south. I made a cruise with VA-52 on the Coral Sea. We lost 4 of the 10 planes we had during the deployment. I was only home a few days (6 to be exact) when I received orders to VA-196. They were getting ready to make a cruise on the Ranger. There was sure a lot of talk among the aircrew about the disasterous losses they had experienced on the cruise talked about in the message below. And, on the very first line period we lost 3 aircraft - - - and of the 6 men in these A6's, we only got two back. The comments from Don Fowler (below) are intersting. I have the book and the movie he mentions.



Thought some of you might find this interesting, I sure did. As another point of interest, I took over as Maintenance of VA196 in Sept. of 1979, and was there when they started filming the movie "Flight of the Intruder". We mounted camera's in the cockpit between the Pilot and Bombardier/Navigator for the low level scenes that were in the movie, I transferred before they went aboard ship for that filming.
Don

Good write-up by Stephen Coontz. You may recall Coontz wrote "Flight of the Intruder."



CDR Robert J. Flynn, USN: The Vietnam War is ancient history. It ended for America in 1973 when the POWs came home. One of the POWs was an A-6 bombardier-navigator, Robert J. Flynn, shot down over North Vietnam on August 21, 1967, and marched north into China, where he was held in solitary confinement for five and a half years (2,032 days) in a prison in Beijing. He was released in Hong Kong, walked across a bridge into the British colony under his own steam, on March 15, 1973. Shot down as a Lieutenant (junior grade), Bob came out a Lieutenant Commander and stayed in the Navy, ultimately retiring as a Commander. Bob died Thursday, May 15th in Pensacola, Florida, at the age of 76. It is doubtful if any American survivor of that war paid as heavy a price as did Bob Flynn. It is also doubtful that anyone was more deserving of the Medal of Honor than Bob Flynn, recognition he didn't receive. August 21, 1967, was a bad day for Bob's A-6 Intruder squadron (VA-196, called The Main Battery), which launched four bombers on a daylight strike into the heart of North Vietnam. The lead Intruder, flown by the squadron skipper, Leo Profillet, was hit and exploded in the dive on the target. The other three planes managed to drop their bombs, but on egress flew north of Haiphong into heavy build-ups. One plane broke away from the formation and proceeded out to sea alone. The remaining two were attacked by MiGs, and both were shot down. Of the six airmen shot down, only Bob Flynn survived. He was quickly captured and marched for days through the jungle into China. Once there, the Chinese Communists claimed that the two A-6s shot down by MiGs were over Chinese airspace, a claim that Flynn denied all his life. Propaganda photos were taken and released to the world's press. Flynn was taken to Beijing and imprisoned. There he was kept in solitary confinement and repeated tortured for propaganda purposes for five and a half years! The Chinese never broke him, but the physical and psychological price Flynn paid was higher than any human should ever have to endure. Any lesser man would have died or lost his grip on sanity. I met Bob that fall of 1973 when he was finally released from the hospital and came to NAS Whidbey, the home of the west coast A-6s, for the Intruder Ball as the guest of honor. I had the honor of flying him back to Colorado Springs, where his wife was living, in the right seat of an A-6. At 36,000 feet over the Rockies, I gave him the POW bracelet with his name upon it that I had worn for my two Vietnam cruises. That flight was one of the great moments of my life. Probably not so memorable for Bob, who was inundated with bracelets bearing his name as the months passed, almost two bushels of them. Bob returned to Whidbey that fall as a staff officer and instructor at VA-128, the west coast fleet replacement squadron that trained new A-6 pilots and BNs. At the commanding officer's request on several Friday all-officer's meetings Bob took the podium and tried to tell the staff and students what it had been like being in solitary in China for five and half years. What it was like to be handcuffed for up to sixty days at a time and have to eat off a plate like a dog. What it was like to be unable to drop your trousers and have to live in your own filth. What it was like to have only God and your loyalty to your country and your shipmates to sustain you. What it was like to be without hope and tortured beyond your ability to resist. And yet. and yet, with no resources except his inner strength, he never gave in.
These sessions reduced Bob and most of his listeners to tears. Someone thought to videotape his lectures, but years later, when Bob tried to find the tapes, they had been lost. Another tragedy. Bob Flynn was always a rebel. He carried a trumpet in the cockpit and broadcast the notes of Charge over the radio before he crossed the beach into North Vietnam. Not once, but every time. He was his own man, then and always.
After he returned from China, Bob had psychological problems. He was in therapy for years. The wounds finally scarred over. In the early 1990s, after Bob retired from the Navy and at his request, I asked a friend of mine, former Washington Post military correspondent George C. Wilson, author of six terrific books, including Supercarrier and Mud Soldiers, to interview Bob and see if perhaps they could collaborate upon a book that would tell Bob's story. George went to visit Bob, and came away discouraged. He told me, "Bob hasn't even talked to his kids about his experiences. He has put that part of his life away in a place he refuses to visit. I could rip the scars off, but I couldn't bandage them afterwards." The book never got written. Of all the rare and honorable men I have met through the years, none impressed me as did Robert Flynn. America just lost a true son. We who knew him will miss him deeply. Farewell, shipmate.
Stephen Coonts Warbirds45