Thursday, February 20, 2014, the Herald-Leader and Friday, February 11, 2014 Sentinel-Echo published the same article \”LIVING UP TO A WWII PLEDGE.\” The articles took me back to the 1950s when my father, Raleigh Lee Wilson, would visit, usually intoxicated.
My father was an employee and later a supervisor at a factory in Norwood, OH before and after World War II. He would visit my mother, sister and me on holidays and some weekends. His alcohol abuse led to his early retirement.
I recall looking at his Marine Division Book’s historical record regarding Iwo Jima and earlier Pacific Islands conquered. His original Marine Specialty was in communications as a Morse Code Operator; however, he volunteered to be an infantryman. At Iwo Jima, he was an Acting Corporal and/or Acting Sergeant. A friend and drinking partner was Marine Ira Hayes, one of the Marines that raised our country’s colors atop Mount Suribachi.
My dad told about lying critically wounded watching the first small American Flag being raised on Mount Suribachi much like Mr Bowling, I assume. A standard size US Flag was later raised for propaganda purposes.
He was taken to a hospital ship where he was treated for a blood clot on the brain and multiple wounds. Stateside, after extensive hospitalization, at a VA Medical Center, Memphis, TN, he was pieced together and honorably discharged. Sadly, my father suffered mental and physical stress like his friend Ira Hayes; whereas, alcohol consumption and, alleged, adultery led to a final divorce when I was eleven years old.
Unlike my father, I was never face to face, in volcanic ash, against an enemy firing multiple types of weapons, including tanks, on an island in the Pacific Ocean. My combat experience and contact with Communist in Laos was during a covert assignment attached to the Air Attaché Office, US Embassy, Vientiane, the Kingdom of Laos and the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC), Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base, Kingdom of Thailand across the Mekong River from Communist Laos.
Neutralist Prime Minister Souvana Phouma’s half-brother, the Red Prince, assumed control of the government of Laos in January 1973. One of their first acts, as said government, was to remove the monarch at the Royal Capital of Luang Prabang and made Vientiane, the Capital of Communist Laos.
In September 1968, Major Hoss McBride and I landed at Vientiane, Laos’ airport aboard an unmarked Air America C-47 aircraft. Prior to arrival in Vientiane, during Command in-processing in Bangkok, Thailand, we became misters. All military identification and personal items identifying us as military were taken. Mr. McBride’s assignment was at an Air Attaché Operations Center in southern Laos. He was shot by a single round under the armpit and killed while airborne. His body was recovered.
An extremely important note for the reader is those of us assigned to the Clandestine Project 404 were permanent party. Project personnel provided the Air Attaché (AIRA) with Command Post, Intelligence and Administrative personnel.
At arrival, AIRA shared the Army Attaché structure. The structure I suspect had been built by the French or non-US contractor. Inside the structure, one could see asbestos installation in open spaces in the walls and, worst, was around a large air circulation unit. At the end of the duty day, you could sense the asbestos fibers in the nape of your neck; however, the asbestos exposure grew worse with the great Vientiane plains and Capital area flood. We, controllers and supervisors, worked in water, even with sand bags around and in the structure, up to our ankles. Equally as bad, we didn’t know what else the water contained as the toxic dumps and unknown stores had flooded and contents entered the flood waters.
Relief from the asbestos and other unknowns from the old structure, the US Government constructed a large, concrete bunker style structure to house the Air Attaché Mission, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and an expanded intelligence section. One of the justifications for the new structure was the hazards from asbestos exposure in the old structure.
The Command Post Controllers maintained a 24/7 operation to assure the safety of the sites, coordinated Search and Rescue for downed aircrew members and recovery Special Operations Teams, responsible for all communications, voice and print (secure & non-Secure), between the sites and the international community. The command post’s enlisted supervisor was often dispatched to the different forward operating site or AIRA sites at the direction of the Air Attaché.
The Intelligence Section expanded with the increase of air sorties and military engagement against Communist forces and their extensive logistics system, both water and surface (the Ho Chi Minh Trail), plus the increased responsibility of briefing the US Ambassador daily regarding sorties flown, battle damage assessment, munitions expended, and approval to strike real time sensitive targets.
The Administrative section acted like a squadron personnel office for assigned and temporary technician such as Explosive Ordnance personnel, Radar Site Maintenance Technicians, etc.
The US Ambassador approved each individual assigned to Project 404.
Non-permanent party personnel such as USAF pilots (RAVEN Forward Air Controllers), Air Operations Center (AOC) Commanders, Aircraft maintenance technicians, and bomb/ammunition loaders, combat controllers and medics were on temporary duty to the Kingdom. Refueling the T-28, 0-17, and 0-1 aircraft between combat sorties was accomplished by hand pumps from 50 gallon drums.
Their home squadron/base was the 56th Special Operations Wing (SOW) (Air Commando) at Udorn Royal Thai Air Base, Kingdom of Thailand.
The Ravens controlled indigenous and US Armed Forces sorties against Communist forces, visual reconnaissance to locate fleeting targets and artillery sites, provide close air support for besieged forward operating locations, marked targets for new weapons testing, and too often, immediate on scene commander at aircraft crash sites.
The 56th enlisted personnel maintained the aircraft, refueled the aircraft, and on-loaded bombs, rockets, and cannon ammunition. The AOC Commander’s duty was as much political as to train Royal Laotian Air Force (RLAF) Pilots in weapons delivery techniques. For example, the US State Department allowed the commander’s to fly with their aircraft armed while training the RLAF and then, abruptly disallow the common practice. The Combat Controller, besides operating the center’s radios, may be sent to a forward operating location to control local air traffic. The medic did some local health maintenance but primarily cared for the assigned staff.
In March 1969, prior to my arrival in-country, a United States Air Force TACAN/Radar site, with Central Intelligence Agency interest, situated atop a mountain in northern Laos became a priority target for communist forces. Too resolve the situation, combined North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao Communist forces concentrated at the base of the mountain. Naturally, the site commander requested withdrawal; however, his request was denied by senior members of the US Mission.
The site was over-run with a number of US Military and third country nationals killed and wounded. US Air Forces combat sorties from a Joint Thai/US Air Base destroyed the mission critical air defense equipment. Air America, a contract air resource, was quite active during the engagement. A few years past, President Barack H. Obama awarded one of the air force enlisted (mister), posthumously, the US Congressional Medal of Honor.
Before proceeding further, one must understand whenever you crossed the Mekong River, into Laos from Thailand you were in a hostile environment. Per the Geneva Accords Pathet Lao Forces (Communist) were legal; however, Project 404 and 56th SOW personnel were not.
Early in my assignment, the US Mission’s leadership decided to support General Vang Pao’s military offensive to retake provinces once controlled by the Meo tribesmen. (Selected Military Regions changed from friendly to Communist controlled during the rainy season. American controlled armed forces did defeat the Communist stronghold at Sam Nuea, Laos capturing an extremely large amount of intelligence information and communist logistics.)
The military operation dictated Vientiane’s RLAF, third country pilots, and 56th SOW personnel would establish a Forward Operating Location at LS-108, Moung Soui Airstrip, a few kilometers from the village of Moung Soui. The United States AID to Laos had a compound at Moung Soui. The two legal Geneva Accord authorized personnel resided USAID Compound and the Lao Army Commander and his wife resided either in the village or compound. (I was never at the compound or village.)
The 56thCombat Controller, along with the other 56th personnel, was supposed to be among the enlisted (misters) maintaining the transiting aircraft and communications with the other AIRA Sites, including the Air Attaché Command Post. However, never confirmed was the reason, the Controller did not deploy with the other 56th personnel.
Even though I was not trained as a Combat Controller, not assigned to the 56th SOW, and knew none of the 56th personnel, before I was tasked. After tasking, I accompanied the 56th and the controller to the Forward Operating Location. The controller informed me where to place the MRC Radio Jeep, on the appropriate airfield apron, each day upon arrival. I never saw the controller again. We had sticky rice to eat and coke to drink.
The operations plan called for the 56th support personnel and I loaded aboard an Air America transport each morning, before sunrise, for the flight to LS-108. At arrival, I moved the jeep to the designated parking apron and installed the 50’ antenna to the communications packet and made a radio check with the Attaché Command Post. The 56th walked to their munitions, refueling, and maintenance area to await the arriving T-28s.
Besides being illegal in country, per the Geneva Accords, non-authorized personnel were not allowed to carry fire arms and possess munitions. However, the RAVEN Forward Air Controller used a variety of hand held weapons and the occasional hand grenade. (Raven history tells of placing hand grenades, pin pulled, placed in a Dixie cup, and dropped from their aircraft into communist forces on the surface.)
On the unaccompanied dates as the controller, I found an old Navy .38 revolver in a sand color leather holster in a drawer in the Vientiane AOC. I strapped on the holster with weapon and boarded the aircraft. I do not know the owner. Also, I had a special clothing outfit and boots, with zippers in the sleeve and legs, for duty at the laterite dust covered and smoke environment at the airstrip. My housekeeper, a Cambodia-Vietnamese older lady, made lunch and packed bottles of water to take with me.
Of course, I knew a .38 caliber revolver would not deter a sapper squad or a regular military assault but it could kill a cobra or animal coming out of the forested area around the airstrip. Also, knowing communist forces would infiltrate a band of Meo tribesmen traveling through the mountains and the price of a life was cheap, I did the best I could. (In 1960, I underwent a Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) Combat Training Course and after receiving orders for Laos, I and others going to Special Assignments in Southeast Asia spent a week at the Lackland Air Force Base’ Combat Orientation Course. We fired different weapons, threw hand grenades, acted as a patrol point person, travelled through a smoked filled model of a Vietnamese village, and were harassed by land and water explosives. With the former SAC Training and Lackland’s Course, with weapons, we could defend ourselves against a sapper squad or small unit.
On one of the days at LS-108, I spotted a column of Meo tribesmen coming down a trail from the deep forested area. From the vegetated area, they moved on the parking apron and the runway heading south. At the same time, I heard the inbound of T-28 aircraft for landing. I drew the revolver and fired a single shot in the air. When the column turned to look at me, I yelled in Lao to hurry off the runway as aircraft were landing.
Late, the last day we were at the site, an unmarked US Air Force C-130 or Air America C-130 landed and off-load 50 gallon drums of fuel, water or both. When the sun went down, I became concerned and made several calls regarding our pickup. In response to my radio calls, an Air America C-123 landed, dropped the ramp and we board happily.
The following day at my regular, authorized position, I learned an NVA Sapper Squadron had attacked the site and blew up the day’s aircraft offload. We would have been killed had not been for Air America. (One of my best friends was an Air American C-123 Co-Pilot. His lady friend and future wife had been one of my sexual friends. She came to the US, became an international airline stewardess, divorced my friend, and married a millionaire from New Zealand.)
With the return of the assigned Combat Controller and, I suppose the availability of transport aircraft, Command determined instead of a round trip each day, the team would remain overnight at the USAID Compound, Moung Soui. The village and compound was located a few kilometers from the airstrip.
From an after action report, I learned the 56th personnel, including the Combat Controller, were to remain overnight in a tent pitched on USAID’s Tennis Court. Also, housed in the compound were two legal, Geneva Accord authorized, US Army personnel, a Captain and Sergeant. The region’s Lao Army Commander and his wife resided in either the compound or Moung Soui. (I was never at the USAID Compound, only the LS-108 Airstrip.)
The evening of arrival, a NVA Sapper Squad attacked the compound and, maybe Moung Soui. They sprayed the tent with automatic weapons fire without any serious injuries to the 56th. They forcefully entered the US Army Advisors, killing the Captain and wounding the Sergeant. A Sapper charge was placed on the MRC-108 Radio Jeep. The jeep was still operational but the radio packet was destroyed. Also, the Army Commander was beaten but his wife was uninjured.
February 23, 2014, I read a report that confirmed the aircraft used for spraying Agent Orange and other Agents remained dangerous to passengers long after their use as sprayers ended. I don’t know if I had a repeat of Agent Orange exposure from a C-123 Spray Aircraft returning from Southeast Asia during a flight from Travis Air Force Base, CA to London, KY’s, hometown airport. I came home on Emergency Leave in August 1969. My mother was killed on US 75. The C-123 still had the spray hardware installed.
After attending Mother’s funeral I arrived back in Vientiane and I met a Thai lady. We began cohabitation; whereas, my son was born on August 17, 1970. I obtained legal custody of Dwight through the Laotian Court and returned to the United States, at the end of my tour. Dwight’s mother didn’t believe the US would leave Southeast Asia and remained. She later married a US Marine Embassy Guard, Vientiane, Laos and came to the United States. Today my son is 43 years old, a father of two, and employed by General Electric in Liberia, Africa.
In March 1969, we learned three American Prisoners of War would be coming through Vientiane en-route to the United States following release by Hanoi. (The prisoners: Frishman, Heagdhal, and Rumble. I was later assigned to the same air base as Rumble.) As the Command Post Supervisor, I assisted the releases with communications with the families stateside leaving the Command Post around 3:00 a.m., the following day. Around 7:00 a.m., the same morning, I arrived back at my duty section. Soon afterwards, a decision was made to provide the former prisoners with partial pay so they could purchase gifts and other items before leaving Laos.
I was asked to deliver the money to our countrymen who were at the US Ambassador’s residence. Arriving at the Ambassador’s residence, I observed the former prisoners completing applications for US Passports. I was angry at the sight and remarked to the Consul Officer that Frishman had no elbow. North Vietnamese doctors had removed Frishman’s elbow after months of pain and discomfort from his injuries.
One more Laotian incident I feel is applicable to this blog: One late evening or early morning, the duty controller called me at home via a hand held radio/telephone I carried after duty hours. He said Bill you had better come in.
Enroute to the Air Attaché building, I came upon a curfew roadblock near the Pathet Lao Compound, manned by Lao Soldiers along with a jeep mounted machine gun. I spoke in Lao telling them I was going to AIRA and showed them my AIRA Identification Card.
The only person in the command center was the duty controller. He told me the site at Long Tieng, Laos had been over-run and our comrades were in a bunker and asked for assistance. I called the Combat Control, at Long Tieng, on HF Radio and he repeated his request for immediate air support. Instead of calling the Airborne Command and Control Center Aircraft in the Barrel Roll region on VHF, I left the command post and walked to the Red Secure Telephone and called 7th Air Force Headquarters, Saigon, South Vietnam. I spoke with the senior controller advising him of the situation and requested a C-130 Gunship and F-4 Escort. He acknowledges my request. I returned inside the Command Post, called the besieged bunker and advised air support was en-route. When the ABCCC controller checked in, I, in turn, turned the controller over to the besieged site controller. I thanked the AIRA duty controller for his good work and returned to my quarters.
Within a few hours at home, I returned to AIRA and read the controllers log. I learned at exit from the bunker, our comrades observed communist bodies lying in the concertina wire around the bunker and a short round had struck near the King’s vacation home. No AIRA were killed on my shift; however, I read, an Intelligence Officer had incurred a concertina wire injury. None of the Operations Officers or Air Attaché commented on the previous night activities
The Long Tieng AOC Operations moved to Vientiane’s Wattay Airport. One the site had been secured enough for air traffic, RAVEN Forward Air Controllers would depart Vientiane to their daily assigned working areas in Military Region II.
On December 24, 1972, I gave the scheduled duty controller the day off. Shortly after assuming the controller position, a RAVEN called the Command Post advising he was airborne enroute to the working area. Early afternoon, I heard the same FAC communicating with air sorties in his area. Regrettably, the next report regarding the RAVEN was from an ABCCC controller. The controller advised, the RAVEN had a mid-air collision with an A-7 aircraft and his body had exited the aircraft. The next ABCCC transmission reported a trail was being made through heavy elephant grass to the point of the RAVEN’S surface impact.
A couple of years past, I went on vacation to Bangkok, Thailand with the intent of visiting any Thai or Laotian Vietnam Era museums. Scanning the Internet, I learned the Laotian Communist Government was building a museum and memorial for their victory during operation Lam Son 719.
We landed at the new Bangkok Airport which had a rail line and new highway connecting to the city of Bangkok. The government had built toll roads, other infrastructure construction project’s abandoned, non-familiar foreign and indigenous airlines. One, the rumor was one by a member of the Royal Family.
Bangkok city was changed by the association of the former and current Prime Ministers through with Wall Street Investors. The Thai population had changed from the people I knew in the 1960s and 1970s.
I hired a guide/driver to take me to Don Muang Royal Thai Air Base and former Bangkok International where I was stationed in 1966 – 1967. We weren’t allowed to enter the Thai Air Force section of the airfield that was the primary logistics hub for the US Southeast Asia build up in the 1960s. The civilian side of the airport was for domestic air carriers.
Upsetting was our visit to the former JUSMAG (Joint United States Military Advisory Group) Command Center. The majority of the command’s buildings were vacant. The only active US Military I observed were Marines in-country for a joint Thai-American exercise. The military (APO) post office was still operational servicing a large US Military retirement community. There was even a retired social club.
I was extremely saddened by my observations and associations. The Holiday Inn Express Business Office was extremely helpful for my personal needs. It was the business office staff that informed me the Laotian Lam Son 719 Memorial had not been completed and assisted me with travel arrangements back to the United States. My diabetes became a problem and my spirit was broken. (At the airport, I met another retiree and his spouse. The retiree had just been released from a Thai Hospital suffering from a diabetes flare-up.)
My failure to travel to Laos may been fortunate for me in relationship with the recent arrest by North Korean officials of a former US Army special operations person, on vacation in North Korea, that conducted military operations against the North during the Korean War. Not blowing my own horn but I was well known in the Vientiane community.
I had a personal conversation with the Commander of the Royal Laotian Air Force, personal assistance from Prince S. Champasak, Laotian Air Force pilots and Command Post personnel, community leaders, Laotian policemen, etc. The son of Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma, his lady friend, and I shared a table at a Bangkok Hotel Night Club.
After returning to home to Kentucky, I wrote a piece to the Lexington Herald-Leader regarding travel misadventures and a probable uprising by the Thai people. The Thai people do not want a Wall Street and Jewish dominated nation.
Once or twice a month, I read the on-line edition of several newspapers in the countries I had served; the Saudi Gazette, Bangkok Post, Manila Times, and the Vientiane Times. A recent review of the Vientiane Times revealed articles pertaining to Lam Son 719.
For those not familiar with the military operation Lam Son 719, it was a long sought operation by our government for the South Vietnamese Army to invade the Kingdom of Laos. The purpose was to end the transshipment of Chinese, Russian and North Vietnamese military logistics and military forces down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and Laotian waterways. The cited support allowed
Pathet Lao, Viet Cong, North Vietnamese regulars, and Chinese advisors to continue their war of unification against non-Communists forces in Cambodia, Laos, and South Vietnam.
AIRA had requested an unusual number of air stories, with specific munitions, and tasked the RAVEN Forward Air Controllers to support the invasion of Southern Laos by the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam.
From my position as the acting controller, at AIRA, during the initial day of the operations, a senior US Mission Officer and/or some other senior official suppressed air support fragged to strike communist controlled mountains that impeded the invasion. The end results were the South Vietnamese forces were route and an extremely high number of US Air Resources were destroyed.
Continuing my Lam Son 719 research, I learned at least one book was published about the South Vietnamese invasion of Laos. The author wrote of former President Richard Nixon’s comments that the South Vietnamese were a competent military force and praised their success in Lam Son 719.
The failure of the South Vietnamese forces and our country’s mission in Laos, in January 1973, Pathet Lao assumed control of the government of Laos. On April 30, 1975, combined -Communists took over Saigon: The Fall of South Vietnam.
On or about January 3, 1973, my son and I departed the Kingdom of Laos, soon to be the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, for Detroit, MI. An aunt agreed to hire a nanny and care for my son. My assignment was at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, MI.
Within a few months, I learned of the formation of the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC), Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base, Kingdom of Thailand. Their charge was to revolve the status of US Missing from the Vietnam War through physical search of incident sites in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam or review of classified documents and other material that may resolve status based on crashes at sea, explosions airborne and mid-air aircraft incidents, crash fires so severe that human remains became part of the aircraft fuselage.
The aunt that promised to care for my son reneged; whereas, I had to pay another aunt to care for my son. My mother had cared for one of this aunt’s daughters during a period of domestic disturbances with my aunt’s husband. I thought my son would receive a better life than I could give him. I enrolled him in a Catholic School where I thought he would receive a better education than I. Unfortunately, his environment with my aunt was not what I envisioned. He blames me for his difficulties in life.
Still believing in the US Military and knowledge of downed aircrew members and other military operations in Laos due to my command and control position, I volunteered for assignment to the Joint Casualty Resolution Center. I arrived at the command, September 1973.
A month or so residing in the same barracks area as US Special Force personnel, I tired of their illicit actives and noise in the evenings; I rented an apartment, in a two apartment western style home in Nakhon Phanon. The owner was from a Vietnamese woman and I hired a Thai woman to reside with me. Two army individuals I worked with resided in town. One had a Thai wife and several children and the other a Vietnamese wife and two children. The one with a Thai wife had a private vehicle and we rode to and from the air base with him.
My division commander was a Marine Lieutenant Colonel. My reporting official was an Air Force Major whose last assignment was attached with the US Marines as a Harrier Pilot. I immediately started the assignment wrong when I was told my job, was to make coffee. I replied I didn’t make or drink coffee. Also, I was told a Marine enlisted person would be my senior; however, I was senior in grade. I said no.
The war was over since the Pathet Lao assumed control of the Laotian Government and the US was pulling out of South Vietnam; however, the Marine Lieutenant Colonel wanted an enlisted person to cater to him seven days per week. I spoke to the Vice Commander of JCRC who was a Colonel regarding the working environment. I was transferred to the Intelligence Section. The section’s commander was an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel.
In December 1973 or January 1974, Command sent me on temporary duty to the US Embassy, Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The purpose was to collect classified MIA documents belonging to JCRC, CIA, DIA, and other source information. JCRC was missing 13 Top Secret Documents.
Air America provided the round trip transportation between Nakhon Phanom and Vientiane. Even though the communist controlled the country, we were still available to enter and depart the country without clearing through immigration and customs.
I took a taxi from the airport to the Red Light District to remain overnight while in-country. During our trip to my quarters, we passed by the old French school which was deserted while I was assigned; however, I observed doubled decked rows of bunks through the school’s windows. Communist forces had turned the school in to a military barracks.
Equally unusual were the columns of Communists forces, with brand new Chinese made uniforms and caps and weapons patrolling the streets. The evening of arrival, I went to visit a night club in the district, there again, we the armed soldiers patrolling and at fixed locations.
Instead of staying in the rented hostel, I met a prostitute I knew before, as a friend, and spent the night with her.
The next morning I travelled to the US Embassy and presented my orders. I was taken to a safe filled with classified documents among which were the Top Secret Documents JCRC was missing and one or two more Top Secret packet plus hundreds of other documents.
At the end of the day, I returned to the Air America’ Security Chief’s Office to await my return flight to Nakhon Phanom. Walking into his office, I observed a large black and white photograph of Che Guevara dead hanging on the wall. I asked where he obtained the picture of Che. He replied he was with the team that killed Che and took the picture himself.
Oh, while in-country I learned the wives of Air America pilots that had crashed in Laos, bodies not recovered, were seeking permission from the new government to proceed to the known crash site. They were refused. A lady friend, the wife of a US Special Forces Sergeant and whose father was an Air America pilot killed earlier in Laos, was still in Vientiane. Her father’s body was recovered.
The large bag of classified was immediately controlled in accordance with military rules and regulations by an extremely competent senior Army NCO. Among the documents, was a message from the JCRC Identification Lab advising the Command to notify the next of kin, presently in Vientiane, their husband’s remain had been recovered and awaited their identification and disposition.
After reading, I went to my immediate officer supervisor and informed him of my findings. He had no idea what to do. I then went to the next in line in the division. He too didn’t know what to do. So, once again, I went the Center’s Vice Commander. I explained the situation and he directed others to find a solution. The final answer I received was it was not JCRC’s responsibility to notify the next of kin.
I went back to my office and called my dependent wife friend in Laos and advised the bodies of the Air America pilots were at the JCRC Lab awaiting the wives arrival or notification of disposition. She contacted the wives who in turn went to the US Embassy and spoke with a senior embassy official regarding the lack of notification.
Allegedly, the wives informed Command that Sergeant Wilson was the only one doing his job.
Moreover, from the documents recovered, I compiled a file containing documents confirming the aircraft parts came from the crashed F-105, pieces of flight suit belonging to the pilots, and some human remains to the US Force regarding an F-105 listed as Missing-In-Action. (The agency input teams to crash sites, once secure, to recover whatever was available.) Air Force changed the pilot’s status from MIA to Killed In Action (KIA). The documents I returned were instrumental in the resolution of other MIAs files.
The straw that broke the camel’s back, if you will, prompting a letter to the Commander requesting reassignment to the United States or discharge, were the comments of team members, too me. The overall opinion of the team members, I debriefed, was the recovery mission was a Going Away Present for the departing JCRC Commander to brief the military Chiefs of Staff. An Army Captain was killed and a number of enlisted wounded. Had it not been from the South Vietnamese helicopter crews more would have been killed or wounded.
I received orders for assignment to Pease Air Base, Portsmouth, NH, a Strategic Air Command Base.
Fate or luck was with me. The Wing Commander, as a junior officer, had served as site operations officers, at the cited radar site, over-run in March 1968. After a short time at Pease, I wrote the honorable John Tower (now deceased), Chairman, Senate Armed Forces Committee. Chairman Towers wrote and said he had sent my letter to the Pentagon.
Soon afterwards, I received orders to attend a Pentagon Investigation regarding the Joint Casualty Resolution Center. (The base paid travel expenses.)
I was met at the Pentagon by a Navy Commander that escorted me to a large conference room. Inside the room were court type recorders and several senior ranking officers. The Navy Commander asked me if I needed legal assistance. I told him no, I had done nothing wrong.
The first question, I remember, was if the Vice Commander was having an affair with his American Secretary. I became angry and struck the table with my fist or hand and exclaimed I did not know. I further stated due to the events in the barracks area, I moved to town and hired a Thai female to stay with me. I added, I thought the investigation was regarding the Missing-In-Action.
Approximately six months following the Pentagon visit, I received orders for the award of the Army Outstanding Unit Medal. The investigation had nothing to do with the MIAs but the conduct of the Joint Casualty Resolution Center.
At my last duty station, Travis Air Force Base, CA, I submitted a letter requesting retirement two years plus prior to the end of my employment contract.
After my retirement, Congress instigated military adventures in Grenada to return a government forcefully overthrown by pro-communist nationals. Another President invaded the nation of Panama removing their President, a former friend of the United States, and eliminated the Panamanian Army. American investors acquired land rights to the slums bordering Panama City. From the military acquired land rights, the investors developed the waterfront property and other investment property returning their original investment plus a number of times greater.
There were other Military-Industrial and Congressional funded and directed acts of aggression placing the lives and welfare of the American military in danger. However, the greatest act of Congressional and Presidential TREASON was the 1998 Iraq Resolution that funded and ordered President William Jefferson Clinton to remove the elected President of Iraq – Saddam Hussein.
President Clinton did not comply. His actions were to increase the number of strike sorties against the Iraqi military. (Clinton was impeached.) The Justices of the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney making them the President and Vice President of the United States of America. However, before they could order the invasion of Iraq, there had to be another Pearl Harbor incident to incite the American people.
September 11, 2001, with the complicity of the Bush-Cheney Administration, non-state terrorist conducted an aerial attack on targets in the United States. Naturally, the administration told the American people that Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and the Afghanistan government were behind September 11 2001 Aerial Attacks.
The Bush Administration ordered the invasion of Afghanistan followed by the original target, Saddam Hussein and the nation of Iraq.
Recently, Ms. Martha Raddatz, ABC News reported 2.5 million American military personnel had served a tour or multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of that number, fifty percent have filed claims for disability from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1 – 5 suffered Traumatic Brain Injury, and I don’t recall the number suffering from PTSD and other mental ailments, not to punish a foreign state for their murder of Americans. The war was to assure the completion of fossil fuel pipeline construction projects guaranteed by our government and the untapped precious minerals and fossil fuel resources in Afghanistan. In Iraq, United States and foreign oil corporations were awarded control of Iraq’s oil resources by the US appointed Consul of Iraq. Also, an immediate oil pipeline was connected to the State of Israel and a centuries Arab enemy of the Hebrew Arabs (Jews) had been conquered by Israel’s proxy military, the United States and allied forces.
My father and Mr. Bowling went to war against a foreign country that actually attacked US Armed Forces resulting in the killing, wounded and causing forever mentally illness. We, military, suffered the same and more from the misadventures of the Congress of the United States and, too many, Presidential Administrations.
Moreover, the demise of the United State began in 1898 with the establishment of Zionism. The nail in the nation’s coffin was when former President Harry S. Truman recognized the illegal occupation of Palestine by Jewish terrorist as the sovereign nation of Israel. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson allowed Israeli Defense Forces to continue their attack the United States Ship on station in international waters. Their attack results in the murder and injury of Americans and the salvage of the Liberty. Former President Jimmy Carter and former President Ronald Reagan were responsible for the deaths and injuries of US military. The current Congress implemented a law, signed by President Obama, making the American people responsible for the economic and physical security of the Nation of Israel. Another Act was written that charged the US to support Israel’s invasion of Iran; however, not yet approved.
Former President Dwight David Eisenhower warned the country of the Military-Industrial complex. President John F. Kennedy was murdered attempting to end a war, replace the Federal Reserve, and assure the equality of all Americans. President Barack H. Obama is the only obstacle keeping Zionists from instigating World War III.
I am an American that is suffering from exposures incurred defending the US Constitution against the enemies of the United States, domestic and foreign. Our country is a Constitutional Republic, never in our country’s history, a Christian nation.
The current anxiety by many so-called Americans under the guise of same-sex marriages, gays, lesbians and transgender, Affordable Health Care, and religion were resolved with the acceptance, by the colonists, of the Declaration of Independence.
Win or lose, it is my wish, the people of the Commonwealth will return to the dictates of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The United States is our country – the people.
With respect, I remain.
BILLY RAY WILSON, Democrat candidate for the US House of Representatives, KY’s 5th