 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Marty Garrison and it is my honor to introduce to you our next Eagle Colonel retired William D. Hawk Mole flew 100 combat missions during the Korean War in an F-80 aircraft dropping bombs and rockets striking land targets in support of ground troops After the Korean War Colonel Mole continued to serve in the Air Force and flew 275 combat missions during the Vietnam War in an F-100, F-5, and 01 aircraft flying at supersonic speed dropping napalm bombs and rockets on air-to-ground targets Colonel Mole's courage and action in Valor Valor in action were an inspiration to those who served with him He retired with honor in July 1977. Without further ado, please help give me a warm welcome to our Eagle Colonel retired William Mole being interviewed by gathering of Eagle's team member Major Bradley Peronsky. What a pleasure it is to be here, ladies and gentlemen. I'm honored. I've enjoyed being here with the other Eagles, but mostly since I retired in 1977 living in a residential neighborhood getting back on an air base with my kind of people, the Air Force people, was one of the greatest thrills that I've had in this whole week and I really enjoyed it. I'll try to give you a few little stories about some of the things that happened on my career. I've enjoyed it and I sure appreciate the honors that are being bestowed on me. Thank you. Colonel Mole, welcome. Why don't you tell us how you got started in aviation? If you bought every book that was written by a pilot, not just fighter pilots, any pilot, you could take the first chapter in that book and throw it away because they're all the same. Most of us, and I'm talking about people from my vintage, learned about flying by, first of all, reading World War I pulp magazines. You could buy them for a dime. Those are the only flying magazines that were available and stories about Von Richthofen, the Red Baron, and Eddie Rickenbacker. These were very exciting things. We then we eventually started building model planes, most of us, and then one way or another, finally went out to an airport and decided that that was going to be what we wanted to do. So how'd you get started flying then? You said you got out to an airport. How'd you really get into an airplane? On the 4th of July of 1945, my neighbor friend and I with nothing more better to do, we climbed the water tower next to our house and looked down on the lake. This was in North Muskegon, Michigan. And there was a little seaplane flying down there, a little tail of craft on floats. And I said, Jerry, I just got paid. I worked in the cargo store after school. I want to go for an airplane ride. I've never been up in a plane. So we went down to the seaplane base. And I met the gentleman that was operating and I went up and said what would it take to get an airplane ride? And he said $5 for 30 minutes, but for an extra $0.50, or an extra $0.50, I will give you a flying lesson. And that is how it started. One little ironic thing. The man that ran that little field was an ex-colonel in the Russian Air Force, a man named Peter Ivanov, who was a friend of Sversky, Sikorsky, and some of the great Russian pilots. He had an accent. It's a little irony involved in the fact that a Russian taught me how to fly. So so you got up in the airplane and there came a time when you were working at that airport, correct? Well, what happened? I was ready to solo that little seaplane. I'd flown through the summer and of course, you know, I maybe fly once every week or so, it's expensive. I went down to fly in the early fall. There was a note on the door. Ivanov had said, gone to Florida for the winter, see you next spring. This was just part of my solo. I had that solo. I was ready to solo. So I went out to the local airport and I met the people there and they also had a tailor craft, a little 65 horse bird and started flying that and eventually that's how I soloed. How'd you go from there to moving into your Air Force career? I saw in advertising the Air Force was big on that. It says, join the aviation cadets. Only the best can be an aviation cadet. Wow. This is fantastic. What happened after World War II? Most of the pilots went home. All of a sudden the Korean War reared up and the Air Force needed pilots. So they opened up the aviation cadet program. I couldn't wait to sign. You had to pass a two-test, a mental test and a kind of an aviation test and and then of course get a physical and all that sort of thing. I went ahead and lucked out, took the tests and passed and they said, well, you're, I was 19. He said, we're not going to take you yet. It'll be another year. Well six months later, I got called to report for primary training and that's how I got started. How did your primary training go for you? Well, it was exciting. One thing I didn't mention it caught up with me a little later. While I was worked at that little airport, I got a job as an airport kid. I actually accumulated in two years before I joined the Air Force. A thousand hours of flying time in just about every light airplane you can think of, especially I love to fly the old antique biplanes and all that kind of stuff. So that's that's how what was my question Brad? So we were talking about your your basic training and your experience whether you had any hang-ups. The biggest airplane I'd flown up to then was a BT-13, which was a pretty almost as big as a T-6. I couldn't wait to get in that airplane. So we went through a basic military training and started to fly. The instructor had four students for instructor and I had a real senior captain who had a lot of experience with a wonderful instructor pilot. And he got us together and he said do any of you have any previous flying experience? Well, the upper classman had got a hold of us earlier and said don't they're going to ask you that if you have experience, don't tell them because if it go hard on you I don't think they want they don't want you to come in here with bad habits. So when my turn I said I had a couple hours in a cub. Okay. So we go up on the first flight and he hands me the T-6 and he said you know how to do a turn? I said let me try it. I do a couple steep turns. He said you ever do a wing over? I said yeah, I can try one couple wing overs. He said you ever do a slow roll? I said well, I can try one. I did about two or three rolls. We land. He said tell me again about a couple hours in a pipe of cove. And that's how that went and I had a wonderful time in training in the T-6. I had some bumps in the road. When my instructor went on leave they assigned a newly qualified Lieutenant Instructor pilot and I went up one day with him and he was going to teach me how to make wheel landings. I had been making wheel landings in the T-6 right along, but I didn't say anything to him. So fine, sir, so he gets he gets the T-6 down and about five feet in the air he pushes forward and he starts bouncing and this thing starts yo-yo hanging about the third bounce. I grabbed the controls, took it away from him and landed the airplane. We taxied in. Can you imagine the kind of words that this guy had for me? But what he did was report me to the stage commander. Walter C. Turner, the toughest captain that was ever invented in the world, stood me out of brace. He said, what gave you the authority to take away an airplane from an instructor pilot? Students don't do that sort of thing. I said, well, sir, he said, why? What? He was trying to crash us. He said, is that so? Well, you're too smart for your instructor. I'm gonna find out. We're going on a check ride right now. So we suit up and we climb in the T-6 and he takes me up in this thing and he said, he said, all right, let me see what you can do. Well, I figured that was a washout ride and I had nothing to lose. So I turned that airplane over. I turned that thing every wave of loose. I did every stunt in the world. I and at the top of a loom for a Kubernetes or something, he pulled the throttle and he said, okay, assimilated force landing. He did that three times with me and the last time was on the go-round after assimilated landing and he cut it again. I hit every, we didn't touch down, but but I set up to where I could have landed on any field. So we went back to the off shack and he said, okay, mister, so you're a pretty hot pilot. Well, not very smart. So here's what we're going to do for the rest of the week. What you're going to do has come down and don't worry about the flying schedule. You're not going to be on it. So pick up your backpack parachute and I want you to start marching around the stage house and let that thing bang your legs and while that's happening, think about taking away airplanes from instructor pilots or anything else you can think of. So that's kind of how basic went. I survived towards the end. The big challenge was, okay, you're going up to advanced training. You have your choice of assignments, fighters, bombers, what have you, and I said, well, hey, hi fighters. Well, you had to be recommended and even though I had problems with discipline, what have you, I got fighters and it was great. Do you want to tell them a little bit about getting into jets or should we move to Korea? I went to Willie Field, Williams Field, Arizona and they had the F80s and of course that was our first line jet. I was so proud but the 80s they had, they had the old A and B models and boy, they were clunkers. The A models even had wooden floors. I mean, it was kind of a cross between a wooden airplane and a jet. I got a couple rides in a T33 and the instructor said, you're ready to solo. So I climb in an old A model and I taxi out to the end of the runway and I slam the canopy shut and the thing comes off the track and turns sideways. I'm going to take off position ready to fly this 80 and I'm holding on the canopy. The mobile control officer happened to be there at the end of the runway, called me on the radio and said, don't do anything, just stay there a minute. He came out, climbed on the wing, took the canopy, reseeded it, got it back in his track, pushed it closed, he said, now lock it slowly, don't bang it. I got it closed, he climbed off the wing and said go and I got my first ride solo in that airplane. Interesting times. Let's move into Korea. Tell us about your first assignment there. Okay. Well, to start shortly real quick, I had a choice of three different basis or three choices for assignment and the Korean War was starting. I couldn't wait to get into a war. You know, I wanted to be the world's greatest fighter pilot. So I said Korea, Korea and Korea. I said, we're not taking you graduates. You don't have enough experience. But he was wrong. They were so short of pilots that in two weeks I got orders to go to Korea. So I joined the eighth wing and they assigned me to the 36th squadron, 36th squadron. It was very interesting because they had just converted from the Mustang to the F80 and that squadron, the pilots had anywhere from five to 10 hours in the F80. I had over 200 hours and I was, as a second lieutenant, the most qualified F80 pilot in the outfit. And that didn't hurt me a bit and they did ask me to get checked out as a test pilot, routine maintenance test, aileron change, that's our thing. And I said, of course, I'd be glad to do that. So you mentioned the F80. Tell us a little bit about the missions in the F80 and you wrote about it in your book, not the GOE book. Well, our missions were difficult, close air support, introduction, bridges, tunnels, close air support with the army. That was kind of touch and go because we didn't have a real good forward air controller setup at that time. And that led me into my next job because after being in the squadron, I had about 40 missions, all of a sudden it was my turn to be a forward air controller and to go up with an army regiment for two weeks to guide in fighter strikes because they had no trained forward air controllers. Well, okay. So I went to Iwakuni, got a bag full of military gear, pistols, you name it. Where do I sign? You don't have to sign anything. We're never going to see you again. Thanks a lot. I go to Korea. I jump on a Goody bird and I go to Seoul, land in the riverbed, go up into the city. I'm to report to the 6th Regiment. How do I get there? How do you find a regiment? I'm in the middle of town with a big bag of stuff. I don't know where to go. Here's I walk by and there's a mass shooter. So I go in and see the dock and say, hey, any way you can get me, you know where the 65th is? Yeah, it's up by the river. Well, can you get me up there? Sure. So that's how I got, that's how I found my regiment. And so I walked in and reported to the army and they assigned me a great big squad tent that was full of a bunch of other liaison officers. So I put, sent up my cot, put the bag down and went around to meet my fellow army friends. They didn't have time to talk to some lieutenant Air Force guy who seemed a little bit noisy at the time. So I said, okay, you don't want to play. I went back to my cot, opened up my bag. Fortunately, I was smart enough to put a couple of bottles of old tennis shoe whiskey, that stuff that they used to issue us after, you know, so many missions. And I popped the cork on that for myself a cup and all of a sudden I was surrounded by new friends. And that's kind of how I got into the unit and get started pretty good. Do you want to tell us or can you share about the bombing runs on the bridge? The British at San Andrew were integral, crossing the big river up there and so on this day our mission was the, a wing mission, 80, 50 to 55 airplanes by squadron, take off at noon, and we're going to go up and try to knock that bridge out. Perfect sunny day, lovely. We took off from Gimpo, we went out to sea, we flew up the river atuary. I was number four in the last flight, our squadron was the last squadron, and I, we were carrying the heaviest load that F-88 would load. We could only get to about 22,000 feet with all that load. I looked ahead and I watched those other flights go in and they, enemy had some 88 flat cannons left over from war two, the greatest anti-aircraft gun there was. The sky was full of puffs, all kinds of puffs. You've seen those World War II pictures, I know you have. I looked into that flak and I said, wait a minute, I got to go into that thing. So I started looking at the dashboard and my plane to see if I could find something wrong. Oil gauge made me malfunction anything so I could abort. Everything worked. There it was. So I went in, I dropped my bombs. I don't know if I hit the bridge or not. I think we only hit that bridge with two bombs of all of those airplanes, 50-some airplanes, and we only knocked out a portion of the span. Rucky said the next morning when we went back, we found out they had already rebuilt it. Today, of course, we all know that one bomb would have taken that bridge out, nothing. But that's the kind of war that I fought in Korea, and that's what we did. It was not real scientific. It was kind of left over from what we'd learned in war two. You tried some different things to make it more scientific too, to make your bombing runs more accurate? Well, because 80 was not a good dive bomber. We took grease pencils and we put lines on the canopy so that when you rolled in on a dive bomb, Ryan had tried to get to the best angle and maybe put that bomb where it belonged. We also put a protractor along the canopy rail. Any idea that would work, nothing worked very well, but we tried. Talking about trying different things, you were a test pilot for a while. You had to scare one time as a test pilot. Tell us about that. I'll try to make this short. A real smart captain taught me, he said, when you test pilot these airplanes, he said, if anything is going to happen to him, it's going to happen right after takeoff. So takeoff and circle the field, get some altitude before you go out to the test area and be ready. I got to about 10,000 feet on a test stop one day and bang, the engine, loud noise. Cockpit filled with smoke and here we go. I knew that something bad had happened. I had lost power and it was still running barely. I said, that's it. I'm going to learn how to be a parachutist. So I pulled the levers on the ejection seat. The old lady had a cable that went to the cannon shell. Somehow the cable was not hooked up. The seat would not fire. So I said, well, I'll open the canopy and step lightly over the side. The canopy was jammed. So the cockpit is full of smoke. I'm right over the airfield and I got to land this plane. I called the tower and I said, tower, I've got engine problem. I'm going to try to get this thing on the ground and I'm stuck in the plane. If I get it down, ask the response crew there to get that canopy out so I can get out. I had to go to 100% oxygen to hold it on my eyes so I could see the land. But I got it down. I probably touched down to 200. I blew both tires. I probably had the brakes on before I did anything. Anyway, I got it stopped on the runway. The crash crew got that canopy off momentarily. I was wearing a parachute backpack and a diggy. I jumped out on the wing, ran off, sprained both ankles and ran about 50 yards on my knees. A fireman tackled me. He said, it's okay, Lieutenant. We got the fire out. You're safe now. I wore the knees right off the cloth right off that plane, sir. So I took it to supply course the next day and I drew a new flight. So, well, the squadron guys got my old suit and they hung it up in the off shack. With a note says, Bill Moe breaks 100 yard dash blah, blah, blah. I said, laugh, you guys. But I'm here to talk about it. Those are the kind of things that we went through. So you fly over 100 missions in Korea. Tell us about your transition home. Well, you want to talk a little bit about this forward air control problem. Let's hear those. So when you got into the forward air controlling, how did that work and tell us about the operation itself? Well, I started talking about that and they pulled us probably out of the squadron, go up there to two weeks. How far did I get in that story? My mind's wandering a little bit. You haven't talked about tanks yet. Okay. The army guy said, hey, the only way, we want you to go on this patrol, but you have to go in the tank and we're going to teach you how to load the cannon because you have to take the cannon loader position. These were all Sherman tanks. Okay. So I meet the tank commander, another Lieutenant, and we get up in this tank and the shells on the tank are stuck in little compartments all over the floor of this thing. So we're on a reconnaissance patrol with five tanks. And we get into the enemy country and all of a sudden, we started picking up some small arms fire. And so we were in the, I was in the lead tank and all of a sudden the tank commander falls down and grabs his arm. I said, what happened? He said, I just took a hit. He said, I think I'm going to faint. I said, well, then you're going to die because there's nothing I can do, but there's a medic back here. Get on the radio and call the medic. He said, okay. So he didn't faint. He called the medic and we got him out of that tank. I got in the next tank. That thing got kind of bloody and moved to the next tank. We tried to get up on the main service road. We threw a tread. When you throw a thread on a tank, it's like a farm tracker. You got to get out with a crowbar and what have you and put the thing back together. Well, all of a sudden, we pick up a lot of small arms fire and all of a sudden we're getting attacked. The tank I was in had a big master sergeant who was a World War II guy. He had to be 60 years old. I'll never forget him. Sergeant Goodwine, big black sergeant, wonderful, strong man. I asked him, what are you doing? Why are you here in this war? He said, well, I had nothing better to do and so they called me up. He started shooting that machine gun and starting shooting. These Chinese are starting coming for our tank and the Guns Act. I happened to be packing a couple of 45s. Don't ask me why. I guess I thought I was John Wayne or something. I also had pockets full of bullets and a couple of clips. Anyway, these China men started climbing up on our tank. So I'm sitting there with these 45 shooting. Meanwhile, our sergeant finally got the damn machine gun running. Well, that ended that. So we broke it. But we weren't about to get out and get shot. So we had to leave that tank. So we evacuated. He said, grab everything you can. I ended up grabbing my radio and I pulled the 30-cow machine gun out and threw it over my arm. We walked up to the next tank. We had to leave that tank in the mud. And we bailed out. That was the end of the day. So that's real quickly. We had to go back. We got back the next day and got that tank back. And I'm already running awfully windy, so I'm going to quit. Brad, what else you got there? We're doing good on time. So tell us about the transition out of theater, out of Korea. Oh, just a little tidbit. I'd not been home for a year. And so I rotated. I got to Chicago and I was living in Michigan. And my family was there. They knew I was coming. I got on a DC-3 Goody Bird to cross over like Michigan and get over to Grand Rapids, where my family was. And I sat next to a little old lady in tennis shoes. And I guess I was sitting there in that chair and gripping that armrest. And she finally looked at me and said, a young man, don't be afraid. I fly in these planes all the time. I couldn't have the courage to tell her, I just finished 100 plus missions. That relaxed me and I got home safe. Where'd you go after that? What was your mission after Korea? Your first assignment after Korea? What are our notes say, Brad? I'm trying to remember. We can work that in. So the F-84G. I went to Turner Field, Albany, Georgia, and we started flying the F-84, straight wing F-84G. And that was a great assignment. It was a lot better airplane than the F-80 a little faster. And it was good to be back in the States. And I had a good job there in the 31st wing. And the prevalence of working for Earl David Schilling, who was a big Bortue ace. In fact, I was lucky in my early career days to meet or work with or for some of the great aces of World War II. It was really wonderful days. Tell us, you have a refueling story that goes. Refueling was still new. And the F-84G had a little door on the left wing. They said, what is that? Well, that's the refueling error. What? Refueling midair? Wow. One day, squadron operations, the ops officer came in and he said, Bill, there's going to be a B-29 tanker up around the base. Why don't you guys go up and see if you can hook up to them? Well, we had read the procedure on how to fly under the tanker and it had lights on the bottom to guide you in. So, okay. So, me and the Lieutenant Lloyd C. Smith, I'll never forget them. We went up and we found the tanker and I went in and I got a couple dry hookups. The boomer was very, very professional. Talked us fighter pilots in, got us in position. I got a couple dry hookups. Just practice. It was Smitty's turn. Smitty was a little spastic that day or maybe the air was really rougher. I don't know. He got hooked up. He started sashing around all of a sudden. He had brakes off and when he broke off, about two feet of the nozzle of the boomer's hose was stuck in his wing. There was a long moment of silence. Smitty said, tanker pilot, this is fighter pilot, what would you like me to do with this? Please send it home. And of course, that cost Smitty a lot of beers. Tell us about Fox Peter Wine. One of the greatest adventures. The first crossing, jet crossing in the Pacific, our F-84G led by Colonel David C. Schilling and we took three squadrons across from San Francisco to Hawaii and we island hopped midway Guam into Weetok, Wake Island and on into Tokyo. It was exciting. We had crews sent out ahead so that we could refuel. I got to see all those islands that I'd read about, you know, the big war. But we, in between San Francisco and Hawaii, Vice Wing Commander's a Colonel named Diggie Dunham. Diggie Dunham was famous, well known by an awful lot of people and a tremendous guy. Diggie was not real proficient, but he was flying a fighter. All of a sudden he got on the radio and said, boss, I just flamed out. I just flamed out. He had been jockeying the throttle trying to refuel. I guess it was at the refueling. So I think it was Colonel Schilling said, well, Diggie, we just passed a destroyer in the ocean down there. Go down and belly in alongside him and they'll save you. And he said, his wingman's named Bob Allen. He said, Bob, go with them and take care of them. Bob Allen says, what? You want me to bail out and go with them? His airplane was running perfectly. All of a sudden Diggie says, hey, boss, I got it started. It's running hot, but it's running. The boss says, don't touch the throttle. You take the lead. Head for Hawaii. We'll fall in behind. Long story short, he got it home. He got it made. We all got there. Halflings along the way. Those were the days. So you move into the F-84F and that was your sound barrier experience. The first swept wing airplane and the first airplane go through the speed of sound. Of course, you had to dive it. It would not go through level. Like most pilots, I always wanted to see what it felt like to go through the speed of sound. So as soon as I got checked out in the F-model of the F-84, I couldn't wait to go to 30,000 feet, point that thing down and say, I'm going to break the sound barrier. Of course, Chuck Yeager and a whole bunch of other people had already broken it, but I never had. Well, I was very disappointed because we punched through the mock and the only thing that said you're going past the speed of sound was the clock on the dashboard. So no big deal. But anyway, another little happening along the way. Now, the F-84 had engine problems and we crashed three airplanes in the first three months we had it. And we lost two of the pilots, one of them escaped. So the wing commander said, Gordon M. Graham said, call the senator and he said, I don't want any more heroics. The thing quits a bunch of them. I'm on a test hop. I'm at 30,000 feet or 25 or so and my engine quits. So I head back towards the base and I get the checklist out and I read the checklist and I go through the air start procedure two or three times. Nothing happens. I'm on the radio in mobile control. We always had a mobile control at the end of the runway. I call and I said mobile, break out your emergency procedures and slowly read me the air start procedures. I went through it again. No start. I kept my air feed up. The engine was wind milling, but it wasn't running, but it was running the pumps that kept the hydraulics and everything working. So I headed back from the field, got high over the field, kept my speed up, come around to land that plane, and I got on the final. I was still high enough. I could have punched out, but everything worked. I put the gear down and low in the hole. It came down and locked. I made a beautiful landing. Taxes at the end of the runway and turned off. And about the time I was climbing out of the cockpit, the wing commander come running up in his staff car. Bill, what's going on? I said, sir, I flamed out. Well, landing looked very normal. I said, well, it worked out pretty good, sir. What he said, you must have had some engine power. I said, put your hand on the F-section of that airplane. It was ice cold stone. I'd been sailing around in altitude. And of course, the engine was dead. He said, I want to see you in the office in the morning. Yes, sir. Of course, he had already told us a week or so before to punch out if you had that kind of problem. I didn't know if he was court marks from me or guess me for saving the airplane or what. He didn't either. I'm happy to report. But he did make me his safety officer. And that's what happened. Before we move into Vietnam, tell us about going to Clovis. To where? Clovis. Cannon. Was it cannon? Yeah. Tell us about cannon, sir. I had just finished a tour as a maintenance officer. And I had worked out a deal with one of the senior officers who was going to take command of a 105 wing. And he saw me before I rotated home. He said, how'd you like to be my chief of maintenance? And I said, fine. But if you're serious, I'll go to maintenance school. And I got myself scheduled to Chinook Field to go to maintenance school. He said, now, when you get ready to graduate, call me and I'll set you up and bring you down here. I called him. He was gone. He got promoted and sent to the Pentagon. I was a graduate of a maintenance school. They sent me to a B-52 bomb wing. A fighter pilot in a bomb wing. You've got to be kidding me. Well, I'm going to make this short because we're running. Fighter pilots are windy. You probably figured that out. I did fly a couple missions in the B-52 when they needed the third pilot. One of these hard-headed, chrome-dome missions over the North Pole. Sit there for eight hours over the North Pole. Pretty exciting stuff. But anyway, I get my next assignment. It's to be 58 bombers as a maintenance officer. I write a scathing letter to military personnel at the airport saying, look, guys, I need to get back in fighters. I'm a fighter pilot. I just spent three years in a bomber outfit. Come on. I'll go remote. I don't care where you send me. I'm ready to go. I've got to get back to fighters. I have the feeling there are some big machine in the Pentagon that dictates officer assignments. I send off the letter. Two weeks later, this thing comes floating in. My wife, I get back from work. She hands me the letter. You're going to open it. I said, Pa, it's a drink first. I opened that letter and it said, pursuant to your request, your assignment has been changed. You're going to Clovis, New Mexico, F-100s. PS, there is no machine in the Pentagon that dictates officer assignments. That's how I got to Clovis. So tell us then moving into the forward air control position as a first CAF. Okay. I put in for a tour of 105s. I wanted to fly that tub real bad. I was doing well Clovis flying the hunt. We went into an R-T-U program where the pipeline had just gotten started. They needed new blood over there in Vietnam. The war was picking up. They turned our wing at Clovis into a replacement training unit. I had the pilots that were still there. We all had to learn to land the airplane, the F-100 from the backseat so we can instruct. They were bringing in guys that were flying desks or bombers or what have you because they needed pilots pretty bad. Anyway, we got that going and I'm waiting for maybe an assignment to fly the thud. My next starters, Vietnam flying the Cessna 01 which of course is the L-19 for the Army. Forward air control. Wait a minute. I already did this in Korea. I got to do this again I guess because of my record in that war, early war. Okay, so I went over there and I went up and I was assigned to the first air cab at Ankei in the 01. I had many exciting times. I don't have time to recant them all but I did fly another hundred missions in that little airplane. I worked a lot of fighter strikes and one of the biggest problems of flying the flight airplanes and in and out of little dirt strips is staying clean. I was working the beach along the east side of Quinyan and I hadn't had a bath in I don't know when. Beautiful wide beautiful beach. I didn't see any activity of any kind. I said I got to have a bath so I landed this little plane on the hard pan and I get out and flying through it and oh man I'm in the surf. I scrubbed myself with sand, took that flying suit off, rung it out, got back in the plane to my shorts and I'm glad it started by the way and that's you know these are the kind of things you had to run interesting. Clean was one of the biggest challenges in that war. It was bad news. One of your commands was at Benoit. You had a fighter command. After six months as a four-air controller I got a call from a friend of mine at Benoit and said Bill there's a F-100 squadron opening up. Would you like it? Would I like to get back fighters? You've got to be kidding me. But he said you've got to get released. You've got to go to Saigon and ask the general if he'll let you go because you're you know you're a four-air controller. So I go up to headquarters and I knew the general and I won't get in the names but I said sir I've got a chance to pick up a fighter squadron will you release me? He said Bill I was going to call you. He said you know I've got trouble down in the four-car and you've got a heck of a good record as a fact. I want you to go down here and see if you can straighten it out. I said sir I've been in the general for six months. I got dysentery. I'm in terrible shape. I got to get out of there. I need a fighter squadron. He said well let's have dinner tonight we'll have a drink. I went to be actually I drank a quart of milk because I knew I was going to battle him with martinis and we did. I put him down and the last thing he did before he and his aid and I put him to bed was you win. I go to Benoit Dick Catledge one of the great leaders wonderful man uh flew the first Thunder Jets terrific guy. I was supposed to take an F-100 squadron. I started I got recurrent in the airplane I flew a few missions all of a sudden the they had an F-5 squadron over there that they send over for tests and the squadron commander had been reassigned so Dick Catledge said Bill how would you like to take command of the F-5 squadron. I said sure I'd love it I'll take any squadron you out. He said you got it. I went down reported ops officer good friend of mine Bill Ruppey. I said Bill first thing I want to do as even before I meet everybody I want you to roll out the two-seater I want a quick check out so I can start flying combat. He said we don't we don't got no two-seaters. He said here's the dash run read the book I'll give you a C and I captain to chase you and we'll give you a check out so I learned how to start the airplane run the book went up flew two missions practice to learn to land it it was a little difficult to land and started flying combat. I ended flying another hundred missions in that airplane. It was a great little airplane but it had short legs and the Air Force didn't buy it not because it wasn't a capable delivery airplane we we actually flew that thing with four or five hundred pound bombs and that was a very small airplane it was very capable but it had no range so they never did buy it. We ended up giving them to the I think the Philippines or one of the other companies I turned over the airplanes to them I went back and flew a few more F-100 missions and that ended my tour in Vietnam. So before we move in and take a couple questions you did have one run in with your commander there after you were on strip alert in the F-100. Don Hooten and Aggie and sister squadron commander he was at F-100 squadron commander uh after I turned over my F-5s and I he said Bill how'd you like to fly strip alert with me this Sunday he said I'll tell you what we'll go have a drink uh Saturday night and then we'll bounce a couple captains off the flying schedule you and I go sit alert and we'll get a couple of missions okay the way we sat alert was we cocked the airplanes put all our gear in it uh everything was plugged in uh the goal was to jump in get it started taxi out and get in the air within five minutes pretty good challenge so early morning we got it all cocked or first cup of coffee buzzer goes off off we go long story short we flew three sorties that day and every one of them was exciting first one was a truck convoy we knocked the heck out of that and uh the fact who worked us said you guys were great I'm going to send a message back to headquarters no don't send anything okay we then there was a some sandpans out there full of ammunition we got some good explosions the fact says you guys are fantastic I'm going to send a report don't send anything hooten and I were supposed to have sundays off the policy was squadron commanders had sundays off here we are flying we're knocking the heck out of the enemy we're doing real great work and they're going to report us Monday morning we get home at Don and I we're going for breakfast and there's one commander sitting there he said good morning gentlemen would you come over here please yes sir he said what do you think about my sunday off policy sir it's great that's a wonderful thing you know everybody should have he set us up and he set that hook and he said you're both grounded now let's you know when you can fly again he said you don't know how to follow orders and you're supposed to be commanders well those things happen you know can we take some questions sure anybody probably don't know what to ask brad you know all that stuff i've been poured out here do you have more fighter stories you want to tell we've got about five minutes no i'll just say a few more things one of my favorite senior officers reminded me recently that the mission of the air force is to fly and fight don't forget it and i'm glad he reminded me and i'd like to pass that on to you one other thing that one of my favorite models that a lot of us have been through the years is a very simple thing a pilot especially a fighter pilot needs three things airspeed altitude and a sense of humor and i offer this to you because i know that you're going through school and you're going to be graduating into new jobs soon uh you need a sense of humor don't lose that because it's important you got any questions brad i think we're good do you want to talk about communication a little well i forgot a few minutes communications i actually had planned to talk about it because it's the key to the world the maya was incident a ship load of bx supplies was captured by the bad guys early one night i got a call the next morning from my general said bill we're going to need some fighters i i had already heard on the radio they'd captured the ship before the general called i'd called on the maintenance shack and i told the maintenance officers bob up a dozen airplanes mixed load anything you can put on them i called the outside store i said get a pilot's down here the brief and right room pretty soon because i know we're going to go off on some kind of a rescue mission or recap mission uh on the maya was ship sure enough uh we launched uh one of my squad i had four five squadrons have fours and one was a rucky squadron they got airborne right away they found that they they saw and they circled and they saw where they uh had taken the crew off the ship and headed for the mainland of uh the south of the country okay but it looked like the word got off that that they were taking the crew to cotang island the marines launched a bunch of helicopters to cotang island to rescue the crew which was already on its way to another place they lost three helicopters and five people i got word from the rucky guys that uh back at udarn that uh the crew had been uh sent to the mainland and they're not at cotang i called everybody i could possibly on the phone and what have you uh in in fact i i went to hawaii and everything else to try to get word to the marines to to hold off don't send any more the crew is not there there's nobody to rescue but i failed communications one other thing on communications real quickly when i was with the inspector general we inspected the world war one airborne command post system we found out that while they had good communications in the local area they didn't talk to each other we wrote this up it was a finding communications whether you're in the classroom or whether you're in combat or whatever is the key and i encourage you all to pay a special special attention to that aspect of your next job and before i quit i'd like to congratulate you all for the fine job i want to thank everybody for the treatment that we've had us eagles had a ball it was wonderful it was pretty intense but we had a good time congratulations to y'all and it's been a privilege and an honor to be here with you thank you very much