The four volumes of “Vietnam to Western Airlines,” a series of books compiled by Bruce Cowee, chronicle the history of the air war in Vietnam. Each volume includes the stories and photographs of more than thirty pilots who all had one thing in common; after returning from Southeast Asia and separating from the service, they were hired as pilots by Western Airlines. Each of the pilots featured in these books is the real thing, and in an age of so many “Wannabees,” it is reassuring to know that each of them was someone who Bruce worked with or knew professionally. The stories span an eleven year period, 1962 – 1973, and cover every aspect of the Air War in Southeast Asia. These men represent only a small fraction of the Vietnam veterans hired as pilots by Western Airlines, but these books pay tribute to all of them.

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Bruce Cowee: About Volume 4

This is the fourth and final volume in the series, Vietnam to Western Airlines, which has become the most comprehensive oral history of the air war in Vietnam in print. The four book series includes stories from all the services that flew combat in Vietnam, it includes all the aircraft types and different missions flown in the war, and the stories cover the entire time frame that American ground troops and airmen served in Vietnam and at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The first chapter in Volume 4 begins in July 1962. Written by Bob Fritzler, it chronicles the beginning of the air war with the arrival in Vietnam of the second Marine Corps squadron to be sent to the war zone, HMM-163, flying unarmed H-34 helicopters out of Soc Trang, in the Delta south of Saigon.  One of the last chapters takes place in the summer of 1972, fully 10 years later, with Ted Demosthenes and Marine Corps squadron VMA-211. Ted was flying the A-4E out of Bien Hoa, just west of Saigon, during the drawdown of American units and after the Marines had been pulled out of Chu Lai. Both squadrons worked strictly with ARVN troops as there were no US combat troops in Vietnam in 1962 and all US infantry units had been withdrawn by mid-1972.

Where would one go to meet and have access to this diverse group of Vietnam veterans? Bruce Cowee found them as his fellow pilots at Western Airlines, hired by the airline starting in early 1967 and ending with the last Vietnam veteran hired in April 1986, just days before the merger between Western and Delta Air Lines was announced. The fact that they met after the war as pilots for Western Airlines is the thread that ties them together.

Bruce’s respect and admiration for these men is obvious throughout, and it was only because they had a common bond that he was able to earn the trust required to complete this project. As he says in the Epilogue, “They were ordinary men who did extraordinary things yet never thought they did….they inspired me with their heroic and selfless acts.”

These are personal stories. They will capture and hold your attention. They will make you remember and they will teach you things you didn’t know before. Above all, they will make you proud.

The photo on the front of the dust jacket is of an A-4F from Navy squadron VA-212. The aircraft is loaded with six 500 pound MK-82 bombs and is on a “Cat Shot” from USS Bonhomme Richard on April 16, 1968. It is headed for a “Steel Tiger” mission, interdicting the Ho Chi Minh Trail in South East Laos. The photo was provided by Peter Reed.

The photo on the back is of a Western DC-10 taken in the mid-1970s and was provided by Bob Homann. You’ll note that the dust jackets on the four volumes depict the four aircraft types operated by Western Airlines when Bruce Cowee was first hired by Western. They are the B-737, the B-727, the B-707/720B, and the DC-10.

 

 

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 "My peer group at Western Airlines was the cream of the crop of the generation of the 1960s, top notch students, athletes, and graduates of the finest colleges and the service academies. One of the things they all had in common, and that must not be overlooked, is the fact that they were all volunteers. They volunteered to serve their country at a very difficult time in our history and then came home to an ungrateful and often hostile home front. Their lives just happened to intersect at Western Airlines, where they found kindred spirits and often friends and squadron mates they hadn’t seen since Vietnam."  ~ Bruce Cowee

No greater moral crime has been committed by the critics of the Vietnam War than to depersonalize and discredit the profound personal, transforming experience of the combat veteran…Whether the American wars of this century were a waste because politicians made them so is really irrelevant. Their meaning and significance for the surviving veteran is that when faced with the most personal, intense experience of his entire life he met the test and became part of the Brotherhood of the Brave.                                  ~ From the book, “The Vietnam War, Opposing Viewpoints,” by David L Bender.

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Vietnam to Western Airlines, Volume 4

Dedication

By Jim Erdos and Bruce Cowee

As Volume 4 will be the last volume in this series it seemed fitting that we go full circle and return to the dedication for Volume 1. As you will recall, Volume 1 was dedicated to an Air Force F-100 pilot, Joseph S. Smith, an Air Force ROTC classmate of Jim Erdos and a friend of Bob Cecka at the University of Notre Dame.

Joe had been lost on a bombing mission in Cambodia on April 4, 1971, and at the time of printing of Volume 1 in 2013 he had been listed as “Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered”, for 42 years.

Joe’s mother waited in vain for the return of her only child (Joe’s father died in 1954 when Joe was only 9 years old). Documents as far back as March 1, 1976, tell the saga of the search for and eventual recovery of his remains. They were positively identified in May 2017. Sadly Joe’s mother passed away in 1994 at the age of 83. Her friends remember her saying daily, “My Joe will come home.” Joe’s wife of less than a year placed a gravestone near his father’s burial plot in 1975, expressing the same sentiment.

Jim Erdos flew to Illinois to witness the return and the interment in the family plot, between the graves of his parents. It makes the statement on the dedication to each of the volumes especially meaningful:

WE WHO CAME HOME MUST NEVER FORGET THOSE WHO COULD NOT.

As of this writing there are still over 1500 American servicemen listed as Missing in Action in Southeast Asia, most of them aircrew members.

Here is Jim’s account of that day:

I had just returned from a trip to visit my father in Ohio when I got an email from Bruce Cowee. It contained the newsletter of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association, dated July 2, 2017, which told of the recovery, identification, and repatriation of Joe Smith’s remains, more than 46 years after his loss.

I was dumb-struck to say the least as over the years I had acquired a number of documents in an attempt to provide some detail of what happened to Joe on that fateful day, April 4, 1971. Since Joe was an only child his closest living relative was an 87 year old cousin who provided DNA verification information.

I contacted a few friends who also knew Joe and we shared whatever news we had. The memorial service and interment were to be on July 17 in Assumption, Illinois, which is a small farming community in the center of the state.

I flew from San Francisco to St. Louis on the 16th and drove to Decatur, the “big” town closest to Assumption, about 20 miles to the north. The drive was a testimony to rural small town America as I was surrounded by picture-book farms and fields, with a water tower along the road every 10 miles or so with the name of a town proudly displayed on it. I checked into a motel in Decatur and called one of my best friends, former roommate and a fellow AFROTC cadet from Notre Dame, Bruce Wood. He had flown into Springfield, Illinois, from Dallas. We got together for dinner and planned to meet in Assumption the following morning.

When I walked into the motel lobby the next morning I ran into Jim O’Rourke. Jim was a year in front of me at Notre Dame and I knew him from ROTC. He was accompanied by Colonel Jim Bowen, current head of the Air Force ROTC detachment at Notre Dame. They too were headed for Assumption.

As I drove south that morning I was once again surrounded by vast farmlands, and as I got close to Assumption I began to see American flags lining both sides of the road at about 50 yard intervals. I later found out that 200 volunteers had placed some 1500 flags along all the roads into town.

I parked my car near the church and introduced myself to some of the local residents. Since I arrived early at the church I did not see the hundreds of people who lined the streets as the procession from the mortuary made its way to the church, led by law enforcement and some 200 motorcycles.

An overflow crowd heard a beautiful Mass of the Resurrection, sung by a choir made up of members from churches in and around Assumption. Speakers included a childhood friend, followed by Joe’s Notre Dame class-mate and brother-in-law, retired Air Force Colonel Robert Plebanek, and finally the sister of Joe’s widow. Joe’s widow had remarried a number of years ago and was also in attendance.

After the church service everyone walked to the adjacent cemetery for the interment. It was at the cemetery that I had the opportunity to meet “Blade 07”, Joe’s wingman when he was lost (Joe’s callsign was Blade 05). Although our conversation was short, I was able to get a clearer picture of what had happened since he was an eye-witness on that fateful day.

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, its predecessors, and the many specialists who were able to positively identify Joe’s remains after nearly 46 years. A special “Thank You” is due to USAF Captain Deline Tengen who served as the remains escort from Joint Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to Assumption.

Joe’s mother finally got her wish. Joe did come home.