Coming Back from the Dead

I remember the moment quite vividly,  I was a student at Lead-In Fighter Training and in an Intel Class.  The moment was that blinding flash of enlightenment and realization that flying a fighter, something I'd wanted to do all my life, just might not be all guns and glory.

The instructor, a rather cute Lt, was briefing us on the armament carried by various Soviet aircraft.  She'd rattle on about the Mig-21 Fishbeds carrying Atolls and having a 23mm cannon whereas the Su-11 Fishpot only carried missiles.  My mind (I was unmarried at the time) was, lets just say, more interested in the Lt than in what she had to say.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...Why do I care if they've got missiles AND guns or just missiles?  

That's when the moment happened.

Hey, Dummy!  Wouldn't it be nice to know what the bad guys are trying to kill you with?  or even worse shooting you down?

You see, while I didn't want to die, the thought of becoming a POW terrified terrifies me.  Coming of age at Webb, I knew several guys in Dad's flight who went over to SEA and did not come back, and several that did come back, just not on their initial DEROS.  Listening to their stories and reading their books led me to think the former was the lesser of two bads.

So, while visiting the Air Force Museum, I did not look forward to walking through the Vietnam POW exhibit at the exit of the Vietnam Era wing.  I found many of the displays to be quite dusty (if you get my meaning).

Capt Lance P. Sijan

However, as we exited that museum building and entered the next, there was a much more uplifting display.

What does it look like when you come back from the dead?

Much like this.

And where were they when that shot was taken?

On board this particular aircraft.

C-141B 66-0177

Dubbed the "Hanoi Taxi" for its role in repatriating the first group of POWs from Vietnam.

The roster

Turns out there's a tad more to the story of C-141B 66-0177, one of its last sorties before being turned over to the museum was to fly to Hanoi and return the bodies of two American's killed during the war.  Its pilot was MajGen Edward Mechenbier. 

"Life on a $5 Bet"

General Mechenbier was shot down in June of 1967 in his F-4, and was repatriated on this aircraft.  General Mechenbier's flight in the 141 was his last in the Air Force prior to retirement.  At his retirement, he was the last Vietnam POW in the Air Force.

Right after I took this shot, I was going to pull a Murph and climb into the cockpit.  Unfortunately, there's a juvat sized mark on the plexiglass at face level.

There were a lot of unique, cool, nostalgia causing aircraft in the museum and I'm glad they're being preserved.  However this one, I think, was the most deserving.  Never Give Up! Never Surrender!  Indeed.