[Lloyd-TX]

http://www.youtube.com/embed/QvRcP4g...layer_embedded

Makes me proud to be an American!

[Txbobcat]

Good one Lloyd but you also need to click on Medal of Honor recepient Roy Benavides in the same link.

[2002Z4CSS]

That was interesting.

[quicksilver97ta]

Our military and military personnel are so awesome! It's an embarrassment we have so many clowns for politicians.

[rohrt]

That would make for a good movie.

[63Banshee]

Impressive. Long way from what leaders did for those serving on 9/11/2012.

[Bob Dillon]

Originally Posted by rohrt

That would make for a good movie.

It's (kinda sorta) been done. "BAT21" starring Gene Hackman as Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton was a good movie from a great book.

During his rescue over about a week, eleven of his rescuers, including the entire crew of a Jolly Green rescue chopper, lost their lives.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Bat_21_Bravo

[Motor Daddy]

This was my Company Commander in Germany. Hard to believe that he made it to LTC and then was killed. I knew him as a CPT and he was outstanding! I changed the clutch in his Mustang for him and he loved it! RIP

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/dbaragona.htm

[Ogre]

... While Steve Ritchie tells a good story, he probably had very little to do with the recovery. Google for his Wikipedia bio, and see what Gen Robin Olds had to say about him. Quite a comment coming from one who had one of the biggest egos in the triple nickel squadron.

Ritchie mentions him and points to his right, so I assume that Dale Stovall was sitting there. Capt Dale Stovall, USAFA '67, was the real hero of this mission. You can read about Stovall here: Capt Dale Stovall, Air Force Cross.

Not to take anything away from Lloyd's post, because it is a good story ... embellished a little probably, but the back stories of those actually involved in the rescue may be even better.

I enjoy a well told "war story" as much as anybody, but the embellishing overshadows some grim stories that never get told. It is quite a story of how "the entire war machine was shut down" (actually just the North Vietnam strikes) just to recover one man. Don't ever forget that some have NOT returned. One of them is Capt Paul Vernon "Skip" Jackson III, my good friend, who has not been returned even though they know exactly where he went down. So they might have made a mighty effort to rescue a live pilot, but many other casualties have yet to be returned.

Those are the ones we must demand the leadership of this nation "NEVER FORGET".

Ogre

[Bob Dillon]

Originally Posted by Ogre

Capt Dale Stovall, USAFA '67, was the real hero of this mission.
Ogre

I respectfully disagree. I think every swinging dick who mounted up and charged in to rescue a military brother was a hero.

My late, lamented buddy Col. Mike Gilroy commented on these type of things once. He said "It's not only the right thing to do, if you don't do it, pretty soon no one will fight for you."