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| Jedi, Comment for image # 9107 | 16 Aug 08 21:07 |
| Man Dave, this is a little bigger than your normal build :-) |
| harve, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 20:21 |
| Wow - a great story, Mr.D. Thanks so much for sharing. |
| harve, Comment for image # 9107 | 16 Aug 08 20:14 |
| Nice pic - but the aircraft is surprisingly unsmooth. |
| SteveM, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 16:39 |
| Thanks DD! I'll try to get it back to you as soon as I can. |
| David Duckett, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 14:01 |
| I'll send you my copy when I go to the next doctor's appointment Wednesday. |
| SteveM, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 13:49 |
| It is sad that so little was done to protect the men and evacuate them when an attack was immanent, history is full of such miscalculations made in good faith. The accounts by the three survivors had me on the edge of my seat, I may have to get the book "One Day Too Long". |
| David Duckett, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 13:31 |
| Thanks, Al and Poppy. No, I was at Pleiku at the time and didn't even know LS 85 existed. I heard rumors about it several months later but learned the truth only 3 years ago. |
| simpleflyer, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 12:15 |
| Thanks for the heads up on LS 85. I've saved the LS 85 website in one of my favorites folders. Were you ever assigned to the site? |
| simpleflyer, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 11:42 |
| Great story, David. Very interesting times back in those days. If you are interested in some pictures of aircraft of that era, I have a few posted at: http://tinyurl.com/6lo6q3
If you like, I can post some more.
Al |
| poppy, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 10:14 |
| Just beautiful! |
| David Duckett, Comment for image # 9099 | 16 Aug 08 04:27 |
| Type LS 85 in your search engine for the full story. Members of our vets web site donated money for a memorial to the 19 men from the First Combat Evaluation Group who were killed in the Viet Nam War. The memorial was erected on Barksdale AFB, Shreveport, Louisiana, which was headquarters for the Group and was unveiled last year. The reunion is to formally dedicate it. The memorial lists the names and circumstances of the deaths and is dedicated to Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger who was posthumously awarded the nation's second highest military award, The Air Force Cross, for his actions during the attack in Laos. That ceremony took place behind closed doors at the Pentagon in 1968, 9 months after it happened, and was secret until just a few years ago when this all became public knowledge. The Chief's eldest son Cory, who was 9 at the time, was there and he and some other members of the family will be at the reunion. The unit no longer exists so the painting should have some special meaning for him.
One is for Colonel Clayton who was the commander of the site in Laos and who is also responsible for getting the entire operation established in Viet Nam and Thailand. He's now 84 and flies electric RC planes around Tampa and he's planning to be at the reunion. He's highly respected.
The other one is for John Daniel who is one of three who survived the attack in Laos and he will also be at the reunion.
There will be around 200 people at the reunion and only 3 of them, and all of you ;-), know what I'm doing. And although I've been chatting on the site for a couple of years, I only know a few of them. We will have a banquet on Thursday night after dedicating the memorial in the afternoon and there will be some kind of military ceremony I'm sure but I don't know what. I plan to give the paintings during the banquet but on my own. I will, of course, do so in the name of all attending.
The plot thickens...The Air Force Cross was awarded to the Chief because the incident happened in Laos, a supposedly neutral country, and most probably have been the Medal of Honor but for the fact that it has to be awarded by the President and doing so would have exposed a top secret operation. Now, 40 years later, there is a bill in Congress with the authorization to upgrade the Air Force Cross to the Medal of Honor and it looks like there is a very good chance it will happen. This is rather big news, not just to us, but to the Air Force, as well, and it is already getting quite a bit of publicity.
I worked with Cory last year on a memorial to his Dad which is now at the museum on Sampson AFB in New York which is where his Dad had gone through basic training.
Of course if the Medal of Honor becomes reality it will be awarded by the President and I'm sure y'all have seen the ceremony. I'm sure Cory will take the painting with him to it.
;-) |
| jgood, Comment for image # 9106 | 15 Aug 08 21:23 |
| Yeah, but hang on. Look at the shoddy brush work on the big one. That's no Duckett! |
| simpleflyer, Comment for image # 9105 | 15 Aug 08 19:34 |
| Nicely maintained display article of the Super Sabre. Judging from the longer canopy and the two ejection seat warning labels, the F-100F two seater? When we were with the squadron that had these, they would give an incentive ride in the back seat to the Airman of the month. We never had the fortune of being an AOM. |
| SteveM, Comment for image # 9106 | 15 Aug 08 19:32 |
| Looks like a match to me! |
| moostang51, Comment for image # 9106 | 15 Aug 08 18:35 |
| Very sneaky. |
| David Duckett, Image # 9106 | 15 Aug 08 18:29 |
Color check |
| David Duckett, Image # 9105 | 15 Aug 08 18:26 |
On Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona, which was my duty station for the final 5 years of my Air Force career. |
| David Duckett, Comment for image # 9099 | 15 Aug 08 11:07 |
| Yes and I'll tell you the story about them when I get back from the base where they just happen to have an F-100 on display. ;-) |
| David Duckett, Comment for image # 9098 | 15 Aug 08 11:03 |
| Strange. We got only light showers but Tucson, 35 miles away, apparently got dumped on. As the photo shows, there were still plenty of clouds around at dawn. Beautiful. |
| Creosotewind, Comment for image # 9098 | 15 Aug 08 09:24 |
| Did you float away last night David? We must have received an inch of rain in last night's storm in Phoenix. |
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