Valor Friday

Captain Robert L Simpson

The handsome young officer pictured here is Robert Lewis Simpson. I happened across his story this week and found it interesting.

Simpson was the pilot of the first American aircraft lost to enemy action in the skies of Vietnam. It was early in American involvement, 28 August 1962. Simpson had just had his 35th birthday two months previous. He was flying a T-28 on a close air support mission, with RVNAF Lieutenant Hoa, when they were hit by ground fire.

North American T-28 Nomad

The North American T-28 Trojan is best known as a trainer used by both the Navy and Air Force from the early 1950s, powered by a WWII-vintage radial engine. The Navy flew it as a primary trainer into the 1980s.

Training aircraft have a few common traits. They’re easy to fly (particularly at low altitude and/or speeds), economical (fuel efficient and easy to repair), offer good visibility for the pilot, and are usually pretty rugged. This ensures that your new aviators have a solid platform on which to build their basic piloting skills before moving into a higher performance (and less forgiving) airframe. These traits are also everything you’d want in a close air support (CAS) or counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft. Which is why military trainers are often modified for use in CAS/COIN operations.

The T-28 Trojan was modified by the USAF to become the T-28D Nomad, a light attack aircraft. It was this type that Simpson and Hoa were flying. The Cessna T-37 Tweet was also adapted into the A-37 Dragonfly, a potent CAS aircraft that had great success in Vietnam. More recently, the Embraer Tucano and Super Tucano have been used to great effect in the COIN role (called the A-29 Super Tucano in American service).

The T-28 Nomad that Simpson was piloting was seen by a wingman going down into a river, neither officer was seen bailing out. Search and rescue operations were commenced almost immediately, but the wreckage wasn’t found. Consequently the bodies of the two pilots were never recovered. They are both listed as missing in action, but have long since been declared dead.

Simpson left behind a wife, Margaret “Peg”, and four children. He’d already had an interesting career.

Born in France in 1927, he enlisted from Panama City, Panama. I’m not sure what line of work his parents were in. His father’s gravestone doesn’t show him as a veteran (though that’s not definitive). It’s possible they were diplomats.

Simpson first had enlisted in 1945 in the Marine Corps, at the tail end of World War II. He spent three years as a Jarhead. It would seem he then went to college, as he was accepted as a flight cadet with the Air Force in 1951. He earned his wings and commission, became an F-80 Shooting Star pilot, and flew 67 combat missions during the Korean War. He made the Air Force a career.

Robert Simpson, in front of what appears to be an F-80

Simpson was assigned to the 1st Air Commando Squadron for his service in South Vietnam. He was part of Farmgate Detachment #2 flying out of Bien Hoa and Soc Trang airbases.

Simpson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal w/ two oak leaf clusters (three total awards), and the Purple Heart during his three wars.

Simpson’s cousin, Jane (Simpson) Wilson, reported in 2024 that Robert’s High School sports records still stood. A nephew of his followed in his footsteps and became a naval aviator.

Robert’s wife never remarried, but there was a note in her obituary that she had been predeceased by a “loving partner” of 20 years. She died in 2012 at the age of 83. At that time, all four of their kids were still alive. Before Robert’s death, the family had settled in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, which is where she remained and raised the kids. She had worked at nearby Choctawhatchee High School as a teacher and guidance counselor for many years.

Category: Air Force, Historical, Valor, Vietnam, We Remember