Valor Friday

Of the POWs held by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, there are many recognizable names among the 591 men who survived prolonged captivity to return home. Virtually all of them returned home to promotions (sometimes multiple grades) and received medals (most of them several). Among the survivors, Jeremiah Denton and John McCain became US Senators. Sam Johnson and Pete Peterson became Congressmen. Bud Day and James Stockdale got the Medal of Honor. Charles Boyd would become a 4-star general.

You’ve probably also heard the name Floyd “Jim” Thompson. An Army Green Beret, he was captured in March 1964. He was held until March 1973, 10 days short of nine years. A recalcitrant prisoner, he was isolated, and at one point didn’t speak to another American for more than five years. By the time he returned home he had been advanced from captain to lieutenant colonel and soon after to colonel and received a Silver Star and a Bronze Star Medal with “V”. He never fully recovered from his ordeal, and was forced to retire in 1982.

I’ve mentioned before that the Vietnam War was unique in that most of the POWs taken by the enemy were officers. This was because the vast majority of those men captured were aviators. With most of those aviators shot down over North Vietnam flying fighters or fast attack aircraft like the F-4 Phantom II, the A-4 Skyhawk, and the F-105 Thunderchief. The list of enlisted men held by North Vietnam was relatively short. We talked previously of Navy man Doug Hegdahl whose hilarious conning of the North Vietnamese led to his early parole. Among the other enlisted men was an Air Force Pararescueman and a flight mechanic, who are also among the most longest-held prisoners. In fact, they were the longest-held enlisted men of the war.

Arthur Black

Arthur Black was one of the lowest-ranked men to be captured by the enemy in Vietnam. He was an Airman Third Class (E-2), and a young 21 years old, when he was sent to Vietnam in 1965. Similarly, Airman First Class (E-4) William “Bill” Robinson was just 22 while he was first serving in Vietnam.

Bill Robinson

The two young airmen were part of a combat search and rescue (CSAR) mission on 20 September 1965. They hopped into the Kaman HH-43 Huskie piloted by Air Force Captains Thomas Curtis (senior pilot) and Duane Martin (pilot). They went out over North Vietnam to try to effect the rescue of Air Force Captain Willis Forby.

Thomas Curtis

Duane Martin

Forby, from Onaka, South Dakota, was a 32 year old pilot of an F-105D Thunderchief. Flying under the callsign “Essex 04”, he was shot down and forced to eject over North Vietnam. As he was scrambling through the jungle, desperately trying to avoid the enemy (who were not known for their mercy to enemy prisoners), the call went out for rescue.

HH-43 Husky

The HH-43 was the Air Force’s dedicated air-rescue helicopter of the early Vietnam War. Introduced in the late-50s, it’s a quirky little chopper. With two intermeshing rotors, there’s no tail rotor to combat torque (it’s not needed). The tail boom instead has multiple vertical stabilizers (two on piston-powered early models and four on the turbine-powered version). The body of the aircraft is separated into two essentially isolated parts. The forward section houses the two pilots, and the aft section could house an additional two or three men. The two crew compartments were joined by a small tube that wasn’t large enough for most men to get through. Both crew compartments were cramped.

In a typical configuration, the aft compartment would see the crewmen closed in behind a pair of clamshell doors. In the oppressive heat of Vietnam, the doors were removed, and instead a cargo net would be put in their place to prevent crew from just falling out.

On this day’s mission, the CSAR crew was flying under the callsign “DUTCHY 41”. They had to traverse 80 miles of enemy terrain, and fly their unarmed helicopter into the place where the enemy had just shot down a supersonic fighter jet.

Before they could even attempt a rescue of Forby, their little rescue ‘copter took enemy ground fire and crashed. All four men survived. Somehow the men split up a bit. They’d crashed about 12 miles away from the border with Laos.

While Forby was captured, so too were three of the men from DUTCHY 41. Captain Curtis and both of his young airmen were captured. All four of these men would be held until 1973. Arthur Black and Bill Robinson both co-hold the distinction of being the longest-held American enlisted POWs.

Captain Martin however evaded capture and made it to Laos. He was captured there by the Pathet Lao. He was sent to a small austere prison camp. He joined Air America (the CIA front company) employees American Eugene DeBruin; Thai citizens Phisit Intharathat, Prasit Promsuwan, and Prasit Thanee; and Chinese national To Yick Chiu. They were joined a few months later by US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler.

In June 1966, the men escaped. Splitting up, Martin and Dengler headed for the Mekong River to escape to Thailand. They found a tributary and built a raft. They only ended up going in circles. Already weak from starvation, both men were sick (Martin with malaria and Dengler with jaundice), and fading fast. After 17 days on the run, Martin led Dengler in an attempt to steal some food from a local village.

The men were spotted by a boy. When he cried out, a crazed villager attacked them with a machete. While Dengler managed to escape, the villager murdered Martin. His remains are still unaccounted for. Dengler was eventually rescued. In the 2007 film Recue Dawn, Dengler is portrayed by Christian Bale and Martin by Steve Zahn.

When Dengler was finally rescued a few days later, he was picked up the Air Force’s 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, the same unit to which Martin and his fellow airmen had been assigned.

Meanwhile, the other three men of DUTCHY 41 became “guests” of the North Vietnamese. In absentia, with their status unknown, all four crew of DUTCHY 41 were awarded the Air Force Cross. All three of the CSAR POWs would distinguished themselves with their resistance to enemy torture, interrogation, and years of privation.

After being repartriated in Operation Homecoming in 1973;

• Willis Forby was advanced to lieutenant colonel and awarded the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and two Bronze Star Medals w/ “V”. He retired from the Air Force in 1984 as a colonel.
• Thomas Curtis was advanced to lieutenant colonel. He received the Air Force Cross for the mission in which he was shot down, which joined three Distinguished Flying Crosses he’d already earned (two of them with “V” for valor). As a POW he was awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, and a Bronze Star Medal with “V”. He retired in 1977 as a colonel and became a public school teacher. He taught Spanish and World Geography.
• Bill Robinson and Arthur Black both received promotions while they were in captivity. The Air Force advanced them in the enlisted ranks, as is customary. POWs receive promotions so that they continue to advance as if they hadn’t been captured. This allows them to keep pace with their peers. Otherwise, after more than 2,700 days in captivity, Black would have returned to active duty as an E-2.

Behind bars, both enlisted men impressed the leaders of the resistance, who organized themselves as the 4th Allied POW Wing (with the motto “Return with honor”). They were two of the three enlisted POWs to be given the highly unusual honor of a battlefield commission from the wing’s leadership. While the regulations didn’t permit such a thing, President Nixon agreed with the POW Wing commanders and gave all three commissions as first lieutenants (Arthur Cormier, another Pararescueman was the third). While the USAF did commission enlisted men, it wasn’t a direct appointment as is typical with a battlefield commission (where one receives the rank without attending OCS/OTS). They might be the only three US Air Force airmen to have received the honor, as I (an Air Force vet, you’ll recall) didn’t think the USAF had ever done it since becoming a separate service.

Black received the Legion of Merit and two Bronze Star Medals w/ “V” for his years of heroic resistance during his captivity. He went through pilot training upon returning home, and became a C-130 pilot. He retired in 1987 as a major. One of his last assignments was as a liaison officer in Germany. How many of you would give much thought to boarding a C-130 and seeing a slightly older than normal lieutenant behind the stick and expect that he was a PJ who spent more than seven years as a POW and has more impressive fruit salad on his dress uniform than you’ve seen on any lieutenant since Audie Murphy?

Robinson too went through flight training after leaving Vietnam. I don’t know if he was unsuccessful, but he doesn’t appear to have received officer’s wings. He became a maintenance officer instead. Robinson had already earned a Silver Star before he was shot down. In addition to the Air Force Cross he earned while being shot down, he received a Legion of Merit and Bronze Star Medal w/ “V” for his struggle against North Vietnamese brutality. He retired in 1984 as a captain.

These men, due to their very long privation in communist captivity, have an inordinate number of battle stars on their Vietnam Service Medals, 16 to be exact. They only miss out on two campaigns; the Initial Advisory Campaign (1961 to early 1965) and Operation Frequent Wind (1975). They were in Vietnam for nearly every phase of American involvement in the war.

Curtis, Robinson, Black, and Forby are all still living.

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