Valor Friday

Chief Master Sergeant Wayne Fisk

For today’s Valor Friday, Mason honors Chief Master Sergeant Wayne Fisk, USAF, and his legendary deeds spanning some 27 years. If ever there was a service member who can say, “Been there, did that” it would be the Chief.

Mason

In my researches, sometimes you come across a man who really had a Forrest Gump-like ability to be involved in every major event of his time. Today’s subject, Chief Master Sergeant Wayne Fisk of the US Air Force, is one such man.

Hailing from coastal Oregon, Fisk enlisted into the Air Force in early 1966. He’d been an honor society student and participated in the Civil Air Patrol as a cadet. Such a man of character, even at a young age, he turned down an appointment to the US Air Force Academy to take care of his terminally ill mother.

After enlisting, Fisk volunteered for Pararescue (PJ) duty. After completing the grueling training, he was in Thailand flying combat rescue missions into Laos and Vietnam by 1967. A year later, he was transferred to Bermuda to be a part of the Air Force’s primary recovery team for Apollo 8, 9, and 10.

Apollo 8 you’ll recall was the Christmastime trip around the moon, the first time men had gone there. They read from the book of Genesis, a message that was broadcast around the world. Apollo 9 was the first flight of the Lunar Module (LM), though only in Earth orbit. Apollo 10 was the dry run for the famous Apollo 11 moon landing. Apollo 10 took the LM for a trip around the moon, separated from the Command Module (CM), and descended to within 8.5 miles of the lunar surface before returning to orbit and docking with the CM.

On each of those three missions, the astronauts were greeted by Air Force PJs and Navy Frogmen, including Mr. Fisk.

After participating in the historic moonshot missions, Fisk volunteered to return to Southeast Asia after only 11 months in Bermuda. He returned to Thailand with the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (ARRS), the unit he’d served with on his last trip to the jungle.

It was here that a young Staff Sergeant Fisk would again find himself a part of an historic operation. He was selected to be a part of the team that participated in the raid on the POW camp near Son Tay. The mission was bold, and was the first joint operation undertaken with direct supervision from the Joint Chiefs. The raid consisted of both US Army and Air Force personnel.

Dropped into the middle of the camp, only 23 miles from Hanoi, by helicopter, the troops were hoping to secure 61 American POWs. Unfortunately, the intelligence was bad and the prisoners had been moved prior to the raid. Still though, the American contingent fought with exceeding bravery against a superior force while sustaining only two WIA.

Fisk’s role in the raid was as a paramedic and door gunner. On the flight in and during the raid he manned his weapon post and provided heavy fire support.

During the raid, two aircraft were lost. They had planned to lose one. The other was an American fighter aircraft that was downed by ground fire. Because of this, on the return trip Fisk was called into action in his primary AFSC of PJ and helped rescue the downed pilot.

Fisk received the Silver Star for his performance during this operation.

Sliver Star, the Third Highest Award for Valor

Fisk returned stateside to Hill AFB in Utah. From ‘72 to ‘74 he was a PJ instructor at Hill. After that tour, he returned to Thailand again with the 40th ARRS.

April 1975 saw Fisk participate in Operation Eagle Pull. Eagle Pull was the operation to extricate Americans and friendly Cambodians from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Phnom Penh was the last stronghold of the Khmer Republic as the communist Khmer Rouge took over the country.

In a single day, a well coordinated airlift evacuation was conducted, getting 289 people out of the country and to safety aboard a fleet of three evacuation ships supported by another four. Five days later, the Khmer Republic fully collapsed. This operation was considered a success and served as a “dress rehearsal” for the larger and more complex Operation Frequent Wind just 17 days later, in which 7,000 people were rescued from Saigon as the city fell to communist North Vietnamese forces.

For those keeping count, now-Technical Sergeant Fisk has been involved in three major historic events of the period (Apollo’s early moon missions, the Son Tay Raid, and the evacuation of Phnom Penh), but Fisk wasn’t quite done yet.

Just weeks after the 30 April 1975 fall of Saigon, Cambodian communist forces were clashing with the recently victorious North Vietnamese (now just Vietnamese I suppose) over territorial disputes. Into this sailed an American merchantman, the container ship SS Mayaguez. This became known as the Mayaguez Incident and, though not in Vietnam or their territorial waters, is considered the final battle of the Vietnam conflict.

Cambodian forces fired across the bow of the ship, forcing the captain to stop, at which point they boarded the ship. The ship was anchored at a nearby island and the crew taken as hostages.

While applying diplomatic pressure through China, President Ford authorized US Marines to retake the ship. They were hoping to avoid another USS Pueblo incident, which resulted in an 11 month hostage situation and a (seemingly) permanent internment of the ship by North Korea.

Diplomacy failing, the Marines were sent in to recover the ship. They captured the ship, but the crew had been removed already. The Marines then attacked nearby Koh Tang Island, where the Khmer Rouge were located. Shortly after the Marine attack began the crew were released unharmed back to their ship. The Khmer Rouge were hoping that the release of the crew would call off American bombers.

Facing a significant enemy force, the small Marine contingent fought a day-long battle before reinforcements could reach them. Part of this rescue mission were aircraft from the 40th ARRS in Thailand, including Tech Sergeant Fisk. The rescue was so haphazardly put together that ground crews were patching helicopters together to fly.

Serving as a door gunner and PJ aboard a CH-53 helicopter they flew in additional Marine reinforcements into a very hot LZ, then utilized their heavy machine guns to lay down covering fire. At this point Fisk went into PJ mode as wounded Marines were loaded aboard their aircraft.

Making multiple runs, Fisk’s aircraft, call sign Knife 51, was the last remaining airworthy helicopter to evacuate the final Marines from the island. Landing on the beach alone under heavy fire, Knife 51, with Fisk standing at the end of the tail ramp, began to load up the last few dozen Marines.

With the enemy closing in, the Marine officers and NCOs had been consolidating their perimeter as they fell back. The withdrawal was so hasty that the KIA troops were left where they fell. As the last Marines stumbled out of the darkness (a captain and gunnery sergeant), they reported to Fisk that all surviving Marines were aboard.

Fisk, wanting to check that they were indeed evacuating everyone, combed the beach one last time himself, under enemy fire. Finding no one, he stepped aboard Knife 51 as the last surviving American serviceman to have been engaged in ground combat in the Vietnam War.

Fisk received another Silver Star for the rescue at Koh Tang. Unknown to him, and only discovered by the officers once aboard their evacuation ship USS Coral Sea, three living Marines had been left behind in a machine gun position just outside the perimeter. In the din of battle, the men had been overlooked. It has been reported that possibly one of them was captured alive, but their remains have never been definitively located.

Fisk next went to Clark AB, Philippines. In 1980, during a parachute training mission, he was injured, effectively ending his PJ career. He took a position as an instructor at the Air Force SNCO Academy. As a new Chief, he led the creation of the Air Force Enlisted Heritage Hall. His final Air Force assignment before he retired in 1993 (after 27 years of service) was defense attache at the American embassy in Ottawa.

In addition to his two well deserved Silver Stars, Fisk was twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross w/ “V”, 19 Air Medals, four Presidential Unit Citations, a Navy Unit Commendation, was an Air Force Outstanding Airman of the Year, as well as the traditional array of staff duty and SNCO decorations. He also received many honors from outside the military, including the Jaycees’ Ten Outstanding Young Men of America in 1979 as a 34-year-old master sergeant.

For 10 years during the late 1960’s and into the mid-1970, Chief Master Sergeant Wayne Fisk was a veritable Walter Mitty except there was no imagining. Fisk is a legend in the Air Force among those who wear maroon berets and for good reason.

Hand Salute. Ready, Two!
Amazing story, Mason. Thanks!

Category: Air Force, Guest Post, Valor