The Spirit of Attack by Bruce Gordon

Author:Bruce Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

Wake Island is the only place to land between Guam and Hawaii. Pan American Airways set up a refueling spot for the Pan Am Clipper in 1941. The Japanese captured Wake early in the war. I am exploring a Japanese coastal defense gun. We bombed and shelled the Japanese garrison, but did not attempt to recapture the island. Japanese bunkers and this heavy gun remain as evidence of the war.

Vietnam War

My “Welcome Home” to Selfridge was almost lost in the confusion of events. My wife Midge had been very worried when I was “missing over water” during the five days I was at Wake Island. The 94th FIS had been reassigned from Selfridge AFB to Wurtsmith AFB, farther north in Michigan, and everyone was in process of moving. The Vietnam War was heating up, and I volunteered to fly fighters in Vietnam. If I didn’t volunteer, I’d probably go anyway, but in cargo or spotter planes. Five members of our 94th FIS had gone to Vietnam flying F-105 fighters, and only one completed his 100 missions without being shot down. My orders were to go to Luke AFB and learn to fly the F-100 for ground attack missions. .

The F-100 was unsophisticated but it had four 20 mm cannon with 1,600 rounds of ammunition (usually high-explosive, incendiary (HEI) and could carry a good load of bombs. It could be very accurate with both guns and bombs if you got close to the target. Our standard 30-degree divebombing attack could hit within 30 feet of the target under range conditions — and a 500-lb bomb made a 30-ft crater. In “high-threat” areas we used a 45-degree dive and released the bomb from 5,000-ft altitude, and our bombing was very inaccurate. My wife and children were able to come to the gunnery range once with me and watch the students firing and dropping practice bombs. It was quite an experience to be in the range tower and watch the fighters strafe the white panel targets.

On June 19, 1970 I graduated from F-100 training, and on June 29th I went to Survival School at Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington. I had been to many Survival Schools in my Air Force career, but this one focused on Escape and Evasion techniques. The assumption was that we were shot down in Vietnam and had to hide from Communist soldiers while signaling to rescue aircraft about where to pick us up. Then we had “resistance training” — ways that we could resist interrogation and beatings if we were captured. We learned from the experiences of our prisoners of war during World War II and Korea, including some techniques that are secret even today. The training included several days of semi-starvation and extreme fatigue to prepare us for the physical and psychological problems faced by prisoners of war. This training is a major reason why our POW’s in Vietnam were able to survive brutal conditions and beatings, even when held for several years. The training was so realistic

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