Retired Air Force Col Carlyle “Smitty” Harris was shot down over Vietnam on 4 April 1965. He spent nearly eight years as a Prisoner of War.
He recently published a book entitled Tap Code, based on the method of communication the POWs employed in the Hanoi Hilton. In an interview with the local Daily Journal in Tupelo, Harris said
There were times – too many to count – when a Read more
General Mark Welsh, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, eulogized Col Jim Kasler, a World War II B-29 tail gunner, Korean war ace jet pilot, and POW during Vietnam who passed away on April 24th:
In addition to being the only man awarded the Air Force Cross three times, Kasler was decorated twice with the Silver Star, a Legion of Merit, nine awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts and 11 Air Medal awards.
But what was most important to him was Read more
Much of the fighter pilot lexicon is not suitable for the ears of Mom or the kids. When translated, this is one of those terms.
YGBSM is short for “You Gotta Be Sh-tting Me,” which is obviously a term of shock, disbelief, or resignation at a realization of institutional stupidity. Where did it come from, and why is it so popular in the fighter pilot community?
Lt Col Allen Lamb, USAF (ret.), wrote a first person account about being one of the Air Force’s (the world’s) first SAM-killers, otherwise known as “Wild Weasels:” Read more