September 26, 2013

September 26, 2013

POW's and flight from Dover

While awaiting a flight from JB MDL (Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakhurst) I perused a base newspaper with the headlines "JB MDL honors Vietnam POW's, this summer fourteen former Vietnam-era prisoners of war gathered for the opening of the Vietnam POW wing of the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society's Historical Hanger 1 Museum. They commemorated the 40 year anniversary of the first flight of Operation Homecoming which commenced on February 12, 1973 on a C-141 Starlifter transport jet, later dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, that lifted off from Hanoi, North Vietnam, with 40 U.S. POW's to begin their journey home.

On board that flight and present for the ceremony at JBMDL was Retired Rear Adm. Robert Shumaker who on February 11, 1965 while piloting a F-S Crusader off the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea and participating in operation Flaming Dart II, was shot down over Dong Hoi, North Vietnam. He became the second Navy aviator to be captured and for the next eight years was held in various prisoner of war camps, including the infamous Hoa Lo complex in Hanoi for which Shumaker created the name, "Hanoi Hilton." Three of those years he endured solitary confinement, much of the time clamped in leg irons. What incredible strength and fortitude all of the young POW's demonstrated during those long war years. May there be a special place in Heaven for all our young men and women who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms.


Thurs. morning the Space A travel saga continues as it was posted on the ANC travel page on Facebook that there are 56 seats available on a plane out of Dover, Delaware. A two hour road trip brought us to the sprawling Dover AFB where we met several other retired Military travelers who were at BWI and McGuire and are also seeking the holy grail of flights to Ramstein.  Roll call was posted at 16:41, now moved to 17:41 with a flight time of 23:04.  I have multiple layers of down vestments, a scarf and packages of nonperishable food stuffs for the flight on a C-5 (the largest cargo plane that America has) that is likely to have limited heat and accoutrements. I need only to think about the thousands of soldiers who have been ferried to war zones on these unadorned birds, to quell any thoughts of complaint that might be welling in my breast. I have nothing to complain about, indeed this is turning into an journey of unexpected enlightenment, something to be grateful for.

I'm reticent to say that it looks promising........just as I begin to think that this might work, passengers from a flight bound for Spain have disembarked for the third time due to "mechanical" problems on the plane.  Did I mention that the C-5's are almost as old (early 1970's) as the Category VI passengers!!!!!