AI R
UM
RCE MUSE FO
FOUNDATION, INC.
Spring 2013
Vol. 36 No.1
The Magazine of the Air Force Museum Foundation • www.airforcemuseum.com
In the next issue of the Friends Journal… …ride along on the Ploesti Raid of August 1943
Featured Articles The Strength to Endure 4
7 Milk Run Over North Korea 12 Wingman in MiG Alley 16 Becoming a Combat Veteran
Bluenosed Bastards Over Normandy On D-Day 19
Digital representation of Ploesti Raid created by Mark Riley
The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. is a Section 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization. It is not part of the Department of Defense or any of its components, and it has no government status.
THE AIR FORCE MUSEUM FOUNDATION, INC. BOARD OF MANAGERS Lt Gen (Ret.) Richard V. Reynolds - Chairman Mr. Gregory G. Lockhart - President Mr. Gary G. Stephenson - Vice President Maj Gen (Ret.) Charles S. Cooper III - Secretary Mr. Robert J. Suttman II, CFA - Treasurer Gen (Ret.) William J. Begert The Hon. Claude M. Bolton, Jr. Col (Ret.) Mark N. Brown Dr. Thomas J. Burns, PhD. Lt Gen (Ret.) Charles H. Coolidge, Jr. Ms. Frances A. Duntz Mr. David C. Evans Lt Gen (Ret.) Lawrence P. Farrell, Jr. Mr. Charles J. Faruki Col (Ret.) Michael B. Goetz Maj Gen (Ret.) E. Ann Harrell Col (Ret.) William S. Harrell Mr. Jon G. Hazelton Mr. Charles F. Kettering III Mr. Patrick L. McGohan Col (Ret.) Pamela A. Melroy Gen (Ret.) T. Michael Moseley Col (Ret.) Susan E. Richardson Gen (Ret.) Charles T. Robertson, Jr. Col (Ret.) James B. Schepley Mr. Scott J. Seymour Mr. Philip L. Soucy Mr. Harry W. (Wes) Stowers, Jr.
Col “Scoop” Cooper, USAF (Ret.) Executive Director, Air Force Museum Foundation
Duty. Honor. Country. These words are embedded in Air Force culture and exemplified not only by our Airmen, but by Friends and Donors to the National Museum of the United States Air Force. As we approach Memorial Day, it’s a good time to remember all those who paid the ultimate price for our liberty and to feel grateful for what we still possess, even as our servicemen and civilians are asked to sacrifice more and more each day. In this season of rebirth, it is a good time to celebrate our years of service, our comrades and friends, and this wonderful country. What better way to celebrate the service or accomplishments of a family member or loved one in your life this Memorial Day than by purchasing a Legacy Data Plate? Look for the ad in this Journal for easy instructions on how to purchase a plate for the Museum’s Wall of Honor, as well as recognize their accomplishments on the Foundation website. At the Foundation we are celebrating the great work being done by our various business teams. The new Air Force Museum Theatre is now open for business with dual 3D 4K digital projectors showing movies on the biggest, brightest, baddest screen in the region! Add to that a new 7.1 plus sound system, and you will experience flying action as if you were in the pilot’s seat! Our Museum Store is wearing a fresh face, with a new layout on a refurbished retail floor. All your favorite Air Force and National Museum merchandise are ready for your purchase.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE Lt Gen (Ret.) J. H. Hudson, Director Terrill Aitken, Senior Curator
FOUNDATION
We also say farewell to Lin Erickson and welcome a new Chief Development Officer, Mona Vollmer. Lin accepted a position as Executive Director and CEO of the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in a move that takes her back to her professional roots.
Executive Director - Col (Ret.) “Scoop” Cooper Chief Development Officer - Col Mona Vollmer Membership Manager - Matt Lynch Development Coordinator - Pam Kluesner Membership Coordinator - Michele Giefer Membership Office: 1-877-258-3910 (toll free) or 937-656-9615
If you’re in our neighborhood this spring, I would like to personally invite you to stop by and visit your Museum. While you’re here come see the Wall of Honor outside the Museum’s main entrance and consider adding your own tribute to honor the service of a friend or comrade. All of us at the Foundation salute you and thank you for your selfless service to our country.
Friends Journal
Editor - Peggy Coale Art Director - Mark A. Riley Editorial Assistants - Bill Hughes, Joe King, Robert Pinizzotto Editorial Office: 937-656-9622
Check Six!
Scoop
AFMF Exec Director “Scoop” Cooper and Chairman, Board of Managers Dick Reynolds, present a Legacy Data Plate to Lin Erickson at her farewell.
Cover Photo: Paul Kari blessing the Lockheed C-141C “Hanoi Taxi,” the plane which brought him home after almost 8 years as a POW in Vietnam. (Photo by Mark Riley).
The Friends Journal is published quarterly by the Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the expansion and improvement of the National Museum of the United States Air Force and to the preservation of the history of the United States Air Force. Authors retain all rights to further publication or use. Author’s views expressed in the Friends Journal do not necessarily represent those of the Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. or those of the United States Air Force. Printed in the USA. USPS Standard ”A” rate postage paid at Dayton, OH. Subscription to the Friends Journal is included in the annual membership of the Friends of the Air Force Museum. All materials are Copyright 2013 and may not be reproduced without permission from the Air Force Museum Foundation. Submission of material for publication and correspondence concerning contents should be addressed to The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 1903, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-1903, and marked in the corner of the envelope “ATTN: Editor.”
With the Kent State shootings and National Student Strike of 1970, violence and dissent over the Southeast Asia war erupted on college campuses across the country and came crashing into the nation’s living rooms via the evening news. Perhaps unknown to many is that another group of college students— members of the conservative Voices in Vital American or VIVA—were responsible for one of the most iconic symbols of the era: the POW/ MIA bracelet. The Friends Journal tracked down the remarkable woman responsible for the POW bracelet and asked her to tell us the story of how they came to be made.
History of the POW/MIA Bracelets
The major problem was that VIVA had no money to make bracelets, although our adult advisor, Gloria Coppin, was able to find a small shop in Santa Monica that did engraving on silver used to decorate horses. I can remember us sitting around in Gloria Coppin’s kitchen with the engraver on the telephone, as we tried to figure out what we would put on the bracelets. This is why they carried only name, rank, and date of loss, since we didn’t have time to think of anything else. Gloria’s husband donated enough brass and copper to make 1,200 bracelets. The Santa Monica engraver agreed to make them, and we could pay him from any proceeds we might realize. Although the initial bracelets were going to cost about 75 cents to make, we were unsure about how much we should ask people to donate to receive one. In 1970, a student admission to the local movie theater was $2.50. We decided this seemed like a fair price to ask from a student for one of the nickelplated bracelets. We also made copper ones for adults who believed they helped their “tennis elbow.” Again, according to our logic adults could pay more, so we would request $3.00 for the copper bracelets.
I came up with the idea for the bracelets with fellow college student, Kay Hunter, as a way to remember American prisoners of war On Veterans Day, suffering in captivity in November 11, 1970, we Southeast Asia. In late 1969 officially kicked off the television personality Bob bracelet program with a Dornan (who several years news conference at the later was elected to the U.S. Universal Sheraton Hotel. Congress) introduced us Public response quickly and several other members grew and we eventually of VIVA to three wives got to the point we were of missing pilots. They receiving over 12,000 thought our student group requests a day. There could assist them in drawing was something about a public attention to the specific name being on prisoners and the missing them, which gave people in Vietnam. The idea of a personal connection, Capt Lance Sijan’s POW bracelet circulating petitions and an “I’m watching out for on display at the National Museum of The USAF letters to Hanoi demanding this guy” bond. I worked humane treatment for the six days a week, from POWs was appealing, as we were looking for ways college morning to midnight—my mother often found me asleep students could become involved in positive programs to in bed, covered with checks and bank deposit slips—and support U.S. soldiers without becoming embroiled in the eventually dropped out of college to administer the bracelet controversy of the war itself. The relatives of the men were and other POW/MIA programs for VIVA. beginning to organize locally, but the National League of POW/MIA Families had yet to be formed. In all, VIVA distributed nearly five million bracelets and raised enough money to produce untold millions of bumper stickers, During that time Bob Dornan wore a bracelet he had buttons, brochures, matchbooks, and newspaper ads to draw obtained in Vietnam from hill tribesmen, which he said always attention to the missing men. In 1976, VIVA closed its doors. reminded him of the suffering the war had brought to so many. By then the American public was tired of hearing about We wanted to get similar bracelets to wear to remember our Vietnam and showed no interest in the POW/MIA issue. POWs, so rather naively, we tried to figure out a way to go to Vietnam. Since no one wanted to fund two sorority-girl Carol Bates Brown types on a tour to Vietnam during the height of the war, and our parents were livid at the idea, we gave up and Kay Hunter began to check out ways to make bracelets.
Contents Winter 2012-2013 Vol. 35 No. 4
ARTICLES
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
4 The Strength to Endure by Peggy Coale 7 Becoming a Combat Veteran by Lt Col John Lowery, USAF (Ret.)
12 Milk Run Over North Korea by Lt Col Earl J. McGill, USAF (Ret.) 16 Wingman in MiG Alley by Col Drury Callahan, USAF (Ret.) 19 Bluenosed Bastards Over Normandy On D-Day by Capt Robert H. “Punchy” Powell Jr., USAF (Ret.) 23 An Unusual Mission by Albert L. Gill 25 Greenland To Greenville: The Hard Way by A.C. Menadier 28 Classic Aircraft Of The National Museum Of The U.S. Air Force® 31 Thirty-Five Combat Missions in a B-17 by SSgt Paul H. Dork, USAF (Ret.)
Undeliverable Mail We are aware that many of your letters addressed to the Foundation have been returned as undeliverable. Please accept our sincere apologies for this misunderstanding with the U.S. Post Office, and, rest assured, we are still at the same address and have resolved the issue. We appreciate your patience and look forward to receiving your letters. If you have any questions, our Membership Office is happy to help. You can reach us at 937-656-9615 or on the toll-free line at 877-258-3910.
Contributions Recognition Please note, in this issue we recognize the contributions from December 2012 which were not included in the previous Friends Journal issue. Effective January 1, 2013, donors will receive recognition in the Air Force Museum Foundation’s online Annual Report, which will be uploaded each spring.
36 Director Dad by Kevin C. Upstrom 39 My Hero In A Wooden Airplane by Hank Dodson
DEPARTMENTS 2 Editor’s Notes and Feedback
42 New Exhibits
43 Education Update
43 Activities and Events
44 Restoration Update Original part from B-17 Memphis Belle® returns home.
46 Contributions
48 Air Force Museum Theatre Renovation
50 Reunion Notices
53 The Museum Store
Do You Have a Story for the Friends Journal? We love to hear from our Friends of their firsthand accounts of military service and combat. Our goal is to be able to present a variety of Air Force-related stories from all eras in which the U.S. Air Force or its predecessors played a role. If you or someone you know has a personal experience you think our readers would find interesting, please consider submitting a story to us. Writers with all levels of experience welcomed! The typical Friends Journal article is 3,000 words maximum, and includes three to five photographs. Your photos will be returned. Submit manuscripts and photos to: Air Force Museum Foundation, Friends Journal Editor, P.O. Box 1903, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433. Or email it to pcoale@afmuseum.com.
Spring 2013 • Friends Journal
1
EDITOR’s
NOTES
S
pring is the kickoff for the national celebrations of the values we hold dear: We celebrate Mothers and Memorial Day in May, and Fathers and the Flag in June, as well as the anniversary of D-day, when the tide of war began to turn in the Allies’ favor. Here at the Foundation, we are in the business of celebrating these values every day, and it’s an incredible honor to act as the steward of the firsthand combat and service stories of our members and other Airmen. While most of these stories arrive by post, sometimes they come walking through the door. Such was the case with retired Lt Col Paul Kari, a former F-4 pilot who was captured and imprisoned in Southeast Asia for almost eight years. He visited the Museum on the 40th anniversary of the first flight of released POWs in February 1973 and paid a solemn visit to the C-141 “Hanoi Taxi” on the Museum grounds. Shot down on Father’s Day in 1965, Paul Kari joked that he came here to “kiss his sweetheart” for Valentine’s Day (see cover). We share his tale and the story of how he endured his captivity in this Journal. His is a father’s tale almost as much as an Airman’s.
In other stories we remember the service of combat veterans in Korea—sometimes called The Forgotten War—and pay tribute to The Greatest Generation with stories from crew members in a B-17 and a B-24. Dads and heroes are celebrated as well; you won’t want to miss the remembrances from Kevin Uppstrom, son of former Director Richard Uppstrom, who fondly recalls the happy years he spent exploring the Museum. In “My Hero in a Wooden Airplane,” we hear the story of a young boy who helps rescue a downed test pilot in an Ohio farm field then years later tracks him down to meet him. For all Airmen who remember what it felt like the first time they persevered through an impossible situation to feel like a hero, we offer “Greenland to Greenville: The Hard Way.” We pay tribute to the anniversary of D-day with a story about P-51 pilots of the 352nd Fighter Group and their contribution to winning “The Longest Day.” Finally, Art Director Mark Riley and I wish to pay tribute to our own dads with the photos below. Their service—and the service we are privileged to see and hear about from our wonderful Friends—is part of the reason we were drawn to work here, and what gives meaning to our work every day. To all the Moms and Dads and Heroes we may never meet but still admire—happy spring! We hope you enjoy this issue of the Friends Journal.
Peggy Coale, Editor
Paul P. Stassi 2
Friends Journal • Spring 2013
Frank J. Riley
Friends Feedback Wartime Propaganda
Kudos
Propaganda is endemic to war and may even contribute to victory. As a combat veteran turned student of the European air war, however, I’ve come to accept that the Army Air Forces went overboard in spreading WW II propaganda. While AAF propaganda was profuse, most was not as preposterous as the excerpt from the B-24 manual, as related by George T. Henry in the Winter 2012-2013 Journal, “Glimpses Back from a B-24 pilot”. [The manual’s] tale of two B-24s destroying 15 attacking German fighters is fiction wrapped in hyperbole. Those who allowed it to become part of an official document discredited the wartime AAF.
Please extend kudos to Maj Walter Hoy, USAF (Ret.) for the article “U-6 Mission in Vietnam,” published in the Winter 2012-2013 issue of Friends Journal.
Robert Huddleston, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Spotter Aircraft A nice article in the winter Friends Journal on spotter models, the miniature Air Force. If [the Journal] were a model magazine, you would have printed the Brewster F2A-3 plan—both sides—so we could copy it to build. Yes, we old timers sometimes still build or repair these, going back to our “roots.” Also, on the last page, [the student making] that P-40 gets one demerit. The wing star is upside down. Bruce E. Conway, Cincinnati, Ohio
Link Trainer Reading the article “The Link Trainer” in the Fall 2012 issue reminded me of yet another incident which occurred with the link trainer. I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford in the early 1960s. A very good friend of mine, SMSgt Harry Lewis operated the Link Trainer at UH. He had a staff sergeant working for him, whose name I cannot recall. However, there was one B-47 pilot who had reflexed in from the states who was always complaining that the link trainer was not “real enough” for him. One day while he was in the trainer, this sergeant put some oily rags in a butt can, lit it, and slid it under the unit. It was not long before smoke from the smoldering rags entered the trainer and the pilot jumped out hollering the trainer was on fire. The young staff sergeant looked at him and calmly said, “Captain, you are dead. You just bailed out without your chute.” Needless to say the pilot was not happy to have such a joke pulled on him, but he wanted realism and he certainly got it.
He and I served together in the 65934rd Test Squadron at Hickam AFB, HI for a short while in the 1965 time period. Please pass my best regards to Maj Hoy, and thanks to you and your editorial staff for producing an excellent publication. Col Harlan L. “Bud” Gurney, USAF (Ret.), Lompoc, CA
Misty The Winter 2012-2013 issue of Friends Journal included a number of articles written by Mistys about their commendable experiences during a terrible war. These articles were especially timely for me as I had just finished reading the book Bury Us Upside Down obtained from the Museum Store. The book written by Rick Newman and Don Shepperd describes the Misty pilots and the secret battle for the Ho Chi Min Trail. It provides a detailed history of these heroic pilots and their families during challenging times. I highly recommend this book for those interested in learning more about the Mistys and that terrible war. Kail Linebrink, Middletown, Ohio
Afterburner I have just finished reading the Winter 2012-2013 copy of the Friends Journal. Lou Drendel’s cover illustration of the F-100F is excellent, but it does contain one flaw. The drawing depicts the F-100F in afterburner with the eyelids closed! This could never occur in an F-100 as the TPT [tailpipe temperature] would immediately exceed 1,000 degrees centigrade, rapidly followed by the pilot exiting the aircraft. I am a retired F-100 pilot with over 3,000 hours in the airplane. Lt Col James H. Ellis, Sequim, Washington
TSgt Raymond J. Tomory, USAF (Ret.) New Era, Michigan
Spring 2013 • Friends Journal
3
The Strength to Endure By Peggy Coale
I
t was on Father’s Day in 1965 when Capt Paul Kari, a father of two young children, met with the triple-A gunfire over North Vietnam that abruptly ended his mission and his flying career forever. An F-4C pilot, he was on his 69th mission, bombing the Western Vietnam Military Training Headquarters. He would not see home again for seven years and eight months; his family would not even learn of his fate for the first five years of his captivity.
in North Vietnam. Now 77 years old, his spryness belies the physical torture he endured. He will admit to getting “so stirred up I can’t sleep,” whenever he spends much time reflecting on his POW days, but Lt Col Kari does not harbor ill will for those who captured and tortured him. “And that’s not Monday morning quarterbacking,” he insists. “I felt that way at the time. I knew those guards were only doing what they were ordered to do.”
Held in captivity in North Vietnam, Kari learned quickly that staying strong was the key to surviving the brutal interrogation sessions he was subjected to. “The stronger you were, they would eventually leave you alone,” he recalled during an emotional interview here at the Foundation office, “so it was important to hang tough initially.” We met Lt Col Kari serendipitously when he showed up at the Museum on the 40th anniversary of the first flight of released POWs on the “Hanoi Taxi,” as it is now known. After walking out to the flightline to see the C-141 which made the historic flight in 1973, Kari came to our office to tell us his story.
Raised on a farm in northern Ohio, Kari got a degree in Animal Science from OSU, graduating in 1958. Although he had planned ultimately to go to veterinary school, he fell in love with flying during ROTC training and earned a private pilot’s license his sophomore year.
During those years of captivity there were three things that gave him the strength to endure: his faith, his love of country, and the memory of his two young children. He carried these in his heart and mind to rely on whenever he faced a brutal interrogation. “Shawn [Kari’s son] was my little hero,” Kari remembers. Paul Kari’s eyes, though damaged by severe malnutrition in captivity, sparked with intensity—and sometimes humor—as he recounted the tragedies and triumphs of his almost eight-year-long ordeal as a prisoner of war
4
Friends Journal • Spring 2013
“I had two different instructors my freshman year— one was a bomber pilot, the other a fighter pilot. I thought the fighter pilot had more spunk, so that’s when I decided I wanted to fly fighters,” he remembers. Little did he know that he would be relying as much on the discipline he gained on the farm as on his Air Force training to survive the seemingly endless days in POW camps. Kari’s first test of fortitude came on that June day he was shot down. Ejecting from the F-4, he seriously injured his back from the bailout and was quickly captured. His captors took his G-suit off with a machete and tied his arms behind his back at his elbows and his wrists. They put him in front of a firing squad, where he stood for 30 minutes before realizing they were not going to execute him. Then he was forcibly marched all
THE STRENGTH TO ENDURE
day, back to the building he had successfully bombed earlier. When his injuries made it impossible to continue walking, he was dragged behind a jeep. On the second day after getting shot down, he noticed his guards playing around with his radio. Also observing F-105s in the near distance, likely strafing an area to prepare for a rescue attempt for his backseater, he concluded his North Vietnamese captors were going to attempt to draw a rescue helicopter in for an ambush. Acting quickly, he motioned that he needed to go to the bathroom and hoped they would give him some privacy and the use of his hands. While they did untie his wrists, they kept his elbows tied and left him alone for a moment. Kari ran to the wall surrounding a well, where his radio had been laid down, and realizing he couldn’t do any damage to a metal radio with his hands tied behind his back, he grabbed the radio as best he could and threw it down the well. “The guards just came unglued” when they saw what he’d done. He was beaten severely, but he’d accomplished his mission: his backseater was rescued. His heroism earned him his first Silver Star for “gallantry and intrepidity in action,” and also his nomination for the Ohio Military Hall of Fame, for Valor. On his third day of captivity, they staged his capture for a photograph. With Kari back in his flight suit, they forced him to raise his hands in the air, in an apparent surrender. They didn’t seem to notice the defiant V-for-Victory sign he flashed with his right hand, nor the ubiquitous “bird” he flew with the other. He was held in a hillside cave until transportation arrived to take him to Hanoi.
Capt Paul Kari in 1965, just after his capture by the North Vietnamese
He used his time in the cave to prepare himself for the inevitable interrogations ahead. Not only was he the first F-4 pilot captured, but in an earlier assignment Kari had briefed high-ranking military and civilian officials on U.S. war contingency plans. He needed to devise a cover story that he could remember under duress, so went back to his roots as an Ohio farm boy. He concocted a tale about “Hereford” and “Angus” Air Force Bases, where his commanders included Col “John Deere,” Lt Col “Allis Chalmers,” and Major “Massey Ferguson”—well-known names in the agricultural business. For the first three months of captivity, Kari was held in a special area of the infamous Hoa Loa prison complex in Hanoi reserved for new guys, a building dubbed “Heartbreak Hotel.” He was interrogated up to four times a day. With the vision of his two-yearold son, Shawn, in mind, he found the inner strength to persevere through the grueling, inhumanly cruel sessions. “I’m going to give it all I can, for you,” he’d say to his imagined son. “I felt that he was looking over my shoulder, and I never wanted to do anything that I would be embarrassed to admit to him when I returned, or for him to think I didn’t hang tough,” Kari said. After each session he would again visualize Shawn to ask him, “How’d I do?” Kari frequently found the strength to defy his captors in ways that also helped boost the morale of his fellow prisoners. For example, some time during his fourth year of captivity the guards decided the POWs should bow to “anyone that moves,” such as the woman who handed water into their cells through the peephole each day. But Kari refused, saying “I don’t bow to anyone but God.” When they continued to insist, calling him a “criminal” for not bowing, he bowed to a pig the next time he was out of his cell. The guards screamed with rage and called for the camp commander; he was severely beaten for the offense, but it gratified him to know that other POWs who saw him bow to a pig through their peepholes had a good laugh. The pride he feels in not having divulged information beyond his name, rank, and serial number, is still palpable on his face today. On another occasion, in July 1966, Kari was among approximately 60 POWs who were driven to Hanoi, handcuffed in pairs, and marched two by two through downtown Hanoi. This was the infamous “Hanoi Parade.” Huge crowds of Vietnamese citizens lined the streets, closing in on the men. As they beat them, they began to chant something. One of the interrogators told the men “The crowd wants you to bow.” “I’m
Spring 2013 • Friends Journal
5
THE STRENGTH TO ENDURE
holding my head high,” he told his partner and cellmate, Navy Lieutenant J. B. McKamey. “Me too!” McKamey replied. But the guards kept hitting them in the back of their necks with the backside of their bayonets, trying to force them to bow. The POWs were marched in this manner clear through town. Later, back at camp, several of the POWs were taken to the camp commander to be interrogated. “What did you think of what the Vietnamese people had to say to you?” they were asked. Kari responded “That was the most cowardly thing a nation can do, to let their people beat on men in handcuffs.” And then, “Do you know what happened to the last country who treated its POWs this way? They got nuked!” (He was referring to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945). According to Kari, the camp commander “went into orbit” telling Kari “You blasphemed Ho Chi Minh!” He ordered Kari to be tied to a tree and let the guards beat him until he was “black and blue all over.” Conditions in camp were always extreme—close to freezing in the winter and oppressively hot during the summer. During one summer at the Hoa Loa Prison, the heat was so extreme Kari slept on the floor at night with his nose pressed up against the crack between the door and the floor. “They actually blocked the windows with cement blocks to prevent fresh air from coming into the cell,” Kari remembers. But Kari and the others determinedly hung on, furtively communicating with one another through the “tap code,” and trying to exercise in their cells as best they could to stay strong. Kari’s goal was to return home with enough strength to lift up his two children, one in each arm. But on at least one occasion there was a moment to celebrate and renew their faith in the nation they were determined to defend with honor. A sugar packet included in a Red Cross package received by one POW unexpectedly revealed the image of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. Kari remembers that this POW, on his way back to his cell, shouted out to the camp, “We landed on the moon! We landed on the moon!” “We were so proud of our country,” Kari remembers. Kari’s release with the first group of POWs on February 12, 1973 was a triumphant event nationally, but personally it was bittersweet. The much-anticipated reunion with his family was fraught by the strain of his almost-eight-year absence; his wife no longer wanted to stay in the marriage, and his two children did not know him. Though he eventually returned to active duty, he was no longer able to fly. He followed his
6
Friends Journal • Spring 2013
parents and three sisters, who had moved from Ohio to Colorado, and went to work for Brig Gen Vandenberg, then Commandant of Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy. There, he helped shape and design policies for cadets that instilled toughness and knowledge while still respecting their value as human beings. For example, he advised that first-year cadets not be harassed or berated during mealtime. “Instead, quiz them on Air Force history,” he advised. “They’re not ‘dirt’ the first year.” He was also instrumental in helping develop the cadet SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) program to make it more realistic. Though the memories of those days have not faded, he has been able to forgive his captors for their cruelty. This highly decorated aviator now spends his days where it all began for him—on a farm in Ohio, in the fittingly named town of West Liberty. Perhaps it’s his knack for growing things that helped him to ultimately forge a strong bond with Shawn and Alison—the two young children he left so long ago to fly in Southeast Asia—as well as two other daughters who came along later with a second marriage, Jacqueline and Jaime. Forty years ago, on May 24, 1973, President and Mrs. Nixon welcomed home the POWs with the biggest dinner event that had ever been held at the White House. This May, Shawn and Alison will accompany their father to the 40th anniversary commemoration of that dinner, at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. It is fitting to Kari that he will celebrate the anniversary of the end of his POW odyssey with the children who helped him survive it. The close bond he shares with them today reflects the will and heart of a father whose love for his children, for God, and for his country gave him the strength to endure.
(Riley)
Paul Kari in 2013