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VOL. 5/ISSUE 12
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2017
100 years young
‘It was a routine reconnaissance mission’ Former Navy pilot Shane Osborn was in the center of the 2001 Hainan Island incident. He made an emergency landing at a Chinese airfield after one of that nation’s interceptors collided with his Lockheed EP-3 Aries. It was President George W. Bush’s first major test. Osborn spent almost two weeks in Chinese confinement. Today he’s co-owner of Brevard County’s RWH Energy.
Marine’s family comes from far and near to celebrate her centenary Mary Kemper STAFF WRITER
mkemper@veteranvoiceweekly.com
By all accounts, Virginia “Ginny” Hafler is a quirky lady, who always did whatever she wanted to do — and on Jan. 20, she turned 100. Her daughter, Candy Hafler, said: “She was working for IBM (during World War II), and one afternoon she just walked out of the office and joined the Marines.” Family and friends gathered at the home of caregivers Robert and Guerda Baptiste from as far away as California to reminisce about Ginny’s long and remarkable life, which included her stint in the Marines as an aircraft mechanic. She enlisted in 1943, began active service in 1944 and was discharged in 1946. Her short service was interesting, to say the least. Goddaughter Janice Frobel: “One time, she had heard some big shots were due to visit the base (at Norman, Okla.) — so Ginny put flowers in all the urinals so they would look good. The big shots had a hard time keeping their faces straight!” A party girl who could drink anyone under the table, Ginny would put on high heels and climb over the base fence to go AWOL and have fun. In a written reminiscence, another family friend said that when Ginny got to a Coke machine and discovered she didn’t have any money, she turned around and asked a Marine Corps general behind her for a dime. “Rank didn’t mean anything to her,” the
See HUNDRED page 9
Photo courtesy of Shane Osborn
EP-3E Aries pilot in 2001 Hainan Island incident speaks Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
Navy pilot Shane Osborn and his 23-member crew were having a normal 2001 April day in Fleet Air Reconnaissance. They were flying over the South China Sea for a day of electronic intelligence gathering. There were international tensions in the world, but Sept. 11 was still six months away. All in all, the United States was enjoying a militarily calm time. “It was a routine reconnaissance mission,” Osborn said in a Veteran Voice interview. “We’d been collecting a lot of intelligence on China.” Their uneventful day of listening in on the Chinese was almost done. “We were about 20 minutes from being home,” Osborn said. “We got indications we were going to be intercepted, but that was nothing new.” By the end of that day Osborn was in the center of the first major test for President George W. Bush — the Hainan Island incident, 12 days when America and China
faced a real chance of military escalation. “There was a lot of chest beating going on at the time between China and us,” Osborn said. The 26-year-old pilot was flying back to base when two Shenyang J-8s approached. Osborn had met at least one of the Chinese fighter pilots before in the air over the South China Sea. Everything seemed normal at first, but that turned suddenly. “This day was different; he was a lot more aggressive,” Osborn said. He added, “He came in on us twice and got underneath our wing two or three feet from the propeller.” Osborn had no idea why the pilot, Wang Wei, was acting differently, aggressively. Osborn feared that he’d accidentally drifted into internationally-recognized Chinese airspace. “They’d never been this threatening,” Osborn said. “I called back to make sure we were where we thought we were.” The navigator confirmed Osborn was over international waters. But the Chinese pilot made a third move on the Americans — his most aggressive and dangerous. “The lead fighter was coming in too fast,” Osborn said. Osborn explained that the fighter pilot did an airbrake maneuver under the Lockheed EP-3 Aries that went horribly wrong. The Chinese plane collided with the American’s wing.
See OSBORN page 7