matthew123 Posted March 31, 2016 Share #1 Posted March 31, 2016 I have two flight suits, with 15th TRS Cotton Pickers and Voodoo patches, and dress blues, of a pilot shot down on his 21st combat mission, along with his wingman, fairly early in the Vietnam War, while on photo recon over North Vietnam. The last contact with the pilots was a "He's on fire..." with no call sign. The archive contains all his Air Force paperwork... letter of acceptance to cadet training in 1952, pilot evaluations, RF101 training evaluations, yearly pilot flight hours, every year, from 1954 to 1966, photos of his 1950's Air Rescue (Labrador) and transport airframes, as well his supersonic RF101C (along with photos of damage caused in refueling incident in 1966, when both external fuel tanks were torn from the plane during nosedive/near crash, and incident report... see pics). He is credited with saving the Air Force a million dollars by not bailing out when told to... hand written 6 page incident report of his hitting a buoy while in air sea rescue in 1957, full hand written notebook while training in RF101s, i.d. card photos, official NVA photos of his crash site from 1966...see pics, (he was technically MIA until 1989, but not identified until 1998), all his certifications for all the aircraft he piloted (he made senior pilot in 1957), letters from various presidents on White House stationery to family.... he was pilot for Vice Commander. Probably a thousand pages from his Air Force career... plus all the MIA material, including a care package sent to Hanoi in 1968, but returned unopened. As extensive of an archive of a pilot that could be imagined, not to mention his being shot down, and the years in MIA status, which generated post-KIA correspondence and paperwork. Quite a bit of newspaper and related material concerning his funeral once remains were identified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VarkDriver Posted April 1, 2016 Share #2 Posted April 1, 2016 Wow... just wow! That's a unique collection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew123 Posted April 3, 2016 Author Share #3 Posted April 3, 2016 Yes... collating all the paper material is a bit daunting. Hope to organize it into cohesive whole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted April 9, 2016 Share #4 Posted April 9, 2016 Nice. RF-101 stuff is hard to come by. Too bad about the circumstances. Was he with the 15 TRS when he was shot down? Most Voodoo sorties were from the 20 or 45 TRS by mid 1966. Was this from Page or Wright? Just wondering, as they both disappeared over NVN at the same time in 1966. Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew123 Posted June 1, 2016 Author Share #5 Posted June 1, 2016 The most poignant thing I have in the collection (aside perhaps from his last flight record on the day he went down, marked "incomplete") is the care package his wife sent to Hanoi in 1968, which was returned by the North Vietnamese... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew123 Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share #6 Posted June 25, 2016 Here is a photo of the POW care package returned from Hanoi in 1967... mailed through the Austrian Embassy, as there was no mail services to the North, and they never allowed a Red Cross visitation. The NVA considered pilots war criminals. Not many of these floating around out there... perhaps none at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manayunkman Posted June 25, 2016 Share #7 Posted June 25, 2016 Most interesting please keep it coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefighter Posted June 25, 2016 Share #8 Posted June 25, 2016 WoW!!!! I have never seen or heard of an un-opened POW package that was 'return to send', Vietnam or any war.Its hard to read the Customs Declaration, what did the send? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew123 Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share #9 Posted June 25, 2016 Tobacco, candy, gum, cards, chess set... 3 1/2 lbs. There are also the letters and various correspondence from the U.S. government, concerning the care package service to the N. Vietnam POW's. Pretty rare... I am also a stamp collector, and have never heard of one before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefighter Posted June 25, 2016 Share #10 Posted June 25, 2016 Very cool piece of history. Sad they were treated like criminals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin_Militaria Posted June 26, 2016 Share #11 Posted June 26, 2016 WOW! A one of a kind piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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