A veteran's Story
A VETERAN’S STORY: Dustoff in Burma?
By Pete Mecca A ‘dustoff’ in Burma? Pete, you mean Vietnam, right? Yes and no. It’s true that I’ve been home bound for a few weeks, but no, the Corona quarantine has not warped my […]
A veteran’s Story
A veteran's Story
A Veteran’s Story: Caribou to Santabou
By Pete Mecca Born and raised in Cajun country, Alan Gravel received a degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana Tech before obtaining a Master’s Degree in Environmental Health Engineering at the University of Texas.February of […]
A veteran's Story
A VETERAN’S STORY: The Invaders Finally Come Home
By Pete Mecca An airfield in northeast Thailand designated as NKP (Nakhon Phanom) during the Vietnam War is actually a Royal Thai Naval Base. The Thais utilize NKP as a home base for river patrols […]
A veteran's Story
A VETERAN’S STORY: The Story of One Huey
By Pete Mecca In the year 1427, celebrated Vietnamese patriot Le Loi defeated the occupying Chinese soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. Considered God-like by the Vietnamese, Le Loi’s birthplace village of Lam Son is regarded […]
A veteran's Story
A VETERAN’S STORY: “Hitting The Silk” Over Burma
By Pete Mecca From a special article in the New York Times on December 15, 1944: “Big strike on railroad marshaling yards in Rangoon by B-29 bombers cause devastating results. No B-29s were lost.” The […]
A veteran's Story
You Can Go Home Again…. Sort Of
It’s rare for anyone to find… and then fly… the aircraft they made their first military flight in as a pilot a half century or so after the event, let alone on the anniversary of […]
A veteran's Story
Legendary Pilot Inspires New generation of Air Warriors
In March of 1967, a flight of F-4 Phantom IIs from the 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron based out of Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, flew through clear skies for a bombing run on […]
A veteran's Story
A VETERAN’S STORY: Targeting the Big Apple
According to legend, in the year 1307 the bailiff/agent of the Hapsburg Duke of Austria placed a Hapsburg hat on a pole in the town square of the small village of Altdorf, Switzerland. Once the […]
A veteran's Story
A VETERAN’S STORY: Avoiding Cobras and Flying Cobras
Carl “Skip” Bell was born at Emory Hospital on August 6, 1945, the same day the B-29 Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He said of the coincidence, “How about that, two man-made […]
A veteran's Story
A VETERAN’S STORY: Battle of the Heavyweights
By Pete Mecca Analogous to Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Richard Ira “Dick” Bong and Thomas Buchanan McGuire were the heavyweight fighter jocks of World War II. Unlike Ali and Frazier, the two fighter aces […]