I always feel a special happiness when my fellow airmen are found  and returned. We had  no Geneva Conventions Agreement with Laos and we were “not there”. Imagine Mission: Impossible and your government denying you existed. Imagine them never coming to look for you after the war. Imagine a 40% casualty rate.

The return of the remains of Col. Joseph Christiano of Rochester, N.Y.; Col. Derrell B. Jeffords of Florence, S.C.; Lt. Col. Dennis L. Eilers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chief Master Sgt. William K. Colwell of Glen Cove, N.Y.; Chief Master Sgt. Arden K. Hassenger of Lebanon, Ore.; and Chief Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton of Idaho Falls, Idaho is especially gratifying to many of us who served on the other side of the fence. Too large a number of our losses were KIA-BNR.  BNR stands for Body Never Recovered. That can be pure hell for a wife and children. It deprives them of the grieving process. The only worse possible scenario is being put into limbo for years when they declare him MIA. This is why we would try to confirm a pilot’s demise beyond the shadow of a doubt when they augered in. When it was clear that the outcome was decided and the gentleman was irretrievable, it was common to announce “Negative objective”. The reason was twofold. It told others en route that there was now no need and to mark the passing of a brave soul. Let us never use this phrase again where our men are still unaccounted for.

All the gentlemen mentioned were promoted posthumously as is the standard protocol. We should never rest until we can account for them all. There are so many more.

AC-130s were known as Spectre gunships. Spooky was the original AC-47 Goonybird .

And then there was was the iconic AC-119 also known as the $1.19 or dollar nineteen. I remember seeing one of these in the revetments hidden at Udorn in June 1970 with 25% of the left wing shot off. How they landed it at night was a miracle.