Vietnam Veteran Takes Last Combat Flight

Defense News ^ | Sgt. Amanda J. Solitario

[SandRat]

Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Walker, a Sherpa pilot with I Company, 185th Aviation Regiment, steps off his plane for the last time in a combat zone, May 7, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Amanda J. Solitario

U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Walker

Vietnam Veteran Takes Last Combat Flight

By Sgt. Amanda J. Solitario 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) LSA ANACONDA, Iraq, June 1, 2007 — After 36 years of flying for the United States Army, Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Walker had mixed emotions as he brought his plane down for the last time over a combat zone. Having more than 5,000 flight hours and nearly 40 years in the military, this graying G.I. said he is ready to relinquish the controls to somebody else. “It is time to put it away,” the native of Albany, Ga., native said. “I told my wife that I wouldn’t extend again, and I am going to keep my promise.” A husband and father of three, Walker said his passion for soaring in the sky still runs through his blood, but joked that it is time to start all of the household projects that have been mounting over the years. Walker’s unit, the 185th Aviation Regiment an Army National Guard Theater Aviation Company, is comprised of detachments from Mississippi, Connecticut, Missouri, and California. The unit is about to return to the states. That, coupled with a September retirement date rapidly approaching, the 61-year-old Vietnam veteran took to the skies for one last combat flight, May 6, 2007. He said he tried not to dwell on the fact that this mission might be his last military flight altogether. “I just thought about completing the mission, getting the job done, and bringing the crew back safely,” he said. As the seasoned pilot made the final descent into Logistical Support Area Anaconda May 7, members of his unit from the Operational Support Airlift Command waited on the landing strip to congratulate Walker and to say their farewells to the retiring soldier. “He has been a tremendous asset to this unit, and his soldiers really look up to him,” said Capt. Chad Rose, the commander of Company I, 185th Aviation Regiment. “He has been a good example to the younger soldiers over the years.” When the C-23 Sherpa plane glided gracefully to the ground, Walker and his crew were greeted by a fountain of water spewed from the mouth of a fire truck. From there, the group moved inside for a small party. Walker, who graduated flight school at Fort Stewart, Ga., in 1970, flew his first combat mission over the jungles of Vietnam in 1971. During his tour, he served with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Aviation Brigade in Long Binh, Vietnam. It was there that he flew the U-6A “Beaver,” an aircraft capable of transporting passengers and cargo.

Walker said he also served with the 221st Recon Aviation Company in Vinh Long, Vietnam, where he flew the O-1 “Birddog,” a reconnaissance and observation plane. Neither mission resembled his job in Iraq, he said.   “It’s a different war, different times, and different tactics,” he said. Walker noted that he interacts with the local population more in Iraq than he did in Vietnam. He also said that flying in Vietnam was not nearly as regimented as it is today.             “There are a lot of processes and procedures we go through today to get an aircraft off the ground than back then,” he said. After his tour, Walker continued to serve on active duty until 1974. He left as a captain and came back into the National Guard in 1978 as a chief warrant officer. He has been flying ever since. “It has been a tremendous opportunity,” he said of his flying career. “I want to thank Uncle Sam for allowing me to fly and paying me for it.” Walker said the hardest part is going to be leaving his military family, as he calls it. He said over the course of his career, he bumps into other pilots and flight crew members everywhere he goes. “We run into each other all over the world,” he said. “It is going to be tough leaving the family behind, but we all got to move on with our lives.”             Before this deployment, Walker was a senior project engineer with General Motors and expressed a desire to return to his civilian job after retiring from the military. He also said he would like to rejoin the Civil Air Patrol.             “I am not going to quit flying,” Walker said. “I am going to keep doing it somehow.”             Walker, with his boyish smile and wire-rimmed glasses, is showing no signs of slowing down. It has been a long time since that first combat flight in 1971, and the love of the skies is still evident as he talks about being in his plane.             “The appeal is still there, the excitement is still there, the thrill of the flight is still there,” he said. Walker said he has reached the height of his career, and it is just time for him to come down from the clouds and enjoy time with the family.

[SandRat]

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All the News the MSM refuses to use!

Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!

[dighton]

[Ken522]

He left active service as a Captain USA and came back as a CWO? He must’ve pulled some mighty long strings to do that ...

[Moose4]

Wow. 36 years, that’s amazing.

The Sherpa (C-23/Shorts 360) is one of the most hideously ugly aircraft in the world, BTW, but it can go a lot of places and haul a lot of stuff, so it gets the job done! I’m actually surprised at this story, I didn’t think the Army had any fixed-wing aviation assets left whatsoever.

}:-)4

[LeoWindhorse]

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-23.htm

[AprilfromTexas]

I’m not from a military family and don’t appreciate the significance of returning as a CWO. Would you splain it in simple terms for us non military folks?

And my congratulations & thanks to the CWO for serving our country for so long and so well!

[jazusamo]

Hand Salute to CWO Walker.

[LasVegasMac]

Great post! Thanks.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I’m not a vet but I think it means a Captain is a commissioned officer and a Chief Warrant Officer is not. I think the significance is that he just wanted to get back in the Army, like Patton saying he’d command a company just to get back in the action when he was in the dog house.

[AprilfromTexas]

Got it, thanks!

[B4Ranch]

I’ll bet he’s an expert STOL pilot.

[Moose4]

If he flew Beavers and Birddogs, you know it.

}:-)4

[U S Army EOD]

For many of us that got caught in the Reduction in Force after Vietnam we were offered WO2 if we wished to stay in the Army. That was the offer for a lot of captains.

[Valin]

C-23 Sherpa: ‘The Aircraft That Can’ in Iraq
http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,SS_101904_Sherpa,00.html

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — Fourteen hours before takeoff, the operations center of the 171st Aviation Regiment, owner of the C-23 Sherpa, gets a call that absentee ballots must absolutely, positively get to an airfield southwest of Mosul.

Can it do it?

Of course.
(snip)

[El Gato]

He left active service as a Captain USA and came back as a CWO? He must’ve pulled some mighty long strings to do that ..

It was '78, Mr. Peanut was President. Officer's slots, even in the Guard, were not easy to come by. While the enlisted ranks had openings, lots of draft induced enlistees were finishing up their 6 year commitment about that time. (I was in the Air Guard at that time, and we had one of those useless slugs, and he was *my* responsibility, sort of. There were two officers and two enlisted, one an NCO, in the engineering section, I was the junior officer, so I got tasked to ride herd on our draftsman, which was the guy who insisted on wearing a wig to drill (which was allowed at the time as long as the appearance of the wig met the regs.) Fortunately there wasn't much drafting to be done at that time, so as long as he kept to himself, and nominally did his "homework" (study for skill level upgrade, which he cared less about, since he really was a draftsman in his civilian job), and came to the minimum number of drills, we pretty much left him alone. I think he felt cheated once the draft had ended, but he was stuck with that six year reserve/guard commitment. The rest of the unit, was either veterans of active duty, or post draft true volunteers. We got the jobs done. We were an electronics engineering and electronics squadron, and often supported the active duty military in our area. In fact one job I oversaw, kinda sorta since the NCOs actually oversaw the troops, was one I'd help arrange when I was on active duty. Even though I spent 1 1/2 years in the AF Reserve while a grad student in between.

Anyway, I expect that while officer slots were hard to come by, because of all the folks RIFed in the Ford and Carter era downsizing of the active force wanting to fill those slots, Warrants and enlisted slots were not at the same premium. A warrant slot meant he got to fly, but didn't have to put up with most of the Mickey Mouse additional duties that the officers had and have to do. (The same is not true of non-flying warrants, at least not now, as I understand it at least) The Air Force retired it's last warrant, actually the Air Guard, at least a decade ago, and most were gone long before then.

[El Gato]

I didn’t think the Army had any fixed-wing aviation assets left whatsoever.

They've also got various versions of the RC-12. Essentially versions of the Beech/Raytheon Super King Air. Some of them have somewhat "spooky" jobs, and lots of funny "stuff" sticking out of the airframe and wings.

.

A guy I work with used to be an army pilot, but he wasn't too good at the fixed wing stuff, being primarily a helicopter pilot. Still he felt he had to fly everything in his unit on occasion. One of the times, when it had been quite a while since he'd flown a fixed wing, he had to let the WO land the bird. Embarrassing, but smart. (He flew primarily Huey's and Blackhawks)

[cll]

“For many of us that got caught in the Reduction in Force after Vietnam we were offered WO2 if we wished to stay in the Army. That was the offer for a lot of captains”

Same thing happened during the Clintoon years. I had to revert to CW2 from CPT if I wanted to keep flying. The alternative was to re-branch into the Infantry or Field Artillery.

[cll]

“I didn’t think the Army had any fixed-wing aviation assets left whatsoever.”

The Army still flies several versions of the civilian King Air, namely the C-12 in various configurations. When I retired in 2005 they were also flying the UC-35, a “military” Cessna Citation. Now they’re working with the Air Force to field a Joint Cargo Aircraft to replace both the C-12 and the C-23. It would look something like this:

http://www.c-27j.com/

[U S Army EOD]

I bet you had more fun as a Warrent Officer.