| Histories: The Missing Man Formation |
"The Missing Man Formation"
Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear... mournful... lonesome... a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass overhead.
This is The Missing Man Formation... perhaps the most magnificent and solemn aerial manuever ever seen. Whether flown with the wingman spiraling off into the great beyond, or, flown consistently with that awful hole where a buddy should be... this dignified, almost painful to watch manuever is a part of POW-MIA and combat history.
The genesis of this manuever is one shrouded in years of faded memories, long fought battles and countless missions almost a century old.
Rumored to have begun when British fighter pilots flew over the funeral of Manheim 'The Red Baron' von Richthofen as a sign of respect by his fellow aces, the formation does find its birth in World War I. At some point during the Great War, the RAF pilots created an aerial manuever known as 'The Fly Past'... whether this was before or after the alleged von Richthofen loss is unknown. But it is British in origin and it was used infrequently and privately during the War.
The 'Fly Past' remained a private affair... returning aircrews signaled to the ground their losses upon their return. The first written account of the manuever shown publicly is by the RAF in 1935 when flying over a review by George V. Prior.
During World War II, it morphed and evolved into a ceremonial tradition as part of RAF programs. The US first began the tradition in 1938 during the funeral for MG Westover with over 50 aircraft and one blank file. The 8th Air Force with her legion of Flying Fortresses, the Bloody Hundredth and other combat weary groups adopted the manuever when returning home from a 'milk run.' Again, it signaled to those on the ground the losses incurred during the last mission... and held a place of honor for their fallen comrades.
The Missing Man formation, as used in the United States, was rarely if ever seen by the public. Only those privileged to attend military funerals and ceremonies were familiar with it. But during the Second Indochina War, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the public at large got its first glimpse of this sobering moment.
The first time a military aerobatics unit ever performed the Missing Man Formation was during the war in 1969 when the USAF Thunderbirds flew the manuver for the first time to honor the men and women who were then POWs in Vietnam. Other aerial demonstration squadrons, both military and civilian, have adopted the formation and perform it during ceremonial events such as National POW-MIA Recognition Day, Memorial Day, during funerals and at the interrment of repatriated remains of Prisoners and Missing. Aside from the fixed wing manuever, a rotary wing version is flown by National Guard and Reservists with exceptional beauty and solemnity.
Perhaps it is fitting that the true history of this exquisite yet sad tradition should be unknown... its history with those whom it honors and is named for... Missing.
Artwork: AII POW-MIAText Credit: History - AII POW MIA/USAF Historical Archives/Thunderbirds Archivist/RAF Historical Archives Images Courtesy of: USAF Photo Archive
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