80th FIGHTER SQUADRON HEADHUNTERS ASSOCIATION 905 Arapaho Court; Columbus, GA 31904-1242 Phone or Fax: (706) 324-7360 E-Mail: [email protected] Web Site: www.80FSHeadhunters.org Vol. XVII, No. 67 "AUDENTES FORTUNA JUVAT" 1 August 2007 Greetings, Fellow HEADHUNTERS! Bonnie & I hope this newsletter finds you all in the best of health & happiness! WOLFPACK LEGEND PASSES INTO HISTORY 14 July 1922 - 14 June 2007 rig Gen Robin Olds was the Wing Commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing in 1967 during the height of the Vietnam War. This in- B dividual was a true combat leader—the man who gave our Wing the name “Wolfpack.” He was a triple ace, having a World War II tally from the European Theater of 13 aerials plus 11.5 more during airfield strafing runs. In North Vietnam, he had four more confirmed kills destroying two MiG-17s and two MiG-21s for his total of 17 in the air—28.5 enemy aircraft total destroyed, and was the only USAF pilot to get kills in both WWII & Vietnam. In his 30 years of Air Force service, he flew some 65 different aircraft, in- cluding the Spitfire, Typhoon and Meteor, the P-38, P-51, F-80, F-86, F-101, F-4 and many other aircraft. His combat missions include 107 in two tours during World War II and 152 more in Vietnam, of which 115 were over Col Olds as 8th TFW/CC at Ubon North Vietnam. He earned his second oak leaf cluster to the Silver Star on RTAFB, Thailand 1966-1967 January 2, 1967 during his famous Operation BOLO "MiG Sweep." His third oak leaf cluster to the Silver Star was for “exemplary airmanship, extraordinary heroism and indomitable aggressiveness” in a low-level bombing run against the Thai Ngyen steel mill blast furnaces about 20 miles north of Hanoi. He was awarded the Air Force Cross for his part in the famous raid against the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi. After his tour in Vietnam, he served three years as the Commandant of Cadets at the Air Force Academy. He retired as the Chief of Safety of the United States Air Force in 1973. His many awards include the Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with 3 Oak Leaf Clus- ters, Distinguished Flying Cross with 5 OLC, Air Medal with 39 OLC, the Royal Air Force Distinguished Fly- ing Cross, the French Croix de Guerre, two South Vietnamese Gallantry awards, and others. The Wolf himself, Brig Gen Robin Olds, succumbed to congestive heart failure. Although no longer with us in person, he will al- ways be with us in sprit. Rest in Peace, Robin, and may you forever Soar with the Eagles. (Thanks to Maj Melissa “SHOCK” May for these six photos of Gen Olds’ funeral. Note all the “nickels on the grass” around his beautiful urn) 2 ACTIVE SQUADRON HAS CHANGE OF COMMAND t Col Al “Jethro” Wimmer passed our active Squadron guidon over to Lt Col Thomas G. “Cy” Klopotek on 1 L June. Col Wimmer held the reins for the past year, and we wish him the best of luck in the future as he and his wife, Kelli move into a Joint Staff assignment in Colorado Springs. e would like to welcome Col Klopotek and his wife, Kris- W ten, to the Headhunters! Cy & Kristen came to us from the 555FS OpsO job at Aviano AB, Italy. We all wish you both continued success in this extremely important position! Lt Col Tom & Kristen Klopotek UPDATE FROM OUR ACTIVE SQUADRON! -mail received 27 May from the outgoing active Squadron Commander, Lt Col Al Wimmer: “Jaybird, I just E got back from taking 10 of our young Headhunters on a trip to Iwakuni. We were sent to provide Red Air support to a Marine F-18 unit there in pay back for their support to our [Operational Readiness Inspection] ORI. What a blast! Even though we were Red Air, we handed them their asses. A bunch of our young Lts and Capts got to fight dissimilar [Basic Flight Maneuvers] BFM with an F-18 for the first time and our results were out- standing. It was like we were fighting the [35th sister squadron] Pantons, we just couldn't lose! The boys had a fantastic time and came back as fired up as ever. Oh, the mascot of our host unit, the VMFA-212 Lancers, also came back with us. It is a 6 foot tall suit of armor on a pedestal. With some great initiative, tactical game-plans and execution, their knight is standing at our ops desk until they journey back over here to fight some more. Jaybird, the time has come to say farewell. It is both a very sad and happy day for me. Happy because I get to go back home to my lovely bride and precious children. Sad, as you know, because I have to give up the reins of the greatest fighter squadron in the world. It has been a fantastic year. The Headhunters have taken scalps at every single engagement. This past year we participated in 6 exercises, an ORI, 2 Turkey Shoots, and more. Our squadron led the establishment of the 7th Air Force Missile shoot program and led every single shoot performed since. We stood up a FAC-A program in the unit and are even more ready to provide lethal firepow- er to [US Forces Korea] USFK where and when needed. We flew a 5000+ hour flying hour program and are requesting 580 more hours from [Pacific Air Forces] PACAF, because there's no such thing as too much flying. Our ORI performance was nothing less than stellar, flying 164 out of 168 fragged missions, achieving a 98% hit rate, a 96% mission effectiveness rate and flying a record 54.7 UTE on the oldest Vipers in the active duty fleet. The Headhunters have kept the killing/winning tradition alive at every step of the way. 3 There are some changes on the way. In January of '08, we will swap our Block 30's with the 18th FS at Eielson. They will send their [constant computing impact point] CCIP block 40's to us, and we will again be the first on the ROK with the latest and greatest of jets (a full 2 years before anyone else on the ROK). There is an unfortunate change as well: Bruni's is nearing the time for destruction. It, along with all the buildings nearby, is being torn down to make room for a new billeting facility. I am happy that I will not have to watch the disdain- ful event, but hope that we have put a plan into play that will deliver a permanent facility which will never be taken away again. We will salvage every stick of material that we can to preserve what was Bruni's and put it back into Bruni's II. It has been the honor of my career, not only to command, but to follow in the footsteps of such incredi- ble leaders as Cragg, Robbins, Homer, Breedlove, Remington, and yourself. Thanks to all of you for the tre- mendous heritage that we hold so dear. I hope we have maintained that standard and will be looked back on in something close to the same manner. I cannot tell you how proud I am of this Squadron. I look forward to see- ing all of you at the next reunion! [signed] “Jethro” Lt Col Al Wimmer” [Ed note] On behalf of the entire Headhunter Association, I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Jethro for an outstanding job su- perbly done during his watch as Commander of our 80th Fighter Squadron. A “normal” fighter squadron tour is 3 years; however, in Korea as a remote assignment without families, it’s one year. That also means the same amount of exercises, deployments, inspections, etc usually encountered in a regular tour are crammed into the 1-year tour—making the pace non-stop. You, your team and the Headhunters did it, Col Wimmer, with profes- sionalism we all can be extremely proud of. Thank you! See you at the reunions! WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS! t gives us great pleasure to welcome these 15 new members to our ranks for the first time (in the order of “signing up” since 1 May). Equally rewarding are the many members, not shown here, who have re- I joined after 1, 2, 3, up to 15 years absence! Welcome to all! At press time we have 334 Yearly, plus 653 LifeTime Members (LTMs)—987 Total!! Here is the roll call of our new members—with their time in the 80th: Capt Aubrey M. Venable (06 – 07) Maj John W. Kinser (86 – 87) Col Wilbur A. Tapscott (CC52 – 53) Gregory A. Alston (Juvats) TSgt Dwight B. Coble (Juvats) Capt Matthew S. Chisam (06 – 07) Maj Sherrie McCandless (99 – 00) Maj Chris Sheppard (99 – 00) Col Steven J. Teske (77 – 78) Stephen V. Gustafson (90 – 91) Gregory C. Frese Jr (BTW) Col Stephen F. Farry (Juvats) Lt Col Thomas “Cy” Klopotek (CC07 – 08) Capt John M. Hale (06 – 07) Capt Frank Lusher (05 – 07) riends of yours? You bet!! Look 'em up in your new Master Roster Change and/or Master E-mail & Fax F List Change (enclosed), give 'em a call, write 'em a letter, or beam an e-mail message over to them. Or bet- ter yet, ask them to meet you at the next reunion 2-5 October 2008 in Fort Walton Beach! Great to have you all in formation—and what a super one it is!! Do you have Headhunter friends that aren’t members? If so, please let me have their addresses, and I’ll send a “Please Join Us” letter to them.