I was a young Air Force sergeant stationed temporarily in Alaska in mid-1971, on a mission with a special unit performing high altitude weather sampling of the atmosphere. My main duty station was in New Mexico, but I often traveled on TDYs (temporary duty assignments). This was going to be my last deployment for this mission, but I was scheduled to go elsewhere once I returned to my home base. Just before I was due to leave Alaska, I received a message that I was being retrained and would return to Southeast Asia as soon as possible. I was in a critical career field and due to the losses in Vietnam, at that time, they were reassigning those with experience.

By December 1971, I was back in Southeast Asia assigned to a squadron in preparation for the first raid on Hanoi, North Vietnam scheduled during the end of 1971 through the beginning of 1972. We worked endless days and nights sometimes in very difficult and dangerous conditions maintaining and repairing damaged planes. In late January 1972, I received my own plane as a crew chief responsible for keeping it airworthy and ready for combat. On February 11, 1972, it was shot down by a SAM (Surface to Air Missile) over Cambodia, but the crew members were rescued.

I was temporarily without a plane, so I volunteered (or was volunteered) for whatever assignments were necessary and where my skill was needed. In late April 1972, I was assigned my next plane as the crew chief, but it was also shot down by AAA (Triple A gunfire) over North Vietnam on June 6, 1972. Due to some mechanical problems on the rescue helicopter, I was late getting to the crash site and the pilot, Capt. John Murphy Jr., was captured and remained a POW until the release of POWs, including John McCain in the spring of 1973.

After a very difficult June, and many sleepless nights in early July, I was sent home in August and discharged in California August 20, 1972. California, at that time, was not a very hospitable place for recently returning military personnel from Southeast Asia. Protests, angry demonstrations, and some dangerous confrontations faced many of the troops as they came back to the U.S. I left California on a civilian flight in civilian clothes and arrived in Maine, meeting just my mother at the airport. That’s what I remember most about that time and that war: the total lack of support and recognition for the troops who had the opportunity and good fortune to survive the return home.

For anyone interested in a video clip and some photos from Vietnam, contact Don at don@opensourcemaine.com.

Sgt. Don Cunningham, USAF 1968 – 1972

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