Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:29 | Air Force ROTC was Bob Wolfe's introduction to the military. After navigator training he was flying photo missions for the Army map service when the Cuban missile crisis brought the Cold War to the forefront of national attention. He was sent to Bermuda, where he flew missions looking for Soviet ships bound for Cuba.
Keywords : Robert Bob Wolfe Carbondale IL Southern Illinois University Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Harlingen Air Force Base Mather Air Force Base navigator Strategic Air Command (SAC) Boeing B-47 Stratojet Turner Air Force Base Lockheed RC-130 Hercules aerial photography mapping Cuban Missile Crisis Bermuda Russian Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) missile John F. Kennedy (JFK) Nikita Khrushchev
Bob Wolfe's two children were both born while he was far from home on assignment. He asked the Air Force for a more family friendly job and he got it, flying navigator on C-124's out of Hawaii. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War was heating up, so he was still away a lot, flying between Hawaii and Vietnam. Eventually, it was his time to go to the combat, as a forward air controller.
Flying out of Thailand, forward air controller and navigator Bob Wolfe's job was to find and kill trucks. He flew the night missions, which were the scariest. He hung out the window with a Starlight scope to find the targets and then he'd call in the air strikes. It reminded him of something he used to do back on the farm.
It was too good to pass up. Bob Wolfe and another forward air controller had a long convoy of trucks spotted, just begging for an air strike. So they went at it and the burning trucks lit up the night. There was just one problem. The convoy was across the border in North Vietnam and the rules of engagement did not allow the border to be crossed. It was either going to be a court martial or a decoration.
It was like a big Boy Scout camp. That's how Bob Wolfe remembers the Thai air base where he spent his combat tour. Once he and a buddy flew over the border into North Vietnam and took potshots at road crews with a rifle. He definitely got involved with his share of dumb things.
Forward air controllers are responsible for making sure the fighters making the air strike don't get shot down. You have to know the location and direction of enemy ground fire to give the pilot a safe approach and exit. Bob Wolfe is proud to say, not one of his fighters was ever shot down.
The camaraderie at the Thai air base was wonderful, recalls Bob Wolfe. Whether pulling hijinks at the base or risking life and limb over Vietnam and Laos, it was making the best of being at war.
It was wonderful being home from Vietnam for Bob Wolfe. His assignment at Military Airlift Command meant he could be home with his family, quite a change. He continued on for a twenty year career in the Air Force, but what still gets him excited is getting that catapult shot from the deck of a carrier back in Vietnam.
Air Force wives are tough. Bob Wolfe was over the ocean looking for Soviet ships when his wife checked herself into the hospital to deliver their first child. She joined him briefly at his next post in Columbia, but she stayed at home while he was in Ethiopia on a mapping mission. While there, he had an odd encounter with some local tribesmen.
