Parachute, Pray, or Laugh

By Truman Godwin

Exploits of the New Psychological Warfare Unit (Psy-Warriors) in the Korean War: Join the crew of Psy-Warriors in actual flights as they make military history as a Special Operations Wing of the US Air Force.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mathis B Rogers
• Release date: Jun 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476121130

Truman Godwin

Truman D. GodwinAUGUST 17, 1931– DECEMBER 4, 2020Truman was born in Vernon, Texas in 1931. After graduating from Lubbock High School in 1948, he attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas where he majored in Electrical Engineering and Economics. He also studied British Literature and Business Law at the University of Texas. Truman was a Korean War veteran, and he was in the Telecommunications business for 52 years before retiring. He leaves behind his wife, Nancy, six children, and ten grandchildren. His favorite diversion was golf.His published works include: The Heritage of Luke, 666, and The End of the Row; a book of short stories, The Treasure of Chama Valley; a book of poetry, Beyond the Hedgerows; other miscellaneous magazine publications.He received the rights back to some of his books, and re-released them on his own and published them in Kindle and eBook editions also. Some of them he changed the names and covers.Find all of his books listed below.

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PARACHUTE, PRAY, OR LAUGH

Truman Dayon Godwin

Copyright © 2012 Truman Dayon Godwin

All rights reserved.

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INTRODUCTION

I have compiled as much of my Military Information as I was able. I edited it, and recorded it as close as I could chronologically. I have relied on my military records, personal notes, information and records from former military friends and associates, five full photograph albums containing names and important information regarding time and events, and finally, my own memory. From such resources, I present a true account of selected flights and incidents during the period when I was an assigned as a crew member of various aircraft in the 581st Aerial Resupply and Communications Squadron of the 581st ARC Wing, created by the CIA for special use in Psychological Warfare during the Cold War and the Korean War. Some of our history is recorded in a book by Colonel Michael E. Haas, USAF, Retired, entitled, APOLLO’S WARRIORS. Other documentation concerning Psychological Warfare and our 581st Wing can be found in the bibliography of APOLLO’S WARRIORS, or in the End Notes of this book.

SHORT OVERVIEW OF MILITARY SERVICE

Name: Truman D. Godwin

Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant (S/Sgt.)

Awards: Honor Graduate of Radio School (Ground and Air Operations) at Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi; National Defense Medal; Good Conduct Medal; Korean Service Medal from United Nations; Korean Service Medal from U.S. Air Force for combat service in Korea; U.S. Air Force Air Medal for combat missions in Korea; Presidential medal and citation from South Korean President Kim Dae-Jong for my Korean service.

Duty Stations: Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas; Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi; Mt. Home AFB, Mt. Home, Idaho; Tampa AFB, Florida; Clark Field AFB, Philippines; Seoul City AFB, Seoul, Korea; Okinawa, Japan, Andrews AFB, Washington, D.C.; Special Duty with CIA in Washington, D.C.; Special duty with U. S. Air Force Headquarters in the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.; Ardmore AFB, Gene Autry, Oklahoma.

Time Served: January 2, 1951 to December 12, 1954.

Branch of Service: U. S. Air Force.

Job Titles: Senior Airborne Radio Operator on following aircraft: SA-16, C-119, B-29, C-47, C-46, C-54, and C-118. Was also NCOIC (Noncommissioned Officer in Charge) of Communications of 581st AR Squadron’s Far East operations, and Special Duty Assignment with the CIA in Washington, D.C.

Additional Information:

I was a member of the first CIA created Air Force, assigned to the 581stAR Squadron of the 581st ARC Wing (Aerial Resupply and Communications Wing), for the CIA’s purpose of waging psychological warfare against our enemies.

It was a challenge to devise a plan for this book because its time span (4 years) and the various locations in which activities occurred present a vast montage of seemingly unrelated visions that seek integration. After trying several approaches, it became clear that coherency was best achieved by location. That is, by presenting the incidents as they occurred when I was assigned in specific locations around the world.

Therefore, I have grouped these incidents from the following locations where I was based at the time of the incident. They will be in sections designated as follows:

Section Location

1. Beginning (Background).

2. San Antonio, Texas.

3. Mountain Home AFB, Idaho

4. Clark Field AFB, Philippines

5. K-16 AFB, Seoul City, Korea

6. Clark Field, AFB, Philippines

7. Andrews AFB, Washington, D.C.

USAF’S SECRET PSYWAR WEAPON

First, here is an excerpt from the book, APOLLO’S WARRIORS, United States Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War. By Colonel Michael E. Haas, USAF, Retired, with a foreword by General Ronald R. Fogleman, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force. (In Blue Print).

Quote: When the first North Korean assault regiments exploded across the 38th parallel in the early Sunday morning darkness of 25th June, 1950, the international reverberations rocked the United Nations like an earthquake. Earlier tremors, like the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and the worker’s anti-soviet rebellions in Eastern Europe, had already been felt. But North Korea’s invasion of South Korea was the first major bloodletting of the cold war, and who knew where it might lead? Despite mounting evidence of the Soviet’s global ambitions, these tremors were like danger signals that, strangely enough, only a few in the Western world would, or could, see.

Fortunately, there were people in the Pentagon, as well as in the newly organized Central Intelligence Agency, small pockets of visionaries that did see what others could not acknowledge: that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s total commitment to the spread of Communism went far beyond Soviet borders—and he even knew how he was going to accomplish his goal. Stalin’s primary weapon was a new kind of war, one that would take the term psychological warfare to an extreme never experienced before in modern history. The visionaries in the Air Force understood the potential of psychological warfare, or psywar as it came to be called. . . .They authorized activation of two special operations wings in 1952. Unquote.

THE BEGINNING

This work is dedicated to my daughters, Susan and Tanya, who have been curious about my life. That curiosity has prompted many questions in the past, so hopefully this will answer some of the questions they have and fill in the gaps on some things they know a little about, but not all.

1.

THE BEGINNING

During 1941 and 1942, when I lived in Vernon, Texas, I used to watch Army Air Corps student pilots from the Victory Field Air Base practice their maneuvers in the skies above town and in the open country for miles around. I was outside most of the time, either playing or working on our 2 ½ acre plot. I planted, hoed weeds, cultivated the ground, and did other jobs associated with raising cantaloupes, our yearly crop. On Saturdays, I walked all over downtown streets shining shoes for Victory Field Cadets, who got weekend passes and came to town to unwind. The main action in unwinding was sitting in a restaurant, relaxing, and having a cold beer or two while listening to a jukebox and getting a shoe shine.

During weekdays, the Vernon sky was filled with single-engine trainers. Each plane carried a student pilot and an IP (Instructor Pilot) After a student soloed, he sometimes flew without an IP. But you never knew whether there was one or two pilots in a passing plane. So, when I looked up, I was always rewarded with an interesting sight. At any given time, there were multiple planes screaming across the sky at various altitudes, or making funny patterns by students involved in Lazy Eight practice. Very often I would see planes hurtling downward in dangerous spirals as IPs cut power and forced the planes to stall. This dangerous maneuver cost the lives of some of the pilots, two of whom were my friends, a Mr. Wilbanks and a Mr. Stirman. Both were my regular customers on Saturdays, and each one always gave me a whole dollar for my nickel shine.

As I watched this activity, I wondered what it would be like to fly. I fantasized, like other young boys did, about being at the controls of a plane. I never realized that someday I would be in the Air Force and flying for my country, not as a pilot, but as a Radio Operator. My fantasies were never as interesting, funny, or dangerous as some of the flights I made during those 3 years I flew during the Korean War.

My daughters have asked me a lot of questions about those years. Due to the Top Secret nature of my duties, whatever information I gave them was minimized for security reasons. But I learned the Defense Department declassified much of that information when a book entitled APOLLO’S WARRIORS, by retired USAF Colonel Michael E. Haas, was published in July, 2000. In his book, Colonel Haas gives extensive details and history about the Psychological Warfare activities of various military units, including our 581st ARC Wing. So I believe it’s okay for me to now be more open about my experiences.

Actually, my children have asked me to write a biography for them. but in considering such a project, I decided it would be too big a job for me to start at age 79. Instead, I will concentrate on my long hours of flying, which I believe will be more interesting than tedious biographical notes. Why? Because most every flight I participated in presented unusual circumstances or events that made the flight either funny, ticklish, uncomfortable, or perilously dangerous. Thus, the options our crew usually faced were whether to don parachutes and bail out, or pray, or just ride it out and try to laugh about it, either then or later.

2.

San Antonio

My First Flight: From Kelly AFB, Texas to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi

I had not finished basic training at the over-crowded Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. I was working 16 to 18 hours per day, seven days a week, as Shipping and Receiving Clerk. I had a barracks and a day room I was in charge of, and my job was to pick up incoming recruits, house them, and care for them until they were assigned to a squadron, and simultaneously, do the same for men being transferred to another location. After doing this for two months, I received orders to go to a 9-month Radio School at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi. I was assigned to travel by a chartered commercial airliner departing from nearby Kelly AFB.

Two nights later, our outgoing group was transported by bus to Kelly AFB where we boarded a C118 type airliner. It was a first flight for many of us, so the level of tension among us was high. I admit that I was concerned about the danger, too, but deep inside I looked forward to this new experience. I was a long way from the cantaloupe patch in Vernon, Texas, but I had strong flashbacks of my past fantasies there; I remembered the plane-filled skies, and the future pilots performing their required maneuvers, and the sad and unexpected deaths of my friends whose practice stalls became death-dives for them. To ease the tension, and my self-generated apprehension, I told a couple of jokes and got some of the fellows to laugh. By the time we boarded the plane, we were all in a positive mood, and the joking and laughing continued. Yet, when the engines roared and we bounced swiftly down the runway, we became quiet and thoughtful. I’ll never forget the tug on my rear and the exhilaration I felt as the huge machine lifted gracefully off the runway and began a smooth climb into the black night.

After we were airborne, the noise level of excited and joyful voices rose to a pitch above the noise of the aircraft. I believed most of us had overcome our fear of flying, and we were now enjoying the wonder of our experience. When we reached cruising altitude, the pilot announced that everything was fine and that our route would take us over New Orleans.

After about 15 minutes, the passengers became quieter, almost silent, as each one relaxed to enjoy the smooth ride. I got out my crossword book and began working crossword puzzles to occupy my mind and prevent negative thoughts —like engine failure, or broken wings, or any of a myriad of possible disasters that could possibly happen. I sat by a window, and all I could see when I looked out was a star-studded sky glittering through the darkness.

As the plane’s propellers bored through the sky, the smooth and comforting sounds of the engines sang an assuring tune that all is well, and some passed the time reading or napping. Some conversed in whispers to those seated nearest to them. I continued working puzzles and peering out of the window occasionally to look below. Sometimes I saw a mass of lights as we passed over what was obviously a small town or city. All of this was interesting to me, a first time flyer, so I searched the limited ground view below for things I thought I could recognize: busy highways; rivers and streams sparkling in the moonlight; small peninsulas jutting out into lakes; geometric patterns in the landscape, which I assumed were plowed fields and maybe rice paddies, since we were over Louisiana.

It was after midnight. The quietness