The Shoot Down, Evasion, Attempted Rescue and Capture of Jackel-33B

By Jon Couch

On 22 December 1972, an F-111 call sign Jackel 33 was flying a night strike mission over North Vietnam. Jackel 33 was manned by its pilot, Captain Bob Sponeybarger and its Weapons System Operation, 1stLt William (Bill) Wilson. Jackel 33’s assigned targets were the river docks in the middle of Hanoi. For this mission, they flew from Thailand, north and west of Hanoi, looping back around, flying a southerly direction through the eastern expanses of Hanoi to strike their targets. Once shot down, Bill evaded for a week on the ground – the whole time being pursued by North Vietnamese soldiers. Using the training from USAF Survival School in the Philippines, as well as relying on his acumen of the woods, developed as a young scout, Bill eluded capture for a week. Bill (and his pilot) remainder POWs for the remainder of the war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728333175

Jon Couch

Using primary interviews with Bill Wilson as well as other participants, Mr. Couch captured the essence of the events of those chilly and turbulent times in North Vietnam when 1st Lt Bill Wilson evaded capture for a week, after being shot down while going over 500 miles per hour at just over 300 feet above the ground. After capture, Bill Wilson spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war. Mr. Couch currently works for the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency as a Senior Personnel Recovery Instructor/Observer-Trainer. Author of Caged Heroes: American POW Experiences from the Revolutionary War to the Present and published in Small Wars Journal, Mr. Couch specializes in our nation’s prisoner of war and rescue issues.

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© 2019 Jon Couch. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  11/13/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3318-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3316-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3317-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019917340

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Chapter 1 The War in Southeast Asia (SEA)

American POWs in Southeast Asia

Search and Rescue in Southeast Asia

Chapter 2 Bill’s Younger Years

Chapter 3 Thailand and Operation Linebacker-II

Chapter 4 Jackel 33’s Last Mission

Day 2 Evasion (23 Dec)

Day 3 Evasion (24 Dec)

Day 4 Evasion (25 Dec)

Day 5 Evasion (26 Dec)

Day 6 Evasion (27 Dec)

Day 7 Evasion (28 Dec)

Day 8 Evasion (29 Dec)

Chapter 5 Captivity

Chapter 6 Operation Homecoming

Diagrams

1 North and South Vietnam

2 POWs by Year in SEA

3 Components of successful recoveries

4 A-7D Corsair aircraft over SEA

5 HC-130P Aircraft

6 Bill’s Childhood Home

7 Cessna-150 Aircraft

8 Bill’s Senior High School Photo

9 F-111 Tail number 068

10 Typical F-111 Mission Profiles in SEA

11 ¹st Lt Wilson and his F-111 loaded for war

12 JACKEL-33’s approximate route on 22 December

13 F-111 capsule ejection

14 JACKEL-33’s 22 Dec target and

shoot down location

15 JACKEL-33’s ejection point

16 F-111 Crew Escape Module

17 Rescue Armada route for 27 Dec 1972

18 JOLLY SANDY and SMOKE aircraft on 27 Dec 1972.

19 JOLLY-01 transferring injured crew to

JOLLY-03 in Laos

20 JACKEL-33B Patch Commemorating the rescue attempt

21 The Main entrance to Hoa Lo Prison

22 Hoa Lo Prison (pre-1975)

23 Major POW Compounds during the war

24 Bill Wilson at Ho Loa Airport on 29 March 1973

25 Bill at Gia Lam Airfield Release Point

26 May 24, 1973 Gathering at the White House

27 Chuck Rouhier, Rick Shapiro, and Bill Wilson in 1998

28 Flag on Bills den wall

29 Bill and Gayle on 27 July 1996

Appendix A Acronyms

Appendix B Wilson SEA Combat hours

Appendix C SEA POW List

Epilogue

Dedication

When writing about heroes and the actions they participated in, the biggest danger is not in the words chosen to describe the numerous brave exploits in conflict but to mistakenly leave someone out. The story you are about to read is full of such heroics – and hopefully, this accounting of the events occurring during the fall of 1972 and spring of 1973 portrays the essence of such greatness.

First and foremost, this book is dedicated to JACKEL-33’s pilot-weapons system operator, William W. Wilson – or Bill as he prefers. Bill evaded, alone, in the hills of North Vietnam, without food or water, and in the worst possible conditions imaginable for seven days. Bill spent the remaining portions of the war in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison facility located in Hanoi, North Vietnam. Bill was released during Operation Homecoming on 29 March 1973.

If you were to ask Bill today, I imagine he’d say I’m not a hero – but that is what is so oft said by heroes. As every married military member knows, greatness isn’t capable without knowing your family loves and supports you. Bill’s wife, at the time, Linda and their two year old daughter, Michelle gave Bill solace when evading and while in captivity. The contributions of such loving family members cannot be over emphasized.

The Bible says, Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’¹ This could be the unofficial moniker for the rescue crews that literally flew into the clutches of death while attempting to rescue Bill during those cloudy, misty and cold December days of 1972. These men are also heroes of the highest caliber – they risked their lives to rescue a fellow American during that wet, misty, cloudy week in December 1972. Among these men; the crew of the rescue helicopter Jolly-01 Captain Rick Shapiro, his co-pilot, Captain Miguel A. Pereira, the Flight Engineer Sergeant Charles (Chuck) J. Rouhier, the Pararescue Specialists – Technical Sergeant John R. Carlson and Airman First Class Robert W. Jones, and finally the Combat Photographer Sergeant James W. Cockerill.

Supporting this rescue helicopter were scores of aircraft. One of the main aircraft supporting Bill’s rescue effort were A-7D SANDY aircraft. Among these pilots; John Morrissey, Squirrel Whitley, Mike Guth, Ed Tworek, Cliff Montgomery, Mike Jones, Jerry Crist, Bill Lincoln, Bill Spittler, John Dyer, Fred Buhl, John Penney, Craig Gottschang, John Knight, Roger Riggs, Mike Shira, and Vraa. Although not a SANDY pilot, the crew of DESOTO#3 — Carl Jefcoat and Jack Trimble deserve a special mention. Not only did they flying top cover in their F-4 Phantom jets during JACKEL-33B’s rescue attempt – but they were shot down and also became prisoners of war – all while trying to rescue a fellow American. There were also aerial refueling aircraft, command and control aircraft, rescue center staff personnel, operations specialists, Intelligence specialists – all supporting the aircrew that attempted to locate and recover not just the crew of JACKEL-33 but all missing allied personnel that went missing during the war in Southeast Asia.

For all those mentioned here – as well as all those who supported or participated in this and other rescue missions; this book is dedicated to you with our nation’s enduring thanks.

Preface

Storytelling of important events is a daunting task. Sometimes in telling these stories, authors must search state or national archives. Sometimes, these stories are told through the use of personal interviews of those involved or those witnessing the event. These are givens and any writer knows this. What this author found so humbling in the telling in Bill Wilson’s personal story is that this story involves archives, personal accounts, as well as military and civilian records dating back 40 years. This story focuses on Americans who, while serving their country, lost their freedom – all the while protecting the freedoms most Americans enjoy every day. I could not imagine a more dedicated group of Americans to write about.

For those unfamiliar with Prisoners of Wars’ (POW) accounts – and the telling of their stories by those who lived it, these men (and on occasion woman) are slow in acknowledging their tremendous sacrifices and bravery. Conversely, these same former prisoners, hostages, or detainees are quick to acknowledge their appreciation in their abilities to serves this great nation.

The backdrop for such a story is buttressed against one of our nation’s longest and most hotly debated wars, the war in Southeast Asia, and at a time when Civil Rights and the ebbing Jim Crow era was tearing this nation apart at its seams. Some readers may be more accustomed to seeing this conflict referred to as the Vietnam War. This author chooses to use the term Southeast Asia because this war was fought in more locations than the two Vietnams; the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (or North Vietnam). This war was also fought in the air, land and sea spaces of Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Thus, the phrase the war in Southeast Asia seems to more accurately describe this war’s participants, scope and complexities.

As the reader will soon discover, life’s events are seldom easy to understand, hard to grasp, and even harder to appreciate unless told in the proper context.

It is my sincere hope that Bill Wilson’s story is told in the proper context, is accurately depicted, and by these two factors pays homage to the men and women who gave so much during this war yet asked so little in return. Any omissions, errors, or oversights are mine and mine alone.

Jon Couch

Stafford, Virginia

Oct 2019

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The War in Southeast Asia (SEA)

The War in Southeast Asia (SEA) started slowly at first but by August of 1964, it morphed from a simmering brush war in far off lands to a conventional and unconventional war where military forces were being committed to combat actions on hostile shores. Yet, during the summer of 1964, Americans were still trying to understand the assassination of their beloved President, John F. Kennedy who died at the hands of a lone assassin in Dallas, Texas the previous November. Likewise, many Americans shared deep felt concerns about racial injustices as they watched cities in the American south nearly torn apart along racial divides amid hopes for an eventual leveling of the educational opportunities in American schools, voting rights, and violence towards blacks in the American south. Too, a smaller segment of the population had concerns about heightened Cold War tensions with chances of a large scale military conflict. Similarly, there were growing concerns of Russian and other proxy nations spreading communism throughout the southern hemisphere, in Europe, and now, seemingly in Southeast Asia.

Many in the United States, as well as in Central and Latin American nations recalled the recent military build-up and failed invasion of Cuba – the famed Bay of Pigs invasion. The disastrous outcome fueled distrust between President Kennedy and his senior military advisors on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Cuba wasn’t acting alone. The Soviet Union supplied Cuba with military arms and training. America’s military standoff with this tiny Caribbean nation was due to Soviet long range offensive missiles being smuggled into Cuba and then being set up for potential use against the United States mainland. This near conflict captivated TV audiences for several days during October of 1962. Many in the United States and the Soviet Union wondered if this military blockade would be the genesis of World War III. During this same time frame, American school children regularly conducted nuclear attack drills – drills in which they learned to protect themselves by ducking and shielding their eyes in the event of nuclear holocaust.

Popular movies during this era included Ben-Hur (1959), Cleopatra (1963), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the ever-popular Doctor Zhivago (1965). Most Americans watched TV on a few select channels, tuned by the rabbit-ear antennas so prevalent at the time. The Boeing 727 airliner was just being introduced as the world’s propeller aircraft gave way to modern jet aircraft.

In the military, officers and enlisted personnel alike were becoming accustomed to a congressionally mandated-desegregation order, first mandated several years earlier. On some fronts, western nations seemed to be moving forward; able to enjoy postwar prosperity while violence and strife seemed to be all-consuming on the African continent. Europe was rebuilding its cities from the ravages of the recent World War. Many post-war scars were still visible from the devastation of WWII. Prominently, political scars took their toll as well – the two Germanys remained divided along political and ideological lines.

Following President Kennedy’s assassination, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Although President Johnson’s first task was to assume the reins of a nation seemingly on the brinks of a global thermonuclear war and internal racial conflict, Johnson soon declared that he would transform the United States into a Great Society in which poverty and racial injustice would be tackled head-on. Johnson, a Texan and former educator who served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, developed programs that, in his words, Give poor people a hand up, not a handout. These programs included Medicare and Medicaid, which helped elderly and low-income people pay for health care; Head Start, which prepared young children for school; and, Job Corps that trained unskilled workers for jobs in the deindustrializing economy.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s Office of Economic Opportunity encouraged disadvantaged people to participate in the design and implementation of the government’s programs on their behalf, while his Model Cities program offered federal subsidies for urban redevelopment and community projects. At the end of the day, however, all of LBJ’s aspirations and dreams for a Great Society would not be enough for his social programs to rein. A war was brewing in Southeast Asia (SEA).

….

Diagram%201.jpg

Diagram 1

North and South Vietnam

(World wide web; Unattributed

Starting in the early 1950s, the United States quietly assisted the French and South Vietnamese in their efforts to hold off the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s (DRV) communist efforts to forcefully reunite the two Vietnams; commonly called North and South Vietnam.

In 1954, the world witnessed, albeit in disbelief, the French defeat in the battle of Dien Bien Phu in the central highlands of North Vietnam. This sizable French force was besieged and finally surrendered to the fledgling DRV forces during that March and July. The French were defeated in SEA, and bearing in mind the domino theory, many believed that if one nation fell to Communism, so would others. The United States did not intend to just stand idly by and watch more nations fall to communism in this tiny Southeast Asian nation, having already watched several European nations suffer that same fate.

Following the French’s debacle in Dien Bien Phu, America’s military activity slowly increased; first secretly in Laos and Cambodia, and then later and in South Vietnam. The United States Department of Defense (DOD) developed Operation Plan 34A (OPLAN 34A), a classified war plan that directed covert actions which were intended to convince the North Vietnamese to stop trying to unify the two Vietnams. Early in 1963, the U.S. Navy deployed its new naval special operations forces to South Vietnam —commonly called U.S. Navy SEALs (which stands for Sea Air Land teams). Until 1963, OPLAN 34A operations remained under the control of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but the military, under the newly established Military Advisory Group, Vietnam (MAC-V), took control of operations in Vietnam in early 1964.

By mid-summer of 1964, the North Vietnamese increased their naval and coastal defenses in the littoral areas patrolled by the American and South Vietnamese commandoes. Similarly, the Americans greatly increased their presence in the Gulf of Tonkin and surrounding waters. Just after midnight on the evening of 31 July 1964, four Nastie patrol craft, operated by U.S. Navy SEALs and carrying South Vietnamese commandoes, approached their targets off the North Vietnamese coast. American Signals Intelligence, largely provided by DeSoto Signals Intelligence collections ships further off the coasts, indicated the North Vietnamese were aware of the South Vietnamese commandoes’ presence in their territorial waters.

The sequence of events that followed remain hotly debated, but evidence now shows the Nastie patrol craft decided to use some of their deck-mounted recoilless guns to fire on the North Vietnamese coastal gun emplacements. After the Nasties completed their firing, they departed North Vietnamese coastal waters and returned to their bases in South Vietnam. At about the same time, the USS Maddox and Turner Joy were involved in offshore signal collection activities known as DeSoto Patrols. It is thought the North Vietnamese leadership believed the guns fired at them from out at sea and must have been done by the DeSoto naval vessels. So the North Vietnamese sought to defend its sovereign territory and retaliate against these aggressive and unprovoked actions by the USS Maddox and Turner Joy.

The USS Maddox was not aware of the U.S. Navy SEALs secretly inserting commandoes onto the North Vietnamese coast. American history then records, during the period from 31 July through 4 August 1964, North Vietnamese surface combat vessels conducted unprovoked attacks on two American warships in international waters—the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. President Johnson consulted the U.S. Congress and, through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, received permission to commit U.S. combat power to assist the South Vietnamese in their battle against communism.

U.S. combat power, brought to bear as a direct result of this Gulf of Tonkin incident, included U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups. One was near Hong Kong and told to immediately redeploy to Southeast Asian waters. American aircraft carriers moved into the Tonkin Gulf for retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese military targets.

President Johnson appeared on national television on August 5, 1964 and told the American people that the United States conducted air operations against the boats and facilities that were responsible for the earlier Gulf of Tonkin incidents. Ironically, some of the aircrew assigned to fly these missions, watched President Johnson’s televised declaration of these attacks while onboard their aircraft carriers, and before they launched into the North Vietnam. This was because the President’s speech writers and advisors did not make the necessary allowances for the time differences between east coast time—Washington, D.C. and Hanoi local time before making these televised statements about the launching of military operations. Hanoi and Saigon are eleven hours ahead of Washington, D.C. time.

Although the Americans didn’t realize it at the time, the North Vietnamese knew the Americans were coming before they even launched off of their aircraft carriers. Because of these raids, Americans were shot down and taken prisoner. The United States had its war in Southeast Asia.

The United States committed ground combat forces into the burgeoning conflict during July of 1965 when President Johnson ordered United States Marines ashore in Da Nang, South Vietnam. Even at this early stage of the war, the insurgency in Southeast Asia was already in full swing. Nguyen Ai Quoc, known in the west as Ho Chi Minh, and his small circle of devoted followers, organized their nationalist struggle for a forced reunification of the two Vietnams. During WWII, the North Vietnamese fought the Japanese, and later the French, in what they viewed as the First Indochina War. To the North Vietnamese, this Second Indochina War was a nationalist war of independence—a war of liberation.²

Ho Chi Minh’s strategy was a unique blend of North Vietnamese and Chinese (Maoist) philosophies.³ The coming war was to be a war of attrition, a war that America’s military forces neither fully understood nor were equipped to fight. Today we call this tactic unconventional warfare and it is adopted as a part of the larger counterinsurgency strategy.

The year 1965 brought continued political turmoil in Saigon while North Vietnam steadily built up the Viet Cong and dispatched divisions of its own regular army to fight an expanding main force war against the South Vietnamese, American, and Australian forces. In response, the United States escalated its own military role in the struggle through the ROLLINGTHUNDER air campaign. The United States brought gradually increasing