In my past readings, I seem to recall a ban somewhere in the later stages of Vietnam where O-6 and above were prohibited from flying combat missions due to the loss rate and costs and intel risks of losing a senior officer into a POW camp.  If the guy is running the wing and not flying as much as the  majority, his skillset probably isn't what it was when he was an 0-3/0-4.  Could this have hindered his usage of defensive measures and possibly contributed to getting shot down?  Or cockpit rank gradient?  It's a thing and there is a risk associated with those things.  It sounds like we lost a fortune in equipment during this effort and it wasn't a seamless operation.  I suspect we will get a movie out of this someday with such a rich story and events to work from.  Apparently someone leaked that this guy was missing and the government is after the leaker now.  The media is never a trustworthy ally and that goes back since forever.  Probably contributed to some of the problems encountered and certainly raised the risks.  

On 4/5/2026 9:18 PM, Michael G. Brattland wrote:

Probably Wing Commander. Wonder how junior the pilot crewed with him was.

 

 

 

MGBrattland Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S23 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone

 

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