My general thought reading about the WSO was if he was as suggested the Squadron CO/XO and by tradition, CO/XOs tend to be crewed with the least experienced junior officer in the squadron for good reasons.  All of us know this from own experiences.  If he was a bird Colonel than he would probably be flying with a much more experienced pilot as a Wing Commander, but as a Skipper probably not that experienced. Considering the post mishap discussion and even the President indicated they were downed by a should fired weapon, if he was a newer pilot that lack of experience may have played role in not being able to avoid the missile. mgb

From: Stephen Bury <sbury@erols.com>
Sent: Monday, April 6, 2026 2:20 PM
To: Kevin Black <kblack1967@gmail.com>
Cc: helobubbas@helobubbas.com
Subject: [Helobubbas] Re: WSO was a Colonel

My guess is the WSO is most likely the current Squadron Commander who is a lieutenant colonel and who was highly decorated last year . It's not uncommon for the Skipper to be referred to as Colonel in that position... Just my thoughts... And purposely not naming the name.

On Apr 6, 2026 4:24 PM, Kevin Black <kblack1967@gmail.com> wrote:

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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