American Valor Quarterly Issue 6 - Spring/Summer 2009 | Page 28

Roberts: You were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for
your service in Vietnam. What was the specific incident that
earned you this?

Two Wild Weasel F-4C jets being refueled on their return to Kadena
Air Base, Okinawa, from Vietnam. The plane in the background is
piloted by then-Captain Richard Myers..

the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which forced the services to
work together in a much more coordinated fashion. In Vietnam,
everybody wanted a piece of the pie. In fact, they divided up North
Vietnam so that the Air Force flew certain route paths while the
Navy flew other route paths. The coordination between the services
was not anything like it is today and not as well organized, and
probably not as efficient. So it was the organizational issues that I
thought about. But it was an exhilarating time for a young man with
no children; it was dangerous, but at the same time exhilarating.
Roberts: You write that it was much more dangerous during your
second tour there in 1972.

General Myers: I received two Distinguished Flying Crosses from
Vietnam, and they were basically both end of tour awards from
having accumulated enough missions. I never had one particular
mission for which it was earned. As I talk to our World War II
veteran friends, the B-17 crews and so forth that were 18, 19, 20
years old flying over Germany, who would get shot out of the
sky and would either become POWs or die in the effort, I realize
that compared to the things they had to endure, I had it easy. I
received a lot of Air Medals due to the nature of my tours, as a
fast forward air controller and a Wild Weasel. We accumulated
a number of these because our missions were considered a
little more dangerous, and so we received a medal for every ten
missions we flew.
Roberts: Following Vietnam, you went on to Okinawa, correct?
General Myers: Right. I had two children born in Okinawa. One
was born before Okinawa reverted to Japanese control and the
other was born afterward. That was a great place. Kadena Air Base
on Okinawa. The problem was that I was gone over 300 days a
year to other places in Asia, and was barely home. I remember one
incident where we were evacuating the airplanes to South Korea to
get them out of the way of a typhoon. I was in the officers’ club
having a cheeseburger and a beer, and I called my wife in Okinawa.
I asked, “How’s it going?” She had one child in her arms and the
other in the crib, and you can hear the rain and wind beating on
the shutters. She said she would be just fine as long as she kept the
mop out to clean up the water. There she was, putting up with all
of that, while I am away playing pool with the guys – unfair, for
sure. So while I say I had a great time in Okinawa, my wife always
says, “You weren’t even there!”

AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY - Spring/Summer 2009 - 29

Top: U.S. Air Force photo; Bottom: Department of Defense

General Myers: Right, we came back for what we call the Wild
Weasel Mission, which was to try to suppress or destroy the enemy
surface-to-air missiles. At that time the B-52s were starting to
push farther and farther north. The first one that was shot down
went down over the middle of North Vietnam on what was
called Route Path Three. There was a SAM site in that area, and
our job was to try to