Robin Olds

[Dudley Henriques]

Great photos and stories!

Hi Randy;

I just clued Ed Rasimus back channel in on these photos.
Dudley

[Chief]

Warbird 1



I was not aware of any racism. We all had our jobs to do and I guess we were always too busy working or on call 24/7 to even think about such things. Chappie was well respected by all. He and Col Olds worked together as a team. We referred to them jokingly as "Blackman and Robin". After Chappie took over as the Vice Commander and Col Olds was on a mission, Chappie would preside over the morning "Stand-Up" and handle the reports and discussions. I saw him give "constructive criticism" just like Col Olds. Chappie endorsed my performance report.



Reference the MIGS; We had red stars over the entrance to Wing Headquarters to count them. Col Olds biggest fear was to be sent home early. There were rumors he got more than four. However, even though I was in the morning meetings, I never saw any indication he did. However, we all knew he flew more than 100 missions (another reason to get sent home early). In later years, one time when we talked, he looked me in the eye and said he didn't. I took him for his word.

In the photo above, Col Olds's, Chappie's and Ruby Gilmore's offices were through the door behind me and to the right. Our safety office was on down the hall to the left.

[warbird1]

Wow, what great stories and pictures, Chief! You were an exciting part of history! Thanks for your input here. I would love to see any more pictures you have of Chappie or Olds or even just their aircraft if you have any. That's fantastic that they worked well together, it sounds like they made quite a team. It's too bad that there will probably never be another "Olds" type as our military just doesn't tolerate independent-thinking people who go against the grain of conventional thinking.

BTW, thank you for your service, Chief! It's people like you that have allowed us the freedom we all have today. For that I am grateful.

[Chief]

Hi Warbird 1. Here's another photo.

This is Col Olds leading his flight home on his last mission on September 23rd 1967. He first did this high speed low pass over the flightline, then went into a "Thunderbirds" type show.

The C47 in the photo was the one he directed to fly our people directly to and from Bangkok rather than ride all day on the scheduled C-130 that made stops at all the other bases in country before finally arriving at Ubon.

The structure at left was used to train pilots on a "Let Down Device" Col Olds had us design to safely lower a pilot down to the ground after they bailed out in Laos and their chute was caught in the very tall jungle tree canopy. I had to act as the "guinea pig" to test it.

[flyboyj]

Very cool Chief, thanks for sharing all this.

I know all this was a long time ago but did you come across or remember a young Captain named Larry Rider? I worked with him briefly at the USAFA about 5 years ago. He helped develop the soaring program at the academy when Olds was there. Apparently he served under Olds during this period in VN.

EDIT - Larry was in the 55th

Last edited by flyboyj on Mon May 24, 2010 9:22 pm, edited 5 times in total.

[warbird1]

Thanks for the picture, Chief. So, Col. Olds was the one who thought of the idea about the tree lowering device to use on the parachute harness? It has been a standard item on nearly every USAF parachute harness issued since Viet Nam.

Awesome!

[APG85]

Great stuff. I just finished my year at Kunsan and Robin Olds is a legend there. He is known as "Wolf 1" and a room in the club is know as "The Olds Room". The Pilots hang out in there and there is a lot of Robin Olds memorabilia including the vertical stab of an F-4 that he signed during a visit. He coined the phrase "Wolfpack" that the 8th Fighter Wing uses to this day (note the "WP" on the tails of the F-16's at Kunsan). Neat stuff...

[Django]

Chief, thanks so much for the stories and pics!!!

[Chief]

Scott,
You mentioned the vertical stab that Col Olds signed in Korea. Well here is one vertical stab he wished he had never seen. On March 21, 1967, two of his guys from the 433 TFS (64-0788 shown here) and (63-7586) were returning from a mission. They were trying to take photos of each other, got too close and had a mid-air. After we did the investigation, Col Olds had to go do another "Star Talk" (Brief the Generals) This was a real "Smoking Hole" when I came upon it in the jungle.



flyboy j,
You asked about Larry Rider. Sorry, but, I don't recall the name.

Warbird 1,
Reference the "Let Down" device:

The device was very simple. It consisted of a 100 ft roll of very thin nylon strap the pilots kept in a pocket on their lower left leg. If their parachute was caught in the tree canopy, they would take out the strap, feed it up across their chest, through their harness "D" ring and then on up over their head and tie the end around the parachute risers, above the riser buckles. Then they would hold onto the strap just below the "D" ring, reach up with their other hand and, one at a time, release the buckles on the risers. Then, they would repel down as the strap passed through the "D" ring. They controlled their rate of descent and speed of the strap going through the "D" ring by the angle in which they held the strap out in front of their chest.

We only had one failure. A "large" Lt Col was using it, the strap tore and he fell about 30 feet and broke a leg. Our investigation revealed he was repelling down very fast and stopped quickly about half way down to look around. The "D" ring was hot from the nylon strap passing through it so fast that when he stopped, the strap tore because it was weakened/slightly melted from the heat. We went to a heavier strap and retrained the pilots to come down slower and if they needed to stop during descent, to stop slowly.

John

[Rasimus]

Chief, I'd not heard about Robin and the let-down device. I'd been flying F-105s out of Korat during the summer before Robin arrived at Ubon. I left in November '66 and Robin arrived in October of '66. While on that tour we didn't have it but we did carry a 100 foot nylon webbing strap for the purpose. Mine was sewn into the back of the left calf section of my G-suit. When I returned to Korat in the F-4 in '72 the integrated letdown device in the torso harness was standard.

No way that Robin could have hidden a fifth MiG kill. Too many players involved and too accurate an accounting of the Air-Order of Battle regarding number of MiGs. Someone would have had to be credited if a MiG was downed and if there was one thing that Robin didn't tolerate it was falsification of records. That is mentioned several times in Fighter Pilot regarding mission counts and decoration recommendations.

He definitely did fly more than 100 "counters" but he wouldn't have gone home based on mission count. Wing commanders were there for a full year tour.

Ed Rasimus

[Zachary]

Chief, I'd not heard about Robin and the let-down device. I'd been flying F-105s out of Korat during the summer before Robin arrived at Ubon. I left in November '66 and Robin arrived in October of '66. While on that tour we didn't have it but we did carry a 100 foot nylon webbing strap for the purpose. Mine was sewn into the back of the left calf section of my G-suit. When I returned to Korat in the F-4 in '72 the integrated letdown device in the torso harness was standard.

No way that Robin could have hidden a fifth MiG kill. Too many players involved and too accurate an accounting of the Air-Order of Battle regarding number of MiGs. Someone would have had to be credited if a MiG was downed and if there was one thing that Robin didn't tolerate it was falsification of records. That is mentioned several times in Fighter Pilot regarding mission counts and decoration recommendations.

He definitely did fly more than 100 "counters" but he wouldn't have gone home based on mission count. Wing commanders were there for a full year tour.

Ed Rasimus

Welcome to WIX Ed!!! It's a rare treat when someone of your experience posts. I hope you find this place to your liking, and continue to share your memories and experiences with us.

Zack

[flyboyj]

Ed, Chief - thanks so much for all this info!!!

[Ken]

Just got the book and am only up to his first P-51 flight; enjoying every page.

Ken

[JohnB]

Can someone confirm something I (think) heard Gen. Olds say? (I can't recall if it was Olds or Gen. Blesse)

During a talk at Dyess AFB in 2000, he said he checked Col Dyess out in the P-38 at Burbank in December, 1943.

Does that jive with his assignments? Doe he mention that in his book?

[Lynn Allen]

Its a great book and hard to put down. Its also one of the best I have read in a long time....

Lynn