Goodfellow color guard opens the 2024 ceremony.
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(L) Seventeen members of the extended Gene Halfmann family attended. Gene's EC-47 assignment was as an analyst with Det. 3 of the 6994th Security Squadron at Nakhon Phanom RTAFB. (R) FTVA Heritage Chapter President J.J. Graham presents LTC John McAllister, commander of the 344th Military Intelligence Battalion, with a plaque honoring the crew of Vanguard 216, shot down in the DMZ, March 4, 1971.
As always, thanks to Carl Bradley of Faith in a Flash Photography for his outstanding support of these and other events. Click HERE to access a gallery of over 200 photos of the Goodfellow ceremony as well as the Thursday social hour and the Friday evening banquet. The webpage also contains links to videos shot by Goodfellow Public Affairs.
Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, and with it the end of DoD's Commemorative Partners Program. From the very beginning, the EC-47 History Site, in cooperation with Angelo State University, the FTVA Heritage Chapter, and Goodfellow AFB, has been a major participant. Our final Commemorative Partner pinning ceremony will take place on Friday, March 28, 2025, in order to take advantage of the Goodfellow AFB weekday support and to deconflict with other events that may be scheduled for Vietnam Veterans Day, Saturday, March 29.
That will be a memorable day indeed, and we plan to develop a full program of events. We're also considering a program that will continue to recognize Vietnam veterans and surviving spouses of Vietnam veterans, using unique pins and certificates already developed by the EC-47 History Site. Much remains to be done on both fronts, but preliminary planning is already underway. It's a long ways off, but mark your calendars now and plan to join us! As always, details will be posted as they're finalized.
In the “Tell Your EC-47 Story” section, we’ve posted some new submittals from our vets. Links to the most recent are in the descriptions below. As we all know, our numbers are steadily diminishing. So if you haven’t yet recorded your EC-47 experiences, with photos if you have them, do it now! Don’t think your writing skills are good enough? Not to worry—we can help with that if you want.
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"This just in," as the newsfolks used to say. Tony Paulson, flight engineer with the 362nd TEWS, sent in a very nice description of his tour at Pleiku. Click here to read Tony's story.
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We recently received another story, a video actually, from Lt. Col. (retired) Jerry Bradley who, as a young jet-trained lieutenant fresh out of UPT, found himself assigned to the 362nd TEWS at Pleiku, flying airplanes older than he was. Jerry recently made a presentation about his EC-47 experience to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), in Oshkosh, Wisc.
Jerry says. "The story is from my personal point of view as an EC-47 pilot and there may be errors and/or mistakes in details. It is the best of my recollections from 55 years ago when I was a 23 year old 1st Lieutenant Aircraft Commander along with fellow young men flying combat, trying to the best of our ability to complete our duty and mission." Click here to view the video, courtesy the EAA.
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Meanwhile, Joe Martin, co-manager (with Tom Nurre) of the EC-47 History Site, did an article on his USAFSS/EC-47 experience that was published in the Spring 2024 issue of the Air Force Museum's Friends Journal. Read it here.
Homepage updated 27 Sept 2024)