maybe one of these day if you would want too we could sit drown and talk about him. i am not as scary as my picture may seem but my normal aging is started to look scary. l/cp gary staples semper fi patricia.

what i also wanted to say is, that he is find looking young man one i know very one around him could count on. i have hard time saying thinks like that, but i wanted to this time. peace love and brothers

welcome to dryhootch Patricia. i will remember your brother in my meditation.

Hi Patricia
I will send you a message to contact me. But I did some research on your brother.
The major mission of the 131st located outside of Hue, was to fly several miles off the North Vietnam Coast going north above Vinh to track truck traffic heading to the border with S Vietnam. These missions ran around the clock, with backup aircraft in case a mission had to return from mechanical issues etc.
I was there in 1971 long after your brother was shot down, but flew those same missions. North Vietnam had the latest weapons from China and Russia, and SAM missiles were strung up and down the coast. From what I understand his was an early morning flight, almost impossible to see a missile heading toward you. And even a close hit would take a Mohawk down. I survived a SAM attack (3 launched at one time) only because my pilot chose to fly at a different altitude, that was a miracle, as everyone flew at one altitude so the intelligence people could locate the targets easily.
When it happned to me, they had flooded the bay with boats, in case we survived they could pick up up. I will reach out to the OV1 Mohawk Association and try to find someone who was there during your brothers years. Tell your father these missions are rarely talked about, there were so few of us, and many of us never wanted to talk about the war.
regards
Bob