The Mustache of Honor...

Click here for Part II...

My mustache will soon celebrate its 49th birthday...The one I display under my nose today is the second one I've grown, the first being such a wimpy little thing, it barely deserves a mention...In thinking about it in hindsight, it really had no purpose, or even reason to justify its existence, and is barely worth a passing remembrance other than its place on a list of two...

My current duster first saw the light of day in August of 1967 when I was still stationed in West Germany flexing the USAF's muscle in the face of the Rooskies...Meanwhile, several time zones away, men were losing their lives everyday in a war several degrees hotter...One day reading the Stars & Stripes over my morning coffee, I read my first reference to a firebrand Colonel named Robin Olds...

As commander of the 8th TFW at Ubon RTAB, Thailand, he and his men had earlier that year made military history by suckering the DRV Air Force into a dogfight over Hanoi, and destroying half the enemy's entire MiG 21 inventory in an action called Operation Bolo...The story went on to describe Olds' leadership, and his men's devotion to duty under that leadership which many of them exemplified by duplicating his large, and decidedly un-military mustache...

In support of the war effort (and my own rebellious streak) I set out that morning to once again put my upper lip on display by cultivating my own hirsute facial adornment...As it became visible, the running barracks joke became that I was trying to get my weight back up to minimum USAF standards to avoid a medical discharge, and hair had to weigh something...

As luck and maturity would have it, my mustache reached far more luxuriant growth that my earlier attempt the previous year, even lending itself to handlebar proportions with the aid of a tube of mustache wax sent to me by a young lady with whom I was corresponding at the time...Considering its faithfulness to me over the years in good times as well as not-as-good, I now refer to it as my Mustache Of Honor, and it will likely be the only MOH I will ever be authorized to wear...

All this was brought back in memory as I recently completed my reading of "Fighter Pilot," compiled and written by Olds' daughter, Christina Olds, and Ed Rasimus from the voluminous papers, photos, letters and memorabilia Olds collected during his lifetime...Below is a brief excerpt from the Amazon page linked above...

Robin Olds was many things to many people. To his West Point football coach he was an All American destined for the National College Football Hall of Fame. To his P-38 and P-51 wartime squadrons in WWII he was the aggressive fighter pilot who made double ace and became their commander in nine short months. For the pioneers of the jet age, he was the wingman on the first jet demo team, a racer in the Thompson Trophy race, and the only U.S. exchange officer to command an RAF squadron. In the tabloid press he was the dashing flying hero who married the glamorous movie star.

If only one word stood out to best describe Olds and the impact he left on the lives he touched, it would be "leadership"...And he always led from the front, never happy to be behind the lines directing the action...He showed his natural aggressiveness and get-out-of-my-sky attitude as soon as he spotted the first enemy aircraft in the skies over Germany during WWII, earning a unit command and the rank of Major at the age of 22...

Medals, awards and decorations are but one way to trace one's military career...Some, like this writer, couldn't even stay out of trouble for the three short years required to earn a Good Conduct Medal, and receive their discharge wearing whatever unit citations were awarded their assigned duty stations...Others, like Col. Olds (in later years he preferred to be called Colonel even though he achieved the rank of Brigadier General before retirement) barely had room on his dress blues to hold the decorations which had been awarded him in his career...

As an example, this following paragraph describes the criteria by which a serviceperson becomes eligible to be recommended for the Air Medal...

The medal is awarded to anyone who, while serving in any capacity in or with the Armed Forces of the United States, distinguishes himself or herself by meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.

Among the many citations which bear his name, Olds was awarded the Air Medal 40 times in his career, so many in fact that it took an entire row on the left breast of his uniform jacket to hold all the ribbons and oak leaf clusters signifying just this one award...By contrast, legendary air warrior and Medal of Honor recipient Jimmy Doolittle, under whose command Olds served in WWII, ended his career with four Air Medal awards...

But Olds was not above using medals to an advantage to right a potential wrong...During his last days in SEA, Olds was part of a MiG CAP running interference for bomb-laden F-105's inbound for targets near Hanoi...They engaged a group of MiG's, and Olds chased one MiG 21 into the path of a North Vietnamese SAM and watched as the MiG was destroyed...

Upon calling for the egress, he found that one of his men's aircraft had sustained major damage, was losing fuel rapidly and they planned to eject over Laos when the fuel was exhausted...Immediately, the pilot of a KC-135 tanker listening in his track over South Vietnam got on the radio and said, "Negative, I'm coming to get you"...

Both planes managed to rendezvous over North Vietnam seconds before the Phantom ran out of fuel...Turning both aircraft south, they realized the F-4 was losing fuel almost as fast as it was being pumped in through a gaping hole in the wing...Leaving the connection intact, the KC-135 pilot pulled the crippled F-4 through the sky to the nearest friendly base in Thailand...

Once within range he unhooked, and the Phantom landed safely, its only remaining engine dying from fuel starvation as it rolled to a stop on the runway...A week later Olds was told that the KC-135 pilot who prevented the possible loss of an aircrew and their aircraft was facing court martial for unauthorized entry into enemy airspace during that daring rescue...

Olds solved that problem by recommending the KC-135 pilot for the Silver Star in his after action report...After his recommendation made its way up through channels, no more mention was made of court-martial and the matter was dropped...

At the time of that battle, Olds was neither mission commander nor flight commander, having been ordered to cease leading attacks north of the DMZ due to the large bounty placed on his life by the DRV...The innovative Olds sidestepped that order by assigning battle command posts to his men, and joining them as a mere pilot...However, his report and recommendation as Wing Commander apparently still carried some weight...

If stories like this are your cup of tea, then this book, a loving tribute to her father, as compiled by his daughter should be the next book you read...It is on the Truckman Most Highly Recommended list...It's my understanding that Miss Olds is diverting all royalties toward retiring the debt accrued by her father prior to his death...

A diligent search of the internet will turn up a photo of this writer and his Mustache Of Honor, braced against the wind and standing next to an F-4 Phantom painted to reproduce Olds' favorite, and last, fighter aircraft, Scat XXVII, in which he became the only triple ace who flew combat missions in both WWII and the Vietnam War...It may be noted from the picture that the writer hasn't missed many meals in civilian life after his thinner days as a young weapons mechanic, and has acquired considerable poundage since the day he decided to follow the crowd supporting Col. Olds...

There's nothing wrong with following a crowd as long as the right leader is in charge, and you're going in the same direction anyway...

More articles with Book Reviews...

More articles concerning Warriors and Militaria...