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I'm sure this man knew Major Curtis Abbot Eaton.He flew a F-105 Thunderchief.On August 14,1966 Major Eaton was the number four on a bombing mission deep into North Vietnam.Shortly after pulling off the target he radioed that he had been hit,and was going to eject.The number three aircraft radioed back to ask his position,however Major Eaton did not respond and was not heard from again.He was declared lost in action. The Air Force promoted him to Colonel.I am a very close family friend.Col.Eaton was a veteran of WW-2,The Korean war and Vietnam war.He loved flying loved this country Rest easy Col.Eaton

60 years later, he still turns out detail after detail with such accuracy, it's amazing! I was a KC-135 Boom Operator, my first air refueling in training was a flight of F-105 Wild Weasels, they have a face only their pilots could love!

Thank you,sir,for your service to a FREE and grateful nation!!!

McNamara and LBJ were beyond doubt the very best combat strategists Hanoi ever had.

Thank you for this wonderful story Colonel Vizcarra…….My very best Buddy Colonel Ted Mollier USAF RETIRED, was himself an F-105 PILOT who flew two 100 mission tours out of Takhli in 1967 And 1969….. a very close friend and Buddy of Colonel Billy Sparks USAF, a F 105F, Weasel pilot, who wrote the book " TAKHLI TALES” in which Ted is mentioned many times. Sadly Billy passed in 2013 after a bout with cancer and Ted also passed on 10 April 2022. Being Ted’s closest friend, he very reluctantly shared some his mission tales ( for one of which he earned a Silver Star ), thus it was fantastic to hear your brave stories of the events that earned you Air Force Cross. We are forever indebted to you for your selfless bravery, dedication and sacrifice. May 🙏🏻GOD BLESS YOU 🙏🏻 🇺🇸and All who serve(d). Rusty Iron Mike (USMC).🇺🇸

This 40 minutes flew by. What a great guy and his memory is awesome to recall these stories. Thanks for your service and balls of tremendous steel to protect us back home!!!

I could listen to this man all night……….

A friend of mine was a F-105G wild weasel pilot. He won’t shut up about it. No I’m kidding. He does talk about it sometimes but he’s very humble. He’s got a F-105 ejection seat on casters in his office. It’s surprisingly comfortable. I can imagine him sitting in it in the dark and reliving mission’s. First in last out. BTW he was Arnold palmers pilot and president of Cessna for a time.

Thank you for keeping these experiences alive

Awesome stories guys. Thanks to all our Veteran hero's

Incredible experience of an Air Force Pilot. True warrior!

I remember doing a book report on 'Thud Ridge" back in high school, about these pilots and the thud.

My god hearing that you guys weren’t allowed to destroy all the Sam sites makes me really believe what a lot of Vietnam vet’s say that you guys weren’t allowed to win the war.

I met a retired F-105 pilot at my barbershop in Summerlin(West Las Vegas) last year. He's in his 70's still going strong. He was limping around with a bad knee surgery but still teaching a class at UNLV. Wish I would have offered him a ride to show my appreciation for his service.

To say Thank You seems so inadequate for your dedication to service but it's all I have, from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU

Thank you for answering the call to serve ❤🇺🇸

I forgot how involved the politicians were in tactics. Just nuts.

I had an SA2 fired at me in the vicinity of the DMZ. I was above a broken layer of clouds and fortunately I had a APR25/26 warning device and was able to avoid it. As I dove through the clouds, I could see the vapor trails going up through the layer I had just passed through.

Amazing! I have heard several interviews with his sons and seen the movies made by his son. This is the first interview with Victor that I've seen. Amazing stories and I remember seeing the famous picture of Victor arriving back at a base/boat with eyes as big as tennis balls.

What an incredible story!!! A proud member of the caterpiller club and rescued to boot. God bless you.

WELCOME HOME, THANK YOU SIR, GOD BLESS YOU ALL....

Phenomenal story. I love hearing these guys tell about their experiences. The whole time a picture is constantly being painted in my mind of what it all could have looked and felt like. Thank you for sharing this.

Great interview. I love hearing stories from these guys.

I was at Korat where they had the -105 Wild Weasels. Great aircraft, booming afterburner. This was in '72, and there were not a lot of them left.

Excellent video. By the time I had finished all of my training (1975) the war was over but I got training on all parts of Vic’s ejection and rescue although we got better equipment and training from lessons learned from his and others ejections. Man that was a long time ago.

The way he talks about such negative events with such humor and humility is such a Latino thing lolol God bless this man.

It was my father’s squadron - the 45th Tactical Fighter Squadron/ 15th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Ubon - that lost that first aircraft to a SAM. My father told my mother about flying over that site everyday and watching them build it, but not being able to do anything about it because of the rules of engagement. The 45th was the first unit of the 15th Wing to go over - and the first Air Force unit to kill a MiG - and they were about to rotate back to MacDill when this happened. Ross Fobair, who had flown with my father since pilot training, and who was on his final mission, was probably killed outright as the missile detonated right under him. His remains were finally repatriated in 2001. The pilot, Richard Keirns, was a 47thTFS pilot doing an orientation flight prior to the 47th arriving to relieve the 45th. He became a Prisoner of War for the second time, having been a guest of the Germans after his B-17 was shot down in WWII. He returned home 8 years later in Operation Homecoming. Our rules of engagement left those men - and my father - sitting ducks for fear of harming any Russian advisors on the ground. After the Iron Curtain came down years later it came to light that that shoot down wasn’t the work of the Vietnamese, but rather the Russian advisors that we were so worried about harming. The Russians killed Capt. Roscoe Fobair, with help from Johnson and McNamara.

40 min interview felt like it was 15 mins tops. Really enjoyed hearing his story. The Gunner kid giving repeated thumbs up after getting you up with the hoist, yeah he was probably indeed very happy to be part of your rescue. Again, great story.

In the book "Thud Ridge", Jack Broughton explained how the criminally insane in DC dispatched them to fly the SAME route at the SAME time, everyday on their strike missions. The incompetent "experts"there even determined the payload. The North Vietnamese lined the entire route with anti -aircraft artillery and surface to air missiles. On every mission they lost someone promoting the development of the Wild Weasel program. One of the Lt Colonels teaching at my AFJROTC program in high school flew F-4s and he was pretty bitter about being sent on these suicide missions. From the looks of the past 20 yrs it seems nothing has changed as the "leadership" squanders lives and refuses to act responsibly.

Thanks for guys like him, went through the same training in the 70s, all the bugs in systems were worked out because of guys like him, plus trainers cautioned us about the mistakes people make under duress.

Thank you Victor! Glad you made it. Incredible story!

I salute you Sir!

Thank you

Thank you for your service

God bless this man and all of his kind.

What a fine gentleman.

Very interesting, enjoyed the interview.

McNamara's clueless understanding of waging war cost a lot of lives AND failed to accomplish the mission

I was a Black Knight in '79-80

Fragmentary order. Great story and full respect for your service Sir

Thank You 🙏 Sir !

An Interesting and Honest Account, Thankyou for your Service 👍

Had a friend Bill S from grade school in Hillsdale NJ I ran into him in Herbs. In Pearl River NY he said to me while you were doing all that ground ponding in the Nam you should have looked up I was flying over your head.THEN he said those sams look like flying telephone poles when they are coming up at you

Kinda of eerie to think that his radio is probably still out there somewhere laying on the jungle floor. I wonder what's left of it, if anything.

What a man. 👍

Being from the UK, I don't really know anything about the Vietnam War. I have read a couple of books on some experiences from some of the people there,and there's some really interesting stories. Of course in war, there's always the really horrible stuff.I was deeply shocked and appalled at the massacre of My Lai.

That was cool

What an awesome story. Great guy

This just proves that angels do exist. In dire need of rescue, look to the heavens and here somes this bird with a hand reaching down for him.

No need to protect your family jewels when you got family jewels of steel❤❤ thank you for your service

Nice note about McNamara he made. It’s understood McNamara wantend the war. So no pre bombing of sam sites

I had 5 uncles that fought in Vietnam, all came back... I've never heard any stories out of all 5 that served. My moms brother, my uncle bill was some what shell shocked she soad never ask him about wat.. he's the only uncle still alive..

Thank you please bring more and more of these guys we need to hear are stories. Rewriting history is what the left does best.

I adore this man! Thud pilots are the best!!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

Any doubt idiots were running the war? I loved the Thunderchief as a kid. Who needs so-called Superhero movies when the real thing was and is in our midst? You're my hero, sir.

Common sense tells you to dive hard the cheap sams cannot reverse

I know Vic got a killer autographed pic from him

It should be that when our country puts these brave warriors in harms way the gloves are off. Instead it’s lions led by swine.

Thank you for your service, Colonel. All of you Thud pilots had big brass ones to fly and try to fight under the absurd ROE's y'all had.

It was a poor effort considering the US aircraft and aircrew losses over South Vietnam, and that the US owned the skies and the Vietcong had no air assets themselves. Vietnam was the war that made air to air combat between fighters redundant. It ushered in the period when a shoulder fired missile costing $20k could down a $20m fighter without even having to aim it properly. And we are seeing that played out in Ukraine. Why send a pilot in a $30m F35 on a mission to take out a ground target, when a drone costing less than $5k can do the job almost undetected.

Vizcarra is a last name from Northern Spain. Lots of Vietnam Veterans with Spanish last names. We volunteered a lot to fight the commies all over the world.

However courageous were pilots like him, he shouldn't have been sent there to do what he was doing. The US tried to browbeat my country into going to war alongside them, glad they wouldn't, unlike Iraq. As someone like General Giap (think it was) said to US negotiators, you may kill 10 of us for every one of you, but we will still win. Their courage & will to survive & prevail against the monstrous US military-industrial complex is an example to us all. We should salute them. It was was never about Communism, that was the US's pretext. It was about spheres of influence/control & perceived easy pickings.

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This is why we lost that war cuz the government US government did not want to when it. Sam sites should have been taken out. Fifty-eight thousand American soldiers sailors and airmen.

Οne SAM shot down 4 F-4 Phantoms? Wow!!