American Valor Quarterly Issue 6 - Spring/Summer 2009 | Page 27

U.S. Air Force photo

Roberts: You went on to college at Kansas State, joining Air Force of war, and wonder if you have the stamina, the fortitude, and the
ROTC, and married your wife Mary Jo. From there, you embarked perseverance to survive being a POW. As I read the memoirs of
on your Air Force career.
these folks that were held in Hanoi, I was never convinced that
I would have held up half as well as those men, some of whom
General Myers: I had grown to love flying. The fact that it had survived that terrible ordeal for five, six, seven years.
military utility was interesting, but flying itself was really fun for
me. For a lot of people, pilot training was a struggle, but it ended At the same time, I was young, and had no children at the time, and
up being the best year of my life. It came naturally to me, which was ready for the risk. I was married, and Mary Jo wanted to come
allowed me to do well and choose where I was sent afterward. Mary to see me in Thailand, telling me that “If you are going to be put
Jo loved Europe, having been there as a student, so I decided to in harm’s way and possibly die, I want to know what it is like over
fly the F-4 Phantom out of Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. there.” The Department of Defense prohibited dependents from
coming to Thailand because there was no infrastructure for taking
Roberts: You write that the Phantom was an especially challenging care of them, so I tried to tell her she could not come. But she
aircraft to fly. Why was this?
replied, “You mean an American citizen with a passport and a visa
can’t come to Bangkok?” I said that I guess they could, to which
General Myers: It was big and heavy, and it had a two-person crew; she said, “I’m coming.” She did come to Thailand, and in the end
the coordination required between two people in an aircraft like had three jobs in Bangkok – all teaching. One was at Chulaongkorn
that makes it more difficult than a single-seater. Then there were the University teaching English to Thai students planning on coming
missions it was assigned. It flew
to the United States for graduate
everything from air superiority
studies. She integrated right into
to dropping bombs to nuclear
the community in Bangkok,
attack. When I went to Germany,
not relying on DOD resources
we had to be qualified in all the
whatsoever. We saw each other
conventional munitions, the
here and there, usually every
bombs and the rockets and all
few months. At one point, I was
that. We also had to be certified
threatened with reassignment to
for the nuclear mission, and on
Korea if I did not send her home.
top of that we had to be able to
I displayed a bit of arrogance
fly air-to-air missions as well. So
w