Charles Faltin, E5, Technical Observer, OV 1 Mohawk – Infrared and Side Looking Airborne Radar – 225th Black Hawk, 131st Red Eye
From 1967-1968 I flew the OV 1 Mohawk on reconnaissance missions for the CIA over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. If we told anyone where we flew, we were told we would get a dishonorable discharge. My family never knew where I was. In 1967 after a mission, I was told to go see the “Old Man”. He asked, “Do you have a 12-year-old brother Mike with diabetes? He died 5 days ago.
We regularly flew through the A Shau Valley where we had a 50% chance of not coming back. My married buddies nicknamed our Mohawks “The Widow Maker”. Whenever I got out of my plane, I would make a sign of the cross and say “cheated death again”.
“Hanoi Hanna”, a good friend of Jane Fonda, would mention our call signs over the AM radio to tell us what they would do to us when we were shot down.
In 1967 during the Tet Offensive, I spent 6 days and nights in a bunker shooting at anything that moved.
A good friend of mine, John Sparks, spent 5 ½ years as a POW in the “Hanoi Hilton”. He swore he would never eat pumpkin soup again! On his last Christmas there (1972) he saw a B52 take a direct hit and go down in flames. He wrote the following: “We toast our hearty comrades who have fallen from the skies and were gently caught by God’s own hands to be with Him on high, to dwell among the soaring clouds they have flown so well before, from victory roll to tail chase at Heaven’s very door. And as we fly among them there, we’re sure to hear their plea: Take care my friend, watch your six, and do one more roll for me.”
Wes Sperling and I were drafted the same day and did basic training together. Over a beer after graduation I said, “We’ll get together after the war”. Wes replied, “I won’t be coming home”. On April 15, 1968, Wes was killed in Kon Tum. I was flying over Wes’s company during a firefight. They radioed me for help. I called in artillery, ground troops, and planes to assist. They didn’t get there in time.
Please make a silent toast with me to honor all our POWs, Missing in Action, and our Comrades.
