A Minnesota PBS Initiative
Remembrance
(C) Steve Schneider/Photography
0615. Sunlight climbs over the trees casting the shadow of this solitary figure on the Wall. Remembrance. Memories.
I came to see the Wall That Heals because Vietnam is still part of me.
I was not in Vietnam, I was over it. I was a navigator on a KC-135 tanker conducting aerial refueling missions in and around Vietnamese airspace. Fighters would take off from their various bases heavily loaded with weapons, but light on fuel. Our job was to be a "gas station in the sky." The fighters would come to us after takeoff, top their tanks, then fly their various missions, returning as necessary for more fuel and ultimately return to their base when their armaments were deployed.
(C) Steve Schneider/Photography
Somewhere over the Pacific between Guam and Thailand, a B-52 comes close for refueling.
I visited the Wall in DC in 1985. I was on a 10-day holiday to see the nation's capital and all its sights (and sites). I planned on being at the Wall for maybe 4 hours one morning for sunrise and the early light. I ended up spending 4 days there, shooting some 20+ rolls of film. Morning, noon and night. I couldn't stay away.
It was for me then, and still is today, the most potent, significant monument to the men and women who participate in war that the world has ever seen. Like Arlington it gives us the names of the fallen, but unlike Arlington those names are on somber black granite; they do not shine on white marble. This dark/light distinction for me characterizes this war.
It was (and is) so powerful, so moving. So many people shared so much at the Wall. Letters, photos, medals, prayers, flowers. They kept adding to the memorial, personalizing it, making it real. It was for me then, and still is today, the most potent, significant monument to the men and women who participate in war that the world has ever seen. Like Arlington it gives us the names of the fallen, but unlike Arlington those names are on somber black granite; they do not shine on white marble. This dark/light distinction for me characterizes this war.
(C) Steve Schneider/Photography
The morning sun and the dew combine to leave the mark of another touch on the Wall. Touching is connecting for so many.
The Vietnam War changed me. I went into it a green, fresh-from-college kid. Nav School was very much like college, classes and exercises. The first time I had to fly over "the Pond," as it was called (the Pacific Ocean), I was scheduled to ride along with a senior navigator who would monitor my actions. At the last minute, plans changed. I would fly the Pond alone. 24 years old, across 7,000 miles of ocean, the lives of 56 passengers riding in the back of the aircraft and finding my way with a sextant observing the sun and stars much as Columbus had done. (There was no GPS in those days!). California to Hawaii. Hawaii to Guam. Guam to Thailand. I was intimidated, scared. But I made it.
And later I conducted rendezvous with B-52 aircraft in the middle of the Pond and thought nothing of it. I grew up . . . because I had to.
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I came to believe in myself because I succeeded. No school, no training can ever give you that. There were friends from Nav School who wanted "action" aircraft when they graduated from training. Aircraft assignments were based on class standing. I was approached to do a "trade" of class ranking since I was in the top ten. Our class was given only a couple slots to F-4 aircraft and this fellow wanted to get one of those. He was a graduate of the Air Force Academy and "gung-ho" all the way. I kept my spot and chose the KC-135 I wanted. I don't remember if he got his F-4. Some years ago I heard from a classmate that one of our class got an F-4 and was killed over Vietnam. He is another reason I go to the Wall. I chose the USAF probably because my father had been a bomber pilot in WWII. When I went to Germany in high school (on a language study program), he asked of my flight, "where are you landing?" I replied, "Frankfurt." He said, "the last time I flew over Frankfurt, I bombed it." Such was his humor. Such was the spirit of the '60s concerning war. At least that's how it was in South Minneapolis in my world. That view changed for me when I went across the river to college in St. Paul. But that's another story.
Biographical Details
Submitted From: Minneapolis, MN
Primary Location During Vietnam: Utapao AFB, Thailand 
Story Subject: Military Service
Military Branch: U.S. Air Force
Dates of Service: 1971 - 1979
Veteran Organization: N/A
Unit: 380th Air Refueling Wing
Specialty: KC-135 Navigator
(C) Steve Schneider/Photography
\"Chicks in tow\" was the radio call when a flight of warbirds was up for refueling. Here a couple F-4s turn with a tanker over the Mekong River.
Story Themes: B-52, F-4 Jet Fighter, Thailand, The Vietnam Memorial, The Vietnam Wall, The Wall That Heals