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On 22 December 1972, an F-111 call sign Jackel 33 was flying a night strike mission over North Vietnam. Jackel 33 was manned by its pilot, Captain Bob Sponeybarger and its Weapons System Operation, 1stLt William (Bill) Wilson. Jackel 33's assigned targets were the river docks in the middle of Hanoi. For this mission, they flew from Thailand, north and west of Hanoi, looping back around, flying a southerly direction through the eastern expanses of Hanoi to strike their targets. Once shot down, Bill evaded for a week on the ground - the whole time being pursued by North Vietnamese soldiers. Using the training from USAF Survival School in the Philippines, as well as relying on his acumen of the woods, developed as a young scout, Bill eluded capture for a week. Bill (and his pilot) remainder POWs for the remainder of the war.
A propos de l'auteur
Using primary interviews with Bill Wilson as well as other participants, Mr. Couch captured the essence of the events of those chilly and turbulent times in North Vietnam when 1st Lt Bill Wilson evaded capture for a week, after being shot down while going over 500 miles per hour at just over 300 feet above the ground. After capture, Bill Wilson spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war. Mr. Couch currently works for the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency as a Senior Personnel Recovery Instructor/Observer-Trainer. Author of Caged Heroes: American POW Experiences from the Revolutionary War to the Present and published in Small Wars Journal, Mr. Couch specializes in our nation's prisoner of war and rescue issues.
