Uses Downed B-52 as a prop

The show just pissed off a whole generation of vets.

My parents have been avid fans of this show since its beginning. My dad said he'd never watch another episode due to the Vietnam episode. I hope enough others decide that to hurt the ratings and force the wrong parties to be fired.

I have calmed down sufficiently so I think I can post with out flipping out.

I'm an old Air Force guy and served from 1963-1971.

I am sure most younger people don't know what was going on in our country during that time. Today most educators "brush over" what Vietnam was all about.

I think the show producers have no idea of what they did, when they used "Rose 1" as a prop in their TV show.

I would like to honor those fine fellow airmen who either were captured and tortured and those that died.

Here is the information about that "BUFF". (if you don't know what BUFF means, look it up.)

RR stands for Released from POW camp.
NR stands for Remains recovered and returned.



Callsign: Rose 1, B52D
Aircraft: No. 56-0608
Date of Loss 12-19-72 Hanoi
Based: U-Tapao, Thailand
Pilot: Capt Hal Wilson, Status: RR
Co-Pilot: Capt Charles Brown, Status: RR
R/Nav: Maj Fernando Alexander, Status: RR
Nav: Capt Richard Cooper, Status: NR
EWO: Capt Henry Barrows, Status: RR
Gunner: M/Sgt Charlie Poole, Status: NR

RIP Captain Cooper and Master Sergeant Poole.

Those B-52 bombing raids of Hanoi brought the Viet Cong back to the negotiation table and eventually stopped that war.

edited to revise M/Sgt Poole's rank. He had been promoted during the time he was MIA.



[This message has been edited by brazos county observer (edited 3/27/2013 11:03a).]

Could you clarify for us what the status RR and NR mean? Sorry, just not familiar with the terms.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia and attended a reunion a few years ago in Vega$. We've got a lot of world travelers in our group.

One guy went to Viet Nam where he got to fire machine guns as a tourist attraction. He said it was strange because the targets were American.

I was like - are you kidding me? American targets. Amongst my group, I'm one of very few who served.

I am envious of a guy who was two years ahead of me in school who enlisted in the USMC and got to go back to our school during Desert Storm. Dutch/Indonesian half-breed who will never be accepted by anyone. Great guy though.

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Could you clarify for us what the status RR and NR mean? Sorry, just not familiar with the terms.

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The acronym makes no sense to me, either, but he does explain what they refer to.

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RR stands for Released from POW camp.
NR stands for Remains recovered and returned.

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[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 3/31/2013 9:38a).]

^^^^^^^
Thanks Canyon for explaining the terms RR and NR.

The next time someone tells you about the really great time they had in Vietnam, think about Rose 1 and other Americans.

Also think about President Lyndon Johnson and especially Robert McNamara.

I have to admit, I didn't think anything of it when I saw the episode. I'm sure the fact I was born in '68 contributed to that. Later I learned from my mom that she was a bit taken aback by the B-52 inclusion. I think this was a generational issue.... CBS aired an apology at the beginning of the following episode. You can read the thread on the Entertainment board for more opinions.

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The next time someone tells you about the really great time they had in Vietnam, think about Rose 1 and other Americans.

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I'm curious as to why current feelings on Vietnam can be so different than those for Germany and to a Japan. Is it due to the controversial nature of the conflict, the fact we didn't "win" and the current Communist government? It can't be the atrocities to our POWs as Japan did the same crap.

Thanks for the explanation Canyon.
New World Ag, I'll reply to your post later or you can look at my recent pictures from Japan on FB

Aggiebrewer, thanks for mentioning the "Overton Window". I had never heard of that so, looking it up led me to the "Spiral of Silence".

The Spiral of Silence explains exactly what I see going on at my work. Amongst an organization of about 4,000 people, there are about 650 who are charged with explaining to our customers how things work. Me and about 5-10 other guys are some of the only ones who actually know how things work. The problem I'm seeing at work is that because the other 3990+ people don't know how things work, they accept the explanation offered by one of several guys at the top who really don't have any idea how things work. But... because they many do such an effective job at ostracizing the few, we are afraid to speak up. And, in the few situations where I've gotten into a head-to-head confrontation with the folks espousing the false message from the higher-ups, I've never lost an argument but I have been defeated. I've been defeated through a back channel campaign to ostracize me and anyone who dares to speak the truth. So what I've come to experience is that loyalty is more important than the truth.

I see this kind of failure to confront superiors with one of my buddies who is still on Active Duty. When he's explaining to me the value of MRAPs and how we don't need Tanks anymore, etc., I'm sitting there going - do you really believe that? So I guess all that Combined Arms gibberish they taught us at The Armor School at Fort Knox was complete nonsense.

Sorry to digress from the thread but I just wanted to celebrate the fact that I learned a new term to describe something that has been frustrating me for a couple of years.

I really don't understand why CBS didn't use it as an historical talking point like they do other parts of the race.

Would have been a great historical note, give people a chance to reflect on our older vets sacrifice, and show how different parts of the world see things.