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| Bobby Gene Vinson
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| NO. 17575 •
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| Missing in action in Vietnam on 24 Apr 1968, declared dead on 12 Sep 1977. Body never recovered.
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SHOULD WEST POINT begin retiring football jerseys, a good one to start
with would be number 44. Bobby wore this number for 4 years, having made the
'A' squad in plebe year on a national championship team. A native son of
Nederland, he grew up in the rough and ready world of Cajuns, oil field
workers, and longshoremen in East Texas. He learned how to play and fight, when
necessary, with the toughest and was the Outstanding High School Football
Player in Texas in his senior year. Bobby turned down a full scholarship to
Rice in order to compete in the last year of the Davis-Blanchard era.
Probably his most notable football feats were a 98-yard intercepted pass return
in 1948 and a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the 1949 Army-Navy
game. He was number one in the plebe class in physical aptitude and could take
on the best heavyweights in boxing and wrestling. Anyone would rue the day that
he stood next to Bobby on "bloody Tuesday" in Bill Cavanaugh's boxing
class.
Bobby also was an
outstanding student, with particular talents in mathematics and science. It was
amazing to see him return from a rough football practice and focus on academics
with consistently outstanding results in the classroom the next day.
Bobby entered Air Force
flight training just as the Korean War began and he quickly grasped the
essentials of this new challenge. It came as no surprise when he was selected
to be a jet fighter pilot. Combat skills were honed at the Fighter Gunnery
School at Nellis AFB, NV, and he was soon on his way to Korea. Aircraft losses
were heavy during the winter of 1951-52, particularly for fighter-bomber
pilots, but Bobby flew 100 combat missions in F84s the same way he played
football - with 100% commitment, 100% fearless. On one memorable mission, he
spotted a North Korean tank. When his rockets failed to fire, Bobby recycled
armament switches while continuing the attack. The tank was destroyed, but the
F84 kissed the ground during his pullout. A bushel basket of dirt, grass, and
brush was retrieved from the F-84 after returning to home base.
In between flying 100
combat missions, Bobby learned skeet shooting. (In those days, the Air Force
thought skeet shooting improved aerial gunnery skills.) Two years later he
represented Tactical Air Command in the National Championships.
After the Korean War,
Bobby was assigned to George AFB, CA, as a fighter pilot and met Joan McKinney
while vacationing in Mexico. Bobby and Joan were married in September 1953 and
raised 4 handsome and extremely bright children: Chuck, Robert, Victoria, and
Laura.
The following years
brought a series of tactical assignments interspersed with annual returns to
West Point as assistant football coach. Later, while stationed at Wheelus AFB,
Libya, Bobby learned scuba diving and water skiing - sports he pursued
for the rest of his life. The Vinsons returned to Langley AFB, VA, where Bobby
joined TAC Headquarters. Next came Armed Forces Staff College and the Pentagon.
Charlie Gabriel,
classmate and retired Air Force Chief of Staff, remembers Bobby as a staff
officer of unparalleled integrity who would challenge the system to provide
absolutely objective staff studies. Charlie also notes that Bobby was the best
fighter pilot he knew.
The years spent in
Washington are remembered by their many friends for fun-filled gatherings at
their home in Northern Virginia, especially the "Vinson Backyard
Olympics" where one and all tested aging skills in a variety of games and
contests. In 1965, the Vietnam War intruded. Bobby became increasingly involved
in staffing fighter operations for combat. In 1967, he returned to the cockpit.
After a brief training
period in F- 4s, he joined the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing at DaNang.
"Skipper" Scott, classmate, fellow football player, and later
Superintendent at the Air Force Academy, recalls that in their earlier
assignment to the same fighter wing, Bobby was the top fighter pilot, able to
beat everyone, including a top Korean War ace, in "dog fights" --
simulated aerial combat. LTC Vinson was quickly checked out to lead combat
missions; the most challenging being night attack missions under flares in
North Vietnam.
The April afternoon
before Bobby's last flight, he enjoyed his favorite sport - scuba diving
for lobsters in the Gulf of Tonkin. He told Skip Scott that they would cook
lobsters upon his return from a night attack mission against the Ho Chi Minh
Trail in North Vietnam. His aircraft apparently was hit while making a second
firing pass under flares. His wingman reported the aircraft explosion, and
Bobby was never heard from again.
Defense policy was to
list pilots lost in combat as MIA until their true status could be
determined. Joan Vinson became a
national leader in the movement to account for MIA-POWs. She was and is a
wonderful wife and mother who kept the family together after the loss of Bobby.
COL Bobby Gene Vinson was declared KIA on 12
Sep 1977. From the "fields of friendly strife" at West Point to the
skies over North Vietnam, he served his country with pride and
distinction. Check Six, 44!
- His roommates Rufus Smith and Dick Leavitt
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USMA 1950