Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, the Air Force commissioned Timothy Boddie in 1955 following graduation from AFROTC at Howard University in 1954, at the height of a force reduction following the Korean War. He amassed more than 4,000 flight hours in his career. Boddie completed flight training in the 1950s, and he describes both the F-84 Thunderjet and the F-100 Super Sabre. Flying the F-4 as a major in Vietnam, he completed 201 combat missions, including 57 missions over North Vietnam. In this interview he recalls several memorable missions, one praising the F-4 because he was unaware his wing dihedral was severely damaged by enemy ground fire, another was his “unremarkable” 200th combat mission, and yet another detailing a mission in which he was directed to target a church being used as an ammunition depot, to which he said, “You just have to perform the mission as planned.” He describes a few African American reporters, and a number of news articles about himself and other African Americans in Vietnam. He shares his opinion that Vietnam did not get “the historical notoriety that other wars have gotten because there’s a whole class of people that don’t care-- didn’t care at the time.” But he feels strongly that a warrior’s personal feelings must be set aside, and “...your job on this earth is to win for the United States of America...”
Key Words: Baltimore, Maryland, Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), Howard University, Super Cub PA-18, F-84 Thunderjet, F-100 Super Sabre, Curtiss-Wright J-65 jet engine, 560th fighter squadron, Wheelus Air Base, Tripoli, Libya, United Stated Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), Cam Ranh Bay, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Tuskegee University, Cessna L-19/O-1 Bird Dog, England Air Force Base, Louisiana, Davis–Monthan Air Base, Iranian pilots, Israeli pilots, 51st Air Wing, “smash,” jungle survival school, Clark Air Base, Negritos, ZPU-4 14.5 mm anti-aircraft gun, Anti-Radar Missiles, “Daisy cutters” BLU-82/B bomb, CBU-24 cluster bomb, Laos, whifferdill, Out-of-Country Forward Air Controller (Covey FAC), armor-piercing incendiary (API), M-61 cannon, alert pad, Project Red Baron, APR 25/26s, surface-to-air missiles (SAM), Nellis Air Force Base, Red Flag, Armed Forces Radio, Stars and Stripes, World Airlines, Distinguished Flying Cross, Tuskegee Airmen.
Key Names: Frankie Everest, Guion Bluford, Colonel Travis McNeil, Robert Jackson “Ralph” Ellison, Wallace “Wally” Terry, Gen. Robert James Dixon, Ken Cordier.