August 25, 1972 dawned hot and muggy in Vietnam. Pilots of Fighter Squadron 161, stationed aboard USS Midway (CV 41), readied their aircraft and went over the day’s flight plan. Their mission was an early evening MiG combat air patrol over North Vietnam. Lt. John “Jack” Ensch would serve as a radar intercept officer in an F-4B Phantom.
A special delivery of long-forgotten letters and photos came from Vietnam to an Air Force widow. The United States and Vietnam are working together to return personal belongings of prisoners of war to their rightful owners; and, a package was delivered today to the family of retired Col. Richard Dutton.
James Yoshikazu Nagahiro was born in 1932 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He attended Mid-Pacific Institute and after two years at the University of Hawaii, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was selected for the Aviation Cadet Program in 1953. Nagahiro served as B-52 pilot and instructor pilot with the
Edward Martin wound up in the hands of the North Vietnamese much the way Sen. John McCain and Vice Adm. James Stockdale did — the Navy commander’s A-4 Skyhawk was hit by enemy fire during a bombing mission and downed just southeast of Hanoi. And like McCain and Stockdale, his