Etain, France, 1958-1960, by Mike Maloy
From MemoryArchive
Who: Mike Maloy What: Etain, France When: 1958-1960 Where: France
I was 11 years old when my Dad was promoted to Lt Colonel and we were transferred to Etain, France, where he took over as Squadron Commander of the 7th TFS, 49th TFW. Ever since then blue has always been my favorite color -- in fact I painted my room in the trailer on base at Etain blue and my Mom hated it. We moved the entire wing to Spangdahlem in 1959 and spent another year there before my Dad got promoted to Colonel and we were transferred to North Africa. (As for me, I went back to the States in '61 and into the Army helicopter flight program in '67. That same year my Dad took over the 366 TFW at Danang and got shot down over North Viet Nam in October '67. I arrived in Viet Nam in '68 as a Warrant Officer Helicopter Pilot and managed to crash and burn in my Chinook in February '69 up near Khe San at the north end of the Ashau Valley. Got out of the hospital in June '69 and asked to go back to SEA. Arrived on July 4th '69 and completed my second tour with the 101st Airborne Div. in Eye Corp at Phu Bai (just north of Danang). I did all my combat flying in helicopters -- we used to say "If your wings don't spin, you ain't shit.....")
That's the background. I still have my 7th Squadron Bunyap coffee cup my Dad had made for me when we were at Spang. The monster looking thing on my coffee cup is the 7th TFS symbol --- a Bunyap. As I recall when the 7th was formed and went with the 49th Wing to the South Pacific during the beginning of World War II they were flying P-38s or P-40s off of some South Pacific island. The natives of the island had a mythical creature called the Bunyap which they believed was more fierce than any other creature on earth. They painted the Bunyap on their shields to protect them and help them destroy their enemies. The 7th TFS adopted the Bunyap as their unit emblem and I believe they painted it on the nose or tail of their aircraft. I do recall Dad telling me that Major Dick Bong had been in the 49th in the Pacific but I don't remember if he was in the 7th or one of the other 49th squadrons. Maybe that Bunyap magic really worked for the 49th!
My Dad was very proud of the 7th TFS while he was Squadron Commander from the summer of 1958 to the summer of 1960. They frequently went TDY to Tripoli for bombing practice and the 7th TFS always took top honors on their bombing scores. My Dad flew with the Flying Tigers in China during World War II, and (after the Spang tour) with the 366th TFW, The Gunfighters, in Viet Nam. He retired as a Major General in 1975 and died on November 14, 1995, as a result of Agent Orange-related cancers. I recall him telling me about the "over the shoulder" bomb delivery method, which I thought was amazing. The F-100 would approach the target at low level, then pull up into a near-vertical climb directly over the target, release the bomb while still going up, then continue a loop to fly away from the still climbing bomb and the target. The bomb would eventually lose its momentum and fall straight down on the target -- by the time of impact the F-100 was long gone.
Co-opted from Personal Recollections and War StoriesCatagory:Cold War
