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12TFW Memorial
Courage and Honor
Publish Date: 9/12/2005
Charlotte Burrous
Daily Record Community Editor
Four years after the terrorist attack in New York, members of the 12th Tactical Fighter Squadron gathered to rededicate the memorial wing at the airport to the 102 members of the unit who died in Southeast Asia.
Maj. Ronald H. Doughty, Air Force retired and former member of the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing division at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base in Vietnam, led the informal ceremony Sunday, which took place at the Col. Leo Sidney Boston War Memorial Park at the Fremont County Airport.
Those attending included Wilbur Anderson, Joseph Burdick, Jim Cockerham, Ron Doughty, Ed Petrovic, Gene Rust, Max Schuermann and Jim Simmons.
As the National Anthem played, veterans, families and friends stood at attention, remembering those who served in Southeast Asia. Many of them smiled when the Air Force song followed the anthem.
"This memorial park was originated by the Fremont County officials to memorialize the veterans who were killed in action from this local area," Doughty said.
The 12th TFW History Project, Inc., began in 1996 after the men spent years searching for an F-4 Phantom fighter jet as the center of a memorial for the unit.
When Gene Rust, who lives in Arvada, saw the jet on display at the Fremont County Airport, he contacted former county commissioners Jim Schauer and Keith McNew and other community members, who agreed having the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing panel would be a good idea.
Also, Ron Packard, a native of Canon City, who had died in Vietnam, had been a member of the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing.
"The Memorial Park revolved around the memorial wall, which contains bricks with names engraved of veterans who were killed in action from this area and, of course, this F-C4 aircraft from the Air Force," Doughty said. "Part of the motivation on also including the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing in this memorial was the fact that this aircraft was actually in the 12th Fighter Wing at one time."
The county agreed to dedicate a portion of the wall that's closest to the airplane to the 12th Fighter Wing, Doughty said.
"Through various ways, we collected contributions. It cost $7,000 to have the names engraved and placed on the wall," Doughty said. "That was completed in the middle of 2001."
The group hosted the first dedication ceremony Sept. 16, 2001, which was "well-attended." Since then, the group has gathered every year to rededicate the memorial wing at the airport.
Although the primary focus of the weekend was to rededicate the memorial wing at the airport, the men took time to reminisce, visit area businesses and socialize with each other.
Schuermann said he was not part of the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing but assigned to the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing when he was in Takhli, Thailand. He met Cockerham when they were both at Kirkland Air Force Base.
"We started comparing notes and realized we had a bunch of things in common," Schuermann said. "I was (in Thailand) for a year in 1966. We refueled the F105s to and from the targets."
He said he enjoyed the reunions.
"We've developed some deep friendships here," Schuermann said. "It's really hard to explain. There is a common bond with everybody here."
Burdick not only served in World War II but also in Vietnam, where he spent two tours.
He went over the first time in 1962.
"I was stationed in Clark Air Base as the chief of maintenance, and I went to Vietnam (when) my boss told me there's a war that nobody knows about," Burdick said. "I went over as a civilian passenger and that's what I found out."
President John Kennedy sent in the U.S. military to Vietnam as advisors.
"Three years later, I was back for another year in Cam Ranh, where we were all stationed with this wing," Burdick said. Part of the wing was also stationed at Phu Cat, Vietnam. Burdick came home when the military was building the base in Cam Ranh Bay.
"We don't talk at home," Burdick said. "My wife is gone now. Of course, she knew (a lot), but I didn't tell her everything."
Petrovic agreed.
"You don't have anybody to talk about it that experienced what you did," Petrovic said. "We were the guys who quietly did what we were asked to do."
The men joked, laughed and played throughout the weekend, but Burdick said the members would never forget why they came together.
"(What) we remember are the good things we did for each other," Burdick said.
Daily Record photo by Charlotte Burrous
Wilbur Anderson, front, and Joseph Burdick point to a name Sunday on the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing panel on the memorial wall at the Fremont County Airport.
