Florence -- His eyes filled with tears Sunday when he saw his friend's name on the panel at the War Memorial Park during the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing Association informal rededication ceremony. "I was (in Vietnam) from October 1965 to October 1966," said Bobbie Johnson, who attended the reunion for the first time. "I was a crew chief. I did everything on the airplane to keep it flying." He remembered one incident in particular.

"(The man whose name is on the wall) flew my airplane the day before he crashed another plane," Johnson said. "We did what we had to do to get the job done." He agreed no one could understand what it was like unless they went through it.

"We're the lucky ones," Johnson said. "We got to come home. We didn't know it at the time it happened."

After Johnson left Vietnam, he made the Air Force a career, retiring as senior master sergeant after 22 years. He served in various duty stations in the United States and across the seas, including Egypt and the Netherlands. He retired from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, where he has lived since.

He learned about the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing Association about three or four years ago after getting a computer. When he looked up the site, he found his friend Sonny Billingsley was looking for him.

"He and I had been stationed together since 1962," Johnson said. "We were over there together. The site said he was looking for me and another guy."After Johnson found Billingsley's phone number, he learned about the reunion.

"This brings back a lot of memories," Johnson said. "(It's good) just communicating with all the folks and reliving old times, swapping stories and things like that."

During the ceremony, Major Ron Doughty, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., who served with the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing in Cam Ranh Bay Air Base in Vietnam in 1969, talked about the reason they meet every year.

"We've organized this informal ceremony to honor those who gave their lives while assigned to the U.S. Air Force 12th Tactical Fighter Wing," he said.

Following the invocation by American Legion Past Commander Department of Colorado, Tim Grabin, Lt. Col. Larry Taylor, of Brooks, Ga., who served as a F-4 fighter pilot in Vietnam in 1969, talked about the history of the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing. The 12th Tactical Fighter Wing was activated in April 1962 in McDill Air Force Base and was first equipped with the F-84 aircraft, standing as an important alert commitment during the Cuban missile confrontation with the Soviet Union. The 12th converted to the new F-4 Phantom II and soon involved in firepower demonstrations, exercises and ultimately, the Paris Air Show.

As the conflict escalated in Vietnam throughout 1965, the wing supported operations by rotating squadrons quarterly to Naha Air Base in Japan. Along the way, the 12th began its permanent deployment to Vietnam at an airfield at Cam Ranh Base, where it carried out close air support, interdiction and combat patrol missions in 1969 over North and South Vietnam and Laos. In addition, the 12th augmented U.S. forces in Korea after the USS Pueblo was captured, Taylor said in his speech.

"Today as we participate in our reunion, we are gathered here to remember and honor those who gave their lives and rededicate this memorial monument to the people whose names are listed on the brick wall," Taylor said.

The idea of coming to the area began when a Denver resident, Gene Rust, discovered the memorial monument about 12 years ago at the Col. Leo S. Boston War Memorial Park, which had been developed by the Fremont County government. When Rust saw the F-4 aircraft, he began to work with the officials to dedicate a panel of the War Memorial to the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing.

Two years later, the group arrived in Fremont County a few days after 9/11, determined to honor the airmen who gave their lives serving in the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing. And every year since then, the group gathers in Fremont County, re-dedicating the panel to preserve the memories of those who have sacrificed the ultimate to their country.

After Taylor's speech, Mike West, of Columbus, OH, read the names listed on the wall, followed by Grabin playing "Taps" and several skydivers jumping to the delight of those attending the ceremony.