10 May 2004 The Last Friendly Face Tom McCormick and I were classmates in Undergraduate Navigator Training at Mather AFB. When we graduated, Tom went to electronic warfare school and then to a B-52 crew at Travis AFB. I went to navigator/bombardier school and then to an EB-66 squadron in South East Asia. My flight to Vietnam left from Travis AFB, and Tom and Carolyn invited me to stay with them. On my last night before going to Vietnam, I ate a home cooked meal and played on the floor with Tom's infant son. In the morning, Tom drove me to the aerial port and waved goodbye. Tom's was the last friendly face I saw before I went to Vietnam. We were supposed to get together when I got back, but in March 1969 Tom deployed TDY to Anderson AFB, Guam. Tom died on May 10, 1969 when his B-52 crashed on takeoff for a bombing mission in Vietnam. Tom's name was left off the Vietnam Veterans Memorial when it was dedicated in 1982, because Guam was not in the combat zone. I couldn't visit The Wall until his name was added in 1986. Tom Mangan

 

Notes from The Virtual Wall The 4133rd Bomb Wing (Provisional) was established at Andersen AFB on Guam on 01 Feb 1966 to provide a "home away from home" for B-52, KC-135, and other supporting aircraft deployed by the Strategic Air Command in support of combat operations in South Vietnam. Both aircraft and aircrews were deployed in increments, with the 4133rd BW providing central support and scheduling. It was common for crews from one squadron to fly aircraft belonging to another. On 10 May 1969, B-52D tail number 56-0593 belonging to the 509th Bomb Wing crashed in the Pacific Ocean shortly after take-off from Andersen AFB. All six crewmen died in the crash: Major James L. Sipes, Kansas City, MO, pilot Capt Larry I. Broadhead, Edmond, OK, copilot Capt Thomas R. McCormick, Santa Monica, CA, EW Officer Capt Russell L. Platt, Las Cruces, NM, radar navigator 1stLt Maurice E. Lundy, Kansas City, KS, navigator MSgt Harold B. Deel, Ferndale, MI, gunner None of the six men are listed in available unit-of-assignment databases, but information provided by Mr. Mangan indicates they were from one of the B-52 squadrons based at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington.

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