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Medal of Honor recipient then-Air Force Capt. James P. Fleming
Episode 2744 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Air Force COL James Fleming and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story comes from The U.S. Department of Defense website and was titled: Medal of Honor Monday: Air Force COL James Fleming ok. It was submitted by Katie Lange, the outstanding writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that Helicopter pilots inserted troops and pulled them out of the jungles of Vietnam on a regular basis during the war. But Air Force Col. James P. Fleming’s refusal to leave anyone behind during an incident on Nov. 26, 1968, set him apart from the average pilot and earned him the Medal of Honor.
Lange added this about James Fleming, he was born in Sedalia, Missouri, at the end of World War II. His father had been a military pilot, so Fleming naturally grew fascinated with service and flying. He joined ROTC while he was at Washington State University and, upon graduation in 1966, he entered the Air Force to become a pilot, too.
Fleming was halfway through fixed-wing pilot training when a call went out for men to fly helicopters in Vietnam, so he volunteered. After more months of training, he was sent into combat.
“I was terribly excited to go,” Fleming said in an interview with the Veterans History Project. “I wanted to go fly in war.”
A few months into his tour, Fleming was a first lieutenant and the aircraft commander of a UH-1F Iroquois transport helicopter that was part of the 20th Special Operations Squadron based out of Nha Trang Air Base. Their mission: to support troops sent into volatile areas of Vietnam along the Cambodian border.
Listen to episode 2744 and discover more about Air Force COL James Fleming and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
My first assignment in the Air Force was Randolph AFB as a Maintenance Officer in 1978. I was in charge of maintaining the T-39 aircraft. Lt. Col. Fleming was the Squadron Commander at the time and of course I didn’t know that he had received the Medal of Honor (MOH) even though I saw him all the time. We flew a lot of DV’s and one day he showed up in his dress blues and I saw the MOH ribbon and immediately called the section to attention. He asked me why I had done that and I told him it was because of the MOH and I assured after that day that the place was always called to attention when ever he arrived. I would really like to write to him if I could get his address. Walt Williams 210-823-3884