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An up close and personal interview with U.S. Air Force Veteran and Togetherweserved.com Member:
Capt Mike Davison US Air Force (1967-1972)
WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE MILITARY?
 In the Summer of 1966 not joining the military was not an option. I had fallen in love with the idea of flying since I put together my first F-86 Sabre Jet model out of balsa wood as a boy. The Air Force needed pilots and I was young, willing and immortal. So, I went to the Air Force Recruiter in Modesto, Calif. signed up, took and passed a Class A Flight Physical and I was on my way.
BRIEFLY, WHAT WAS YOUR SERVICE CAREER PATH?
Upon my arrival at OTS at Lackland AFB I was informed that in order to pursue my desired path toward Pilot Training that I would have to take an additional Class 1 Flight Physical. I had passed this physical prior to my enlistment so I had no concerns about taking  it again. Unfortunately, the Flight Surgeon at Lackland noted that I had an astigmatism in one eye that would allow me to go to Navigator Training but not Pilot Training. So, after getting my commission I headed to Mather AFB outside of Sacramento. When my class graduated 9 months later there were the usual assignments available: B-52's, KC-135's, C-130's, none of which interested me. There were also twelve "mystery" assignments, noted only as "Tactical Air Command". Fortunately, I was ranked high enough in the class to snatch one of these and, viola, I found myself as a member of "Combat Team B", a test group that would determine if Navigator's could perform as well as pilots in the back seat of that beautiful, twin-engine supersonic fighter, the Phantom II. It was a very roundabout way to get into fighters, but it was a way.
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN COMBAT OPERATIONS? IF SO, COULD YOU DESCRIBE THOSE WHICH WERE SIGNIFICANT TO YOU?
Between September 1968 and September 1969 I was a member of the 433rd TFS "Satan's Angels", a part of the 8thTFW "Wolfpack", so named and made famous by the legendary Robin Olds. During that time I flew 237 Combat Missions, mostly over targets in Laos, although I did log approx.  45 missions over North Vietnam before combat operations ceased there in late '68. My squadron was the first to employ Laser Guided Bombs in combat and I participated in the dropping of the very first 2,000 pound LGB in the war. While flying in combat was exhilarating, one of the chief emotions that we all felt was frustration. The Rules of Engagement (ROE) would not allow us to strike a targets across the border in North Vietnam and everyday we could see long lines of trucks waiting for darkness to cross into Laos and travel down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to take their supplies to the NVA troops in the South. But they were off limits to our bombs. Hell of a way to fight a war. I also lost my first two roommates and my best friend, Virgil "Jeb" Stewart. As we were fond of saying, "It's a shitty war, but it's the only one we've got."
WHICH, OF THE DUTY STATIONS OR LOCATIONS YOU WERE ASSIGNED OR DEPLOYED TO, DO YOU HAVE THE FONDEST MEMORIES OF AND WHY?
 Although the three years that I spent in the 525TFS at Bitburg, Germany were memorable for the camaraderie and friendships that will last a lifetime, the year between September 1968 and September 1969 at the 8thTFW in Ubon, Thailand is etched in my memory like it was yesterday. You never forget the men that you flew and fought with. It's a bond that is almost impossible to comprehend if you haven't been there. The Saint Crispin's day speech from Henry V says it best: "And gentlemen in England now-a-bed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here..." And yes, it was like that.
FROM YOUR ENTIRE SERVICE CAREER WHAT PARTICULAR MEMORY STANDS OUT?
Participating in the dropping of the first 2,000 pound Smart Bomb in the history of combat aviation has got to be near the top of the memories list. In 1968 my squadron at Ubon, Thailand, the 433rd TFS "Satan's Angels" had been tasked with developing tactics to deliver the first  generation of Laser Guided Bombs under the code name "Project Paveway". The 750 pound varieties had been hit-or-miss from an accuracy standpoint so we were eager to try out the 2,000 pounders with what was advertised to have a more advanced guidance system. Our first target was a road interdiction point in Central Laos. Our flight of two Phantoms had been exhaustively briefed and we took off from Ubon, hit the tanker on the way in to top off our fuel and were in the target area in about an hour. There was a "Nail" FAC on station and he very much wanted to play with the two fast movers and mark the target with a white phosphorous ("Willie Peter") rocket. Lead told him no thanks that we were briefed on the target and didn't require his services today. The Nail didn't take kindly to being left out and was grumbling into the mike as he flew off to the East to orbit. I was "illuminating", meaning putting the laser beam on the target while the #2 aircraft went into his dive and dropped the LGB. As I concentrated on keeping the laser on the target, about 8 seconds later the bomb hit in the exact center of the crosshairs and created a 60 foot crater in the red Laotian dirt. We dropped the second bomb a few hundred yards North on another crossing and although it hit about 10 feet off of the road it obliterated that section as well. Returning to altitude, we called the Nail to come back and give us our BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment). After the 3-4 minutes it took his O2 to get back in the area, he clicked his mike and said with understandable astonishment, "Jesus Christ. What are you guys dropping?" The crisp response was "That would be classified, Nail. See you on the next one. Out."
WERE ANY OF THE MEDALS OR AWARDS YOU RECEIVED FOR VALOR? IF YES, COULD YOU DESCRIBE HOW THIS WAS EARNED?
 My first DFC was the most memorable. We were flying over Central Laos in late 1968 and since the bombing halt over the North earlier in the year the bad guys had moved some of their guns South to defend the chain of nasty dirt roads collectively called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On this particular day one of the 37mm gun emplacements was being particularly aggressive and accurate. We were carrying Smart Bombs and our target was weathered in so we were looking for something to hit. The weather was scattered to broken and the ceiling was low so it wasn't a good situation to drop laser guided munitions, but the gun was a problem that day and my AC asked me if we should have a go at it. Why not? So, we ducked under the clouds and pulled a tight circle around the gun while the #2 Phantom got into position to drop. Between the g's we were pulling and the minor distractions of the puffy white clouds of flak that we were flying through, it was difficult to keep the crosshairs in the target but somehow I did and the gun emplacement suddenly disappeared in a cloud of iron bomb fragments and TNT. The secondaries made for a very nice fireworks display as well. The Ho Chi Minh Trail got a little safer that day.
OF THE MEDALS, AWARDS AND QUALIFICATION BADGES OR DEVICES YOU RECEIVED, WHAT IS THE MOST MEANINGFUL TO YOU AND WHY?
Well, it certainly wasn't my Marksmanship Badge, since my OT roommate at Lackland AFB (who happened to be next to me on the firing line) may have added a couple of hits to my target "by mistake". The Distinguished Flying Cross is an honor and I'm proud of both of mine.
WHICH INDIVIDUAL PERSON FROM YOUR SERVICE STANDS OUT AS THE ONE WHO HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON YOU AND WHY?
Although I didn't realize it at the time, a discussion that I had with my first front seater in the F-4, Major Hugh Turner, was to have a huge impact on my Air Force career. Hugh had been in the Air Force for 17 years and his one year tour  in Southeast Asia was coming to an end. He ruefully told me one day that his entire career had led him to this singular goal of flying in combat and now that it was over, he said, he had nothing left to look forward to except possibly "flying a desk at the Pentagon". He was a damn good fighter pilot and the peace time Air Force was not necessarily his cup of tea. I reflected upon Hugh's comments several times when I was stationed in Germany following my tour in Southeast Asia. He was right, the Air Force in peace time was a different animal. My fortune, good or otherwise, had been to spend my second year in the Air Force flying in combat and after that, playing war games, going through ORI's and flying sorties against imaginary targets didn't quite cut it.
CAN YOU RECOUNT A PARTICULAR INCIDENT FROM YOUR SERVICE THAT WAS FUNNY AT THE TIME AND STILL MAKES YOU LAUGH?
 In early 1969 I had returned from R&R (or, as it was better known at the time as A&S: Ass and Alcohol) in Hong Kong during which time I purchased a Rolex GMT Master Chronometer for the outrageously low price of $180 (US). In hindsight, I should have bought 10 of them, but who knew? Upon my return to Ubon, one of my best pals, Lt. Lowell Thomas "Hoss" Cartwright (shown at right in the attached photo following our final mission), would come up to me before each mission and tell me, "Take that watch off! If you get shot down, it will end up with someone who won't appreciate it at all. And i want it." A bit of dark humor to be sure, but I wore the watch anyway and still do to this day. Sorry, Hoss.
WHAT PROFESSION DID YOU FOLLOW AFTER THE SERVICE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? IF CURRENTLY SERVING, WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT JOB?
 Photography was a hobby picked that I up while in Southeast Asia and when I decided to return to civilian life, I opted to become a professional photographer. I enrolled at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA and spent the better part of the next two years in an intensive study of technical photography. Somewhere along the path, I gravitated toward motion photography (as opposed to stills) and beyond that, toward advertising. Heading to Los Angeles in 1975 I ultimately landed a job as a projectionist at advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather (think "Mad Men") and I have spent the intervening 36 years as a Producer of commercials. I guess that that's a career. I've worked on projects with Orson Welles, Gregory Peck, Mel Blanc, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Roger Staubach, Lyle Lovett, Cliff Robertson, Steve Garvey, Tommy Lasorda, Tom Watson, Sammy Cahn, Hans Conreid, Eddie Albert, Morgan Fairchild, Vincent Price and Jonathon Winters in addition to producing the iconic "Appliances" commercial which launched the General Motors EV-1 Electric Car.
WHAT MILITARY ASSOCIATIONS ARE YOU A MEMBER OF, IF ANY? WHAT SPECIFIC BENEFITS DO YOU DERIVE FROM YOUR MEMBERSHIPS?
No memberships. No benefits. Just some great memories and friends. Thinking about joining the VFW.
HOW HAS MILITARY SERVICE INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU HAVE APPROACHED YOUR LIFE AND CAREER?
 There is a discipline, an attitude, a seriousness, an awareness, a work ethic, an understanding of the principals upon which this country was founded that the majority of those who have not served do no appreciate nor understand. It is unspoken and acknowledged by those who have it and it is incomprehensible to those who do not.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR THOSE THAT ARE STILL SERVING?
The U.S. military is the greatest force for good on the planet and don't you forget it.
IN WHAT WAYS HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM HELPED YOU MAINTAIN A BOND WITH YOUR SERVICE AND THOSE YOU SERVED WITH?
I have only scratched the surface of TWS and hope that perhaps these recollections will put me back in touch with others of my era.
Over and out.
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TWS VOICES
TWS Voices are the personal stories of men and women who served in the US Military and convey how serving their Country has made a positive impact on their lives. If you would like to participate in a future edition of Voices, or know someone who might be interested, please contact TWS Voices HERE.
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For current and former serving Members of the United States Air Force, Army Air Corps, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard TogetherWeServed is a unique, feature-rich resource helping Airmen reconnect with lost Wingmen, share memories and tell their Air Force story.
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In the Summer of 1966 not joining the military was not an option. I had fallen in love with the idea of flying since I put together my first F-86 Sabre Jet model out of balsa wood as a boy. The Air Force needed pilots and I was young, willing and immortal. So, I went to the Air Force Recruiter in Modesto, Calif. signed up, took and passed a Class A Flight Physical and I was on my way.
it again. Unfortunately, the Flight Surgeon at Lackland noted that I had an astigmatism in one eye that would allow me to go to Navigator Training but not Pilot Training. So, after getting my commission I headed to Mather AFB outside of Sacramento. When my class graduated 9 months later there were the usual assignments available: B-52's, KC-135's, C-130's, none of which interested me. There were also twelve "mystery" assignments, noted only as "Tactical Air Command". Fortunately, I was ranked high enough in the class to snatch one of these and, viola, I found myself as a member of "Combat Team B", a test group that would determine if Navigator's could perform as well as pilots in the back seat of that beautiful, twin-engine supersonic fighter, the Phantom II. It was a very roundabout way to get into fighters, but it was a way. 
45 missions over North Vietnam before combat operations ceased there in late '68. My squadron was the first to employ Laser Guided Bombs in combat and I participated in the dropping of the very first 2,000 pound LGB in the war. While flying in combat was exhilarating, one of the chief emotions that we all felt was frustration. The Rules of Engagement (ROE) would not allow us to strike a targets across the border in North Vietnam and everyday we could see long lines of trucks waiting for darkness to cross into Laos and travel down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to take their supplies to the NVA troops in the South. But they were off limits to our bombs. Hell of a way to fight a war. I also lost my first two roommates and my best friend, Virgil "Jeb" Stewart. As we were fond of saying, "It's a shitty war, but it's the only one we've got." 
Although the three years that I spent in the 525TFS at Bitburg, Germany were memorable for the camaraderie and friendships that will last a lifetime, the year between September 1968 and September 1969 at the 8thTFW in Ubon, Thailand is etched in my memory like it was yesterday. You never forget the men that you flew and fought with. It's a bond that is almost impossible to comprehend if you haven't been there. The Saint Crispin's day speech from Henry V says it best: "And gentlemen in England now-a-bed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here..." And yes, it was like that.
generation of Laser Guided Bombs under the code name "Project Paveway". The 750 pound varieties had been hit-or-miss from an accuracy standpoint so we were eager to try out the 2,000 pounders with what was advertised to have a more advanced guidance system. Our first target was a road interdiction point in Central Laos. Our flight of two Phantoms had been exhaustively briefed and we took off from Ubon, hit the tanker on the way in to top off our fuel and were in the target area in about an hour. There was a "Nail" FAC on station and he very much wanted to play with the two fast movers and mark the target with a white phosphorous ("Willie Peter") rocket. Lead told him no thanks that we were briefed on the target and didn't require his services today. The Nail didn't take kindly to being left out and was grumbling into the mike as he flew off to the East to orbit. I was "illuminating", meaning putting the laser beam on the target while the #2 aircraft went into his dive and dropped the LGB. As I concentrated on keeping the laser on the target, about 8 seconds later the bomb hit in the exact center of the crosshairs and created a 60 foot crater in the red Laotian dirt. We dropped the second bomb a few hundred yards North on another crossing and although it hit about 10 feet off of the road it obliterated that section as well. Returning to altitude, we called the Nail to come back and give us our BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment). After the 3-4 minutes it took his O2 to get back in the area, he clicked his mike and said with understandable astonishment, "Jesus Christ. What are you guys dropping?" The crisp response was "That would be classified, Nail. See you on the next one. Out." 
My first DFC was the most memorable. We were flying over Central Laos in late 1968 and since the bombing halt over the North earlier in the year the bad guys had moved some of their guns South to defend the chain of nasty dirt roads collectively called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On this particular day one of the 37mm gun emplacements was being particularly aggressive and accurate. We were carrying Smart Bombs and our target was weathered in so we were looking for something to hit. The weather was scattered to broken and the ceiling was low so it wasn't a good situation to drop laser guided munitions, but the gun was a problem that day and my AC asked me if we should have a go at it. Why not? So, we ducked under the clouds and pulled a tight circle around the gun while the #2 Phantom got into position to drop. Between the g's we were pulling and the minor distractions of the puffy white clouds of flak that we were flying through, it was difficult to keep the crosshairs in the target but somehow I did and the gun emplacement suddenly disappeared in a cloud of iron bomb fragments and TNT. The secondaries made for a very nice fireworks display as well. The Ho Chi Minh Trail got a little safer that day.
in Southeast Asia was coming to an end. He ruefully told me one day that his entire career had led him to this singular goal of flying in combat and now that it was over, he said, he had nothing left to look forward to except possibly "flying a desk at the Pentagon". He was a damn good fighter pilot and the peace time Air Force was not necessarily his cup of tea. I reflected upon Hugh's comments several times when I was stationed in Germany following my tour in Southeast Asia. He was right, the Air Force in peace time was a different animal. My fortune, good or otherwise, had been to spend my second year in the Air Force flying in combat and after that, playing war games, going through ORI's and flying sorties against imaginary targets didn't quite cut it. 
In early 1969 I had returned from R&R (or, as it was better known at the time as A&S: Ass and Alcohol) in Hong Kong during which time I purchased a Rolex GMT Master Chronometer for the outrageously low price of $180 (US). In hindsight, I should have bought 10 of them, but who knew? Upon my return to Ubon, one of my best pals, Lt. Lowell Thomas "Hoss" Cartwright (shown at right in the attached photo following our final mission), would come up to me before each mission and tell me, "Take that watch off! If you get shot down, it will end up with someone who won't appreciate it at all. And i want it." A bit of dark humor to be sure, but I wore the watch anyway and still do to this day. Sorry, Hoss.
Photography was a hobby picked that I up while in Southeast Asia and when I decided to return to civilian life, I opted to become a professional photographer. I enrolled at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA and spent the better part of the next two years in an intensive study of technical photography. Somewhere along the path, I gravitated toward motion photography (as opposed to stills) and beyond that, toward advertising. Heading to Los Angeles in 1975 I ultimately landed a job as a projectionist at advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather (think "Mad Men") and I have spent the intervening 36 years as a Producer of commercials. I guess that that's a career. I've worked on projects with Orson Welles, Gregory Peck, Mel Blanc, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Roger Staubach, Lyle Lovett, Cliff Robertson, Steve Garvey, Tommy Lasorda, Tom Watson, Sammy Cahn, Hans Conreid, Eddie Albert, Morgan Fairchild, Vincent Price and Jonathon Winters in addition to producing the iconic "Appliances" commercial which launched the General Motors EV-1 Electric Car. 
There is a discipline, an attitude, a seriousness, an awareness, a work ethic, an understanding of the principals upon which this country was founded that the majority of those who have not served do no appreciate nor understand. It is unspoken and acknowledged by those who have it and it is incomprehensible to those who do not. 
