This Military Service Page was created/owned by
AB Raymond Guinn
to remember
Cassity, James Shelby, Jr., Lt Gen USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Gary, TX
Last Address Fair Oaks Ranch
Date of Passing Dec 30, 2008
Location of Interment Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery (VA) - San Antonio, Texas
I was stationed with Jim Cassity two times. At Hanscom AFB in Mass, he was the instructor that taught a class to incoming officers about the systems procurement process. He was very good. He was an L/C and worked for Gen Herres in the foreign military sales office. I was a Capt and had a car pool friend who worked in the same office as L/C Cassity. So I kept up with goings on in his office. This was in 1976 or 77.
In 1980, I was assigned to Hq AFCC at Scott and Col Cassity was the head of the Programs Office (EP). Gen Herres was the CC at the time. He was a very good boss. I loved some of his management saying like when a program wanted to rush a schedule he would say, "If you want it bad, you'll get it bad." That is so true. When he left Scott, I personally made his shadow box going away present from the Programs Division. It included a wood outline of the state of Ill. I spent many hours on it. I hope he liked it.
After he left, I moved to the Telephone Systems Office at Scott and he made a couple of stars and was head of all the communications units in Europe. I worked for a boss who was a real argumentative person. I decided that life was too short to put up with him so I retired. After that my old boss went to Europe to brief the telephone program to Gen Cassity and was a real butt with him. Cassity pick up hisphone and called the commander of AFCC. My old boss was fired before he got back to the states. Gen Cassity repaid the time I spent on his going away shadow box.
I really liked the man. By the way, at Scott he had a brick on his desk. The kind with 3 holes in it. It had a sign that said "Aggie bowling ball". I love that.
Miles Martin
Major USAF retired
Vietnam Advisory Campaign (1962-65)
From Month/Year
November / 1962
To Month/Year
March / 1965
Description November 15, 1961-March 1, 1965 .
On November 15, 1961, the 2d Advanced Echelon (2d ADVON) was activated in Saigon, capital of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The 2d ADVON, administratively part of the Thirteenth Air Force, controlled USAF units operating in Vietnam and reported to the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam. The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron's FARM GATE detachment arrived on November 16. The FARM GATE, organization, although trained for counter insurgency combat, for about 2 months limited its mission to training Vietnamese aircrews and supporting with reconnaissance flights the operations of the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). Activation of the 2d ADVON and arrival of the FARM GATE detachment heralded the buildup of the United States Air Force presence in Vietnam.
Responding to the Republic of Vietnam's appeal in December 1961 for increased military aid to counter Communist (Viet Cong) insurgents, the United States gradually increased its forces. From January 2 to 5, 1962, for example, the USAF moved a tactical air control system to South Vietnam and landed equipment and personnel at Tan Son Nhut Air Base (AB) in Saigon; Bien Hoa AB, I5 miles north of Saigon; Da Nang AB, 375 miles northeast of Saigon; Pleiku AB, in the Central Highlands 230 miles northeast of Saigon; and Nha Trang AB, on the coast, a little less than 200 miles northeast of Saigon. Shortly afterwards, on January 7, a flight of C-l23s equipped for aerial spray missions arrived at Tan Son Nhut. Code-named RANCH HAND, this USAF detachment 3 days later began defoliation operations that continued for 9 years.
To manage U.S. forces in Vietnam, the Commander in Chief, Pacific Command, at the direction of President John F. Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, created Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) on February 8, 1962. Army Gen. Paul D. Harkins was named the first Commander of MACV. The 2d ADVON became the air component of the new command. A few months later, on October 8, the USAF activated the 2d Air Division, which replaced the 2d ADVON. In spite of increased U.S. aid, the Viet Cong insurgency grew, and the government of South Vietnam faced growing civil disorder. A year later, on November 1, 1963, a group of South Vietnamese military officers deposed President Ngo Dinh Diem in a coup détat, and not until June 1965 would the South Vietnamese establish a reasonably stable government. Meanwhile, on June 20, 1964, Anny Gen. William C. Westmoreland became Commander of MACV.
Communist insurgents also operated actively in Laos, and in May 1964 United States involvement in Southeast Asia expanded to include military aid to that country. On June 9, F-100s flying from Takhli Air Base, Thailand, about 110 miles north of Bangkok, made the first USAF strike in Laos. Air Force pilots bombed an antiaircraft installation at Xiangkhoang, on the Plain of Jars, about 100 miles northeast of Vientiane, the Laotian capital. In December 1964 the USAF launched an air interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of roads, trails, and waterways in the southern Laotian panhandle.
The nature of the conflict in Southeast Asia changed dramatically in late 1964. On August 2 and 4 torpedo boats from North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) attacked U.S. naval vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin- On the 5th, U.S. naval aircraft launched retaliatory air strikes against coastal targets in North Vietnam. That same day the USAF deployed B-57s to Bien Hoa AB and F-100s to Da Nang AB. Then in December 1964 the Viet Cong used conventional field rather than hit-and-run tactics to drive South Vietnamese forces temporarily from Binh Gia, near the coast, only 40 miles southeast of Saigon. For both North and South Vietnam governmental authorities this battle marked an escalation of the conflict. As the war rapidly intensified, on February 7, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered American dependents evacuated from South Vietnam. The same day the Viet Cong shelled Pleiku Air Base. In retaliation, the USAF conducted its first raid against North Vietnam on the 8th,
hitting a target just north of the 17th parallel.
