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Sgt Mark Bartovick
to remember
Olds, Robin, Brig Gen.
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Contact Info
Home Town Honolulu
Last Address Steamboat Springs, CO
Date of Passing Jun 14, 2007
Location of Interment United States Air Force Academy Cemetery (VLM) - Colorado Springs, Colorado
Brigadier General Robin Olds is the director of aerospace safety in the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center, a separate operating agency and an organization of the Office of the Inspector General, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. General Olds has worldwide responsibility for the development and implementation of policies, standards and procedures for programs in safety education, accident investigation and analysis, human factors research, and safety inspection to prevent and reduce accidents in Air Force activities.
General Olds was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of Army Air Corps Maj. Gen. and Mrs. Robert Olds. He spent his boyhood days in the Hampton, Va., area where he attended elementary and high school. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., and was commissioned as second lieutenant in June 1943. A member of the academy football team, he was selected as All-American tackle in 1942. He completed pilot training in 1943.
General Olds is rated a triple ace, having shot down a total of 17 enemy aircraft during World War II and the Vietnam War. He began his combat flying in a P-38 Lightning named "Scat 1" during World War II, and at the end of the war he was flying "Scat VII," a P-51 Mustang, and was credited with 107 combat missions and 24.5 victories, 12 aircraft shot down and 11 1/2 aircraft destroyed on the ground.
During the Vietnam War in October 1966, General Olds entered combat flying in Southeast Asia in "Scat XXVII," an F-4 Phantom II. He completed 152 combat missions, including 105 over North Vietnam. Utilizing air-to-air missiles, he shot down over North Vietnam two Mig-17 and two Mig-21 aircraft, two of these on one mission.
General Olds was wing man on the first jet acrobatic team in the Air Force and won second place in the Thompson Trophy Race (Jet Division) at Cleveland in 1946. He participated in the first one-day, dawn-to-dusk, transcontinental roundtrip flight in June 1946 from March Field, Calif., to Washington, D.C., and return.
His duty assignments in England, Germany, Libya, Thailand and the United States have included positions as squadron, base, group and wing commander; staff assignments in a numbered Air Force, Headquarters U.S. Air Force and the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a graduate of the National War College, 1963.
In February 1946 General Olds started flying P-80 jets at March Field, Calif., with the first squadron so equipped. In October 1948 he went to England under the U.S. Air Force - Royal Air Force Exchange Program and served as commander of No. 1 Fighter Squadron at Royal Air Force Station Tangmere. The squadron was equipped with the Gloster Meteor jet fighter.
He assumed duties as commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, in September 1966. He returned to the United States in December 1967 and served as commandant of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy through January 1971.
General Olds assumed the position of director of aerospace safety in the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center at Norton Air Force Base, Calif., in February 1971.
His military decorations and awards include the Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with three oak leaf clusters, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with five oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with 39 oak leaf clusters, Air Force Commendation Medal, British Distinguished Flying Cross, French Croix de Guerre, Vietnam Air Force Distinguished Service Order, Vietnam Air Gallantry Medal with Gold Wings, Vietnam Air Service Medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. He is a command pilot.
He was promoted to the temporary grade of brigadier general effective June 1, 1968, with date of rank May 28, 1968.
Daughter of legendary fighter pilot visits Air Force museum
Date
Jul 16, 2010
Last Updated: Jul 23, 2010
Comments
by Rob Bardua National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
7/16/2010 - DAYTON, Ohio (AFNS) -- Telling her father's story has become the top mission for Christina Olds.
Ms. Olds, the daughter of the late triple ace and Air Force Cross recipient Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, visited the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force July 14 to see her father's F-4C Phantom, which is on display in the museum's Modern Flight Gallery, before attending a book signing appearance in Dayton.
"I love this place," she said. "The first time that I saw my father's F-4 was in 2001 before he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and that was very emotional and impressive, but what has happened to me since then makes it much more meaningful."
And much has happened since 2001. During World War II, her father quickly became a double ace credited with 12 aerial victories and a squadron commander at the age of 22. During the Southeast Asia war, he commanded the famous 8th Tactical Fighter Wing and became the first Air Force pilot to score four combat victories with F-4s in Southeast Asia.
In 2007, Gen. Olds passed away before he was able to write his memoirs.
"When I was living with him in his last six months, he talked about how sad he was that he hadn't finished his memoirs and I said, 'Don't worry, daddy, I'll finish them for you,'" Ms. Olds said. "And he said, 'Alright young lady, then that's an order!'"
She always had an inkling that she would end up writing her father's story. What he did write was in bits and pieces and not in chronological order. Then, in 1995, he stopped writing altogether because he just did not want to sit in front of a computer.
"He wanted to be out living life and traveling around, visiting pilots, going to reunions and giving speeches, which he did all over the world," she said.
Last April, her hard work paid off and a book titled Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds by Christina Olds and Ed Rasimus.
According to Ms. Olds, writing the book has helped to increase her understanding of who her father was and the significance of his many accomplishments.
"(My appreciation) is completely deeper now," she said. "I was proud of him before but now knowing what he did and how it affected all of the pilots he flew with, what he meant to people and understanding what he did in Vietnam is just so overwhelming for me."
Looking to better tell the story of all those who fought in Vietnam, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force officials plan to renovate the Southeast Asia Gallery, which will include a new Robin Olds exhibit in the spring of 2011, said museum research historian Jeff Duford. Items on display will include a flying helmet, flying suit, parachute harness and aircrew survival knife used by General Olds.
General Olds' personal story, including his considerable leadership role commanding the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing; his part in forming a prominent veterans group known as the River Rats; and what many consider one of his greatest achievements, "Operation Bolo," will be featured in the new Southeast Asia Gallery.
Operation Bolo was a successful operation that used deception to lure the enemy into a trap that saw half of their MiG-21 force shot down with no Air Force losses.
"Operation Bolo was so clever that it has become an essential strategy and tactics lesson that is required study for military personnel to this day," said mr. Duford.
But for now, Ms. Olds is taking one more look at the aircraft her father flew, and the memories start to sharpen back into focus.
"I can still visualize him standing in front of the F-4 like he did when we were here before," she said. "He's not with us now, but he's still here and that to me is just phenomenal."
