Joe Crecca was born in 1940 in East Orange, New Jersey. He entered Air Force Officer Training School at Lackland AFB, Texas, on July 2, 1964, and was commissioned a 2Lt in September 1964. Crecca next went through Undergraduate Pilot Training, graduating in October 1965. He completed F-4C Weapons Systems Officer training in June 1966 and reported to the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing "Gunfighters", at Danang AB in the Republic of Vietnam, in August 1966. While flying his 87th combat mission, Lt Crecca's F-4 was hit and he was forced to eject over North Vietnam. He was immediately taken as a Prisoner of War and spent the next 2,280 days in captivity before being released during Operation Homecoming on February 18, 1973. After repatriation, Crecca went back on flying status and served with the 58th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing, at Eglin AFB, Florida, flying F-4E's from February 1974 until November 1976. He next served with the 3246th Test Wing, also at Eglin AFB, from November 1976 until he left the Air Force in July 1978. He served as Chief of Stan/Eval in both the 33rd TFW and 3246th TW. After leaving the Air Force, Major Crecca flew Douglas DC-8's and Boeing 747's with Flying Tigers, and then MD-11's and DC-10's with Federal Express after the two airlines merged. He retired from Fedex in September 2005. Major Crecca wears Command Pilot Wings and accumulated over 1,800 flying hours in the T-37 Tweet, T-38 Talon, F-4C, D, E, and RF-4C Phantoms, and the T-33. In addition, he has flown over 15,000 hours as an airline pilot and in civilian flying in the Beech King Air, EMB-120, Boeing 727, 747, 757, 767, DC-8, DC-10, and MD-11 aircraft. Joe is married to the former Joan Rice of Liverpool, England, and they have one son, Elliott, who is a U.S. Army Captain in the JAG Corps and has recently spent a tour in Iraq.
His Distinguished Flying Cross Citation reads:
First Lieutenant Joseph Crecca Jr., distinguished himself by extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as a Pilot of a tactical jet fighter near Thuy Ba, North Vietnam on 7 November 1966. On that date, Lieutenant Crecca's flight of three tactical fighters was diverted from their pre-planned target to a highly important hostile storage and supply point. In the ensuing flight, Lieutenant Crecca accurately navigated the flight to the new target through severe weather conditions, located the target visually and controlled the flight during the critical attack phase. The professional competence, aerial skill, and devotion to duty displayed by Lieutenant Crecca reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Maj. Crecca in Bloomfield, NJ in 2011: www.youtube.com/watch ---------------- From: airforce.togetherweserved.com/usaf/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp (SN HEGDAHL, USS CANBERRA �?? PRISONER OF WAR) By Dick �??Beak�?? Stratton, Captain, USN (Ret.)
"Doug was shuffled around from pillar to post, since his captors didn�??t know where he would fit into their propaganda plans. One mistake they made was to put him in for a while with Joe Crecca, an Air Force officer who had developed a method of creating the most organized memory bank we possessed to record the names of pilots shot down and imprisoned in Vietnam. Joe took this young Seaman and, recognizing the potential, painstakingly taught Doug not only 256 names, but also, the method of memorizing, cross-referencing and retrieving those names. It was no easy task that Joe set for himself for it was not intuitively obvious to Doug the value of such mental gymnastics..."
POWnetwork:
CRECCA, JOSEPH
Name: Joseph Crecca Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force Unit: 480th TFS Date of Birth: 23 October 1940 Home City of Record: Bloomfield NJ Date of Loss: 22 November 1966 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 213000 N 1054200 E Status (in 1973): Returnee Category: Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C Missions: 75
Other Personnel in Incident: Gordon Scott Wilson, pilot, missing
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK 06 September 1996 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS: 021473 RELEASED BY DRV
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977 Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and spelling errors).
JOSEPH CRECCA, JR. Captain - United States Air Force Shot Down: November 22 1966
Released:February 18.1973
I was born in 1940 in East Orange New Jersey. We moved to Bloomfield when I was very young and that is still my home town. My father passed away in 1968 but my mother and brother still live there. In 1962 I graduated from Newark College of Engineering with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. I worked for the Army Munitions Command for two years following which I applied for OTS at Lackland AFB in Texas. My pilot training was completed at Williams AFB in Arizona in 1965. I was assigned to the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Danang. I was shot down near Hanoi by a surface-to-air missile while on a strike mission in November of 1966.
During the latter portion of my tour in North Vietnam I had the opportunity to study Russian as well as to teach mathematics physics classical music and automobile theory and mechanics.
I was released on February 18 1973 in the second group of POW's sometimes known as "Kissinger's Twenty" since we were the men that balked at our release because we were not sure the U.S. Government had really agreed to the terms of our release.
At Clarke AFB the hospital staff thought I had malaria and I was held over for a long two days. It wasn't malaria fortunately but they didn't want to take any chances.
After some much needed rest with my family at Bloomfield I reported to Randolph Air Force Base for jet requalification. I completed the T-38 training and reported to George Air Force Base for an F-4 check out. I am now an operational F-4 aircraft commander out of Eglin AFB in Florida. Wahoo!
November 1996 Joseph Crecca and his wife Joan reside in Washington State.
Other Comments:
Joe Crecca was born in 1940 in East Orange, New Jersey. He entered Air Force Officer Training School at Lackland AFB, Texas, on July 2, 1964, and was commissioned a 2Lt in September 1964. Crecca next went through Undergraduate Pilot Training, graduating in October 1965. He completed F-4C Weapons Systems Officer training in June 1966 and reported to the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing "Gunfighters", at Danang AB in the Republic of Vietnam, in August 1966. While flying his 87th combat mission, Lt Crecca's F-4 was hit and he was forced to eject over North Vietnam. He was immediately taken as a Prisoner of War and spent the next 2,280 days in captivity before being released during Operation Homecoming on February 18, 1973. After repatriation, Crecca went back on flying status and served with the 58th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing, at Eglin AFB, Florida, flying F-4E's from February 1974 until November 1976. He next served with the 3246th Test Wing, also at Eglin AFB, from November 1976 until he left the Air Force in July 1978. He served as Chief of Stan/Eval in both the 33rd TFW and 3246th TW. After leaving the Air Force, Major Crecca flew Douglas DC-8's and Boeing 747's with Flying Tigers, and then MD-11's and DC-10's with Federal Express after the two airlines merged. He retired from Fedex in September 2005. Major Crecca wears Command Pilot Wings and accumulated over 1,800 flying hours in the T-37 Tweet, T-38 Talon, F-4C, D, E, and RF-4C Phantoms, and the T-33. In addition, he has flown over 15,000 hours as an airline pilot and in civilian flying in the Beech King Air, EMB-120, Boeing 727, 747, 757, 767, DC-8, DC-10, and MD-11 aircraft. Joe is married to the former Joan Rice of Liverpool, England, and they have one son, Elliott, who is a U.S. Army Captain in the JAG Corps and has recently spent a tour in Iraq.
His Distinguished Flying Cross Citation reads:
First Lieutenant Joseph Crecca Jr., distinguished himself by extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as a Pilot of a tactical jet fighter near Thuy Ba, North Vietnam on 7 November 1966. On that date, Lieutenant Crecca's flight of three tactical fighters was diverted from their pre-planned target to a highly important hostile storage and supply point. In the ensuing flight, Lieutenant Crecca accurately navigated the flight to the new target through severe weather conditions, located the target visually and controlled the flight during the critical attack phase. The professional competence, aerial skill, and devotion to duty displayed by Lieutenant Crecca reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Rec'd 7 Jul 2011:
Dear Michael- I am a former 389th TFS pilot. Our members are creating biographies for all our members, including the Fallen. I need to contact Joe Crecca to get info on Loren Torkelson, a pilot in the 389th TFS with me. Crecca and Torkelson were POWs together and Crecca later interviewed Torkelson in 1981(approximately) and published an article based on this interview.
Torkelson died subsequent to the interview of sudden heart attack. I hope to draft Loren Torkelson's biography based on telephone interviews and data research.
Can you provide me with contact info for Crecca or send him my email address and ask him to contact me? Do you have any data sources I may use to research Torkelson's career?
Will Rudd, Col, USAF(Ret) willrudd@msn.com willrudd@cox.net 850-651-8988 (H)
