Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape

An RF-8A Crusader photo reconnaissance plane flies over the mountainous terrain of Indochina.

 

Charles F. Klusmann was born on September 7, 1933, in Indianapolis, Indiana. After graduation from high school he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on February 23, 1952, and began active duty in the U.S. Navy on March 18, 1953.

 

After completing basic training at NTC San Diego, Klusmann attended Class A Aerographer's Mate School at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, followed by service as an Aerographer at Naval Ordnance Test Facility China Lake, California until he was accepted into the Naval Aviation Cadet Program and began flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida, in July 1954.

 

On July 26, 1955, Klusmann was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy and designated a Naval Aviator. Klusmann then went on to serve as an AD-6 Skyraider pilot with VA-215 at NAS Moffett Field, California, from August 1955 to March 1957.

 

Lt. Klusmann then flew F9F Panther jets from April 1957 to July of 1959, followed by the US Navy's General Line School until May of 1960, and then to the US Navy's Catapult School at NAS Philadelphia, PA on June of 1960 through August 1960.

 

Lt. Klusmann then served as a Catapult Officer aboard the USS Bon Homme aircraft carrier from Septembet 1960 through October 1962. This was followed by his upgrade to flying RF-8 Crusaders at Miramar NAS in California.

 

The Importance of Laos

 

In 1959, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) launched an armed struggle to destroy the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and unite all Vietnamese under Communist Ho Chi Minh’s government.

 

The internationally endorsed Geneva Accords of 1962 had barred foreign military forces from Laos. Nonetheless, North Vietnam deployed troops into the landlocked, lightly populated country and joined with indigenous Communist guerrillas, the Pathet Lao, to oust the Royal Laotian Government in Vientiane.

 

To facilitate its campaign and to arm and supply Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam, Hanoi also began building a transportation system through the southern panhandle of Laos. The Americans soon named that transportation system the “Ho Chi Minh Trail.”

By the spring of 1964, the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson understood that the allied struggle to preserve the independence of the Republic of Vietnam was in deep trouble. So, the United States stepped in to provide South Vietnam with military, political, and economic assistance in an effort to counter Hanoi’s external and internal assault.

 

This approach was in keeping with the theoretical concept of “graduated escalation,” then popular with Washington strategists. The adminstration decided to focus on Laos to deter Ho Chi Minh'’s government. This was accomplished by engaging in covert military activities in Laos.

 

Johnson and his civilian and military advisers proposed, as one solution to the problem, threatening North Vietnamese forces in Laos to compel Ho Chi Minh’s government to cease its support for the Communist war effort in South Vietnam.

 

In support of this effort, top secret photo reconnaisance flights by RF-8A Crusader aircraft over Laos began in early 1964. These flights were to determine what Ho Chi Minh was up to in Laos, and by engaging in paramilitary operations to support the Royal Lao government against the Communists.  

 

In October 1963 Lt. Klusmann was deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk flying RF-8 Crusader photo recon missions. The USS Kitty Hawk was deployed at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tomkin. It's mission was to engage in super-secret missions over Laos, somtimes referred to as the “Elephant Kingdom.” Few, if any, knew where to find Laos on a map.

 

The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk on station in the Tonkin Gulf.

 

However, most were by now familiar with the neighboring territory of Vietnam, the site of a long-running conflict between Communist and non-Communist Vietnamese and their international allies, including the United States.

 

Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape

 

Lt. Klusmann's mission was a part of Operation Yankee Team which began on May 19, 1964. This operation was to employ U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force photo reconnaissance aircraft, unarmed and unescorted, to overfly Laos as a warning to Hanoi to stop its aggressive activities in Indochina.

 

The Laotian government, itself under attack by both indigenous and external Communist forces, authorized the U.S. to fly reconnaissance aircraft over Laos to assess Communist activities in the Plain of Jars and east of it to the border with North Vietnam.

 

On the morning of May 21, 1964, Lt. Commander Ben Cloud, and his wingman, Lt. Klusmann, catapulted off the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk. The two unarmed Crusaders flew 500 miles from the carrier over the South China Sea into the northern part of South Vietnam into central Laotian air space.

 

At this point in time the pilots believed nothing would happen to them because they thought they were invincible. Lt. Klusmann believed "no one would actually shoot at us." He was, however, concerned that it would be difficult for search and rescue aircraft to come to his assistance.

 

As they continued their mission they suddenly found white puffs blooming around their aircraft and red streaks rising from the ground. They found themselves under fire from the ground.

 

Klusmann soon found his left wing on fire, so both aircraft immediately climbed to 40,000 feet and headed back to the USS Kitty Hawk. The high altitude, combined with high winds, soon put out the fire on Klusmann's left wing; however, pieces of that left wing kept falling off.

 

Both pilots managed to land on the carrier safely, but Lt. Klusmann's aircraft was found to have holes all over it, and his fuel was down to a dangerous 600 pounds.  Despite this, reconnaissance pilots were ordered to fly slightly higher and faster, but the missions still had to be carried out low and slow.

 

Vice Admiral Thomas H. Moorer asked for a change in the rules of engagement, but Washington denied his request. From the 21st of May through June 5th, 1964, they carried out more than 130 flights over Laos with no loss of aircraft or pilots.

 

June 6, 1964

 

Lt. Klusmann and his new wingman, Lt. Jerry S. Kuechmann, flew their Crusader recon aircraft over the jungle along Route 7 between Khang Kah and Ban Ban in central Laos. Navigational assistance was not available to them at this distant location, so they had to navigate by locatiing and photographing the targest with their eyes and their maps.

 

Ominously, this area had been given the nickname "Lead Alley" due to the heavy concentration there of North Vietnamese antiaircraft weapons. Klusmann then made a low level flight (1,500 feet at 550 knots) over a suspecious site to get the best photographs of the site.

 

Suddenly, Klusmann's aircraft took hits on a wing and the fuselage. Soon his flight controls became disabled because of leaking hydraulic fluid from his airplane. Klusmann related that "After less than two minutes the control system froze and it was time to get out and walk."

 

Klusmann ejected from the damaged airplane, his parachute deployed safely, watched his aircraft crash into the ground and explode in a ball of fire. Klusmann's aircraft now had the dubious distinction of being the first  of 1,125 Navy and Marine Corps fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters lost to enemy fire during the long, costly Vietnam War.

 

As Klusmann floated to the ground he could hear and feel bullets fired from the ground zipping past him. He found a clearing ahead of him and tried to steer clear of the only tree in the center of the clearing but, unfortunately, he wound up crashing through the branches badly wrenching his right hip, knee, and foot.

 

Once on the ground Klusmann struggled to find a place to hide while his wingman, Lt. Kuechmann, circled overhead as long as he could putting out a Mayday call, but shortly had to head back to the carrier due to low fuel.

 

The CIA To The Rescue

 

The CIA's Air America was tasked to provide SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape) services in case it was needed, so it began its first search and rescue mission on June 6th in an attempt to recover U.S. Navy aviator Lt. Charles F. Klusmann. The CIA dispatched two fixed-wing aircraft and later an H-34 Seahorse helicopter to find and rescue Klusmann.

 

As soon as they arrived over the accident site the hills erupted into furious gunfire as the Pathed Lao guerrillas sprang their trap to shoot the rescue planes out of the sky. The groundifre wounded the copilot of the helicopter and put 80 holes in the aircraft.

 

Despite the intense groundfire, the Air America crewmen fired from every open port and dropped grenades on the troops below. However, Klusmann realized that these guys were trying hard to rescue him but he felt that the effort to rescue him might cause death to his fellow Americans and the destruction of their planes.

 

In the words that later would accompany Klusmann being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Navy pilot, “exhibiting heroism of the highest order, waved off” his would-be rescuers.

 

Soon enough Klusmann became the first American military pilot to be captured and imprisoned by the enemy. By the end of the war, hundreds of other U.S. airmen had endured captivity and often torture in the prisons of North Vietnam and the hellish jungle camps of Indochina.

 

A photo of Lt. Klusmann with his captors on June 6, 1964, the first USN prisoner of war in Vietnam.

 

Following a three-day trek, the party arrived at Xieng Khouang, where he was given a bucket of water with which to clean up but then was put in an “infamous tiger cage” for the night. In the days that followed, Klusmann was taken by truck to a small village on Route 7 near Khang Khay. There, he was presented to the 37-mm antiaircraft crew that had shot him down.

 

That night, the Navy pilot was ushered into the presence of an apparently high-ranking official he believed was the political leader of the Pathet Lao, Prince Souphanouvong, often referred to as the “Red Prince.” One of Klusmann’s fears was that his prison masters would “send me to North Vietnam, and from there maybe to Russia.”

 

Klusmann was moved again, this time to an off-road site with thatched-roof huts near Khang Khay. Klusmann was placed in solitary confinement for the next two months in a room with a dirt floor, no windows, and bamboo walls plastered with mud.

 

The room he ws in had a bed made of logs and rough boards, a mosquito net, grass mat, blanket, a metal table and chair, a canteen, and a drinking cup. To keep himself in good shape he paced back and forth around the room, and he figured he had walked 183 miles.

 

Soon Klusmann made an attempt to escape by digging a hole under a wall but found his captors had implanted bamboo stakes in a trench all around the room to a depth of three feet. He was disappointed in his effort to honor the Code of Conduct, which called for captives to make an effort to escape.

 

Klusmann's daily routine consisted of a trip to the latrine in the morning, followed by a trip to the river to clean up and brush his teeth, solitary confinement and two meals a day. The meals consisted of rice, boiled greens and tulip soup. Still, his weight dropped to 125 pounds from 175 pounds.

 

He experienced bouts of diarrhea, and the smoke from the fires in adjoining rooms caused him to cough followed by a fever that knocked him down for more than two weeks. His guards gave him pills and shots with medicine of unknown origin and which did not help him at all.

 

The Red Prince, an English speaking officer, Capt. Boun  Kham, was his indoctrinator and interrogator. Klausmann soon was surprised that Capt. Kham knew a lot about American aircraft capabilities, had a copy of the classified organizational manual of the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and even knew pricesly when the carrier USS Kitty Hawk passed by the Philippines en route to Vietnam that year.

 

Capt. Kham urged Klusmann to make radio broadcasts saying he was being treated well, but he refused. Then, Kham wanted him to write a letter to Prince Souphanouvong in Laos begging for his release. Again, Klusmann refused. Finally, Kham dictated a letter for Klusmann to sign, which he did while physically and mentally in poor health.

 

When Klusmann recovered from his illness he was ashamed that he had done something he should not have done, and then made up his mind to escape or die trying. But, Kham was done with him and so they moved Klusmann to another prison compound surrounded by high barbed wire fences reinforced with concertina wire.

 

A group of some 35 men, Royal Laotioan Army soldiers and former Pathet Lao guerrillas, soon joined him, and one of them was somewhat conversant in English. Once he gained confidence that some of his fellow prisoners wanted to make it back to friendly lines, Klusmann joined in the effort.

 

The prisoners were periodically allowed to wash their cloths in a nearby stream and hang them on the fence to dry. Klusmann and another prisoner, Boun Mi, grew to trust each other and helped loosen nails holding the fence up under the drying clothes. They also prepared for their escape by gathering a set of dark clothes to help conceal them when they escaped.

 

Finally, on a dark, rainy night, Klusmann, Boun Mi, and two other men made their move. They climbed under the fence where the wire had been loosened, and silently made their way 200 feet across open ground to reach cover. One of the men with them decided to wait for two others to join him, but unfortunately he was captured and executed with the two others who had stayed behind.

 

One of the group decided to go to a farmhouse for some food; however, he emerged from the farm house bound and under guard. These guerrillas headed for where Klusmann and Boun Mi were hiding, but the quickly high-tailed into the forest and disappeared.

 

They foraged for food in abandoned farm houses, and their 25 mile hike through the jungle and mountainous Laotian terrain soon became drudgery. Leechs clung to their bodies to torment them, and the trek thouroughly taxed the physcal strength and mental resolve.

 

After 3 1/2 days they came upon a small roadside guard shack, but Klusmann wanted to go around it. Boun Mi, however, heard them talking and was convinced that they were not Pathet Lao. When Boun Mi approached the shack armed men came out but quickly began to smile and slap backs.

 

After a hair’s-breadth escape from captivity and grueling trek through the jungle.

 

Klusmann and Boun Mi had stumbled upon an airstrip used by the CIA's Air America and guarded by non-Communist Laotian forces. Word of Klusmann's arrival was immediately sent to U.S. civilian and military authorities in the region.

 

An hour later a small fixed-wing aircraft landed at the airstrip and the Americans on board greeted their long-lost compatriot. Klusmann on August 31, 1964 was flown to the USAF base in Udorn, Thailand, then out to Task Force 77 in the Gulf of Tonkin. 

 

There, Admiral Ulysses S. G. Sharp, Commandr-in-Chief, Pacific, and Vice Admiral Roy L. Johnson, Commander, Seventh Fleet, learned firsthand of Klusmann's unique wartime experience.

 

Lt. Charles Klusmann with Vice Admiral Roy L. Johnson, Commander Seventh Fleet, Sept. 1964.

 

Lt. Klusmann was then flown to San Diego and reunited with his wife on September 4, 1964. News of his ordeal and dramatic escape made headlines all over the United States. Lt. Klusmann was happy to tell his story, but true to form, he wanted to get back to work.

 

Lt. Klusmann was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Prisoner of War Medal, Vietnam.

 

Over the next 16 years he served as a test pilot, executive officer, and commanding officer of training command at naval stations in California, Texas, and the Philippines. He attended the Naval Postgraduate School and the Naval War College.

 

On October 1, 1980, Capt. Klusmann retired from the Navy and then settled down with his wife in Pensacola, Florida, where it all had started in 1955 when he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy and had been presented his wings as a naval aviator.

 

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Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!