THAT’S CLOSE ENOUGH!

Captain Tom Dwelle’s DFC-winning mission to save an Army convoy

JAN TEGLER

Captain Thomas A. Dwelle had no interest in the Distinguished Flying Cross or any of the U.S. Air Force’s other air medals by the time he’d spent a few months flying the Douglas A-1E Skyraider in South Vietnam. “At least once a month, sometimes twice, we’d stand out on the ramp and some general officer would come through to pin medals on a guy.” “I thought, ‘Screw this.’ I’d rather be flying!” Stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base, 16 miles northeast of Saigon in South Vietnam, Dwelle was a pilot with the 602nd Air Commando Squadron, a unit that had been activated secretly in 1964 at Hurlburt AFB, Florida to train Air Force pilots to fly the A-1E. Adapted from the U.S. Navy’s AD-5, the twin-seat E model was known…

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Flight Journal (Digital) - 1 Issue, January - February 2022

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