By Kelly Murphy-Redd
Dick Rynearson was born in Ohio, in 1945. Graduating from Kent State University in 1967, he immediately entered the Air Force and graduated pilot training in February of 1969. His first aircraft was the Caribou; (C-7A) a twin-engine, short takeoff and landing utility transport. It could carry 26 fully equipped paratroops, 20 patients, or more than three tons of equipment.
In June of 1969, Dick deployed to Vietnam. He flew army personnel, ammunition, food and supplies, including ducks, chickens and pigs to various locations in S. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Dick loved every minute of it.
A situation occurred requiring Dick and his crew’s help. Viet Cong nailed a snake to a village sign “casting a spell.” Villagers said the only way to remove this curse was to sacrifice a White Water Buffalo. Dick got orders to transport a White Water Buffalo to the village.
They loaded up the buffalo and tied his nose ring to the rings on the floor of the plane. The buffalo had 360 degrees of motion. Everything was fine until the engine started. This startled the buffalo and he lost control of his bowels in a 360 degree radius.
Dick received a call on the radio informing him of a detail not mentioned earlier. Removing the spell wouldn’t work unless the right forefoot of the buffalo was the first foot out of the plane. The loadmaster procured a jeep, tied the right forefoot to the bumper, and gently pulled the buffalo down the ramp. Fifteen minutes later, the buffalo was sacrificed and the spell was broken.
A more serious mission, resulting in Dick’s Silver Star occurred in April of 1970 – the Siege of Dak Seang. Several hundred people lived there. Twenty-five to 28 U.S. Army Rangers were defending the camp. The North Vietnamese wanted it, because it was a critical crossroads for travel in a valley. The rangers were running out of ammunition.
Dick was in Cam Ranh Bay, working in the scheduling room when the phone rang asking how many crews could be ready to take ammo to Dak Seang. Three crews were ready along with two additional crews from another base.
It was 7 p.m. and still daylight. There were mountains on three sides with one way in and out. The planes flew in 20 seconds apart. They needed to avoid the 50mm gun on a particular hill. They couldn’t land on the runway because it had been blown up. The planes flew six feet above the runway and shoved the supplies out. Then they turned to fly out, climbing to avoid arms fire. Dick’s best friend flew over that hill and was hit by the 50mm gun. Dick saw the fire and watched the plane go down. His friend and the crew died.
Next time, they decided to go in under cover of darkness. They painted the bellies of the planes black and went in at 11 p.m. The rangers lit fires along the runway. It worked great. They were shot at, but not hit. The crews went back multiple times until the camp was saved. Dick served 366 days in Vietnam.
His next assignment was flying B-52Gs in Blytheville, Arkansas. While sitting nuclear alert one day, Dick got the call telling him he was being deployed. The next morning, his crew flew to Guam.
The mission was to drop iron bombs in South Vietnam and Cambodia. No one shot at them during the 12-14-hour missions. Four months later he came home. Twenty-eight days later he got another call. He was going back. During this second tour, before Christmas, President Nixon ordered a massive carpet-bombing campaign in North Vietnam, primarily Hanoi. Officially called Operation Linebacker II, it became known as the 11 Days of Christmas.
Now Dick was bombing in North Vietnam and the enemy was shooting back with SA2 missiles. The B-52Gs did not have missile defense to work against SA2 missiles. Three hundred pilots were called into a briefing, shown the target on the map, and were told six percent of them were not coming home. Eighteen planes were lost. Dick says he was lucky. He and all who participated were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Dick came home. An engineer by degree, he came to Eglin AFB to be in on the ground floor of testing the IIR Maverick missile. It was a three-year tour which lasted four-and-a-half years.
Then it was time to go back to the B52Gs at Fairchild AFB in Washington as senior captain. He was offered the opportunity to work for Hughes Aircraft in California and separated from the Air Force. During that time, he earned his Master’s degree and began working on the AMRAAM missile until his first retirement in 2005.
After retiring, he helped his wife Janie in her shop, P.S. Gifts. He started watching city council meetings and was concerned about the contentious nature of the meetings. He ran for city council, served two terms and then ran for mayor. His second and last term as mayor is up in April 2025. In 2019, KBR asked him to come back to work in the missile business, where he is today.
Sixteen years serving in public office while still working is Dick’s version of “retirement.” Describing himself as “100% pure American,” he loves his country and would do anything to defend it. He says he’s had a great life, married for 58 years to his childhood sweetheart, has four children, 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Dick isn’t done yet. He has a saying, “If you rest, you rust.”
