RUSSELL G. LEE
“Golden Horseman 7475”
- A Thailand Veteran's Prayer
- Arrows of Steel and Glass
- Before Their Time
- Down to the River
- Knights of the Sky
- Markers of Stone
- Savage (Population 3006)
- Three Left Behind
- War's Siren Song
I arrived on station at Udorn RTAFB in the spring of 1974 with the conflict to the east receding. An uneventful summer, fall and into, what they called, winter allowed me to enjoy the sights and sounds of Thailand, a truly remarkable place to visit. When I wasn't having fun I was testing, cleaning, and painting air-to-air missiles out in the bomb dump with the 432 MMS. The tensions rose in the spring of 1975 with the evacuations of the US embassies in Cambodia and Viet Nam and culminated with the "Mayaguez Incident" which was, thankfully, the only time I was involved in sending planes into combat. The lives lost from a helicopter crash with 17 AF Security Police and 4 Aircrew members during the Mayaguez have always left me feeling haunted. There, but for the grace of God go I, and other thoughts in that vein. Having had met some of the Udorn SPs who were involved in this action left me hoping it wasn't them!
My first crack at poetry involved working out these feelings! My shot at a tribute to the Men lost in the action surrounding the "Mayaguez Incident".
Now, fat and happy in Lakeville, Minnesota with a never-ending project of an "Up North" Lake home with an occasional chance to "Just Go Fishin", I can also be seen in the skies of WW1 Europe with my favorite online WW1 Air Combat Simulator. This pastime is what led to me writing "Knights of the Sky."