River Rat Thunderbird

Over the years we've had a lot of River Rats fly with the Thunderbirds, the USAF demonstration team. For a decade after the great unpleasantness of Southeast Asia it was more common than not to have one or more Rats on the team. For those unaware, the River Rats, or more formally the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association, is a group of military aviators formed initially from those who had flown combat in the Red River Valley of North Vietnam--the heavily defended area around Hanoi.

The group was formed in 1967 by Robin Olds, Scrappy Johnson, and Larry Pickett--Robin from the Wolfpack Phantoms; Scrappy and Pick from the two F-105 wings. "Practice" reunions were held annually until the war ended and the POWs were returned, then in 1973 the first "Real" reunion was held. We meet every year and though we get old, the stories get better with the retelling. We've set up a scholarship program for family of MIA/POWs and a foundation to aid military families with severe medical problems. We've contributed a couple of million bucks in the process.

Rather than become a tontine, where the last man alive drinks the brandy, we opened membership to US military combat aviators and now have a lot of active duty folks in the group. That's why it is such great news to see this piece regarding one of our guys making the T'Birds for 2009. Richard "Face" Goodman, currently an F-15E Strike Eagle Pilot at Nellis AFB, will be flying the opposing solo position for the next two years:

River Rat Now a Thunderbird

In case you haven't seen them lately: