Ed Witzenburger
Age: 90
Born: Feb. 2, 1920
Hometown: New York City
Residence: Rancho Mirage
Military branch: U.S. Army Air Corps; 14th Air Force; 51st Fighter Group
Years served: September, 1940 - March 1, 1970
Rank: World War II: major; retired as colonel from U.S. Air Force
Family: Wife Eleanor (deceased); three children, Sandy Asmus of Sheridan, Wyo., Steve Witzenburger of Rancho Mirage and Bruce Witzenburger of Kona Coast, Hawaii; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren.
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Fighter pilot Ed Witzenburger flew nearly 200 combat missions against Japanese military forces in Southeast Asia, knocking out enemy aircraft in the air and on the ground in the “forgotten theater” of combat during World War II.
Witzenburger, who retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1970 with the rank of colonel, had a close call after being shot down over enemy territory during one harrowing mission in the China-Burma-India theater.
Witzenburger's squadron received an intelligence report that the Japanese were using an old French museum in the center of the city of Hanoi in Vietnam for their regional military headquarters.
“We had discussed a logical plan of attack,” he said. “Surprise would be a principal weapon. With just two P-51s, we could accurately skip four, 500-pound demolition bombs into this pinpoint target from roof level.”
On the afternoon of March 3, 1945, Major Witzenburger and the group commander took off from Kunming in southern China, flying parallel to the Red River, keeping behind and below a range of mountains.
About 25 miles from the target, “We hit the deck and flew eastward in the canyons of the last remaining mountains toward Hanoi,” he said. “With the target only 10 miles away and indicating 320 mph, our bombs would be released one minute, 52 seconds later we skipped the bombs into the headquarters and raked them over with machine gun fire several times. We thought we'd done a pretty good job.”
Two days later, Witzenburger led a flight of four P-51 Mustang fighters on a mission to dive bomb the marshalling yards at Vinh, a railroad town on the French Indochina coast, about 145 miles south of Hanoi. After hitting the target, Witzenburger flew over to take another look at the damaged headquarters in Hanoi.
While admiring his handiwork from two days earlier, the fighter plane was hit by small arms fire.
“When I was at very low altitude, some guy with a four-dollar gun hit my coolant line,” he said. “It was a lucky shot.”
“A thin spray of fluid hit my neck my heart skipped a beat,” he said.
As the coolant leaked, the engine temperature spiked.
“I knew I was in trouble,” he said. “I got to about 5,000 feet and 20 miles away,” and the engine caught fire.
“The airspeed read 180 mph,” he said. “Now fire poured out from beneath the cowling. This was it!
“I jettisoned the canopy, unfastened the seat harness I rolled the Mustang over and was torn from the cockpit,” he said.
He pulled the ripcord and parachuted to the earth, hitting the ground with a terrific impact, breaking his ankle.
Hiding out in the jungle, armed only with a .45 automatic pistol, the downed pilot soon heard rustling in the brush and footsteps approaching.
To his great relief, members of the French Foreign Legion reached him before the Japanese could find him.
“‘Ze Japoneis, they look for you — we have guarded all roads to find you first,'” Witzenburger said, repeating the words of his rescuer.
Witzenburger was technically considered a prisoner, because of a forced agreement with Japanese military — the Legion helped control the local population from interfering with the enemy's operation — and was subject to interrogation by the Japanese.
Witzenburger, who accumulated a great deal of intelligence information in the week since he'd been shot down, was anxious to return to his base in China. He was also anxious to avoid enemy interrogation.
Witzenburger, who was being held at the Citadel, a French military fortification, got out just before the installation was captured by the Japanese.
Five days and about 100 miles later, Witzenburger, accompanied by Legionnaires, made it to a tiny airfield, where “three very ancient and battered biplanes stood parked wing to wing on a field that measured not an inch more than 1,000 feet,” he said.
After waiting for the weather to clear, he got into the rear observer's seat in a 1922 model biplane.
After three nerve-wracking hours and much worry about running out of gas, the pilot delivered Witzenburger safely to his fighter group.
Witzenburger was credited with three confirmed enemy aircraft “kills” in the air and dozens on the ground.
Witzenburger flew combat missions during the Korean War and Vietnam War and wrapped up his military career as deputy commander of the Air Command Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.
In 1978, Witzenburger, a Republican, decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives.
“It turned out Dick Cheney ran for the same position,” he said.
Cheney won the Republican primary, “It was pretty close,” Witzenburger said, and went on to defeat the Democratic opponent in the general election to represent Wyoming.
“When it was over, I helped him,” Witzenburger said. “I (eventually) became the state Republican chairman.”
