HomeMy WebLinkAboutDon Nicholas Radio Transcription #2City of College Station
Heritage Programs Oral History
Interviewee: Don Nicholas
Interviewer: Tom Turbiville
Place: College Station, Texas
Project: Veterans of the Valley
Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt
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00:02: Tom Turbiville (TT): Remember last Thursday we were talking about and talking to Don Nicholas of Bryan. A&M Class of 1948. He was the quarterback of the football team in ’47,
’48, and ’49, but his service in the Korean War and Vietnam War. 20 B-29 missions in Korea and 69 B-52 missions in Vietnam. We’re gonna talk to Don Nicholas again as he talks about
one particular mission of those 69 B-52 flights in Vietnam. The one where they got shot and the engine went out. Here’s Don Nicholas of Bryan.
00:35: Don Nicholas (DN): I, I remember that was my first experience having something like that happen and it happened at night. Most of our missions were at night because of the, daytime
problem with the MiGs. They were beginning to get pretty close to our airplanes up there so they finally, changed us to night missions, pretty much exclusively. And, so, we would, be
up there and, listen to all the calls coming from the radar sites and others who track the fighters. This particular night we were up, doing some work around the hydroid-electric plants
on the (Yalu?—river in Korea, not Vietnam) River. And, the, the flack going in was pretty heavy, because the way that we were bombing, we were bombing single ships. We would stack up,
mile separation and five hundred feet back for the (sale?) and proceed that way but. All the radar search lights would pick up the lead airplane coming through because they knew where
he was headed, he was headed for the dam. And, they’d start all of their, their, their shooting up there. I, heard something that sounded like just a handful of rocks thrown against
the, the, the fuselage. We began to lose oil pressure on one of the engines and the, the engineer who was monitoring that said, “We better shut this down. I think we’re gonna, maybe
have a fire or something.” Before he could get it shut down, it, it caught fire. And it’s, it makes a pretty big light at night when you have an engine fire. We finally nosed it over
and picked up a little speed and just kind of helped it go out with, actually blew it out. And it stopped and, after that particular mission we had to go down to southern Japan and
(Ibusuki?) and land and get the airplane fixed. And when I got outside and looked at, at the condition of the fuselage and, and the engine, it looked like a big can opener had gone
through and made, made little holes in the airplane but, fortunately it didn’t hit any, important, hydraulic system, electrics or anything like that. So we were able to get it fixed
and get on back.
TT: Don Nicholas continues what has certainly been a life well spent. Where whatever he did whether on the football field, the baseball diamond, the tennis courts, or in the cockpit.
He did it with passion and we thank him for his service. I’m Tom Turbiville, this is Bravo Brazos Valley.