50 years later, Ohio vet recalls Son Tay Raid
Nov. 21 marked the 50th anniversary of the Son Tay Raid near Hanoi in North Vietnam, meant to rescue and return about 70 American prisoners of war.
RetiredU.S. Air Force Col. Jay Strayer, who was born and raised in Jamestown, Ohio, was one of the pilots during this rescue attempt.
“I remembercoming from my base in Thailand back to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, on a TDY to join the force and begin practicing for a couple of months,” Strayer said.
It would end with mixed results, but the operation becamepersonal for theOhio veteran.
Strayer received his commissionasasecondlieutenant in June 1956 through the Air Force ROTC programatOhio State University. His many career stops included stateside bases in Michigan and California, along with overseas assignments inGermany and Thailand.
After 29 years of service, he ended his career in 1985 atWright-Patterson Air Force Base as vice commander of the 2750th Air BaseWing.
The story of the Son Tay Raid was detailed in an “Air Force Magazine” feature in November 1995. Planning began in the spring of 1970.
In August, ground troops began practicing entry and escape from a training compound, whileaircrews, including Strayer, performed aerial refueling, night-formationflying and flare-dropping techniques over the course of more than 1,000 hours and 268 sorties – all without an accident, according to the article.
Little information was knownaboutthePOWs’physical condition. It was only knowntheywere being held in some of the most inhumaneconditions imaginable.
“A helicopter pilot that had been shot down and captured five years earlier was a friend that I had been stationed with earlier in my career in Germany, and he could have very well been a
POW in that camp, so I was excited to be able to rescue him,” Strayer said.
On Nov. 20, 1970, all air and ground force personnel assembled in the base theater at Takhli Air Base, Thailand, where they were told theywere going to rescue as many as 70 American POWs.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. that night, a seven-ship formation with three helicopters carrying Army Special Forces on either side of aC-130 tookofffor SonTay.
Threeof the six helicopters carried the attacking force, while the additional choppers would be used as backups and carry the rescued POWs home.
“The leadhelicopter carrying the initial attack force was an HH-3E Jolly Green Giant, anditwastocrash-land inside the camp to get the rescue started,” Strayer recalled. “The other two HH-53 helicopters, including the one I was flying, carried the second and third parts of the attack that landed outside the base.”
As it turned out, the prisoners had beenmoved prior to the team’s arrival, and so for reasons still unknown today no POWswere rescued that day.
“The feeling of disappointment to find out people had been moved was huge,” he recalled. “We had been practicingforalongtime, andthen to findno one therewhenwe arrivedwas simplydeflating.”
Today, one of the HH-53 helicopters used to carry troops in the Son Tay Raid bearing tail No. H357, and one of Strayer’s uniforms, can be seen on display in the NationalMuseum of theU.S. Air Force.