Peppel Conducted Surveillance While Serving In The Air Force
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Larry Peppel always knew he would enter the military.
"My father served in World War II. My grandfather was in World War I, in France," he said. "There was no doubt in my mind I'd go into the service. I owed that to my father and grandfather. I made up my mind to do the best I could for myself."
Born and raised in Ohio, Peppel attended Syracuse University in Rochester, N.Y., on scholarship. He secured a job with a telephone company there, telling them it was quite possible he would be drafted.
"That first year I aggressively looked for an opportunity to enlist," the 62-year-old Kosciusko County Red Cross executive director said. That opportunity came with a guarantee from the Air Force for Officer's Candidate School. "I signed on with the Air Force and had a bit of delay there because there was a backload."
After completing OTS in July 1966, the Air Force told the second lieutenant they needed pilots.
"I never thought I'd ever be able to do it. I consider learning to fly my master's degree. Anybody can fly an airplane; it's flying the way the Air Force wants you to that's difficult," he said.
The 53-week flight training took place at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. The top pilots got their pick of assignments. Peppel graduated in the middle of his class and was assigned to a KC-135 crew. He learned to fly the big Stratospheres in California.
The KC-135 tanker crews engaged in aerial refueling.
"Well, there's no trick to it. It's formation flying," he said offhandedly. "You watch NASCAR, watch those guys going 200 miles per hour? That's dangerous. If you're going 200 mph, you need to be in the air. You ought to be flying."
Peppel's first regular assignment was with the 410th Bombardment Wing, headquartered at KI Sawyer Air Force Base in Marquette, Mich. He began serving on alerts as a co-pilot in 1968.
"In 1969 our crew was assigned to go to U Tapao (Royal Thai Navy) Airfield in Thailand to conduct refueling missions there for airplanes operating missions in South Vietnam.
"We'd go to Hawaii with a gaggle of fighters. Each tanker would support three or four fighters. Four tankers could carry enough fuel for 10 to 12 fighters. And we rotated airplanes back to the U.S.
"We never went into Vietnam. We'd refuel the fighters close to the coast, fly to the Philippines, get fuel and sometimes go into Okinawa. We'd island-hop, stop at Guam or Midway. Out of Guam we'd go on to the Philippines or Okinawa, depending on the where the fighters were going."
After 90 days overseas, Peppel returned to the upper peninsula of Michigan. Late in 1969 he received orders to Vietnam. Assigned as a forward air controlman, he reported to Florida to train in small airplanes.
He left to go overseas around the first of March and spent the rest of the year in Vietnam. His wife, Marsha, and their son, Brad, then 8 months old, lived in Sawyer base housing.
"She's the real hero, raising our son all alone," Peppel said.
Comparing the two countries, the Air Force officer felt safer in Thailand. "We spent most of our time flying and could move around the area off base freely. I saw the sights in Bangkok one weekend. In Vietnam you had to be much more careful."
Peppel was stationed with the 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron and stationed in the old French city of Qui Nhon, Binh Dinh Province, where the U.S. Army's 22nd Armored Division was headquartered. The base, with the ocean to one side and mountains to the west, featured a mobile army surgical hospital unit and a 6,000-foot-long airstrip.
"It was much more runway than I needed for my little airplane. But, because of the mountains, you had to be careful flying in and out of there, especially at night," Peppel said.
The little Cessna 337 he flew alone was a flying workhorse the Air Force "bought off the shelf." It had an engine in the front and one in the back. Two, in case one was lost.
"They (the Cessnas) weren't high speed, but a good platform to do what you had to do, which was making observations about the landscape below. If you found a target, it was marked with white phosphorus rockets. Then you radioed the airstrip for artillery. There were all kinds of regulations, procedures and requirements to get clearance.
"When you're directing ordnance, you have to make sure you know where the good people are and where the bad people are. Unfortunately, in a war it doesn't always work that way. You think you know, but sometimes you don't.
"I needed to know who the good people were and who the bad guys were. The 22nd Armored would be out on maneuvers and we would be in close support, in the air. If they engaged the enemy, we were there to help. We tried to eliminate the problem.
"I went over and did my best. I tried to perform the mission I was told to do."
For Peppel, the hard line protocols dividing officers and enlisted people evaporated in Vietnam.
"It was so much different than being in Michigan. I had wonderful, wonderful enlisted people who worked for me. They took care of me. They spent hours during the night making sure I could fly in the morning. I can't say enough about that."
The 21st Squadron's headquarters was in Cam Ranh Bay, 200 miles south of Qui Nhon.
"I spent a little bit of time in the highlands, in Pleiku. I flew out of various places, because people would come and go. We were performing the same mission all over the area. We would provide intelligence with new information and, if they were bad guys, we went after them. We got to know the real estate really well."
One of Peppel's flight training classmates, Harold Dobbs, was stationed in Pleiku. The two men determined they would fly on a couple of missions together. Peppel went with Dobbs in his fighter plane one day and Dobbs went on a surveillance mission with Peppel on another.
"It wasn't the same situation as in North Vietnam, in Cambodia, or over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I never got involved in that," Peppel said.
Peppel looked over a lot of jungle tops, and, closer to the ocean, saw a lot of small farms.
"That's how these people made a living, they were farmers."
He was charged with reporting anything suspicious, like vehicles or groups of people moving through the area. In Pleiku, the mountain people were much more nomadic and it was hard to keep track of them.
"When the 22nd Armored Division went out, they would sweep areas, where, for instance, the local people were being harassed. Or where enemy troops were taking people, supplies or food. The 22nd would get them cornered and that's when we had activity.
"I was very fortunate, really. I never had a problem. Oh, once an engine went down, but I had the other to get back. I came back home, landed, and flew the airplane the next day.
"My job was not nearly as hazardous as it was for those who walked over the ground.
"Helicopter crews were in and out of the airbase. They would see things I wanted to know about. They were always getting shot at. The fire might be from an irate chicken farmer or it might be a bad guy."
The Army complex at Qui Nhon was walled with machine gun sentries, guards and lights and ringed with barbed wire.
"I wasn't there during a time of significant activity. We were in a relatively safe place.
"One of the things I enjoyed was making friends with people in other branches of the service."
Peppel returned to the United States, to KI Sawyer AFB, just before Christmas 1970.
"I think about things that happened when I was in the service. At Sawyer we did a lot of ground alerts, supporting bombers and tankers. We also pulled missions to Goose Bay Labrador and might be there for a week to support their bombers.
"I remember one night, we'd just got takeoff clearance and the tower told us to hold our position. They had a bulletin. That was the night Bobby Kennedy was shot (June 5, 1968). We went ahead to Goose Bay and were on alert. I'll never forget that.
"There was another situation that occurred while I was in Vietnam and that was the situation at Kent State University. (Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd protesting the bombing in Cambodia. Four people were killed and 13 were wounded May 4, 1970.) It seemed like there was a war going on back home. I really had trouble with that for a while.
"I always believed we were doing the right thing to try to help people live in a free country. That's why I was there. I had a mission to do the best I could. I was blessed because the good lord took care of me. I never had a real dangerous situation."
Back at Sawyer, Peppel found he wanted to do something other than aerial refueling, but there were no other assignments available. He retired as a captain, after 5-1/2 years in the Air Force.
Returning to New York, he worked for the Rochester telephone company again, switching to Sprint in 1977 and moving back to Ohio. The family moved around the Buckeye state, ending up in Lima, where the Peppel's three boys finished high school. In 1996, Sprint transferred him to Warsaw, and he retired in 2001.
"I retired with the thought of doing something else," he said of the position with the Red Cross, which he secured within three months.
The boys stayed in Ohio. Brad lives in Delaware and works in telecommunications; Greg is an attorney in Toledo; and Jason works for an auto parts company in Findlay.
Every time he hears an airplane, Peppel looks up.
"I miss the flying. I thought about getting recertified at the Warsaw airport. It's been a long time. When you're raising a family, someone always needs clothes or to go to school. You just can't justify the expense of flying as a hobby. I might do that now the family is all grown up."
Last year Peppel was contacted by some of his flying school classmates and asked if he'd like to attend a reunion.
"I said, 'Absolutely!' What a great time that was. We got to go to Moody, which is still active, updated, of course, and still a training base for advanced fighter training. We saw some of things that were there when we were there."
He ran into Harold Dobbs, too, the fellow he flew a couple of missions with back in 1970 over the jungles of Vietnam. Of the 65 members of the training class, 55 are left.
"I was so impressed because the training squadrons gave us tours. They bent over backwards for us, showing us the latest simulation equipment and all the latest training techniques.
"If I had to learn to fly the way they do, with computers, I don't think I could have ever have learned. They spend very little time in an airplane because it's so expensive. These computers can simulate all kinds of things, emergencies, and combat situations. It's like Star Wars.
"These young men and women are so bright, so intelligent. They restore your confidence in the country." [[In-content Ad]]
Larry Peppel always knew he would enter the military.
"My father served in World War II. My grandfather was in World War I, in France," he said. "There was no doubt in my mind I'd go into the service. I owed that to my father and grandfather. I made up my mind to do the best I could for myself."
Born and raised in Ohio, Peppel attended Syracuse University in Rochester, N.Y., on scholarship. He secured a job with a telephone company there, telling them it was quite possible he would be drafted.
"That first year I aggressively looked for an opportunity to enlist," the 62-year-old Kosciusko County Red Cross executive director said. That opportunity came with a guarantee from the Air Force for Officer's Candidate School. "I signed on with the Air Force and had a bit of delay there because there was a backload."
After completing OTS in July 1966, the Air Force told the second lieutenant they needed pilots.
"I never thought I'd ever be able to do it. I consider learning to fly my master's degree. Anybody can fly an airplane; it's flying the way the Air Force wants you to that's difficult," he said.
The 53-week flight training took place at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. The top pilots got their pick of assignments. Peppel graduated in the middle of his class and was assigned to a KC-135 crew. He learned to fly the big Stratospheres in California.
The KC-135 tanker crews engaged in aerial refueling.
"Well, there's no trick to it. It's formation flying," he said offhandedly. "You watch NASCAR, watch those guys going 200 miles per hour? That's dangerous. If you're going 200 mph, you need to be in the air. You ought to be flying."
Peppel's first regular assignment was with the 410th Bombardment Wing, headquartered at KI Sawyer Air Force Base in Marquette, Mich. He began serving on alerts as a co-pilot in 1968.
"In 1969 our crew was assigned to go to U Tapao (Royal Thai Navy) Airfield in Thailand to conduct refueling missions there for airplanes operating missions in South Vietnam.
"We'd go to Hawaii with a gaggle of fighters. Each tanker would support three or four fighters. Four tankers could carry enough fuel for 10 to 12 fighters. And we rotated airplanes back to the U.S.
"We never went into Vietnam. We'd refuel the fighters close to the coast, fly to the Philippines, get fuel and sometimes go into Okinawa. We'd island-hop, stop at Guam or Midway. Out of Guam we'd go on to the Philippines or Okinawa, depending on the where the fighters were going."
After 90 days overseas, Peppel returned to the upper peninsula of Michigan. Late in 1969 he received orders to Vietnam. Assigned as a forward air controlman, he reported to Florida to train in small airplanes.
He left to go overseas around the first of March and spent the rest of the year in Vietnam. His wife, Marsha, and their son, Brad, then 8 months old, lived in Sawyer base housing.
"She's the real hero, raising our son all alone," Peppel said.
Comparing the two countries, the Air Force officer felt safer in Thailand. "We spent most of our time flying and could move around the area off base freely. I saw the sights in Bangkok one weekend. In Vietnam you had to be much more careful."
Peppel was stationed with the 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron and stationed in the old French city of Qui Nhon, Binh Dinh Province, where the U.S. Army's 22nd Armored Division was headquartered. The base, with the ocean to one side and mountains to the west, featured a mobile army surgical hospital unit and a 6,000-foot-long airstrip.
"It was much more runway than I needed for my little airplane. But, because of the mountains, you had to be careful flying in and out of there, especially at night," Peppel said.
The little Cessna 337 he flew alone was a flying workhorse the Air Force "bought off the shelf." It had an engine in the front and one in the back. Two, in case one was lost.
"They (the Cessnas) weren't high speed, but a good platform to do what you had to do, which was making observations about the landscape below. If you found a target, it was marked with white phosphorus rockets. Then you radioed the airstrip for artillery. There were all kinds of regulations, procedures and requirements to get clearance.
"When you're directing ordnance, you have to make sure you know where the good people are and where the bad people are. Unfortunately, in a war it doesn't always work that way. You think you know, but sometimes you don't.
"I needed to know who the good people were and who the bad guys were. The 22nd Armored would be out on maneuvers and we would be in close support, in the air. If they engaged the enemy, we were there to help. We tried to eliminate the problem.
"I went over and did my best. I tried to perform the mission I was told to do."
For Peppel, the hard line protocols dividing officers and enlisted people evaporated in Vietnam.
"It was so much different than being in Michigan. I had wonderful, wonderful enlisted people who worked for me. They took care of me. They spent hours during the night making sure I could fly in the morning. I can't say enough about that."
The 21st Squadron's headquarters was in Cam Ranh Bay, 200 miles south of Qui Nhon.
"I spent a little bit of time in the highlands, in Pleiku. I flew out of various places, because people would come and go. We were performing the same mission all over the area. We would provide intelligence with new information and, if they were bad guys, we went after them. We got to know the real estate really well."
One of Peppel's flight training classmates, Harold Dobbs, was stationed in Pleiku. The two men determined they would fly on a couple of missions together. Peppel went with Dobbs in his fighter plane one day and Dobbs went on a surveillance mission with Peppel on another.
"It wasn't the same situation as in North Vietnam, in Cambodia, or over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I never got involved in that," Peppel said.
Peppel looked over a lot of jungle tops, and, closer to the ocean, saw a lot of small farms.
"That's how these people made a living, they were farmers."
He was charged with reporting anything suspicious, like vehicles or groups of people moving through the area. In Pleiku, the mountain people were much more nomadic and it was hard to keep track of them.
"When the 22nd Armored Division went out, they would sweep areas, where, for instance, the local people were being harassed. Or where enemy troops were taking people, supplies or food. The 22nd would get them cornered and that's when we had activity.
"I was very fortunate, really. I never had a problem. Oh, once an engine went down, but I had the other to get back. I came back home, landed, and flew the airplane the next day.
"My job was not nearly as hazardous as it was for those who walked over the ground.
"Helicopter crews were in and out of the airbase. They would see things I wanted to know about. They were always getting shot at. The fire might be from an irate chicken farmer or it might be a bad guy."
The Army complex at Qui Nhon was walled with machine gun sentries, guards and lights and ringed with barbed wire.
"I wasn't there during a time of significant activity. We were in a relatively safe place.
"One of the things I enjoyed was making friends with people in other branches of the service."
Peppel returned to the United States, to KI Sawyer AFB, just before Christmas 1970.
"I think about things that happened when I was in the service. At Sawyer we did a lot of ground alerts, supporting bombers and tankers. We also pulled missions to Goose Bay Labrador and might be there for a week to support their bombers.
"I remember one night, we'd just got takeoff clearance and the tower told us to hold our position. They had a bulletin. That was the night Bobby Kennedy was shot (June 5, 1968). We went ahead to Goose Bay and were on alert. I'll never forget that.
"There was another situation that occurred while I was in Vietnam and that was the situation at Kent State University. (Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd protesting the bombing in Cambodia. Four people were killed and 13 were wounded May 4, 1970.) It seemed like there was a war going on back home. I really had trouble with that for a while.
"I always believed we were doing the right thing to try to help people live in a free country. That's why I was there. I had a mission to do the best I could. I was blessed because the good lord took care of me. I never had a real dangerous situation."
Back at Sawyer, Peppel found he wanted to do something other than aerial refueling, but there were no other assignments available. He retired as a captain, after 5-1/2 years in the Air Force.
Returning to New York, he worked for the Rochester telephone company again, switching to Sprint in 1977 and moving back to Ohio. The family moved around the Buckeye state, ending up in Lima, where the Peppel's three boys finished high school. In 1996, Sprint transferred him to Warsaw, and he retired in 2001.
"I retired with the thought of doing something else," he said of the position with the Red Cross, which he secured within three months.
The boys stayed in Ohio. Brad lives in Delaware and works in telecommunications; Greg is an attorney in Toledo; and Jason works for an auto parts company in Findlay.
Every time he hears an airplane, Peppel looks up.
"I miss the flying. I thought about getting recertified at the Warsaw airport. It's been a long time. When you're raising a family, someone always needs clothes or to go to school. You just can't justify the expense of flying as a hobby. I might do that now the family is all grown up."
Last year Peppel was contacted by some of his flying school classmates and asked if he'd like to attend a reunion.
"I said, 'Absolutely!' What a great time that was. We got to go to Moody, which is still active, updated, of course, and still a training base for advanced fighter training. We saw some of things that were there when we were there."
He ran into Harold Dobbs, too, the fellow he flew a couple of missions with back in 1970 over the jungles of Vietnam. Of the 65 members of the training class, 55 are left.
"I was so impressed because the training squadrons gave us tours. They bent over backwards for us, showing us the latest simulation equipment and all the latest training techniques.
"If I had to learn to fly the way they do, with computers, I don't think I could have ever have learned. They spend very little time in an airplane because it's so expensive. These computers can simulate all kinds of things, emergencies, and combat situations. It's like Star Wars.
"These young men and women are so bright, so intelligent. They restore your confidence in the country." [[In-content Ad]]