Roger Locher Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Age, Biography and Wiki

Roger Locher was born on 13 September, 1946 in Sabetha, Kansas, U.S.. Discover Roger Locher's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 77 years old?

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 13 September. He is a member of famous with the age 77 years old group.

Roger Locher Height, Weight & Measurements

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Roger Locher Net Worth

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Timeline

He was able to find plenty of water but only occasionally fruit and berries to eat. He evaded capture and covered over 19 km (12 mi), gradually losing 30 pounds (14 kg) and his strength. On the 10th day he came within 5 feet (1.5 m) of being discovered. Following a well-used trail early one morning, he suddenly had to evade local farmers. He hid in a nearby field where there was little concealment, but pulled leaves and debris over himself. He lay there all day as children from a village he discovered a short distance away played in his vicinity. At one point a water buffalo nearly stepped on him, and a boy came to fetch the animal, only a few feet from Locher. That evening he spotted a hill near the village alongside the Red River, the last hill before the wide open fields of the Red River basin. He was about 5 miles (8.0 km) from Yên Bái Airfield.

Retiring from the U.S. Air Force in the rank of colonel in 1998, Locher retired in Sabetha, Kansas, where he resided as of April 2010.

Stovall had twice flown his HH-53C Jolly Green Giant helicopter further into North Vietnam than had ever been done before. For their efforts in rescuing Locher, both Smith and Stovall were awarded the Air Force Cross. Stovall's citation described how, "...he willingly returned to this high threat area, braving intense ground fire, to recover the downed airman from deep in North Vietnam." Stovall was also recognized with the 1973 Jabara Award for Airmanship.

When his aircraft, F-4D, AF Ser. No. 65-0784, was shot down by a Shenyang J-6 on May 10, 1972, Locher was on his third combat tour and had over 407 combat missions. He was one of the leading MiG killers in Vietnam with three aerial victories. No one saw him eject or his parachute open, and it was unknown whether he had died or been captured. Over the next two weeks, U.S. air crews in the area tried to raise him on UHF radio without success. The North Vietnamese did not add his name to the roster of captured airmen, which gave the Americans some hope. Traveling only at dusk and dawn, over three weeks Locher traveled about 12 miles (19 km), evading farmers and living off the land.

On February 21, 1972, Locher took part in the first U.S. Air Force aerial victory in four years at night over northeast Laos, about 90 miles (140 km) southwest of Hanoi. Major Robert A. Lodge was pilot and Locher was the weapon systems officer in an F-4D flying combat air patrol to interdict Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) MiGs (MIGCAP). The two men were the most experienced crew in Southeast Asia. Red Crown, the call sign for the radar-equipped USS Long Beach stationed in the northern part of the Gulf of Tonkin, "called out bandits (MIGs) at our 060° position and proceeded to vector us on an intercept," recalled Lodge. During the air battle, they shot down a MiG-21.

On May 8, 1972, Lodge and Locher responded to a request for assistance from Red Crown for fighters who were engaging MiGs near Yên Bái. Their element leader was Captain Stephen Ritchie and his WSO, Captain Charles B. DeBellevue.

On May 10, 1972, the first major day of air combat in Operation Linebacker, Locher's group was one of two flights of the F-4D MiGCap for the morning strike force. Oyster Flight, composed of four F-4s from the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, had three of its Phantoms equipped with the top secret Combat Tree Identification friend or foe (IFF) interrogators. The APX-80 electronic set could read the IFF signals of the transponders built into the MiGs so that North Vietnamese radar would not shoot down their own aircraft. Displayed on a scope in the WSO's cockpit, Combat Tree gave the Phantoms the ability to identify and locate MiGs when they were still beyond visual range. At 9:23 a.m., Oyster Flight was warned by EC-121 Disco over Laos, and then by the US Navy radar picket ship, the guided missile cruiser USS Chicago, call sign Red Crown, of four MiGs headed towards them. These were from the 921st Fighter Wing. Four J-9s were also flying combat air patrol (CAP) to protect the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station. The Americans engaged an equal number of MiG-21s head-on, scattering them. Lodge and Locher identified two hostile contacts 50 miles (80 km) south of Yên Bái. They attacked in a modified fluid-four formation and accelerated to 1.4 mach. At 9:48 they fired two AIM-7s and the second destroyed one of the MiGs.

He hid on the hill for the next 13 days and watched for American aircraft. On June 1, 1972, he was finally able to contact a flight of American jets overhead, calling, "Any U.S. aircraft, if you read Oyster 1 Bravo, come up on Guard". Ritchie, in one of the F-4 aircraft overhead and who had witnessed Locher's jet fall out of the sky, remembered Locher's call sign and answered his call. Locher calmly responded, "Guys I've been down here a long time, any chance of picking me up?" Ritchie replied, "You bet!" Locher's transmissions left some Americans who did not hear his call in doubt about the authenticity of his message, and they believed that the People's Army of Vietnam may have manipulated a POW into impersonating him, setting a trap for the would-be rescuers.

On June 2, 1972, General John Vogt, commander of the 7th Air Force, consulted with Army MACV commander General Frederick C. Weyand. Vogt canceled the entire strike mission set for Hanoi that day. He dedicated all the available resources, over 150 aircraft, to rescuing Locher. The direct task force of 119 aircraft included two HH-53C rescue helicopters, bombers and an array of F-4 escorts, EB-66s, A-1Hs, F-105G Wild Weasels, and KC-135 tankers. Vogt said,

The Yên Bái air base, about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Hanoi, was one of the most important and well-defended airbases in North Vietnam. The aircraft bombed and strafed around Yên Bái air base for two hours, reducing enemy opposition so that the helicopters could get in. Fortunately for the Americans, during the second half of May 1972 their increasingly fierce attacks on Yen Bai had forced elements of the VPAF 925th Fighter Regiment to relocate to Gia Lam Airfield. Capt. Ronald E. Smith and his wingman, Capt. Ross "Buck" Buchanan, in A-1Es, went in ahead to locate Locher. Antiaircraft fire aimed at the A1-Es, seen by both the pilots and Locher, served as a reference point to locate Locher, and the A-1Es returned to guide in the rescue helicopters. Smith told Locher to flash the first A-1 he saw with his signal mirror. Upon their return, Buck saw Locher's mirror flash, told Locher to "pop" his "smoke", and guided Capt Dale Stovall, piloting an HH-53C from the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, to Locher's position."Locher's flare went unseen, and Stovall overflew his position and had to double back. Spotting the flash from Locher's signal mirror, Stovall hovered over the steep slope, rotors dangerously close to the trees, and lowered a jungle penetrator under enemy fire. Only when Locher rose out of the jungle canopy riding the jungle penetrator were all of the Americans sure it was him. Despite their proximity to Yen Bai air base, no aircraft were lost during Locher's rescue. "We shut down the war to go get Roger Locher," Stovall later said.

The TV series Dogfights on the History Channel depicted the dogfight of May 10, 1972 in Season 2, Episode 10, The Bloodiest Day shown on December 3, 2007. His rescue was once again referenced in the episode Supersonic.

Locher attended Kansas State University, where he participated in Air Force ROTC program, and was commissioned as a 2d Lieutenant in the Air Force in 1969. He completed undergraduate navigator training at Mather Air Force Base, California and was assigned to fly the F-4 Phantom II as a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) in the rear seat of this principal fighter aircraft of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. He received transition training at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, and was then sent to the "Triple Nickel", the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand.

Roger Clinton Locher (born September 13, 1946) is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and a former McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II Navigator/Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) and subsequent Pilot who, during the Vietnam War and Operation Linebacker, was shot down only 40 miles (64 km) from Hanoi, North Vietnam. The 23 days Locher spent behind enemy lines evading capture was a record for downed airmen during the war. USAF General John W. Vogt, Jr., commanding general of the Seventh Air Force "shut down the war" and sent 119 aircraft to recover him. His rescue was the deepest inside North Vietnam during the entire War.