Sen. Wallingford remains humble about honorable military career

Recently I heard a program by Missouri Sen. Wayne Wallingford about his mission as a leading pilot of the majority of bombing runs over Haiphong, Vietnam. The flight that “ended the war by causing the North Vietnam to surrender.”

I wish I had taken notes as it was a very informative presentation at the Cape library.

Wallingford is modest about his military career ... much of which I was unfamiliar. Especially the danger of these missions with heavy SAM missile defenses which shot down many U.S. B-52s.

The following recent article titled “Missouri legislator remembers close call with missile during Vietnam War” on www.missourinet.com by Alisa Nelson describes a harrowing experience of Wallingford’s:

“State Senator Wayne Wallingford (R-Cape Girardeau) has a vivid memory of his Air Force crew surviving a near-death experience during a Vietnam War flight mission. Imagine the most extraordinary Fourth of July fireworks show you’ve ever seen and multiply it by one million. Wallingford says he’s not exaggerating when he says that’s what the air strikes looked like. He flew more than 300 combat operations in Vietnam from about 1970 to 1973.

During an 11-day mission in 1972 called the Linebacker 2 operation, 15 of the U.S.’s B-52’s were shot down. Wallingford says the closest call he’s ever had during his 25 years in the Air Force was during that mission when a surface-to-air missile continued to come straight at his B-52 bomber.

Wallingford describes the missile as a 35-feet long telephone-looking pole with a 500-pound warhead that travels 1,800 feet per second. He says a B-52 getting hit by such a missile is like cracking open an egg.

‘I knew that was my last mission I was going to be flying because I wasn’t going to live beyond that mission. It (a missile) had honed in on us,’ says Wallingford. ‘Miraculously, under the hand of God, it exploded prematurely, The fragments went through the aircraft, missed the crew members, the fuel tanks, the bombs in the bomb bay and went through the aircraft and out the other side. Only God could do that. It was phenomenal.’

That mission lasted from Dec. 18-29. It ended the conflict in Vietnam, releasing America’s 591 prisoners of war.

A ground crew later counting how many holes were in Wallingford’s plane stopped counting after 680.

‘The plane got the Purple Heart. The crew members didn’t. I like it that way,’ he says.

Wallingford has had a decorative Air Force career. He’s received 47 medals for his service, including the Silver Star — the third highest honor given by the U.S. Military.”

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I recently finished the best selling book “Shaken” by former pro football player Tim Tebow.

In college, Tebow started putting bible verses in eye black under his eyes, most notably John 3:16.

Believe it or not Tebow wrote the following in his book:

“Exactly three years after wearing ‘John 3:16’ for the first time, I was playing for the Broncos. NFL rules forbade me from wearing personalized messages on my eye blacks, but still, without any help from me, the John 3:16 theme continued. In one of the most memorable games in my career, we beat the heavily favored Steelers 29-23.

Our team’s PR guy flagged me down just before my postgame press conference. ‘Hey, Timmy,’ Patrick blurted out, his face flushed. ‘Do you have any idea what happened?’

‘Uh, we just beat the Steelers?’ I started to say something sarcastic, in a joking manner, but dialed it back when I noticed how serious he looked, like he was about to say something really important.

‘Do you know that it was exactly three years since you wore ‘John 3:16’? And during this game, you threw for 316 yards. Your yards per completion were 31.6. The time of possession was 31:06. The ratings for the night were 31.6 million. And during the game 90 million people Googled ‘John 3:16!’

Wow. To think that all those years ago, all I had wanted was just to do something different with eye black. I felt so small in that moment. I didn’t know it was exactly three years later. And I didn’t know what God was doing or that He was even doing anything at all. I was focused on doing what I needed to do to win a playoff game. And as far as the eye black went, it had become habitual, something I did without much thought, like brushing my teeth. It’s not like I asked God to do something huge with it.

I was reminded that God is a big God. And He is always at work — with or without me. Just goes to show you that we never know what God can do with the small choices we make, with the stands we take, or with something positive we do even unintentionally.”

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Thomas Jefferson — A Philosophy of Life

“In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current. Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give up the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose, that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells a lie without attending to it, and truths without the world believing him.”

From “The Edge”

Gary Rust is chairman of the board of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian, as well as a member of the editorial board.