Saturday, May 13, 1972
Do Not Forget - The Pilot At The Trigger Is Also A Man
by Lynn C. Newland
DA NANG, Vietnam (AP) --John Patrick O'Gorman is one of the men President Nixon has called on to stop the North Vietnamese move into South Vietnam. O'Gorman pilots a U.S. fighter-bomber."Without the Air Force the North Vietnamese would have walked to Saigon," he says. At the same time, Lt. Col. O'Gorman admits that air power alone cannot win the war: "Sometime, someplace, the South Vietnamese are going to have to meet the North Vietnamese on the ground and fight it out. We can't do everything."At 43, O'Gorman has logged about 300 combat hours in his F4 since November. He also serves as commander of a tactical fighter squadron at the Da Nang AB.He loves both jobs, but he adds:"I don't always enjoy the results of the work -the death of any man diminishes us all."Working with younger pilots, O'Gorman says, is a pleasure and a challenge. "Technically they're just beautiful but it's a job to instill spirit in them... the type of spirit I learned from World War II pilots and Korea. My biggest job is to try and hand down some to that spirit I learned."O'Gorman is the father of seven children."I know that many people are killed by my actions," he says thoughtfully, "but I justify my actions and the war on two counts, at least in my mind."When I was stationed at Bien Hoa during my first tour here in 1965, there must have been 27 Catholic parishes on the Bien Hoa to Saigon road, with people who had come from the North. Those people came here for a reason. They didn't want to live under communism."We owe them much consideration before we leave them."O'Gorman also believes the United States has an implied promise to these people. "How can the United States sit at a conference table if we just leave? How could anyone trust such a nation?"Napalm, O'Gorman says, is an effective weapon: "It's terrorizing but not torturous. Perhaps all killing is immoral to an extent. But is one method more immoral than another?""The golden BB -the shot that goes through the canopy -can happen to you any time but it's senseless to think about it all the time. It can become an obsession. Discipline will carry me through."The word "discipline" runs through O'Gorman"s conversation. He jokingly comments this may be the result of "a normal Irish-Catholic boyhood" in St. Louis, Mo. He took a premedical course for a year at St. Louis University before joining the Air Force in 1952. "I suppose I joined because of all the notoriety and publicity of World War II," he says. "And I like it. There"s a certain amount of order... discipline,loyalty and courage that gives you satisfaction."O'Gorman's desk has a plague which says in part: "If you're not to languish in the doldrums and everydayness of life you need a certain flair. Splash the color freely."Mrs. O'Gorman, who sent the verse from their Wichita, Kan., home wrote on the bottom: "Your philosophy at last.""Do Not Forget - The Pilot At the Trigger Is Also a Man", by Lynn C. Newland, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Saturday, May 13, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.