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Early in 1965, the president decided to launch operation rolling thunder, a sustained bombing campaign directed against north vietnam. the emphasis is on the destruction of strategic enemy target. they will cut off supplies to the north from the rebels in the south. our first mission was more or less static defense of the principle air field for the bombing missions over north vietnam. general, will this entail any offensive operations? no, no, i don t believe it will. the reason we put ground ....
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He wasn t panicked. there was no indication of pain. i called out to him, all right, hold on, i can t get to you. i m pinned down. keep fighting. reporter: swenson runs across open ground, dodging enemy fire to get him. sergeant kevin durst was crew chief of the medevac helo coming to get the unit. a helmet-mounted camera showed swenson flashing an orange panel so the helicopter can find him, but it makes him an enemy target. he was completely under control of the whole situation. he knew exactly what had to be done and when. reporter: swenson and a medic helped westbrook to the helo. then a moment amid the mayhem. watch as he gently kisses westbrook good-bye. swenson has no memory of it. i was just trying to keep his spirits up. i wanted him to know it was going to be okay. i wanted him to know that he had done his job. but it was time for him to go. ....
and the sergeant is shot in the throat and laying out in the open. he called out and said, i m hit. he wasn t panicked. there was no indication of pain. i called out to him, all right. hold on. keep fighting. reporter: he runs across open ground dodging enemy fire to get to him. a helmet mounted camera captured swenson flashing an orange panel so the helicopter can find him. but it makes him an enemy target. he was completely under control of the whole situation. he knew exactly what had to be done and when. reporter: swenson and a medic. and then a moment amid the mayhem. watch as he gently kisses westbrook good-bye. i was trying to keep his spirits up. i wanted him to know that it was going to be okay. and i wanted him to know that he had done his job. ....
Ready for an emergency landing there was a weight imbalance and is the bomber began to break up over north carolina and the centrifugal forces of the bomber breaking up pulled a lanyard in the cockpit, exactly the same a crew member would pull if a bomb was to be delivered over an enemy target and one of the hydrogen bombs assumed it was over an enemy target and went through all the arming steps, except one. and it was one switch in that plane that prevented a debt nation of a 4 megaton hide general bomb in north carolina. that switch was later found to be defective and stray wires in that plane as it was breaking apart could have armed the bomb fully and led to a full-scale debt nation. this was just a few days after john f. kennedy had been inaugurated and it s no exaggeration to say it would have changed the course of history. right. a remarkable moment in history. and thankfully, not disastrous. ....