THE WALL OF FACES

Say not in grief he is no more, but live in thankfulness that he was.

Major Robert Ray Lynn was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism and extraordinary achievement while engaged in aerial flight. He served as an Electronic Warfare Officer and was assigned to the 325TH BOMB SQDN, 43RD STRAT WING, SAC.
See https://airforce.togetherweserved.com/

Operation Linebacker II was a U.S. 7th Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial bombing campaign, conducted against targets in North Vietnam during the final period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The operation took place December 18-29, 1972, leading to several informal names such as "The December Raids" and "The Christmas Bombings." Linebacker II was a "maximum effort" bombing campaign to destroy major target complexes in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas, which could only be accomplished by B-52s. It saw the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the U.S. Air Force since the end of World War II. During Operation Linebacker II, a total of 741 B-52 sorties were dispatched to bomb North Vietnam; 729 completed their missions. B-52s dropped a total of 15,237 tons of ordnance on eighteen industrial and fourteen military targets, including eight surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, while fighter-bombers added another 5,000 tons of bombs to the tally. Another 212 B-52 missions were flown within South Vietnam in support of ground operations during the campaign. North Vietnamese forces fired about 1,240 SAMs. The Air Force lost 15 B-52 bombers, which amounted to a loss rate of less than two percent. Ten B-52s were shot down over the North and five others were damaged and crashed in Laos or Thailand. Thirty-three B-52 crew members were killed or missing in action, another thirty-three became prisoners of war, and twenty-six more were rescued. The lost B-52 crewmen included SMSGT Walter L. Ferguson, LTC Donald L. Rissi, CAPT Robert J. Thomas, MAJ Richard W. Cooper Jr., CMSGT Charlie S. Poole, MAJ Irwin S. Lerner, CMSGT Arthur V. McLaughlin Jr., LTC Randolph A. Perry Jr., LTC John F. Stuart, CAPT Craig A. Paul, MAJ Warren R. Spencer, MSGT Charles J. Bebus, COL Keith R. Heggen, COL Edward H. Johnson, MAJ Robert R. Lynn, CAPT Donavan K. Walters, CAPT Randall J. Craddock, MAJ Charles E. Darr, COL Bobby A. Kirby, CAPT George B. Lockhart, CAPT Ronald D. Perry, COL Frank A. Gould, COL Gerald W. Alley, MAJ Thomas W. Bennett Jr., CAPT Joseph B. Copack Jr., CAPT Robert J. Morris Jr., MAJ Nutter J. Wimbrow III, LTC Donald A. Joyner, MAJ Lawrence J. Marshall, CAPT Roy T. Tabler, CAPT James M. Turner, 1LT Bennie L. Fryer, and LTC Allen L. Johnson. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, wikipedia.org, and airforcemag.com]

Dear Major Robert Lynn, Thank you for your service as an Electronic Warfare Officer. Your 80th birthday is soon, happy birthday. I am glad you were identified in 1988. Welcome Home. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Memorial Day is this weekend, but like none other. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

Frustrated by problems in negotiating a peace settlement, and pressured by a Congress and public wanting an immediate end to American involvement in Vietnam, President Nixon ordered the most concentrated offensive of the war--known as Linebacker II--in December 1972. During the offensive, sometimes called the "Christmas bombings", 40,000 tons of bombs were dropped, primarily over the area between Hanoi and Haiphong. White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler said that the bombing would end only when all U.S. POWs were released and an internationally recognized cease-fire was in force. The Christmas Bombings, despite press accounts to the contrary, were of the most precise the world had seen. Pilots involved in the immense series of strikes generally agree that the strikes against anti-aircraft and strategic targets was so successfull that the U.S., had it desired, "could have taken the entire country of Vietnam by inserting an average Boy Scout troop in Hanoi and marching them southward." On December 21, 1972, a B-52G bomber stationed on Guam was ordered to take part in the Christmas bombings. The crew of this B52 consisted of pilot LTCOL James Y. Nagahiro, co-pilot CAPT Donovan K. Walters, electronic warfare officer MAJ Robert R. Lynn, gunner SSGT Charles J. Bebus, and crewmembers CAPT Lynn R. Beens, COL Keith R. Heggen, and COL Edward H. Johnson. Their B-52G was outfitted more or less as were the other B52 models, equipped with .50-callibre M-3 guns and 27-750 pound bombs, but with the additional capacity to carry aerial mines. LTCOL Nagahiro's aircraft successfully completed its mission, but was hit by a surface to air missile (SAM) in the tail section shortly after turning toward the safety of Thailand. Nagahiro gave the order for the crew to eject. The fate of the crew is varied. Nagahiro, Beens and Heggen were captured, and Heggen died in captivity. Until his release, the U.S. did not know Nagahiro had been captured. After their release in 1973, Nagahiro and Beens were able to fill in further information on the missing crew members. Nagahiro relates that he saw Walters eject from the plane and heard four others, Lynn, Bebus, Heggen and Beens, go out from behind him. Beens states that he saw Walter's identification card in a stack of cards on a desk at Hoa Lo (Hanoi Hilton) prison in Hanoi. Nagahiro saw Johnson's name written on a pad at the prison. Hegger was captured alive, but died in captivity. Although the Vietnamese returned the remains of Keith Heggen in March 1974, they have consistently denied knowledge of any of the rest of the crew. In October 1988, the Vietnamese "discovered" the remains of Bebus, Johnson, Lynn and Walters and returned them to U.S. control. For 16 years, they were political prisoners--alive or dead--of a communist nation. [Narrative taken from pownetwork.org; image from wikipedia.org]