Letter from Richard P. Schumann Regarding the Valor of Joe Jackson at Kham Duc

Lieutenant Colonel Richard P. Schumann describes in detail the rescue of three Combat Controllers by the pilots of “a slow, un-armed, highly vulnerable transport aircraft.” On May 12, 1968, the crew of a C-123 cargo aircraft landed at the Kham Duc Special Forces base in Vietnam on an abandoned airstrip nearly overrun by the enemy, rescued three members of a U.S. Air Force Combat Control Team, and took off while under intense fire that had already brought down eight other aircraft. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Jackson, listed here as the co-pilot of Bookie 771, received a Medal of Honor for this valorous action.