The Cost of Service: A Conversation with Brigadier General James Rhodes, USAFA Class of 1959

We have this beautiful treasure to share from the Rhodes family. Brigadier General James Rhodes Jr., U.S. Air Force Academy Class of 1959 was interviewed for a school project by his grandson, Michael Rhodes, when Michael was still in elementary school. What emerged is a remarkable conversation between generations—a young boy discovering the meaning of service, and a seasoned Air Force leader reflecting on a lifetime of duty, sacrifice, and leadership.

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Interview with Brigadier General (Ret.) James M. Rhodes, Jr.

Conducted by his grandson, Michael Rhodes on May 16, 2012

(Lightly edited for clarity)

1. Can you tell me your name, when you entered the military, when you retired, and what your rank was?

My name is James M. Rhodes, Jr. I was a member of the first graduating class of the United States Air Force Academy, Class of 1959. I went immediately to pilot training, and fighter training, and I stayed in fighters for my entire career. I retired near the end of 1988 with the rank of Brigadier General.

2. How was the Korean War a precedent for the Vietnam War?

I don’t think the Korean War was a precedent for the Vietnam War at all.

The Korean War was unexpected. North Korea invaded South Korea, and we had very few soldiers stationed there. We had to call up many World War II veterans who had received almost no additional training, and they were fed into the fight as fodder, so to speak. The North Koreans drove us all the way down to the Pusan Perimeter until General MacArthur's amphibious landing at Inchon turned the tide and cut off the North Koreans as he drove straight to Seoul.

From there, U.S. and United Nations forces led by General MacArthur pushed north toward the Yalu River near the border with China. That’s where the communist MiGs aircraft were flying from. The Chinese army then invaded North Korea and pushed us back down. A stalemate developed. There is still no truce or formal peace treaty to this day.

Vietnam was different. That war began when President Kennedy sent a small number of Special Forces—later know as Green Berets—into South Vietnam, which was a friendly, non-Communist country. The North, under Ho Chi Minh, was Communist. A guerrilla war developed in the South with peasant involvement.

What is amazing to me—and I’ve learned later is the truth—is that President Lyndon Johnson spoke to the Joint Chiefs of Staff only once during the war. It was a Saturday morning in November of 1965, shortly after I returned from my first combat tour in the F-105. The Joint Chiefs recommended essentially the same strategy President Richard Nixon later used: bombing Hanoi, mining Haiphong Harbor, and so on. Johnson threw the Joint Chiefs out of his office and never talked to a military officer for the rest of the Vietnam War. Those are the differences.

Later, after the U.S. withdrew, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and took it over in 1975. The whole country is still Communist today. The South renamed Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City after Ho Chi Minh had died. It’s a very capitalist, friendly place—and that's not to say the people up North aren’t friendly. We’ll find out on our cruise next January because we’re going to both North and South Vietnam.

3. How did the Domino Theory affect our decision to get into the Vietnam War?

The Domino Theory, as I recall, was put forth by some in the Eisenhower Administration. Before World War II, the French controlled Southeast Asia as French colonial territories. After the war, they tried to reclaim that territory, an Ho Chi Minh didn’t want them to. That led to a major fight between the French and the Vietnamese, and you could include Laos and Cambodia in that struggle as well—each was involved in different ways.

The Domino Theory predicated that if those countries fell to Communism, then Thailand would fall next, and perhaps Burma after that. But Thailand never fell. So, in the end, the Domino Theory did not play out the way people feared it would.

4. What was your participation in the war?

My participation started when I was called early on a Monday morning—about four o'clock—and told to report, ready to go. We didn’t know where. They processed us and said the squadron was leaving at nine o'clock on Wednesday. The whole squadron—eighteen airplanes—was deploying to Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in central Thailand. We flew over with tankers, of course.

We took off from Wichita and landed in Honolulu. The next day we landed in Guam, but a hurricane somewhere along our route forced us to spend an extra day. The next day, we took off again, refueled with tankers over the Philippines, and landed at Takhli around ten o'clock in the morning.

We flew our first combat mission with another F-105 squadron that was there on temporary duty (TDY) from Yokota Air Base in Japan. I flew 68 combat missions over North Vietnam, and almost as many over Laos—which was not publicized at the time.

Eventually we were replaced by another squadron on temporary duty, and they simply just took over our airplanes. Our airplanes at that time were not camouflaged, and replacements came from units all over the world. There were F-105s in Germany, at Seymour-Johnson in North Carolina, at McConnell in Kansas. As we lost airplanes, they were replaced from wherever the Air Force could find them.

5. What plane(s) did you fly during Vietnam?

I flew the F-105D from April to August 1965. After that tour, I went to the Aerospace Research Pilot School—now the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards—and stayed on as an instructor and a test pilot.

In 1970, I checked out in the A-37B and was transferred to Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam, about 25 miles northeast of Saigon. That airplane could carry more bombs, and carry them farther, than the F-100. I flew daily missions, most of them in Cambodia, supporting the good guys against the Khmer Rouge or helping Special Forces and troops in contact. We were very accurate with our weapons.

Those are the two aircraft I flew in combat during the Vietnam War.

6. Did you earn any medals for the Vietnam War?

Yes, I received three Distinguished Flying Crosses and fourteen Air Medals.

7. How did the war affect your life?

When I came home, I thought I was just like a normal person. But I found later that I had what they now call, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or, as the Army now calls it, Post-Traumatic Stress Disease.

It caused me to yell when I shouldn’t and get angry when I shouldn’t. I received counseling and treatment, and I think I've pretty well conquered it, though I still occasionally have nightmares about certain incidents that happened during the war. Those will probably always remain with me. I try not to let them affect my family life.

8. What is your most vivid memory of the war?

My most vivid memory of the war was my last mission in the F-105. The full account is published in the second volume of stories from the River Rats, the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association. (The full story is here.)

In short, my wingman’s aircraft caught fire over the Gulf of Tonkin, and he had to eject. As he came down in his parachute, two North Vietnamese patrol boats moved in to capture him. I circled overhead and used my 20mm Gatling gun to sink both boats so the SA‑16 rescue aircraft — the “Duckbutt” — could reach him. It was a very close call, and I barely cleared the water myself.

Later, after I returned home, I saw footage of that mission on Walter Cronkite’s Twentieth Century program. A CBS cameraman aboard the SA‑16 had filmed my pass over the patrol boat, rooster‑tail spraying behind the F‑105. Seeing it on television frightened me even more than the mission itself.

That was my last flight over North Vietnam. The next day, we returned home to Wichita, Kansas.

9. What was your attitude towards the war?

If you are in the military, everything flows downhill. In Vietnam, the President and Secretary of Defense McNamara told the generals which targets to hit and when. Those were translated into teletype orders then frag orders were transmitted to the bases. The schedule was set, and you flew—unless your airplane broke. The F-105 didn’t break very often, but when it did, we had spares for each flight.

We always had one pilot briefed and taxied out. If someone had a problem and couldn’t fly the mission, the spare took over. I flew a couple missions that way. You just salute and say, “Yes, Sir.”

Once I learned how the war was being run in Washington, I said we should never, ever fight a war like that again. We felt that we were flying with one or two arms tied behind our back. We had no latitude. If weather kept us from hitting a target one day, we were not allowed to hit it the next even if the skies were perfectly clear. There were some very dumb decisions made because the military wasn't involved at the highest levels in Washington. So, the River Rats—and really anyone who flew or fought in Vietnam—said that we should never fight a war like that again.

The next conflict was the first Gulf War. President Bush (41) allowed the military to conduct the war with his guidance, but he wasn’t calling the shots from Washington. The decisions were made in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and CENTCOM and the staff. And that’s the way a war should be fought—by the military. Tell them what the mission is, why we are there, how long we will be there, and when we're coming home.

That war ended after an extensive air campaign, followed by the ground portion. It was 100 hours and we had chased the Iraqis out of Kuwait. Many say we should have kept going, but politically we couldn’t continue after Saddam “Insane.” We had to deal with him later.

The military is trained, equipped, and knows how to fight. Let them go in and fight. Tell them the objectives, tell them what they can’t do, and then get in, get the mission done, and get the hell out of there.

10. How did you feel the public treated members of the military during the war?

Terribly. That was the time of the hippies. In 1965, when we flew back through Travis Air Base between Sacramento and San Francisco, I went through customs and then onto Wichita. So, I personally didn’t see any harassment. However, I saw on the news that people were spitting on people in uniform.

During my second tour in Southeast Asia, from 1970 to 1971, things has gotten worse. When we returned through Travis AFB, we were told to change into civilian clothes before transferring to the San Francisco airport. This clothing switch was to prevent people from spitting on us or doing something worse. A portion of the public did not like the Vietnam War and did not support it, and no one explained clearly why we were there.

Again, it was the generation of the hippies.

In contrast, in the first Gulf War, we had big parades and people were hugging soldiers. The same thing happened when we came home from Iraq. People were at the airports to greet and celebrate our troops. I do it myself—if I see someone in uniform, or even looks like they are in the military, I go over and thank them for their service. It has changed for the better.

11. What was the difference between how President Johnson and President Nixon ran the war?

We touched on this some earlier. President Johnson and Defense Secretary McNamara used what they called the "Kitchen Cabinet". They planned the war inside the White House and never talked to the military. Targets, timing, and strategy were all decided politically, without military input.

President Nixon in contrast discussed what he wanted to do with the military and received recommendations from experts who actually understood the war. He gave the military the authority to take action, and as a result, we were able to carry out an effective strategy—and we got our POWs back.

12. How did you feel when the United States withdrew its forces in 1973?

I was very disappointed. I thought we had made significant inroads with a large portion of the population. But the Viet Cong—the guerillas in the South, sometimes called Gomers—had been proselytized by the North Vietnamese into believing that Vietnam should be united under Communism under Ho Chi Minh principles, even though he had already passed away.

When the United States withdrew, we essentially gave away the country to the North Vietnamese. And that is exactly what happened.

13. What happened after the United States signed a peace treaty to end the war?

We signed a peace treaty, and our main objective was to get all our prisoners back from Hanoi. There were nearly six hundred POWs—officially, 591 Americans were released. Most of them were pilots who had been shot down, but some were Army soldiers captured in the south and eventually transferred to POW camps. Their release was the primary result of the peace treaty.

They broadcasted the POW release "Operation Homecoming" on TV. Even though it was one o'clock in the morning, I stayed up to watched because I knew a lot of them. As they came off the airplanes at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, I would stand up and cheer for the guys that I knew.

14. Did we end up getting a lot of them (POWs) back?

Some of our prisoners did not make it home. Some died in prison. The North Vietnamese tortured them brutally and did not observe the Geneva Conventions. Senator McCain is an example—when he ejected, he broke his shoulder, and under torture they broke his other shoulder and refused to treat it. Even years later, he was unable to lift his arms above his shoulders. They provided very poor medical care, or it was non-existent to the POWs. The Viet Cong even beat some prisoners to death.

There were only a few captured Americans who cooperated and signed whatever the North Vietnamese demanded. Those men were sent home early; but they returned were in total disgrace. Military servicemen are supposed to observe the Code of Conduct governing how prisoners are to respond. They are required only to give their name, rank, and serial number. Nothing else.

The North Vietnamese constantly pressured our POWs to write all kinds of propaganda statements. Even Hanoi Jane Fonda went over there. She met with our prisoners, but she supported the communist North Vietnamese. Many veterans have never forgiven her for that and still do not like her very much. In my mind, she is a traitor who betrayed the men who were suffering in those POW camps.

15. What did she do?

She went over to Vietnam and allowed herself to be briefed by the communist North Vietnamese. They even sat her in the gunner’s seat of an antiaircraft gun, and she posed and waved. That photograph was sent around the world—a famous American actress appearing to support the North Vietnamese instead of her own countryman.

She also met with our prisoners and told them that they were wrong for fighting. She offered no help to any of the men suffering in the Hanoi Hilton, which is what they called the prison up there. There is not much left of it today, but when I go to Hanoi in January, I hope to see what remains.

16. What do you think the United States learned as a country from the Vietnam War?

No one likes a war in which 55,000 Americans were killed. That’s the legacy of Vietnam. There is a memorial in Washington D.C. with every name etched in stone. What we learned is never fight a war like that again. If you're going to commit forces, you go in with everything you have, accomplish the mission, and then get out. We could have put the North Vietnamese government out of business in a few months—but you can’t rewrite history.

Vietnam taught is how not to fight a war. Thankfully, in the conflicts since then—the first Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan—Washington has largely let the generals in the combat theater run the operations as they see fit.

17. Do you think the Vietnam War was worth it?

No. We lost too many good men and women. The war was mismanaged at the highest levels, and the way we conducted it kept us from achieving any lasting strategic result. The one thing we did accomplish was finally bringing our prisoners home. Whatever objectives the United States hoped Vietnam would achieve simply didn’t materialize.

But I want to be clear: the men and women who served did everything their country asked of them. Their courage, their sacrifice, and their commitment were never in question. What failed was the policy — not the people. In the end, thousands were wounded, and the nation gained nothing from the way the war was run.

18. Is there anything else that you want to add?

I suppose I was in the right place at the wrong time—flying missions over North Vietnam and Laos without the military providing meaningful guidance on where we were going, what we were doing, and what targets we were supposed to hit. It was a terrible way to fight a war, and the lack of clear direction put a lot of good people at risk.

But the men who flew those missions did everything their country asked of them. We carried out the orders we were given, even when the strategy behind them was unclear.

And Michael—I think that you are a very smart young man to be writing a paper on this.

19. Thank you very much for your time and thank you VERY much for your service.

Thank you very much, Michael. I love you so much. You are a bright and shining star in my life.

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This interview stands as a rare and meaningful record — a grandfather speaking truth plainly to his grandson, a combat pilot reflecting on the cost of service, and a senior Air Force leader offering hard‑won wisdom shaped in the crucible of war with clarity, humility, and unwavering integrity. Brigadier General James M. Rhodes, Jr., U.S. Air Force Academy Class of 1959, carried out every mission his nation asked of him, and he carried the memory and weight of those missions long after the war ended.

His reflections remind us that history is not only written in strategy and policy, but in the lived experiences of the men and women who flew, fought, endured, and returned home to build lives of purpose. The legacy of the Class of 1959 is strengthened by voices like his — honest, courageous, and grounded in service.

We are grateful to General Rhodes for sharing his story, his wisdom, and his leadership example.

Brigadier General James M. Rhodes Jr., USAF (Ret.), Class of 1959, was a decorated combat aviator, test pilot, and member of the Academy’s first graduating class. A command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours and over 350 combat missions, he flew the F‑100, F‑105, A‑37, and the rocket‑powered NF‑104A, reaching record altitudes as part of early aerospace research.

His Air Force career spanned key leadership roles across Europe, Southeast Asia, the Pentagon, NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain Complex, and the Southeast Air Defense Sector. General Rhodes’ service reflects the courage, innovation, and character that helped shape the legacy of the Class of 1959.

Read his full biography here.