James P Fleming
On the 12th of March 1942, James was born in Sedalia, Missouri, and his father had been a military pilot, which instilled some fascination in James from a very young age. While at Washington State University, he joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps and entered the US Air Force upon graduation in 1966. As an officer, he entered flight school and halfway through fixed-wing pilot training, James volunteered to answer the call for men to fly helicopters in Vietnam. After training, and being excited to fly in combat, James deployed to the Republic of Vietnam as a First Lieutenant with the 20th Special Operations Squadron, piloting UH-1F Iroquois transport helicopters. It was his actions there on the 26th of November 1968, that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Fleming (then 1st Lt.) distinguished himself as the aircraft commander of a UH-1F transport helicopter. Capt. Fleming went to the aid of a six-man Special Forces long-range reconnaissance patrol that was in danger of being overrun by a large, heavily armed hostile force. Despite the knowledge that one helicopter had been downed by intense hostile fire, Capt. Fleming descended, and balanced his helicopter on a river bank with the tail boom hanging over open water. The patrol could not penetrate to the landing site and he was forced to withdraw. Dangerously low on fuel, Capt. Fleming repeated his original landing maneuver. Disregarding his own safety, he remained in this exposed position. Hostile fire crashed through his windscreen as the patrol boarded his helicopter. Capt. Fleming made a successful takeoff through a barrage of hostile fire and recovered safely at a forward base. Capt. Fleming's profound concern for his fellow men, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
All of the men on the recon patrol that James had set out t recue made it out alive and back to base. About a month later, James was wounded and evacuated to Japan before returning to the States a few months later. His commanding officer had submitted a recommendation for the Medal of Honor, something he wouldn’t live to see carried out as he was killed in action in April of 1969. On the 14th of May 1970, James received the Medal from President Nixon in a ceremony at the White House along with eleven others. That day was the first time James had ever seen his own father in a dress uniform and learned that he had earned an Air Medal for his actions over Iwo Jima in World War 2.
James remained in the Air Force, spending four years at the Air Force Academy, and slater serving as the vice commander of the Air Force Officer Training School in Texas. After more than thirty years, James Phillip Fleming retired at the rank of Colonel in 1996, and he and his wife, with whom he had three children, live in Washington. He is 80 at the time of this recording.
