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Then Captain Michael J. Bosiljevac, F-105G, EWO, Wild Weasel. The F-105G was the designation given to F-105Fs which were fitted with greatly improved avionics, and carried Radar Homing and Warning Systems and defensive electronic countermeasure jamming equipment. The aircraft’s job was to escort other Air Force planes and suppress enemy air defenses, primarily surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA). Mike’s job as Electronic Warfare Officer included monitoring the F-105G’s sophisticated, technologically advanced avionics equipment and the aircraft’s external environment. He would inform the pilot of changes in the threats posed by enemy aircraft and/or ground-based defenses, in order to adjust the F-105G’s tactical posture. It was September 29, 1972, approximately 10,000 feet over North Vietnam west of Hanoi. An Air Force F-105G, one of a flight of four, was streaking through the sky on a SAM missile suppression mission. Mike Bosiljevac was the Electronic Warfare Officer. Lt. Colonel Jim O’Neil was the pilot. Closing on the target, O’Neil fired a Shrike AGM-45—an American anti-radiation missile designed to home-in on hostile anti-aircraft radar. Moments later a North Vietnamese SAM missile exploded 50 to 100 feet under the aircraft. Shrapnel raked the F-150Gs underside. There was an explosion. Warning lights flashed. Two parachutes opened. Col. O’Neil saw Captain Bosiljevac descending below him. He saw that some of Mike’s parachute lines had been cut to allow him to better manage his descent. Sometime around November 1972, less than two months after Mike had been shot down, his wife received a letter from Randolph Air Force base. It was startling in several respects. Essentially, the letter advised Kay Bosiljevac to send a “Care” package to Mike. It directed her to Ehrling Berquist Hospital, at Offut Air Force Base, where she was to pick up two pre-prepared sacks of medicine which were waiting for her, to be included in the package. The United States Air Force—which until then had denied knowledge of where Captain Bosiljevac was being held—also gave Kay very clear instructions about how to address the package: Camp of detention for U.S. pilots in Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Read more...
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Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Major Michael Joseph Bosiljevac, F-105G, Wild Weasel
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Sometime between Mike’s 1972 shoot down and the six years he probably lived in captivity (until about 1978), the Vietnamese or others were making some use of him. The Vietnamese know what was done to Mike, and by whom. The autopsy done on Mike’s skull/brain, and perhaps other parts of his body—whether or not they were routine procedure—was for the purpose of informing the Vietnamese or others what caused his death. The Vietnamese know how Mike died. The huge amount of copper found on Mike’s bones after their repatriation in 1987 could only have accumulated there pre-mortem between 1972 and sometime in 1978 (perhaps as the result of some sort of experiment(s)), or post mortem between his death about that time and 1987 (perhaps in the communists’ effort to preserve his bones for later use). The Vietnamese know where that copper came from, and how it got onto Mike’s bones. But the Vietnamese aren’t talking. [Henry Mark Holzer, November 26, 2007]
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