Patriots

This page is dedicated to capturing and maintaining photos and stories of wartime veterans. If you know of veterans who are not represented here, please contact Steve Ratcliffe, Post 307 Historian and Webmaster.

Albert Solomon Fraser Keister MM1C, USNR

Albert Solomon Fraser Keister

“Ab” Keister, as he was
known by his friends, was born in 1893. After graduation from the University of Pittsburgh in 1916, he worked as a supervisor in the coal business. He enlisted in the US Naval Reserve in 1917. A true patriot, he volunteered for "the war to end all wars" and was rewarded with the rank of Machinist Mate First Class, upon graduation from Navy Basic and technical training in 1918. He was immediately deployed to Paulliac, France, which was the first-ever naval aviation base outside the United States. Naval aviation was in its infancy back then and radio range was limited to about 50 miles. Further, only dirigibles and seaplanes even had radios aboard – fighter and bomber aircraft had no communication capability. “Ab’s” assignment was to supervise the 18 man team which would build a radio communications facility which would be the first to transmit 12,500 miles with a frequency of 100,000 watts. All the steel and other materials had to be shipped from the United States, which took weeks by ship, so it took over 10 months to build the site which became Lafayette Station in Croix d’Hins, southwest of Bourdeaux, France. Just as the station was completed, the war ended and it was turned over to the French.

After the war, “Ab”went back
to the coal business, but was never again very healthy. He died in 1934 at age 42 from unknown ‘natural’ causes.

This account is from
recollections of relatives, an excellent scrap book which “Ab” created while in France, which includes an interview with “Ab” which was published by the Scottdale, PA newspaper.

Stephen J. Ratcliffe, Lt Col, USAF, Retired.

Steve began his 25 year Air Force career in 1965 as a 2Lt. at Amarillo AFB, TX. He was stationed in 8 states and 3 foreign countries. In 1971, he volunteered for Viet Nam and was assigned to Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, where he was an  Aircraft Maintenance Officer for the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing during Operations Linebacker I and Linebacker II over North Viet Nam.
Linebacker I stalled Hanoi's Easter Offensive and crumbled its war-making capability.  From that, President Nixon learned that strategic air power could force Hanoi back to the negotiation table by inflicting the maximum loss to its war infrastructure. With this in mind, President Nixon ordered Linebacker II.
Steve tells the story about Linebacker II, referred to at Korat as “the 12 days of Christmas, 1972”. An Air Force Captain, he was in charge of a flightline of EB-66s, flown by the 42nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron; EC-121s, flown by the 553rd Reconnaissance Squadron; and EC-130Es, flown by the 7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron. His fleets of aircraft provided critical electronic jamming and chaff support to protect fighters and bombers over Vietnam and Laos, Command and Control of the battlefield through airborne communications with US Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and also the Vietnamese Air Force. Their 24 hour  presence over enemy territory was absolutely critical to the safety of all aviators as well as coordination of multiple service’s activities to prevent accidents and ensure proper targets were attacked.
Planning for Linebacker II at Wing level started in October 1972. Steve and the other senior Maintenance Officers were asked what support they needed to provide  up to three times the normal number of flights each day for at least two weeks. Steve told them he could not sustain such a heavy workload without more aircraft, because the EB-66 was not designed for such a high sortie rate and no amount of manpower or parts could change that. Since no additional aircraft were available, he was told that he would be sent a 50% increase in manpower to support the EB-66. Further, Steve said that he needed several spare engines for the EC-130s and additional experienced mechanics to support them. He was told that would happen, but no specifics were given. On December 5th, several cargo aircraft arrived at Korat with the promised added manpower. No one on base knew when Linebacker II was to start, so it was assumed that it would begin any day.  That didn’t happen until December 19th, so all the Maintenance Officers had to deal with being extremely over staffed.  Also, the people they received were senior NCOs who were supervisors and not ‘wrench benders’. Further, many outranked the NCOs who were permanently assigned and doing a great job, they had been home from a year-long tour for only a few months, and it had been many years since they had worked with the aircraft Steve was responsible for. Therefore, the morale problems were huge and the added manpower was more of a hindrance than a help.
Linebacker II got off to a great start on Steve’s ramp and went well for 6 days, with all required sorties being supported on time. Then things started to go wrong. One of the EB-66 pilots refused to take an aircraft, claiming there were issues with it.  That wasn’t true.  Nevertheless, Steve gave him another aircraft and the pilot again tried to find something wrong with that aircraft, so Steve called the pilot's Commander and told him what was happening.
Finally, the aircraft took off over an hour late and held up the B-52s, which were airborne and waiting for jamming support to fly over North Vietnam. About an hour later, Steve got word that the EB-66 was returning with no explanation.  He watched the aircraft approach the airfield and suddenly, the pilot aborted the landing and reapplied max power. Just as he was climbing beyond the end of the runway, the left wing dropped and the aircraft crashed into an apartment building about a half mile from the end of the runway, killing all three crewmembers. The conclusion of the accident board was that the pilot suffered extreme stress from all the sorties he had been flying, and should not have been ‘forced’ to fly that sortie. There was nothing wrong with the aircraft.
Another night, at 11PM during a torrential downpour, the flightline supervisor said they couldn’t launch an EB-66 because the aircraft’s Crew Chief and aircraft records were missing. After a massive search effort to no avail, Steve went to the records library and recreated the aircraft records as best he could in a short time, then certified that the aircraft was safe to fly.    The aircraft took off 1.5 hours late. During the search for the   crew chief (who had gone AWOL) and the records, Steve had been called directly and ‘chewed out’ by 3 Colonels, including the Wing Commander, and two Major Generals, one from 7th Air Force and one from 13th Air Force. Could it get worse than this?
On the 9th day, Steve ran out of spare engines for the EC-130 aircraft. As a result, the bombing was stopped for about 10 hours, while engines were "robbed" from another aircraft which had already had two engines missing. Steve says, “As a young Captain, I figured my career was over, but pressed on to do my best to recover from the situations and keep the ‘brass’ away from my troops so that they could continue to fix and launch aircraft as fast as possible.”  Steve didn’t get fired and actually received the Bronze Star for his performance at Korat RTAFB.
In 1990, after 25 years service, he retired from USAF as the Inspector General for the 18,000 person San Antonio Air Logistics Center, Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX. He went on to run Jet Engine businesses for Continental Airlines, GE, and US Airways.
Now fully retired, Steve resides in north Forsyth County, Georgia and is the Historian and Webmaster for American Legion Post 307, Cumming, GA. He is also a life member of the VFW, Air Force Association, and Military Officers' Association of America.