Page 51 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2016

said. “I stayed in a room designed for one or two guests with 12 other men.” But after five days, he was shipped
off to the Academy for Aeronautics
in Long Island, N.Y. According to Herbert, the Army selected 50 men
to attend the first class of Air Traffic Controller School based on their aptitude test scores. “When I started in this business, I didn’t know what a computer or a radar was,” he said.
After 12 weeks of training, Herbert was sent to his first assignment as an Army Air Corps air traffic controller
at Wright-Patterson Airfield, Ohio,
for on-the-job training, followed by
an assignment in a control tower in Syracuse, N.Y. where he learned he would be the only military-trained
air traffic controller. “Syracuse had
an airfield that had been activated for the war,” remembers Herbert. “We were the first controllers to go in there. I was the only controller that had training; it was such a new career field and they were still figuring out what it was all about. They pulled guys from the mess halls, supply rooms and other areas to come work in the tower.”
With less than a year’s experience, Herbert was sent to the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska where Japanese war planes mounted attacks against Alaska. When Herbert arrived on the island of Amchitka, the U.S. began Operation Cottage to recapture the Islands of Kiska and Attu from Japan. “The Japanese occupied the Island of Kishka, which was a U.S.- owned island so close I could see it from our tower,” said Herbert.
Herbert controlled bombers and fighters who continually harassed the Japanese troops until they eventually withdrew from the area, but his first taste of real danger was from the cold weather. “We also had attacks against us from Japanese submarines. They
ABOVE: Retired Chief Master Sgt. J.J. Vollmuth; Col. Michele Edmondson, 81st Training Wing commander; and Retired Chief Warrant Of cer 4 Francis Herbert cut a ribbon during the room dedication ceremony.
launched aircraft off subs and could attack through the cloud cover too,” he said.
His first taste of enemy propaganda came through the airwaves as the Japanese set up radio communications that constantly berated the American troops, saying their wives and girlfriends were out carousing. “We missed home terribly and this didn’t help. It really affected some of the guys,” said Herbert.
When the war ended, Herbert was discharged from his draft obligation and reenlisted. After a decade of assignments, he was in a new kind of conflict — the cold war. Herbert was a liaison officer in the Air Traffic Control facility in Casablanca, Morocco in
1961 taking care of American aircraft, including strategic bombers, coming through the area.
When the United States began confronting Communism in Vietnam, Herbert again said goodbye to his
wife, Helen, and transferred to Pleiku Air Base in South Vietnam. “The big difference in Vietnam was the enemy troops were there, with us. It wasn’t unusual for a night attack to take place. Mortar and rocket attacks were a constant threat,” he said.
This time, Herbert was serving with his son, Barry, who signed up to be an air rescue pilot. Barry was wounded and received a Purple Heart. “He didn’t have to go over, but he had just turned 19 and was gung-ho and ready to go,” Herbert said of his son.
When his tour was complete, Francis Herbert came to Keesler AFB as an air traffic control military instructor and finished a 30-year career. Once retired, he was asked to stay as a civilian instructor and served for 20 more years. At 95, Herbert looks back on his career fondly. “All my career, I had good people working for me. They got the hard work done and I owe it all to them,” he said.
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