CERTAIN, ROBERT GLENN
Name: Robert Glenn Certain Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force, NAV Unit: 340th Bombardment Squadron, Anderson AFB Guam Date of Birth: 04 December 1947 (Savannah GA) Home City of Record: Silver Spring MD Date of Loss: December 18 1972 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 210000N 1055500E (WJ740473) Status (in 1973): Released POW Category: Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: B52G
Other Personnel in Incident: Robert J. Thomas; Walter L. Ferguson; Donald L. Rissi (both remains returned); Richard T. Simpson; Richard E. Johnson (released POWs)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources including "Linebacker" by Karl J. Eschmann. Copyright 1991 Homecoming II Project. Updated 1999 by the P.O.W. NETWORK with information provided by Robert G. Certain. Updated 2000 with information provided through St. Margaret's Episcopal Church and C. Hewston.
REMARKS: RELSD 730329 BY DRV
SYNOPSIS: Frustrated by problems in negotiating a peace settlement, and pressured by a Congress and public wanting an immediate end to American involvement in Vietnam, President Nixon ordered the most concentrated air offensive of the war - known as Linebacker II - in December 1972. During the offensive, sometimes called the "Christmas bombings," 40,000 tons of bombs were dropped, primarily over the area between Hanoi and Haiphong. White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler said that the bombing would end only when all U.S. POWs were released and an internationally recognized cease-fire was in force.
On the first day of Linebacker II, December 18, 129 B52s arrived over Hanoi in three waves, four to five hours apart. They attacked the airfields at Hoa Lac, Kep and Phuc Yen, the Kinh No complex and the Yen Vien railyards. The aircraft flew in tight cells of three to maximize the mutual support benefits of their ECM equipment and flew straight and level to stabilize the bombing computers and ensure that all bombs fell on the military targets and not in civilian areas.
The pilots of the early missions reported that "wall-to-wall SAMS" surrounded Hanoi as they neared its outskirts. The first night of bombing, December 18, saw the operation's first casualties.
Charcoal 01, a B52G, flown by LtCol. Donald L. Rissi. The crew had been scheduled to return home to Blytheville AFB, Arkansas, two weeks earlier. But due to a snowstorm, their replacement crew from Loring AFB, Maine, was too late in arriving to transition to a combat-ready status. So, instead of being at home, the Charcoal 01 crew met its tragic fate over North Vietnam.
The crew of the aircraft included its pilot and commander, LTCOL Donald L. Rissi and crewmen Maj. Richard E. Johnson, the radar navigator; Capt. Richard T. Simpson, electronics warfare officer; Capt. Robert G. Certain, the navigator; 1Lt. Robert J. Thomas, the co-pilot; and Sgt. Walter L. Ferguson, the gunner.
Just seconds to reaching the bomb-release point over the Yen Vien rail yards, B52G Charcoal 01 was hit simultaneously by two SAMs. Less than a minute later the aircraft nosed down, crashed and exploded ten miles northwest of Hanoi. It was the first casualty of the LINEBACKER II operation, and its fate would be shared by fourteen other crews in the next eleven nights of combat.
Certain, Simpson and Johnson were captured and shown the bodies of the other crew members. Certain, Simpson and Johnson were held prisoner in Hanoi until March 29, 1973, when they were released in Operation Homecoming. Six years later, the bodies of Rissi, Thomas and Ferguson were returned to U.S. control by the Vietnamese.
The Christmas Bombings, despite press accounts to the contrary, were of the most precise the world had seen. Pilots involved in the immense series of strikes generally agree that the strikes against anti-aircraft and strategic targets was so successful that the U.S. "could have taken the entire country of Vietnam by inserting an average Boy Scout troop in Hanoi and marching it southward."
To achieve this precision bombing, the Pentagon deemed it necessary to maintain a regular flight path. For many missions, the predictable B52 strikes were anticipated and prepared for by the North Vietnamese. Later, however, flight paths were altered and attrition all but eliminated any hostile threat from the ground.
The survival rate of the B52 crews downed was surprisingly high, and many were released in 1973. Many others were known to survive the crash of the aircraft, only to disappear. Reports mount that have convinced many authorities that Americans are still held captive in Southeast Asia. Although the crew of Charcoal 01 is accounted for, many others involved in the LINEBACKER operations are not. There is every reason to believe some of them could be among those still alive today. It's time we found them and brought them home.
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977 Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and spelling errors). UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO
ROBERT G. CERTAIN Captain - United States Air Force Shot Down: December 18, 1972 Released: March 29, 1973
It had been a bad day-nothing had gone right from the mission briefing on Guam until we started our bomb run high over Hanoi just after dark on December 18, 1972. Then the lights went out, and before I knew what had happened, I was hurtling through the night sky over enemy territory with little or no chance of rescue.
"O. K., God, it's you and me. If I'm going to die down there, don't even let my 'chute open. Just take me now." But my parachute did open; I was all right; and I would stay all right no matter how long the war lasted. The Holy Spirit was with me that night and never left me throughout the next hundred and one days I was to spend as a prisoner.
Before a week was out, there were seven of us in our cell-all members of various B-52 crews that had gone down during the "Eleven-Day War." We never doubted that we would be out soon and expected every day to hear about the signing of the treaty which would end the longest war we had ever known. We knew our people wanted the end; we knew the President wanted the end; and we knew that God would answer our prayers. Before long we were holding regular Sunday church services-Catholics, Baptists, Mormons-everybody joined in.
Then, it happened: PEACE. And the countdown started-only sixty days to go. Always long, each day seemed like a week; but we made it, thanks to the ever-present help of the Holy Spirit with us in answer to the prayers of millions of our fellow Americans.
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As a result of his active military service, Robert Certain was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, five Air Medals, the Prisoner of War Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Commendation Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and Vietnam Campaign Medal. He returned to school, and has his BA, MDiv and DMin. He left active duty in 1977. Colonel Certain served as a Chaplain, in the United States Air Force Reserves at the USAF Academy until his retirement on July 8, 1999.
He was the Associate for Pastoral Care, St Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church in Arizona until Pentecost Sunday, 1998, when Father Certain began his ministry as the Rector at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert California.
The Rev. Dr. Robert Certain and his wife Robbie have 2 grown children.
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Remembering the missing 12:59 AM PST on Thursday, March 30, 2006 By JOE VARGO The Press-Enterprise
The lives of Robert Certain and Don Goodin first intersected on March 29, 1973, when the pair boarded an Air Force cargo jet and left Vietnam with the last batch of American prisoners held at the infamous Hanoi Hilton and other camps.
David Bauman / The Press-Enterprise When Robert
Certain, left, of Palm Desert, was a captain in the Air
Force, he was
shot down on his 100th mission while bombing Hanoi. Don
Goodin, of
Highland, piloted the Air Force cargo jet out of Vietnam,
on which
Certain rode to freedom.
It was also the day American combat forces left Vietnam for good. Certain, now a Palm Desert resident, was a 25-year-old Air Force captain who was shot down on his 100th mission while bombing the North Vietnamese capital. Goodin, a Highland resident, piloted that C- 141 Starlifter to freedom, a memorable flight in a 29-year career that saw him complete more than 400 combat missions over Vietnam and log more than 12,000 hours in the air.
Wednesday, 33 years to the day, the pair took to the skies once again, flying over Riverside National Cemetery during a ceremony highlighting the difficulties faced by former prisoners and the families of U.S. troops still listed as missing in action. While the two took part in the missing- man formation, members of the group Rolling Thunder folded the black POW/MIA flag taken down from the national monument to former prisoners and soldiers whose fates remain unknown. The group will carry the flag cross-country for presentation at the Vietnam Wall monument in Washington, D.C., on Memorial Day. "I'm overwhelmed, my heart is full," said Joy Jeannette, of Victorville, chaplain for the Inland area's Rolling Thunder chapter, which includes members from throughout California.
Related
Jeannette's brother, Donald Walters, was reported killed in Vietnam on March 19, 1967, when his helicopter landed on a mine. His remains were unrecognizable and the family still doesn't know if the body they buried was Walters'. They are using DNA material to put the question to rest once and for all. "We've never come to terms with it," she said. "The pain never goes away." Remembering Certain and Goodin met last week and discussed their experiences on the day American ground forces and prisoners of war left Vietnam for the last time. Certain, 58, became an Episcopal priest and is assigned to St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, where he went on to write his autobiography and take an active role in POW/MIA issues. He retired a colonel. Goodin, 71, retired as a lieutenant colonel, earned two master's degrees, plays bluegrass music and rides a Harley Davidson. "Our freedom is paid for in blood," said Goodin, who on Wednesday flew Certain over the cemetery in a former Czechoslovakian military jet once assigned to Warsaw Pact duty. "It's not free. This ceremony is a tribute to all prisoners of war and soldiers who remain missing." In his book, "Unchained Eagle," Certain wrote that he struggled with his dual roles -- a warrior whose mission was to kill the enemy and an ordained minister called to help and heal those spiritually tormented.
"I dropped many bombs in Vietnam, and I wish I could say that they only destroyed military targets," Certain wrote. "But surely noncombatants were among the casualties. A combatant, who may be a righteous, God-fearing, loving human being, must become inhumane day after day if he is to do what his country has asked him to do." His capture expedited his decision to become an ordained priest. He had grappled with that decision several times but made up his mind once a prisoner. Certain led services while in captivity, finding comfort in that role. He enrolled in seminary after his release, while still on active duty. Certain said he has kept in touch with several of the 40 prisoners on his freedom flight. Many stayed in the Air Force. One other became an Episcopal priest. A nurse on the flight last week sent Certain a plaque containing the signatures of the prisoners who flew out of Hanoi with him. Survivors are planning another reunion in May.
The Last Day March 29, 1973, broke cloudy. Certain waited anxiously in a prison camp known as the Hanoi Zoo, the scene of some of the most notorious torture in the war. Each prisoner got a new set of clothes -- dark blue trousers, a light blue shirt. "Nobody slept well the night before," Certain said. The last prisoners were mostly young guys who had been captured late in the war. Certain, a B-52 navigator, was shot down by two surface-to-air missiles on Dec. 18, 1972. By that time, he estimates he had dropped 1 million pounds of bombs on the enemy. His captors told him he was a criminal. To anger the North Vietnamese, Certain and his fellow prisoners marched side-by-side in military formation and stood at attention before the world press, which had been invited to observe the handover. Certain said he asked famed reporter Walter Cronkite who had won the previous Super Bowl. The Miami Dolphins, he was told. Overhead, Goodin made ready to land at Hanoi's Gia Lam airport. There was no radio communication, and Goodin had only limited knowledge about the airport. He descended through yellowish clouds, finally breaking through less than 1,000 feet above ground. He landed on the runway, discovering a railroad line running across it. North Vietnamese guards took positions in front and to the side of his C-141. Goodin shut off the engines as ordered. "I felt I had a big responsibility," Goodin said. "I knew the whole world was watching if I screwed it up. I was proud to be an American. To see the joy on their faces is a memory that I've never forgotten." The prisoners arrived, saluted welcoming military brass and climbed aboard. There was no outburst of celebration. Some prisoners asked for American cigarettes to replace the Dien Bien brand provided by their captors. Others wanted to know if they had been promoted during their time as prisoners. The former captives, some unwashed for weeks, smelled of their cabbage-soup diet. "It's a wonder we weren't pushed out the back of the plane," Certain said. Without fanfare, the plane took off for its two-hour flight to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, where steaks, hamburgers and milkshakes awaited them. When Goodin flew out of North Vietnamese air space, the prisoners let go of their pent-up emotions.
The plane erupted in cheers.
Reach Joe Vargo at (951) 567-2407 or jvargo@PE.com
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