LOGAN, DONALD K.
Name: Donald K. Logan
Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force/WSO
Unit: 469th TFS 388th TFW
Date of Birth: 6 December 1946 - Glendale CA
Home City of Record: Granada Hills CA
Date of Loss: 05 July 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 212900 North 1063600 East
Status: (in 1973) Returnee
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F-4E
Missions: 133 Combat Missions F-4E
Other Personnel in Incident: Maj William J. Elander Jr. Pilot
Remarks: 730329 RELEASED BY DRV
Source: Compiled by the P.O.W. NETWORK with information provided
Donald Logan as shown - 1998. Edited 2006.
Synopsis: Donald K. Logan (Don) was born in Glendale, California on December
6, 1946. At age 10 my family moved to New City, New York (a suburb of New
York City). In 1960 at age 14 I moved back to Granada Hills in Southern
California.
After graduating from California State University-Northridge with a BA
degree in History, I joined the USAF in August of 1969. I was trained as an
F-4E Weapon Systems Officer (WSO), and stationed at Korat RTAFB in Thailand.
I flew 133 combat missions over North and South Vietnam, and Laos before
being shot down over North Vietnam on July 5 1972. As a result of missions
flown in Southeast Asia, I received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air
Medal with twelve oak leaf clusters, and the Purple Heart.
I spent nine months as a POW in Hanoi North Vietnam, being released in the
last group to leave Hanoi on March 29, 1973. After spending most of my first
month of captivity in a solitary cell in the Hanoi Hilton, I was moved to
the Camp referred to as the Zoo, and put in a cell with three other flyers.
All of us were recent shot downs (all spring and summer 1972). We were kept
out of contact with the senior U.S. Officers and the POW who had been held
over one year. After returning to the U.S., I was assigned to Nellis AFB as
a rightseater (WSO) in the F-111A. I left the Air Force at the end of
February 1977, and in March of 1977, I went to work for North American
Aircraft Division of Rockwell International, in Los Angeles, as a Flight
Manual writer on the B-1A program. I was later made Editor of the Flight
Manuals for B-1A #3 and B-1A #4.
Following the cancellation of the B-1A production, I went to work for
Northrop Aircraft as a fire control and ECM systems maintenance manual
writer on the F-5 program.
In October of 1978, I started my employment at Boeing in Wichita, Kansas as
a Flight Manual/Weapon Delivery manual writer on the B-52 OAS/CMI (Offensive
Avionics System/Cruise Missile Integration) program.
As a result of the revival of the B-1 as the B-1B by the Reagan
administration, and the selection of Boeing as the contractor for the
avionics integration, based on my previous B-1 experience, I was made the
Lead Editor of the Flight and Weapon Delivery manuals to be written by
Boeing (OSO and DSO Flight Manuals, and all aircrew weapon delivery
manuals). In addition to the B-1, I have also developed the Flight Manual
for the E-8A JOINT Stars aircraft, and the Flight/Weapon Delivery manuals
for the Boeing N WDS (Navigation and Weapon Delivery System) which was
installed in the RF-4C and F-4E. I am presently the editor for Boeing's
B-52H Flight and Weapon Delivery Manuals, B-1B Offensive and Defensive
System Operators' Flight Manual, B-1B Weapon Delivery Manuals, and T-43A
Flight Manuals. I am also the author of six books on USAF subjects;
" The B-1B SAC's Last Bomber"
" The 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Korat RTAFB - 1972"
" Northrop's T-38, A Pictorial History"
" Northrop's YF-17 Cobra"
" A-10 Warthog - A Pictorial History"
" C-135 Series - Boeing's Stratotanker and Stratolifter"
===============
Vietnam POW shares experiences with Holloman pilots
Alamogordo Daily News
By Tom Fuller, For the Daily News
Alamogordo Daily News
Everyone's eyes were glued to him, leaning comfortably against the lectern
chatting casually about his experiences. He wasn1t a fiery, motivational
speaker, but the 50 personnel from Holloman Air Force Base, most of them
pilots, hung on his every word.
It wasn1t the way he said what he said that kept their attention, but rather
the story he told. It was a story generally familiar to most of them, but
here was a man who had experienced it, standing right before them, telling
it like it was 30 years ago when the F-4 Phantom he was in was shot down
over North Vietnam.
Don Logan is a member of an unique group of individuals. He has ejected from
a jet aircraft in combat and been captured and held prisoner by the enemy.
When he found he was coming to Holloman to work on a picture book on Air
Force weapons schools, he jumped at the chance to share his prisoner of war
experience.
"For me, it's good to share the knowledge of the past and maybe impart some
of what I learned to the fliers of today," Logan said at the Holloman
Officers Club during a recent visit, Aug. ''.
The former F-4 weapon system officer was flying his 133rd combat mission in
a 16-ship formation of Phantoms on July 5, 1972. He had had a late night at
the air base club the night before, thinking he would be off that day. When
another Wizzo was unable to fly the mission, Logan took his place. It was
one of those fateful moments that turn someone's life around.
The North Vietnamese had known the Americans were coming and sent two
MiG-2's in behind the 16 F-4s. Logan said the Vietnamese pilots were good.
They came up so fast and close that they were not detected by the U.S.
pilots.
"The F-4 has about as good of rear visibility as an F-117. They pulled up so
close we really couldn't clear for our wingman,ý Logan told his audience.
"They fired visually so we had no warning. They fired two (missiles) each.
We took one up the tail pipe and 25 seconds later the number two ship was
hit. I felt a bump. We were going 480 knots when we punched out about 20
seconds later, 4,000 feet from the ground."
Rather than landing in an open field where he could see North Vietnamese
gathering, Logan steered his parachute into a stand of trees. He crashed
through the limbs and branches, separating his shoulder and getting many
scratches and bruises. Despite his attempt to hide in the brush, the North
Vietnamese militia found him in 20 minutes.
"They picked me up at about 9:30 in the morning and walked me all day until
sundown," he said. "We stayed overnight at a village and then walked another
three hours the next day until I was picked up by North Vietnamese regulars
in a truck."
Logan said that all prisoners at that time were taken to the infamous Hanoi
Hilton for processing. That's where he received his first interrogations at
the hands of the North Vietnamese. Logan believes that, because he was only
a first lieutenant, the North Vietnamese interrogators did not believe him
to be of much value.
Since he had what he called "politically correct" injuries and he was junior
in rank, he was transferred to the showcase POW facility in Hanoi known as
The Zoo. The North Vietnamese frequently paraded international news media
through The Zoo for propaganda purposes.
"Had I been shot down a week earlier I could have met Jane Fonda," Logan
recalled. "They put me in a good camp. The North Vietnamese always had a
purpose for what they did."
In the crowd listening intently to Logan was a young second lieutenant, new
to the Air Force and waiting for pilot training. Logan had made a definite
impression on the young man.
"It gives you a whole new perspective on flying and the risks involved,"
said Lt. Ryall Mye, who is awaiting undergraduate pilot training. "Knowing
others' experiences can help you prepare for facing those types of
challenges. It's important to get (a veteran's) perspective so you'll know
what they've done to protect our freedom."
When the United States and North Vietnam finally negotiated a peace treaty,
Logan was on the last C-141 flying out of Hanoi for Clark Air Base in the
Philippines. It was about nine months from the day he was captured, and he
considered himself lucky.
"I always had a fatalistic, positive attitude. When I was shot down, I said
to myself, RHey, if I spend less than a year in Hanoi I'll look at it as
another remote tour. I got out in nine months, so it didn't bother me. Had I
stayed longer, on the '"th month I don't know what I would have done."