JP Colson

Image via WikipediaI mentioned John Colson in my last post. John is a real, larger than life cowboy slash mountain man type of guy. We met at Chanute AFB and then traveled on to Vandenberg and Malmstrom where we were assigned to 564th Strategic Missile Squadron. JP's crew did alerts at Papa-0 near the town of Conrad and I was assigned to Romeo-0 near the really small town of Dutton. Frequently we did alerts at the same time and we spent a lot of time on the phone. John also befriended me by taking me hunting and fishing with him.

JP's father was lost in the raid on Ploesti in August of 1943 before John was born. We never did know for sure which squadron JP's Dad was in, but the 564th Bomb Squadron (renamed later to the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron ) was a part of the raid and suffered heavy casualties. Our guidon had a ribbon for that doomed bombing mission. When John was born, he was named John Pershing Colson. Later, the Air Corps awarded Colson senior a posthumous medal (I think it was the Silver Star.) The awarding officer pinned the medal to JP's diaper.

John hails from Indiana and attended school in Johnson City Tennesee. He got his commission in the Air Force "the hard way" by attending OTS at Lackland AFB in beautiful San Antonio Texas. From there he went to the Undergraduate Pilot Course in Laredo or one of the other Texas bases where piloting was being taught to a lot of lieutenants. As happened to a lot of us, instead of getting wings, he was given the choice of becoming a Security Policeman or a "Missile Jockey." It was my good luck that he chose missiles. We met at Chanute and were good friends the whole four years we spent at Malmstrom together. I can't remember if we ever had an alert together but I think he was promoted to Launch Commander at about the same time that I was.

There are hundreds of JP stories and I remember dozens of them, but the most painful for JP was being crewed with someone we will call "Don Braedenbach" Don was a real piece of work and should never have been an officer in my Air Force. He was forever browbeating, giving "orders", demanding this or that. Remember the military myth of the officer who wheedled a general into endorsing his Officer Efficiency Report? Supposedly the general wrote on the form, "Capt. Braedenbach is one of those officers who will go through life pushing on doors that are plainly marked pull!" In the mid 1970's Braedenbach was "riffed" and a great wrong was thereby undone.

Anyway, JP finally escaped the frightening comical Nazi guy and was crewed with one of our heroes named Joe Amlong. Later he was crewed with Bruce Rodie, a top-notch officer and a heck of a cook. Bruce is the one who introduced the Standing Rib Roast to the Launch Control Center. When they went on alert JP would carry the tech manuals and Bruce would carry a duffel filled with food and an electric frying pan.

One story that still chills my blood occurred in 1973 when a mix-up at Cheyenne Mountain made it look like the Russians were launching a preemptive attack on us. My phone rang at 3:00 in the morning and it was John telling me to "keep my head down. That was our pre-arranged code for "its about to happen" - meaning that WWIII was about to land in our laps. Fortunately sanity prevailed at some level in the decision chain and the world was spared a thermonuclear holocaust. What did I do after JP called? I kissed my wife and went back to sleep

JP, I owe a lot of my ideas and ideals to my conversations with you. I have always considered you to be a great man and a true friend. If I die first, you can have my guns.