1 thought on “ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 22 OCTOBER 1966”

  1. I wore Lieutenant Commander (later Commander) Kolstad’s POW/MIA bracelet while in high school, before my own enlistment in the US Navy. He became a very real part of my life.

    These slivers of engraved metal became 1-ounce talismans of hope that became a bandage for a divided nation. More than 5 million POW/MIA bracelets were sold for $2.50 to $3 apiece. They transcended politics and were embraced by strange bedfellows. Nixon and McGovern. Bob Hope and Sonny and Cher. John Wayne and Dennis Hopper. The organization behind the cultural icon was Los Angeles-based Voices in Vital America (VIVA), a conservative student movement formed in the 1960s to counteract campus antiwar protests then sweeping the nation.

    After the war, I was attentive to the fate of Commander Kolstad and other missing heroes. I carried him in my heart, thoughts and prayers over the years. I grieved for his family.

    Commander Thomas C. Kolstad of Parkville, Minnesota was listed as Missing in Action while flying reconnaissance missions over Hanoi when his aircraft had been hit by hostile fire. His family on the Iron Range wondered about their son and brother during the 11 years Kolstad was missing in action from the Vietnam War.

    Commander Kolstad is buried at Calvary Cemetery, Virginia, MN.

    Taken from The Victoria Advocate article, “Family Mourns Vietnam Pilot,” 3 April 1977:

    “The service was given full military honors, including a 21-gun salute and a fly-over by Air National Guard jets. Eight men from the Duluth Naval Station acted as pallbearers and six of Commander Kolstad’s long-time friends and former classmates were honorary pallbearers.”

    Taken from the Duluth News Tribune article, “Vietnam Pilot Never Made It Home, But A Memory Finally Did,” by Joanna Goerdt, 8 March 2008:

    “Kolstad, an outdoorsman who would grow to love flying, had joined the U.S. Navy in 1955, said his brothers, Jerry and Doug Kolstad, both of Britt. The Kolstad family, which included six brothers and one sister, grew up close in a small home near Virginia, Minnesota.

    “Tom was a hero to me,” Doug Kolstad said.

    “On October 24, 1966, the Kolstad family learned from a Western Union telegram that, while flying reconnaissance missions over Hanoi two days earlier, Tom’s “aircraft had been hit by hostile fire.” There was no news about whether he was alive or dead, and there would be no news for more than a decade. Tom Kolstad was 31.

    “The waiting and wondering — “the unknowing of it” — was awful, Doug said. “My mother had kept every letter [Tom] had written,” Jerry Kolstad said. “She suspected something like this was going to happen.”

    “Searchers finally found Tom Kolstad’s remains in 1977. Kolstad’s funeral, in Virginia’s Calvary Cemetery on April 3, made national headlines. Kolstad was among the first wave of Vietnam soldiers whose remains were recovered and brought home after the war ended, and his lengthy service and high rank caught news organizations’ attention.”

    Taken from a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) internet posting, 24 December 2002:

    “Tom was married to my cousin Ginger and the father of baby Aaron. I drove him to San Diego just before he sailed for Viet Nam. The definition of a confidant and celebrated Navy pilot, he was very subdued on arrival at North Island. His plane awaited loading onto the carrier as he walked me around it on a moonless night. He paused, with tears in his eyes and told me if he came back his intention was to resign his commission. His wife and his new child meant more to him than military aviation. When I had first been introduced to him he was a Naval acceptance pilot at Chance Vought in Ft. Worth, testing fighters as they came off the assembly line. He was the kind of guy who could and did land a Crusader when the canopy had blown off. On a lark, he once made a supersonic pass over the Cotton Bowl just before kickoff which temporarily disabled the field microphones. The man I left that night was a husband, a father; transformed by love for his wife and baby. I never forget him.”

    Commander Kolstad is honored on Panel 11E, Row 98 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

    May you rest in peace Commander. Thank you for your heroic service and unselfish sacrifice. Your Spirit is alive – and strong; you will never be forgotten!

    Turn Again To Life

    If I should die and leave you here awhile,
    Be not like others, sore and undone,
    Who keep long vigils by the silent dust, and weep.
    For my sake – turn again to life, and smile
    Nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do
    Something to comfort other hearts than thine.
    Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine,
    And I, perchance, may therein comfort you.

    – A. Price Hughes & Mary Lee Hall

    Yours for Naval Aviation,
    CDR Bruce Herman, US Navy (Retired)
    Served October 1970 – November 2003
    Air Traffic Control Officer (LDO)

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