In the summer of 1965, a pretty college sophomore waited in the Officer’s Club at Myrtle Beach, Air Force Base, for her brother to pick her up for dinner. In walked Midshipman Bart Creed dressed in his summer whites. As the former Ms. Susan Page put it, “It was like seeing Tom Cruise in Top Gun - Wow!” Even though Bart had a date for later that night, he came over to Susan and asked if she would go out with him the following night. Susan and Bart went out the following night and every night after that.
Bart took a summer job at a hamburger stand on the boardwalk at Myrtle Beach and spent nearly every spare moment with Susan. As Bart prepared for his return to Annapolis, he asked Susan to come up for Homecoming. Susan, somewhat skeptical of long-distance relationships didn’t believe theirs would last. She was wrong.
Bart Creed and Susan Page were married in the Naval Academy Chapel shortly after Bart’s graduation in 1967. Later that year, Bart began his career as a naval aviator at NAS Pensacola, FL and Susan began her life as a Navy wife.
In 1968, after completing primary in Pensacola, FL., Bart and Susan were off to intermediate in Meridian, MS then on to advanced flight training in Kingsville, TX where Bart earned his “wings of gold.” By late 1969, Bart and Susan were headed back east to Jacksonville, FL and the A-7 Fleet Replacement Squadron where Bart would learn to fly the aircraft that would carry him into battle on the other side of the world. But by now things were different – Bart and Susan had started a family. In 1969, Susan gave birth to their son, Scott and a year later, their daughter, Page.
Bart and Susan lived and worked among fellow military personnel and their families a world apart from the Woodstock generation. America’s support for the war was fading fast and with the invasion of Cambodia in 1970 came violent protests on college campuses around the country. However, Bart and Susan still believed that South Vietnam was worth fighting for and paid little heed to the anti-war movement growing around them. When it came to American ideals, Susan recalls Bart saying, “If there’s nothing worth dying for, there’s nothing worth living for.” If Bart had any reservations about the war once he became directly involved in it, he never expressed them – he had a job to do and that was that.
By the time Bart finished flight training and was ready for his first fleet assignment, the war he was preparing for since graduation had changed dramatically. In 1968, one year after Bart had earned his commission, the Tet Offensive and failed peace talks in Paris had ushered Richard Nixon into the White House - soon after the policy of Vietnamization was underway. In January 1970, Bart was assigned to an attack squadron, VA-113 based at NAS Lemoore, located in central California. Bart and Susan headed west.
The preparations for an aircraft carrier to embark on an extended overseas deployment commonly referred to as “work-ups” are never easy. Embarked squadrons not only have to integrate new pilots into their operations, but they must also develop a solid working relationship with the ship’s company and the rest of the squadrons in their air wing. While Susan stayed behind at NAS Lemoore with two children in diapers, Bart was busy at sea learning the ins and outs of carrier operations in VA-113’s new A-7E attack jet.
In October 1970, after months of at-sea periods and a laundry list of pilot qualifications achieved, Bart packed up his flight gear and uniforms and joined Carrier Airwing Two (CVW-2) aboard the USS Ranger, CVA-61. Bart and Susan would never see each other again.
Next: Lost in Laos (Part III) - Lam Son 719
Comments