In memory of Fagan

June 7, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Jim Fagan wrote his own death notice. To anyone under 30, or with a paucity of military background, Fagan’s obituary reads like a clinical résumé of graduations, task assignments, increasing responsibility, commendations and inevitable retirement into near obscurity.

But Jean Fagan, his wife of 56 years, remembers the humor that informed her husband’s string of life-altering decisions. “He was determined to fly, so he had to choose between Navy and Air Force. Jim picked the Air Force, saying he didn’t want to fly around looking for a carrier to land on,” she recalled with a smile, (May 2).

To those with an open mind and a catholic interest in the history of world events from 1944, when Fagan joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, until his retirement from a distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force in 1975, the dazzling diversity of his global impact emerges. Piece by piece, the mosaic of a man’s dedication and drive to make things better for his country – and those who serve it – reveals an embraceable image, seen best by those who step back to look at the whole.

The big picture of Fagan’s stunning career is international, but for him the tasks were intensely local. From a cramped, bomb-targeted hooch at Bien Hoa Air Base, Vietnam, to the stolid halls crisscrossing the 3.2-million-square-foot Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Fagan did his job, eliciting admiration and respect.

The focus and ethos that both forged and reflected Fagan’s professionalism began with a solid, Roman Catholic upbringing in Philadelphia, Pa. His 1944 graduation from Northeast Catholic High School was capped by a brief enlistment as an aviation cadet in the Army Air Corps, terminated just as abruptly when the ravages of World War II were halted, along with any pressing need for more flyers.

So Fagan enrolled at St. Louis University, Parks College of Aeronautical Technology. While he developed technical skills in aircraft maintenance engineering, Fagan participated in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), ending in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force.

Jean remembers that she met Jim in the mid-1940s while both worked at Sears, Roebuck and Company Department Store on Roosevelt Avenue in Philadelphia. They courted for four years before marrying in December, 1950, just as Jim launched his flying career by reporting for training at Connally Air Force Base near Waco, then at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona.

Both installations were later stripped from the Air Force property inventory. But two life-changing events visited the Fagan family at Williams. Daughter, Terry, was born at the base hospital, and Jim received his silver wings as an Air Force pilot, giving birth to the long, family-encompassing career ahead.

Next, completing gunnery training at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., Fagan flew to Korea, where he dropped bombs on multiple kinds of targets. The most nettlesome were the bridges and railroads near the workers’ district of Sinanju. There, along the Ch’ongch’on-gang Estuary, bridges permitted transportation of supplies to stubborn Communist forces.

U.S. Air Force bomber squadrons, such as Fagan’s 466th Fighter Bomber Squadron, took them out by day, the crossings were rebuilt with temporary construction by night, and appeared intact the next day – after day, after day. In his own words, Fagan called it the “Sinanju bridge complex,” and it clearly was a complex situation.

Late in 1952, Fagan joined the 9th Fighter Bomber Squadron, based at Komaki, Japan. The unique mission here was to create a “nuclear weapons-capable fighter squadron,” Fagan wrote. In World War II, U.S. bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, dramatically ushered in the age of nuclear warfare, and, as Korea and other perceived Communist threats proliferated, American determination to respond swelled.

At Komaki, Fagan served as flight commander, maintenance officer and special weapons tactics instructor. For his analytical capabilities, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for increased handling efficiencies among nuclear weapons.

Jean was allowed to join Jim in Japan, living at Gifu, now a thriving spa community about twenty miles northwest of Komaki. But then, it was a nearly bombed-out shell, a cultural, military and strategic casualty of World War II aerial assaults. “I had the little one [daughter Terry] with me, but it was lonely since Jim was on TDY [temporary duty assignments away from home] most of the time.

Jean Fagan pages through old photographs of her husband’s career assignments to share appropriate moments with LIVE! readers. She repeatedly apologized that she had little information to share because Jim was very quiet about the secretive missions he performed. But, between photos, documents, interviews with colleagues, and Jean’s precious memories, the quality of Col. Jim Fagan’s leadership is at least glimpsed. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

Jim Fagan piloted the C-54 “Skymaster,” ferrying men and supplies to “operational locations” around the world where U-2 aircraft were deployed for high-altitude nuclear particle sampling and reconnaissance sorties above Communist countries. This aircraft, with a capacity of 22 crew members and passengers, was also modified to become the first Air Force One, ferrying the president, his family, press corps, and high-ranking officials to national and global destinations. (Courtesy photo/U.S. Air Force) (click image to enlarge)

At Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, Lt. Col. Jim Fagan pauses for a pose at the nose of his C-123 “Provider,” a thick-bellied, low-slung troop and cargo hauler used, in Fagan’s “Ranch Hand Squadron” to carry tons of foliage defoliant, including Agent Orange, for spraying over the understory forests of Vietnam. (Contributed photo/Jean Fagan) (click image to enlarge)

Fagan spreads out a display of standard personal protective gear – including sheath knife, pistol, rifle and ammunition – carried on his herbicide-spraying sorties in the C-123 “Provider,” rear. The aircraft was particularly vulnerable to rockets and small arms fire from the ground because of the low level flights while spraying defoliant. (Contributed photo/Jean Fagan) (click image to enlarge)

“All the women on the base were in the same boat, so we all dealt with the same problems. And the smells there were terrible! With rice paddies all around, and how they were fertilized, it smelled awful,” said Jean. “But, it was the first time I’d ever had a maid,” she said, brightening at that recollection.

In 1954, Fagan was sent to Turner Air Force Base, near Albany, Ga. His unit there was redesignated the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (SRW), flying the RB57D aircraft with a wingspan in developing models of 104 feet. Dubbed “the spy in the sky,” the RB57 could rise in altitude to 50,000 feet in 15 minutes, engaging in reconnaissance up to 65,000 feet, well out of range of Russian MiG jet fighters.

“He wanted to be a pilot, again, but they needed engineers more than pilots,” Jean Fagan said wistfully. The 4080th was outfitted in June 1957 with U-2 reconnaissance jets, capable of flying even higher than their RB57 predecessors, and the Fagans moved to Laughlin Air Force Base where the U-2 fleet was centralized. There, Fagan flew support for the little birds in a somewhat larger, much slower bird, the C-54 “Skymaster” transport.

In addition to a string of maintenance-related leadership titles at Laughlin, Fagan wrote cryptically that he “Operated with Wing detachments at numerous locations throughout the world…” Maj. Gen. Pat Halloran (USAF retired), now living in Colorado Springs, Colo., is one of the surviving U-2 pilots from the 4080th and a former colleague of Fagan’s. “We got to see Jim when we were going on these operational situations. Sometimes one of us might ride with him, and other times he might just show up at our locations with maintenance people and supplies.”

The “locations” were small bases where U-2s were deployed for surveillance from Laughlin to Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico, Halbrook Air Base, Panama, Eilson Air Force Base, Alaska. “During the Cuban Missile Crisis, they were also in Orlando, Florida, and Shreveport, Louisiana. Jim did a lot of flying in and out of those two. Jim knew everybody, and everybody knew Jim, because every time we moved anywhere he’d be there,” Halloran said.

Col. Vic Milam (USAF retired), also a former U-2 pilot now living in Del Rio, said, “Jim flew the C-54 to get people and materials to the OLs [operational locations]. From those, we [U-2 pilots] were covering the whole globe, but not necessarily in a straight line,” said Milam. He recalls OLs, often with no more that three pilots and a pair of U-2s, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Panama, Australia, Puerto Rico and Alaska.

When the 4080th SRW was moved to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Fagan obtained Air Force permission to go back to school. In 1964, he completed a Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Chicago. Jean remembers only three things about the duty there: “Jim was gone flying every weekend to maintain his certifications, anti-war protesters were everywhere, and the city was cold and windy. Jim was a dog lover, but even the dog we had then didn’t like Chicago,” Jean said.

Graduation earned Fagan a slot at the Air Force Directorate of Maintenance Engineering in the Pentagon. “For four years, he fought for Air Force appropriations in Congress – lobbying, basically – and he loved it!” said Jean. In 1968, as protests against the war in Vietnam accelerated across the country, in seeming inverse relationship to military accomplishments in Southeast Asia, Fagan was deployed to the 12th Air Commando Squadron, the “Ranch Hands” stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam.

Fagan called the unit “the most shot at organization in Vietnam,” because the C-123 “Provider” aircraft flew low and slow over jungle forests, spraying the now-infamous “Agent Orange” defoliant, designed to kill crops and dense understory cover enjoyed by North Vietnamese forces. Fagan, then a lieutenant colonel, flew 348 missions with his squadron. Their motto was, “Only we can prevent forests.” The practice was later denounced by President Gerald Ford, as the defoliant became better known as a cancer risk chemical as well as an environmental tragedy.

Today, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that about 20 million gallons of the deadly chemical were sprayed in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971. But Jean says her husband never discussed his feelings about the defoliation or its controversies. “When he was over there, the Tet Offensive was on, his mother died and he came home and didn’t want to go back. But he did,” said Jean. “He had changed a lot when he came back for good. He just wasn’t the same person he was when he left to go over there. He was a little stricter with our girls, and a little less trusting of everyone, because over there you couldn’t trust anyone, not even children.”

In 1969, Fagan returned to the Pentagon, earning his “full bird” rank as colonel with an assignment as chief of maintenance support for the Air Force. Jean had remained there, living in Alexandria, Va. during his Vietnam tour. “And that’s where I finally learned to drive a car!” she said.

“In 1972, we came back to Laughlin,” Jean said. “He worked around the clock to put Laughlin back on top. Because of some readiness inspections, they were kind of on the bottom.” Fagan was the deputy commander of logistics, modestly writing that he “assisted” in upgrading the 47th Pilot Training Wing to award-winning, Air Force-wide recognition.

The Fagan family lived in base housing until his retirement in 1975, when the couple bought a lot and built a home in a developing subdivision on Del Rio’s north end. As they settled into community life, Fagan remained busy with leadership in workforce development, banking and civic work, including a year as president of the Del Rio Rotary Club of which he was a loyal member until his death, March 6, 2007.

Now, there are friends and family – his still-grieving wife, Jean, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren – whose lives will forever be shaped by the memory of Jim Fagan, his intelligence and dedication to duty.

Halloran illustrated those traits, “Jim was the boss of a lot of our maintenance guys, and any pilot will tell you it’s the maintenance people who make the system work, the guys out there with the tool box are the important ones. Jim was a very smart guy, and he was so very caught up in the U-2 mission.

As she waited for a fresh, almond-flavored batch of Jewish mandel bread cookies to cool in the kitchen, Jean shared another memory of Jim’s career. Despite his love of work on behalf of the Air Force in the puzzle palaces of Washington D.C., she recalled again that Jim loved to curry favor for appropriations, but not without misgivings: “I can tell you one thing. He didn’t care for politicians, particularly after seven years of working in the Pentagon.”

Jean learned to bake the slightly sweet mandel cookies when a friend in Alexandria, Va. taught her the recipe after Jim deployed to Vietnam. With the consistency of crumbly biscotti, the treat was easily wrapped and sent to him at Bien Hoa. “They were just the right size for him to wrap in wax paper, tuck it into his flight suit, and carry on his flying missions there,” Jean explained.