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Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories

Bat 21Rescue in Vietnam: From the Archive

Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories

Robert Kirk

History

4.7701 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Easter Sunday, April 2, 1972, two EB-66 aircraft, call signs Bat 21 and Bat 22 were flying pathfinder escort for three B-52s, which were assigned to bomb the two primary access routes to the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos. Gene Hambleton, a navigator aboard Bat 21, was shot down behind North Vietnamese lines. His rescue became known as the largest, longest, and most complex search-and-rescue operation during the Vietnam War. In this episode, Gene Hambleton recounts his dramatic story.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:40.9

This presentation of In Their Own Words is brought to you by the Honor Project and is dedicated to the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

0:51.7

On April 2nd, 1972,

0:55.1

Lieutenant Colonel Jean Hamilton's EB-66 aircraft

0:58.3

was sent aloft on a mission to jam the radar

1:01.0

of the North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile installations.

1:05.0

Ironically, Hamilton's plane was hit by one of the deadly Sams.

1:09.6

Hamilton ejected and parachuted safely to the ground.

1:12.6

But a quick rescue attempt was foiled when searchers discovered that he had landed right in the middle of an enemy division.

1:19.6

For six desperate days, the 53-year-old Air Force officer put his faith in the hands of the facts orbiting overhead.

1:37.3

The mission that I went on that day was a follow-on mission. There was a big buildup up along the Ho Chi Men Trail that they wanted to take care of right now,

1:47.5

so we got a hurry-up call. And it was late in the afternoon. And the reason I was on the mission

1:56.0

is because all of the rest of our crews were either flying or on R&R or crew rest.

2:03.8

And so I had to get a crew together and I had come to pass that, hell, I was the only

2:08.6

navigator left.

2:11.3

The rest of the crew actually was our squadron, most of our squadron staff.

2:18.3

The head EWO and the admin officer, but it was a follow-on mission that was one of these,

2:29.3

we need you right now.

2:32.3

And we're going up to support the B-52s on a raid up into the

2:36.8

McGeehanes. And in Lehman's term is what in the in sort of that you had a cell of

...

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