Bridge Chat

Video by Sarayuth Pinthong

560th Flying Training Squadron hosts the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Flyers

502nd Air Base Wing

March 28, 2023 | 1:03

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Sweet, retired, Lt. Col. Dick Francis, retired, Maj. Lynn Beens, retired, and Capt. Charles Jackson, USAF 1965-1979, became the next four Freedom Flyers during a T-38 Talon flight with Instructor Pilots from the 560th Flying Training Squadron, Mar. 23, 2023, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas.

Since 1973, all repatriated combat pilots physically able to return to active flying have come to the 560th Flying Training Squadron for requalification training. As a final chapter in Operation homecoming, the squadron has flown 209 Freedom Flyers and many of those returned to active-duty flight status. The first flight for each returning pilot with the 560th granted what the last flight in Southeast Asia should have been. Traditionally, after each pilot completed his last flight in theater, his comrades greeted him on the flight line to celebrate a safe last landing. A bottle of champagne was passed around to commemorate the occasion and to pause briefly in remembrance of those who had not returned. Each year, the 560th hosts a reunion of “Freedom Flyers” commemorating the anniversary of Operation Homecoming. Scheduled events include static displays, fly-bys, a wreath laying ceremony, a POW symposium, and a formal banquet. In 2023, the 560th honors four more Freedom Flyers which will commemorate 50 years of this unique connection between the 560th Flying Training Squadron the men that returned from captivity with honor. (U.S. Air Force video by Sarayuth Pinthong)