HUt~~~N INTEREST.STORY FOR CMC

File: 082696_d50022_187.txt
Page: 187
Total Pages: 242
         other Marine Harriers were lost during the war along with two OV-
         10 Bronco observation aircraft. Five MAG-l3 aircrew were captured
        -* and subsequently repatriated. One was killed in action, and
         another is missing, believed killed. One Harrier pilot operating
         from a ship was also lost in action.

             Pilot with The Most Combat Missions: The Last, Number 719

            Colonel Manfred A. Rietsch, 49, is commanding officer of the
         Marines' larger fighter/attack unit, Marine Aircraft Group 11,
         which arrived at its base in Bahrain in mid-August. The colorful
         flyer, who retains the faint' accents of his German birth and the
         callsign 11Fokker11, was already so~ething a legend in Marine
         aviation, having flown 653 combat missions in Vietnam. During
         this war he flew another 66 missions in FA-18 Hornets.

             On the night of 26-27 February, the Iraqis began their
         frantic retreat from Kuwait. The A-6E Intruders of his group
         detected huge numbers of vehicles streaming north which they
         attacked, helping to bottle up the ~raqi5: Rietsch now increased
         the surge of his sorties; MAG-li flew 298 missions that day
         alone.

            He himself took off mid-morning in a two seat FA-18D of Marine
         All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121 with his Weapons System
         Operator, Major Bill Macak, on a Fast Forward Air Controller
         mission. Bad weather and smoke from burning oilfields was
         obscuring the choked escape route when the crew found a convoy of
         about 40 transporters carrying tanks and armored personnel
         carriers making their way along a parallel dirt track to the
         west. Sixteen of his Hornets were inbound, but now he had to stop
         the convoy frorn getting underneath a thick band of oil smoke
         which would hide them frorn visual attack.

            He fired a white phosphorour; rocket ahead of the lead truck.
         The drivers, knowing an attack was imminent, p'iled out of the'
         vehicles. After a few minutes, when no attack was forthcoming,
         they got back into the trucks and started up. ~ietsch repeated
         the process with the same result. After the convoy started up a
 *       last time, he strafed the lead vehicles, which began to burn.
 *       This time the Iraqis got the. message. Now short on fuel, he
         handed over control to Major Ken Bode, Who directed the Marine
         Hornets in an attack pilot's dream mission: halted tanks and
         APas. Rietsch returned from his last mission. It was his 719th.

                                  Semper Fidel is

            In the 1st Marine Division, a certain Staff Sergeant had
         suffered some heart problems a few years earlier, but was able to
         return to duty after being cleared by medical authorities.~ After
         arriving ~n Saudi Arabia, his old symptoms reappeared. Knowing
*.1
 *       that he would likely be evacuated if he reported his problems, he
         somehow got hold of his medical records and removed the pages
         dealing with his problem. As G-Day approached, his pain grew more
         acute, but he still refused to come clean with the doctors


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