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Knew a Raven
Dear Editor,
I read Dick Trail's article (My Gomer, Tuesday, Nov. 18) with great interest.
I grew up on a farm in rural Osborne County, Kan.
In our church community was a young man named Harold Mischler; his parents and mine were neighbors and friends for many years. Harold's mother was my third-grade teacher.
Harold was 10 years older than me. I remember him as one of the "big kids," kind and decent but worshiped from afar, if you know what I mean. I have two older brothers, and they knew him better than I did.
Harold was one of the Ravens that Dick speaks of in his article. I will always remember getting out of school to attend his funeral when they brought his body home from Vietnam, a few short weeks before the peace treaty was signed with North Viet Nam in 1972.
I really didn't know much about the Ravens until recently, when I found some information about them on the internet. I knew that Harold flew small single-engine planes, and I knew he died in Laos.
I have been to the Wall in Washington, D.C., twice to see his name. It's very close to the last of those who lost their lives in Vietnam.
I found the following remarks posted on a Web site by a David Preston, a contemporary of his:
A True Hero: Hal Mischler
Hal Mischler was my best friend. His SEA tour commenced about 7 months after mine. He was my roommate at both OTS and in pilot training. We both attended the University of Kansas and traveled to OTS together. From those early beginnings in 1968 until his extraordinarily unfortunate death in 1972 over Saravan, Laos, Hal was my friend and one of my heroes. As a search-and-rescue airborne mission commander, I monitored some of his strike missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail as a OV-10 Forward Air Controller (FAC, Nail 81). Hal was a great pilot and FAC. His deep baritone voice came over the airways and his hearty chuckle touched everyone that knew him. Hal worked as a FAC on several aircrew rescue missions that I coordinated and his efforts contributed greatly to the success of those missions. He volunteered for the Raven Fac program during the last months of his scheduled tour in SEA. This perilous duty involved flying in support of the "secret war in Laos" and supported directly the anti-communist forces fighting in Laos. On Dec. 23, 1972, just weeks before the peace treaty signing in Paris that ended our war against North Vietnam, Hal was shot down while piloting his small 0-1 Cessna over Saravane.
Hence, his name is listed on the last panel of the Vietnam Wall along with the other final casualties of the war.
Submitted by
Gary Shike
Oberlin