he would call them by name. this was his standard method of gaining entry. >> in january of '67, the so-called boston strangler was sentenced to life in prison. operation rolling thunder was approaching its second anniversary. increasing increasingly, raids to the north were being intercepted by communist migs. our heavily laiden planes often had to jettison their planes short of their intended target. >> they were getting more and more aggressive. >> then colonel robin, who was based in thailand. >> my boss was there. i said, sir, i'm sure you know the migs are getting kind of

frisky. i have an idea of what we could do about it. >> the key to bolo, newly introduced into operations. >> slung under the wing, these pods jammed enemy radars, making it harder for s.a.m.s to lock on. in limited supply, the pods were usually hung on the airplane's principle bomber. >> we knew their ground controllers would see these emissions from this pod. >> they went in as if they were f-105s loaded down with bombs. >> that was north vietnam's major mig base. so far johnson hadn't allowed it to be bombed. we could only engage migs in the

air. >> came up through the cloud deck behind us, and we had a nice little fight. >> loud and clear. >> i managed to get two that day. >> the most important job was preparing his men for combat. >> my first batch of replacements after i got there were five guys. only one of them had flown real fighters before. >> a lot of the most experienced air crews had already rotated home. so he was beginning to get fighter pilots who might have even been transport pilots or heavy bomber pilots. >> i looked at these kids and said, jesus christ, i need fighter pilots. they sent me a bunch of guys like you. i bet you guys don't even know how to drink, follow me.

so we went to the bar. >> the bar was just one of the many diversions for the air crews. another was the mustache. >> everybody started growing them. not everybody, but boy, there were some magnificent mus staffs. what it really was, was kind of a joke. it was also a rigid middle digit held up in the face of united states air force. what are you going to do about it? >> mustaches, did you have one? >> oh, sure. i had this mustache, and i looked meaner than hell. i used to send around to all my friends in an e-mail, this is why we won the cold war. >> we all had our australian bush hats. every time you flew, you put a mark on it so you keep track of how many missions you flew. >> once you flew 100 missions north, your tour of duty was supposed to be over. >> a lot of the pilots i talked to wore the same neckerchief or carried a silver dollar. do you have any of those? >> not flying on my birthday.

when i was a second lieutenant, my best friend over in england flamed out over the english channel and ejected and died of exposure on his birthday. and i said, that's it, i'm not ever going to fly on my birthday again. and up until that point, i hadn't. >> that point was march 10th, 1967. bob's birthday. and president johnson had authorized a new target. like it or not, he'd be flying. >> tell me about it. >> we started trying to hit that target on march the 1st. i think two or three times we -- the whole strike force had to abort. we had the exact same route every day. at the exact same time. and so the gunnersi ining ininis could sit down there drinking

their tea. >> did the enemy adjust? >> the first day they briefed it, if i remember correctly. within five miles of the steel mill, they had about 185 guns. each day when the intelligence officer would give us his brief, it went up 100 to 150 guns. so by the 10th, he says, there are roughly 1,000 guns within five miles of the target, and they've brought in six mobile surface-to-air missiles. >> it sat within route pack six, 30 miles north of hanoi. bob and his backseater, steve wayne, were about to strike one of north vietnam's most heavily defended sites. >> we were inbound to the target. we had just turned over our ipr, initial point. >> from what altitude? >> we had pulled up to about 14,000 feet. we'd released the bombs

somewhere between 7,000 and 7,500 feet. down we go, drop our bombs. start to pull out. right at the bottom of the pullout, steve and i got hit. one of the first things we do after we come off the target is get a check. >> one of the other f-4 was piloted by earle ayman. both aircraft were hit and leaking fuel. >> i was only short at that time about 2,000 pounds. but earl, he only had 2,000. that wasn't enough to get him out of vietnam. it's going to be really bad to sit here and watch these guys flame out and glide until they have to get out of the airplane and then see them get captured. >> if ayman and his backseater went down in this part of north vietnam, there was little chance of rescue. but if they could make it to laos, their chance of survival skyrocketed. >> so i asked earl to get his drag sheet. i attempted to put the nose of

the airplane right in the drag sheet. there was so much turbulence coming off his airplane, i couldn't get close enough to even touch him. so i backed away. we dropped down underneath him. i said, okay, we'll try to put the top of our fuselage up against his belly and just piggy back him a little bit. we'd get within a couple feet, and it felt like a vacuum, pulling us into him. i said, well, we can't do that. >> he tries again, this time by pushing the crippled f-4 by its tail hook. will his push succeed? find out when "war stories" continues. i'm leaving the track behind, but i'm not standing still... and with godaddy, i've made my ideas real. ♪ i made my own way, now it's time to make yours. ♪ everything is working, just like it should ♪

i let my mistakes kind aof take over my life. i was point-five credits away from completing high school and i didn't do it. angela: i got pregnant and i was the main one working so, i did what i had to do to survive. jocelyn: sentía que la escuela no era para mí. karim: most of my family they never graduated high school or even let alone go to college so i'm trying to break that barrier. jackie: my family never stopped pushing for me to be better because they knew what i could become and who i could become as a person. karim: everyday after work i went straight to school, studied hard, and it paid off. jocelyn: sentía como que si quiero cambiar el mundo tengo que cambiara mi primero. group: surprise! surprise!

surprise! angela: i could not have gotten my diploma without my family. jocelyn: mi consejera, ella fue lo máximo para mí porque me ayudó mucho con todo. jackie: i've been given an opportunity and i'm just thankful for it. angela: yeah it's hard, but keep on going and keep on trying. karim: the high school diploma has just added to the confidence and now i feel unstoppable. narrator: find free adult education classes near you at finishyourdiploma.org

10th march, 1967. president johnson admits u.s. planes are operating out of thailand. that day of vietnam, 72 aircraft struck the north's only iron

works. on the bomb on an f-4, crippled by enemy fire. their tank was torn open, leaving them without the fuel they needed to get out of enemy air space. on their wing also flying a damaged phantom were bob and steve. >> i thought that's just going to be really bad to sit here and watch these guys get captured. >> he pushed them out of north vietnam so they could bail out in relative safety and be rescued. >> i was looking at the bottom of his airplane and saw the tail. i said, one last try here. put the hook down. so we eased in and put the hook in the middle of our windshield because that was the only flat spot on the front end of the airplane. sure enough, his vertical speed decreased by half.

by this time, he was completely flamed out. we could hold it on there about 30 seconds at a time and it would slip off to the side. we just eased back, put her to, and go back in. we finally got down to about 6,000 feet, which is as close to the ground as i wanted to get. >> how many minutes and how many miles had it been since you were hit? >> the distance involved in the push was only about 88 miles. >> you're over laos. >> yes. we watched earl and bob eject and saw both their parachutes open. we turned towards the tanker, but it became obvious within a minute that we weren't going to make it to the tanker. >> when you ejected, you and steve talk, time to go? >> as soon as the engines flamed out, i said, okay, steve, it's time to go. i said, we got to get out. i said, i'll see you later, and he was gone. >> it says a lot about the way pilots and others try to care for each other, the risk they

would take to bring back a comrade. >> did any other planes go down in that mission? >> three others. >> did any of the other guys ever make it? >> no. there were a total of five airplanes shot down that day. the four of us were the only ones that made it back. >> on 16 may, johnson authorized the bombing of hanoi's power plant. he was convinced the navy's new tv-guided bomb could reduce the chance of unintended damage of casualties. on 19 may, the navy made its first raid on hanoi itself, targeting the power plant and other key enemy sites. deep inside the infamous hanoi hilton, paul and the other p.o.w.s had ringside seats. >> that happens to be ho chi mi minh's birthday. we're under the beds for the tenth time. we're lying down there.

you hear boom, boom, boom, boom. my roommate was under the bed and goes -- every american in the entire camp cracked up. the guys couldn't think of what we were so happy about. >> a major step forward, the wa walleye still relied on clear weather and daylight for accuracy. >> we had almost no night capability. the only aircraft was the a-6. >> new tactics were developed in the field. george bud day led the unit that implemented the fast fac. >> fac is basically an ak kro anymore for forward air controller. idea putting some eyes on the battlefield at some fairly low altitude where you could define targets and then get some 105s, f-4 bombers in to take out the targets. >> they called themselves misty super facs and flew into battle in a two-seat f-100.

>> a fast airplane at low altitudes. >> in late august, '67, they were topping off their f-100 tanks and preparing to take out a s.a.m. site. >> kept saying i got the target. i said, i got it too. boom, right on the target. took a huge hit. the airplane just felt like it stopped. got the nose up, tried to do some things to see if i could get the airplane flying again. it didn't work. don't know what happened. i just went unconscious. then 20, 30 seconds, here was about a 13-year-old kid with a really old rusty bolt-action rifle pointed right at my head. so i reversed the american

dream. went from riches to rags with the pull of an ejection handle. >> he was rescue kd, but bud day was taken prisoner. >> the next day they took me over, hung me by my feet for the entire day. really horrible experience when your arm is all fractured up. it's just barbaric. >> rolling thunder ends much like it began. find out how when "war stories" returns. @

1967, protests against the war begin to grow in number and size. in november that year, secretary of defense robert mcnamara

resigned. >> mcnamara formally resigned, but he was obviously pushed out. >> it was mcnamara's testimony before congress that ended the defense secretary's tenure. >> mcnamara persuaded him to launch the rolling thunder campaign to begin with. he was now telling the senate committee that the bombing campaign in north vietnam was virtually worthless. >> two months after his resignation, in south vietnam the enemy mounted the offensive. fierce battles raged in cities across the country, including the capital saigon. removed from the jungle of their safety sanctuaries, the vietcong was defeated and lbj had enough too. >> i shall not seek, and i will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president. >> he also announced that he was

pulling back the bombing in north vietnam. >> after 2 1/2 years, over half a million tons of bombs dropped, 900 planes lost, and more than 1,000 airmen killed, missing, or captured, rolling thunder finally ended in october of '68. >> 58,249 names on that wall. i attribute many of those to johnson and mcnamara. >> why were they called the river rats? >> they were called the river rats because of the red river, which goes through hanoi. >> i know what kind of kept me going on some pretty dark days. what kept you going? >> my upbringing. and i would give my dad more credit. he would expect nothing but the best. that's why with earl, i couldn't just fly away and leave. couldn't do it. >> decades after bob pushed earl

and robert's f-4 to safety, he was stricken by a cruel, debilitating, and ultimately fatal disease. >> earl became ill with lou gehrig's disease, so we got busy and started raising money to get a few things he needed. he lived about 4 1/2 years. lost him in '99. >> the river rats take care of their own. today they maintain a scholarship fund for the children of military air crew members killed in the line of duty. >> we've provided somewhere close to $1.6 million worth of scholarships to many, many kids. >> when "war stories" returns, america leaves vietnam and our p.o.w.s come home.

in early 1973, the last american combat troops left vietnam. two years later in april of '75, the north vietnamese army rolled

into saigon. some of the war's few joyous moments came in february, march, and april of '73 with the release of 591 american p.o.w.s. among them, paul, bud day, and four future members of congress, pete peterson, jeremiah denton, sam johnson, and john mccain. paul endured over six years of hell. >> we appreciate everything. we all take stuff for granted. >> he left the navy in 19 3i8 as a commander. jim retired from the air force in 1980 with two stars. robin olds retired as a brigadier general. david, joe, and scrappy johnson all rose to the rank of colonel. while bob left the air force as a lieutenant colonel and don hearten as a major. after being shot down, colonel george bud day spent over five years in captivity.

for his service, he was awarded the medal of honor. receiving hour nation's highest honor is a close second to the day he came home to his wife doris and their children. >> i look over there, there she is. looks like an angel. and grabbed her. oh, just absolutely heavenly. >> i was so happy for them. it's almost like those people won the lottery ticket. because their dad is coming home. >> hubert nichols didn't come home. his wife patricia raised their five children alone. >> i think about my dad every day. and reallisticly, he died in the crash. >> in 1978, military declared colonel nichols died in action, body not recovered. >> i really wish i knew my father other than from stories. he's the kind of stand-up guy you really want to know and meet. >> for the american airmen who

flew during rolling thunder, one word describes their experience. frustrating. these well-trained, remarkably brave aviators were willing to fly through enemy skies swarming with anti-aircraft, migs and missil missiles. the foe they most feared, washington. they doomed rolling thunder before the first aircraft lifted off the runway or from the deck of a carrier. yet, these young americans still strapped in, lit their engines, checked their gauges and flew into harm's way. the hard lessons of rolling thunder haven't been forgotten. today we no longer send 16 or 20 planes and crews to attack a target. one plane, one pilot, and one guided bomb can do the job, day or night, in almost any weather. the heroes who flew in rolling thunder paid a painful price to teach those lessons. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north. good night.

lube good evening, everybody. tensions erupting once again between president trump and his attorney general jeff sessions. president trump today exscorated sessions on twitter. saying it is disgraceful his attorney general decided to rely on an obama era inspector general to investigate obama era fisa court abuses by the fbi and department of justice. >> loose a major depart treasure the trump white house one of the longest-serving and trusted aides hope heating digs today announced her resignation as communications director.