Airman 1st Class Martin Jester and Airman 2nd Class Eugene Traczyk Jr. - Lackland AFB, Texas - Specific Veteran Memorials on Waymarking.com

RB-57
...an enlisted story.

Airman 1st Class Martin Jester
Airman 2nd Class Eugene Traczyk Jr.

On the evening of Nov. 1, 1964, most aircrews were bunked out in their "hooches,"  their aircraft parked in neat rows on the ramps at Bien Hoa AB, South Vietnam.  Shortly after midnight, Viet Cong mortar shells began raining down.  Airmen Jester and Traczyk,  both Air Force firefighters, dodged bullets and exploding bombs in their attempt to reach a line of RB-57 bombers that seemed to be one of the primary targets.  The bombers were fueled, armed and ready for their morning missions, a deadly recipe when sprinkled liberally with mortar rounds.  The two airmen gathered firefighting crews and equipment and doused bombs the heat threatened to explode.  Their success was marked by silence rather than a blast.  At one point, the airmen began stripping off their clothes to plug fuel leaks that threatened to spread the conflagration.  People and aircraft were dying.  For their selfless actions, Airmen Traczyk and Jester earned the Silver Star for Heroism. ~ text of plaque

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