Gary Bain, USMC Retired

and

A Tribute to Lt. William Ryan, USMC KIA

Gary Bain is a retired Marine Corps pilot and Mexus shareholder.   Gary was an F-4  Phantom II Marine pilot with 213 combat missions including a shoot down and successful rescue over Laos in  May 1969. He experienced a total of three ejections in his Marine aviation career. One ejection is rare - two more so and three ejections maybe not a record but way up there.  It takes a mix of bad and good luck to survive three ejections.  Bad luck to be in a situation where the only option is ejection three times and good luck in surviving all three.including rescue in a hostile area.  

In May 1971 Gary was in the pioneer group of ten pilots to fly the AV8-A Harrier, the world's first vertical take-off and landing  (vstol) aircraft. The Harrier is a single-seater so flight instruction was "sink or swim" - nobody alongside or in back.  He flew the Harrier till he punched out over the Atlantic in 1977 to avoid a populated coastal area.  He retired from the USMC in 1979 and lives in Oklahoma now - on a farm east of Oklahoma City. 

Here are some links on Gary's very interesting career in the Marines and life after retirement from the Corps.

 Gary's website,  videoexplorers,  is at:   http://videoexplorers.com/

From there click the RESCUE IN NAM tab for the narrative of the Rescue.   

For a five minute video titled The Rescue of Manual Four Two click:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j98Hogv0BDA

I love this clip for Gary's narration and actual radio traffic of the rescue forces including the Mayday call - rare audio.   Rescue missions brought out the absolute best in our forces where Air Force, Marine, Army, and Navy units concentrated on one mission - getting a downed flyer out of danger and back to his unit.  

Gary's RIO, Radar Intercept Officer, or GIB - Guy in Back- was Lt. William Ryan a crewmate on 95 missions.   Lt. Ryan was not able to eject after the F-4 was hit and did not survive the shootdown near Tchepone, Laos.  His remains were recovered and identified in 2016.  Lt Ryan was buried at Arlington on May 11th, 2017 with full military honors  in an impressive ceremony you can share via this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32VK14B0oCk

I'd urge everyone to view the entire video - not only to honor  Lt. Ryan but for the solemn rituals from horse-drawn caisson to the flag folding and the placing of roses on the casket.   It was a great tribute to Lt. Ryan. Google "LT. William Ryan" for several more links on his Marine career and the honors he has received including a bridge dedication in Hackensack NJ.  I have attended quite a few services with military honors but none compare to this Arlington ceremony.   A flight of four V-22 Osprey tilt-wing aircraft can be heard flying overhead.  Lt. Ryan got the full treatment.

Gary helped keep attention on this MIA case through the years.   In 2009 he hosted a reunion for all who took part in the rescue effort for call sign Boomslang Lead and in 2013 he returned to Laos and visited the crash site.  It took the efforts of six joint US/Lao teams over many years searching the area to locate and excavate the crash site. Lt Ryan's remains were recovered in Jan 2016.   The funeral video is very moving and very emotional.   

There were no safe missions, no "milk runs" to the Tchepone area and many aircraft and crews were shot down over "neutral" Laos. Neutral was a joke as all of Laos was highly contested and the Laotian jungles hid the passage of trucks, supplies, and men from North Vietnam moving along the Ho Chi Minh trail network into South Vietnam.  Every ton of supplies interdicted in Laos was a ton that would not reach the Viet Cong and NVN forces in South Vietnam. It was important work in "The Secret War" fought over territory and from bases we didn't acknowledge. 

A hand salute to Lt. Ryan and Lt. Bain - brave Marines. That number, 213 combat missions, deserves a full measure of respect as does the sacrifice of Lt. William Ryan.    

Dick Williams rjw@kcsky.net

Takhli Royal Thai Air Base -- Base Weather 69-70

Map showing Chu Lai Air Base on the coast of South Vietnam and the Boomslang Flight shoot down site in Laos just east of Tchepone - or Xepone on this map.

Lt Ryan left and Lt Bain right with their F-4 Phantom II loaded with  "Snake and Nape"  Nape is napalm in the centerline 500 pound cannister.  The Snakes are 250 pound MK-81 Snakeye iron bombs where  Gary's right hand is resting. The outboard tank is a drop tank for fuel and Lt. Ryan's left hand is on a rocket or missile launcher.   

You don't want to be on the receiving end of any of that ordinance especially if it's in the hands of two experienced Marines. 

Gary on the Xepone River on his return to the crash site in 2013. 

Edit 8-30-2019