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Wild Weasels gather 13 missile combat pilots reunite for 50th anniversary of 1st successful mission BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com It takes a special kind of courage to deliberately place yourself in the line of fire to protect your fellow airmen, but that is what pilots known as the “Wild Weasels” began doing in the early years of the Vietnam War. Thirteen of those pilots gathered at Shaw Air Force Base on Friday to commemo-
rate the 50th anniversary of the group’s first successful mission. In the early years of the Vietnam War, Russia began supplying the North Vietnamese with sophisticated SAM2 and SAM3 surface-to-air missiles, Lt. Col Michael Horlbeck, commander of the 55th Fighter Squadron, said as the former pilots gathered with their modern counterparts Friday.
“These were incredibly lethal missiles,” he said. Some of the military’s best minds were tasked with coming up with techniques to combat the missiles. “They had a procedure they thought would work,” said Allen Lamb of Lumberton, North Carolina. “We would get them to shoot at us, and we would hone in on their radar.”
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Capt. Steve Cecil shows retired Wild Weasel pilot Allen Lamb the targeting system of a Sidewinder missile during the reunion tour of Shaw Air Force Base on Friday. Lamb is credited with the first surface to air missile destruction of the Vietnam War.
GRADUATION
Sumter High says goodbye, good luck to Class of 2015 Sumter High School graduates march across the stage Saturday morning as hundreds of family members look on at Sumter High School’s Memorial Stadium. See more photos on A5 and online at theitem.com. KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Local legislators express disappointment with session results BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com While local delegation members to the State Legislature were probably glad to put Columbia in their rear view mirrors after the South Carolina General Assembly adjourned at 4 p.m. Thursday, their frustration was evident as the members spoke to the The Sumter Item on Thursday. “It was a session that started with a lot of promise and ended with a lot of despair,” said Rep. Murrell Smith, RSumter. “We had a lot of issues that we talked about and were going to accomplish, and about 95 percent of
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those are still not accomplished.” Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, said he wishes the session could have been more productive. “This is the first year of a two-year session, so, hopefully, we can do more next year,” he said. Sen. Kevin Johnson, D-Manning, said it was a very frustrating and disappointing session. “We should have done a lot more than we got done,” he said. “We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the session on trivial bills that were not important; then at the end of the session we had the filibuster (in the Senate) and that caused us to leave a lot of
work undone that was important to South Carolina.” Smith said that he is concerned that even though everybody agreed on what needed to be done, the General Assembly failed to act. “It is disconcerting that we are seeing legislation to address our infrastructure problems being held hostage in the Senate,” he said. “We have a capital reserve fund being held hostage. In my 15 years of serving, I have never seen a capital reserve fund not passed.” Johnson said there is no excuse for the General Assembly’s failure to pass a roads bill.
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“There were some major bills that really would have an impact on the citizens of South Carolina, and because of a lot of nonsense we didn’t get to it,” he said. If there is a silver lining, the delegation agreed, it was the passage of domestic violence legislation, which McElveen called the biggest legislation to pass this session. “We did get a domestic violence bill, which the governor signed,” McElveen said. “I am proud that we have a bill that reflects our values.” Smith praised Speaker Jay Lucas,
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