Fallen tanker pilot to be honored in building dedication

Published June 2, 2011
By Lori B. Alves
916th Air Refueling Squadron Public Affairs

SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Airmen from the 911th Air Refueling Squadron will honor a fallen tanker pilot June 26 here by dedicating a new auditorium in his name.

The event comes exactly 43 years to the day that the late Maj. Robert Francis Woods was declared missing in action after his plane crashed over Vietnam, and four years after his remains were finally returned to his homeland.

"I think this is an amazing way to honor Major Woods and his family for the great sacrifice they gave for their country," said Lt. Col. Phil Heseltine, the 911th Air Refueling Squadron commander. "I can't imagine how hard it would be for a family, or my family if I went on a deployment and just didn't come home."

Currently known as the "Tankertorium," the auditorium on the first floor of the building shared by the 911th ARS and 77th ARS will be officially named The Maj. Robert F. Woods Auditorium.

"This is the first honor presented to us in Dad's name," said 68-year-old Lana Taylor, the eldest of Major Woods' four children. "This is very rare. We (the Woods family) know that and are so appreciative."

The Woods family is dear to Colonel Heseltine's heart.

By chance, as a ROTC cadet at the University of Utah, then-Cadet Heseltine purchased a POW/MIA bracelet with Major Woods name chiseled on it. Later, he determined that Major Woods was a former tanker pilot and had flown in numerous combat missions, much like himself.

"I wore it off and on through college," said Colonel Heseltine, who has flown in combat missions in Operations Southern Watch, Northern Watch, Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. "When I graduated in 1993, it went with me. I wore it pretty much any time that I was in uniform, and it deployed with me when I went downrange. When I was finally able to return it to the Woods family, it was amazing; just a very special event. And now, I have this amazing opportunity to honor the Woods family."

In June of 1968, Major Woods and Capt. Johnnie Clayton Cornelius were flying a visual reconnaissance mission over Quang Binh Province, Vietnam, when their 0-2A Skymaster crashed in a remote mountainous area. Their aircraft, used for forward air control missions, was seen exploding into a steep bank by another aircraft, according to the Department of Defense. Immediate search efforts were unsuccessful, no parachutes were found and no emergency beeper signals were heard. Both Major Woods and Captain Cornelius were pronounced MIA at that time.

"My mother never gave up hope. She never accepted the fact that he was dead," Ms. Taylor said. "I was already married and living with my husband when this happened. My siblings (at the time all under the age of 10) still lived at home, and they all believed that he would return home. Unfortunately, they don't remember a lot about our father. But myself and other family members always tell stories about him. I tell them as much as I know."

Between 1988 and 2006, joint U.S. and Vietnamese teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, investigated the incident and surveyed the crash site numerous times. During that time, two Vietnamese citizens turned over human remains and the pilots' dog tags, and two former North Vietnamese soldiers recalled the crash and identified the burial site of both pilots. DOD officials identified the remains as Major Woods and Captain Cornelius Nov. 30, 2007.

It was then that the names of the two pilots struck a chord with Colonel Heseltine.

"I had stopped wearing it for a while because from taking it off and on, the bracelet developed a crack on the top of it," he said. "I immediately went to the shelf where I had placed it and decided to contact the family."

Through phoning a reporter in Utah, Colonel Heseltine was able to make contact with Ms. Taylor and made arrangements to give the bracelet back to the family during the burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The bracelet was presented to Major Woods' only son Chuck, who then passed it along to his son Mackenzie. Chuck Woods was only 8 years old when his father was declared MIA.

Colonel Heseltine and Ms. Taylor have stayed in contact since their first meeting at Arlington. When she received the telephone call from Colonel Heseltine asking for permission to dedicate the auditorium in her father's name, she was overjoyed.

"(Colonel Heseltine) has turned out to be such a great gift to our family," Ms. Taylor said, describing her late father as a quiet man, but also a jokester. "This is going to be a joyous celebration. The mourning is over. We are very honored, and Dad would be beyond words over this. He would just be amazed. He would be grinning."