A Hero Lost

Along with his aggressiveness, U.S. Air Force Major James Kasler has always been admired for fierce loyalty to his buddies in time of trouble. "I know if I get in a jam," said a fellow pilot recently, "I'm going to get help. I can depend on Kasler." Last week loyalty brought disaster to Jim Kasler, the "one-man Air Force" who was fast becoming the most famous pilot over-North Viet Nam (TIME, Aug. 12).

Leading his flight of four F-105s on a mission 55 miles northwest of Hanoi one afternoon, the 40-year-old Kasler had completed his primary assignment of bombing a cluster of warehouses, and could have returned to his base in Thailand. As usual, however, his flight began prowling the countryside for "targets of opportunity." Spotting several trucks, the jets hit them and were looking for more when ground fire caught Kasler's wingman, and he ejected. Kasler circled the area to protect him until rescue helicopters could get in. When Kasler's fuel gauge hit "bingo" (minimum remaining to get home), instead of leaving the protective watch to others, he elected to refuel from an orbiting KC-135 tanker and return to his downed buddy.

Suddenly, ground fire thudded into Kasler's Thunderchief, crippling it. He bailed out, his parachute deployed, and he floated down near a village. Only a brief message came from his beeper radio: "My God, my leg is broken." Despite a major search by nearly 50 aircraft for eight hours, Kasler was not seen again; and Hanoi later gleefully announced that he had been captured.

Inescapable Curtains. All told, last week 13 U.S. planes were shot down over the North--a new record week's loss, bringing to 335 the number of American craft downed by Ho Chi Minh's fire. Seven of last week's total were felled in one day, the most so far in any 24-hour period.* One reason for the mounting air casualties is new tactics by the Communists with their surface-to-air missiles. Prior to the Hanoi-Haiphong oil raids, the SAMs came up only one or two at a time. Now they are being released in volleys of six to eight, making them more difficult to dodge; a total of 40 SAMs was fired last week. In addition, the Communists have developed a new technique that cuts the warning time that U.S. pilots formerly had when a missile was on its way. But the main menace is still the lethal curtains of conventional antiaircraft fire thrown up from thousands of sites, and which account for 90% of American plane losses.

In a war being pressed against the enemy's home base exclusively from the sky, there seems little way to reduce the risks for U.S. airmen. But the losses are by no means one-sided. Last week U.S. air strikes damaged or destroyed 355 North Vietnamese barges, 165 bridges, 147 trucks, 69 railroad cars, 58 oil dumps, 36 flak sites, and 2 SAM sites--also a new week's record.

*The previous high: 6 downed on Aug. 13, 1965.

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