Kooiman Was A Naval Airman During Vietnam
By Jill Fennema –
Bruce Kooiman spent three years in military service. Two of those years were spent in Vietnam and Japan during the Vietnam War.
When Bruce graduated from high school in 1965, he went to an aviation technical school in Oklahoma. He had always been interested in motors, and airplanes seemed like they would be the most challenging. He became licensed by the FAA to work on airplanes and airplane electrical systems.
He returned home and things were getting very hot in Vietnam. Knowing they would eventually be drafted, he and several other young men – some of whom were still in high school – enlisted in the United States Navy.
They spent one year in the reserves and two years in active duty. While he was in the reserves, Bruce worked part time for Executive Air Travel as a mechanic.
Bruce went through basic training at the naval academy at Great Lakes, Illinois. “It was a wet, cold, and miserable place,” Bruce recalls.
He went into active duty in August 1968. He had to go to San Francisco, California, to receive his orders. During his first year, Bruce had switched from being a seaman to being an airman with the navy.
His orders were to report to Navy Squadron VQ1, which was based in Atsugi, Japan. It was part of the National Security Agency.
“I didn’t know then what I was getting involved in,” Bruce said. It took several weeks before he could leave because he had to get a passport and special security clearance for the work he would be doing.
He flew from San Francisco to the Yakota Air Base in Japan. He needed a passport to fly and was dressed as a civilian. From Yakota, he took a taxi to the Naval Air Facility at Atsugi, Japan, to the Aircraft Division office. This office was the hub of the naval aircraft division and oversaw the work of six different locations. Bruce’s job was to maintain the aircraft maintenance and flight records.
His FAA license had uniquely qualified him for this type of work. He made sure that the aircraft were scheduled for regular maintenance and repairs.
“I really ended up with a nice job,” he said. He got along well with the other people in that office. It was the kind of job that was worked 9 to 5 on weekdays, freeing him to travel and sightsee on the weekends.
A lot of Japan had been destroyed during WWII and some of the people resented the American presence there. The Atsugi base was in really good condition because it had never been bombed during World War II.
“The electric train system in Japan after the war was really quite something. The trains would take you wherever you wanted to go. There was a lot of stuff to see. We were young and curious,” Bruce said.
“It was interesting, to say the least,” he said. “I never missed a day of work in 23 months.”
One of the planes he worked on was the EC121. These were old airliners that were converted into spy planes. “Their engines required a lot of maintenance,” Bruce said.
This plane was used for long-range patrol and conducting electronic surveillance. These planes would have a crew on board that was involved in intercepting messages. They were to stay over international waters.
Bruce said that it was very casual when he was in the service – there was not a lot of polishing your shoes, he said. That part was fine with him.
However, one time – April 15, 1969 – about nine months into Bruce’s work there – an EC 121 was shot down by the North Koreans over the Sea of Japan. This was an international incident and constituted the largest single loss of life of U.S. aircrew during the Cold War era.
Why the plane was shot down by North Korea has remained a mystery. The United States never retaliated against the North Koreans but did resume the same flights the week after the incident. Because the plane was over international waters, North Korea was breaking international law by shooting down the plane.
However, the Nixon administration, which had taken office only a few months prior, was completely surprised by the attack and despite promises to do so, no action was ever taken.
In August 1969, Bill Loenhorst (right) was in Japan. He had been injured in Vietnam and was recovering in a hospital. Bruce took the train and went and visited him.
