BROOKSVILLE — Twin brothers from Bracken County recently recounted their service in Vietnam.
Eddie Bush, who now lives in Idaho, stopped in to Bracken County to visit his twin brother, former Bracken County Judge-Executive Earl Bush. During the visit, Earl and Eddie Bush took some time to revisit their time in the United States Air force.
Earl and Eddie Bush were born in Cynthiana, but were raised in Gertrude. They graduated from Bracken County High School in 1967 before attending Western Kentucky University, where they both majored in engineering technology.
Eddie Bush graduated from WKU in May 1971 and Earl Bush graduated in December 1971.
At the time, the draft lottery system was implemented for the Vietnam War.
“At that time, they had a draft lottery and our lottery number was 25,” Bush said. “There were four of us watching a television show one night and they had the lottery on. Together, our four numbers equaled 87. Chuck looked at us and said ‘I’m going down to talk to the Air force recruiter tomorrow.’ We said, ‘well, we’ll go with you.’ We went down and one week later, we had our Air force physicals. Eddie and I passed and Chuck failed. So, we both pre-enlisted in the Air Force.”
Earl Bush said his brother went in a few months earlier as a pilot. Earl Bush went in as a navigator.
“As soon as we got through college, Eddie went in as a pilot in June 1971 and I went in January of 1972,” he said.
Eddie Bush said he began his pilot training at Craig Air force Base in Alabama. His first operational assignment was in RF4. After six months of training at Shaw Air Force Base, he went to Alconbury in the United Kingdom. He was there for three years.
“By that time, the Vietnam War was over, so I came back to the states to Oklahoma,” he said. “I was a primary flying instructor for four years in the T-37.”
Eddie Bush then returned to England where he flew the F-111, a swing wing fighter bomber plane. He was there for three years before returning to the United States and transitioning to the electronic combat version of the F-111.
“We carried electronic equipment to jam radars,” Eddie Bush said. “That’s the airplane I was in for the rest of my time in the Air force.”
Bush said he was at the Mountain Home Air Force Base for three years and then went to Korea for one year and returned to Mountain Home, Idaho, where he stayed until September 1992 when he retired.
During his time in the Air Force, Eddie Bush also served in Saudi Arabia for seven months during the Gulf War.
“I was over there in the Gulf War for seven months and was one of the first planes over Baghdad when the fighting started — jamming radars in front of everybody else,” Eddie Bush said. “There were 22 combat missions in the Gulf War, but that was the only combat I saw in my years.”
“He downplays a little bit,” Earl Bush said. “He was over in Saudi Arabia to set up for the Gulf War — to set up the base there and was very involved in some of the initial planning for that war and was one of the first planes over the border at the start of that war.”
Eddie Bush said he decided to stay, because there never seemed to be a good time to get out, because he picked up a new commitment with each time he was trained on a new plane.
He said there are a few things that stand out to him from his time in the service.
“When I was in the F-111, I had a tire go flat while we were flying around. We didn’t know that until we landed. We scooted to a stop in about 1500 feet, where you would normally roll out for 8,000 or 9,000 feet. The tire assembly caught on fire and we evacuated from the plane. The fire department was able to put it out before there was any real damage to the plane. There are a lot of little instances like that, but I was fortunate.”
Earl Bush was in the Air Force for a little more than six years.
“I went to Mather Air Force Base for navigation training,” he said. “Went in with the KC 135s, which were air to air refueling planes. I was never on the ground during Vietnam. We flew over and would refuel the F-4s and B-52s. That was right at the end of the active combat.”
Earl Bush said he was in Strategic Air Command, where he would pull alerts.
“I was in that for two years and then spent the last three and a half — transferred KC-135s to the test wing at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We were flying basically the same type of frame. They were called NKCs. They were test beds with the 135 frame. We would do test missions, satellite tracking, missile tracking. We do atmospheric research, testing of new equipment — any kind of test mission, infrared readings for satellites. It was a great job, because everything was different and new.”
One of the programs supported by the navigators was the Voyager mission, according to Earl Bush.
“We supported the launch of the Voyager Deep Space mission,” he said. “It was one of the first mission going toward the outer planets in the Solar System.”
According to Earl Bush, he left the Air Force because there were cuts being made and he did not see many opportunities for navigators.
“One of the things I was doing was launching the first satellites,” he said. “The engineers would tell us that once they were up there, you could take a phone and it would tell you within a few feet of where you were while we were up there navigating like Columbus was doing when he crossed the ocean. The technology was making the old navigator obsolete. The people with the pilots and academy graduates were the ones they were keeping. They were basically pushing people out. I already had two kids. I was gone all the time and the kids were growing up. Family separation, lack of opportunity for advancement all went into it.”
After returning to Bracken County, Earl Bush worked with Dayton Power and Light and worked there for 32 years. He was elected as Bracken County judge-executive in 2010.
Eddie Bush stayed in Mountain Home, Idaho, where he currently lives. He returns to Bracken County two to three times a year to visit his family.
