The White Falcon - 09.07.1971, Blaðsíða 10

Who can grant
emergency leave
for Navymen?
Emergency leave can be granted
by the commanding officer or his
representative. Hie field direc-
tor of the Red Cross has no auth-
ority to grant or deny emergency
leave.
Here at Keflavik, the CO's
representative for this purpose
is the personnel officer.
Emergency leave is usually
granted when death or critical
illness occurs in a serviceman's
immediate family and requires his
presence at home.
"Immediate family" means a
parent, brother, sister, wife or
child. It does not include a
grandparent or other distant rel-
ative unless that relative acted
in the place of a parent, and as-
sumed that responsibility for at
least five years.
Advise your parents to con-
tact the Red Cross office in your
home town if something happens,
and your presence is needed.
Local Mormons have new leader
Donald R. Knignt (r) is the new president of the Icelandic Brar^^^^
of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Morm^^V
Church). He replaced Don E. Bumham who has held the position f^^^^
the past year.
VERSO EARNS SECOND DFC, from Page 12
here.
The 5'10", hazel-eyed captain
told of his course of duties in
Vietnam...."Almost every day con-
sisted of the same thing. We would
leave in the morning to go scout-
ing." His job was to locate the
enemy, mark their positions with
smoke rockets and then contact
fighters or ground troops to move
in and take over. He and another
FAC were given a particular pro-
vince to look over and assist
ground troops, and when they
weren't marking positions they
participated in air combat.
Capt. Verso continued to ex-
plain some of the tactics he used
during his reconnaissance mis-
sions, "First we would climb up
to about 10,000 feet, and then we
cut off our engines and glide
down." Uiis way the enemy could
not hear the roar of their engines
in fine to prepare an attack. "Tne
Viet Cong are very good at camou-
flage." After they got close en-
ough they would search for smoke,
mark the positions, and then con-
tact help. They were usually as-
sisted by F-4's and Navy A-4's.
"And when the fighters arrived
10
we acted as sort of...Air Traffic
Cops. We would direct the flight
traffic of the fighters towards
the enemy."
When asked what kind of return
firepower was used by the captain
durina these missions he shrugged
his shoulders and said, "Smoke
rockets." He continued, "Some-
times they were good enough to
scare the enemy, but it wasn't
long before some heavy artillery
was being returned at us."
During one of his scouting mis-
sions, Capt. Verso uncovered and
helped destroy some 52 enemy ve-
hicles, and on another he had
helped to practically 'wipe-out' a
whole batallion of Viet Cong. Said
the captain, "At that time we were
flying about 168 hours a month,
with the restrictions at 90 a
month, but it was necessary for us
to get the job done."
The captain's aircraft was an
0-1 'Bird Dog', and during his
tour in Vietnam he flew an average
of 392 missions in less than a
thousand hours. "It wasn't a one-
man operation," he said, "and if
it weren't for another man along,
the job could never have been
done. We both shared in.the rea-
sponsibillties and the dangers.
Sometimes the Job got harder than
other times, but it was still a
Job to be done." He said that the
only reason he earned the medals
was a matter of, "being in the
right place at the right time,and
I feel that any other FAC put in
the same situation would have
done the same job."
Capt. Verso is a native of Ro-
chester, N.Y. He graduated from
Brockport State in Brockport,
N.Y., with a Bachelor's degree in
Education and it was there he at-
tended ROTC. After graduation he
taught a 6th grade class in Roch- ,
ester forayear and a half. Then,
in March 1967, he joined the Air
Force and was commissioned a Sec-
ond Lieutenant. He attended Pilot *
Training School at Laughlin Air
Force Base in Del Rio,Tex., which
qualified him as an aviator.
Soon afterward, he went to FAC
School and then to Vietnam.
Capt. Verso is being relea^^^
from the service in August and®
hopes to return to Graduate Sch^B
and earn his Master's degree.
July 9, 1971