31 January 1968 – On the first full day of the Tet Offensive, Major Joe Bulger (Flight Lead) and 1Lt “Fearless” Fred Abrams were asked to bomb their own base. In the early hours of the day, Vietcong forces had launched an attack on Bien Hoa AB. “The whole east end was hot,” Abrams said.
Dewey grew up in Pittsburg, CA, and now lives near Pittsburgh, PA. He says his “Dad grew up near Pittsburgh, PA and lived in Pittsburg, CA”.
When asked about his time in the service Lt. Col. Duane Clawson said “22 years of single-seat fighters with a 3-year paid vacation in Hawaii. Wouldn’t change a single thing.”
But there’s more to it.
Clawson flew his F-16A on a mission in Iraq to attack Iraqi military convoys trying to retreat from the battle area. He said he didn’t drop any bombs for fear of hitting rapidly advancing allied forces. From his previous mission over Kuwait, he painted a picture of the battlefield as “a very jagged, convoluted” front line marked by columns of U.S., Saudi, Kuwaiti, and other Arab forces.
‘I wouldn’t want to be an Iraqi,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t look real good for their side. You look down, and everywhere you look there’s tanks and APCs (armored personnel carriers) and they’re all on the move and they’re all our guys’.”
These days you might find Dewey being “volunteered” as the Safety Officer at a Senior Soaring Contest of Glider pilots.
Lt. Col. Dewey Clawson is currently the Election Chair/Membership Chair of the Super Sabre Society.
Source: (Https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/02/26/US-troops-forces-want-to-keep-up-pressure/3073667544400/)
