Vernon Lee Haynes

CAPT Vernon Haynes was born in Rock Rapids and joined the Air Force after finishing high school. Serving with the 17th Bomb Squadron, 34th Tactical Group, he advanced to become a pilot for the B-57 bomber. On the morning of May 16, 1965 at Bien Hoa Air Base, while waiting to lead his squadron on a bomb run over North Vietnam, a starter turbine component flew loose, dislodged a bomb fuse causing a 500 lb. bomb on Haynes’s plane to explode. This started a chain reaction that ultimately destroyed 26 aircraft and killed 27 men, one of the worst disasters in Air Force history. CAPT Haynes was awarded the Bronze Star for assisting in removing the wounded from the flight line before being killed in an explosion. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for leading attacks on the enemy in the months prior to his death. At the time of his death, he had served 17 years in the Air Force and was survived by his wife and three children. Burial was in Willamette National Cemetery in Portland Oregon.