logo
Look Back: West Side Catholic basketball standout killed during the Vietnam War

Look Back: West Side Catholic basketball standout killed during the Vietnam War

Yahoo19-05-2025

May 18—At 12, Bernard Francis Rupinski was named to the Edwardsville Little League All-Star team that won the district championship in August 1955.
As a student at West Side Central Catholic High School, Rupinski was known as one of the best male dancers and a standout on the basketball court, being named to the first team of the Catholic League Central Division his senior season in 1961. After high school, Rupinski attended King's College where he was also a standout on the college's basketball team.
Following college graduation, Rupinski became a Naval Aviator, commissioned a lieutenant and flew as a Navy Flight Intercept Officer on the F-4 Phantom jet, stationed on the USS America during the Vietnam War.
Lt. Rupinski and pilot Lt. Walter E. Wilber were shot down over North Vietnam on June 16, 1968. While Wilber survived and was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese, the body of Rupinski has never been found and is listed by the U.S. Defense Department as killed-in action.
"On June 16, 1968, a F-4 Phantom with a crew of two was the lead aircraft in a flight of two on a combat air patrol mission over the Gulf of Tonkin. The flight was directed inland to repel enemy aircraft reported to be south of the 19th parallel and encountered enemy MiGs over Nghe An Province, North Vietnam. During the ensuing combat, a MiG-21 fighter fired a missile which hit the Phantom in the fuselage, causing it to explode and crash. The pilot ejected, parachuted to the ground and was captured by enemy forces. The second crew member was not seen to eject and is believed to have died in the crash," according to an article on the U.S. Defense Department's POW/MIA Accounting Agency's website.
Rupinski was only 24 when killed and had been in Vietnam for more than one month.
Prior to being deployed, Rupinski and his wife, a native of Norway, were living in Virginia Beach, Va., and had a daughter, Michelle.
Nearly four years after being shot down, the U.S. Defense Department listed Rupinski, "killed from hostile action," according to a story in the Times Leader Evening News on May 25, 1972.
"Fragments of information collected from escaped and a small number of released POWs along with Navy intelligence revealed Bernie had apparently catapulted from the aircraft but never had been reported on the ground," the Evening News reported.
Rupinski's name along with 81 other veterans from Luzerne County killed during the Vietnam War are listed on the Vietnam Memorial on the south lawn of the Luzerne County Courthouse, which was dedicated on Feb. 21, 1988.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Generational Advice: Hardships Youth Shouldn't Face
Generational Advice: Hardships Youth Shouldn't Face

Buzz Feed

time6 hours ago

  • Buzz Feed

Generational Advice: Hardships Youth Shouldn't Face

Every generation grows up facing certain challenges that are unique to how society and the world at large are evolving during that time. The baby boomer generation became adults in the midst of conflicts like the Vietnam War and revolutions like the Civil Rights Movement. Gen X grew up facing the impact of multiple economic recessions while at the same time, being the first generation to really have widespread access to technological advancements like computers and the internet. And millennials (also known as Generation Y) are often called unlucky due to high numbers of unemployment, student loan debt, and mental health struggles. If you're a part of a generation that is considered to be "older," what's something you wish younger generations, such as Generation Z and Generation Alpha, didn't have to deal with? Is it the rising worries about climate change and the environment? White smoke is pouring out of the chimneys of the power plant. Are you concerned about how artificial intelligence (AI) might impact them? Do you feel it's harder for younger generations to find work and afford homes, especially with inflation and rent eating up most of their earnings? Whatever it is, we want to hear it. Use our anonymous form or comment below! What's something you wish the younger generations didn't have to deal with, and why?

The lasting impact of Operation Babylift 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War
The lasting impact of Operation Babylift 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War

CBS News

time2 days ago

  • CBS News

The lasting impact of Operation Babylift 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War

In April 1975, during the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, there were some 3,000 babies in the country that had been fathered by U.S. servicemen. "Dad felt very responsibly that he wanted to get those babies out," Steve Ford told CBS News — "dad" in this case being then-President Gerald Ford. "The word was once the North got into Saigon, that these babies would be possibly slaughtered, killed," Steve Ford said. President Ford moved urgently, and Operation Babylift was born, flying more than 2,500 of those children to the United States. But the first flight in the operation crashed just minutes after takeoff, killing 78 of the nearly 250 children on board. The president was undeterred, and the flights resumed the very next day, filled with cardboard file boxes that had been repurposed into makeshift cradles. "Dad met the first plane, and one of the best pictures for me is seeing him carrying that first baby off the plane," Steve Ford said. Thuy Williams, then just 5 years old, was on that flight. "There's actually a picture of me reading a book to the little kid next to me and I just look calm," she told CBS News. Williams had originally been placed on the first flight — the one that crashed — but was pulled off at the last moment due to overcrowding. Her mother, who brought her to the plane, believed she had died in the wreckage. It wasn't until decades later that the two were reunited in Vietnam. Even beyond the tragedy of the crash, the mission has drawn some criticism over the years. Not all of the children airlifted were orphans. Some had been temporarily placed in orphanages by parents desperate to get them to safety, believing they might be reunited someday. In a small number of cases, children were evacuated without parental or family consent, fueling debate over the ethics of the operation. "My mom gave me up to save my life," Williams said when asked about some of the problems with the operation. "A lot of those kids, their parents gave them up to save their lives. Yes, I know that some were taken that weren't supposed to, that parents expected to get their kids back, but the reality is, what would their life have been like if their parents did get them back, you know? They wouldn't have had the opportunities that they had here in the U.S." Steve Ford acknowledged, "Anytime you have a mission like this, is it gonna be 100%? Absolutely not. That's- this is war. You're trying to do the best you can very quickly." "I can not imagine what that mother would have to process to make that decision," he said of women like Williams' mother, who gave their kids up to get them out of the country. Williams was adopted by a couple in Portland, Oregon, and said she began to consider herself an American "pretty much probably right away." "When your first memories are seeing people killed, those are things you wanna leave behind," she said. Ten years after her arrival in the U.S., Williams made the under-18 National Soccer Team. She then spent eight years in the Army, built a construction company and started a nonprofit that takes kids to Africa. To this day, she coaches soccer, track and lacrosse, and she's so close to her players that she's officiated weddings for two of them. "I understand the opportunities that I had being here in the U.S. I just wanted to serve," she said. Steve Ford and Williams recently had a chance to meet at the Gerald Ford Museum. "My dad would love her story. It would bring tears to his eye to see what she's done with her life," Steve Ford said. "Someone said to me, I'm not sure they'd come get those babies today. I think back on dad. He had the moral clarity to go save those babies. And we had an obligation to do something, to help them," he added.

Story of Vietnamese orphans who resettled here 50 years ago proves there are greater things than politics
Story of Vietnamese orphans who resettled here 50 years ago proves there are greater things than politics

New York Post

time2 days ago

  • New York Post

Story of Vietnamese orphans who resettled here 50 years ago proves there are greater things than politics

Fifty years ago, near the end of the Vietnam War, as North Vietnamese troops headed south, the director of the Cam Ranh Christian Orphanage, Pastor Nguyen Xuan Ha — known to everyone as Mr. Ha —decided it was time to escape to somewhere safe. Mr. Ha put 85 children and staff on two buses and headed for Saigon where he hoped they could flee to safety. One of the buses was shot at by a North Vietnamese soldier and the buses separated. Somehow they re-united in Saigon. After renting a boat and getting some distance from shore, the engine quit. For five days they drifted before a Thailand tanker approached. The captain refused to help, but later changed his mind, turned around and towed them for a while. After cutting the tow line, a group of fishermen towed them toward Singapore. Soldiers refused to let them ashore. Mr. Ha wrote a name on a piece of paper and asked a soldier if he could locate a missionary named Ralph Neighbour to help. Dr. Neighbour (now 96), newly arrived in Singapore, was miraculously found. He picks up the story from there in an email to me: 'Singapore government kept them out on St. John's Island. Our missionary team took clothes and food out. USA embassy contacted Swiss United Nations Refugee Center. Special flight arrived. Children whisked thru Singapore on bus with windows covered. Government feared losing neutrality during war. No official record they were there.' I knew Dr. Neighbour from when he was a pastor in Houston where I worked at a local TV station. He called and asked if I could help get the orphans and staff to the United States and find temporary housing for them. I contacted some Washington officials I knew and permission for them to enter the country was granted. When they arrived in Houston, a church couple with a large ranch offered them shelter and food until the Buckner Children and Family Services in Dallas could assist with processing and adoptions. I interviewed the youngest, oldest and one in between who made the anniversary trip. Sam Schrade, who was a baby when he was rescued from the streets of Saigon, is 51 and owns a successful media business in Houston. How would his life have been different had he stayed in Vietnam? He says the fact that he is of 'mixed race' (American-Asian) would make it 'doubly hard' because native Vietnamese 'look down upon such people. I have been told by many people I would not have had a good life here because of the race issue and a government that didn't want me.' Kelli St. German, now 56, thinks she might have been growing coffee beans and doing hard labor had she not come to America. She also believes she would not have developed a strong faith because of the state's antipathy toward religion. 'I became a teacher for 30 years.' Thomas Ho, the oldest orphan, now 76, was 25 when he left Vietnam. He helped organize the evacuation and prepared small amounts of food for the children. In America he became a chef and then studied to become an engineer. He says if he had stayed in Vietnam, 'I might not have survived, especially at my age now. Life here is very difficult. A lot of the food is not very healthy.' Reuniting with these adults, many of whom I met when they were children, is a reminder that there are things far greater than politics, celebrities and the petty jealousies that are the focus of too many of us. There are few greater blessings than to have had a role in changing these lives for the better. These former orphans are blessed. So am I. Cal Thomas is a veteran political commentator, columnist and author.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store