The Lyon County Museum is organizing an exhibit about the impact of the Vietnam War on Lyon County. This is the first in a series of columns about residents affected by the Vietnam War. If you would like to help in this effort or with the exhibit, please contact me at the email address at the end of the column or Jennifer Andries at the museum at 537-6580.

C.J. “Cy” Molitor was born Nov. 29, 1931, to Agnes and John Molitor on a farm east of Milroy. He was the eldest of six children. He attended Milroy schools during World War II and saw many folks join the military during the war. That impressed him and he decided to join as soon as possible.

Cy and his cousin were only sixteen when they drove to Marshall and discovered they had to be 17 to enlist. Cy’s parents gave him permission to join after his next birthday. In January 1949 he traveled to Willmar and took a battery of tests. Afterward a recruiter took six recruits aside who had scored well and asked if they were interested in the Air Force. All six joined the Air Force.

Milroy’s Superintendent of Schools, John Zwach, arranged for Cy to take his exams while he was home on leave. That enabled Cy to receive his diploma in 1949, a year ahead of his class. He was unable to return for graduation, however, because the Korean War had broken out.

The Air Force sent Cy to Sheppard Air Force Base near Wichita Falls, TX for his basic training. He then attended aerial gunnery school at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. CO.

Cy’s first assignment was to the 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing (ARC), which was activated in July 1951 at Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwest Idaho. The base was in sad shape when Cy and the others arrived.

“I helped open up Mountain Home,” Cy explained, “It hadn’t been opened up since World War II. We went in there and lived out of tar paper shacks and shoveled sand about a foot deep off the floors.”

The 581st ARC had a unique mission and unique equipment. It flew modified B-29 bombers to perform psychological and unconventional warfare operations in support of CIA operations. The big aircraft were painted black on the bottom for nighttime operations; had all their machine guns removed except for the tail guns; and were modified to drop supplies, specialized teams, and psychological operations leaflets. Cy’s role was as a right side “scanner,” or lookout, aboard one of the modified B-29’s.

Flight crews flew two or three training missions each week with their big aircraft. Some missions were as long as sixteen hours. They also conducted ground training in escape and evasion and how to survive as a POW.

The Korean War needed special operations support, so Cy and the rest of the 581st ARC Wing deployed in July 1952 to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. They had to fly out of Clark Air Base because there were no runways in Korea big enough to handle the B-29s.

Cy explained their missions over Korea, “It was a propaganda outfit that flew out of the Philippines over Korea — leaflet missions.” The long flights to Korea and back took about 10 hours. Today these missions are called Psychological Operations. They are designed to encourage enemy soldiers to surrender or return home or to guide civilians away from target areas.

Col. John Arnold was the Commander of the 581st ARC Wing. Cy remembers him with respect, “He’s one of the guys that I remember a lot. He did everything his men did. . . . We had a basketball team and he’d be there every game. He would always talk to the guys. I’ll never forget him.”

Col. Arnold figured in Cy’s darkest memory from his Korean War service. He was aboard a plane returning from a leaflet drop mission over North Korea.

“They were attacked by Chinese MIGs and the plane that Col. Arnold was on was shot down. Several of them were killed and the rest were held as prisoners in China. Col. Arnold was one of them and Harry Benjamin from Worthington was another one. They all came back. When Harry landed in Sioux Falls he got down and kissed the ground.”

Cy returned from his Korean War service and was discharged. He enlisted in the Navy, hoping to get assigned with his brother. But the armed services would not assign siblings to the same unit during wartime. This policy came about after the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa were killed when their ship was sunk in the Pacific during World War II. When his Navy enlistment expired he reenlisted in the Air Force.

Cy was assigned to Langley Air Force Base, Virginia during the mid-1960s when the U.S. was heavily involved in the Vietnam War. He recalled, “I was at Headquarters, Tactical Air Command at Langley, Virginia when I received orders (to Vietnam)”

A friend advised Cy to remove his loadmaster qualification from his records before going to Vietnam, unless he wanted to return to flight status. Cy recalled, “I didn’t take it off. I landed in Cam Ranh Bay and then I was assigned to Phan Rang Air Base, which is south of there about 60 miles.”

With that deployment, Cy was involved in his second war during his Air Force service.

I welcome your participation in and ideas about our exploration of prairie lives. You may reach me at prairieview pressllc@gmail.com.