Gee, Bob

Bob Gee was born January 8, 1948 – the date same as Elvis Presley – in Vernal, Utah, a rural community.  His father [Army Air Force] and uncles served during WWII.  Gee grew up during the Cold War when there was a fear of communism and nuclear war.  It was the age of Sputnik and duck and cover drills in high school. It was also the age of another new commodity – TV; Bob watched his first TV in 4th grade.  The 3 channels were broadcast from Colorado between noon and midnight, and Bob remembers that they were quite fuzzy.  He graduated from high school in 1966 and joined Air Force ROTC at Brigham Young University [BYU].  He married in his teens and had two children.  There was no significant antiwar movement at that time, as he recalls.  Bob would eventually be stationed at Andersen AFB in Guam.  As a navigator he utilized manual, celestial and math guidance; he also received 6 months of Electronic Warfare Officers training.  He would go on to complete 25 missions in a B-52G.  The primary concerns flying missions over Vietnam were the SA2 SAMs and Mig-21s. They flew 2500-mile mission between Guam and Vietnam, generally lasting 12 hours and flown in cells of 3 aircraft. On Guam Bob indicated that the crew lived together but that the living conditions were miserable with 12 000 men on a base built for 2500.  With Operation Linebacker they knew their destination would be Hanoi:  3 B52s were lost.  In the end, Bob said that he had mixed feelings about the war; he is bothered by the loss of 3 classmates, and thinks about the many thousands of other Americans who dies during the war. Like many Vietnam vets, coming home was a big adjustment.  New attitudes, a young family, and new opportunities in the air force awaited him as he would go on to serve until 1993.  Crestwood students were able to interview Bob Gee via zoom in May 2024.