​LTC. Thomas Shaver
U.S. Army – Pilot “Hawkeye 37”
203rd RAC, Tuy Hoa, and 220th RAC
Phu Bai, Vietnam
Military Police - Director of Security 
White Sands Missile Base, New Mexico
August 1965 – September 1985
 

‘Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings';      John Gillespie Magee Jr.
 
Thomas Shaver was born in Menominee Michigan in June of 1945.  Tom had four siblings which meant his dad didn’t have to serve in World War II.  Tom’s father, grandfather and uncles all worked in the family business, Shaver Motor Company.  It was a car dealership and repair shop.
 
Tom knew he would be drafted and he wanted to be a pilot.   Since he was a child, Tom always had an interest in airplanes. He tried to enlist with the Air Force, but he was told they didn’t need pilots.
 
In August 1965, Tom was drafted into the army and went to bootcamp at Fort Polk in Louisiana.  While he was there, he took a battery of tests. He qualified for Special Forces, OCS (Officers Candidate School) and flight school.  He chose OCS and flight school.
 
Tom was sent to Fort Sill Army Base in Oklahoma where he completed three months of Advanced Individual Training in artillery and graduated first in his class.  Tom then went on to attend OCS and at the age of 21 years old and with only a high school education, Tom was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the field artillery.  He was assigned to an Eight Inch Howitzer battery at Fort Sill.  
 
After six months, Tom received orders to Vietnam but first, he would go to flight school at Fort Stewart in Georgia.  He trained in Cessna 172 airplanes and after completing flight school, he went to Fort Rucker in Alabama to learn how to fly the 01 Bird Dog in various combat missions.
This was a two person aircraft and was used to conduct reconnaissance missions to identify enemy locations and then call the Air Force for air strikes.  The 01 Bird dog was equipped with two white phosphorous rockets and two high explosive rockets for marking targets. Tom also flew missions to provide air cover for convoys and support for troops in trouble on the ground.
 
After completing training Tom shipped out to Vietnam, arriving in December 1967.  He was assigned to the 203rdRecon Airplane Company (RAC) at Tuy Hoa.  The Tuy Hoa Air Force Base was approximately 100 miles north of Cam Rhan Bay near the beach by the East Vietnam Sea.  The Army had a contingent of Bird Dogs on one side of the base, and the Air Force had a heavy presence of F100’s and F4’s.  
 
Tom flew the Bird Dogs, and his artillery experience came in handy.  His plane had a front seat for the pilot and a back seat for the observer.  “These were Vietnamese, Navy and Army observers.  Sometimes I would take Special Forces soldiers to go check something out”.  Tom flew reconnaissance missions, provided convoys with air cover and “we would go out looking for signs of the enemy.  I had to fly every day”.  Tom helped locate Special Forces groups that had gotten lost and needed the coordinates of their location.  Tom would tell them, “pop smoke”.  “I got your red smoke you’re at 6,4,2,4”.  All of Tom’s flights were day light missions which added an extra element of danger.
 
On January 31, 1968, the Viet Cong (VC) launched coordinated strikes throughout South Vietnam during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year known as TET.  In the past, the fighting had ceased during this holiday but in 1968 the Viet Cong launched a surprise campaign that would become known as the TET Offensive.   The North Vietnamese Leader Ho Chi Mihn believed that by simultaneously attacking nearly 100 cities throughout all South Vietnam with over 80,000 troops, the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) would panic, and the citizens of South Vietnam would become demoralized and consider surrender.  
 
Most of the fighting was over by the second week in February and when the dust settled, it is estimated 30,000-50,000 Viet Cong were dead and the combined losses for the U.S. and ARVN troops was 2,600.   Some estimates show over 10,000 U.S. and ARVN forces were wounded.  It was a devastating tactical loss for the Viet Cong, but it caused the U.S. to immediately increase its troop commitment as a response to having been caught off guard.  However, it marked the turning of the tide of American support for the war.  “It was the worst fighting I saw in Vietnam”.
 
During TET Tom would fly a mission, come back to base to re-arm and then head out to fly another mission.  “The 197th Infantry Brigade landed at our little airfield and…they went out to battle …and we supported them.  I’d come back get four more rockets and go back out, then come back and get four more rockets and then go back out again”.  “TET was a big thing.  It really kept us busy.  We were flying all day and manning our bunkers at night.  We even had ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ (C130 armed with gatling guns and a 105 howitzer) helping.
 
Tom recalled flying back to the base and finding a truck on the runway.  “So I buzzed him…get off of there so I could land”.  Tom pulled the aircraft into a rapid ascent to avoid the truck and his engine quit.  “There’s an emergency procedure…the first thing you do is pull the throttle full forward and you switch fuel tanks”.  There was a fuel tank in each wing.  Tom followed the procedures, but the aircraft did not respond, and he was certain he would have to land in a nearby rice paddy.  Just as he dropped down to the height of the rooftops of the hooches, the engine kicked on and “I come flying out of there”.   In the fog of war and the serious conditions on the ground, Tom had forgotten to switch over his gas feed every 30 minutes.  The quick changes in angle caused the gas in the full tank to flow into the engine.
 
Tom recalled one occasion where ground troops were taking fire from a North Vietnamese position in a cave on the side of a mountain and he was called to neutralize them.  Tom flew directly at them and launched his rockets very close to the side of the mountain.  He put his aircraft into a steep incline to avoid crashing into the side of the mountain.  “If you pull up too high and you don’t have enough airspeed coming over the wings, you go into a stall”.  That is exactly what happened and caused the nose of the aircraft to dip, sending Tom into a dive straight into the jungle floor.  Tom was able to pick up enough air speed, and when he gave full throttle, the aircraft picked up enough air speed for the engine to start.  He pulled the plane out of the dive just in the nick of time.
 
On another occasion Tom was delivering supplies to a Special Forces unit.  While he was in their camp, one of the operators asked if Tom would take him up in the air to observe what was going on in a particular area.   During the flight one of the spark plugs “started to quit”.  Tom recognized the situation and he climbed to gain a much altitude as he could before the engine quit.  He turned and headed back to camp as the engine went silent.  Now he had enough momentum to glide back to a safe landing on the jungle runway.
 
Tom left Vietnam as a Captain in December of ’68 with 48 Air Medals and a Bronze Star.  He received orders to his next duty station at the Heidelberg Army Airfield in Germany.  His mission was to support the USAER (United States Army Europe) Commander, General Polk a four-star general. Tom’s job was to fly the general and his staff throughout Europe.  Tom was piloting Beechcraft Queen Air and King Air aircraft.
 
Tom was reassigned to Vietnam in December of 1971. Durning this deployment, he was based in Phu Bai which was very close to the DMZ.  He was part of the 220th RAC, also known as the Cat Killers.  The unit conducted dangerous low altitude missions to locate enemy positions.  He was the unit instructor pilot and the Operations Officer.  By 1971 the U.S. was winding down its involvement in the Vietnam War.  Tom was the last Company Commanding Officer of the 220th RAC “Cat Killers”. 
 
In June of 1972, Tom was reassigned to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.  Even though he was an Artillery officer, he was assigned to the Provost Marshall (Military Police), Colonel King.  Colonel King had received a battlefield commission during the Korean War and was held in high regard by the troops.  He was known for taking good care of his men.  “He could make things happen”.
 
Tom had no background in military justice, but he went to meet with Colonel King.  The colonel spent the next hour extolling the role of the Military Police and told Tom he would start as the Assistant Corrections officer at the stockade (jail).  “We didn’t have too many really tough guys…some were AWOL…some of them were druggies”.  Tom learned quickly and steadily received roles of greater responsibility eventually became the company’s Operations Officer and finally the Commander of the Military Police Company.  Tom had a strong record of accomplishment, and he was able to get a permanent transfer to the Military Police Corps. from the Artillery.  
 
In 1975 Tom attend the Military Police Advanced Course at Fort Gordon in Georgia.  After completing this class, he was assigned to the MP School as an instructor, which was relocated to Fort McClellan, in Alabama. When Tom moved to the Military Police from the Artillery, he recalled thinking, “I had no education and all these MP’s had degrees or master’s degrees.  I better get start getting some education here because I’m not gonna go too far in the Army if don’t have a least a college degree”.  Tom started by taking a class in the basics of military police and by the time he left Fort McClellan, he had completed his bachelor’s degree in law enforcement.
 
In 1977 Tom was assigned to the US Army Support Element at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.  Tom moved his family there but was immediately sent to attend helicopter training at Fort Rucker in Alabama.  There he learned to fly the Huey Helicopter which was a requirement of the assignment to McDill Air Force Base.  Tom’s job at McDill was to support the Readiness Command and staff which later became U.S. Central Command.  The commander was a Marine 3 star general, PX Kelly. 
 
In 1980 Tom was assigned to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as the Director of Security.  One of Tom’s memories from this period was in 1982 when the Space shuttle (STS-3) was unable to land at Edwards Air Force Base or the Kennedy Space Center and was diverted to White Sands.  As the Director of Security Tom was responsible to secure the landing area and guard the Space Shuttle while it waited to be loaded on the back of a 747 for its flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
 
In 1983 Tom was assigned to the 7th Army logistics command in Rheinberg, Germany.  One morning, shortly after Tom arrived in Germany, he was having breakfast at his hotel with his son and daughter in Rheinberg.  Darilyn McCracken, a Department of Defense school teacher who was teaching the 3rd grade on the military base, had also just arrived in Rheinberg and was also having breakfast at the same hotel.  She introduced herself as a teacher at the Army base and asked about Tom’s children.  Tom was single and thought she was everything he was looking for in a wife.  He got to know her and asked her to go to a military gala.   She accepted and that led to a second date, and they eventually were engaged and were married on June 27th, 1984, in a civil ceremony.  As it turned out, they were both born on June 27th.  A month later, on July 21st, the couple was married in St. Viktor, a Catholic German Cathedral built in 1260.  Tom’s son was the best man and his daughter was the maid of honor.
 
Tom was one of the rare members of the Army Reserve that served throughout his career on a full-time basis.  At the end of 20 years Tom was mandated to retire and he left the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in September of 1985.  By this time the family had grown to five children.   Shortly after retiring Tom ran into Willie Willimas who he had known in flight school.  Wille told Tom about a civilian position as Executive Officer on his base, and he thought Tom would be perfect for it.  Tom decided to interview and he landed the job.  The base was in Pirmasens, Germany located in southwestern Germany near the border with France.  
 
Tom worked on the base during the week and return home on the weekends until Darilyn found a teaching job in Pirmasens.  The family relocated and spent the next 10 years there.  When the school closed Darilyn found a job at the school on the Ramstein Air Base and the family moved to the nearby town of Rothselberg where they lived for the next 20 years.  “We met really good friends.  German friends”.
 
In early 2017 the family returned to the states and built a home in Florida.  Today Tom and Darilyn stay busy traveling and socializing with friends in their Florida community.  Tom is an active member of the Knights of Columbus and was an insurance agent with the Knights.  He serves as a Eucharistic Minister and a Lector at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Winter Haven, FL.
Tom is also an avid golfer, and he hits the links when he can.  With five children and five grandchildren the Shavers are quite busy.  Two of Tom’s children have followed in his footsteps. Their son Christopher enlisted in the Army and did a combat tour in Afghanistan. Their daughter Brianna is a Veterinarian in the Army and was promoted to LTC in 2025.  Tom was at the ceremony to pin her bars.
 
Tom, thank you for a career of service and personal sacrifice.  You survived two tours of Vietnam and provided desperately needed air support to the troops on the ground when they needed it most.  We all owe you a big thank you and I’m sure those Special Forces troops gave you a big thank you when you arrived with their delivery of soda, ice cream and beer.
 
‘…And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, – Put out my hand, and touched the face of God’.                            
                                                                                                                                                                              John Gillespie Magee, Jr .