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1926 – 2014
The tie, stated exactly: James Helms Kasler was born in South Bend on 2 May 1926. He finished high school at Shortridge in Indianapolis, and his hometown of record was Zanesville, Indiana. He is this city's by birth, and the file claims nothing more.
Three wars: Kasler entered the Army Air Corps in the Second World War and flew eight missions over Japan as a B-29 tail gunner. In Korea, flying the F-86 Sabre with the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, he flew a hundred combat missions and became one of the Air Force's first jet aces, credited with six MiG-15s shot down and two more damaged. In Vietnam he flew the F-105 Thunderchief with the 354th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, from Takhli, Thailand. Across the three wars he flew 198 combat missions.
The first Air Force Cross: 29 June 1966, over Hanoi, North Vietnam — the strike on the heavily defended Hanoi petroleum storage complex, flown as pilot and mission commander of the F-105 force. The citation presents the cross "for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force as Pilot of an F-105 Thunderchief at Hanoi, North Vietnam, on 29 June 1966."
The second Air Force Cross: 6 August 1966, near Yen Bay, North Vietnam, as leader of a formation evaluating low-level delivery against a priority target — the Air Force's own magazine account adds that he braved heavy ground fire attempting to locate a downed pilot. Two days later, on 8 August 1966, flying his ninety-first mission of the war, Kasler was shot down by a MiG-17 and captured. He remained a prisoner of war in North Vietnam until 4 March 1973 — six and a half years — and his prisoner record stands with Colonel Kernan's in this section's prisoner entry.
The third Air Force Cross: June through July 1968, as a prisoner of war — awarded, in the citation's words, "for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from June 1968 through July 1968," for his resistance through two months of torture aimed at forcing his cooperation with his captors' propaganda. He is the only person ever awarded the Air Force Cross three times.
The Silver Stars: two. The first is Korea: on 15 May 1952, as a first lieutenant of the 335th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron on patrol over North Korea, he sighted three MiGs and attacked at once, closing to one hundred feet and firing several short bursts that set one MiG-15 afire. The second is the prison camp: during the purge of 15 August to 20 September 1967, when the North Vietnamese sought to identify the leaders of the prisoners' resistance, Kasler's gallantry as a prisoner is the citation's whole subject. His full record as the Air Force states it: three Air Force Crosses, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, nine Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, and eleven Air Medals — seventy-six awards in all. The Air Force dedicated a monument to him on 15 September 2007. He died on 24 April 2014 at West Palm Beach, Florida, and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis. Indiana's Aviation Hall of Fame inducted him in 2022.
Sources:
- The three Air Force Cross citations and the two Silver Star citations, as published from the award record and carried by the Military Times Hall of Valor / Home of Heroes citation files and by the National Cemetery Administration's Veterans Legacy Memorial page for James Helms Kasler (citation texts, dates of action, units).
- Air Force Magazine (Air & Space Forces Magazine): "Valor in Three Wars" (November 1986, amended for accuracy) and the obituary "Lone Three-Time Air Force Cross Recipient Dies" (2 May 2014) — the Korea record, the Hanoi and Yen Bay missions, the shootdown and captivity, the 1975 retirement.
- Gathering of Eagles Foundation, Air Command and Staff College (biography; the 2007 monument); Indiana Aviation Hall of Fame (induction, 2022); Crown Hill Foundation (burial, Section 61, Lot 13).