Richard “Rich” Dinkel [Deceased]
Call Sign “Magic”
Class of 1967
USMC. Full career,retired as LtCol. Awards include Air Medal, Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
I tour RVN 1972 flying F4J Phantoms with VMFA 232 “the Red Devils”.
In April 1972, the Red Devils redeployed the entire squadron from Japan to Vietnam upon minimum notice in 2 days to counter the NVA spring offensive of that year. After a three month stay at DaNang, VMFA-232 moved its operations to Nam Phong, Thailand. Here they continued to fly air to ground sorties in addition to playing a key fighter role on Operation Linebacker missions over North Vietnam.
LtCol Dinkle is the author of a book about fighter pilots “Call Signs”, iUniverse, August 2013, ISBN 1475973926
