Saturday is Veteran’s Day, when we pause to honor America’s service members for their patriotism. NBC 7 spoke to a Vietnam Navy veteran about his life beyond the battlefield.
Imagine doing the thing you love the most for 30 years.
“I wanted to fly,” said retired U.S. Navy Captain Jack Ensch. “I flew F-4 phantoms during the Vietnam War and then transitioned to F-14’s after the war.”
He said he could’ve gone back to school, gotten his teaching degree and gone on from there, but there was something about those fancy uniforms that grabbed his attention.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
“I might be in DeKalb, Illinois. Someplace. ‘There’s old mister Ensch, he’s teaching English Literature, He used to be a wrestler and now he’s trying to teach us how to wrestle,’” Ensch teased. “When I was graduating college, the Navy recruiters came through the student union with their bright white uniforms and their gold wings.”
He said he could’ve done anything in the Navy, but got excited to fly off carriers.
“I said what the hell, I’ll do that for four years,” he said.
Local
Four years turned into 10, 10 turned into 20 and before he knew it, he was 30 years in.
“Fell in love with it and as the saying goes, the rest is history,” he said.
He said he wanted to be an actual pilot, but was six months too old, so he took the next best seat in the house.
“I got in the back seat of fighters,” he said.
He logged more than 3,500 flight hours, four cruises in Vietnam and was a part of 284 and a half combat missions. Ensch also made more than 850 landings on the Midway before he took on shore duty in Vietnam. It was there that he was taken as a Prisoner of War.
“The last mission was mid cab mission, we were going to our station across the beach and got taken under fire by a bunch surface air missiles,” he said.
He said they managed to dodge a few, but the one they missed went off over the cockpit.
“I had to eject,” he said. “They picked me up and took me to Hanoi Hilton and interrogated me for three-and-a-half days before they would give me medical attention,” he said.
Ensch lost his left thumb and the pilot he was with didn’t survive.
“His remains came back 13 years after I did,” he said.
After more than 200 days as a Prisoner of War, Ensch was finally sent home.
“I came back with a group of POW’s on March 29, 1973, 50 years ago this year,” he said.
But Ensch said he’s more than just a surviving POW.
“You have to look at what your blessings are and that’s one of them,” he said.
Another accomplishment he spoke about is his family. Fifty-nine years of marriage to his wife Cathy, three daughters, five grandkids, and two great grandkids. He said looking back at it all, he wouldn’t trade the life he chose for anything.
“Some of my best friends in the world, I met as shipmates in the Navy when I was serving throughout. This country has all kinds of opportunities and if you don’t have any skin in the game, you don’t appreciate it,” he said.
He said he made the right decision for him.
“I’m a product of Naval Aviation Training, not Jack Ensch, cornfield boy from Illinois," he said.
