Ed Rasimus - FU Hero

Posted by Jolly on February 5, 2013

Ed "Raz" Rasimus

Ed “Raz” Rasimus born on September 29, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois.  He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the USAF on July 8, 1964 from the ROTC program at Illinois Institute of Technology. Lt Rasimus next completed Undergraduate Pilot Training and was awarded his pilot wings at Williams AFB, Arizona, in July 1965.  Following UPT, Ed was assigned the F-105 Thud and combat crew training at Nellis AFB, Nevada.

Raz had his first operational assignment as a fighter pilot at Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand.  He was an F-105D driver with the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron from May to November 1966 where he completed over 100 missions in the Thud over North Vietnam.  When he returned from Southeast Asia (SEA), he served as an instructor pilot at Williams AFB from December 1966 to May 1970. After teaching new pilots to fly at Willie, he was assigned to Rated Officer Assignments at Headquarters Air Randolph AFB, Texas, from May 1970 to April 1972.

Once Ed completing his penalty tour as a flesh peddler at Randolph, he was sent to F-4 Combat Crew Training at Luke AFB, Arizona.  Following his Phantom check out, he served a second tour in SEA at Korat as an F-4E pilot with the 469th and then the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadrons from July 1972 to July 1973. His next assignment was as an F-4C pilot with the 613th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing at Torrejon AB, Spain, from August 1973 to July 1977.

Major Rasimus served on the staff of Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe at Ramstein AB, West Germany, from July 1978 to July 1981.  In 1981 he returned to training young fighter pilots as an AT-38 IP for Lead-in Fighter Training with the 435th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, until July 1985. Ed’s final assignment was as an Air Liaison Officer with the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Carson, Colorado, from July 1985 until his retirement from the Air Force on July 1, 1987.

Ed “Raz” Rasimus flew west on 30 January, 2013.  He will be remembered as a great fighter pilot and successful author of three books. He wrote his first book, When Thunder Rolled, in 2004. Raz strapped the reader into the cockpit of a Thud in his engaging account of the Rolling Thunder campaign in the skies over North Vietnam.  Between 1965 and 1968, more than 330 F-105s were lost–the highest loss rate in Southeast Asia–and many pilots were killed, captured, and wounded because of ridiculous ROE and no real plan to win. The descriptions of Rasimus’s one hundred missions, some of the most dangerous of the conflict, will satisfy anyone addicted to vivid, heart-stopping aerial combat, as will the details of his transformation from a young man paralyzed with self-doubt into a battle-hardened veteran. His unique perspective, candid analysis, and the sheer power of his narrative rank his memoir with the finest, most entertaining of the war.

Picking up where his acclaimed first book left off, Palace Cobra was the story of Ed Rasimus's return to Vietnam to fight a war that many Americans tried to forget.  When Ed Rasimus completed his 100 missions over Vietnam, he returned stateside to a normal life: sitting at a desk and teaching student pilots. Two years later, he volunteered to go for a second tour of duty. Determined not to die in a losing cause, and relentlessly searching for that next adrenaline rush, Rasimus and the other F-4 Phantom pilots continued the ferocious air war in the North--dodging SAMs and gunning for MiGs--and routinely cheated death. 

When America finally got serious about ending the war, Rasimus and the other pilots put it all on the line, pounding Hanoi with everything they had, and flying above POW camps to let the troops know they were not alone. Gripping, earnest, and unforgettable, Rasimus's combat memoir is, in the end, a heartfelt tribute to those who never made it back.

Ed’s final book in 2011, Fighter Pilot, The memoirs of Robin Olds, was written jointly with Robin’s daughter Christina. Ed and Christina gave us a intimate look inside the life of the fighter pilots fighter pilot, Robin Olds.  They shared with us Robin’s own thoughts from his P-38 and P-51 wartime squadrons in WWII, and his leadership in the pointy end of an F-4 as Wing Commander of the Wolfpack.  For the current crop of fighter pilots, Olds is the epitome of what it means to be a warrior and leader.  For cadets at the Air Force Academy he was a role model and mentor.  

Raz flew more than 250 combat missions in F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom II in SEA and received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross five times, and numerous Air Medals. All of Ed’s books are on our “must read” list here at Fighter Pilot University.  Raz will be missed, but never forgotten.  His thoughts and spirit will live on through his books.  We are very proud to have Ed “Raz” Rasimus in our Fighter Pilot University Hall of Heroes.  Here’s a nickel on the grass to another great fighter pilot who has gone before us.  Check out the song below, I'm sure Ed is bellied up to the bar with Robin in fighter pilot heaven singing a few ditties as we speak!

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