Capt. Langford Metzger

If you were in Harper, TX in the late 1940's and 1950's, you may remember
three grubby, young boys playing around town. They were called the Metzger
twins by some, because Langford was said to be as big as the other two
combined.

After high school, Langford joined the U.S. Air Force as an electronics
maintenance man. A few years later, he completed the Aviation Cadet Program
with a commission of 2Lt. and a navigator's rating. He was assigned to fly B52's,
which was the same aircraft he had worked on as an enlisted man. About this
time, the Vietnam Conflict was escalating and Langford volunteered for duty.
Finally, an assignment came through in October 1966, 360th TEWS, EC-47s or
"Electric Gooney Birds" to Tan Son Nhut AFB.

Lang, as he was called by his Air Force buddies, went to New Hampshire to pick
up aircraft and ferry them to Vietnam. Modifications to the aircraft were behind
schedule. It was here that Lang met his life long friend, John D. Trudel, and his
future wife, Linda.

The Vietnam tour had high and low moments for Lang: good missions, close
calls and the loss of close friends. He returned to the States for other flying
assignments,1st SOS WS, England AFB LA, 1967-1970 and 36th TAS, Langley
AFB VA, 1970-1971.

After training in Ohio, Lang was assigned to the 16th SOS, Ubon RAFB,
Thailand, 1971-1972 and was soon back in Southeast Asia flying AC-130
gunships. This tour also had its dramatic and traumatic times: two gunships
lost in two days, his roommate lost in battle, his aircraft commander killed in
action and much more.

He returned to the States to marry Linda at Langley AFB, Hampton, VA in July of
1972. Remember, I said Lang was big, (6' 7") too tall for the parachute harness
in the B-52. SAC could not have him so he went to MAC to fly the C-141 at
Norton AFB, CA. One of his most memorable missions during this time was to
fly returning POWs from Saigon, Vietnam back home to the United States.
Things were winding down in Vietnam and after four years at Norton, AFB, Lang
was honorably discharged from the Air Force.
He received a B.S. in architecture in 1979 and an MBA in 1980. In 1978, Lang
and his wife had their only child,
Lauren Elizabeth. He worked freelance jobs and was the president of Coastal
Air in California and then as an
architect with Kester Architects in Texas before settling in Massachusetts.

Lang's happiest times seem to have been those spent flying in the Air Force
and he never could get beyond Vietnam. Even those closest to him could not
help him. We hear of the Vietnam Syndrome, but none of us could understand
unless we went through it and, even then, each veteran is affected differently to
the stresses of conflict. The reaction of this Nation after Vietnam did not help.
We hear of Heroes of Desert Storm -- they are heroes and deserve our praise.
But remember, the Veterans of Vietnam are also heroes and deserve our
praise. Lang was a hero of Vietnam.
Lang was a casualty of Vietnam. Lang, I salute you.

(Written and presented by Frank L. Metzger, LTC, USAF Ret. at the funeral of
his brother, Capt. Langford C. Metzger, June 22, 1991, St. James Lutheran
Church in Harper, TX.)

"Lang was better than good, he was phenomenal. Back then, I was a civilian techno geek,
moving around doing weird classified systems. I worked on the electric goonies and some
"Advanced Project" things for LTV E-Systems on the Spectres. Every time we'd implement
something out there, the Air Force would assign some of their best and brightest as the lead
crew to test it. So Lang and I kept running into each other. We became the best of friends.

Lang had actually dodged SA-7s, though most would say that was impossible once they'd
locked on you. It wasn't impossible, just almost. Lang had a low light level TV screen where he
could see the heat seekers coming up at them. They had a guy on the ramp in the back who
would punch out flares and the missiles went after the hottest thing in the sky. It worked
pretty well if you could get a flare out before the missile locked on you. It didn't work at all if
the missile had locked first and you had only a few seconds.

One night they had an SA-7 get a lock on one of the engines, and once that happened, it
ignored the flare. Once it locked, you were dead. The missile would ignore anything else and
just keep coming. If an SA-7 hit in an engine, it was a sure kill. The airplane would burn. So
they're dodging for their lives and Lang stayed right on it, watching the missile track every
maneuver and screaming into the intercom, "Break! Break! Break! Harder! It's still tracking,
it's still tracking!"

The pilot finally rolled the airplane completely upside down, keeping a positive G on it all the
way round, falling like a piano. The missile finally lost sight of the engine it had locked on and
corrected towards the flare. They made it back, but the wings were bent upwards from being
overstressed and the plane had to be scrapped.

Spectres are not supposed to be able to fly inverted.
As I recall, the TO manuals said the maximum bank angle allowed was 45 degrees. I don't know
if this one was flying or falling, but it did come back. Thanks to Lang and a very good pilot."