Sec. Wynne Finds a Ring

While we've been critical of Air Force leadership here at morganobrien.com, there is no denying that this is a special story:

Brother’s ring returned 40 years after crash

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 17, 2008 17:33:09 EST

Four decades after his brother died in a plane crash 25 miles from the Chinese border in North Vietnam, former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne was handed his brother’s 1963 Air Force Academy class ring by a complete stranger at a Cincinnati airport.

Maj. Patrick Wynne’s F-4 slammed into the North Vietnamese hillside on Aug. 8, 1966. His ring went through the hands of a Chinese family that tried to rescue Patrick, and finally an American businessman before his younger brother got it back. What gets Michael Wynne is that his brother was never supposed to be on that mission in the first place. Patrick Wynne stepped up after another pilot got sick. LINK

What a story: it's got the Air Force, it's got brothers and it's got redemption. It's funny how things work sometimes.

While his early termination may have left a bitter taste in his mouth, it was actually refreshing to see that this borderline miracle enabled Sec. Wynne to put things in perspective and gain some closure:

“The day I signed into my first duty station was the day he was shot down. It was like the baton pass of duty from him to me.

“Now, I retire from the highest position in the Air Force, and out of the blue comes this ring,” Michael Wynne said. “Life is so circular sometimes.”