Bat 21Rescue in Vietnam: From the Archive

On Easter Sunday, April 2, 1972, two EB-66 aircraft, call signs Bat 21 and Bat 22 were flying pathfinder escort for three B-52s, which were assigned to bomb the two primary access routes to the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos. Gene Hambleton, a navigator aboard Bat 21, was shot down behind North Vietnamese lines. His rescue became known as the largest, longest, and most complex search-and-rescue operation during the Vietnam War. In this episode, Gene Hambleton recounts his dramatic story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to Bat 21Rescue in Vietnam: From the Archive online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Bat 21Rescue in Vietnam: From the Archive is an episode from Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories by Robert Kirk.

This episode is 40:17 long.

This episode was published on Feb 12, 2026.

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