Pictures  sent by  Sam McGowan, a former C-130  loadmaster who flew  with Howie (right)
during the war years.  He got  them  from  Howie but isn't  sure  when or where  they were
taken. If anyone out there has more pictures of Howie, I'd love to have them for this page.

Major Howie Seaboldt said he got to the war to escape from the Strategic Air Command (SAC).
For  eight-and-a-half  years  he  flew  B-52s  as  part  of  the  big  bomber  command's cold  war
missions ala “Doctor Strangelove.” He  said,  "SAC prided itself  on being  the most inflexible,
uptight, rank-bound command in the Air Force." Howie's outrageous sense of humor was not a
perfect fit.  “I spent  the first  six months trying  to figure out what  was going on, and  the next
eight  years   trying   to  get out.”    He transitioned   into  flying   C-130s,  nicknamed  "trash
haulers." Some Air Force pilots  saw that  as a comedown. Not Howie.  In his years in SAC, he
never  dropped  a  bomb, so found it ironic that in C-130s he earned his Mad Bomber nickname.

In  1971,  Howie  asked  for  another  extension  to  stay  in  the  Philippines.  The  Air  Force
turned him down.  “They said  it was time  to go back  to the  world.”  He did, but only until he
had 20 years of active duty. In 1974 he retired from Pope Air Force Base, NC, and returned to
the Philippines with his wife and two young daughters. Shortly after he let himself be recruited
to fly for an outfit called Bird Air -- about which he quickly adds, “Don't ask. He was flying for
them when the bottom started falling out of the Vietnam war. "We had just lost Cambodia and
Bird Air  got the contract  to  haul  ass in Vietnam.”  His  first  job was  removing  vital military
equipment from  Bien  Hoa Air Base  north  of Saigon. “Army,  Navy and  Air  Force  generals
told  us what  to  load  up  and  take out.  But  a  South  Vietnamese  lieutenant colonel  had  to
clear  the  load.”  Howie  said,  “He saw  the  boxed  fighters,  artillery  pieces,  vehicles,  and
tons of ammo as  his ticket  to a  better life  --  or  any  life  at  all.”  So  instead  he  said,  “We
ended  up  hauling  out  loads  of  un-recappable  tires  as  the  sounds  of a losing war  whistled
over our heads.”On one of  his final flights they carried  a load of  moldy  French  bread.  On
his  way   back to  Vietnam   to  pick  up  another  load  word  came  to  turn  around  and  go
home.  “So   we   bring   down   the   curtain  on  my  long   illustrious   military   career.”

Howie confers with one of America's allies while on a mission for Bird Air -- can you spell
CIA? Sam McGowan said Howie was one of the most popular and well respected officers
with all the enlisted men who knew him.

Back in the  Philippines some months later,  Howie got hired on as the public affairs,
historian  and protocol officer for Camp John Hay Air Base  in Baguio.  He remained
there until July 1, 1991, when the American military left for good. He moved back to
an area outside Clark where he lived when he was a pilot. After Pinatubo and the US
pullout,  he  volunteered  at the  Clark  Field  Museum,  assisting  the director, Ceffie
Yepez,  who  for  years  was  the  community  relations  director in the  13th Air Force
Public Affairs office. After I started this project I contacted Ceffie hooked me up with
Howie.  He provided  one of  the  most  interesting chapters about his  experiences  at
Clark,  but was a wonderful source of inspiration and knowledge. He even read every
chapter of  the  history  I  am  working  on,  adding  insights  and wisdom, and  most of
all   his   wonderful   sense  of  humor,   but  he  even  provide  helpful  editing   hints.

In early 2004 Sam McGowan e-mailed saying he just learned that Howie had died
unexpectedly.  I, as   well as  everyone  who know him,  greatly  miss  him.  He  was
truly one of the real heroes of  that  long and tragic war, as well as one hellofa guy.