AF Wants Disgraced General's Rank Back

The general who directed the air war in the waning days of Vietnam is due to have his former rank reinstated by the Air Force, nearly 40 years after he left the service in disgrace over allegations that he ignored rules of engagement and led his subordinates in a cover up.

In an Aug. 4 statement, the Pentagon said that President Obama had posthumously nominated Maj. Gen. John D. Lavelle to the rank of general after the Air Force Board for the Correction of Military Records found the former commander of the 7th Air Force had rightfully executed his orders and had not participated in falsifying records.

"In 2007, newly released and declassified information resulted in evidence that Lavelle was authorized by President Richard Nixon to conduct the bombing missions," the Pentagon release stated.

"Further, the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records found no evidence Lavelle caused, either directly or indirectly, the falsification of records, or that he was even aware of their existence."

Lavelle died in 1979.

Lavelle had been demoted to major general in October 1972 after weeks of congressional hearings over allegations that he had ordered pilots under his command to ignore rules of engagement that restricted jets from bombing targets unless they were shot at.

An enlisted intelligence Airman alleged he was instructed to falsify reports claiming pilots had been engaged and were exercising "protective reaction" when bombing airfields, military trucks and surface-to-air missile radars. The intelligence specialist, Sgt. Lonnie Franks, sent a letter outlining his allegations to Sen. Harold Hughes, D-Iowa, then a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who launched an investigation and congressional hearings into the matter.

A media firestorm erupted during the hearings with major news outlets such as Time and Newsweek claiming Lavelle was waging a "private war" by defying White House restrictions on the air campaign and ordering his subordinates to falsify reports bolstering his actions.

But after audio recordings of conversations between President Nixon and members of his White House staff were declassified in 2007, demonstrating the president had authorized the general's actions, Lavelle's family petitioned the Air Force to review his demotion, said Air Force spokeswoman Beth Gosselin. In 2009 the Air Force BCMR found that Lavelle's retirement grade was the result of "incomplete records," Gosselin said.

Lavelle took command of the 7th Air Force in 1972 after a career that included almost 80 combat missions flying P-47s during World War II. During his command of the air war in Vietnam, planes were not allowed to bomb targets in North Vietnam unless they were shot at by that target, documents show.

But North Vietnam had recently fielded networked air defense systems that allowed disparate radars to guide anti-aircraft missiles into their targets, forcing Lavelle to "liberally interpret" the rules of engagement to defend his pilots and crew.

"Gen. Lavelle, while conceding that the intent of the protective reaction principle required that a U.S. aircraft be at least tracked before reaction was warranted, believed that his strikes were justified under a liberal interpretation of the rules of engagement," an official congressional summary of the investigation concluded. "While admitting that the rules were specific, Gen. Lavelle stated that he believed they allowed some interpretation of judgment factor on the part of the commander."

Lavelle was reportedly devastated by the allegations hurled at him by the press and congressional investigators and told lawmakers during that battery of hearings that he'd known nothing about the false reports but nevertheless accepted responsibility for the actions of his subordinates.

Air Force spokeswoman Gosselin said that rules at the time allowed Lavelle to receive retirement pay as an O-10, but that the president's re-nomination four decades later was a way of "letting the family know that this [demotion] needed to be corrected."