Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Richard Waite served in Vietnam for 11 months and he was wounded — before he got there.

“When we first went over we had to go to snake survival school at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. One night, we had to cut down bamboo to make a bed off the ground; the rats were on the ground,” Waite said. “I used my machete to cut a 3-inch diameter stalk off, but it grew under tension.

“When I whacked it, it unsprung, hit me in the belly and the face and knocked me 40 feet into the air. They flew me out to the hospital and stitched me up. I had a gash across my left eyebrow. I still have the scar.”

Serving in a war zone is anything but pleasant, yet Waite was able to find some light in the midst of the dark that usually surrounds war. Most often those experiences came after a successful mission. Along with Vietnam, Waite served in Germany, at the Pentagon, and as a teacher for the Air Force.

Waite flew 100 missions over North Vietnam in an RF-4C jet as a navigator with pilot Major Gene Fridley. Waite flew 50 missions with Fridley and another 50 with Major George Dolan. On board they had no weapons, just a camera.

“We were stationed at an air base in Thailand. Our missions were for photography. We were reconnaissance. Our photos went back and were used by the strike forces. We had a GPS and early digital,” Waite said. “We flew missions over Vietnam, Laos and places we couldn’t talk about. We shot our targets with a camera.”

Waite said they would go over an area, fly down, snap the photos and pop back out quickly.

“You never did it twice. You did and you were dead meat,” he said. “You never flew over a river valley either. Those little [expletive] were down there with guns.”

Sometimes, Waite and his pilot flew night missions and navigated by radar, Waite’s specialty. If they started hearing clicks that meant the enemy had spotted the plane and was getting ready to fire missiles at them.

“You’d turn off the radar and you could see a little doughnut hole on the ground. We flew directly toward it, then flipped over. The bomb goes by because it’s moving too fast to turn that quickly. When Gene did that I saw 35-foot telephone poles fly past me,” Waite said.

On one flight, the fuel indicators told the pilot there was very little fuel. They decided to try and make Da Nang so, if they had to, they could bail out over the Gulf of Tonkin. The U.S. Navy was in control of the area.

Waite and Fridley were ready to bail out when they saw an air strip and decided to try and land. As they came in there were fire trucks at the ready. The men landed safely.

“They took us to a hooch [a hut]. Gene and I thought we were going to get chewed out by the wing commander after nearly crashing our plane. The next morning we were told to go to the commander’s office. They called us to attention and read a document that we received the distinguished service medal,” Waite said and laughed. “That’s how the war was.”

Other missions included being chased by MiGs and shot by ground missiles, with one leaving a 14-inch hole in one of the wings yet missing anything important, including the guys inside the cockpit.

Waite has a load of stories and photos of his Vietnam experience as well as his time in Germany where he flew over Russia, Germany and North Africa before he volunteered for Vietnam. He taught ROTC at Arizona State University in the late 1970s, went to Europe and came back to continue teaching from 1984 to 1986, the year Waite retired. However, he stayed on campus and went to the School of Law and earned his Juris Doctor degree.

“The Air Force was a good life. I have no regrets,” Waite said.

Waite and his wife, Audrey, moved to Sedona in 1990. He helps with her quilting business, sings in the choir at his church and is a member of the Sedona-Bell Rock Kiwanis Club.

“Now I paint my rock cars and do what I please,” Waite said, leaning back and smiling.