Master Sgt. William Topken of Fallon is the last member of the Nevada Air National Guard to have been awarded the Vietnam Service Medal for participation in the Vietnam War. He is a traditional airman who works in the 152nd Maintenance Operations Flight in Reno as a C-130 aircraft maintenance controller.
Topken appears to be a quiet man, prone to giving short answers to long questions. He sits still now, but when he opens up and begins to share pieces of the patchwork military aviation career spanning nearly 41 years, it's evident that sitting still was the last thing on his mind.
“I grew up in Fallon watching the jets at the naval base, fascinated with anything aviation,” Topken said. “My dad was a World War II and Korean War veteran, an infantryman, but it was always my plan to join the Air Force and spend 20, maybe 30 years working on jet fighter aircraft.”
In January 1969, at age 18, he enlisted in the active duty Air Force and after basic training and technical school, was stationed at George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif., as a crew chief on the McDonnell-Douglas F-4E Phantom II. He volunteered for duty in Vietnam “to see what it was all about” and less than a year later, he was on his way to Da Nang Air Base, Republic of Vietnam.
“I was with the 4th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing, the Gunfighters,” Topken said. “In the mid-60s the 366th had F-4Cs and Ds, which did not have an internal gun, but someone came up with the idea of mounting a Gatling gun pod on the external pylons and that's how the Gunfighters got their name. By the time I got to Da Nang in mid-1970 the 366th had two squadrons equipped with the newer F-4E, which had an internal nose-mounted Gatling gun, definitely a Gunfighter!”
Da Nang Air Base (now called Da Nang International Airport) is situated in the northeast coastal area of the former Republic of Vietnam and with unobstructed approaches to its parallel north-south runways, it was an ideal location for U.S. and South Vietnamese forces to operate a joint airfield.
Topken said it was a good tour there.
“I believed what we were doing in Vietnam was important, important for the Vietnamese people, important for the world. It was what I signed up to do,” he said. “In fact, I believed in our mission so much and was enjoying working on the jets with my fellow airmen, in the early summer of 1971 I extended for an additional six months there.”
Topken received 30 days leave after his first year in Vietnam and chose to come home to Fallon.
“I still remember going with my dad to the bar in Stockman's to celebrate my 21st birthday. I knew he was really proud of me.”
Back in theater, airmen were largely restricted to the air base, but a three-day pass to China Beach and two TDYs gave Topken some respite from the day-to-day routine of 12-hour shifts and rocket attacks that hit near and on the base on a regular basis.
“I went to China Beach for my R&R, nice beach, but nothing like what I saw depicted on the TV show,” Topken said. “I also went to Clark Air Base in the Philippines for two weeks where the pilots did training for air combat maneuvers, and to Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand to support F-4Es on MiG combat air patrol.”
In early 1972, Topken requested another six-month tour of duty in Vietnam, but was denied due to the reduction of U.S. forces in Vietnam. Even with breaks to noncombat areas, 18 months is a long time to be in a war zone. He finished his time in Southeast Asia and was sent to McChord Air Force Base, Wash., where he became a crew chief on F-106 Delta Darts with the 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. But he admits to feeling a little lost after the war.
“I thought I'd do a lifetime (in the Air Force) but I had a change of attitude at McChord. I was a combat vet and didn't want to merely ‘play war', and I didn't like some of the things that were happening in the military and the Air Force, so I decided to not reenlist.”
Topken left the Air Force in 1973.
He came home to Fallon, becoming a truck driver and truck mechanic working all over Nevada and the West. That civilian career lasted 30 years, but he missed working on the jets and in the mid-80s got the urge to return to the uniform.
“I thought I missed working on the aircraft, turns out, I missed the people, the camaraderie, and the esprit de corps of the military,” he admits. Topken began the process of joining the Nevada Air Guard in late 1985, but it wasn't an easy entry for him. He'd been out of the military a long time and much had changed in his life.
“I was the single parent of two little girls, had been in trouble with the law, and was a professional truck driver with an inordinate amount of moving violations. Attitude,you know,” he smiles.
Other recruiters told him not to bother, but Master Sgt. Steve Anspach kept working and pushing for the required waivers until finally in November 1986, Topken enlisted with the Nevada Air National Guard.
The airman spent four years as a High Roller, two years in the RF-4 phase inspection docks and another two years as a flight line crew chief. Within the first year, Topken realized he was doing what he always wanted to do and would continue to do it as long as the Air Force would let him.
In 1990 Topken discovered he could be an enlisted aviator and left Nevada to take a position with the Air Force Reserve at McChord as a flight engineer on C-141B Starlifter transport aircraft.
“I commuted from Fallon once every 4 to 6 weeks, but beginning in 1995 I began flying more as a Reserve bum and was commuting back and forth every couple of weeks,” Topken said.
When the C-141s left McChord in 1998 to be replaced by the new C-17 Globemaster, he transferred again, this time to March Air Reserve Base, Calif., where he became an instructor flight engineer on the C model of the C-141 Starlifter.
“The C models were upgraded with all glass cockpit displays and digital navigation avionics,” Topken explained. “Kind of interesting doing test and evaluation of the latest aviation gee wizardry in an almost 40-year-old airframe, but once we got all the bugs worked out, it was good stuff. They went on to use some of it in the C-5 and the C-130.”
When the Starlifter was retired from service in 2005 and March ARB gained the new C-17, which doesn't have a flight engineer position, Topken started talking to the High Rollers about returning to Reno to finish his career. “I always felt I would return to the Reno Air Guard to finish my career. Thanks to Chief Master Sgt. Al Delsanto and Chief Bob Benton, I was able to do that,” he said.
Coming back to the Nevada Air Guard was exciting and nostalgic, Topken said. “Close to
home, working again with people I had worked with before. Most of my peers with like time in service were 10-15 years younger than me. Some of my fellow maintainers, who were buck and staff sergeants with me, are now senior and chief master sergeants leading the maintenance sections. A couple of them are now majors and C-130 pilots, and two are colonels. It has always made me feel good to see people excel.”
He's been a crew chief on two legacy fighter aircraft, a flight engineer with nearly 5,000 flight hours in less than 15 years — pretty good for a Reservist, he says — with eight different squadrons at four different bases and now an aircraft maintenance control airman with the 152nd.
He's travelled to all seven continents and dozens of countries therein, and has earned two Associate degrees from the Community College of the Air Force, an FAA flight engineer certificate, a private pilot license and an airframe and power plant certificate. The 59-year-old has four children and three grandchildren with one more due in the next few weeks. During the week he's a civilian contractor aircraft services technician at the air terminal and transient aircraft line at Naval Air Station Fallon.
After more than 27 years of service within a 41 year time period, Topken can see the end of his military career, this time for good. He has chosen to finish his career a scant hour from where it began, close to home where he watched the jets flying “a long, long time ago.” He is set to retire Feb. 1.
“I'll miss all of the people I have served with and the good relationships we've had over the years, but it will be good to spend more time with my wife and my kids, two whom are still in high school, and my grandkids,” he said. “My time in Vietnam is still the greatest adventure of my life, even with all of the good and wonderful things I have been able to do since then. I am grateful to the Nevada Air Guard for the opportunity to be of service to our great state of Nevada and to the U.S. Air Force for allowing me to serve our great country. Aim high.”
Capt. April Conway is state public affairs officer for the Nevada Military Department.
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