Brian Michael Ratzlaff

Brian Ratzlaff entered Officer Training School with the U.S. Air Force on February 19, 1968. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on May 13, 1968, and then completed Undergraduate Pilot Training and was awarded his pilot wings at Reese AFB, Texas, in May 1969. Lieutenant Ratzlaff then completed F-4 Phantom II Combat Crew Training before serving as an F-4 pilot with the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Phu Cat AB, South Vietnam, from April 1970 to April 1971. His next assignment was as an F-4 pilot with the 334th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, from May 1971 to July 1972, and then deployed to Southeast Asia with the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron from July 1972 until he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War on September 11, 1972.