Theodore S. Sienicki (Class of 1969) oral history and papers relating to the Vietnam War (AMS.1U.S8)

Biographical/Historical note

Theodore S. Sienicki (Brown, Class of 1969) was born on March 24, 1948 to Meslow and Casimera Sienicki in Elizabeth, NJ and raised in Irvington, NJ. He married Christine Getz, a student at Douglass College of Rutgers University, during his junior year of college. Christine died less than 3 years later on February 5, 1971 of leukemia.

Sienicki enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Reserve to attend Officer Candidate School on April 18, 1969, and entered OTS on July 22, 1969, graduating with a commission as a 2d Lieutenant on October 21, 1969. Lt Sienicki attended Undergraduate Pilot Training at Randolph AFB, Texas, from November 1969 to April 1970, and then switched to Undergraduate Navigator Training, earning his navigator wings at Mather Air Force Base, California, in April 1971. He then completed F-4 Phantom II Combat Crew Training as a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) in January 1972, followed by service as an F-4 Weapon Systems Operator with the 25th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, from February 1972 until he and pilot, Tim Ayres, were forced to eject over North Vietnam and were both taken as a Prisoners of War on May 3, 1972. After spending 330 days in captivity at the “Hanoi Hilton”, he was released during Operation Homecoming on March 28, 1973. He was briefly hospitalized to recover from his injuries at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, and then attended Undergraduate Pilot Training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, earning his pilot wings in October 1974. Major Sienicki later completed F-111 Aardvark Combat Crew Training and served as Chief F-111 Flight Test Pilot with the Sacramento Air Logistics Center at McClellan AFB, California, from December 1979 to December 1983. He retired from the Air Force on August 1, 1989 with the rank of Major. He lives in New Jersey.