Jim Badley attended and graduated from Mountain Home High School in 1960 and from Oregon State University with an Engineering Degree in 1965, receiving his commission as 2^nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force and assigned to Davis-Monthan AFB for combat training in the F-4 Phantom. He requested combat duty at DaNang, Vietnam.  At the time of his death in 1968, Lt. Badly was assigned to the 480^th Tactical Fighter Squadron/366^th Tactical Fighter Wing at DaNang, South Vietnam.

Lt. Badley’s military career and the 366^th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) are intertwined today, as Mountain Home Air Force Base is the home of the 366^th Tactical Fighter Wing. On the base is an F-4C Memorial dedicated to Lt. Lance Sijan who was a friend of Jim Badley’s at DaNang. Jim flew Search and Rescue the night Lance was shot down.

The flyer and the dust jacket of Angels Unknown have quotes from two men: Major General F.C. "Boots" Blesse and Lt. Gen. John Pickitt. Blesse was the Deputy Commander of Operations at DaNang when Jim Badley was there. Blesse is the man who put a Gatling gun on the centerline of the F4-C and it was that fact that gave the 366^th Tactical Fighter Wing the name of "Gunfighters." Angels Unknown documents what Blesse did and talks about how they were known as the "Gunfighters of DaNang." John Pickitt became base commander at Mountain Home when the 366^th Tactical Fighter Wing was moved to Mountain Home. [It was in the early 70’s.]

Jim lived on base at 46 Senior Officers Quarters, which is the house at the end of Spruce Street. Lynda Paffrath recalls the house that Jim lived in with his family when it was officers quarters; the house itself is still there.  She explains, "This is all my way of saying that Jim’s presence is permanently located at Mountain Home Air Force Base and always will be."

Angels Unknown unfolds like a mystery. Lynda writes on a larger historical scale of the Vietnam War, the costs of that war on a personal and spiritual level. She writes of the inner turmoil that needed reconciliation and healing that she received while writing this book 19 years later after Jim Badley’s death, and she brings that understanding and peace to the reader as well. For those who survive the wars of Vietnam, Korea, WWII, The Gulf War, Bosnia, Afghanistan or IRAQ, it isn’t always possible to understand what happened during the last days, the last moments of a pilot, soldier, or a lost sailor’s life. This book guides us through a healing time.

 Paffrath devotes an entire chapter to their growing up in Mountain Home, telling what it was like to be a teenager at MHHS in the 60’s, finding fun things to do with friends at Teen Town, at home on the base, and favorite places at the Sand Dunes, Anderson Ranch Dam, Pine and Bomgartner’s. She names her favorite teacher, Mr.Carl Corbit, and her MHHS friends, Jim Badley, Jerry Salvo, Randy Bailey, Stan Brown, Don Badley, Loa Freer, Norma Mueller and recounts those experiences that were like so many of our own experiences as well.

Randy Bailey worked with Lynda Paffrath and Bonnie, intending to write a screenplay based upon the life of Jim Badley. Randy Bailey did not complete the play, but he offered Lynda the title of the book and asked her to make it hers, which she has done. Angels Unknown is a Navy Air Traffic Control term, which directly translates to "altitude unknown". It is phrase used to give the pilot more information of advancing aircraft and their location. The book connects "For The Good Times" as sung by Ray Price with of a group of MHHS graduates who went on to live, serve and die during the Vietnam War years. They are the voices now telling us their story. Angels are described as messengers by Ms.Paffrath that gave insight and helped her to understand what happened to James Badley. Lynda is a messenger--like others who remember heros who died in Vietnam, we must speak for our friends and classmates.

Lynda wrote her book to find out answers to the mystery of Jim Badley’s death --and to write of someone who needed to be remembered. He is just one man --but it is the story of 52,000 men who gave their lives in Vietnam. She wrote a wonderful biography and autobiography that I would like to make available to our community. I asked her to send me some copies of her book and she has agreed to do so. Our Mountain Home Public Library and local bookstore, Footnotes, have copies of Angels Unknown. The book can also be purchased directly from her website. She donated two copies of the book for our Public library and the High School Library.

Angels Unknown