Iowa State University Gold Star Ceremony honors fallen Vietnam pilot from Ames

Merrick and mother

James Merrick Jr. with his mother Mary.

AMES, Iowa -- An observance at Iowa State University will honor two former students who served and died in military service. One of the honorees is James Lee Merrick Jr. who was born in Ames in 1943 and killed in Vietnam in 1968. His life will be remembered in a campus ceremony at 3:15 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. It is free and open to the public.

Former students are eligible for name placement in the Gold Star Hall — the war memorial in the university's Memorial Union — if they graduated from or attended Iowa State full time for one or more semesters, and died while in military service in a war zone. As names become known, they are added to the wall and the soldiers are remembered in the university's Veterans Day ceremony. His name was previously engraved on the wall of the Gold Star Hall

Iowa State has been able to memorialize Lt. Merrick with help and materials from his mother, Mary Watkins, who resides at Green Hills Retirement Community in Ames.

A family tradition

James Lee Merrick Jr. was born Sept. 12, 1943, to James Lee Merrick Sr. and Mary Watkins (formerly Merrick) in Ames. As a young boy, Jami (as he was called then) was active in the local Cub Scouts Troop 46, where his mother Mary was the den mother.

Merrick at 4

Merrick Jr., age 4.

Merrick attended St. Cecilia’s before enrolling in Ames High School. Now known as Jim, Merrick developed a love for sports — golf and football, in particular. In 1959, The Ames Tribune wrote a story about a fateful golf meet. The score was tied, and Merrick had to make his last putt to win the meet. Unfortunately, the putt stopped one inch short of the hole, ending Ames High’s three-year reign as golf league champion. Merrick loved football almost as much as he loved golf, and played tight end for the varsity team. He later went on to coach a squadron football team during his time in the Navy. His team won the 11th Naval District Fleet League Football Championship that year.

While growing up, Merrick spent much of his time on the water. The Merricks had a lake house in Minnesota, and his grandparents had a house on the other side of the lake in Wisconsin. He loved time spent on the lake, and was an excellent swimmer. The young Merrick cherished his time at the lake.

Merrick’s father and grandfather were in the armed forces. His father served during World War II as a B-29 bomber flight instructor in Nebraska. His grandfather served as a flight instructor in both World War I and World War II. In World War I, he instructed French and American pilots serving in the “Lafayette Escadrille” of the French Air Service, which was composed largely of American volunteer fighter pilots. Flying was certainly in the family blood, and young Merrick would eventually receive wings of his own.

From student to pilot

Merrick on boat

After graduation from Ames High in 1961, Merrick went to Iowa State University, where he joined Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and enrolled in the Naval Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (NROTC) program. Summer cruises were required of cadets before they finished their NROTC training at Iowa State and before they reported for duty following graduation and commissioning. In the summer of his junior year, Merrick was assigned to summer cruise duty in the Western Pacific on the USS Duncan. He was a member of the first group of American midshipmen to visit Australia since World War II. A photo of the group looking at traditional Australian wool sweaters in a Sydney store appeared in the Ames Tribune.

Merrick graduated from Iowa State in the spring of 1965. He was commissioned ensign, U.S. Navy, in August 1965. Merrick’s training as a Naval Aviator took place in Pensacola, Florida, and Corpus Christi, Texas. He received his wings in March 1967, and was assigned to the Photo Reconnaissance Squadron on the carrier USS Hancock. He held the rank of lieutenant.

Merrick began flying an F-8C in the Vietnam War in August 1968. His last assignment was flying an RFG 8 G “Crusader” with the VFP-63 Det-19 Air Reconnaissance Squadron. Not an easy aircraft to fly, the Crudader was often unforgiving in carrier landings where it suffered from yaw instability. And the poorly designed, castering nose undercarriage made steering on the deck problematic. The aircraft however possessed some advanced capabilities, proving to be an especially stable aerial photography platform equipped with cameras of advanced design.

Final flight

Merrick mug

The VPF-63 was referred to as “eyes of the fleet,” the only Navy squadron to see frontline combat duty throughout the entire Vietnam War. It flew longer in that war than any other Navy squadron. A large number of their missions were “Unarmed and Unafraid” post-strike photoreconnaissance missions over North and South Vietnam, with some flown over Cambodia and Laos. The pilots of the VPF-63 flew unarmed at constant speed and at level flight into a strike area after the enemy had been stirred up. The missions were high risk and resulted in the loss of 20 aircraft, seven pilot casualties and five POWs through the course of the war.

On Thursday, October 3, 1968, while returning from a routine mission over North Vietnam, Merrick was killed over the Gulf of Tonkin due to non-hostile causes. He was 25 years old. He was awarded the Air Medal, National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and Vietnam Campaign Medal.

To honor Merrick’s devotion to his country, his mother, Mary Watkins, gives a scholarship in his name every year. It is given to the highest-ranking midshipman in the NROTC program at Iowa State who has been chosen for Naval Aviation Training.