Jefferson Scott Dotson '66 - A model American airman

Jefferson Scott Dotson was born on August 6, 1944 in Newport News, VA. His family moved to rural Pound, VA, located in Southwest Virginia, when he was a small child. A lot of his early life is known through testimony from his older brother Buddy. The two boys were taught to fly at a young age by their father who passed when they were both young. Aspiring to be a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, Scotty applied to VMI from Pound High School with a letter of recommendation from one of Virginia's senators Macon M. Long in 1962. Long wrote to the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) admissions office to explain the turbulent situation the Dotsons were in financially and leveraging Scotty's above average grades to help him get in. Scotty matriculated in the fall of 1962 with the Rat Mass of 1963+3. At VMI he studied Electrical Engineering and participated in a variety of different extracurriculars. He was a barracks sound technician, Post fire fighter, basketball and football player, wrestler, and most, remarkably, president of the Rat Disciplinary Committee (RDC) his first class year. One of his brother rats, Al Carr, had a story to share about Scotty. In time for the annual Thanksgiving football game against the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) in the fall of 1965, Scotty devised a plan to truly "take the fight" to Blacksburg. Having his private pilot's license during his time as a cadet and access to a training plane for the day, he and another first-class cadet conducted a bombing run on the rival corps. The duo scattered pamphlets onto the cadets from their plane that, according to Carr, "Cast aspersions on the manhood of the VPI cadets." Scotty was minted a second lieutenant in the United State Air Force when he graduated from the Institute in 1966. He commissioned as an aviator and with the opportunity to follow his dreams and become a fighter pilot. Sometime in 1968, during the peak of the Tet Offensive, Lieutenant Dotson deployed to Vietnam to be stationed at the Phan Rang Air Force Base, located on the coast of South Vietnam. His older brother was coincidentally stationed there as well, and the two spent the next five months working together, a time that Buddy remembers fondly, until December of that year when he returned to the US at the end of his contract. Lieutenant Dotson requested a permanent change of station to Tuy Hoa Air Force Base later that year. Tuy Hoa was known as a dangerous base to be stationed at as they flew the most dangerous assignments, known as "Misty" Forward Air Control (FAC) missions. The term "Misty" was used to describe a unit of elite fighter pilots that flew fast FAC missions. Their technique involved flying low and fast to identify crucial targets from the skies. Buddy said that Scotty made this request knowing full well what he was getting himself into. On 9 August 1969 1st Lieutenant Dotson and his wingman Captain Laurent L. Gourley departed from Tuy Hoa AFB on a "Misty" FAC over the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. It was on this mission that Dotson's F-100F Super Sabre, a modified version of the F-100 to accommodate a co-pilot, took heavy ground fire and went down somewhere near an area known as Tchepone in Laos. Tchepone, along with Hanoi, were two of the most heavily guarded Vietcong strongholds during the war. Dotson and Gourley were both declared missing-in-action shortly thereafter, and officially declared killed-in-action on April 26 1976. The remains of Captain Dotson and Captain Gourley were located in late 2001 at the crash site of their F-100F, when the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command worked to recover the two. They were both brought back to the states in the spring of 2002. There was a memorial service for Dotson at the Arlington National Cemetery on 25 October 2002, accompanied by two honor guards of airmen and cadets. There his remains were put to rest along with all the other servicemen and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice to serve our country. "He had a dry but abundant sense of humor and a no-nonsense admiration for VMI," said General (Retired) John P. Jumper '66 about Captain Dotson when asked by The Cadet for remarks about his fellow airman and brother rat. "Scotty was a superb pilot, and the personification of courageous, quiet competence you'd expect from a country boy from Pound, Virginia whose dream of becoming a fighter pilot was fulfilled. It was a pleasure to be Scotty's friend and all of us Electrical Engineering majors remember him as the very best among us." Captain Dotson was memorialized by the Arnold Air Society squadron at VMI as its namesake when it was first founded in the early 1970's. The Arnold Air Society is an honorary, professional, service organization dedicated to creating AFROTC cadets a tier above the rest by focusing on professional development and volunteer service. The Arnold Air cadets were able to host a regional conclave at VMI; an event that welcomed a couple hundred cadets from squadrons all over the eastern coast in 1975. Let Jefferson Scott Dotson serve as an inspiration to us all, regardless of what we aspire to be. His raw courage led him to chase his dreams, and he ultimately passed doing what he loved and what he was good at. Thank you Captain Dotson for your sacrifice, and for serving as an inspiration for generations of cadets and airmen after you. Rah Va Mil. Rah '66