Michael Heck

Captain Michael John Heck (born July 12, 1942) was an American B-52 Stratofortress pilot in the Vietnam War best known for becoming a conscientious objector and refusing to continue flying bombing missions over North Vietnamese targets in late 1972. Heck attended Whittier College, which is also then-President of the United States Richard Nixon's alma mater. Though there were four other American pilots before Heck who had refused to fly combat missions over Indochina during the buildup to the war, Heck's case was the first to come to public attention and highlighted the moral issues of the raids. His doubts continued to grow as the bombing escalated, and on December 26 Heck told his wing commander that he could no longer participate in the campaign.

In order to explain Heck's decision, a few Pentagon staffers suggested that he might be suffering from combat fatigue. A senior United States Air Force officer implied that Heck was too scared to continue to fly over North Vietnam in light of the heavy losses of B-52s. But Heck said that fear had nothing to do with his decision:

quote|If they tell me now to go on milk runs, the B-52 targets over South Vietnam where nobody gets shot at, I would feel no different. I would even refuse a ground job of supervising the loading of bombs or refueling aircraft. I can't be a participant. The goals do not justify the mass destruction and killing.

Aftermath Heck was reassigned to administrative duties immediately following his decision. Instead of resigning, he sought non-combat status as a conscientious objector. When it became clear that the Air Force would not grant non-combat status, Heck issued his resignation.

After arriving back in the United States, Heck held a news conference where he stated: