Tributes: MIAs/POWs ~ Lest we Forget They've offered their freedom (some, their lives) to guarantee ours.... WE MUST NOT FORSAKE THEM!! Until EVERY POW or service person MIA is accounted for &/or returned to our shores... we must be ever diligent in keeping their memory & plight in the forefront of our national collective conciousness. This meager page is my contribution towards that end. ADOPT A POW/MIA!!

Missing In Action ~~ Prisoners of War

MIAs ~~ POWs; our national concern!!

Message From: usapowmia@ameritech.net (Marilyn Grote) Date: Mon, Apr 5, 1999, 8:42pm To: thewatcher1@webtv.net Subject: Re: Adopt a POW/MIA - Form 6 Welcome to Operation Just Cause (OJC). Below is the information you requested. Please save it to a floppy disk to prevent loss due to computer crash or accidentally being deleted with other e-mail. Information about Operation Just Cause can be found at: http://www.ojc.org To read the Official OJC newsletter: http://www.ojc.org./NL/ Take part in the Yellow Ribbon campaign: http://www.ojc.org/yribbon.htm Be sure to write your letter to the President, Congressmen and Representatives. Let them know how concerned you are about the POW/MIA's whom have still not returned home. For email addresses for the elected officials: http://www.ojc.org/Webring/contact.htm Consider making a web page for your adopted POW/MIA. If you need suggestions or help in building a web page there are suggestions at: http://www.ojc.org/POWbuild/POW.build.html . Free OJC and POW/MIA graphics: http://www.ojc.org/images/ Free midi (music) : http://www.ojc.org/sounds Please consider joining our Official OJC Web Ring : http://www.ojc.org/Webring/ The OJC Web Ring joins together the POW/MIA pages on the net. Please notify Debby Peare at debbyp@psouth.net when you have your web page ready and she will add it to the links page for you. If you set up more than one POW/MIA page, please create an index page that links to all of them. Send that URL to Debby Peare. If you are interested in POW/MIA bracelets you can find information about purchasing one from US Veteran's Dispatch at: http://www.usvetdsp.com/px.htm or phone 1-800-452-8906. POW/MIA bracelets can also be ordered from http://www.asde.com/~pownet/hoi.html If you would like to contact the family or find out more information about your POW/MIA please check with: http://www.nationalalliance.org . Thank you for your involvement in helping bring "our boys" home! To adopt another POW/MIA send your request to: http://www.ojc.org/adopt/ . You might want to adopt all the POW/MIA servicemen involved in the same incident or all of one military branch or all POW/MIA's from your state. Feel free to adopt ALL the POW's and MIA's! To check out some of the POW related links: http://www.ojc.org/gunny/links/ ============================================== God bless you, Marilyn Grote usapowmia@ameritech.net ============================================== NOTE: For legal reasons, all OJC members with POW/MIA sites must have the following: "All Biographical and loss information on Vietnam Era POW/MIA's provided by Operation Just Cause have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of POW/NET http://www.asde.com/~pownet/ . Please check with POW/NET regularly for updates." ============================================== LYON, DONAVAN LOREN Name: Donavan Loren "Don" Lyon Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force Unit: 559th TFS Date of Birth: 01 November 1934 Home City of Record: Hollywood CA Date of Loss: 22 March 1968 Country of Loss: Laos Loss Coordinates: 163904N 1062857E (XD581414) Status (in 1973): Missing In Action Category: 2 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C Other Personnel In Incident: Theodore W. Guy (released POW), pilot Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1991 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK. REMARKS: SYNOPSIS: The Phantom, used by Air Force, Marine and Navy air wings, served a multitude of functions including fighter-bomber and interceptor, photo and electronic surveillance. The two man aircraft was extremely fast (Mach 2), and had a long range (900 - 2300 miles, depending on stores and mission type). The F4 was also extremely maneuverable and handled well at low and high altitudes. Most pilots considered it one of the "hottest" planes around. Col. Theodore W. Guy was the pilot and Maj. Donavan L. Lyon his weapons/systems officer on an F4C Phantom fighter jet which was sent on a combat mission over Laos on March 22, 1968. Their mission, meant to knock out an enemy gun on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, took them near the Aideo Pass through the mountainous border of South Vietnam and Laos a few miles southwest of the demilitarized zone. During the mission, their aircraft was shot down, and Guy and Lyon ejected to land in rugged terrain. The aircraft either malfunctioned or was hit, and it blew up and in the process ejected Guy. At the time, he did not believe Lyon made it out. Guy was subsequently captured by the North Vietnamese, whose activities in Laos his mission was meant to thwart. However, information was given the Lyon family that Lyon survived the incident as well. Although Lyon survived, his fate after landing on the ground is unknown. Guy went on to assume command of the POWs in July 1968. He made tough standards for the 44 airmen he was held with at "Plantation Gardens" and expected them to live by them, as he did. Guy, a Korean war veteran, suffered the same torture and deprivation as pilots captured in the early years of the war. His hair, normally brown, turned completely white on one side of his head, but later fell out and returned to its normal color. Ted Guy was released with 591 Americans in 1973. When Guy was released, he brought charges against eight fellow POWs whom many considered to be traitors. The charges, in the wake of the hero's welcome which greeted returned POWs, were dropped by Guy at the behest of the U.S. Government. Guy and Lyon's case is not unusual. In several incidents of loss, pilot and backseater are separated (partly because they eject at separate times, thus increasing the distance possible between them), not to be reunited. In Laos, both the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao forces were apt to be on the scene to apprehend downed pilots, and neither was prone to hand their capture over to the other force. The Pathet Lao stated publicly that they held "tens of tens" of American captives, but the U.S. did not include them in the agreements that ended the war in Vietnam. Therefore, these men were not released, and were not negotiated for. They were abandoned. If Don Lyon was captured by the Pathet Lao, he could be among the hundreds that experts believe are alive today. If so, he was betrayed by the country he so proudly served. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Marilyn Grote Until all the POW/MIA(s) are back home the fight will continue to be fought in their behalf. I believe the greatest wrong is to do nothing, the greatest sin is to forget and the greatest shame of this country is to abandon its soldiers in a foreign land. ============================================ Favorite Scripture: John 3:16 http://home1.gte.net/mrgoose/walk.html My POW/MIA page: http://www.angelfire.com/oh/mlgrote/powmia.html Jeff's POW/MIA page: http://www.angelfire.com/oh/jmgrote/powmia.html Gene's POW/MIA page: http://home.earthlink.net/~agmilner/ Lon's POW/MIA page: http://members.home.net/lonthomas/index.html Operation Just Cause (OJC):http://www.ojc.org -----Original Message----- From: thewatcher1@webtv.net To: adptfrm6@ojc.org Date: Saturday, April 03, 1999 1:40 PM Subject: Adopt a POW/MIA - Form 6 Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by (thewatcher1@webtv.net) on Saturday, April 3, 1999 at 14:38:34 ---------------------------------------------- YOURNAME: ericB WEBPAGE: http://watcher1.cjb.net CAMEFROM: OJC Ring Member Site PRIMCONSID: State BRANCH: No Preference STATE: CA FULLNAME: Eric B. Krigger age=: 44 STREET1: 1340 N. Poinsettia Place STREET2: Apartment 109 CITY: Hollywood URSTATE: CA ZIPCODE: 90046-4332 COMMENTS: Often these types of forms do not recognize Hollywood as a city. In that case, feel free to use Los Angeles. I look forward to receiving info from you as I start my first POW-MIA Tribute page on my site. This is a great service you offer here & hope my little contribution can help. Thanks. ----------------------------------------------