Our Heros

I stood and watched my flag above,
the one of red and white and blue.
My heart soared high and felt the love, 
of those who fought for me and you.

I shut my eyes and thought with fright, 
the ones who left this land so free.
Through many conflicts did they fight,
to uphold the freedoms for all to see.

Some returned with wounds inside,
They dreamt of comrades left behind,
with memories haunting of ones who died.
Of those they cannot see nor find.

The tears fell down upon my face,
with thoughts of families forever lost.
The heros of our land who left,
To fight for freedom at all cost.

My arms reach out to all of them
these heros that fought with dignity.
May they all take comfort just to know
They're not forgotten, Nor will they ever be.

by Nancy 8/23/97

The Military Man

They came from all across the land,
to fight the war in Vietnam.
These special men of pride so true,
Military men, serving the Red, White and Blue.
Through the jungles and fields they fought,
many returned, some did not.
They didn't ask the how or why,
they went to fight and many died.

When coming home to the land they loved,
they were scorned and cursed, pushed and shoved. They were met with anger for what they'd done, called vile names, and spit upon.
They saw their flag, which held their dreams,
ripped and torn, even sewed on jeans.
They were very confused, these Military men,
serving a country, that turned it's back on them.

The fight continued, the war not gone,
not in Vietnam, but Washington.
They fought for those who died,
not to have been in vain,
but to be remembered, all fifty thousand names.
The fight was long, many years in all,
the reward came, in a black granite wall.
On the wall, there inscribed,
are the names of the Military men, that died.

Now once again outside our shore,
we hear the sound of our men at war.
They fight in air, sea and field.
an operation, code named, Desert Shield.
They fight to keep and preserve world peace,
in a battleground called the Middle East.
It's not for the money, or the glory they fight,
it's for what they feel is just and right.

If prayers are answered, and hopes come true,
your Military men, soon, will return to you.
Their welcome home can be reward or pain,
will you spit on them, call them names?
Or will you pat their back and shake their hand,
show pride for them, show you understand.
Show them the reward they see so rare,
simply show them, that you care.

They fight for peace, and freedom of your land,
the Pride of America, the Military Man.

Eddie Luffman US Navy (Retired)

Source:
Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Copyright 1991 Homecoming II Project.

SYNOPSIS:
Dennis Gerard Pugh was born on February 10, 1944 in Hutchison, Kansas. He attended grade school at New Cambria and high school in Salina, where he graduated in 1962. He attended Boy's State in Wichita and went to the University of Kansas for one year before being appointed to the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. Two of his classmates at the Academy who were also shot down and remain missing - Mike Bosiljevac and Samuel Larry James - were wearing POW bracelets bearing the name of Dennis Pugh at the time they were shot down.

Dennis graduated from the Academy in 1967 and attended UCLA where he completed his master's degree in qualitative analysis-mathematical methods. From UCLA, Dennis went to Mather AFB in Sacramento where he took navigator's training. He attended Combat Crew Training and Survival schools before he went overseas.

On September 15, 1969, Dennis was sent to Ubon, Thailand, to fly F4s, something he had always dreamed of doing. While flying as weapons/systems officer on a Forward Air Controller mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos March 19, 1970, Pugh's aircraft was shot down. He and his pilot ejected safely from the aircraft. Contact was made with both crew members on the ground, and Pugh reported that the pilot was injured, but that he was in good shape. Search efforts were terminated due to darkness and intense enemy activity in the area.

When rescue efforts resumed at first light, Pugh reported being surrounded by enemy. Numerous rescue attempts were repulsed by enemy fire. Eventually, radio contact with Pugh was lost. After March 21, the pilot of the aircraft was rescued, but Pugh could not be located.

There has been no further word of Dennis Pugh. His family has worked to obtain more information on Dennis since he went missing. As the evidence increasing that Americans ARE alive in Southeast Asia, Pugh's family wonders if he is still alive. The question remains, "Where is Dennis Pugh?" There is every reason to believe that the communist governments of Southeast Asia know the answer. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing this issue inside the Beltway... The need to get specific answers is more important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70s...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the bureaucrats and keep standing on their necks (figuratively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about getting these long overdue responses. Diplomatic considerations aside... We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia.

Source:
Compiled by Homecoming II Project from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Date Compiled: 01 January 1990

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: When North Vietnam began to increase their military strength in South Vietnam, NVA and Viet Cong troops intruded on neutral Laos for sanctuary, as the Viet Minh had done during the war with the French some years before. The border road, termed the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" was used for transporting weapons, supplies and troops. Scores of American pilots were shot down trying to stop this communist traffic to South Vietnam. Fortunately, search and rescue teams in Vietnam were extremely successful and the recovery rate was high. Still, there were nearly 600 who were not rescued in Laos. Many of them went down along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the passes through the border mountains between Laos and Vietnam.

In the early morning of August 9, 1969, 1Lt. Jefferson S. Dotson, pilot, and Capt. Lee Gourley, his rear-seat co-pilot, departed Tuy Hoa Airbase located on the coast of central South Vietnam on a "Misty" Forward Air Control (FAC) mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in central Laos.

Lee Gourley had written home early that same day saying that all missions for that day had been scrubbed due to bad weather. He did not expect to have to fly that day - and he had time to write his family. Gourley had been working with Misty for some time as a volunteer. Misty FAC volunteers were chosen from among the best and most experienced pilots. He had delayed a trip to Hawaii for R & R until the Misty duties were complete in another week, knowing his time in the Vietnam arena would be short following his return. The FAC mission had come up unexpectedly.

The aircraft Dotson and Gourley flew, the F100 Super Sabre, had been specially modified a few years before to include a second crewman. The F model, introduced in 1965, had the latest technology in radar signal detectors. The initial shipment of F100F's were called "Wild Weasel I" and were an important element in several combat operations.

Gourley and Dotson were not on a Wild Weasel mission, however, and on the FAC mission this day, no bombs were loaded. They were to fly low and fast over their objective area and presumably analyze targets for future air strikes, or assess the potential need for further strikes. FAC reconnaissance missions in the traditional sense were often flown by light observation aircraft rather than fighter/bombers, but the necessary element for this mission was low altitude and high speed, as well as the ability to cover a large territory.

Although there was normally no scheduled air backup or escort on a FAC mission, and Gourley and Jefferson had none, other aircraft which happened to be in the area provide information as to what happened to Dotson and Gourley as they flew near Sepone in Savannakhet Province, Laos.

One passing aircraft intercepted a radio transmission from the F100F, "We've been hit, we're going to try to get out." Observers from the passing aircraft then saw the F100 go up in flames, and observed one fully deployed parachute. (NOTE: The standard ejection called for the rear-seater, Gourley, to make the first ejection, then the pilot, and a fully deployed chute indicated the successful ejection of a crew member.)

Dotson and Gourley were classified Missing in Action. Their families understood that they might have been captured, and like the families of others who were missing, wrote regular letters.

Lee Gourley's sister, Elzene, became active in the POW/MIA families' effort to "watchdog" U.S. Government actions regarding American Prisoners of War held in Indochina. In early 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger came to the POW/MIA families and announced that peace agreements were ready to be signed and their men would soon be home, or accounted for, if they were dead. Elzene Gourley specifically asked Kissinger about the prisoners in other countries besides Vietnam - Laos, Cambodia and China - and if his good news included the men missing there. Kissinger replied, "What do you think took us so long?"

When 591 American prisoners were released from communist prison camps in Southeast Asia in the spring of 1973, it became apparent that Kissinger had lied to the POW/MIA families. Not a single man who had been held in Laos had been released. Although the Pathet Lao had spoken publicly of American prisoners they held, and many were known to have survived their loss incidents, the U.S. had not negotiated the freedom of the American POWs held in Laos.

In 1974, the Gourleys sent a letter to Lee in care of the Prime Minister of Laos, who responded that the letter would be conveyed later to their son. The U.S. State Department said the Prime Minister might not know English and probably an error was made in translation.

In 1976, the Gourleys wrote to Lee in care of Prince Souvanna Phouma in Vientiane, Laos. He wrote back that he would give their letter to the "central committee" to be sent to the "one for whom (it was) intended." The U.S. State Department ordered the Gourleys to quit writing Lee in care of the Lao.

Following the war, refugees fled Southeast Asia and brought with them stories of Americans still held prisoner and other information relating to Americans missing in their homelands. By 1989, the number of such reports approaches 10,000, and most authorities reluctantly have concluded that many Americans must still be alive and held captive.

It is certainly reasonable to speculate that Gourley and Dotson survived to be captured. Only the communist goverments of Southeast Asia could say if they are among those hundreds of Americans thought to be still alive, and they deny any knowledge of Americans missing in their countries.

Lee Gourley and Jefferson Dotson pledged to "keep the faith" with their country. Have we kept faith with the men who are still fighting an old war in our names? What would Lee Gourley and Jefferson Dotson say?

(Laurent Lee Gourley graduated from the U. S. Air Force Academy in 1966.)