Sijan was transported to a holding compound in Vinh, North Vietnam, where he was placed in the care of two other recently captured POWs, Air Force Major Robert R. Soon thereafter, he managed to incapacitate a guard and escape into the jungle, but was recaptured several hours later. Very emaciated and in poor health, Sijan was imprisoned in an NVA camp. After managing to move several thousand feet, Sijan crawled onto a truck road along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where he was finally captured by the North Vietnamese on Christmas Day, 1967. During this entire period, Sijan was only able to move by sliding on his buttocks and back along the rocky limestone ridge and later along the jungle floor. He was without food, with very little water, and no survival kit nevertheless, he evaded enemy forces for 46 days. “During his violent ejection and very rough parachute landing on the karst ridge, Sijan had suffered a fractured skull, a mangled right hand, and a compound fracture of the left leg. Lance ejected from his stricken F-4 on Novemover Laos near the border of North Vietnam. Lance is the only graduate of the United State Air Force Academy who received the Medal of Honor. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Sijan’s extraordinary heroism and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty at the cost of his life are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. During his intermittent periods of consciousness until his death, he never complained of his physical condition and, on several occasions, spoke of future escape attempts. Sijan lapsed into delirium and was placed in the care of another prisoner. During interrogation, he was severely tortured however, he did not divulge any information to his captors. He was then transferred to another prison camp where he was kept in solitary confinement and interrogated at length. In his emaciated and crippled condition, he overpowered 1 of his guards and crawled into the jungle, only to be recaptured after several hours. Sijan was taken to a holding point for subsequent transfer to a prisoner of war camp. After being captured by North Vietnamese soldiers, Capt. During this time, he was seriously injured and suffered from shock and extreme weight loss due to lack of food. Sijan ejected from his disabled aircraft and successfully evaded capture for more than 6 weeks.
“While on a flight over North Vietnam, Capt. Here is the text of Lance’s Medal of Honor citation: On March 4, 1976, he posthumously received the Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military award, for his selflessness and courage in the face of lethal danger. Lance Peter Sijan was a United States Air Force officer and F-4 fighter pilot. This nine minute video by General Ritchie describes in detail his memories of the day Roger Locher and Bob Lodge were shot down and Roger’s rescue 23 days later. The real mission, yours and mine, business, government, civilian, military, is to protect and preserve an environment, a climate, a system, a way of life where people can be free. Isn’t it a very powerful statement about what kind of people we are? About the value that we place on life, on freedom and on the individual?.
“We come to fully understand the effort to which we will go, the resources we will commit, the risks that we will take to rescue one crew member, one American, one ally. Steve said the following about the rescue: Time on Target was scheduled for the eight planes at 9:45 a.m.įor more read “ Roger Locher Talks about Getting Shot Down & Evading for 23 Days.” I urge you to watch General Steve Richie’s video in which he describes the loss of Oyster 1 and rescure of Roger Locher. Roger Locher, was the lead Phantom in Oyster Flight, a four-aircraft flight that, together with Baltar Flight, was tasked with providing MIGCAP (MiG Combat Air Patrol) air-to-air protection in pre-strike support operations against the Paul Doumer Bridge. Robert Lodge and Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) Capt. aircraft were involved in Locher’s rescue. On June 2, 1972, twenty-three days after he was shot down 119 U.S. Major Lodge refused to eject because he had vowed never to become a prisoner of war.Ĭaptain Locher ejected and spent the next 22 days walking west in North Vietnam to get to an area where he could be rescued. This is the story of Major Robert Lodge and Captain Roger Locher getting their third MiG kill on May 10, 1972, then getting shot down by a MiG.
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