We adopted our angel to watch over the POW/MIA's where ever they are.





Our POW/MIA is:

STRALEY, JOHN LEROY

Name: John Leroy Straley

Rank/Branch: E3/US Army

Unit: US Army Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company, US Army

Support Group, Vietnam

Date of Birth: 18 May 1939

Home City of Record: Beaver Falls PA

Date of Loss: 18 January 1964

Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water

Loss Coordinates: 095652N 1064925E (XR700836)

Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered

Category: 5

Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1B

Refno: 0028

Other Personnel In Incident: Bryford G. Metoyer (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 1990
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 1998.

REMARKS: AC IN SEA - 3 RECVD - NOT SUBJ - J





A Soldier's Prayer


I saw a soldier kneeling down
 for this was the first quiet place
 he had found.
He had traveled through
 jungles, rivers and mud.
 His hands were scarred and toil-worn.
 He had fought for days from night 'til morn.
 He folded his hands and looked to the sky.

God bless my men,who now lie dead. 
I know now what you have in mind
 but when You judge, please be kind. 
When they come before you 
they will be poorly dressed but will walk proudly
 for they have done their best.
 Their boots will be muddy and
 their clothes all torn.
 But these clothes they have so proudly worn.
 Their hearts will be still and cold inside, 
for they have fought their best and did so with pride.
 So please take care of them
 as they pass Your way.
 The price of freedom they have already paid.




SYNOPSIS:

 1Lt. Bryford Metoyer was the pilot and PFC John L.Straley
was the co-pilot of a UH1B helicopter flying a tactical operation
over South Vietnam. The helicopter made a pass into some enemy
positions, then experienced a tail rotor failure and crashed
over water. The operation was being conducted along the shoreline
of the South China Sea in the Kien Hua Province region.
Three of the crew were rescued or recovered, and a search for
Metoyer and Straley was conducted for about 10 days with no results.
Metoyer and Straley are listed among the missing because their
remains were never found to send home to the country they served.
For their families, the case seems clear that they died on that day.
The fact that they have no body to bury with honor is not of great significance.
For other who are missing, however, the evidence leads not to death,
but to survival. Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports
received relating to Americans still held captive in Indochina
have convinced experts that hundreds of men are still alive,
waiting for their country to rescue them.
The notion that Americans are dying without hope in the hands of
a long-ago enemy belies the idea that we left Vietnam with honor.
It also signals that tens of thousands of lost lives were a frivolous waste of our 
best men." 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."



Informative Links
Operation Just Cause

Email Addresses Of Elected Officials

A RAID on Munich













Our angel was adopted from:



Background Graphic by Beehonee