ABBOTT, JOSEPH S.
Name: Joseph S. Abbott
Rank/Branch: O3/United States Air Force
Unit: 333rd TFS
Date of Birth: 16 August 1934
Home City of Record: Alloway NJ
Date of Loss: 30 April 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 210000North 1045500 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D
Missions: 28
Other Personnel in Incident: none
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS: 730218 RELEASED BY DRV
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).
UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO
JOSEPH S. ABBOT, JR.
Major - United States Air Force
Shot Down: April 30, 1967
Released: February 18, 1973
Major Joseph S. Abbot, Jr. was born in Salem, New Jersey on 16 August 1934.
In 1941 the Abbot family moved to Alloway, New Jersey to start a dairy farm.
Major Abbot attended the local grammar and high school. He studied
engineering at the University of Virginia and then enlisted in the Aviation
Cadets in April 1954. During his years in the service he also attended the
University of California at Los Angeles, and the San Fernando Valley State
College, California. Since he has been in the Air Fo rce he has flown nine
different aircraft and has 3100 hours flight time to his credit.
He flew the F-105, called "The Thud." On 30 April 1967 he was shot down by a
Mig on his 28th mission over North Vietnam. He was listed as MIA from that
day on until December 1969 when Hanoi released his name--a wonderful
Christmas present for his family. In September 1970, his family got a
glimpse of him on TV when Hanoi released the 1969 Christmas film. Letters
from him were few and far between. Each letter was the size of a postcard.
He was allowed to write only on the lines (of which there were six), so he
was able to say very little. From his capture to his release, the family
received only eighteen of these short letters. Many letters and packages
sent to him were never delivered, and all of them sent since April 1971
were returned.
Major Abbot is married to Joan. They have been married seventeen years and
have seven children, Joanie 15, Dorothy 14, Joseph 13, Daniel 12, Charles
and Elizabeth 9, and Matthew 6. The Abbotts live near both their parents in
a seven room farmhouse on five acres of land three miles out of the town of
Alloway where they both grew up. Joe Abbot is a quiet, slow, loving,
reassuring man. His family consider him a very special guy. He enjoys his
children thoroughly, be it playing in the snow, fishin g, or bathing them in
the tub. He does not consider himself a hero, but liked his country and saw
a job to be done and did it to the best of his ability.
Their youngest son, Matthew, was only a week old when Major Abbot shipped
out, but in the spring of 1972, after twenty years absence, Joan returned to
nursing school, for Matthew was now in kindergarten and Joan wanted to fill
her time. Her days were busy. Every day she drove the 120 mile round trip
from Alloway to Philadelphia General Hospital's School of Nursing, attended
six to eight hours of classes and returned home to shop, cook, clean, study
and care for her seven children.
While he was a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, Major Abbot says he
survived because of his faith in God, country and his family. He says, "Our
way of life proved better if not the best by comparison with the people and
life "over there"-- which was unbelievable! My faith and strength varied due
to time and the "V" (Vietnamese) efforts at degradation and propaganda, but
they never broke or failed."
November 1996
Joseph Abbott retired from the United States Air Force as a Lt. Colonel. He
and Joan reside in New Jersey.
Use your Browser's BACK function to return to the PREVIOUS page