BORLING, JOHN LORIN

Name: JOhn Lorin Borling
Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force
Unit: 433rd TFS
Date of Birth: 24 March 1940
Home City of Record: Chicago IL
Date of Loss: 01 June 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 213500 North 1063400 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C
Missions: 99 N 219 T
Other Personnel in Incident: A. J. Myers, returnee

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: 730212 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

JOHN L. BORLING
Major - United States Air Force
Shot Down: June 1, 1966
Released: February 12, 1973

My name is John L. Borling, Major, United States Air Force. My friends call
me "JB". I entered the Air Force in June 1959 as a Cadet at The United
States Air Force Academy. Receiving my commission and diploma on 5 June
1963, I was soon in pilot training at Laredo AFB, Texas. My new bride,
Myrna, a high school sweetheart, and I enjoyed the year long program and
the area. I was class commander and Tucson, Arizona would be my next stop
with training in the F4C aircraft. I had graduated from pilot training the
day before Ev Alvarez was shot down, 5 August 1964. I would leave Tucson in
February 1965 as Bob Schumaker was becoming POW No. 2 in the North.

George AFB, California was home until December 1965 when my Squadron, the
433rd TFS, left for Ubon, Thailand. I also left behind a three month old
daughter, Lauren, a poodle, Topsy, and, of course, Myrna. On 1 June 1966, at
night, after a total of 99 missions, I was shot down northeast of Hanoi. On
12 February 1973, I was released. I was in my 81st month of imprisonment.
Returning to the United States, I have been afforded a welcome that was and
is overwhelming. I am most grateful.

Enjoying a generous leave in Riverdale, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, my
wife, daughter and I are busy living life very fast or very slow. There is
no middle ground. Besides normal family activity, familiar to you all, there
is abundant mail to answer, traveling to do, and the anticipation of my next
assignment. I'm also busy transcribing my book. I composed it mentally in
North Vietnam and hope to publish it. It's called "Poems for Pilots and
Other People."

After a jet requalification course in Texas during the late summer and fall,
I'll eventually wind up at Holloman AFB, New Mexico and a tour in the F-4.
Hopefully, I'll be able to pursue a master's degree at the same time.
Intermediate service schooling would be the logical follow-on after that.
It's easy to see I'm service oriented. One last note of a personal nature -
you might keep checking the birth announcements in Air Force Times.

I've been asked to give a message. I'll offer an observation and a fact. The
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was very important to us in North Vietnam.
As with religion, faith in country was a powerful sustaining force. But ....
who wrote "The Pledge of Allegiance?" I didn't know until recently. It was
Mr. Francis Bellamy (1856-1931). He wrote it in 1892. Thanks to him and to
you, who support that pledge.

November 1996
M/General John Borling is still in the United States Air Force.

---

Use your Browser's BACK function to return to the PREVIOUS page

---