HORINEK, RAMON ANTON

Name: Ramon Anton Horinek
Rank/Branch: United States Air Force/04
Unit:
Date of Birth: 09 December 1932
Home City of Record: Atwood KS
Date of Loss: 25 October 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 211300 North 1054800 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno:

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: 730314 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).

RAMON A. HORINEK
Major - United States Air Force
Shot Down: October 24, 1967
Released: March 18, 1973

I was born on a cold December day on the 9th in the year 1932. That makes me
41 years old now. My brother Leroy, was a year and a half younger than I, so
together we got into a lot of trouble as kids. I broke my brother's arm, we
set the house on fire, broke all the windows out of the chicken house, set
the wheat field on fire and many other things too numerous to mention. We
were just two boys growing up and giving our mother more gray hair than she
deserved.

I became interested in flying at the age of 12 and after 8 hours of
instruction, I was ready to solo, but was unable to because of the minimum
age requirement of 16. My father, whom I admire very much, earned his
private pilot's license soon after that. By the way, he is one of the best
pilots I have ever flown with. I played football and was on the rifle team
at St. Joseph Military Academy, now known as Thomas Moore Prep. In 1953 I
graduated from McCook Junior College and was married. During our marriage we
were blessed with six children. That union was dissolved before my tour in
Vietnam. Upon my return I met Judi Fitton while on a speaking tour. She
asked to speak with me as to the whereabouts of her husband, MIA Lt. Col.
Crosley J. Fitton, Jr. Our efforts and those of the government proved
fruitless and he was declared presumed Killed in Action. We found we had
much in common. We shared the military way of life, we both needed each
other, our children - my six and her three - needed us, and in a small way
I will be able to pay a debt to a fellow fighter pilot who made the ultimate
sacrifice for his country. We were married at the stroke of midnight,
December 31, 1973.

In 1961 I volunteered for a research project on the physical and
physiological effects and operational systems involved in long space trips.
Two of us spent one month seated in a capsule.

In 1964 I volunteered to go to Vietnam. During my second tour I was attached
to ground units. I again offered to stay on a third tour with 200 missions
as my goal. I was shot down on my 32nd mission and spent the next five years
in prison camps in North Vietnam.

During that time I made several observations. Communist North Vietnam is a
land of filth, naked light bulbs, loud speakers, and propaganda meetings. It
is a land where the churches are used to spread the philosophies of Marx
instead of Christ; a land where truth has no meaning and democracy, no
place. As for the eight years I spent in Southeast Asia, I do not regret one
moment of it. I felt that our cause was just, our motives honorable. It was
worth the sacrifice.

I have lived by one motto, and that is - I am an American fighting man, I
will go where I must go, fight where I must fight, die if I must die, but I
will never betray my God, my country, my President, my fellow countrymen, or
my fellow fighting men. I say NEVER. Engrave these words on your hearts,
because that's what our country expects out of each one of us.

December 1996
NAM POW's spells the name HORENIK.
Ramon Horenik retired from the United States Air Force as a Lt. Colonel. He
resides in Texas.

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