HEEREN, JEROME DONALD

Name: Jerome Donald Heeren
Rank/Branch: O3/United States Air Force
Unit: 335th TFS
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Brookings SD
Date of Loss: 11 September 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 213300 North 1063000 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4E
Missions: 312
Other Personnel in Incident: Brian Ratzlaff, returnee, pilot

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: 730329 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

JEROME D. HEEREN
Captain - United States Air Force
Shot Down: September 11, 1972
Released: March 29, 1973

I have been on active duty in the Air Force since June 1968. After
completion of navigator training I became a crew member of the F-4E and have
been assigned to the following units: 4456 CCTS Davis Monthan AFB Arizona;
421 TFS Danang AB Vietnam; and the 335 TFS Seymour Johnson AFB North
Carolina. My last squadron the 335th of Seymour Johnson was deployed to Ubon
Thailand in July 1972 and I was flying with that unit when I was shot down
on 11 September 1972. I was captured that same day about 40 miles northeast
of Hanoi and was held as a POW until March 29, 1973.

My stay in Hanoi was very brief and I am trying to forget about it as
quickly as I can. When I think of the faith, courage, strength, and
devotion to America displayed by those POWs who spent so many long years in
Hell, I am awed beyond words and I tend to think of my own experience as
being insignificant beyond mention. Those guys are my heroes.

December 1996
Jerome and his wife Leanna reside in Georgia.

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