LEMON, JEFFREY CHARLES

Name: Jeffrey Charles Lemon
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 13 August 1943
Home City of Record: Flossmoor IL (family in Arizona)
Date of Loss: 25 April 1971
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 153700N 1065700E (YC090273)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Refno: 1743
Other Personnel In Incident: Walter H. Sigafoos (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1991 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:

SYNOPSIS: The Phantom, used by Air Force, Marine and Navy air wings, served
a multitude of functions including fighter-bomber and interceptor, photo and
electronic surveillance. The two man aircraft was extremely fast (Mach 2),
and had a long range (900 - 2300 miles, depending on stores and mission
type). The F4 was also extremely maneuverable and handled well at low and
high altitudes. Most pilots considered it one of the "hottest" planes
around.

Capt. Jeffrey C. Lemon was the pilot and 1Lt. Walter H. Sigafoos III the
weapons/systems officer of an F4D fighter jet sent on a combat mission over
Laos on april 25, 1971. During the mission, the aircraft was shot down about
15 miles northeast of the city of Ban Phone in Saravane Province. Both
crewmen were declared missing in action.

In 1973, the prisoners of war held in Vietnam were released. Laos was not
part of the Paris agreement which ended American involvement in Indochina
and no prisoners held by the Lao were ever released. Nearly 600 Americans
were left behind, forgotten and abandoned by the country they proudly
served.

In 1975, refugees fled Southeast Asia and brought with them stories of
Americans prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. The
reports continued to flow in as the years passed. By 1990, over 10,000
reports had been received. Some sources have passed multiple polygraph
tests, but the U.S. Government still insists that proof is not available.

Meanwhile, the Lao voice dismay about the large numbers of their people that
were killed and the fact that much of their once beautiful homeland now is
cratered like the moon from bombs dropped by American planes. They seem to
want acknowledgement that, in bombing enemy sanctuaries in Laos, we also did
great harm to the Lao people.

We are haunted by the secret war we conducted in Laos through the lives of
the Americans we left behind. Some of them are still alive. What must they
be thinking of us?

Jeffrey Lemon was promoted to the rank of Major and Walter Sigafoos to the
rank of Captain during the period they were maintained missing.


Jeffrey's mother, Mary Carol, is active with the National League of Families
and lives in the suburbs outside Chicago.

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