MASTIN, RONALD LAMBERT

Name: Ronald Lambert Mastin
Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force
Unit: 11th TRS
Date of Birth: 14 September 1940
Home City of Record: Beloit KS
Date of Loss: 16 January 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 214600 North 1062100 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: RF4C
Missions: 34
Other Personnel in Incident: Thomas Storey, pilot, 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: 730304 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

RONALD LAMBERT MASTIN
Captain - United States Air Force
Shot Down: January 16, 1967
Released: March 4, 1973

I was born in Beloit, Kansas on 14 September 1940, attending the public
school system there through high school. After graduating from the
University of Kansas Business School in the spring of 1963, I married my
wife, Susan, in September of that year and came on active duty in the United
States Air Force in November. Susan and I met while students at K. U. Susan
had grown up in California's San Fernando Valley and attended high school in
Prairie Village, Kansas. We lived in Lubbock, Texas until January 1965 while
I attended pilot training. Next came three months at Shaw AFB, South
Carolina attending RF-4C crew training and then sixteen months at RAF
Alconbury, England. While in England, Susan presented me with a son, Mike.
Susan and Mike stayed in the Kansas City area when I went to Southeast Asia
(SEA) in October 1966. Flying from Udorn, Thailand on our 34th photo
reconnaissance mission, my front seater, then Capt. Tom Storey and I were
shot down on 16 January, 1967, northeast of Hanoi.

My interests include almost all types of competitive and spectator sports
and my youth was passed mainly in engaging in athletic activities. I am a
member of the Delta Upsilon social fraternity and the Protestant faith. My
reaction to the homecoming which we POW's received is beyond my ability to
express. I hope and pray that the American people who have given us this
tremendous homecoming realize and will acknowledge the honorable service for
country which hundreds of thousands of Americans who served in SEA
performed. May they not forget the nearly 50,000 men who lost their lives in
the war and especially the men who returned with their lives but must carry
a physical disability for the remainder of their lives. I hope and pray also
that people realize and understand the unpleasantness of the uncertainty
which wives and families of men missing have to go through. Let us all never
forget that we live in the most wonderful country in the world, that we
defend freedoms which most people the world over can't even realize and as a
united country under the finest president we have ever had, an even better
United States can be built.

December 1996
Ronald Martin retired from the United States Air Force Reserve as a Lt.
Colonel. He and his wife Dawn reside in Georgia.

---

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

---