SINGLETON, JERRY ALLEN

Name: Jerry Allen Singleton
Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force
Unit: DET 1, 38th ARS
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Oklahoma City OK
Date of Loss: 06 November 1965
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 202000N 1053000E
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: CH3C

Other Personnel in Incident: Warren Lilly, returnee, pilot; Arthur Cormier,
returnee, pararescue; Sgt. Nagle, flight engineer, (burned, escaped, evaded,
rescued)

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK March 1997 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 021273 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).

JERRY A. SINGLETON
Captain - United States Air Force
Shot Down: November 6, 1965
Released: February 12, 1973

I grew up and attended high school in Oklahoma City. I attended the United
States Air Force Academy and graduated in 1962. After pilot training I was
assigned to helicopters and in September of 1965, I went to Southeast Asia to
fly CH-3C rescue helicopters (Jolly Green). Our mission was to recover
American pilots downed over North Vietnam. The Jolly Green in which I was
flying was shot down over North Vietnam on November 6, 1965 and I was
captured. I was released on February 12, 1973.

My wife, Bonnie, and I have a son, Rick, who was born after I was shot down.
Our first meeting was a very happy day for me. We are living in a new home,
the bad dream is over, the future is bright, and the three of us are very
happy together.

I will be taking about three years extended leave from the Air Force to attend
Iaw school. After that I will go back on active duty with the Air Force.

I was very pleased by the wonderfully warm welcome we received when we
returned to the United States as free men. I was also very pleased to
learn about the many people who supported or participated in efforts to make
the North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, and the other communist captors in Southeast
Asia treat us according to the Geneva Accords on Prisoners of War, and to
obtain our release. I personally believe these efforts saved many lives of
American Prisoners of War, and I am eternally grateful for your work,
thoughts, and prayers in our behalf.

I feel very fortunate now. My efforts as an American soldier in Vietnam only
required a few years from me. Many men gave their lives proudly and
unselfishly. We cannot do anything for these men now. We can't even say
"Thank you!" But we can honor them by giving time and effort to make ourselves
better citizens - and in so doing, make the United States of America an even
better country.

Our Country, the U.S.A., is not perfect, and it never will be. But it is the
best in the world today. Love it, honor it, work for it, and protect it, and
it will reward you many times over.

God bless America

December 1996
Jerry Singleton became a Chaplain after his release. He retired from the
United States Air Force as a Lt. Colonel. He and his wife Barbara reside in
Texas.

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