UYEYAMA, TERRY JUN

Name: Terry Jun Uyeyama
Rank/Branch: United States Air Force/O3
Unit: 14 TRS
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record:
Date of Loss: 18 May 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 173000 North 1063200 East (Quang Binh near Dong Hoi on
coast)
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: RF4C
Missions: 101
Other Personnel in Incident: Tommy Gist, PFOD, loss coordinates different
Refno: 1181

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).

TERRY J. UYEYAMA
Lieutenant Colonel - United States Air Force
Shot Down: May 18, 1968
Released: March 14, 1973

A native of San Francisco, Lt. Col. Uyeyama considers his hometown to be
Leonia, New Jersey, where he attended elementary and high school. He
graduated from Brown University with the Class of '57 and entered active
duty in the Air Force in February, 1958.

Following graduation from pilot training in 1959, Lt. Col. Uyeyama flew with
four major Air Commands: Strategic Air Command, Air Training Command, Air
Defense Command and Tactical Air Command. In October, 1967 he was deployed
with the 14th TRS from Bergstrom AFB to Udorn, Thailand. Altogether, he flew
101 missions.

Terry and his wife Kay have three daughters: Jody Lynn, age 12; Wendy Lea, age
8; Sherry Jaye, age 7; all born in Texas. He plans to continue his flying
career.

The returning POWs have stressed repeatedly how their devotion to and faith in
God, Country and Family had played such an important role in their Odyssey of
survival. These concepts were, indeed, the core of my survival. However, being
a relative newcomer to this group, I also gathered great inspiration and
perserverance from the strength and vitality shown by the men who had accrued
unbelievable seniority in captivity and who had endured greater, prolonged
suffering. I was proud to be among them - to be a member of an everlasting
brotherhood steeled by the common rigors of survival and perseverance from
Communist inhumanity and bound by the loyalty we had for each other.

But the greatest pride comes from the by-products of all those years of
suffering and waiting - the dignity and honor adorning each of my colleagues
as they deplaned at Clark Air Base and their heartrending expletives which
brought out the best in our Country. National patriotism and pride were
resurrected. It wasn't old-fashioned to express these emotions after all. The
vociferous minority ebbed silently to the background, and the majority found
that it still had a heart and soul. I felt this pride most deeply, when, after
addressing a high school assembly, the students came up to the stage to tell
me unabashedly, "I'm proud to be an American."

December 1996
Terry Uyeyama retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He
lives in Texas.

---

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

---