A man is never dead until he is forgotten

Hello fellow Internet surfer and welcome to my home page. I'm very glad that you made it this far . . . and I hope that you'll stick around long enough to get to know just a little bit more about me and why I am here. These days, acquaintances that begin in cyberspace are often the most real, vivid, and long-lasting - and maybe that will be true of us. There are many ways to navigate to the different pages, however, I think you will find the easiest and quickest is to use the NEXT and BACK buttons at the bottom of each page. I hope that when you are finished you will adopt a POW.

I am a retired Air Force fighter jock, with over two hundred and fifty combat missions, both in Korea and Vietnam. On March 22, 1968, while on a mission in Southern Laos, I was zapped by the North Vietnamese Communists and became their guest in the various resorts in Laos and in and around Hanoi, North Vietnam. Apparently, I complained too much about the service, or lack thereof, and spent almost four of the next five years in solitary confinement. During this time, I had the honor of being the commander (Senior Ranking Officer) of those captured in South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. In our group we had State Department employees, members of all service branches, and even two West German nurses, one of which was a lovely young lady named Monika. You must admit, this was a very unusual and diverse group, but it was the finest command I ever had the honor of commanding in my 26 years of service. We were known as "Hawk's Heros."


"Freedom has a taste to those who fight
and almost die for it"

Were POWs Abandoned?

Until 1990, I believed that all the POWs were released during Operation Homecoming in 1973. I maintained this belief until 1990. In fact, I gave many, many talks around the country about the POW issue. My closing remarks were always the same: "All the POWs are home that are coming home and the rest (MIAs) are dead".
You see, I knew that my government would not lie to me,however, in early 1990, after talking to many family members of POWs and MIAs, I began having doubts. What followed was a thorough re-examination of the whole issue. The more I listened instead of talking, the more I read, then the more the odds swung towards the fact that YES, there were POWs left behind (abandoned) and YES, there was evidence that some might still be alive. Since that time I have spoken repeatedly of the need to learn the truth and my position has been published and/or quoted by the media many times. The San Antonio Express-News printed an Ops Ed piece of mine which can be read on the next page.

What Do You Think?
I guess that the best - and fastest - way to really get you familiar and up to speed on the issue is for you to visit a few other Web sites that discuss the issue in detail. There are also many excellent books on the subject: Kiss The Boys Goodbye by Monika Jensen-Stevenson & William Stevenson, Soldiers of Misfortune by James D. Sanders, Mark A. Sauter, and R. Cort Kirkwood and The Bamboo Cage by Nigel Cawthorne. I know and have worked with all these people. They believe very strongly, as I do, that we are a long way from the truth and that measures must be taken to prevent this from ever happening again. Unless we all get involved and let the "Inside the Beltway" group know how we feel, I'll bet any of you out there a steak dinner that it will happen again. So here goes . . . hitch yourself up to one of those cyberspace trolleys and visit The POW/MIA Forum then journey over to The National Alliance of Families and on the way back, stop in and visit All POW-MIA . I think you will find it an interesting trip. After all this you might want to zip over to The Meadow Years and journey through the 70's with my old friend Gunny Fallon, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for introducing me to and guiding me through the mysterious world of HTML.

Let's help the abandoned POWs


And just maybe a light will shine at their end of the tunnel.
The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue has festered for almost twenty-five years. Perhaps if you reviewed some of the discrepancy cases where the MIA's were classified as "last known alive", maybe you might understand why some of us are still pushing for a full accounting. By full accounting I do not mean that each and every MIA must be found...that would be impossible. It does mean that where there is a reasonable doubt about whether the individual survived the incident, every avenue should be pursued to achieve accountability. In my opinion, much of the accountability issue has been buried in secrecy. The excuse of national security keeps raising its ugly head..come on now, after twenty five years? At any rate, the third pages contains several very troubling discrepancy cases.

As far as politics goes, I consider myself an American Eagle, long before there were Hawk's or Doves. Page 4 contains some beautiful words from some of my cyberspace friends about the issue. Would recommend a box of Kleenex be readily available.
The last page is a thoroughly researched article by Mr. Bob Thompson. Bob did a fantastic job of researching the case of Major Pete Matthes, the author of the infamous GX 2527 symbol. I think you will find the article fascinating and if it does not give you a madder than hell feeling, you are in the wrong place
You can make a difference and help bring the boys home where they belong. Click on the bracelet and get involved and possibly he won't have to pace his cell anymore.

They also deserve a Homecoming like the rest of us had during "Operation Homecoming" in 1973


Hawk greets his family at March AFB on March 24, 1973


 
Awarded
TOP VET SITE


Modified January 13,1998