I am to young to have any memories of the Vietnam war, but I am not to young to care. I am proud to have served with the U.S. Navy as a SeaBee From 1984 through 1992, During that time I got to make many good friends several of whom served during Vietnam. I remember the stories of friendships and of heartbreak. I cannot imagine how it would feel to have experienced all that. The emotion seems so powerful when someone remembers. The thing is that no matter how scared our people were they were sent to do a job and they were going to do it! The feeling of pride for their country was enough to carry them through all the nightmares of being in a strange land with the spectre of death in the back of their minds all the time. Now imagine that the country you are so proud of is abandoning you. The war is over but you are still here, imprisoned but alive. You don't worry to much, after all they will come. Years pass and your still not home WHY? Did they forget about me? But I am a United States fighting man they can't forget about me I am the reason for Freedom, I was told to come here to protect it. The job is done now I want to go home!!!!!
Sadly this is a reality many of the people sent to defend our freedoms never returned. To many gave their lives and will never return but at least they are buried in the soil of the country that they loved. What about those that were left alive? Or killed but not returned? Dont they deserve the same? To be home.....
I read once that we don't build monuments anymore we build web pages. Here is my monument to one of Americas Heros Lt. Daniel V. Borah and to all those who have sacraficed for my freedom.

I will never forget!

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You are listening to "The Battle of Evermore" I felt it was appropriate

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Lt. Daniel Vernor Borah Jr.

         


Rank/Branch: 03/US Navy (Reserve)
Unit: Attack Squadron 155, USS ORISKANY (CV-34)
Date Of Birth: 18 June 1946
Home City of Record: Olney Illinois
Date of loss: 24 September 1972
Country of loss: South Vietnam
Loss coordinates : 164635N 1072035E (YD40540)
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Category: 1
Aircraft: A7B
Remarks: ALIVE IN CHUTE...NO MORE CONTACT

On September 24,1972, Lt.Daniel Borah launched from the USS ORISKANY in his A7B CorsairII subsonic attack plane as the flight leader of a two plane strike against North Vietnamese troops entrenched in bunkers northwest of the city of Quang Tri, South Vietnam. They were directed to the target area by a Forward Air Controller aircraft (FAC).
Lt. Borah and his wingman began their initial bombing run as briefed. Due to an improper switch setting, the wingman expended his entire ordnance load on the first run instead of the several runs that they were briefed for. He then proceeded to a holding pattern at 13,000 feet over the target to observe Borah's succeeding bombing runs.
During the second run, Borah's aircraft was seen to draw a barrage of 37mm anti-aircraft fire. His wingman radioed for evasive action, then almost immediately saw Borah's plane burst into flames.
The FAC saw Borah eject safely from the aircraft and later established radio contact with him for 10-15 seconds.........No other contact was received during the following two days of search and rescue efforts.
Intelligence reports indicate that North Vietnamese soldiers removed Borah's parachute from a tree within 30 minutes of his landing, He is believed to have been captured alive.
When the war ended, and 591 Americans were released from Vietnamese prisons, Borah was not among them. The Vietnamese deny knowledge of his fate. As thousands of reports of Americans still alive in captivity accumulate, Borah's family must wonder if he is still alive waiting for his country to bring him home. Wether Borah is still alive is unknown. What is certain, however, is that someone knows what happened to him. It's time we got answers and brought our men home.

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The following information is from the testimony of Lt. Borah's sister to the House Subcommitte on Military Personnel to read the entire text click here.

"Since Dan's shoot-down we have been told continually that there was no voice transmission from the ground. Every report sent to us stated " no voice contact"." According to the FAC, Dan safely ejected from his aircraft and was alive in his parachute. From his chute Dan radioed "Nail so, Saddleback One in chute". According to a case narrative dated June 5th 1989, for 30 seconds after the chute was down aircraft personnel monitered" several short-burst manual beeper transmitions". This puts Dan alive on the ground.

An intelligence summary associated to his name reads "Gomers all around" we can only surmise that it was his way of announcing his imminent capture. These were his last words to U.S. Forces...

On October 19, 1972 Lt, Borah's status was changed from MIA to POW....On what information was this change based???

Due to the Missing Service Personnel Act of 1942 the Government was allowed to declare Lt. Borah dead based solely on the passage of time.
Date of casualty: Tuesday July 26 1977
Casualty type:(A4) Hostile,died while captured

In july 1991 several photographs, Said to be Dan Borah appeared.....What is going on?????

Lt.Borah's name appears on no fewer than 7 lists. The first is the "Kissinger List" Jan 1973, Dr. Kissinger presented this list to Vietnamise negotiators in Paris.It contains the names of 80 known POW's that were omitted from the "official" list of acknowledged POW's from Hanoi.

The next is dated June 1973 and titled" Missing and Captured U.S. Military Personnel" discovered by Senator Charles Grassley. This list contains 67 names, among those names was POW Robert White who was unknown to the Vietnamise in Jan 1973 and home in June 1973.......

The next is a memo, July 3 1973, written to the Chief U.S. Delegation Four Party Joint Military Team. The memo dealt with four categories of Prisoners and Missing.

Category 1 : Last known to be alive Dan's original classification
Category 2 :Probably Died in Captivity but name does not appear on official Died in Captivity list
Category 3: Died in Incident and enemy should have some knowledge
Category 4 : Probably Captured Dan is listed in this category

The Oct 11, 1979 list of "Citizens and dependants, captured, missing, detained or voluntarily remained in Southeast Asia, accounted for and un accounted for from Jan 1, 1961 through current date" lists Lt. Borah as Prisoner of War

Another list titled U.S. Military Personnel who Died Captured in the Vietnam War 1957-1985, lists Dan as " Hostile died Captured". This list contains 113 names........

Dan was one of the original 119 Vessey Discrepancy Cases. After many questionable revisions that list now numbers 55. Among those names is Dan Borah.

Another memo dated Jan 1992, titled "Stored Remains Vietnam" evaluated the status of each of the original 119 Discrepancy cases. Lt. Borah was catagorized as "individual with circumstances of loss which suggest storage". In 1992 the U.S. government no longer entertained the possibility of live POW's they were only interested in remains.

It is believed Dan was taken alive, transported across the DMZ North to known holding facilities in the RonRon area on Quang Binh Province.It was here that his fate was to be decided. There are 2 possibilities one was that he be transported to Hanoi and held for return. The second, most probable, taken as labor to the ThachBan/LongDai facilities.This information came from Jerry Mooney a former National Security Agency analysist on July 26 1991.

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Unlike "MIAs" from other wars, most of the nearly 2500 men and women who remain missing in Southeast Asia can be accounted for. If even one was left alive (and many authorities estimate the numbers to be in the hundreds), we have failed as a nation until and unless we do everything possible to secure his freedom and bring him home.

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Lt. Daniel Vernor Borah awarded the Purple Heart 25 October 1997

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The following is a copy of a letter I sent to Illinois Officials:

Dear Senator,
I am writing as a citizen of these United States to ask what YOU are doing to expedite the return of Lt.Daniel V. Borah from Vietnam.
In case you are not familiar with this case I will provide you with some information: Case#1927 Lt. Daniel Vernor Borah Jr. born 18 June 1946 from the town of Olney Illinois was shot down over South Vietnam at coordinates 164635N 1072035E (YD140540) on 24 Sept 1972. Lt. Borah is known to have escaped his aircraft and contact was made with him from his parachute and from the ground. In fact his last words to U.S. forces are listed as "Gomers all around" seeming to signify his eminent capture. Currently there are over 4000 documents on file concerning Lt. Borah so obviously he is not lost or forgotten, his name is included on a list of known POW's that were not officially acknowledged by the Vietnamese Government. With information like this how can we, as a nation,abandon him? When the war ended, 591 Americans were released from Vietnamese prisons Lt. Borah was NOT among them. The Vietnamese deny any knowledge of his fate, how an this be??? As late as 1991 photographs believed to be Lt. Borah have surfaced, along with thousands of reports of Americans still alive in captivity. Whether Lt.Borah is still alive is unknown. What is known is that someone, somewhere knows what happened to him! Doesn't his family deserve the truth? Doesn't Lt. Borah deserve to come home? If nothing else to be buried in the soil of his home that he fought for? I as an American Citizen demand an answer to these questions. I will continue to write until the last American is home. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

I included my street address and the URL to this page I will post the responses as they are recieved.

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