Profiles of Valor: Capt Lance Sijan, USAF

On his 67th combat mission, November 9, 1967, then 1st Lt Sijan and his F-4C pilot, Lt Col John Armstrong, were hitting targets along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, a major resupply line for the North Vietnamese Army. As they made their second low target pass, they were hit by anti-aircraft fire, causing an onboard explosion. Armstrong took their Phantom to about 10,000 feet before it lost all flight controls, rolled back toward the ground, and ultimately crashed in the dense jungle. At the time, no parachutes were observed, and no emergency beacons were detected.

However, early in the morning two days later, voice contact was established with 25-year-old Sijan by a pilot flying over the crash site. After confirming contact, the Air Force launched a massive search and rescue effort to find Sijan.
Despite his severe injuries and with little food and water, Sijan successfully evaded capture for 46 days until Christmas Day, when North Vietnamese soldiers found him unconscious near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, about three miles from where he had been shot down. He was initially placed into a nearby POW holding camp and, despite his condition, managed to disable one of his guards and crawl back into the jungle. He was captured again several hours later and beaten as a result.
Sijan was then transported to another POW holding camp where he was cared for by two USAF prisoners, Maj Robert Craner and Capt Guy Gruters. They would later confirm he had been severely tortured by his captors and that he had revealed no information other than his name, date of birth, service, rank, and service number in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The three POWs were then transported to the infamous Hoa Lo prison (a.k.a. “Hanoi Hilton”), where Sijan told his fellow POWs details of his ejection and evasion and even enlisted their support to escape again, despite his severely disabled condition.