Memorial Day and Veterans Day are well-known patriotic holidays, but not many people are aware that the third Friday in September marks the official annual observance of National POW/MIA Recognition Day.
In Union County, the heroes who never came home were mourned and quietly celebrated for their sacrifice with a special event sponsored by the Wings of Freedom Foundation in partnership with the Blairsville VA Clinic on Friday, Sept. 19.
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Since World War II, 81,000 American soldiers remain Missing in Action. Dog tags representing them adorned one of the tables at the “Tribute to Heroes” event, which allowed for a handful of these missing men’s stories to be shared.
There was a particular focus on the missing of Vietnam. Dozens of men from Georgia are still unaccounted for from that era of conflict, and one of them is Capt. John Smallwood.
Born and raised in Marietta, Smallwood graduated from Marietta High School in 1963 before going on to attend Auburn University. He then went into the United States Air Force, where he became a weapons officer.
Smallwood did multiple tours in Vietnam, totaling close to 100 missions. On June 2, 1972 – a year before being announced MIA – Smallwood and Maj. Phillip “Phil” Handley shot down a MiG-19, accomplishing the only confirmed supersonic gun kill in history. The History Channel’s “Dogfights” series recreated the battle.
On June 16, 1973, Smallwood and Capt. Samuel Cornelius were in the process of marking an enemy bridge when their F-4E was shot down. No visible evidence of ejection was spotted, and there was no radio communication or beeper signals from the pair. Search and rescue efforts lasted until June 19, when it was determined survival was unlikely.
Greg Owen, a Vietnam veteran himself, became neighbors with Smallwood’s family and got to know them – and, by proxy, who Smallwood was. He organized the restoration of Smallwood’s 1967 GTO by Clyde Argo. The car was on display at the Blairsville VA, having also been featured as part of the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals Car Show in November 2019.
“It’s my honor – I won’t say pleasure; it’s my honor,” admitted Owen, who served from 1970 through 1973. He also brought the car’s title and a scrapbook of photos of Smallwood and his family.
Trevor McIntyre founded the Wings of Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit traveling military aviation history museum based in Morganton. As part of the foundation’s efforts, McIntyre “finds history” on eBay and tries to keep those stories alive with the museum.
McIntyre collected many of the items on display Friday, which included everything from a Purple Heart and pin belonging to the missing or their families to a telegram that notified a mother her son had gone missing in action.
Often, these sorts of items are put into scrapbooks or held onto until family members pass away. Faced with the option of “rehoming” the stories of the missing – who often weren’t close with or never known by the next of kin – or throwing them away, the nobler course of action leads to people like McIntyre recovering what remains of a legacy and putting it on display.
“The families never knew what happened to their loved ones, so … we have to do everything we can to ensure they’re never forgotten,” McIntyre said of the missing.
Fifty years ago, Susan Crosby was a teen when her mother worked as a psychiatric nurse at a VA hospital in Miami. A veterans organization shared the building with the hospital, and Crosby’s mother purchased a POW/MIA bracelet.
“(She) just randomly picked this out of a box and gave it to me. No relation, nobody that we ever knew,” Crosby recalled.
That bracelet was engraved with the name of Col. Carter Luna, and ever since a decade ago when she decided to research him and his fate, Crosby has felt it her life’s mission to keep his memory alive.
On March 10, 1969, Luna and his backseat pilot ejected out of their F-4D Phantom after coming under fire in Laos. While the pilot was rescued later that afternoon, Luna was never heard from again.
Investigative reports and interviews with former Vietnamese soldiers indicate that Luna was shot and killed when encountered by the enemy, but due to discrepancies and the passage of time between those investigations and the war, the information is hazy at best.
“I’ve always felt there was a slight possibility that he was captured and was a POW. Based on recent research I’ve done, I feel even more strongly about that,” Crosby revealed.
Crosby returns to Laos every year to search for a burial site or any leads that may result in Luna’s recovery. Nowadays, she has little hope that Luna’s remains will be found due to environmental conditions and land development, and she firmly believes there is no chance Luna is still alive.
In 2018, Crosby got in contact with Luna’s family. She met his wife, and even at 94 years old, Luna’s widow has clear recollections of him and what happened in the aftermath of his disappearance. She and Crosby are in close contact to this day.
In the time she has dedicated to learning about Luna, his life, and the mystery surrounding his death, Crosby has come to feel a profound connection to him.
“We were driving back to the airport, and I was just overcome with this emotion out of nowhere, and I just started crying because I felt guilty that I was leaving,” she said of a 2019 trip to a potential burial site. “It might sound a little strange, but I felt guilty that I was able to leave here, and he’s never left.”
This is the kind of passion dedicated individuals bring to remembering those who never came home – the kind of passion regularly on display at the Wings of Freedom Foundation. For more information, visit the foundation’s website at www.uh1huey.com.
