BORLING, JOHN LORIN Name: JOhn Lorin Borling Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force Unit: 433rd TFS Date of Birth: 24 March 1940 Home City of Record: Chicago IL Date of Loss: 01 June 1966 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 213500 North 1063400 East Status (in 1973): Returnee Category: Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C Missions: 99 N 219 T Other Personnel in Incident: A. J. Myers, returnee 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: 730212 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). UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO JOHN L. BORLING Major - United States Air Force Shot Down: June 1, 1966 Released: February 12, 1973 My name is John L. Borling, Major, United States Air Force. My friends call me "JB". I entered the Air Force in June 1959 as a Cadet at The United States Air Force Academy. Receiving my commission and diploma on 5 June 1963, I was soon in pilot training at Laredo AFB, Texas. My new bride, Myrna, a high school sweetheart, and I enjoyed the year long program and the area. I was class commander and Tucson, Arizona would be my next stop with training in the F4C aircraft. I had graduated from pilot training the day before Ev Alvarez was shot down, 5 August 1964. I would leave Tucson in February 1965 as Bob Schumaker was becoming POW No. 2 in the North. George AFB, California was home until December 1965 when my Squadron, the 433rd TFS, left for Ubon, Thailand. I also left behind a three month old daughter, Lauren, a poodle, Topsy, and, of course, Myrna. On 1 June 1966, at night, after a total of 99 missions, I was shot down northeast of Hanoi. On 12 February 1973, I was released. I was in my 81st month of imprisonment. Returning to the United States, I have been afforded a welcome that was and is overwhelming. I am most grateful. Enjoying a generous leave in Riverdale, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, my wife, daughter and I are busy living life very fast or very slow. There is no middle ground. Besides normal family activity, familiar to you all, there is abundant mail to answer, traveling to do, and the anticipation of my next assignment. I'm also busy transcribing my book. I composed it mentally in North Vietnam and hope to publish it. It's called "Poems for Pilots and Other People." After a jet requalification course in Texas during the late summer and fall, I'll eventually wind up at Holloman AFB, New Mexico and a tour in the F-4. Hopefully, I'll be able to pursue a master's degree at the same time. Intermediate service schooling would be the logical follow-on after that. It's easy to see I'm service oriented. One last note of a personal nature - you might keep checking the birth announcements in Air Force Times. I've been asked to give a message. I'll offer an observation and a fact. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was very important to us in North Vietnam. As with religion, faith in country was a powerful sustaining force. But .... who wrote "The Pledge of Allegiance?" I didn't know until recently. It was Mr. Francis Bellamy (1856-1931). He wrote it in 1892. Thanks to him and to you, who support that pledge. ============================
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