KIRK, THOMAS H.
Name: Thomas H. Kirk
Rank/Branch: United States Air Force/O5
Unit:
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Portsmounth VA
Date of Loss: 28 Oct 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 205000 North 10547000 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D
Missions: 166
Served in Korea
Other Personnel in Incident:
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: 730314 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
THOMAS HENRY KIRK JR.
Colonel - United States Air Force
Shot Down: October 28, 1967
Released: March 14, 1973
Alas, the trial is past, and as one of the happiest citizens of these great
and wonderful United States, I return home. Amidst the gamut of emotions - all
of which radiate with happiness and thanksgiving - I find myself lying awake
at night reflecting on ever so many different things. Strangely enough, the
bad things are soon forgotten and the most overwhelming emotion which
prevails, and indeed permeates, my entire being in these days, is
thanksgiving.
Thanks to the Almighty God for my life and health.
Thanks to our great President Nixon for his faith and support to bring us home
with honor.
Thanks to, and pride in, my wonderful wife, Jolanda, for her love, courage and
strength during the long wait.
Thanks to the millions of Americans who never stopped working to bring us
home. Thanks for being a citizen of these wonderful United States.
I see myself as a man who has lived daily in an environment completely devoid
of freedom, not only as a prisoner but as an observer of an entire society
without freedom. I realize so deeply the meaning and value of our American
heritage. Patriotism has become, for many, a "corny" thing. For me, it is more
important than at any time in my life. To my fellow ex-POWs and to our great
country, I pledge myself to be a responsible citizen, to work for rejuvenation
of a patriotic spirit and to support our cherished institutions. How wonderful
it is to be an American come home!
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Thomas Kirk Jr. retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He
and his wife Ann reside in Colorado.
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http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20050308/NEWS/103080021
Former POW visits Vail Mountain school
VAIL - Tom Kirk, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, recently told high
school students at Vail Mountain School about being imprisoned in the
notorious Hanoi Hilton.
Kirk, a Vail resident who appeared as part of the private school's "Brown
Bag Speaker Series." joined the military in his early 20s and flew 50
missions in the Korean War. In 1965 Kirk volunteered to go to Vietnam but
could not get a position there.
But he was determined to serve in the war. "I was a pilot and if there's a
war, you want to be there," he said.
While he was stationed in Japan, he decided to spend his leave time
volunteering to fly missions in Vietnam. "I'm probably the only pilot who
volunteered to fly during my leave," he said.
Eventually he was sent to fight in the Vietnam War and flew 166 missions in
North Vietnam. He "wasn't as lucky on [his] 167th mission," he said, and was
hit by anti-aircraft fire.
He was shot down outside of Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and
captured by Vietnamese soldiers who took him to Hoa Lo prison, otherwise
known as the "Hanoi Hilton." Kirk spent the next five years there, part of
that time in solitary confinement.
He told the students how the North Vietnamese tortured him and put in
solitary confinement for two years after he struck a particularly abusive
guard.
In solitary confinement, he live a cement cell 6 feet by 6 feet by 7 feet
with only a cold slab for a bed and a cotton blanket. He filled his hours
and days of solitude with very deliberate mental exercises - building houses
board by board, calculating amortization tables for a 30-year mortgage,
playing imaginary flutes and saxophones, and tapping out messages on the
cinderblock walls to communicate with other American prisoners, he said.
At the end of his talk, Kirk urged the students to remember four important
lessons he learned during his captivity. The first was to be thankful for
the freedom and liberty that we enjoy in the United States, he said.
The other lessons were to have faith in themselves and faith in others, to
take responsibility for one's life and to develop mental toughness through
challenges, he said.
Kirk has lived in Vail for the 12 years with his wife, Ann. He has been a
ski instructor for 11 years, owns a financial planning business and often
plays saxophone with the Tony Gulizia Trio.