McMANUS, KEVIN JOSEPH RIP - 07/31/08 after a long illness.
Kevin McManus was buried Oct 16, 2008 in Arlington.
Name: Kevin Joseph McManus Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force Unit: 390th TFS Date of Birth: Home City of Record: Babylon NY Date of Loss: 14 June 1967 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 212300 North 1063700 East Status (in 1973): Returnee Category: Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C Missions: 140+ Other Personnel in Incident: Edward Mechenbier, 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: 730218 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
KEVIN J. McMANUS Captain - United States Air Force Shot Down: June 14, 1967 Released: February 18, 1973
Having successfully completed a joyful (to say the least) flight from Hanoi to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, my wife and I have continued our honeymoon first in Washington, D.C. (with side tips to New York where both our families live) and now in North Carolina where I am currently enrolled in the graduate school of business. The deluge of letters from bracelet-wearers, well-wishers and many old friends has been quite an emotional uplift. We have enjoyed answering those letters and telegrams and just hope that none have been lost and unanswered.
Thank You and God Bless.
================================= Kevin McManus retired from the United States Air Force as a Lt. Colonel. He and his wife Mary Jane reside in Virginia.
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March 1999 Kevin (Rory) McManus, the youngest of Kevin and Mary Jane's seven children, died peacefully on Friday evening, March 19 after a valiant, but ultimately unsuccessful, two year battle with a cancerous brain tumor. Those who knew him will miss him dearly, for he was a bright light that shone for nearly 16 years. ==========================================
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Kevin McManus, 65; Vietnam War POW
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 10, 2008; C07
Kevin McManus, 65, an Air Force pilot shot down over North Vietnam who
spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war and later retired as a
lieutenant colonel, died of lung cancer July 31 at his home in Oakton.
Two weeks before he was scheduled to leave Vietnam, and two months
after a four-day honeymoon with his childhood sweetheart, then-Capt.
McManus was shot down northeast of Hanoi on June 14, 1967. He and his
co-pilot, Edward
J. Mechenbier, parachuted to earth and were immediately captured,
bound and marched as war criminals through villages leading to a Hanoi
prison complex.
They remained in captivity for five years and eight months. Both were
released in February 1973.
On his way home, Capt. McManus told reporters at Clark Air Base in the
Philippines that he had no qualms about leaving Vietnam and returning
to freedom. "I've talked to my wife and she hasn't changed, and
that's what really counts," he said. He also said they
"decided to have 16 kids -- after that it didn't matter."
They eventually had seven.
Born in New York and raised in Babylon, N.Y., Kevin Joseph McManus
graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1964 with three bachelor's
degrees. He had pilot training at Vance Air Force Base and began
flying F-4s with the 92nd
Tactical Fighter Squadron in Bentwaters, England.
In November 1966, he was sent to Danang Air Base to join the 390th
Tactical Fighter Squadron. On a five-day furlough to Honolulu in
March, he married an elementary school classmate, honeymooned for the
rest of his break, then returned to Vietnam.
He was in the second large group released during a cease-fire in 1973,
and photos of him and fellow military men filled the nation's
newspapers. At the time, he expressed a wish to become an Air Force
Academy flight instructor, but he learned during an extended stay at
the Andrews Air Force Base hospital that his injuries prevented him
from resuming his pilot's duties. He spent the next 18 months at Duke
University, where he received a master's degree in business
administration in 1975.
Subsequent Air Force duties took him to Setauket, N.Y., and in 1979 to
Herndon, where he worked at the Pentagon on the Air Staff and as
director of mission-critical computer resources in the research and
development office of the Defense Department.
He retired from the military in 1984 and joined Robbins-Gioia, an
Alexandria-based program management firm. For the next 10 years, he
was its chief operating officer and chief financial officer. He then
moved to AT&T to manage a billion-dollar defense contract. He
retired in 1999 and consulted on high-risk, high-dollar acquisitions.
He appeared in a controversial 2004 Sinclair Broadcast Group program
that criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, "A
POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media," which included
portions of another film, "Stolen Honor."
"John Kerry is probably the first man in 200 years of American
history to make Benedict Arnold look good," Col. McManus said in
the film. Kerry, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, had attracted
controversy for his 1971 Senate testimony charging U.S. atrocities in
the war.
Col. McManus enjoyed reading, carpentry, gardening, and collecting
stamps and baseball cards. He had a passion for Italy.
His military decorations included two awards of the Silver Star, the
Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with a Valor Device, the
Distinguished Flying Cross, two Purple Hearts and the Defense Superior
Service Medal.
A son, Kevin Roderic "Rory" McManus, died in 1999.
Survivors include his wife of 41 years, Mary Jane McManus of Arlington
County; six children, Katherine Mary McManus of Arlington, Bryan Jude
McManus and Marie Therese McManus, both of Fairfax, John Francis
McManus and Mary Elizabeth Seton McManus of Oakton and Margaret Mary
McManus of Eagle, Colo.; a sister, Karen Julia McManus of Alexandria;
and two brothers, Robert Philip McManus of Massapequa, N.Y., and
Christopher George McManus of Washington.
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