PURCELL, ROBERT BALDWIN
RIP 06 DEC 2009

Name: Robert Baldwin Purcell
Rank/Branch: O3/United States Air Force, pilot
Unit: 12th TFS
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Louisville KY
Date of Loss: 27 July 1965
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 210500N 1051400E
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105 D
Missions: 25

Other Personnel in Incident: none

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK 06 September 1996 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 021273 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).

ROBERT B. PURCELL
Lieutenant Colonel - United States Air Force
Shot Down: July 27, 1965
Released: February 12, 1973

I was advised by your book committee that the target date for your first
publication would be 4 July 1974. I thought what an appropriate date this
was for some very obvious reasons - and for some that may not be too obvious
to the average reader. What it meant most of all to me was that our
independence was declared on 4 July 1776, but it was not won until the end
of that conflict.

And how our extremely clever and tenacious enemy kept trying to sell us on
the idea that "their war" was the same as our above-mentioned one. The
mechanical processes may have been similar in some cases, but it is my
personal opinion that the final result of our revolutionary endeavors was
truth and law. I lived in the capitol or seat of their revolutionary
endeavors and I saw, heard and felt for 7 1/2  years only lies, deceit and
slander.

My release was declared and won on the same day, 12 February 1973. I am now
fighting my way back into society in what I call my retroactive conflict. I
may even see you on the battlefield someday, so until then, God bless you
and keep you free.

================================
Robert Purcell retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He and
his wife Suzanne resided in Texas until his death after a prolonged illness.

He will be buried in Arlington.

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