TOMES, JACK H. (middle initail ONLY-- no middle NAME)
DECEASED - 29 Dec 1984

Name: Jack H. Tomes
Rank/Branch: United States Air Force/03
Unit:
Date of Birth: 26 Sept 1933
Home City of Record: Globe AZ
Date of Loss: 07 July 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 215200 North  1044400 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno:

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. Update with information from Kelli
Tomes Horner, 2002.

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).

JACK H. TOMES
Lieutenant Colonel - United States Air Force
Shot Down: July 7, 1966
Released: February 12, 1973

During a survival training course in the early days of my Air Force career,
our class was discussing the subject of prisoners of war and political
prisoners of earlier periods of conflict. We were attempting to identify the
things that enabled them to endure their long periods of confinement and in
turn, find what might help us should we ever find ourselves in a similar
situation. The idea of faith was brought up. Not only faith in oneself, in
one's ability to endure, but faith in something higher than that, whether it
be God, country, family, or all of these.

I recalled at that time a passage in the Bible that said, "Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the  evidence of things not seen." I reflected
on this verse many times during my captivity in North Vietnam and I believe
the faith, whether conscious or unconscious, that we had as POWs gave us the
strength and hope that we needed to overcome the anxieties, frustrations and
uncertainties that we faced.

As all of us here in America continue to have faith and trust in God as head
of our country, in our leaders, in our governmental process and in our way of
life, and meet our responsibilities as American citizens, we will continue to
live in a great and powerful country.