UYEYAMA, TERRY JUN Name: Terry Jun Uyeyama Rank/Branch: United States Air Force/O3 Unit: 14 TRS Date of Birth: Home City of Record: Date of Loss: 18 May 1968 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 173000 North 1063200 East (Quang Binh near Dong Hoi on coast) Status (in 1973): Returnee Category: Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: RF4C Missions: 101 Other Personnel in Incident: Tommy Gist, PFOD, loss coordinates different Refno: 1181 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). TERRY J. UYEYAMA Lieutenant Colonel - United States Air Force Shot Down: May 18, 1968 Released: March 14, 1973 A native of San Francisco, Lt. Col. Uyeyama considers his hometown to be Leonia, New Jersey, where he attended elementary and high school. He graduated from Brown University with the Class of '57 and entered active duty in the Air Force in February, 1958. Following graduation from pilot training in 1959, Lt. Col. Uyeyama flew with four major Air Commands: Strategic Air Command, Air Training Command, Air Defense Command and Tactical Air Command. In October, 1967 he was deployed with the 14th TRS from Bergstrom AFB to Udorn, Thailand. Altogether, he flew 101 missions. Terry and his wife Kay have three daughters: Jody Lynn, age 12; Wendy Lea, age 8; Sherry Jaye, age 7; all born in Texas. He plans to continue his flying career. The returning POWs have stressed repeatedly how their devotion to and faith in God, Country and Family had played such an important role in their Odyssey of survival. These concepts were, indeed, the core of my survival. However, being a relative newcomer to this group, I also gathered great inspiration and perserverance from the strength and vitality shown by the men who had accrued unbelievable seniority in captivity and who had endured greater, prolonged suffering. I was proud to be among them - to be a member of an everlasting brotherhood steeled by the common rigors of survival and perseverance from Communist inhumanity and bound by the loyalty we had for each other. But the greatest pride comes from the by-products of all those years of suffering and waiting - the dignity and honor adorning each of my colleagues as they deplaned at Clark Air Base and their heartrending expletives which brought out the best in our Country. National patriotism and pride were resurrected. It wasn't old-fashioned to express these emotions after all. The vociferous minority ebbed silently to the background, and the majority found that it still had a heart and soul. I felt this pride most deeply, when, after addressing a high school assembly, the students came up to the stage to tell me unabashedly, "I'm proud to be an American." December 1996 Terry Uyeyama retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He lives in Texas.