| Date: 28 November 1965 |
| Aircraft type: F-105D Thunderchief |
| Serial Number: 62-4285 |
| Military Unit: or 335 TFS, 4 TFW attached to 355 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Takhli |
| Name(s): |
| Capt John Anzuena Reynolds (POW) |
| During a raid on army barracks near Van Yen, 60 miles west of Hanoi, an F-105 (call sign Edsel) was hit by ground fire during its strafing run. Capt Reynolds only managed to fly about 10 miles south towards the Laotian border before being forced to eject. He was captured immediately and was imprisoned in several of the North Vietnamese POW camps including Heartbreak Hotel, The Zoo, Briarpatch, Little Vegas, Dirty Bird, Son Tay, Camp Faith, Camp Unity, and Dogpatch. It was not unusual for prisoners to be moved from camp to camp on a regular basis. The North Vietnamese did this in order to break up the secret communications systems the prisoners built up at each camp and to further disorient the POWs. John Reynolds had served a tour as a FAC pilot in Vietnam in 1963 and had previously flown F-100s before converting to F-105s. He was released on 12 February 1973 and eventually retired from the USAF in 1990 as a Brigadier General following a long career that included a tour as the US defence attaché to China. He became the first westerner to be allowed to fly Chinese fighter aircraft during his four years in Peking. |
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