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Matches 20,031 to 20,040 of 22,220

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20031

The Anderson Family Tree on Ancestry has him born 30 Oct 1903 in Burnett, Wisconsin.

ANDERSON, Herbert C (I521)

20032

the Annerstad 1866-1872 Household Examination p.348 shows her birthplace as Karlstad

CARLSDOTTER, Magdalena (Maja Lena) (I7261)

20033

The announcement in the 22 February 1946 edition of the Kingston (N.Y.) Daily Freeman: “Mr. and Mrs. Carl G. Lavsa of Washington, D.C., announce the birth of a son, Carl George Lavsa, Jr., born Tuesday at the Providence Hospital, Washington. Mrs. Lavsa is the former Miss Theodora L. Ross of Minneapolis, Minn. Mr. Lavsa is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Otto Lavsa of Port Ewen. A veteran of World War II, having served in the naval air forces for 3½ years, 19 months of which were spent in the southwest Pacific area, he received his honorable discharge October 17, 1945. He is now connected with the P.C.A. at Washington National Airport.

His obit:

Carl George Lavsa Sr., 83, of Annapolis and previously of Clinton, died of cancer Jan. 7 at his home after a four-year illness.

Born March 10, 1922, in Kingston, N.Y., where he graduated from Kingston High School, Mr. Lavsa attended aviation school at the former Roosevelt Field on Long Island, N.Y. He served in the Navy during World War II as an aviation machinist 1st class.

Mr. Lavsa was a crew chief for Northwest Airlines at Washington National-Ronald Reagan Airport from 1948 until retiring in 1992.

As a hobby, he built to scale models of the wooden ships that once plied the Hudson River and donated them to the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston. He also enjoyed traveling extensively by train.

Surviving are his wife, Theodora Lavsa, whom he married in 1945; one son, Carl H. Lavsa Jr. of Port Republic in Calvert County; one daughter, Valerie J. Fridley of Shady Side; two sisters, Wilma Lemister of Port Ewen, N.Y., and Patricia French of Aurora, Colo.; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Visitation is from 2 to 4 and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at Kalas Funeral Home, 2973 Solomons Island Road, Edgewater, where services will follow. Burial will be private.

LAVSA, Carl George (I20398)

20034

The announcement of her engagement to Wallace Martinek was in the Minneapolis Star, March 5, 1967, edition. She was a graduate of Rochester State Junior College, he was a graduate of the University of Minnesota. Both were employed by Control Data in Plymouth.

Her obit in the News-Press:

Connie Lee (Engels) (Martinek) Long, age 73 of Ft Myers. Beloved wife, mother and grandmother found peace while surrounded by loved ones on Dec. 7, 2018. Connie was born April 6, 1945, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Connie graduated from South St. Paul High School, and Rochester Junior College. Connie enjoyed playing golf and travel.

Connie was preceded in death by her parents Donald and Irene Engels, and brother Rick Engels. She is survived by husband Bill, daughter Julie Sieben (Ken), son Joel Martinek, 5 grandchildren, brother Eric Engels (Donna), and sister-in-law Linda Engels.

ENGELS, Connie Lee (I633)

20035

The announcement of her marriage to Edward Soden Lightbourn calls her the 2nd daughter of D. C. Murry of St. Paul, Minnesota.

In the 1910 census, she was living with her daughter Leni and family in St. Paul. She, as “Susanna M”, had had 16 children, only 9 still living.

An article in the St. Paul Globe suggests that she celebrated her 65th birthday on 29 Aug 1898, at which time she and her husband lived at 323 Somerset Street.

MURRAY, Susan Samantha Hason (I19348)

20036

The announcement of his marriage to Ruth Nelson said that he received an MBA from Notre Dame and a law degree from Georgetown. At the time of his marriage, he was budget officer for the U.S. housing authority.

In the 1950 census, he and his family lived in Fairfax, Virginia. He was a budget officer for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

His death certificate said that his last occupation was as a lobbiest for trade associations. He died from a heart attack at his home in Falls Church.

CAWLEY, Francis Riggs (I40621)

20037

The Anthon born in Gausdal on August 9, 1882, was baptized September 17th and was the son of Thron Gunderssen Norseteiet (b. 1829) and Anna Ingebretsdatter (b. 1843).

In the 1908 Astoria, Oregon, city directory, he rooms at 427 30th.

His declaration of intention was filed on December 1, 1933, in Portland, Oregon. He lived at 1317 N.E. Grand Avenue in Portland was a carpenter. He was 5 feet 11-1/2 inches tall and weighed 165 lbs. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He was a British citizen, having been naturalized in Canada. He had made a previous declaration of intention in Watertown, South Dakota, in 1907 or 1908. His lawful entry into the United States for the purpose of permanent residence was on January 3, 1923, at Blaine, Washington, on a Great Northern Railway train from Vancouver, Canada.

In the 1936/37 Portland (Oregon) city directory, Anton Haugen was a carpenter living with his wife Mabel O at 1317 NE Grand Avenue.

In the 1940 census, he and Mabel and their three sons live at 1105 N. Skidmore Avenue. He is a carpenter in the building industry.

Anton registered for the World War II draft in 1942. At that time, he and Mabel lived at 1105 N. Skidmore in Portland, Oregon. He was employed by the “Oregon Ship Builders” of St. Johns. (This is the same work location as Herman Anderson, #7760, and Hiram Mousseau, #5540.)

In the 1943/44 Portland (Oregon) city directory, Anton Haugen, a shipwright, and his wife Mabel live at 2944 NE 66th.

In the 1953 and 1956 Portland directories, Anton and “Mable O” live at 5704 NE Skidmore.

Not listed in the 1960 Portland city directory.

HAUGEN, Anton (I14093)

20038

The article in the Ward County Independent that describes his wedding to Josephine says that he graduated from the Red Wing Seminary in 1902 and later from the Teachers’ University of Southern Minnesota at Austin, Minnesota. At the time of his marriage to Josphine, he was superintendent of the public schools at Des Lacs, North Dakota.

HEEN, Christopher (I24711)

20039

The article on his father’s death in the 30 Sep 1916 edition of the Minneapolis Morning Tribune says that Benjamin, “a railroad man,” lost his right arm in a railroad accident on August 15, 1916, and had just been released from the hospital on the day of his father’s death.

His obituary in the Minneapolis Star on January 8th erroneously listed his age at death as 84 for some reason. He lived at 3901 S. 18th Avenue and had worked for the Milwaukee Road for 51 years which also seems impossible. He was a member of the Minnehah Masonic Lodge. He was survived by a wife Clara J, two sons, Howard Hobbs and Harold Honmyhr, three grandchildren, and a brother, Fred C.

BENSON, Martin Bernhard (Benjamin) (I29954)

20040

The August 7, 1944, edition of the Brainerd newspaper noted that Ron and David were visiting relatives in Park Ridge, Ill.

In the 1950 census, he is living at home with his parents and two younger siblings and working as a drill helper for an iron mine. He is shown as having worked 28 weeks in 1949 and having earned $1,025. He is also shown as having lived in Fort Knox, Kentucky, one year before (i.e., April of 1949).

An article in the June 17, 1963, edition of the Brainerd newspaper announced Captain Everson’s assignment to Itazuke AB in Japan following his graduation from the USAF training course for F-105 Thunderchief pilots at Nellis AFB in Nevada.

Air Force pilot. His F-105 Thunderchief Wild Wiesel was shot down by North Vietnamese and he was held prisoner for several years during the war. Released about 1973. Retired with the rank of Colonel.

David says that he “resisted going to college after high school and worked one winter with my father drilling for iron ore at Emily and Rabbit Lake. That was enough to convince me to start college.”

From veterantributes.org:

Colonel O-6, U.S. Air Force

Minnesota Army National Guard 1947-1951
U.S. Air Force 1954-1978
Cold War 1947-1951, 1954-1978
Vietnam War 1966-1973 (POW)

David Everson was born in 1931 in Brainerd, Minnesota. He enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard on September 22, 1947, and was trained as a Radio Repair Specialist. Everson received an honorable discharge from the National Guard on September 21, 1951. He was commissioned a 2d Lt in the U.S. Air Force through the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Minnesota on August 21, 1954, and went on active duty on March 27, 1955. After completing Undergraduate Pilot Training in 1956, Everson served with the 336th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, until February 1961. He was stationed with the 80th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Itazuke AB and then Yokota AB, Japan, from February 1961 to December 1964, and then with the 562nd and then the 561st Tactical Fighter Squadron at McConnell AFB, Kansas, from December 1964 to November 1966. Maj Everson began flying combat missions in Southeast Asia with the 354th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Takhli Royal Thai AFB, Thailand, in November 1966, and he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War on March 10, 1967. After spending 2,186 days in captivity, LtCol Everson was released during Operation Homecoming on March 4, 1973. He was hospitalized to recover from his injuries at Scott AFB, Illinois, and then attended Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, graduating in August 1974. He then completed refresher flight training at Randolph AFB, Texas, followed by F-111 Aardvark upgrade training at Nellis AFB, Nevada. Col Everson's final assignment was with the ACEVAL/AIMVAL project at Nellis AFB, where he ran an independent analysis team in the Joint Test and Evaluations that took place at Nellis between 1974 and 1978. He retired from the Air Force on July 31, 1978. David Everson and his wife Karlene had three children together before her death-DeAnn, David, and Daniel.

The following is a recollection David wrote for Ann Jones’s book:

“After having learned my lesson, I started school at the University of Minnesota - Duluth in the fall of 1950. My academic career was cut short when the Aitkin Guard was called to active duty in December, 1950. We were supposed to be on active duty for two years but my enlistment was up in September 1951. I went back to school and continued until graduation in August, 1954. The army taught me that officers live better than enlisted men so I enrolled in Air Force ROTC. Midway through school the Air Force told me I was qualified for flight training and I was hooked. I never looked back.

“While in school I worked at a garage across the street from the Hotel Duluth. There we parked cars, washed cars, and supplied ambulance service to the entire city of Duluth. At the beginning of my senior year, I married Karlene Carpenter, daughter of Carl and Ellen Carpenter of Glen. Our first child, DeAnn, was born the week after I graduated.

“When I was called to active duty, we went to Florida and Texas for flight training. Then we were moved from one base to another like most of the Air Force. We spent four years in Japan from 1961 to 1964. By the time we returned to the states in December 1964, the Viet Nam war was heating up. In the fall of 1966, I was trained as a Wild Weasel pilot and sent to Takh Li, Thailand. I started flying missions in November 1966 and was shot down 50 miles north of Hanoi on March 10, 1967. I was on my 56th mission.

“My experience as a prisoner of war is typical of the stories most POWs tell. I was to suppress surface-to-air missile firing during a raid on a steel plant at Thai Nguyen, fifty miles north of Hanoi. We were hit in the left wing by gunfire and the aircraft came apart. We were going too fast for bailout at first but were pinned in the cockpit by G forces. By the time I could move, the part of the aircraft we were in had slowed and we ejected.

“I came down in a courtyard of a small factory. For a few seconds, no one saw me. I used this time to transmit a message on my survival radio that I was alive. Nobody heard it. The civilians in the factory saw me then and surrounded me. I took two serious hits on the head from rifle butts and rolled into a ball on the ground. Before the crowd could get organized and do me some real damage, some soldiers arrived and took me away.

“My left knee kept folding up when I tried to walk and I thought my knees had been injured. I found out after I came home that I had a spinal fracture because I was not sitting properly when I ejected. The soldiers who captured me took me to a small building where they stripped me down to my shorts and socks. I was blindfolded; my hands were tied behind me. A bandage was put around my head. I was kept in a gun pit until it started to get dark, then I was put together with my Electronic Warfare Officer and we were forced to run. We were running in a large circle because we passed the same noises over and over. The crowd was encouraged to throw stones, to hit us and whatever they could do while we were running by. It is difficult to dodge blows when blindfolded. I fell a lot because of my knee and had to get up myself every time. My back seater {Capt. José David Luna of California} was annoyed because I fell against him a lot and knocked him down too. After what seemed like hours, we were walked into a dugout and after a short while were put in the back of an open truck and taken to Hanoi.

“During my first two months as a prisoner I was kept in a block of cells we called Heartbreak Hotel. {This was a part of the larger complex known as the ‘Hanoi Hilton.’} I was in stocks for a large part of that time. The Vietnamese were not interested in military information but were attempting to destroy the morale of the prisoners and make them compliant. I was in solitary confinement during this time.

“After two months of this, I was put in a cell with my back seater and moved to a camp we called ‘The Zoo.’ It had this name because early in the war the guards had allowed the local civilians to tour the prison and harass the prisoners. I was with my back seater and another prisoner for about two weeks. Then I was placed in solitary confinement for one and a half years. During this time, the emphasis was on collecting ‘confessions’ from the prisoners with the intent of using the confessions in trials at a later date. We were also pressed for propaganda. This included meeting foreign journalists and delegations from ‘peaceful’ countries. In order to convince us to cooperate, they used things like the ropes and wrist irons. To do this, they tied our elbows tightly together behind our back, then put tight steel clamps on the wrists, then tied our feet to our wrists and tied a rope around our necks which was tied to our elbows tight enough so we could just breathe. For me, this lasted until the fall of 1968. By this time, I had lost forty pounds and didn’t look too good.

“I was finally put in a cell with another POW. We were mostly left alone after this but had some harassment. During this entire time, the food consisted of a plate of rice and a bowl of vegetable soup twice a day. We found out later that the prison staff was stealing a lot of the food provided for the POWs.

“In the summer of 1969 I was moved into a cell with three other POWs. This was quite nice because it actually had a window. After several months of quiet living, in October of 1969 our treatment improved dramatically. We got better food, improved medical care, and more outside time. The torture and harassment stopped. Walls in the building that had been built to make small cells were destroyed so prisoners were in a larger cell with more cellmates.

“In the fall of 1970, a large group of us were moved to a new prison miles from Hanoi. It was quite nice (relative to what we had before). We had the freedom of the courtyard during the day. It all ended when the Son Tay raid took place. We were all loaded on trucks and taken to the Hoa Lo prison {the infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’} in downtown Hanoi. The place was crowded because the previous prisoners (mostly South Viet Nam soldiers) had not yet been moved out.

{The Son Tay raid took place November 21-22, 1970. It was a rescue mission on a POW prison camp 20 miles west of Hanoi. The raid was unsuccessful; the prisoners had been moved.}

“The move to Hoa Lo prison got all the POWs together in the same prison for the first time. We were in cells that held about fifty people and had good communication with all the prisoners. Some POWs were later moved to other camps but I stayed in Hoa Lo until we were repatriated in March of 1973.”

Mark has found an article in the February 2006 issue of Air Force Magazine that describes the flight activities on that day in 1967 when David was shot down.

The description of David Everson's role that day starts here:

“The flight commander was Maj. David A. Everson, Lincoln 01, with Capt. Donald A. Luna, the electronic warfare officer (EWO), in the back seat. Capt. Bill Hoeft was Lincoln 02. The leader of the second element was Capt. Merlyn Dethlefsen, Lincoln 03, with Capt. Kevin A. “Mike” Gilroy as his EWO. Flying on his wing was Maj. Kenneth H. Bell, Lincoln 04.

“All six airmen in the Weasel flight had plenty of experience. Each of them had flown more than 50 combat missions and had been to North Vietnam many times.”

and concludes with this

“Lincoln flight approached Thai Nguyen in combat spread formation, the four aircraft almost line abreast with Everson and Hoeft on the right and Dethlefsen and Bell on the left. Two miles out from the target, the Weasels detected a SAM radar tracking them.

“Everson in Lincoln 01 attacked first. He swept wide to the right, dived through the flak, and launched a Shrike missile toward the SAM site. Seconds later, Lincoln 01 took a critical hit from the AAA. Chute beepers confirmed that Everson and Luna had bailed out. They reached the ground and were captured immediately. They spent the rest of the war as POWs, returning in the general repatriation in 1973.

“Hoeft, Lincoln 02, followed Everson into the flak. He was also hit and put out of action. An 85 mm shell blew a four-foot hole in his left wing, just outboard of the landing gear. He was lucky to make it to Udorn Air Base in northern Thailand, where he recovered.”

EVERSON, DAVID

Name: David Everson
Rank/Branch: United States Air Force/O4
Unit: 354 TFS
Date of Birth: 04 September 1931
Home City of Record: Aitkin MN
Date of Loss: 10 March 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 214400 North 1055000 East
Status (in 1973):
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105F #8335
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident: Jose Luna, returnee
Refno: 0612

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: 730304 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).

DAVID EVERSON
Lieutenant Colonel - United States Air Force
Shot Down: March 10, 1967
Released: March 4, 1973

The following is a bio David wrote for a POW network, apparently right after he returned to the U.S.

I was born in 1931 and graduated from the University of Minnesota in Duluth, Minnesota in 1954 and entered the Air Force in 1955. I went through pilot training and flew fighters at various bases in the United States and in the Far East until I was shot down several miles north of Hanoi. I was flying a F-105 Thunderchief out of Takhli, Thailand. I arrived back in the States on March 7, 1973, just three days less than six years from the day I was shot down.

I have three children. Daughter DeAnn is 18 and a freshman in college. Davy is 15 and a sophomore at Coon Rapids High School. Danny is 12 and in the 7th grade. My children waited for me in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

The tremendous welcome that I had and the other returned POWs have received makes me feel very proud and at the same time very humble. I know many men have been killed or crippled in this war. Very few of the men who returned earlier received half the welcome accorded the POWs. I hope we will all remember the families of these men and try to insure that their children will have the same opportunities that your children and mine will have. I was very happy and proud on the day of my release because we were able to return home with pride. Thank you for all your kindness and God bless you all.

December 1996
David Everson retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He and his wife Ann reside in Minnesota.

The following is an article published in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune on Thursday, February 17, 2000:

Commentary: A character forged in the Hanoi Hilton

by Lori Sturdevant

One theory about the 2000 presidential election is that the guy most possessed of Clinton antimatter will win.

Buy it or not, that theory goes a long way to explain the rise of the meteor of the month, John McCain. Forget about issues for now. In comparisons of human raw material -- temperament, experience, style -- the Arizona Republican is more conspicuously not Bill Clinton than any other candidate still in the running.

That, says Dave Everson, has a lot to do with Hua Lo Prison in Hanoi. He shared a cell there with McCain for 15 months.

"He learned a lot in captivity -- we all did," said Everson. "They say that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I think there's truth in that."

Everson, 68, retired from the St. Paul Companies as a computer programmer several years ago. He lives a private, apolitical life in Inver Grove Heights. It's a world away from the torment he and some 600 other Americans endured three decades ago in North Vietnamese prisons.

Everson does not talk easily about those years -- especially when he's addressing a newspaper audience. But he recognizes that voters won't glimpse the president John McCain could be unless former POWs like him describe the McCain they knew and the circumstances they shared.

Everson, an Air Force major, was incarcerated at the infamous Hanoi Hilton in March 1967; McCain, a Navy lieutenant commander, arrived the following October. Both had been injured as they ejected from planes shot down during bombing missions. Everson's back was broken and his knees damaged. McCain broke both arms and one leg. Both were beaten with rifle butts, paraded for civilian abuse, bound in contorted poses and interrogated at exhaustive length before landing in solitary confinement.

Everson's isolation lasted a year and a half. His captors spiced his routine by beating him or binding his feet to his bed and one wrist to his ankles, then leaving him in twisted discomfort for days.

McCain had it worse. He was in solitary confinement for two years. The North Vietnamese offered McCain early release in 1968 when they learned that his father, Adm. Jack McCain, had been appointed commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific. When the younger McCain refused, citing the code of conduct that POWs should be released in the order in which they were captured, he was beaten savagely.

"Isolation is the worst thing that can happen to you," said Everson. "You get irrational after a while." He suspects McCain had the same mental crisis.

The nation would be right to worry that McCain left a piece of his sanity in Hanoi, had the POWs been suddenly released in 1969, at the time of Ho Chi Minh's death. A quick passage from isolated horror to normal society likely would have been too much for even the most disciplined military mind to take.

But the POWs were not released until early 1973. What changed after Ho's death was the treatment the prisoners received. Solitary confinement and beatings ended. Suddenly prisoners had cellmates, hot water, instant coffee, six rather than three cigarettes a day. "We sat and smoked until we got sick," Everson said.

In late 1971, he moved into a large communal cell with 49 other POWs. The ensuing 15 months before their release were a time of physical and psychological healing for every man in the cell. The men understood and supported each other as no one else could.

One of Everson's cellmates was John McCain, reputed to be the "toughest guy in the place" because of the torture he had endured.

McCain stood out -- but, Everson says, not for the extent of his injuries or for the cocky attitude he reportedly showed. "Most fighter pilots are that way. If you aren't a little arrogant and cocky, you're too passive to fly a fighter."

It was his intellect that distinguished McCain. The prisoners passed time by teaching each other what they knew of languages, literature and mathematics. McCain held forth on Roman history. He drew sharp, well-reasoned analogies between the decline of the Roman Empire and the threat that moral decline posed for the United States.

McCain was also the senior officer's choice for some undercover work involving information transfer from one cell to another. It was dangerous business, but McCain was never caught.

Everson remembers a man who knew the value of discipline and dignity as only someone who had clung to them for survival could. He remembers occasional displays of temper, like the day Everson teased that his Viking ancestors and McCain's Irish forebears might have known each other intimately. But mostly, he recalls a good soldier.

"Being in prison made John more steady. It taught him self-control. It gave him focus. When he left that prison, he knew what he wanted," Everson said.

McCain became a moderate Republican. Everson, whose political thinking borders on libertarianism, would call another candidate with the same views suspiciously liberal. But he's eager to support his cellmate.

"I trust him. He's a totally trustworthy person. If he says he'll do something, he'll move heaven and earth to do it. He's rock-solid."

A lot of Americans long to be able to say as much about a president.

-- Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer.
© Copyright 2000 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

From the Ancestry data base on returned Vietnam War Casualties:

Personal Information

Name: David Everson
Age: 41
Birth Date: 4 Sep 1931
Race: Caucasion
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Home Location: Aitkin, Minnesota
Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
Service Branch: Air Force
Discharge Date: 4 Mar 1973
Date Processed: Mar 1973
Component: Regular
Casualty Type: Hostile - Captured/Interned - Returned to Military Control
Country of Casualty: North Vietnam
Casualty Cause: Aircraft Loss/Crash Not at Sea
Casualty Air Type: Fixed Wing Air Casualty - Pilot

In August of 1966, the North Vietnamese aired a televised interview with David in which the voice track was done separately. The interview had David saying that he hoped that the war would end soon and that he wanted to get home and that he was sorry to have taken part in the war. In an article in the Minneapolis newspaper, David’s brother Ronald, then a member of Minnesota’s House of Representatives, said that neither the voice, nor the words spoken, were that of his brother. “His philosophy was to pursue the war and win,” Ronald said. Ronald, his wife, and his parents all saw the film and agreed that David “looked good.” It was the first time that they had seen him since his picture was shown following his capture. {In that picture, David is shown looking down and with a bandage around his head.} Ronald said that both he and his parents had been notified the Air Force that the filmed interview would be shown. At the time of the article, Karlene and the children were living at the McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita and apparently were not consulted by the reporter writing the article.

In January of 1968, the North Vietnamese released a picture of a captured American pilot that they said was David Everson. An article from the January 29, 1968, edition of the Minneapolis Star, datelined Wadena, has Ronald saying that the man in the photograph was not his brother.

The front page of the March 8, 1973, edition of the Minneapolis Tribune shows David being greeted by his family at Scott AFB in Illinois. The caption notes that David had not seen his family since his last visit home in October of 1966.

The Minneapolis Star had an article on David on its front page in May of 1973. The article was written by staff writer Stan Strick and included a photograph of David sitting on the front step of his home in Coon Rapids.

POW Life Fades from Everson’s Memory

The North Vietnamese prisoner of war camps are about as far from the mind of Air Force Lt. Col. David Everson as Hanoi is from Coon Rapids.

Everson was released just over two months ago after his airplane was shot down in early 1967. Now about two-thirds of the way through his readjustment period, the ordeal seems far away.

“It’s very difficult to sit here and believe I was really there,” Everson said in an interview yesterday. “It’s just two months and two weeks since I got out. It was so different over there than what it is here that it’s difficult to relate the two lives.”

He, his wife and three children are living at 2408 119th Avenue NW in Coon Rapids where his wife bought a home to wait out his imprisonment. Both are from Aitkin, Minnesota.

He says he has picked up his place in the family and now is looking forward to his next assignment, probably to the Air War College at Maxwell AFB in Alabama.

What’s it like to see your family after a six-year absence?

“Well, the first couple of days it’s a little goofy,” Everson said. “After that it seems we settled down to just like we’ve always been.

“I think the first couple of days the children were a little on guard. They didn’t know if they were going to say something that would offend me or if I would snap at them,” he said.

Everson spends his time reading, answering mail and visiting relatives until his new assignment comes through. He says he plans to order his life differently from his days as a fighter pilot when he was away from home a lot while on flying missions.

“I liked flying and I liked everything that went with it,” Everson said. “I can see now it probably wasn’t good for my family to be left alone so much and I plan that whatever job I get it’s going to be one that will allow me to be home so I can take my boys hunting, fishing, and doing the things I should have been doing for the last six years.”

He said he found the readjustment period without many difficulties or severe shocks. “During my last year in prison we had contact with people who were shot down in 1972. That did a lot toward helping us understand what was going on,” he said.

Between reports from newly-captured pilots and “interpreting” Vietnamese propaganda, the prisoners came to have a good picture of the world they were being denied, he said.

“There were a lot of discussions over there (on), ‘What are you going to do if....’ It helps a lot to think about these things while you’re there so you won’t make a snap decision when you get home and meet a bad situation such as losing your wife or finding that things have gone to pieces while you’re gone.

“I think most people had some decisions pretty well in their head (that) ‘If this happens, I’m going to do thus and so.’”

Everson said he was surprised at the depth of his family’s involvement in prisoner-of-war projects. His wife was state coordinator of the National League of Families and his brother, Ronald, was also active.

“My wife doesn’t agree entirely with me on the war,” Everson said. “She more had the attitude that we should get out (and) get the prisoners out. I’m really not that way. If we had to stay there an extra year to win the war, I wasn’t opposed to that.

“I’d rather stay there one more year and win it than come home a year or two early and blow the whole thing. I don’t know if we’re going to win it now.”

Still, there were some things that were unexpected, such as:

Long hair. “When we were shot down, the only people who wore long hair was the hippie crowd. Then we learned everybody was doing it.”

Frankness in sex. “Sex, I guess, is the biggest change. I don’t think the actual morals can change that fast. The ones who have been after sexual freedom feel free to talk louder.”

Movies. “When I was shot down movies that are now rated as G or PG wouldn’t have been shown anywhere. You know, ‘Pete and Tillie’ is supposed to be a comedy, and it’s really sick. It wasn’t funny except in a very few places.”

Television programs. “They’re a little duller than they used to be. I think when Sid Caesar and Jack Gleason went off the air, television never recovered.”

Gas stations. “They aren’t too worried any more about selling gas. If you want your oil checked, you have to ask. Sometimes you have to go in to find the guy to put gas in your car.”

But for himself, Everson believes the ordeal is over, the adjustment completed and life back on a routine path. “Maybe two years from now I won’t think it’s normal, but it sure seems to be normal now.”

EVERSON, David (I113)