Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Branch: U.S. Air Force
Unit: 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 366th Fighter Wing
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Purple Heart (2), Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal (6)
Date of Sacrifice: January 22, 1968 - KIA at Hoa Lo Prison “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp, North Vietnam
Age: 25
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Lance Sijan was born in 1942 in Milwaukee, WI. There he graduated from Bay View High School in 1960, then left for Bainbridge, Maryland to attend the Naval Academy Preparatory School.

After finishing the Naval Academy program, Sijan was accepted into the United States Air Force Academy in 1965, where he completed pilot training, earned a second lieutenant’s commission, and was assigned to the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 366th Fighter Wing, stationed at Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam.

Final Mission

In November of 1967, the Air Force was tasked with disrupting a rapidly increasing flow of supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail—the main lifeline for enemy North Vietnamese forces. Enemy transport trucks mainly remained hidden during the day and moved down the Trail at night through Laos and Cambodia, and into South Vietnam.

On November 9, flying a night mission as a backseat pilot in an F-4C Phantom fighter jet, Sijan was paired with Lt. Col. John W. Armstrong, commander of the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron. By this time, Sijan had already flown 66 combat missions.

Over the Annam Cordillera mountains, which divide Laos from Vietnam, their aircraft suddenly exploded and was engulfed in a ball of fire. First reports attributed the explosion to ground fire, but later analysis suggests that defective fuses on the bombs being dropped caused them to detonate prematurely—too close to the F-4C.

With the airplane plunging to the jungle below, Sijan managed to eject and parachute through the trees and into the Laotian mountains. Col. Armstrong was never heard from again and is presumed to have been killed in action.

On the morning of November 11, American pilots from Ubon Air Base in Thailand and Phu Cat Air Base in Vietnam picked up a signal from Sijan. Making voice contact with him, one of the pilots asked Sijan several prearranged authentication questions to make sure it was not an English-speaking enemy, using Sijan’s radio to lure the rescue aircraft into a trap.

One of the questions Sijan had chosen ahead of time was, “Who is the greatest football team in the world?” His response: “The Green Bay Packers.”

Despite intense search and rescue efforts, the operation was unable to find and extract Sijan from the thick, triple-canopy jungle with enemy combatants all around. Sijan had lost his survival kit, and his radio batteries had run down. He slipped in and out of consciousness and had no food or water. Drinking from the dew, rainfall, and mountain streams, he survived on ferns, crest leaves, moss, grubs, and insects.

Although he had suffered a fractured skull, a mangled right hand, and a compound fracture to his left leg, Sijan evaded capture for six weeks, using a makeshift crutch and crawling through the jungles of North Vietnam—mostly at night to avoid detection by the enemy.

Capture and Captivity

He was finally found by the North Vietnamese on Christmas Day in 1967, lying unconscious and emaciated on a jungle road.

Sijan’s captors took him to a Prisoner of War (POW) holding area known as “The Bamboo Prison,” where he was brutally tortured and interrogated. Many of the details of Captain Sijan’s story come to us from the eyewitness accounts of Maj. Bob Craner and Capt. Guy Gruters, who had also been taken prisoner after their F-100F Super Sabre jet was shot down on December 20, 1967. Gruters had been a squadron mate of Sijan’s at the Air Force Academy just three years earlier.

Sijan, Craner, and Gruters were transferred by truck to Hoa Lo Prison in North Vietnam, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton” by American POWs. Believing that Sijan was close to death, his interrogators were especially brutal as they tortured him to extract information before they lost him.

Lance Sijan refused to divulge any information to the North Vietnamese, despite the severe torture employed to break his will. He eventually developed pneumonia and died while in captivity on January 22, 1968. His example is still used in military training as the model for following the Code of Conduct for American Prisoners of War.

Recognition and Legacy

For his extraordinary heroism and perseverance, Lance P. Sijan was posthumously promoted to the rank of Captain and awarded the Medal of Honor. He was the first Air Force Academy graduate to receive the award, which was presented to his family by President Gerald R. Ford on March 6, 1976, in a White House ceremony. The citation reads:

While on a flight over North Vietnam, Capt. Sijan ejected from his disabled aircraft and successfully evaded capture for more than six weeks. During this time, he was seriously injured and suffered from shock and extreme weight loss due to lack of food. After being captured by North Vietnamese soldiers, Capt. Sijan was taken to a holding point for subsequent transfer to a prisoner-of-war camp. In his emaciated and crippled condition, he overpowered one of his guards and crawled into the jungle, only to be recaptured after several hours. He was then transferred to another prison camp where he was kept in solitary confinement and interrogated at length. During interrogation, he was severely tortured; however, he did not divulge any information to his captors. Capt. Sijan lapsed into delirium and was placed in the care of another prisoner. During his intermittent periods of consciousness until his death, he never complained of his physical condition and, on several occasions, spoke of future escape attempts. Capt. Sijan’s extraordinary heroism and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty at the cost of his life are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Armed Forces.

In the July 2004 edition of Air Force Magazine, contributing editor John T. Correll gives a thorough accounting of Capt. Sijan’s story from the fateful November 1967 attack mission to his capture, captivity, and legacy: The Courage of Lance Sijan.

Capt. Sijan’s incredible story is also told by author Malcolm McConnell in his book: Into the Mouth of the Cat: The Story of Lance Sijan, Hero of Vietnam.

To this day, Capt. Sijan’s perseverance is inspiring cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Sijan Hall was named in his honor. As part of their training, all fourth-class (freshman) cadets at the Academy are expected to learn Sijan’s story.

The USAF graduating class of 1965 honored their classmate with a bronze memorial by sculptor James Nance. The Sijan memorial was dedicated on November 6, 2015, and can be found on the Plaza of Heroes, Vietnam Southeast Asia Pavilion, at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

In 1981 the “Lance P. Sijan USAF Leadership Award” was created to recognize the accomplishments of Airmen who demonstrate the highest qualities of leadership in the performance of their duties and conduct of their lives. The Sijan Award has become one of the U.S. Air Force’s most prestigious honors.

Captain Sijan is remembered at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington D.C., panel 29e, Line 62.

Sources
Artist’s rendering: Craig Du Mez
Air Force History and Museums: Capt Lance P. Sijan
Congressional Medal of Honor Society: Lance Peter Sijan
Air Force Magazine: The Courage of Lance Sijan
Military.com—Capt. Lance Peter Sijan: Profile
Lance P. Sijan Foundation
Air Force Academy Foundation: Commemorating a True War Hero
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund: Lance Sijan
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New memorial honors heroic Vietnam War pilot Lance Sijan
James Nance Sculpture: Lance Sijan Memorial
Burial Site: Find a Grave