VETERAN OF THE DAY
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 | Indiana
LT. COL. JOHN WAYNE HELD
United States Air Force
604th Air Commando Squadron
Missing in Action
Born: July 8, 1936
Home of Record: Indianapolis, Indiana
Branch: United States Air Force
Final Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
Date of Loss: April 17, 1968
Location: Phuoc Long Province, South Vietnam
The Wall: Panel 50E, Line 29
Status: Unaccounted For
THE MAN THEY CALLED “JACK”
John Wayne Held was born on July 8, 1936. Indiana was home, and records associated with his military service identify Indianapolis as his home of record.
But before Vietnam, before the A-37 Dragonfly, and before his name was carved into black granite in Washington, there was a young man his Naval Academy classmates knew simply as “Jack.”
Held graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the Class of 1958. His Academy yearbook remembered a gifted student whose academic performance placed him on the Superintendent’s List. He also participated in gymnastics and played company softball. His classmates remembered both his abilities and his friendly manner.
After graduation, Held entered the United States Air Force and became an aviator. He served as an instructor pilot at several Air Training Command bases before reporting to South Vietnam in July 1967.
Vietnam would become the final assignment of his life.
APRIL 17, 1968
By the spring of 1968, Captain Held was serving with the 604th Air Commando Squadron, flying the small but formidable A-37A Dragonfly, a light attack aircraft being combat-tested in Vietnam.
On April 17, Held climbed into A-37A serial number 67-14518.
He was the lead pilot in a flight of two aircraft sent against an enemy position near Song Be in Phuoc Long Province.
The mission brought him down low, where the A-37 could deliver its weapons accurately but where enemy ground fire posed an enormous danger.
Held attacked.
His aircraft dropped ordnance and napalm against the enemy position and then moved against another target.
Then came the ground fire.
Held’s Dragonfly was hit.
The aircraft became uncontrollable.
And Captain John Wayne Held did what he had been trained to do.
He ejected.
His wingman saw it.
Held’s parachute opened.
He descended toward the Vietnamese jungle below.
And then something happened that has never been fully explained.
THE EMPTY PARACHUTE
Held’s wingman kept the parachute in sight until search-and-rescue forces arrived.
The rescuers located it.
A pararescueman was lowered into the area.
But when he reached the parachute, John Held was gone.
There was no pilot waiting beneath it.
No successful rescue.
No remains to bring home.
Despite further searching, John Wayne Held could not be found.
One moment he had been descending beneath a parachute after surviving the destruction of his aircraft.
The next, he had disappeared into the war.
He was 31 years old.
FROM MISSING TO PRESUMED DEAD
John Held initially became one of America’s Missing in Action.
Years passed without an answer.
On August 21, 1975, more than seven years after his aircraft was shot down, he was officially declared dead.
The Air Force ultimately promoted him posthumously to Lieutenant Colonel.
But a declaration could close an administrative case.
It could not bring John home.
Today, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to list Lt. Col. John Wayne Held as unaccounted for. DPAA has assessed his case in its “Non-recoverable” analytical category.
His remains have never been recovered.
A DECORATED AIRMAN
John Held’s decorations tell another part of his story.
During his Air Force career, he received honors that included:
Silver Star
Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster
Air Medal with 14 Oak Leaf Clusters
Purple Heart
Air Force Commendation Medal
Those decorations speak to repeated missions and extraordinary service, but perhaps the most powerful symbol connected to John Held today contains no ribbon at all.
It is an empty place.
A place waiting for an American who never returned.
HIS NAME REMAINS
At the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, John Wayne Held is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing.
And in Washington, D.C., another inscription carries his name:
JOHN W HELD
PANEL 50E • LINE 29
His name is among the thousands carved into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
But John Held represents something more.
He represents the unfinished promise embodied in three letters:
MIA
Missing in Action.
For families, those words created a particular kind of grief. There was no homecoming, no recovered remains and, in many cases, no final answer to the question that mattered most:
What happened to our loved one?
John Wayne Held’s family carried that question.
America carries it still.
TODAY WE REMEMBER
On this Wednesday, August 26, 2026, the Micky Spano Show and VetVault proudly honor a son of Indiana:
Lieutenant Colonel John Wayne Held
United States Air Force
604th Air Commando Squadron
Fifty-eight years ago, his aircraft was struck by enemy fire over South Vietnam.
His fellow pilot watched him eject.
His parachute opened.
American rescuers came for him.
But John was gone.
No American who disappears in the service of this nation should disappear from its memory.
So today we say his name again.
John Wayne Held.
Pilot.
Airman.
Naval Academy graduate.
Husband and family man.
Son of Indiana.
Missing warrior.
And an American who has still not come home.
Lieutenant Colonel Held, wherever your final resting place may be, America remembers you.
YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.
Honor the Fallen. Support the Living. Teach the Next Generation.