James Lloyd Griffin Commander, United States Navy |
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Date of Birth: 27 December 1932 Date of Casualty:21 May 1967 Home of Record: GATES, TENNESSEE Branch of Service: NAVY Rank: COMMANDER Casualty Country: NORTH VIETNAM Captured by the enemy on 19 May 1967 and died on 21 1967. His remains were returned in April 1974. Buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. GRIFFIN, JAMES LLOYD Remains Returned 03/1974 Name: James Lloyd Griffin Branch/Rank: United States Navy/04 Unit: RVAH-13 Date of Birth: 27 December 1932 Home City of Record: GATES TN Date of Loss: 19 May 1967 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 210500 North 1055100 East Status (in 1973): Died in captivity Category: 1 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: RA5C Missions: 100+ Other Personnel in Incident: Refno: 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 and CACCF = Combined Action Combat Casualty File. Updated in 2001. 10/07/2001 Having just learned of your POW info site,
I thought you might like to have
He attended the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
in Monterey, California, and received
He served in VA-83, deploying to the Mediterranean
and flying missions in
Commander Griffin's awards included the Distinguished
Flying Cross with gold
On the day of his "shoot-down" a radio broadcast from Hanoi announced that Commander Griffin and his navigator had been captured, and, although gravely injured, he read a statement which was broadcast. A photo of his military ID card was displayed in a museum in Hanoi. He was carried in a "missing in action" status until January, 1973, when his death on May 21, 1967 was revealed by the North Vietnamese. On January 16, 1974 the Secretary of the Navy verified that Commander Griffin had died while a prisoner of war. A plaque marking the event of his "shoot down" stands on the corner of a building in downtown Hanoi. Survivors include his wife Dora, his son James,
and his daughter Glyn Carol Griffin, his parents, two brothers and a sister.
I launched on the same strike as Jim on 19 May. He was flying an RA5C, I was flying an EA3B. My mission was electronic reconnaisance and early warning; his was BDA (bomb damage assessment). I understand, from what I heard at the mission debrief, that his photo mission was low level which put him in range of the smaller stuff, (23mm). His airspeed was in excess of Mach 1.0 so if something even that small hit him, his aircraft would start coming apart immediately. I have visited his section of "The Wall" several times over the last 25 years. Bob Newbegin 
Posted: 15 May 2004 Updated: 22 December 2005 |
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