This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Robert Connors, CDR
to remember
Graf, John George, CDR.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
He went back to RVN because he wanted a Silver Star.
"the only Sailor, Officer, or Enlisted who was shot down twice, captured by the enemy, and killed during an escape attempt ... A Naval Intelligence Officer by experience, a Mustang by background, an aviator by training, and a Fleet sailor who braved the Antarctic gale in his time ... He is also a symbol of the American Sailor, officer and enlisted, who stood up to his brutal captors and gave the full measure of devotion while attempting to perform the final duty of a prisoner: escape."
Lieutenant Commander John Graf, an intelligence officer, was assigned to the Naval Advisory Group. On 15 November 1969 he and then-Captain Robert White (73rd Aviation Company) were conducting a visual reconnaissance mission in an OV-1C Mohawk aircraft (tail number 61-2690). Their aircraft was hit by enemy fire and was observed by a U.S. Navy patrol boat to be on fire and descending. Both men escaped the burning aircraft, parachuting to the ground. Although an extensive air and ground search was conducted by allied forces, the two could not be found. White and Graf initially were classed as Missing in Action, but after reliable reports were received indicating that both men had been captured by the Viet Cong they were reclassified as prisoners of war.
Nothing more was heard of the two men until Major White was released by the Viet Cong on 01 April 1973 - the last American POW released during Operation Homecoming. During his debrief, White reported that he was held with Graf in various prison camps until late January 1970, when Graf escaped with another POW. Captain White never saw Graf after that, but he was told by his captors that Graf had drowned during his escape attempt.
Captured documents and post-war reports by former residents of the area supported what White had been told, and indicated that Graf's body had been recovered and buried somewhere in Vinh Binh Province.
His remains have never been recovered.
Other Comments:
New information sent to CDR Graf's niece, Helene Judith Connors, on 7 Feb 2013 indicates that a Vietnamese citizen, Mr. Hong, may be holding CDR Graf's remains in his home garden. Mr. Hong claims that he was a South Vietnamese soldier who was captured by the North. During his re-education, he heard the story of CDR Graf's capture. Many elements of his story, including the typr of plane, and information on the other individual captured, match official records. The year of the capture, however, was reported as 1963 or 1964, when in fact it was 1969. Mr. Hong claims that in 1999 he went to the village near the river where CDR Graf apparently drowned and was buried. With help of Vietnam citizens, he dug up the remains and brought them to his home Garden. U.S. investigation continues. I am asking the U.S. Government to obtain the remains and subject them to expeditious anthropological investigation and DNA analysis.
Unfortunately, in May 2013, the Pentagon informed us that the above story had been checked out by U.S. Officials in Nam several years ago. A U.S. anthropologist examined the remains held in the garden and they were that of a female child.
Robert E. Connors, CDR, MSC, USN, husband of Helene J. (Hook), CDR Graf's niece.
Other Memories I worked, lived, and drank with Jack Graf from 22 May, the day he arrived on-station in Vung Tau, until the Saturday morning in November when his and Lt. White's Mohawk was downed by ground fire. He served as Third Coastal Zone Intelligence Officer, or, as I'd painted on the windshield frame of our Jeep in International Signal Flags, 3CZIO. I was a Lieutenant Junior Grade and served directly under him as Asst. 3CZIO. His call sign was "Nobel Skill;" mine was "Nobel Skill Junior". I was on duty in the Coastal Surveillance Center preparing Cdr. Paul Yost's morning intelligence briefing when one of the PCFs (Swift Boats) under Yost's command radioed from the mouth of the Bassac River that they had just observed a Mohawk go down in flames several kilometers from their position. They reported seeing two fully deployed chutes and requested permission to enter a canal into hostile territory to retrieve the crew.
I knew, based on the location and timing, that this was Lt. White and LCDR Graf. I radioed the 73rd SACs commanding officer to advise that one of his aircraft was just reported lost on the coastal reconnaissance flight, and within minutes, quite literally, the air and waterways over and surrounding the area were bristling with air and watercraft. We had men on the ground within an hour, recovering the flight helmets and chutes. We questioned the local women and children (no males older than 8 or 9 were ever seen), who informed us that a handful of "soldiers" (VC) had captured the two Americans within moments of their landing and had led them away into the mangroves. The search continued for two more days, including continuous flare illumination throughout the night.
