{"id":240332,"date":"2024-07-30T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=240332"},"modified":"2024-07-30T13:37:54","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T13:37:54","slug":"buddy-finder-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=240332","title":{"rendered":"Buddy Finder success story"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Army Veteran shared his experience of reuniting with a Marine he rescued in Vietnam and then located through the Military Veteran Reconnect Website: TogetherWeServed.com<\/a> (TWS). For your own journey to find and reconnect with military service buddies, explore TogetherWeServed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The incident<\/h2>\n

On Dec. 19, 1972, an OV-10 Bronco observation plane flew through the scattered clouds over South Vietnam\u2019s northern region west of the South China Sea. At the controls was Air Force pilot Capt. Frank Egan. His aerial observer (AO), a Marine officer known by the call sign \u201cWolfman 44,\u201d carefully searched for enemy activity in the rain-soaked jungle and mountains below.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the twin-engine Bronco was hit by an enemy heat-seeking missile. The damage was extensive. Not wanting to crash in the thick jungle, Egan turned his crippled aircraft toward the coast in an attempt to ditch it over water. As luck would have it, an Army U-21 Ute conducting electronic battlefield surveillance witnessed the incident and descended toward Egan\u2019s damaged plane. The pilot, Army Capt. Warren Fuller, contacted Egan on the aircraft emergency frequency and was told by Egan that he planned on punching out when he got to 800 feet.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The ejection<\/h2>\n

As Egan\u2019s crippled Bronco approached the coast, both he and \u201cWolfman 44\u201d ejected at the planned altitude, but Fuller saw only one parachute open. \u201cWolfman 44 contacted me when he hit the ground and told me Frank\u2019s parachute never deployed,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cWolfman 44\u201d and Egan\u2019s lifeless body were picked up by a Huey and taken to a Navy warship, where Egan was officially pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

A few days later, the Marine aerial observer came over to Fuller\u2019s outfit hoping to meet him and thank him for his help. \u201cBut I was out on another mission, and missed him,\u201d recalled Fuller.<\/p>\n

The search begins<\/h2>\n

For 30 years, Warren Fuller hoped to find \u201cWolfman 44,\u201d but the only information he had was the aviator\u2019s call sign and a tip that he was a Marine attached to the 1st ANGLICO. He turned to the internet, posting on various military bulletin boards, but all was in vain until one of Fuller\u2019s posts caught the attention of several Marine members of TogetherWeServed.com (TWS). Those Marines began searching all possible candidates on TWS using TWS\u2019s Buddy Finder system and posting on its various forums.<\/p>\n

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\"Warrent<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The breakthrough<\/h2>\n

On New Year\u2019s Day 2010, TWS Member and Army Veteran Mark Stovall reached out to the TWS Administrators. Stovall said he had first-hand knowledge of the events of Dec. 19, 1972: He was the one who pulled Capt. Frank Egan from his downed aircraft. Egan didn\u2019t eject, recalled Stovall. \u201cI found him still strapped in his seat,\u201d he said. The search for \u201cWolfman 44\u201d continued as Fuller and Stovall, along with other TWS members, pursued every lead. Then on Jan. 5, 2011, a big break came from TWS member, retired Marine Sergeant Major James Butler. \u201cThere was an aerial observer in our unit, a 1st Lt. J.F. Patterson,\u201d said Butler. \u201cHe was recommended for the Purple Heart in Dec. 1972.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reunion<\/h2>\n

With that vital piece of information, TWS members called upon George Reilly, a Marine Veterans and NYPD detective who headed up TWS\u2019s Person Locator Service who quickly got to work. It didn\u2019t take but just a few days when George made an announcement on the TWS People Finder Forum: \u201cAfter 38 years of searching, Warren Fuller is on the phone with \u201cWolfman 44\u201d right now! 1st Lt. Jon Patterson was indeed the man he was looking for!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Jon<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Jon Patterson is now a member of TogetherWeServed.com<\/a>, the website whose members worked every lead and were finally successful in achieving the almost seemingly impossible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Army Veteran shared his experience of reuniting with a Marine he rescued in Vietnam and then located through the Military Veteran Reconnect Website: TogetherWeServed.com (TWS). For your own journey to find and reconnect with military service buddies, explore TogetherWeServed. The incident On Dec. 19, 1972, an OV-10 Bronco observation plane flew through the scattered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":240334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,1056,619,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vetresources","category-buddy-finder","category-together-we-served","category-vets-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240332"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240342,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240332\/revisions\/240342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/240334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}