My mother was born on May 11, 1902 and she was still living a full life! The volunteer at the entrance to The Wall had told me where to look for Lonnie's name. Somehow I was hoping that it wouldn't be there....a mistake, wrong spelling.

I remember standing in front of the panel trying to see through tears I hadn't realized were there. I reached up to touch his name expecting the black granite to be cold on such a bitter day. I remember pulling back suddenly. I reached back again and as I traced the letters of his name I felt a warmth I cannot describe

Lonnie died in Viet Nam.

His body was never returned to the soil that should be his resting place. I'd like to believe that he rests in the hearts and minds of those who knew him, those who honored his sacrafice and those who loved him.

Thousands died and thousands more did not come home.
This realization began the quest for answers.

This is for you Lonnie.

Lonnie Pat Bogard flew an F4-D Phantom jet on his last flight over Vietnam!

POW/MIA INFORMATION:
Name: Lonnie Pat Bogard
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Ubon AF TH
Date of Birth: 11 May 1942
Home City of Record: Metairie LA
Date of Loss: 12 May 1972
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 171200N 1960900E (XE222018)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Other Personnel in Incident: William H. Ostermeyer (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 April 1990
from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Capt. Lonnie P. Bogard, had celebrated his birthday the day before he was assigned a night low-level reconnaissance
mission along the Ho Chi Minh trail on May 12, 1972.
Bogard was the pilot, and 1Lt. William H. Ostermeyer the electronics officer comprising the crew of an F4D Phantom.
The mission went according to plan until after a scheduled mid-air refueling,
after which radio contact was lost with the aircraft. At last contact, Bogard and Ostermeyer were near the Ban Karai Pass in Savannakhet Province, Laos.

The Ban Karai Pass was one of several passageways through the mountainous border of Vietnam and Laos.
American aircraft flying from Thailand to missions over North Vietnam flew through them regularly, and many aircraft were lost.
On the Laos side of the border coursed the "Ho Chi Minh Trail", a road heavily traveled by North Vietnamese troops moving materiel and personnel to their destinations through the relative safety of neutral Laos.
The return ratio of men lost in and around the passes is far lower than that of those men lost in more populous areas.
This is partly due to the extremely rugged terrain and resulting difficulty in recovery.
The families of Bogard and Ostermeyer understood that the two could have been killed in the incident or captured by either Pathet Lao forces or North Vietnamese.

Someone else remembers Lonnie!

Dear Arlene - How wonderful it is to hear from you!! Yes, I did wear Pat's bracelet for quite a while and corresponded for a number of years with his fiancee.
Eventually, we lost touch with each other, but one of these days, I'm going to try to track her down and let her know that Pat has not been forgotten.
My schedule is pretty crazsy right now, but if you want to contact me, I'll give you the information I have on her and you can give it a try.
Since she was in the military as well, I am confident that she can be found.
I am sorry to say that I have torn my house apart looking for that picture I had of Pat leaning up against his plane - no luck.
He was a tall and handsome man. It'll turn up - I'll pray about it and keep you posted.



And yet another remembrance!
If you would like more information, Pat Bogard attended Oklahoma State University, graduating in 1965, I believe.
Of course he was known as "Bogie", because of his name, and because of the flying term, as in "I have a bogie at 3 o'clock, 5 miles".
This brief note from another who remembers Lonnie - Virgil Kennedy




And yet another!

Arlene, Thanks for the kind words. I'm looking forward to seeing your site.
Please forward the address to me when you're done with it. Where are you from? I picked Lonnie Bogard to make a page for, since he is from my home state of Louisiana. ,BR. I am in the USAF, stationed at Mt. Home AFB, Idaho, where I fly the F-15E Strike Eagle. Talk to you later.,BR. Fritz Boudreaux



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
LONNIE PAT BOGARD
USAF 1966-1972
MAY 12, 1972
Pat, as his family and friends called him, was an Air Force pilot of the F4-D Phantom fighter/bomber jet.
He was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on May 11, 1942, while his father served in the South Pacific arena during WW II.
He had just turned thirty years old when he became missing during a night mission over Laos.
Pat did most of his growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a suburb called Metairie.
Since he became missing most of his primary family members have become deceased.
They passed away never having an answer to the questions, “What happened? Where is he?” Pat’s one sister still lives in Atlanta, GA.
Pat has no nieces or nephews.

Pat graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1965, with a degree in air science and a commission in the United States Air Force through the ROTC program.
During his senior year at OSU he served as vice wing commander of the AFROTC.
He entered pilot training at Reese AFB in Lubbock, TX, and was awarded his wings in 1966.
After training in the F4-C Phantom, Pat served his first tour of duty in Southeast Asia from 1967 to 1968.
He was just seven weeks from finishing his second tour when he became missing in the F4-D Phantom.
His second tour began in June of 1971 and would have been completed on the last day of June 1972.
Pat became missing on May 12, 1972, the day after his thirtieth birthday.

Pat was a very tall man, almost too tall to be a fighter pilot, standing 6’4”.
He weighed 185 pounds had had reddish-blond hair and blue eyes.
He was a very happy man----always laughing or smiling.
He had a great sense of humor and was quite a tease.
Needless to say that he loved people and the more the merrier.

Pat enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, and shooting skeet.
He had dabbled in bow hunting, scuba diving and motorcycling. He played the guitar and liked to make up songs about places that had been or things that had seen.
His tours in SEA gave him a treasure trove of lyrics. He liked all kinds of music but country western was definitely his favorite.

Pat was married to his college sweetheart in 1964, and never had children.

He liked youngsters of all ages and had done some youth group work such as being an instructor for the Junior Rifle Club on various AF bases.
He was also very fond of animals and even liked cats. He most treasured pet was a golden retriever named Rebel and called Reb.
The dog went wherever Pat went including the stag bar at the Officers’ Club.

A presumptive finding of death was issued on Pat by the DOD in June of 1978, based on the fact that it couldn’t be shown that he was alive.
The government continues to use some search and recovery personnel in Southeast Asia to repatriate the remains of lost individuals.
In the mid 1990s, the family was notified that a crash site in Laos would be excavated and the air craft was believed to be one of possible three lost in that area.
It turned out to be a fourth aircraft that was not known to have been in that area.
This gave two families an unexpected closure.

To this date there has been no further information that would help solve his disappearance.

Pat was a great son, brother, husband, and friend. His family and country meant more to him than can be expressed.
He was extremely patriotic and possessed a very gentle heart.
He was a very good man and had hoped to make the Air Force a career.
The last wish for Pat that his remains could be returned and interned in the soil of the country that he loved so strongly.

The picture above was taken in 1972 just before Pat left for his second SEA tour.

2005 update