Written by John Mercure, Wisconsin’s Afternoon News.

Air Force veteran Lance Sijan is from Bayview. He was an all-conference football player and Class President at Bayview High School.

“A leader is someone who has lots of followers. Lance had lots of followers because he helped all of us elevate our game and become better,” Charlie Larson told WTMJ.” Charlie and Lance were best friends from Kindergarten through High School.

Lance won an appointment to the U.S Air Force Academy and graduated in 1965. He was commissioned a lieutenant and became a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. His jet, the F4 Phantom was fast and lethal.

On November 9^th, 1967 Lance and Colonel John Armstrong lifted off into the dark Vietnam sky on Lance’s 52^nd combat mission. Their F4 headed to the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. The plane rolled into its target in the dense jungle below and released its bombs.  Experts would later determine that the fuses on the bombs were defective and detonated prematurely, engulfing the F4 in a fireball.

Lance ejected, was knocked unconscious and landed in a thick triple tree canopy below. He suffered a fractured skull, a compound leg fracture just below his knee, and a badly mangled hand. For days, he was in and out of consciousness.

“He was so badly hurt that he could only scoot ten or 20 feet a day,” his sister, Janine recounted to WTMJ. “He had nothing to eat and very little to drink.”

Lance survived in the jungle for 46 days. When he was eventually captured, he weighed 80 pounds… Down from a muscular 220.

In numerous Vietnamese jails, he was repeatedly tortured for refusing to give any information outside the Military Code of Conduct which was limited to name, branch of service, rank and serial number. Despite being almost too weak and injured to move, Lance attacked a guard and temporarily escaped back into the jungle. It took local villagers almost a week to recapture him.

In a bamboo jail deep in a jungle village, Lance was eventually reunited with an Air Force Academy classmate, Guy Gruters, who had also been taken as a prisoner of war.

“When I first saw Lance, I didn’t even recognize him,” Gruters said. “I asked his name and when he told I was in disbelief. He was so small and injured that I could pick him up like a little baby.”

Guy tried to nurture Lance back to health, but it was too late. Lance was too sick to even eat anything. Despite his rapid deterioration, Lance spoke of trying to escape again. And under severe beatings, still refused to give his captor any useful information.

“His courage was remarkable and inspiring,” Gruters said.

Eventually, Lance was transported to the infamous Hanoi Hilton Prison, where John McCain was held. McCain once said this about Lance:

“I never knew Lance Sijan, but I wish I had. I wish I had had one moment to tell him how much I admired him, how indebted I was to him for showing me, for showing all of us, our duty—for showing us how to be free.

Eventually, Lance died in the Hanoi Hilton.

“He died a martyr. That is the only way to put it, ” Gruters told WTMJ.

In 1976, Lance Sijan was given the Medal of Honor — the military’s highest honor for valor. His parents received the medal from President Gerald Ford at the White House.

Sijan Plaza near Mitchell International Airport has a replica of the F-4 Phantom fighter jet that Sijan flew in Vietnam.

It has fallen into disrepair and needs to be repainted and repaired. That will cost about $50,000.

Dan Buttery, the President and CEO of the War Memorial Center in Milwaukee, recently told WTMJ’s John Mercure:

“We need to repair that plane immediately. His story is incredible. We need to give Lance Sijan the dignity he deserves. His story is our story. He is from Bayview.”

WTMJ Cares is raising the money to preserve his legacy.