Background
Guy Gruters was born in 1942 in Sarasota, Florida, but raised in New Jersey, where he spent his childhood trapping muskrat, camping, hunting and Scouting (Eagle Scout Rank awarded).
Guy Gruters was born in 1942 in Sarasota, Florida, but raised in New Jersey, where he spent his childhood trapping muskrat, camping, hunting and Scouting (Eagle Scout Rank awarded).
He then went on to Purdue University and completed a Master of Science degree in Astronautical Engineering in less than one year, in 1965. He completed F-100 Super Sabre Combat Crew Training with the 4514th Combat Crew Training Squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, in October 1966, and then O-1 Bird Dog Forward Air Controller Training in February 1967.
He was one of the five hundred and ninety-one surviving POWs of all military services released in 1973 for return to the United States during Operation Homecoming. Following his graduation from Purdue, he was sent to flight school. After Undergraduate Pilot Training at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, he received his pilot wings in March 1966.
Following this, he volunteered for Vietnam and served six years, more than five years of which was as a Prisoner Of War. During his flight operations as a Forward Air Controller in the first 10 months, Guy flew more than 400 combat missions, first for the 173rd Airborne Brigade in the O-1 Bird Dog light observation aircraft and then for the MISTY Fast FACS in the F-100F Super Sabre over North Vietnam.
As a co-pilot of the two-seat F-100F, Gruters was shot down twice. The first shoot down required a parachute water landing less than one mile offshore near the North Vietnamese city of Đồng Hới while under fire from the NVA coastal guns in November 1967.
While North Vietnamese boats were prevented from intercepting the downed pilots by strafing United States. F-4 fighter-bombers, First Lieutenant Gruters and Captain Charles Neel were rescued under heavy fire by two United States Air Force HH-3E Sea King helicopter crews based 60 miles away. Gruters was shot down for the second time on December 20, 1967.
He and fellow pilot, Colonel Robert R. Craner were captured and imprisoned in the Hỏa Lò Prison (Hanoi Hilton) among other camps.
Upon their initial incarceration, Gruters and Craner cared for Lance Sijan before Sijan succumbed to wounds and torture in January 1968. Gruters spent 5 years and 3 months as a prisoner of war before his release in 1973.
Guy Gruters" decorations include more than thirty combat awards, with two Silver Stars, two DFCs, two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star Medal for Valor, the Prisoner Of War Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation, 20 Air Medals and other medals. Guy Gruters" testimony was instrumental in Lance Sijan receiving the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1976. Guy Gruters" story was described in the book, "Bury Us Upside Down," "Into the Mouth of the Cat", and "Misty: Fast FACS.".
