| Gareth L. Anderson |
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| Rank, Service |
| Lieutenant Commander O-4, U.S. Navy |
| Veteran of: |
U.S. Navy 1963-1976
Cold War 1963-1976
Vietnam War 1966-1973 (POW)
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| Tribute: |
Gary Anderson was born on July 28, 1942, in Pennsylvania. He entered Naval Pre-Flight Training on July 31, 1963, and was commissioned an Ensign and designated a Naval Flight Officer on May 22, 1964. After completing Replacement Air Group training, Anderson served as an F-4 Phantom II Radar Intercept Officer with VF-33 before joining VF-114 and deploying to Southeast Asia in October 1966. He and his pilot were credited with destroying a MiG-17 over North Vietnam on April 24, 1967, while flying off of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). LTJG Anderson was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War when his aircraft was hit by a surface-to-air missile on May 19, 1967. After spending 2,117 days in captivity, LCDR Anderson was released during Operation Homecoming on March 4, 1973. He was briefly hospitalized to recover from his injuries and then entered flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida, in October 1973. Anderson was designated a Naval Aviator in May 1975, and then joined the F-14 Tomcat Replacement Air Group, VF-124, at NAS Miramar, California, but was killed during a training flight on June 21, 1976.
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God. |
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