Dan Heller 
Name: John George Graf
Memorials: Find a Grave Vietnam Wall Wall of Faces
Rank/Branch: Lieutenant Commander/USN
Unit: Chief of Naval AD Group MACV South Vietnam Naval Forces 3rd Coastal Zone
Date of Birth: 20 October 1927
Home of Record: Glendale CA
Date of Loss: 15 November 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 102957N 1065707E (XR730700)
Status in 1973: MIA
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: OV-1C “Mohawk” Serial No. 61-2690
Other Personnel In Incident: Robert White (POW-Returned)
REMARKS: DIED DURING ESCAPE ATTEMPT
On November 15, 1969, Commander Graf, a U.S. Navy intelligence officer, was accompanying U.S. Army Captain Robert White on a flight south of Saigon. Their aircraft was hit by hostile small arms fire and crashed along the coast in Vinh Binh Province. Both crewmen parachuted to safety, were captured by local guerrilla forces, and held in a provincial level prison. Both crewmen were initially reported as missing and then reclassified as POWs.
Commander Graf escaped from the prison circa February 1971 and was never seen again by Captain White. Captain White survived in the Vinh Binh prison. In 1972, a captured People’s Army of Vietnam document from Military Region 3 in the southern Vietnam delta identified him as the only American POW in captivity in the delta who had not been evacuated to the Region 3 Headquarters controlled prison in the U-Minh mangrove swamp in Kien Gang Province.
Captain White’s name did not appear on the Provisional Revolutionary Government’s list of Americans to be repatriated during Operation Homecoming. Then, at the end of March 1973, People’s Army of Vietnam General Tran Van Tra advised U.S. officers with the Joint Military Commission that Captain White had been omitted from the list and was to be repatriated. He was released to U.S. officials on April 1, 1973, the last American POW released during Operation Homecoming. Upon repatriation, he stated he was led to believe during the war that Commander Graf was still alive but had been told prior to his release that Commander Graf had died.
Wartime records recovered from the Vinh Binh area included the interrogation reports of Captain White and Commander Graf. After Operation Homecoming, Commander Graf was declared killed in action, body not recovered, based on a presumptive finding of death. U.S. investigators in Vietnam recently interviewed former staff of the provincial prison who described Commander Graf’s escape. His body was recovered later and it was evident he had drowned. His body was buried in a river bank which later eroded in flooding, washing away the area where his body had been buried.
If John Graf died while escaping he has a right to have his remains returned to his family, friends and country. However, if he survived, his fate, like that of other Americans who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, could be quite different.
Since the end of the Vietnam War well over 21,000 reports of American prisoners, missing and otherwise unaccounted for have been received by our government. Many of these reports document LIVE American Prisoners of War remaining captive throughout Southeast Asia TODAY. Pilots and aircrews in Vietnam and Laos were called upon to fly in many dangerous circumstances, and they were prepared to be wounded, killed or captured. It probably never occurred to them that they could be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.
From POW Network: Numerous declassified DIA documents indicate Graf was sighted ALIVE at least 18 times in captivity. Document 2 724 0397 73 from the 500 MI GP dated 23 May 73 speaks of a live sighting of Graf. Other documents indicate the “drowning” was only a story related by the communists.
As an intelligence officer Graf would have been of high value to the Soviet benefactors of the North Vietnamese government.
