Fayette County native to be inducted into Hall of Valor
Submitted photo
Air Force Capt. John E. Elsey, a Smithfield native, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for action April 14, 1971, in Cambodia, and will be inducted into the Hall of Valor in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Smithfield native John E. Elsey received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Submitted photo
Smithfield native John E. Elsey will be inducted into the Hall of Valor at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
A Fayette County native will be inducted into the Hall of Valor at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Pittsburgh Sunday for his actions that saved lives during the Vietnam War.
Air Force Capt. John E. Elsey was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for action April 14, 1971, in Cambodia.
“On that particular day, things went very smoothly. We got good marks on the target, and the bombs were dropped right on the target, and a lot of men were saved that day,” he said.
He served as a forward air controller and said he was directing an air strike in support of friendly troops. He was tasked with coordinating between the men on the ground and the bombers in the air from a small, single-engine plane, and keeping track of the positions of both the friendly troops and the enemy. He would mark the target with a rocket and brief the fighters before the bombers attacked, he said.
“It wasn’t a routine flight, by any stretch, but there were several others very similar to it. So we were just thankful how smoothly it was run, and we were thankful of the good results of our efforts and the fact that the friendly troops were helped on that day,” the Smithfield native said.
He said he could not estimate the number of friendly troops involved, but described it as a “sizable number.”
“The good Lord looked over me that day and every other mission. I was on 176 of them and the good Lord watched over me the whole way,” he said.
He said “reality set in” very quickly when he went overseas and a man he trained with was killed during the first week of his deployment. Elsey, now 79, left for Vietnam with an 8-month-old baby at home with his wife, June.
“She’s been at my side the whole way,” he said.
She stayed close to home so family could help with the baby. They have been married for 55 years and met in their youth at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Smithfield. Capt. Elsey graduated from Albert Gallatin High School in 1961 and from Carnegie Tech – now Carnegie Mellon University – with a mechanical engineering degree in 1965.
His first job was with U.S. Steel in Youngstown, Ohio. After separating from the Air Force after about five years in 1971, the family lived in Uniontown for about two years and then relocated in San Antonio. He spent his career as a commercial pilot for about four decades, retiring from FedEx after 16 years with the company. He and his wife now live in Fort Mill, S.C. They had two children, a son and daughter, and now have nine grandchildren.
He said he was “surprised, honored and humbled” by the induction.
Elsey said that 50 years after his time in Vietnam, some of his memories have become “hazy,” but some have remained clear. The award gave him an opportunity to reflect on his time overseas.
“This award has allowed me to go back and think about things that I really hadn’t thought about in a long time,” he said.
The Hall of Valor ceremony begins at 2 p.m. in the auditorium and is open to the public and free to attend. In honor of the ceremony, the museum is open and admission is free from noon to 2 p.m.
The induction also will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube at www.facebook.com/SoldiersandSailors/videos or www.youtube.com/@soldierssailorsmemorialhal836/streams.