Spent the day doing a little investigative reporting - finding the real truth is not easy. The earliest reference to the lighter that I can find online is October 9, 2014 from this website. There is a later message from the same source posted on May 14, 2015 from someone claiming to have the lighter in their possession. I contacted this person today for more information. We exchanged a number of emails where I asked very specific questions but only got cryptic answers. The only thing I can relate from the source was that the lighter was claimed to have been found in what is once referenced as an antique store in New Orleans in April or May of 2015 by a buddy of the person who now had it - and given to a brother of Johnny Wells in July 2015. In another email I got this message."It was found in a surplus second hand store of all places and the young man insisted it go to the family of the original owner. It was said to be on Johnny when he died in Saigon and his family don't know how it got back to the states or separated from his body."
There are a lot of holes in this story and I am not completely convinced, but it will have to do. And now you know what might be "the rest of the story". 60,72,34,0,C
14 comments:
I see a resemblance to Pat Tillman in that photo.
Maybe a 5th or 6th or 8th cousin of yours. Ya never know. Nice looking young Wells man.
Good Job
Here is an interesting tidbit...a blog reader emailed me about the uniform in the photo. Seems the hardware on the jacket are reversed. Doing an image search of green beret uniforms I found that to be true...as well as the hat being reversed as well. Conclusion: somewhere along the line the image was flopped. I have reversed the image and updated it in the post.
Green Beret-the best. My friend went on a secret mission he led as a Green Beret over there in1968 and in 1968 became MIA. And in 1968 I had driven out of Texas with my 4 children over the next hill and wound up by Canada and in college in N. MI.
The SF ("Green Beret") soldier in the photo is a SP/4 in 5th Special Forces Group (ABN). Most SF soldiers were NCOs, so since he's not, he'd probably be fairly young and new to the unit. Perhaps that helps solve the mystery a little. He's also wearing an ascot, which was not a common uniform item. There was a time when some SF and Airborne soldiers had them while assigned to a unit band or choir. Those days may (hopefully) be gone.
Thank you for your service, Brother! Phu Bai 1969-70
I just saw a post on Facebook. They showed a picture of the lighter which I saved.
I just shared the the post too the Vietnam veterans photo club
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205192617115958&set=a.1723043596861.100502.1261487794&type=3
The thing I posted above is a link to a lighter which was found with Johnny wells name on it in Vietnam
So just to clarify please...the lighter has been returned to family. Just got it on my FB page this week?
I just saw a photo of the lighter posted on a genealogy Facebook group saying she found it and wanted to return it. When I tried to comment on it, I couldn't. Then the post disappeared. The woman who posted it was Linda Howard Ross https://m.facebook.com/linda.ross.54
It is said Johnny Wells's lighter has been given to his family.
http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/55201/JOHN-C-WELLS
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