On the right is the picture I was able to obtain of my adopted Missing In Action / Prisoner of War, Captain John Wadsworth Consolvo, Jr. You will be reading about what he did and how he came to be missing on this page. If you have any information as to the whereabouts of Captain John Wadsworth Consolvo, Jr. please contact me. He is still unaccounted for today, as are so many other Viet Nam Soldiers.
I did manage to find a listing in the Library of Congress that in 1987, a letter and a picture were sent to a Mrs. Martha Consolvo from Mrs. Columbo concerning a sighting in Milasia, but was not able to get any further information on this communication. To me, this means that at least in 1987, regardless of what the president proclaimed, he was still walking around over there! Here is a virtual name rubbing I got from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. John's name appears on Panel 1 W, Row 14 on the Memorial.
And if you haven't already seen it, then please check out the dedication I wrote for him when you are finished here (there is a link at the bottom of the page for you to click).
Click on the icon below to see how you can help bring our soldiers home!
Name: John Wadsworth Consolvo, Jr.
Rank/Branch: Captain O3/United States Marine Corps
Unit: Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 212, 1st Brigade, MAG 24
Date of Birth: Saturday, January 08, 1944
Home City of Record: Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Race and Marital Status: Caucasian, Married
MOS (Specialty): 7522=Pilot VMFA F=43 Qualified
Date of Loss: Sunday, May 07, 1972
District of Loss: Gio Linh
Province of Loss: Quang Tri
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164800N 1065700E (YD010555)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action / Body Not Recovered
Category: 2 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4J
Other Personnel In Incident: James J. Castonguay (rescued)
Capt. John W. Consolvo was on a combat mission out of Da Nang, South Vietnam when his aircraft was hit by ground fire as he pulled off target. He flew the aircraft about 18 miles to a safer bail-out area before the craft became uncontrollable. Although Captain Consolvo's mission was in South Vietnam near the DMZ, the ground fire that struck his aircraft came from Laos.
Consolvo radioed that the aircraft was incapacitated and ordered his radar intercept officer, CWO James J. Castonguay, to eject. The officer successfully reached the ground, was rescued after 19 hours and returned to Da Nang.
The F4 crashed 3-4 miles from the location the Radio Intercept Officer landed, in enemy territory (probably just inside Laos). Although the CWO Castonguay did not see his pilot eject, he believed he could have easily ejected and probably did. The wingman and forward air controller on the mission did not see him eject, but they had been unable to keep the plane constantly in sight.
John Consolvo flew over 150 combat missions on his first tour of Vietnam. He was into his second tour when he was shot down on May 7, 1972. He had been in the Marine Corps since 1966. John W. Consolvo, Jr. also graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1966.
If John Consolvo was unfortunate enough to be apprehended by the Pathet Lao, he is among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared without trace. The Pathet Lao stated on several occasions that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, yet not one man held in Laos was ever released - or negotiated for them. Circumstances surrounding his crash indicate that the Vietnamese or Lao could account for his fate - alive or dead. John Consolvo does not deserve the abandonment he has received by the country he proudly served.
The government is aware that there are still many of our missing soldiers in Southeast Asia. Because they wanted to open trade agreements and such and were not getting cooperation from the governments in that area, they were all declared dead by presidential order. Please let the President, the Vise President, your Senators and Representatives know that this is not acceptable. We want our soldiers back, or at least we want to be able to bury them in American soil!
Those of you that have already read my dedication know that at the end, I mentioned my son who is proudly serving his country right now in the United States Marines. He will be 20 years old October the 21st, of this year. He got his basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. He then spent a year in Okinawa, and he seemed a world away from me here in Virginia. I thank the good Lord for e-mail because that is how he and I mostly communicated when he was in Japan. His station now is in Camp LeJeune, North Carolina althought right now, he is in desert training at 29 Palms, California. I don't know where they will be sending him next but, I know that I would not want him left in some foreign land, so I think this is a very important issue!
If you would like to e-mail me, click on the icon or e-mail address! I do enjoy hearing from my friends and would appreciate any comments on what you think of my pages or what you would like to see here in the future!
E-Mail: firemist@rocketmail.com
The information about my adopted MIA/POW were compiled from Homecoming II Project 01 in April 1991 and other facts from http://no-quarter.org, http://www.asde.com/~pownet, and newsletters from Operation Just Cause.
Go To John's Dedication Page
Return to The Lair of Firemist
Return to My Personal Index Page
Click on the icon to find out more about webguard. The images used on my pages were either scanned by my partner, taken from public domain and are listed on my links page or when the origin is known, the pictures link back to the originator. The only images that are not on my own server are when people have given me an exact code they want me to use for thier images. Be a considerate web user :)