POW comes marching home again and Lynnfield gets right in step (Lauren Lengyel)

POW comes marching home again and Lynnfield gets right in step By Marvin Olasky Globe Correspondent LYNNFIELD “Lauren Lengyel is OK in our books,” a sign at the public librayr proclaimed yesterday afternoon as Lengyel, an Air Force captain and six-year captive in North Vietnam, was honored by his neighbors on the Lynnfield Common, a short distance away. Lengyel, who grew up in Lynnfield and lives at 6 Pontiac Rd., West Peabody, stood with his wife, four children, parents and grandmother and told the 2000 persons assembled there: “You’ve made me the happiest and proudest man in the world.” “My only regret,” he said, “is that there were others who were not as fortunate as I am.” The brief ceremony followed a two-mile parade of military and veterans units, Boy and Girl Scouts, bands and one sheep marching with the Lynnfield 4-H group. Clowns from the Spotlighters, a Lynnfield theatrical group, pranced in the streets because, as Spotlighter Jean Laier said, “we want a home town atmosphere. It’s not supposed to be a war parade.” Although rifles and bayonets were evident in the parade, many Scituate youth hit by car; condition fair SCITUATE An 18-year-old youth was admilied to South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, early yesterday after being struck by a car in North Scituate Village. Police said Peter Lynch of 17 Curtis av.,.

Other Publications You Might Be Interested In

POW recalls captivity (Bradley Smith)

Navy Lt. Brad Smith was on a bombing run to destroy a bridge in North Vietnam when he was shot down in 1966. He didn’t see what ripped into his A-4 Skyhawk, but he saw the ground approaching at 600 mph as his crippled jet nose-dived toward the ground. Smith

Read More »

Remembering Jon Reynolds

Although he graduated ahead of me – he was in the Class of 1959 and I was in the Class of 1967 – Jon Reynolds and I both received Air Force commissions through Trinity’s Air Force ROTC unit.  He was shot down over North Vietnam when I was still at

Read More »

Always Out Front (Donald Rander)

During the night of January 31, 1968, a Villa in Hue occupied by the 135th MI Group regional team came under attack.   The shelling awakened Sergeant Donald Rander, assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Hue Regional Headquarters.   Grabbing flak jackets and weapons, the members grouped on the second floor.  They remained there

Read More »