NAMPA, Idaho — It's been fifty years since the last combat troops left Vietnam for good. In some ways, our country is still dealing with the long, and costly Vietnam War where 58,000 Americans lost their lives. 2500 Americans were listed as 'Prisoners Of War' or 'Missing In Action'.
Mark Stephensen lost his father to the war as a young boy and now as an adult, he's involved in recovery efforts for families who are still hoping for closure.
"He was a pilot, he loved to fly. He wouldn't have done anything else, a profound sense of duty for the freedoms that we have."
It's difficult for Mark to hold his emotions back when discussing his father.
"There's a picture of my dad's plane with him flying it. His nickname was Quiet Tiger."
In 1967, Mark's father Col.Mark L. Stephensen was on a reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam when he and his aviator were shot down over enemy territory.
Col. Stephensen wasn't found. His aviator, Gary Seigler, was captured and taken to Hanoi. Mark shared his story with hundreds of local veterans at the Warhawk Air Museum at their monthly Kilroy Coffee Klatch.
REQUIRED | Kilroy Coffee Klatch brings veterans together at the Warhawk Air Museum
He had also interviewed and recorded at a conference for POW/MIA families in hopes it will end up in the Library of Congress for future generations.
"I hope they know more about my dad, my family, what the situation was when you think about the Vietnam War. The impact, both on international politics and also military families, on what they went through during that time period."
The Stephensen family didn't know anything about Mark Sr. until three years later when Gary Seigler, through the Red Cross, got a letter back to his family in the States. It gave the Stephensens a glimmer of hope, but many unanswered questions remained.
"If the navigator had not ejected, survived, and been captured - if he had not done that we may never know of my dad, their fate."
Then in 1973, Gary Seigler was one of over one hundred POWs released, but still, nothing was known about Mark's father. Fast forward 21 years later, in 1988, the remains of Col. Mark L. Stephensen were returned to the U.S.
"It was an honor to be at the same dinner table with him, we lived with a hero."
Mark became very active with the POW/MIA effort and he actually helped organize and plan trips to Vietnam to excavation sites where the search continues for other missing Americans. He hopes to return.
"I feel ashamed sometimes, I take for granted the freedoms we have. Even doing this at a tremendous cost, and we're going to be asked to do it again, and I hope that the men and women who see this, who've had to step up and do that, will know that there were those of us who weren't going to let them be forgotten."
