PEABODY — March 18, 1973 is a day that will forever be remembered by the Lengyel family of Lynnfield. It was this day 50 years ago when United States Air Force Capt. Lauren “Laurie” Lengyel finally came home to Peabody after spending five and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison camp.
Laurie’s brother, Ron, remembers the excitement leading up to Laurie’s return after the cease-fire was declared. He said the entire family watched him on “The Today Show” getting off his “Flight to Freedom” plane at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, where 108 prisoners of war (POWs) were debriefed and given medical checks before returning home to their families.
Laurie’s wife, Margaret, and oldest son, Joseph, were featured on the cover of the Feb. 5 issue of Time magazine, right below then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Laurie arrived at Westover Air Base on St. Patrick’s Day, where he was reunited with Margaret, sons Joe, Greg, and Dan, and daughter Toddy after spending 2,044 days in captivity.
“It’s hard to believe that was 50 years ago,” said Joe, a retired four-star general and Air Force veteran, former chief of the National Guard, and former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We were all on the tarmac. My siblings and I hung back so Mom went to see him first. I remember thinking how thin he was. And then someone yelled out, ‘You guys get out there.’ So we all just mobbed him. It was just an amazing day.”
It got even better the next day when the family returned to its West Peabody home and had another special reunion. Neighbors and friends had decorated the house with banners and brought food and flowers to celebrate the homecoming.
“We thought he would be too exhausted to come home the next day, but he couldn’t wait,” said sister-in-law Dorene Lengyel. “He was anxious to see if his dog Rex would remember him.”
Rex did.
“Dad was dropped off a couple of houses up the road,” said Joe. “We were all outside waiting with Rexie. Rexie got up and when he saw Dad walking down the sidewalk, his tail started wagging and he started licking Dad on his face. It was incredible. Rexie couldn’t stop. They were both so happy.”
On April 8, the Town of Lynnfield and City of Peabody turned out to give Laurie a hero’s welcome home parade and reception. Dorene and Ron said more than 5,000 well-wishers turned out to honor Laurie. The celebration continued into the evening, with a dinner reception at the Holiday Inn in Peabody.
Laurie said he knew that being reunited with his family would be wonderful and “it was that plus a whole lot more.”
“The last three weeks have been far beyond my wildest dreams,” he said at the time. “This is especially true concerning the welcome home that I have received from old friends and thousands of other Americans I never have known. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all you have done for me since my flight to freedom last month and also for the support you gave with your letters and prayers… You have made me the happiest and proudest man in the world.”
Laurie had an idyllic childhood. He grew up in Lynnfield with his parents Elinor and Joseph, brothers Ron and Doug and sister Cindy. His father was a fixture in town as the owner of the “The Village Footman” shoe store in Lynnfield Center.
Laurie had a passion for flying. He joined the Air Force and began flying reconnaissance missions in Southeast Asia in June 1967. He was shot down and forced to eject from his RF-4C over North Vietnam on Aug. 9, 1967 while flying his 40th mission.
Joe remembers the day his family learned he was missing as if it was yesterday. He was 7-years-old.
“I’ll never forget it. I had fallen off my skateboard and thought I fractured my right arm so I was inside with Mom,” Joe said. “I heard her say, ‘Oh my God, no.’ She put her hands to her face and started crying. I looked outside and saw what she saw – a dark blue sedan that had just pulled up in front of the house with three military men in full uniform wearing wheel caps walking toward the door. My mom was sure they had come to tell her my father had been killed.
“They said, ‘We regret to inform you that your husband’s plane has been shot down and he is missing in action,'” Joe recalled.
Joe says he still gets choked up remembering that day.
“It was horrendous. That was such a bad day. It wasn’t like you got a call saying they were coming with a message. They just showed up,” he said. “The best takeaway was they didn’t tell her he had been killed, so we still had hope and that hope grew stronger over time.”
The family later learned that as Laurie parachuted to the ground from 4,000 feet while traveling at 450 miles per hour, he was under constant fire from the North Vietnamese.
But the soldiers weren’t the only dangers Laurie faced.
“It was the mob of villagers who came at him with machetes,” said Joe. “The soldiers had to hold them back. I mean, these people were being bombed by us so you can understand how they felt. But somebody saw value in keeping him alive, so it was just lucky that he wasn’t killed by the mob.”
Joe said his father was tied up, blindfolded, and thrown into the back of a military flatbed truck. It took a week traveling in the cold and rain over extremely bumpy terrain before reaching Hanoi where was interrogated, beaten, and tortured on a regular basis. Future Sen. John McCain was held in the same prison camp.
“It was horrible and the conditions were pretty brutal for about two years,” Joe said. “Everything they did to Sen. McCain they did to Dad. But at some point after that, it mitigated and some of the torture abated.”
For 22 months, Laurie’s family had no idea whether he was dead or alive.
Then came the news from a peace group that he was in a prison camp, often called the Hanoi Hilton by American POWs.
“I remember the champagne was flowing on the day we learned he was alive,” said Joe. “My whole family was at my Aunt Cindy’s house in Lynnfield. We were taken out of school so we were thrilled. My dad was no longer missing, which increased his chances of coming home to us when the war was over. I remember I had a glass of champagne and I was taking full advantage of it, but when Uncle Ron saw it he told me I couldn’t have all of it. I was busted.”
Ron said Joe wasn’t the only one enjoying the champagne.
“My father was supposed to speak at a Rotary meeting later that day, but for obvious reasons, he never made it. I think he had to go to bed. It was a great day,” Ron said.
Laurie returned to Vietnam in 1975 during the evacuation of Saigon, one of only two Vietnam War POWs to resume flying missions.
Years later, Joe had the opportunity to speak with McCain when he was testifying before the Senate Committee on Armed Services after being nominated as chief of the National Guard. McCain served as committee chair.
“He could be a hard guy and ask hard questions,” said Joe. “At the end, he came down to talk to me and said how proud he was and that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I ended up having an interesting relationship with him because of those ties he had with Dad.”
He also had the chance to speak to Kissinger during an event at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. a few years ago. Kissinger happened to be sitting at the next table.
“I told him I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity, but you and I shared a cover of Time magazine,” Joe said. “At first he looked quizzical, but then asked me to send it to him. He signed it and attached a note saying he was very proud to have met me. I doubt he gets too many people saying they were both on the same cover.”
Joe said his father’s experience as a POW remained with him, often in a humorous way. Prisoners devised their own communication lines, often with hand signals, a skill that Joe said came in handy when attending a Bruins game at the old Boston Garden.
“We were all split up so we communicated with those hand signals that we learned from Dad,” Joe said. “And toothpaste? They didn’t have much of it, so he would always go a little crazy if we were wasting it. He’d say ‘Do you know far a tube of toothpaste can go?'”
Joe, his mother, and his siblings all live in the San Antonio area. His mother and father enjoyed 63 years of marriage before Laurie died in April 2022 at the age of 86.
“I am left with such good memories of a life well lived,” Joe wrote in the eulogy. “Mom and Dad enjoyed Air Force life very much and retirement after that. My Dad didn’t have too many bad days. Well maybe he could have done without the five and a half years in Hanoi! He was one of the lucky ones.”
A pink dogwood tree on the Town Common that was planted and dedicated to him in 1972 continues to serve as a reminder of his service.
