18 Nov 2001 Joseph D. Adrian, Notre Dame, 1964 Remembering Across the Years From his college roommate at Notre Dame, Wayne Allen PatRemB@aol.com

 

Memorial Day 2003 My recollections of Joe are as young kids growing up together in River Edge in the 50's. We attended the same grade school, joined the same Boy Scout Troop, and ran around together for some time. We attended different high schools and as a consequence I saw him infrequently after that. He must have been at Notre Dame when I joined the Navy in '61. I was in River Edge recently, Joe, and drove by your house on Manning Ave. I remember when you and I would walk past the house that Mickey Mantle rented during the baseball season when he first came to the majors, hoping to catch him outside and get his autograph. I recalled the forts we would build in the woods down the street from my house, the Boy Scout camping trip, the Little League games ... all of it. I know your family is proud of your service to our Country and I hope that that is solice enough for them. "All gave some, some gave all." Just remembering.... Paul Roggeman progg@frontiernet.net

 

06 Aug 2003 Dear Captain Adrian, My name is Brian Jensen, and I am a cadet major in the Civil Air Patrol. While I was on an educational trip to Washington D.C. 3 years ago, I recieved your bracelet and I have thought of you often since that day. I too want to be a pilot in the USAF and I thank you for your service to this great country along with your sacrifice. I want to see a full accounting of our missing comrades in arms and maybe one day, you will come home too. I take that back, not maybe, we will bring you home, sir! I will not turn your bracelet in until you are home with your family. Thank You Again, for everything. With Respect, C/Major Brian Jensen Civil Air Patrol eaglef22@san.rr.com

 

28 May 2006 Hello, Jody. It's Memorial Day and I have been thinking a lot about the people whom I knew who died in the war. I was reminded of you a couple of weeks ago as I stood in line at a store. The kid in front of me had on a POW/MIA shirt with the names of the NJ people on the back. There you were. You and I weren't friends when we were kids, since I was a year older and lived in a different part of River Edge, but I remember you well. The first time I met you Kevin Dorsey introduced you as "Brains". You must have been pretty smart, since I think Kevin was really smart. I also remember you playing Little League baseball. It was pretty competitive in River Edge, and I could never make a team, but you did. A very bright guy who is also a good athlete is probably the kind of person who would become a fighter pilot, and so you did. God only knows what went wrong. I was a battalion surgeon in Nam, so I saw a lot of guys die or get badly messed up. I'm still haunted by it all, and I'm trying to convince myself that somehow the sacrifice was worth it. I'm not doing well on that account. It's hard for me to see how losing some of our best and brightest young men in what was a dubious enterprise that also killed so many indigenous people, was good. RIP. Steve McGeady smcgeady@nemours.org

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall On 12 March 1967, three F-100 SUPER SABRES of the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing launched from Tuy Hoa Air Base on a night scramble mission. After take-off, the flight lead continued eastward across the beach before beginning a right turn for rendezvous. The flight lead observed 1LT Adrian in F-100D tail number 55-3611 joining up but Adrian continued the turn and disappeared from sight. Initial search and rescue efforts failed to locate either Adrian or his aircraft. On 26 March evidence was gathered indicating that 1LT Adrian died in the crash, which occurred about 6 miles offshore Phu Yen Province, South Vietnam.

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