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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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 Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:17 am Post subject: Taps: Lt.Col./POW Kevin J. McManus, USAF (ret) |
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Regretfully I missed this recent notice of the passing of another American Hero who, with his wife Mary Jane, became an integral and outspoken part of this incredibly successful SVPT effort.
My deepest condolences to Mary Jane, his family, friends and to his brotherhood of fellow POWs.
May God bless him and his family for their incredible personal sacrifices in the service of our nation and may he rest forever in honored peace.
| Quote: | Kevin McManus, 65; Vietnam War POW
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page C07
Kevin McManus, 65, an Air Force pilot shot down over North Vietnam who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war and later retired as a lieutenant colonel, died of lung cancer July 31 at his home in Oakton.
Two weeks before he was scheduled to leave Vietnam, and two months after a four-day honeymoon with his childhood sweetheart, then-Capt. McManus was shot down northeast of Hanoi on June 14, 1967. He and his co-pilot, Edward J. Mechenbier, parachuted to earth and were immediately captured, bound and marched as war criminals through villages leading to a Hanoi prison complex.
They remained in captivity for five years and eight months. Both were released in February 1973.
Pilot Kevin McManus was reunited with his wife in 1973 after nearly six years as a prisoner in Vietnam. (Associated Press)
On his way home, Capt. McManus told reporters at Clark Air Base in the Philippines that he had no qualms about leaving Vietnam and returning to freedom. "I've talked to my wife and she hasn't changed, and that's what really counts," he said. He also said they "decided to have 16 kids -- after that it didn't matter."
They eventually had seven.
Born in New York and raised in Babylon, N.Y., Kevin Joseph McManus graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1964 with three bachelor's degrees. He had pilot training at Vance Air Force Base and began flying F-4s with the 92nd Tactical Fighter Squadron in Bentwaters, England.
In November 1966, he was sent to Danang Air Base to join the 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On a five-day furlough to Honolulu in March, he married an elementary school classmate, honeymooned for the rest of his break, then returned to Vietnam.
He was in the second large group released during a cease-fire in 1973, and photos of him and fellow military men filled the nation's newspapers. At the time, he expressed a wish to become an Air Force Academy flight instructor, but he learned during an extended stay at the Andrews Air Force Base hospital that his injuries prevented him from resuming his pilot's duties. He spent the next 18 months at Duke University, where he received a master's degree in business administration in 1975.
Subsequent Air Force duties took him to Setauket, N.Y., and in 1979 to Herndon, where he worked at the Pentagon on the Air Staff and as director of mission-critical computer resources in the research and development office of the Defense Department.
He retired from the military in 1984 and joined Robbins-Gioia, an Alexandria-based program management firm. For the next 10 years, he was its chief operating officer and chief financial officer. He then moved to AT&T to manage a billion-dollar defense contract. He retired in 1999 and consulted on high-risk, high-dollar acquisitions.
He appeared in a controversial 2004 Sinclair Broadcast Group program that criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media," which included portions of another film, "Stolen Honor."
"John Kerry is probably the first man in 200 years of American history to make Benedict Arnold look good," Col. McManus said in the film. Kerry, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, had attracted controversy for his 1971 Senate testimony charging U.S. atrocities in the war.
Col. McManus enjoyed reading, carpentry, gardening, and collecting stamps and baseball cards. He had a passion for Italy.
His military decorations included two awards of the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with a Valor Device, the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Purple Hearts and the Defense Superior Service Medal.
A son, Kevin Roderic "Rory" McManus, died in 1999.
Survivors include his wife of 41 years, Mary Jane McManus of Arlington County; six children, Katherine Mary McManus of Arlington, Bryan Jude McManus and Marie Therese McManus, both of Fairfax, John Francis McManus and Mary Elizabeth Seton McManus of Oakton and Margaret Mary McManus of Eagle, Colo.; a sister, Karen Julia McManus of Alexandria; and two brothers, Robert Philip McManus of Massapequa, N.Y., and Christopher George McManus of Washington.
Washington Post |
| Quote: | LONG ISLAND: K. McManus, Vietnam POW
BY MICHAEL AMON | michael.amon@newsday.com
August 10, 2008
Two weeks before his Vietnam tour was to end, Air Force pilot Kevin McManus' fighter plane was shot down over Hanoi. For the next five years and eight months, his home was the North Vietnamese system of prisoner of war camps known as the "Hanoi Hilton," where he later recalled conditions were filthy and torture commonplace.
More than 31 years after his 1973 release, McManus became one of many former POWs to publicly oppose the presidential candidacy of Sen. John Kerry, appearing in ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that damaged the Massachusetts senator's 2004 bid.
McManus, 65, died on July 31 at his home in Oakton, Va. The cause was lung cancer, his family said.
The Swift Boat campaign was McManus' first and only foray into politics, and it came only after he retired from a successful career, becoming a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and then a defense contract consultant. He had said he was compelled to speak out because of Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony, in which the future senator said soldiers had committed war crimes in Vietnam.
"For him, it wasn't about politics, it was about being in the military and what that stood for," said his wife of 41 years, Mary Jane McManus. "What Kerry did was something none of us would ever get over."
Born in New York City and raised in Babylon, McManus graduated magna cum laude from U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1964. Two years later, he was sent to Vietnam with the 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Danang Air Base but not before proposing to Mary Jane McCahill, also of Babylon. They married in March 1967 during a five-day furlough in Hawaii.
Three months later, McManus was shot down northeast of Hanoi. He later recalled in a PBS documentary, "Return With Honor," how village children stabbed him with bamboo as he was marched through villages. During his confinement, he said he was beaten and tortured for refusing to participate in anti-war propaganda.
One of his fellow captives in Hanoi was Navy pilot John McCain, who last week called Mary Jane McManus to express his condolences, she said.
McManus is survived by his wife and six children: Katie McManus, of Arlington, Va.; Bryan McManus and Molly McManus, both of Fairfax, Va.; John McManus and Lizzie McManus, both of Oakton, Va., and Maggie McManus of Eagle, Colo.; his sister, Karen McManus of Alexandria, Va.; and two brothers, Robert McManus of Massapequa, and Christopher McManus of Washington, D.C. He was preceded in death by son Kevin Roderic "Rory" McManus in 1999.
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:15 pm Post subject: |
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Always sad news to hear of our Heroes passing. 
Kerry couldn't come close to measuring up to the bravery and devotion to duty of these men.
Rest in Peace, Col. McManus, Well Done, Sir.
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TEWSPilot
Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 1235
Location: Kansas (Transplanted Texan)
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| Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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Military veterans are a brotherhood of unique individuals, melded together in the crucible of wars past and present and bonded by duty, honor, sacrifice, blood, love of family, and love of country. More so than through any other fraternity, the associations and friendships formed through the military are lifelong, and we mourn the loss of our comrades until we rejoin them again someday in formation in Heaven. My sincere condolences to the family, and my sincere thanks to Col. McManus for his lifetime of service. May he rest in peace.
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. -- Isaiah 40:31 |
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baldeagle
PO2
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 362
Location: Grand Saline, Texas
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| Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:14 am Post subject: |
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Rest in peace, Colonel, you now stand relieved, we have the watch.
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"In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home." --George Washington |
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