VIETNAM WAR: PRISONER'S RELEASE AFTER SEVEN YEARS BEST GIFT FOR SON (25 YEARS AGO)

Monday, March 12, 1973; page 1

Reprinted from The Southeast Missourian

What better birthday present for a 5-year-old boy than the father he has never seen?

That is the present Earl Gardner Lewis III received today from strangers in a distant land -- North Vietnam.

His father's name, Lt. Cmdr. Earl Gardner Lewis III, a navy flier and former Cape Girardean, was on the list of 108 prisoners of war to be released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on Wednesday.

For young "Tres," as he is called by his family, this is probably the best birthday he will ever have.

For his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Earl G. Lewis and Mrs. and Mrs. Anderson Jones, all of Cape Girardeau, the day also will be memorable.

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis' son was captured Oct. 24, 1967.

Mr. and Mrs. Jones' daughter, the former Miss Suzannne Jones, is now Mrs. Earl G. Lewis Jr. She and Tres have been waiting for their husband and father at their home in San Diego, Calif.

Ensign David Hahs, public affairs officer for the Naval Reserve Training Center here, said word first came to the center early today of Lt. Cmdr. Lewis' expected release. The Naval Reserve was asked to notify the next of kin.

RELATES NEWS (subhead)

Lt. Cmdr. James W. Dowdy, commanding officer at the training center, went to the Lewis home, 2601 Leroy, and first delivered the news to Lt. Cmdr. Lewis' younger brother, Cary.

"Good deal!" Cary remarked, Lt. Cmdr. Dowdy said.

"It was not what he said, but how he said it that revealed the emotion he felt," Lt. Cmdr. Dowdy observed.

The first thing Cary did was telephone the Crounse Corp., the riverboat line out of Paducah, Ky., to tell them the news so it could be relayed by ship-to-shore radio to his father, now at work on a riverboat.

Cary, Lt. Cmdr. Dowdy and Yeoman First Class Paul Wiley then went to Kent Library on SEMO State University campus where Cary's mother was at work.

"At first, she was a little apprehensive. Then I told her she could start packing (to go to San Diego). She just grabbed Cary and embraced him. Her boss came out and told her to take the day off. All her co-workers were delighted. They all had gone through the disappointment with her each time a list of POW's without his name on it was released. That was one happy bunch of people at Kent Library this morning," Lt. Cmdr. Dowdy said.

He said that although the Lewis family is very happy today, the full impact of the announcement and the joy it contains probably has not yet hit the family. "It has been such a long period of waiting and such an adjustment for them," he said.

ON CLOUD

Mr. Jones said their daughter called from San Diego and talked to her mother about her husband's release. "She was on cloud nine," he said.

It is not known exactly when Lt. Cmdr. Lewis will arrive in the states, but Mr. Jones said they expect it to be about Thursday.

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis plan to go to San Diego to be at their son's home when he arrives.

Ensign Hahs said that later this week, the Naval Reserve Training Center will hold an information forum there for the media. The parents of the Navy flier will be on hand to answer questions. His mother is the former Miss Virginia Stubblefield, a native of Sikeston who attended high school in Cape Girardeau.