Posted on 11/13/2006 10:31:33 AM PST by hispanarepublicana
1st Lt. James Larry Hull will be buried with full military honors at 9 a.m. today in Arlington National Cemetery.
He died in 1971 during the Vietnam War when a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun shot down the reconnaissance plane he was flying behind enemy lines along the border with Laos. But U.S. forces were unable to recover his body because of hostile fire, and negotiations after the war took until this year to gain full access to the crash site that was inside Laos.
At the time of his death, he was fulfilling his dream to be a pilot in the Air Force, according to Tyra Manning.
"I met Larry at Texas Tech in 1965," she said. "I was a freshman and he was a sophomore."
Hull family photo Air Force 1st Lt. Larry Hull, pictured, died in a plane crash 35 years ago in Laos during the Vietnam conflict. Hull's remains were found in May and will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery today.1st Lt. James Larry Hull, who graduated from Texas Tech and received his training as a pilot at Reese Air Force Base, died Feb. 19, 1971, during the Vietnam War. Tyra Manning is seen at Dominican University, where she teaches, on Monday, in River Forest, Ill.
She remembers, "We had this sort of precious promise to each other, that he would get his wings and become an Air Force pilot, and I would get my degree and become an educator."
They married in 1966, and kept going to Tech.
"We had a little girl, and after she was born I continued back at Tech. He got his orders to go to Vietnam, and we went to Florida where he trained on the plane he would fly in Vietnam.
"He was there in Vietnam eight months before he was killed. Laura was 2 when her dad was killed."
Laura Hull, 37, and her friends recently established a Web site to honor her father, and to announce that his burial as a war hero will be early today in the Arlington cemetery. It is www.larryhull.us.
Between 1993 and 1997, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command led three investigations with representatives from the U.S., Vietnam and Laos, to see if Hull's remains could be recovered. But the work was suspended when the researchers were refused permission to cross the border just inside Laos, where the plane went down.
During the first investigation, a Vietnamese citizen had submitted an identification tag for Hull that had been taken covertly from the site, and in May of this year, a joint team was allowed to begin excavating the site to recover Hull's remains.
Tyra remembers the difficult news in 1971 that Larry had been killed. But in her thoughts, it didn't really change their visions of life.
"Larry's dream from the time he was a little boy was to fly an airplane. He was able to do that. He loved the clouds, he loved to fly, he loved his country."
And her dream was to become an educator.
"We had these promises that we made to each other, that no matter what happened we would do those. I often thought about the fact that as young as Larry was, he was passionate about what he did. He was passionate about serving his country. He accomplished his goals and was doing what he believed in."
She continued in school and earned graduate degrees while taking care of her daughter.
Recently, she retired as superintendent of schools at River Forest, Ill.
And though she tried for a time, retirement didn't seem to fit. "Now I teach full time at Dominican University in River Forest."
She also is director of the school's master of arts and teaching programs.
Col. Tom Yarborough, who had been a fellow flyer with Lt. Hull in Vietnam, describes his friend this way:
"Like so many of his comrades, he was young and passionate about serving his country."
According to Yarborough, Hull had volunteered for duty as a forward air controller for his first operational assignment, and later flew the highly classified and hazardous Prairie Fire mission in direct support of special forces teams working behind enemy lines.
It was on one of those flights that he was shot down.
Tyra recalls that she and Larry were very young when they married. "We were 18 and 20. And we both were committed to the other one reaching their dreams as well as ourselves, and going to college."
Through the military burial and the thunderous 21-gun salute at Arlington, she will have accompanied Larry to his pinnacle of honor as a pilot. And she will return to her chosen field as an educator.
They had just a short time together, but their promise to each other has lasted 40 years.
1st Lt. James Larry Hull
Born Dec. 28, 1945.
Graduated Texas Tech in 1968.
Received Air Force commission in 1969, followed by pilot training at Reese Air Force Base.
Died Feb. 19, 1971, when his plane was shot down along the border between Vietnam and Laos.
Funeral Service at 9 a.m. today in the Old Fort Myer Chapel, burial with full military honors following in Arlington National Cemetery.
Medals: Silver Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, Purple Heart and nine air medals.
Information: www.larryhull.us.
Lubbock ping
Welcome home 1st Lt. James Larry Hull
Welcome home, soldier!
Thanks for the ping. Was he a native of the South Plains?
1st Lt. James Larry Hull
Status: On Eternal Patrol
I do not know.
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