Biography
In the 1940s, the population near the small Iowa town of Panora featured a noteworthy family – James and Ila Herrick and their 9 lively children – 8 boys, and one greatly outnumbered girl. When James and Ila’s second child was born on October 28th, 1944 – he was named ‘James, Jr.’ for his father. Though it was not planned, 3 of the 8 boys had birthdays in October.
While living on the farm, the only school option in the late 1940s for a child’s education was a one room schoolhouse. Jim and his siblings would walk two miles to and from school every day. One day on the walk home, his siblings noticed that Jim was dragging behind the rest of the group. They knew this wasn’t right, as Jim was a very energetic seven-year-old boy. He was taken to the doctor with the hope that the issue would resolve itself. But instead, the family left the doctor's office with a diagnosis of polio.
From that moment on, things changed dramatically for Jim. He spent several months in a children's hospital in Des Moines, with his family changing their plans to support him and bring him back to health. Jim’s polio diagnosis came in 1952, the year of the worst recorded polio outbreak in the United States. At the time, only one in ten fully paralyzed children survived their polio diagnosis – and it was even more rare for a child to regain full body movement.
It is unclear what eventually caused Jim to recover. Regardless, the Herrick family had their prayers answered when one day about a year later, the doctors declared that polio was no longer in the child’s system and that he was getting better.
Though doctors gave Jim a clean bill of health, he still had hard work ahead of him. To return his muscles to their original state, he had to continue his rigorous physical therapy outside of the hospital setting. Jim’s mother was the most concerned at the time and filled sandbags for him to use as weights for his workouts. Eventually, after years of hard work, his body regained full mobility and its original muscular strength.
After his recovery, Jim returned to school. When he was in 3rd grade, the family moved into Panora and as a high school student there, he was active in band, chorus and Glee Club, yearbook and the school paper, and amazingly for a former polio patient, basketball and track. He became an Eagle Scout and graduated from Panora High School. Then, he decided to attend Iowa State University for a degree in electrical engineering. Two years after he began his program, he discovered a passion for helping animals and changed his degree to Animal Husbandry. While at Iowa State, Jim also enrolled in the ROTC program. Greatly influenced by two of his younger brothers, he hoped to join the Air Force after graduation.
Jim was especially close to those two brothers, Paul and Gary who were closest to him in age. The family fondly referred to the boys as the “Three Musketeers.” Paul and Gary were the ones who urged Jim to join the Air force just as they had. Two other brothers, Jerry and Don, also decided to follow in the footsteps of the “Three Musketeers” and join the Air force when they were old enough.
When he graduated from Iowa State in May 1967, Jim had completed his Animal Husbandry Bachelor’s degree and finished his ROTC program with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.
Jim was sent to Texas for jet pilot training in the fall of 1967. While he was there, he fell in love. He met a woman named Penny who absolutely stole his heart. He gave her a promise ring as a placeholder for the engagement ring he intended to give her when he returned from his tour of duty.
After his training, Jim graduated high enough to have his choice of assignment, so he chose to fly the Douglas Skyraider. After further training in Florida and Washington, in May 1969, he was sent to Thailand to begin his service. Jim spent much of his time in Thailand on edge. It was difficult to know who to trust because the enemy could pretend to be friendly villagers to gain the soldiers’ confidence – and then attack when their guard was down.
For many years prior to Jim’s arrival in SE Asia, countries in the region experienced unrest and conflict driven by attempts to throw off colonialism and by competing governmental ideologies. An attempt at peace called the Geneva Accords was signed in 1954 – Jim would have been just 10 years old at the time. The Accords established two countries, North and South Vietnam with the 17th parallel designated as the dividing line. North Vietnam was governed by a Communist regime. The South was a fragile democratic state. On the other side of the world, fears about a one-by-one Communist take-over of countries in southeast Asia – what politicians called “the domino effect” - caused the United States to take an active interest in defending South Vietnam.
Despite the Geneva Accords, unrest continued to plague South Vietnam and no stable government was established. In 1964, a U.S. ship was attacked by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, which prompted Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing the president to “take all necessary measures, including the use of armed force” against any aggressor in the conflict. Thus began the intensified U.S. involvement that had a direct impact on the life of Lieutenant Jim Herrick.
Jim was a member of the 602nd Special Operations Squadron, Nakhom Phenom (Nah-Kon Pen-ohm), Royal Air Force Base in Thailand. During his time in Thailand, Jim flew many missions, including “Sandy” missions to rescue endangered servicemen.
On October 27, 1969, he was the pilot of a Douglas Attack Skyraider on a “secret” reconnaissance mission in Laos near the North Vietnam border. He was accompanied by a second plane with that pilot the designated lead. The flight plan was to survey a region in Laos called the “Bird's Nest.” This region was particularly difficult to navigate, as it was in a canyon. The only way pilots were able to successfully descend into the area was by circling like a bird, hence the name “Bird’s Nest.”
The lead pilot performed a descending circle into the area, followed by Herrick. As the two reconnoitered the area, the weather turned worse and clouds overhead started to close in. The lead pilot made circling maneuvers to safely ascend out of the area and instructed Jim to do the same. Jim acknowledged this transmission, but shortly afterwards, the flight leader lost radio contact with him. Once above the clouds, the lead pilot could not place eyes on Jim’s plane. The lead pilot again descended through clouds back into the area and searched for Jim, but when his fuel ran low, he had to call off the search and was forced to leave the situation. Jim’s aircraft failed to return to base, no parachute was observed and no rescue beeper signals were received in the area of the aircraft's supposed loss. Three days later, another pilot on a mission in the same area reported seeing aircraft wreckage and a burned area at the coordinate that had not been there five days earlier.
Jim was never seen again and it was never confirmed whether the plane was shot down, experienced mechanical difficulties or misjudged the canyon wall. The day of his loss was one day before his 25th birthday and one week before he was to return home on leave.
Halfway around the world, the very day Jim disappeared in Laos, his mother uncharacteristically blacked out for a moment. She instinctively knew that something was seriously wrong with Jim before anyone could confirm her beliefs in this terrible premonition. And, Jim’s true love, Penny – was never to receive the engagement ring Jim had promised her. He was declared “Missing.” and no evidence of his survival or death has ever been discovered.
After his passing, Jim Herrick was awarded the Purple Heart for his bravery and devotion to our country and the cause in South Vietnam. He was promoted to the rank of Captain during the period he was maintained as Missing in Action. On November 21, 1977, he was declared Killed in Action.
Jim’s family remembers him as a handsome, quiet and kind young man with a heart full of love for animals. They say that given the chance, he would’ve done anything for anyone.
James Wayne Herrick Jr is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu and his name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington DC.