About Guy D Gruters

Guy Gruters was raised in New Jersey, where he spent his childhood trapping muskrat, camping, hunting, and becoming an Eagle Scout. He accepted an appointment to the Air Force Academy and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science. 

He then went on to Purdue University, where he completed a Master’s Degree in Astronautical Engineering. After pilot training and fighter gunnery school, Guy volunteered for Vietnam and served six years there, more than five of them as a POW. 

During his flight operations as a Forward Air Controller for over 10 months, Guy flew more than 400 combat missions. He first served with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in the O-1 “Bird Dog” light observation aircraft and then with the MISTY Fast FACs in the F-100 Super Sabre over North Vietnam.

His decorations include more than 30 combat awards, including two Silver Stars, two DFCs, two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star for Valor, the POW Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation, 20 Air Medals, and other medals.

The rescue of Guy and Captain Charles Neel, whom Guy characterizes as “a fighter pilot’s fighter pilot,” is a truly awe-inspiring story of the dedication and courage of the Jolly Green Chinook Helicopter Search and Rescue units.

Guy’s second shootdown on December 20, 1967, resulted in a five-year, three-month odyssey that humbled his pride, tested his fortitude, and forged his faith.

In the courageous Christmas bombing of late 1972, Strategic Air Command US Air Force B-52 Bombers, Tactical Air Command Fighters, and US Navy Aircraft Carrier Fighters forced the North Vietnamese to release Guy and the other surviving POWs in March of 1973.

Guy’s brother, Terry, volunteered for multiple tours in Vietnam during the years of Guy’s imprisonment in an effort to help end the war and bring Guy home. Terry was shot down twice and crash-landed once behind enemy lines during those tours. His persistence was rewarded when he flew one of the B-52s that helped bomb his brother out of a prison camp.