Our Misty family members – our wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children – are so very important to us that it is right and fitting for us to dedicate a webpage to them. Over the next several years or decades, this page is certain to become rich with the words and pictures of those important people.

The first entry is a thank you note written by an attendee at the 2005 Reunion in Florida where the Mistys had the unusual honor for those few days of meeting and talking with the two daughters of Pat Carroll, Misty 127, who was shot down on 2 November 1969.

2 November 2005

Two plus weeks have passed since Susie and I returned home from the Misty
Reunion and I still find a smile creeping onto my face at unexpected times
as I recall little snippets of conversation; memories of the early Sunday
morning serenade cause me to break into an outright grin. Perhaps a Misty
songbook is in order before the next Reunion… We’d already read the book
so we knew the Misties knew how to throw a party but didn’t know exactly
what to expect. Thank you, Jack, for all your hard work in planning a
great weekend.

Susie and I grew up with only odd little bits of information about our
father and didn’t even know about Misty until a couple of years ago when
the book and web site turned up in Google search results.Both separately
and together we’ve made sporadic attempts to gather information over the
years, and while we are happy to know the Joint Task Force has found a
clue here and there we’ve never been able to satisfy the need to know more
about the person our father was.

Most of the Misty pilots assembled never knew our father, yet in attending
the reunion we have a greater sense of the kind of man he must have been.
​Jack said our father was smiling down on us. Susie and I know that he was
smiling down on all of the Misties who enveloped us with such incredible
warmth and generosity and took us under their collective wing. Thank you.
It’s difficult to express how much the experience meant to both of us. It
was an honor for us just to attend the reunion; to have been welcomed in
such a manner is a gift we shall treasure always. Through your stories
our children will have a greater knowledge and respect for their
grandfather and for all of the great pilots who have served and are
serving our country. Through your stories all the Misties live on.

Thirty-six years ago today Patrick Carroll, Misty 127,and Lawrence
Whitford, Misty 136, were shot down over Laos. A JFA/JPAC Investigation
Team visiting the presumed crash site interviewed a possible eyewitness
this May who recalled the crash and the capture and detention of one pilot
and burial of the second. .Our family still holds out some hope we may
one day be able to bring our father home. The men and women risking their
lives to find answers for us and for the families of all those unaccounted
for are heroes to us and are in our prayers along with all of you.

Proud to be the daughter of a Misty,
Darlene Carroll

General Shepperd’s response to them was as follows:

Darlene and Susie –

it was a pleasure to receive your very warm note about the Misty reunion. I was one of those who did not know your father, but I certainly feel the bond with him.

It’s funny – at the time we were flying the Misty missions, none of us ever thought much about the dangers – it was just part of the job and part of war. But as I assembled the Misty book from the myriad of stories received it became clear to me how very dangerous were those times. Vicariously I re-lived the missions of others and my own. When I lean back and close my eyes, I can still see the horrific AAA, feel the thump of being hit, smell the smoke and hear the sound of parachute beepers – suddenly it doesn’t seem so long ago. The Misty book was not meant to be a public seller. It was assembled for we who flew the missions and for our families in posterity. It gives me great pleasure to know the book brings home some of your dad to you and those who share your fate.

You thanked us for sharing the reunion. If truth be known, you made the reunion for all of us. I’m sure your dad was proud – two class-act women, his daughters, sharing booze, laughter and memories with his old friends. If you felt a brush on your cheek, I’m sure it was him flashing by in a high-G turn and shouting, “Well done!

At a future reunion I hope we hear the story of your dad’s return – heartwarming, just like your note –

Don Shepperd

;a href=”daughter.html”><IMG height=120
alt=”Darlene Carroll & Susan Viele, Pat Carroll’s daughters” src=”allthree.jpg” width=180></a></CENTER></TD></TR>