Decorated Vietnam War pilot, ex-POW dies in Las Vegas

Retired Air Force Col. James W. O’Neil, a decorated Vietnam War pilot and ex-prisoner of war who spent six months in the “Hanoi Hilton” Hoa Loa prison camp, died June 7 of complications from a heart ailment, his widow said. He was 82.

He will be buried at noon Monday with full military honors at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

After his last active duty assignments at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and England Air Force Base, La., in 1980, the couple retired in Las Vegas where he had been previously stationed at Nellis Air Force Base when he flew F-105 Thunderchief “Wild Weasels” during the Vietnam War.

“He was my hero. He had a lot of medals and ribbons,” said Nancy O’Neil, his wife of 59 years.

“He was a good dad and we had a good life. He loved what he did. He had no complaints,” she said Thursday.

While flying the two-seat F-105, a fighter, bomber, reconnaissance jet in 1972, O’Neil and his radar operator, or GIB, which stands for “guy in the back,” were trying to evade a surface-to-air missile.

“This one time they weren’t quick enough. It looked like a telephone pole coming at them,” she said, recalling his description of the attack.

They managed to eject safely with parachutes open but when they landed in North Vietnam, he was captured by an enemy soldier and his partner was killed.

Because there was a bounty for keeping downed U.S. pilots alive, the enemy soldier drove O’Neil, then a lieutenant colonel, in a truck to the Hoa Loa war prisoner compound “and turned him over for the money,” Nancy O’Neil said.

He was held at the infamous Hanoi Hilton from Sept. 29, 1972, until his release on March 29, 1973.

He was reunited with Nancy at March Air Force Base, Calif., and later attended a White House event for ex-POWs as guests of President Richard Nixon.

“That was quite a night. They invited all the prisoners of war and their partners,” she said.

James William O’Neil was born Oct. 20, 1930, in Saint Vital, a district of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The son of a draftsman, his parents were U.S. citizens working in Canada.

He attended UCLA in the late 1940s and early 1950s, where he graduated with a degree in psychology. But instead of pursuing that profession, he joined the Air Force because “he wanted to fly,” Nancy said.

After he went through basic training in Arlington, Texas, they met on a blind date in El Paso and were married in 1954.

In addition to Nancy, he is survived by their daughter, Margaret Hughes, of Glendale, Calif; sons John O’Neil, of North Las Vegas, and Jim O’Neil of Denver; a sister and six grandchildren.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.