A good friend of mines Father passed away this past weekend. A GREAT MAN he was Rest in Peace.....
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Ex-POW Shively dies at 63
He became region's top U.S. prosecutor
Bill Morlin
Staff writer Spokesman Review
February 23, 2006
Jim Shively, a highly decorated Vietnam prisoner of war who became a top-ranking federal prosecutor, died at his Spokane Valley home Saturday 33 years to the day after he was released by the North Vietnamese.
"It was just like Dad to do everything right to the day," one of his four daughters, Laura Watson, said Wednesday in publicly confirming Shively's death after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 63.
Shively entered the U.S. Air Force on June 3, 1964, and was discharged on June 3, 1974, after being shot down over North Vietnam and held in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" for six years.
A private family service will be followed by a public memorial service at 1 p.m. March 3, at CenterPoint, 2426 N. Discovery Place, in Mirabeau Point Park a landmark in the heart of Spokane Valley, which Shively called home.
Shively retired in October 2004 as the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington after a career spanning two decades with the Department of Justice.
He served as acting U.S. attorney from 2000 to 2001 and handled a variety of federal civil and criminal cases before becoming a senior supervisor in the Eastern District office.
Known for his modesty and an ability to end almost every discussion with a laugh, Shively was honored at a retirement reception in 2004 by several hundred friends, colleagues and family members.
Even though he said he was uncomfortable with such attention, Shively attempted to shake hands, laugh and talk with everyone in attendance.
"That's the kind of guy he was a true gentleman," U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt, who worked with Shively for three years, said Wednesday.
"After what he faced in Vietnam, it certainly put everything in perspective for him," McDevitt said. "He was the coolest head, no matter what. He was and still is part of the foundation around here."
Born in Wheeler City, Texas, Shively moved to the Spokane Valley with his parents when he was 5. He graduated in 1960 from West Valley High School, where he was a student leader.
He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1964 with a degree in civil engineering and later earned a master's degree in international relations from Georgetown University.
He obtained his law degree in 1977 at Gonzaga Law School.
After joining the Air Force, he became a fighter pilot and was assigned in December 1966 to fly F-105 jets based in Thailand as part of the U.S. war effort in Vietnam. When his fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam on May 5, 1967, he ejected and landed in a rice paddy 20 miles from Hanoi.
He was paraded through the streets of Hanoi and underwent weeks of interrogation and torture before being held at the POW camp. He was released by the North Vietnamese on Feb. 18, 1973.
"I'm not resentful, and I don't look on it as a real loss, but an experience from which I learned a lot," Shively said a month after his release as a POW.
Shortly after his release, his parents died. In 1991, his war medals and home were destroyed when a firestorm swept through portions of the Spokane Valley.
When his medals were replaced, Shively was again philosophical.
"I could have died that day over North Vietnam, but for some reason I didn't. Any day after that is a good day."
