John William Hynd was born in Pendleton, OR, the only child of Ewing and Beaulah Hynd. Raised on the family cattle ranch in northeastern Oregon, he attended elementary school in the small town of Ukiah. It was on the ranch that he developed his keen interests in hunting and fishing that would become lifetime passions. He spent a year of his primary schooling bedridden with rheumatic fever. During this time, he acquired an intense interest in books, games and puzzles, also lifetime passions.
To enable John to have a better high school education, his mother took an apartment in the city of Pendleton for four years so that John could graduate from Pendleton High School. A reluctant cowboy, he decided on a military career, and in 1956, at the age of 17, he entered West Point, anxious to attain a first class education and see the world.
"Mike," as he was known then, was a member of Company C-2, rooming with Bob Marcinkowski and Don Prosser for the entire four years. He was involved with the debate council and forum, the camera club, the rifle club, the skeet club, and the rocket club. He was a good student and a most helpful tutor to a needy roommate. He completed four years of tough academics and training in the upper third of his class, graduating in June 1960.
Following graduation leave in his beloved state of Oregon—“God’s Country” he called it—he completed both airborne and ranger schools before reporting to Ft. Sill for the Artillery officer basic course. Because this was before field artillery and air defense artillery split into separate branches, he also attended missile basic at Ft. Bliss. Subsequently, he reported for his first tour of duty, assigned for two years to a Nike missile site located in the Pacific Northwest, at Kingston, WA, just across Puget Sound from Seattle.
On 5 May 1962, he married his high school sweetheart, Majken Bauer, at their hometown church in Pendleton, OR. A year later, he departed for Ft. Bragg to attend the Vietnamese advisor training course and then on to the Presidio of Monterey to attend the intensive Vietnamese language course in preparation for a 12-month tour in Vietnam as an Infantry advisor. In Vietnam, John was awarded both the Air Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
Upon return to the United States, he attended the Artillery officer advanced course at Ft. Sill and Ft. Bliss. Accompanying him were his wife Majken and their first child, Martha Jane, who had been born while he was in Vietnam.
In June of 1965, John assumed command of an infantry basic training company at Ft. Ord, and a year later moved to battalion staff. Two more daughters, Mary Pauline and Ellen Elizabeth, were born while the family was stationed at Ft. Ord. The family then headed to State College, PA, where CPT Hynd completed a two-year post graduate program at Penn State University, earning a master of science in physics. Predictably, MAJ Hynd became an instructor in the Physics Department at West Point for three years.
By 1972, a hardship tour was long overdue, and he departed in June for Air Defense Group, Osan AFB, Republic of Korea, while his family relocated to Hawaii. After six months at Osan, he was re-assigned to headquarters at Yongsan Garrison, Seoul, where his family later joined him for a three-month adventure.
Subsequently, the family returned to Ft. Comfort in El Paso for a three-year assignment in Research & Development, followed by an overseas tour with the 94th Air Defense Artillery, Kaiserslautern, Germany. Experiences there led to the opportunity to serve for a year as chief evaluator for the Multi-National Testing Center in Hania, Crete. The family went along, and the children were home schooled. Thoroughly enjoying this duty and not ready to return stateside, John sought and obtained another job in Europe as evaluator for Allied Forces Central Europe, based out of Ramstein AFB, and the family returned to Germany for an additional two years.
In 1981, after 21 years of service to his country, LTC Hynd retired, and the family returned to “God’s Country” in Oregon. John went back to school, earned a teaching certificate, taught school for ten years, all the while managing a firewood cutting business in La Grande, OR, and hunting and fishing as often as possible! He retired again in 1992, and he and Majken went full-time RVing for 11 years, eventually spending half a year in Yuma, AZ, and the other half in Oregon. They took many wonderful trips in the U.S. and abroad to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Hawaii, Mexico, and he regularly went deep sea fishing at Westport, WA; Zihuatanejo, Mexico; and Alaska, often with kids and grandkids in tow. He loved to teach his grandchildren to hunt and fish and share with them his fascination for the animal kingdom, all creatures great and small.
John endured many health issues, including varied arterial bypass surgeries, but he always bounced back to catch another fish, tell another joke, enjoy another trip. He died suddenly, following cardiac arrest, at his winter home in Yuma, AZ, at the age of 70. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, three daughters and ten grandchildren.
LTC Hynd was ever proud to be a member of The Long Gray Line. His 1960 class ring was donated to be melted down and thereafter be included in all Class of 2011 rings to demonstrate his deep love of West Point and all of its wonderful and significant traditions.
He was an honorable man and a loyal friend—hospitable, generous, and humorous. He was a loving son, devoted husband, proud and ever-generous father and grandfather. He will be greatly missed every day. Well done, John; be thou at peace.
—Family and classmates