John D. Lavelle - Retirement

Retirement

After retirement, Lavelle lived in Oakton, Virginia, with his wife, Josephine, and family.

In retirement, Lavelle stuck to his position. The strikes were within the rules of engagement because the air defense radars were constantly activated against his aircraft. A liberal interpretation of the rules had been encouraged. He did not intend for the reports to be falsified. The U.S. Air Force had been "hasty" in relieving him.

In an oral history interview in April 1978, Lavelle said that the inquiry had been neither thorough nor fair. "If anybody really wanted the total story or wanted the true story, no effort was made to gather it by historians, by the Senate, by the press, by the Air Force."

In the interview, recorded by the Air Force History Office, Lavelle said that he should not have acted on the basis of private assurances that he would be supported if the missions became known. He added, "Somewhere along there we just should have said, 'Hey, either fight it or quit, but let’s not waste all the money and the lives the way we are doing it.'"

Lavelle's son, John D. Lavelle, Jr. wrote in 2007:

My father was heartbroken, and I saw him physically and mentally broken by the ordeal. He fought back with the help of my mother and recovered his strength, confidence, and pride before he died of a heart attack five years later. In the end, I think he found comfort in knowing that what he did saved some airmen’s lives, and that was worth more to him than four stars.