Jeff’s guest is Captain Allen Brady, author of “Witnessing the American Century: Via Berlin, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam and the Straits of Florida”, a US Naval Aviator’s odyssey through pivotal moments in 20th-century history. As a youngster, Captain Brady watched the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. As a pilot, the Naval Academy graduate was shot down over North Vietnam and spent six years as POW. The rise of Adolf Hitler, America’s Great Depression in the heartland, the
Retired Air Force Col. Robert Certain, a B-52 navigator and former prisoner of war, worked with MOAA to organize a trip back to Vietnam to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operation Homecoming and the return of more than 600 POWs from North Vietnam. Seven former POWs as well as family and friends joined Certain to see southern Vietnam and Cambodia and return to Hanoi to see what remains of the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison.
“I thought perhaps I was going to die,” McCain told ABC’s Sam Donaldson in a 1999 interview when describing being captured and tortured by the Vietcong.
Vietnam is often called “the war that won’t go away”, largely because of the continuing controversy of the POW/MIA (Prisoners Of War / Missing In Action) issue. Families of those who were POW/MIA in Vietnam organized an activist movement which went on to pursue a question which still haunts America nearly decades later: were soldiers left behind in captivity after the Vietnam War? Once the exclusive domain of a select fraternity of soldiers’ wives, the
Inspiring stories of heroism and gripping tales of captivity of four Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients and four former Vietnam Prisoners of War. Each recalled their experiences and answered questions at the National Infantry Foundation’s “Vietnam: Valor and Sacrifice” symposium. The symposium was part of the dedication of the new Vietnam Memorial Plaza, featuring the Dignity Memorial® Vietnam Wall at the National Infantry Museum.
