A prisoner of war gave riveting details of his experience in Vietnam Thursday night to members of Purdue’s Tri-Service ROTC.
Retired Air Force Col. Kevin Cheney always wanted to fly planes. On July 1, 1972, the jet Cheney, then Capt. Cheney, was flying was shot down.
During five years in prison camps, Sgt. Ed Flora survived a disabling gunshot wound and kept to himself all the information that North Vietnamese interrogators beat him regularly to get, said his daughter, Teresa Flora LaFratte. After her father’s death Sept. 15 in Arizona, LaFratte shared some details of his
Ronald Ridgeway was “killed” in Vietnam on Feb. 25, 1968. The 18-year-old Marine Corps private first class fell with a bullet to the shoulder during a savage firefight with the enemy outside Khe Sanh. Dozens of Marines, from what came to be called “the ghost patrol,” perished there. At first,
Retired Navy Captain Michael Cronin graduated in 1963 from the Naval Academy from pilot training in Cecil Field, Fla. in 1965. He immediately deployed for Vietnam, proud to be serving in the U.S. Navy and protecting his country. He flew the A4 Skyhawk on 175 solo combat missions in which
In 1973, hundreds of American Prisoners of War being held captive in Vietnam finally gained their freedom, boarding planes en route to the United States by way of Travis Air Force Base. On Friday, those veterans were honored for their service and sacrifice during the second and final day of
Dennis Hammond’s death came with little warning. The Marine staff sergeant laid down on his bamboo mat beside the other American prisoners of war one evening in the spring of 1970. James Pfister, an Evansville native, found him the next morning. Hammond was still. Pfister shook his friend. When he