Air Force Capt. Willis E. Forby was forced to eject from his F105D Thunderchief after being hit by anti-aircraft fire on a bombing mission near Ha Tinh, North Vietnam. Forby’s wingman called for help and the 38th Air Rescue Squadron in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand responded. Helicopter pilot Capt. Thomas Curtis, co-pilot Duane Martin, para-rescue man Neil Black, and crew chief Bill Robinson boarded their Kaman HH-43B helicopter to rescue Forby.
Thomas Collins III would like to clarify one point about his bombing missions in Vietnam, and the more than seven years he spent as a prisoner of war: It was not a mistake, not a waste, not a failure. “We needed to stop communism,” says Collins, 74, a retired U.S.
Remember the Vietnam War and 1973? Probably not, but Air Force fighter pilot Captain Guy Dennis Gruters does. After being held as a prisoner of war for five plus years, including time in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, he was repatriated to the U.S. in 1973 along with 591 surviving POWs.
“The Cookie Caper” In Honor of Col Robert B. “Percy” Purcell, Prisonerof War: North Vietnam (July 1965 – February 1973)
Retired Air Force Col. James W. O’Neil, a decorated Vietnam War pilot and ex-prisoner of war who spent six months in the “Hanoi Hilton” Hoa Loa prison camp, died June 7 of complications from a heart ailment, his widow said. He was 82. He will be buried at noon Monday