U.S. Air Force (Retired) Chaplain Thomas Azar delivered the opening prayer Thursday evening at a ceremony in Shalimar, Fla. to honor American troops captured in the Vietnam War and brought back home 50 years ago.
“The Elks, VFW groups, are sponsoring the 50–year anniversary when the U.S. government and the Vietnamese government worked out the trade, so the 591 Prisoners of War at the Hanoi Hilton were released,” Azar, a Dannemora resident, said.
Six months before American combat troops were committed to Vietnam, Eugene Richardson, a 21-year-ld flight mechanic from Monroe County was killed while flying ammunition to a Special Forces camp on October 24, 1964. Rochester soon became economically involved in the war. General Dynamics, Stromberg-Carlson, Graflex, EastmanKodak, Bausch and Lomb, and
Staff Sgt. Ken Wallingford had only days left to serve in the US Army when he found himself trapped – and seconds away from being burned alive. He’d spent the previous night hiding in a bunker with another soldier at a base that had been overrun by the North Vietnamese
After an emotional speech, former prisoner-of-war Gary L. Thornton looked at the flag-draped casket holding the remains of his friend and mentor, Thunderbirds pilot Russell C. Goodman, and snapped a salute. “Welcome home to the hero, professional and patriot,” Thornton said. “Welcome home, Major Russell Clayton Goodman, United States Air
You can’t breath because your chest is compressed during the process,” Captain Peter Schoeffel explains. He’s talking about being tortured by the communist North Vietnamese, who were trying to force captured American military personnel to talk. Schoeffel, a retired navy pilot living in Jacksonville, tells about his experience as a
In 1967, there was a “unit” of approximately 300 Americans fighting the Vietnam War from within a Hanoi prison. The unit—later named the 4th Allied POW Wing—was located in the drab North Vietnamese capital. Within this unit, every man had the same job: prisoner of war. All—except three enlisted airmen—were
© 2024 Vietnam War POWS. All rights reserved.