Nearly 25 years ago, when the war was raging in Vietnam, a 20-year-old private from Alabama said a prayer and buried his Marine buddy in a Viet Cong prisoner of war camp where both were held.
Thomas Davis survived five years in POW camps and has returned to Vietnam for the first time since his release in 1973 to help find the remains of his fallen comrade.
“I came here to get a friend,” he said. “I’m here through the grace of God.”
Two men with local connections will be among the next inductees at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum Trust’s Joseph A. Dugan Hall of Valor induction ceremony Sunday. U.S. Air Force Col. Robert R. Sawhill of Carnegie and U.S. Army Tech Sgt. Angelo Speggen of Masontown will be
This paper seeks to examine the experiences of Vietnam POWs, both those held in the jungles of South Vietnam and those in the Hanoi prison camps of North Vietnam based on POW narratives consisting of memoirs, autobiographies, and interviews. Early POW history depicts great differences between the two groups of
After 14 years of gathering war stories, Tim Breitbach created a documentary depicting his cousin’s life, Daniel Hefel, a Vietnam War veteran. The film was shown for free March 30 during a public gathering at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, which was attended by a diverse audience of college students,
Donald Shay’s father is retired now. Donald’s little sister has two young children of her own. His fiancee finally married someone else. And Donald’s mother doesn’t bake his favorite apple pie much anymore; the good smell brings back too many bad memories. Mr. Shay doesn’t know any of this. And
Turning pages of her scrapbook Tuesday, Faye Schierman stopped when she saw a letter dated Sept. 12, 1971. “I pray you had a grand anniversary Faye,” the letter said. The seven-line note had been impeccably handwritten by her husband, Air Force Maj. Wesley Schierman, during nearly eight years as a