Jay Hess was 14 years into his Air Force service.
The fighter pilot, in the cockpit of an F-105 Thunderchief, was dropping 600 pound bombs in the heavily defended area around Hanoi, in north Vietnam. Hess finished the steep dive, released his bombs and began to pull out when his aircraft was hit by enemy fire. With no way out, he pulled the ejection handle.
TO THE WORLD, the photo of his family greeting the Air Force officer after his return from a North Vietnamese camp symbolized the joy of a nation leaving an ugly war. To him, the scene was and remains a lie. His older daughter is racing to meet him, arms outstretched,
It took her 44 years, but Morreen O’Reilly-Mersberger finally tracked down the prisoner of war whose name was on a bracelet that she purchased in college and kept to this day. The 62-year-old Plymouth resident bought the item for $2 in the fall of 1970 from a student group on
“If it doesn’t touch me, it won’t happen.” Walt Eckes is no stranger to hardship; nor is he a stranger to happiness. Walt, simply put, is a realist. We recently had the pleasure of a wonderful visit with Walt and his lovely wife of 44 years, Dolores, in their comfortable
When Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters swept away the military medals of retired Navy Capt. Michael Penn, he considered the loss just one among many. “We spent about a week in shock,” said Penn, a Vietnam veteran who survived eight months as prisoner of war. “Not medical shock, but mental shock. We
Fred Flom, a Menasha native and a pilot who spent more than six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has died. Flom died June 23, according to his obituary. He was 80 years old. Flom grew up in Menasha as the youngest of four children. His family lived on