This interview is a continuation of Bob Jones’ first interview from May 2008. In that interview, equipment limitations resulted in an abrupt conclusion to the recording. This interview picks up where his first interview finished: his journey from the Hanoi Hilton to the Gia Lam Airport, where C-141s were waiting to pick up the Prisoners of War. He was in the third group released because, even though he had been a prisoner for five years, there were two groups ahead of him who had been held longer. Throughout the repatriation ceremony, none of the prisoners showed any emotion, having agreed among themselves to remain stoic because of how the North Vietnamese had treated them, and they were determined not to give North Vietnam the propaganda victory of allowing the captors to appear benevolent.
Kevin McManus, 65; Vietnam War POW
Kevin McManus, 65, an Air Force pilot shot down over North Vietnam who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war and later retired as a lieutenant colonel, died of lung cancer July 31 at his home in Oakton. Two weeks before he was scheduled to leave Vietnam, and
