Called to Serve: Vietnam Veteran and UF Alumnus Recalls Experiences During, After War (Keith Lewis)

Chaplain Col. Keith Lewis visiting the University of Findlay Veterans Honor Wall during 2018 Homecoming and Family Weekend.

For Chaplain Col. Keith H. Lewis, USAF (RET), it was the little, yet profound things that kept him alive while he was a POW during the Vietnam War. For instance, a clock tower in Hanoi that chimed on the hour reminded him of Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he grew up. The predictability of the chimes “was a sanity saver,” he said, something that he could always count on.

Chaplain Lewis, a retired chaplain who graduated from Findlay College in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in humanities, recently recounted his wartime ordeal in recognition of the upcoming Veterans Day holiday. The 25-year resident of Jasper, Alabama, now lives peacefully with his wife, but as a career military man, his wartime service is never very far from his mind.

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