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 several other manufacturers produced
foods, clothing, electronics, optics and missile and aircraft parts to support American soldiers in a war against the spread of Communism.
Defense contracts totaled nearly a quarter of a million dollars in 1966
Evansville POW: ‘Why did I make it and they didn’t?’ (James Pfister)
Dennis Hammond’s death came with little warning. The Marine staff sergeant laid down on his bamboo mat beside the other American prisoners of war one evening in the spring of 1970. James Pfister, an Evansville native, found him the next morning. Hammond was still. Pfister shook his friend. When he
