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
50 years later, the last Vietnam POW to be released reflects on Williamsburg homecoming (Robert White)
It’s been 50 years this month since Robert T. White, the last Vietnam prisoner of war released, came home. Part of his homecoming was a celebration on April 19, 1973, in Williamsburg, where his wife lived. Festivities were held on Market Square Green with a militia muster complete with a
