T he picture on the Time magazine cover for April 23, 1965, was Air Force Lt. Col. Robinson Risner. The cover story, “The Fighting American,” featured 10 US military members in Vietnam, with fighter pilot Risner—a rising star in the Air Force—foremost among them.“At the time it was a great
Here’s how Nevada Republican delegate Bill Elander describes becoming a prisoner of war: a bad day. “After 50 or 60 missions, I had a bad day,” the Sparks resident and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel said in an interview at the national GOP convention. “I was shot down in 1972
This paper seeks to examine the experiences of Vietnam POWs, both those held in the jungles of South Vietnam and those in the Hanoi prison camps of North Vietnam based on POW narratives consisting of memoirs, autobiographies, and interviews. Early POW history depicts great differences between the two groups of
Ret. U.S. Air Force Col. Carlyle “Smitty” Harris, former Vietnam prisoner of war, was honored with the dedication of a lounge room in his name at the American Legion Post #49 in Tupelo, Mississippi on September 18, 2020. He was honored for his exceptional service during the Vietnam War and
On 12 July 1967; Sgt. Cordine McMurray, then Sgt. Martin S. Frank, SP4 James L. Van Bendegom; SP4 James F. Schiele, SP4 Nathan B. Henry, SP4 Stanley A. Newell, and SP4 Richard R. Perricone were riflemen assigned to a search and destroy patrol operating in the Ia Drang Valley, Pleiku