50 Years Ago
■Mrs. Mary Cutter, 211 Elm St., grandmother of Capt. James Cutter, prisoner of war in North Vietnam, reported this morning that she has learned her grandson will be among the last prisoners to be returned to the U.S. “He hasn’t been there (as a POW) as long as some,” Mrs. Cutter conceded. “He’s only been there about a year.”
During the Vietnam War, there were 725 U.S. Prisoners of War (POWs). Operation Homecoming was a series of diplomatic negotiations that made the return of 591 American prisoners of war held by North Vietnam possible in 1973. The operation was divided into three phases; the first phase required the initial reception of prisoners
Jay Hess was 14 years into his Air Force service. The fighter pilot, in the cockpit of an F-105 Thunderchief, was dropping 600 pound bombs in the heavily defended area around Hanoi, in north Vietnam. Hess finished the steep dive, released his bombs and began to pull out when his
To his children, Thomas Van Putten talked little about his service in the Vietnam War and his 13 months as a prisoner. But they knew he was a hero. “We all knew it was a big deal,” said Linda Milley, his daughter. Mr. Van Putten, whose escape from a Viet
For nearly 20 years, former Army Capt. Johnnie Ray remained grateful that Oklahoma had eased his return as a Vietnam prisoner of war by granting free college tuition to his children. But when he tried to get free tuition at his own alma mater, Oklahoma State University, for his daughter,
Ray Alcorn grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania. He served 30 years in the U.S. Navy including seven years as a prisoner of war. His last assignment before retirement as a Captain was as Dean of Students at the Naval War College. Alcorn and his wife, Karen, moved to