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.”
When 2nd Lt. John “Spike” Nasmyth climbed into his F-4 Phantom II on Sept. 4, 1966, to fly a combat mission over Vietnam, he never foresaw that he’d be blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile. The last words he heard before his jet was transformed into a
Navy Lt. Giles Norrington was making his 22nd reconnaissance flight into North Vietnamese territory when communist rebels shot off the right wing of his RA-5C Vigilante. The plane erupted into a fireball. As Norrington and his navigator, Richard Tangeman, tried to escape, Norrington thought, “It’s taking a long time to
“If it doesn’t touch me, it won’t happen.” Walt Eckes is no stranger to hardship; nor is he a stranger to happiness. Walt, simply put, is a realist. We recently had the pleasure of a wonderful visit with Walt and his lovely wife of 44 years, Dolores, in their comfortable
High above the clouds, Hector Acosta is getting a unique view that most of us don’t get to experience. “It’s a shame,” Acosta said. “If more Americans could experience this, it would be awesome. Although it’s unique, it’s not the first time Acosta has been inside an Air Force jet
Stepping off the bus, recently freed American prisoners of war formed up from the tallest to shortest, stiff at attention facing Capt. Carlyle “Smitty” Harris and with a salute they defied their Vietnamese captors one final time. Proving their grit and American pride could outlast any amount of torture or