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.”
Almost 50 years ago this month, they began to arrive. It was called Operation Homecoming, and it saw 591 American military prisoners of war finally free after years of often brutal captivity in Vietnam. Over several weeks in February and March of 1973, they were returned to military bases in
Today I visited a prison; a prison that for years held many soldiers; a prison that concealed the terrible treatment of many American pilots; a prison that was a huge part of a very special man’s life.
“He could play anywhere and do the job well,” Fredette was quoted as saying in a newspaper article highlighting Purrington’s two seasons with the Elks Pony League team. “He was one of those rare players who did everything right.” Purrington also did whatever he was asked to do on whichever
Donald E. “Digger” Odell, an Air Force fighter pilot who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years after being shot down in 1967, died Thursday in Michigan. He was 86. “Lt. Col. Odell was an American hero and inspiration to several generation of Airmen,” said Brig. Gen. Rolf
When a CM junior found out his great-grandmother wrote to American POWs in Vietnam, he shared the discovery with Mr. Bradley. West Roxbury, Mass.– As Catholic Memorial School junior Kevin Pumphret held the letter in his hands and read the words of Navy captain Bill Franke, his mind returned to a discussion from his American War in Vietnam course – the experience of prisoners of war.